Ch. 112 – Years pass and special training
With the Cup of Helga Hufflepuff in hand, I walk out of Gringotts into Diagon Alley.
As the doors close behind me, a few Witches and Wizards look inside and see dozens of Goblins, some of whom are wearing full-plated silver armor, lying on the ground, unconscious.
'That wasn't bad at all. I got a Horcrux and the secrets to Goblin-wrought silver.' I think to myself as I put the cup in one of Lethy's inside pockets.
I then take out a piece of paper and start reading a list.
Mr. Mulpepper's Apothecary
- Powdered Unicorn horn
- Lionfish spines
- Dragon's blood
- Rattlesnake fangs
- Octopus powder
- Crocodile hearts
- Fairy wing dust
Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour
- Banana, liquorice, chocolate, vanilla and caramel ice cream.
Honeydukes
- Fizzing Whizzbees
- Chocolate Frogs
- Black Pepper Imps
- Sounds Sweets
While the potion ingredients are all written in Alice's handwriting, I recognize the rest as Iris's.
'Ah, what the hell, why not?' I think to myself as I walk further into Diagon Alley and start visiting all three shops on the list.
----
Later that afternoon I'm sitting in the living room with the whole family as we're all enjoying some ice cream and Iris is chasing a chocolate frog around the room.
*Knock knock*
Suddenly I hear someone knocking on the door to my office.
I walk into my office, where the Cup and Diadem are on my desk. I sit down and open the door with my mind as Sirius and Remus walk in, looking haggard.
They walk to my desk and plop down on their chairs before handing me both the diary and Gaunt Ring.
"Well done. You should get some rest." I say as I look at all remaining Horcruxes gathered together.
"We'll rest when these things are gone, once and for all." Sirius says, staring intently at the items on my desk.
"Ok." I say before I snap my fingers and the soul shards in the items disintegrate immediately, leaving the items themselves intact, aside from the diary.
All Sirius and Remus saw was me snapping my fingers and then they felt a surge of magic, but other than that they couldn't sense anything and kept staring at the objects.
"They're destroyed." I say, recieving a strange response from both as they look at me like I'm delusional.
"No they're not. They're right there." Sirius says, gesturing to the items on the desk.
"I'm not going to destroy these items. They're priceless artifacts. I just destroyed the pieces of Voldemort's soul that were placed inside."
"What about Slytherin's locket? Wasn't that priceless as well?" Remus asks.
"I didn't like the enchantment that was placed on it." I explain. "It allowed the wearer to identify muggle-borns."
"Oh, yeah that's not good. So, Harry is now safe, right?" Sirius asks.
"From Voldemort, yes. But there are still death eaters who want nothing more than to flay him alive.
"Until he is capable of protecting himself, he must still be protected when he is not here at Hogwarts."
After formulating a plan together on how to proceed with Harry's education and training, Sirius and Remus left as I took the Cup and Diadem and made my way to Dumbledore's office.
After ascending the Gargoyle staircase, I enter Dumbledore's office and take a seat as I place the Cup and Diadem on his desk.
"Hufflepuff's Cup and Ravenclaw's Diadem. However did you find them?" Dumbledore says.
"I stole the Cup from Gringotts and the Diadem was right here in the Room of Requirements." I explain, causing a surprised reaction at the Gringotts part. "They were Horcruxes, made by Voldemort. He made more, but they've all been destroyed.
"I can say with absolute certainty that Voldemort will not return."
"Horcruxes?! Merlin's beard Tom, what have you done?" Dumbledore says, genuinely surprised. "Still, you can't just tamper with fate like that. It doesn't like to be messed with." Dumbledore says.
"You may be headmaster, and I just a professor, but I am also a God, and you a human. You have no business telling me what I can and cannot do.
I, on the other hand, am about to do just that. You need to retire."
"Pardon me? Why?" Dumbledore asks, a little distraught.
"Late stage Alzheimer's. It's a terrible thing. You may have been able to hide it from everyone by using your pensieve everyday, but I know.
The way you handled the whole wizarding war, and the Harry Potter situation, reeks of impaired judgment on your part.
I know you did what you thought was best, but you can't continue like this. Tell Minerva everything and appoint her as your replacement. Go out with your head held high."
*Sigh* "You know, I was hired as a Professor at the age of nineteen." Dumbledore says, looking at a painting of himself when he was younger. "I've been roaming these halls for a century now. Hogwarts is my home."
"I'm not telling you to leave. I'm only telling you to retire as headmaster. I can teach Transfiguration and you can return as teacher of Defence Against the Dark Arts.
On one condition. Stick to my curriculum."
*Knock knock*
McGonagall opens the door and walks in after knocking and takes a seat next to me. "You wanted to talk?" She asks looking at Dumbledore.
Dumbledore looks at me questioningly, realizing I set this up.
"You two have much to discuss. If you'll excuse me." I say before I stand up and leave the office.
After I left, Dumbledore told McGonagall everything and together they decided to take up my suggestion.
Over the next few weeks, much changed at Hogwarts. McGonagall became the new Headmistress, and made Dumbledore the DADA professor, while I became the new Transfiguration professor.
Just like I did with DADA, I significantly improved the curriculum for Transfiguration, at which point, McGonagall asked me to do the same for every other subject taught at Hogwarts.
A few months after the Horcruxes were destroyed, Barty Crouch Jr. found out what happened to Voldemort's Horcruxes and found himself the determination he needed to escape his father's Imperius Curse.
He killed his father and helped Bellatrix Lestrange, among others, escape Azkaban.
Sirius and Remus, along with a few werewolves who were extremely grateful to be rid of their curse, then started hunting down all known Death Eaters.
By the third year at Hogwarts, a vast majority of the Death Eaters were either killed or arrested.
Every summer I took the family on expeditions to other countries to hunt dangerous magical creatures or even dark wizards.
We visited other magical communities and convinced them all to exchange magical knowledge, even the most secretive and closed off community of all, Tianshan (Heavenly Mountain) in the Sichuan Province in China.
It is literally a hollowed out mountain with hundreds of thousands of people living inside.
In the summer, before the fourth school year, I shut down any talk of a Triwizard Tournament the moment it was brought up.
And without Barty Crouch Sr. to spearhead the tournament, no one else was willing to get on my bad side.
Aside from that, I made some valid points about how children shouldn't be made to risk their lives over something as trivial as 'eternal glory'.
In the fifth year, when everyone else was preparing to take their O.W.L.s, the children, Luna and Alice were all taking my tests instead.
I never let them use a wand, and they were only allowed to verbalize a spell ten times before they had to learn it without incantations.
My test involved, among other things, destroying and then recreating an entire mountain and forest. Then they had to duel me for about an hour.
I tested them all to their limits in every field of magic and combat to see where they need improvements.
I then spent the sixth and seventh school year training them all properly, before their final test a month before graduation.
-----
Alice POV.
We're all gathered in the living room, while Fenris is in another room, preparing our final test.
"Mom, has he told you anything about this test?" Iris asks me, looking a little nervous, which she should be.
Over the last few years, Fenris has put us through some terrifying ordeals.
Fenris once created a room that magically simulated a jungle environment.
He took our magic, enhanced strength and speed away from us and told us to survive until he came to get us.
He returned after SIX YEARS! And when we left the room, it turned out only an hour had passed outside.
He did the same thing for every other hostile environment he could simulate. He even dropped us in the middle of both World Wars.
"No honey, I have no idea what the crazy bastard's got planned." I answer Iris, who has turned into a wonderful seventeen year old woman.
About a month ago, he created a new door in the living room, right next to the door to his personal workshop, where he creates crazy dangerous things.
We all knew what that meant. He's either performing a dangerous experiment or he's preparing a test for us.
Turns out, this time it was the latter. The door leads to the final test, while in his workshop, Fenris was creating something dangerous.
We weren't allowed behind either door, although we often saw a glimpse of blinding blue light from his workshop.
"Alright, Alice, you're up first." My husband tells me before we enter the mysterious room.
As I enter the room, I know not to expect anything, as the door could literally lead me anywhere, and Fenris could use his magic to create and do pretty much anything. But as I entered the room, I was quite surprised at what I found.
It's a large, open, white hall. In the center is a large open area, while on the other side I see hundreds of men lined up behind each other, sitting on the floor with their eyes closed. Every single one of them looks like an exact copy of my husband.
Not sure what to expect, I follow Fenris to the center of the room as I choose to keep my questions to myself until Fenris explains.
"These are all empty husks." Fenris says, gesturing to the copies. "I will inhabit them all, one by one, and fight you. The first dozen or so, have the strength, speed and durability of an average human male.
The second group has the strength, speed and durability of an Olympic level athlete.
The third is me, when I was still a human, before my mother turned me into a Werewolf.
The fourth group will all be Werewolves. They will gradually become more and more like me and will get skills and abilities I possess.
Remember, I will be the one piloting these bodies, so don't think that just because the first few are weaker than you, it will be easy.
I will try to incapacitate you using only non-lethal means. But I want you to kill as many as you can."
"What?! I can't kill you. Why do they have to look like you?"
"Psychological pressure. You will watch me die repeatedly at your own hands. And you will have to keep going.
Sparring might be an effective training method, but when you spar you don't fight to kill.
This instills bad habits. I want you to know how to fight and kill a man effectively and efficiently. Don't worry, I'll live.
And one more thing before we start. After every kill, this room will get rid of both your physical and mental exhaustion as well as any injuries, so you'll always start a fight in perfect condition. We will not stop until you are unable to kill me." Fenris says before he walks to the side of the room, sits down and closes his eyes.
A second later, the first Fenris copy opens his eyes and stands up. He walks up to me and without warning tries to sweep my leg.
I step back, avoiding the kick and take some distance.
Immediately, Fenris runs at me and tries to punch me as I lean to the side and counter with a punch to the face.
Fenris falls back on his ass with a busted nose. He stands up and readjusts his own nose with a loud pop and crack. "I said KILL! You could've blown my head off, but you didn't. Why?"
"I-I can't."
"Yes, you can! I'm just human right now. And humans are just goo and juice. Take away the goo or the juice and they're DEAD! It's easy." Fenris says before he tries to punch me again.
This time, I catch his fist, pull him closer and shove my hand through his chest.
Blood drips from his mouth as he smiles at me. "Well done." He says before he drops to the ground, dead.
The corpse disintegrates into nothing as the second copy opens his eyes and stands up. He walks to me and gets into a fightning stance.
I wipe a tear from my eye and ready myself for another kill.
-----
"None of you were able to kill me once I got the power of a demigod." I say as we're all sitting in the living room after everyone had a turn in the Kill Room.
"It's not good enough. We're going to do this every day for the next few weeks." Noticing them about to protest, I quickly add. "Relax, the husks won't look like me any more. They'll look like people who have wronged you in your past.
Aside from that I'll be giving you instructions while we fight.
Before the month is over, you will all be God Slayers.
And then it'll be time for a well deserved vacation." As I said this, everyone immediately looks a whole lot happier.