Thursday, December 3, 1994 – Evening
Lord Greengrass was finishing his regular meeting with his Gringotts account manager.
“There is one last item which I must mention. It is more an item of interest rather than business.”
The goblin looked up, “Anything you have ever mentioned as an item of interest before has had a way of turning into a serious threat Lord Greengrass. What is it?”
“The unofficial, but apparently binding, agreement between the Gringotts goblins and the Ministry of Magic states that no Dark Magic objects are to be stored in Gringotts vaults.” Lord Greengrass smiled, “Is that right?”
“Unofficially, that is correct. Wizards have, however, often ignored this requirement, and have placed all sorts of Dark and dangerous objects in their vaults. If any such object is found, then it will be confiscated, and the vault owner fined. The size of the fine depends on how dangerous the item is.”
Lord Greengrass smiled. “Then I have some information which may be of interest. An item has been placed in the Lestrange Family Vault and it is the darkest thing I have ever heard of. The item is Helga Hufflepuff’s Cup which has been enchanted with dark magic and could be extremely dangerous in the wrong hands.”
“What do you suggest we do with this thing? How should we handle it? “
“I am advising you, this is advice only, you don’t have to take any notice of me, to get in contact with Unspeakable Eric Davis, no-one else, and allow him to collect the item. He will take it away and you will not hear anything more about it.”
The goblin considered, “I shall discuss this with my superiors. The Lestrange brothers and Bellatrix are all in Azkaban, but they may be released one day.”
--ooOOoo—
A Gringotts Owl arrived at Greengrass Manor. The message was spelled out in the best goblin official language. The object in question had been located in the Lestrange Family Vault. It was loaded with dark magic. The goblins called in Unspeakable Davis, who removed the item. The Lestrange Family was fined a million galleons for keeping such a dark object in their vault.
By Friday evening, The Cup was in its strong box in the Chamber of Secrets.
--ooOOoo—
Professor McGonagall intercepted Harry and his escort on the way out of dinner that evening.
“Harry, may I ask you a question?” Professor McGonagall seemed to be uneasy.
“Yes Professor, I’ll help you in any way that I can.”
Unlike the Professors and the Headmaster who seem to be determined to isolate and punish me for being a victim, again.
“Why are you no longer friends with Ronald Weasley?” Professor McGonagall was now very unhappy to be there.
“Because, Professor, Ronald Weasley can’t look at me without cursing me and accusing me of being a dark wizard in the service of a secret gang of Death Eaters.” Harry was no longer upset about Ronald. Harry had left him behind long ago. “I like Fred and George, and I wish I could be back on the Quidditch team with them but that was taken out of my hands, wasn’t it. I am aware of the campaign of vilification being waged by Mrs Weasley and Rita Skeeter but that is also something I can’t control. Is that all?”
“I hope that this vassalage business could be finished with. It is ruining too many fine friendships.”
Harry stared at the stern professor. “The vassalages are finished Professor. I released all of them before the end of the first week. Ginny Weasley and Hermione Granger were the last to be released. The Gods of Olympus told me to release them, and I did. You can check that at the Ministry Registration Office. All of the former vassals were sent written notice of their release. Of course, some of them burnt the notice before reading it.”
Harry and his team turned away and walked back to Merlin Tower. Minerva McGonagall hurried to her office. She had urgent business with the Ministry Registration Office.
--ooOOoo--
Merlin Tower had several interesting features that were not known to be available in other houses at Hogwarts. The stairs to the lower levels led to what could only be a fencing piste. Professor Dawes had explored all of Merlin Tower and was now ready to make use of some of the more interesting features. She drew up a training roster for all Merlin House students to learn duelling. The fencing piste was warded to allow wizarding duels to take place there.
Harry worked at his technique which Professor Dawes told him was so poor that he would not last a minute against a proper duellist. Harry had always been told that he was a great duellist, it was not so. Harry used raw power rather than duelling technique. Duelling became Harry’s obsession. He duelled with all the Merlin House students. Daphne and Tracey easily beat him to start with but with professional level tutoring from Professor Dawes, Harry quickly caught up. Harry didn’t notice how his moods became elevated while he duelled and then plummeted when duelling was over. Professor Dawes noticed. Such obvious mood swings were not a good sign for his long-term stability. She could get potions for him, but it would be better to stop him being so depressed when he wasn’t fully engaged in potentially dangerous activity.
An all of house meeting was called after the first duelling session. Professor Dawes spoke. “The first coaching session has gone well. Most of you haven’t been taught anything about duelling or self defence against magical attack. You all know that your Defence lessons have been inadequate to say the least. Daphne, Astoria, and Tracey have had tutoring at home, and they are well ahead of the rest of you. There is one thing that has to change, and I will not give up until you change it.”
Professor Dawes stopped and glared at the group.
“You will stop using Stupefy. It is useless in a real fight and in practice it is extremely dangerous. How many of you have heard of people being stupefied who never woke up?”
No one replied. Eventually Harry spoke. “Stupefy is one of the spells taught in DADA. We practiced it and everyone was revived.”
“You mean you got away with it. Stupefy is in the Hogwarts DADA curriculum, so why is it that the DMLE has banned the aurors from using it?”
No one replied.
“I will tell you. St. Mungo’s has a ward full of people who have been hit with Stupefy and could not be revived. Anything, anything at all that make a brain lose consciousness is dangerous. Stupefy puts the conscious part of your brain to sleep. We don’t fully understand why, but for too many times, the brain stays asleep, and the victim wastes away. Other events cause unconsciousness, suffocation, a blow to the head, they have the same danger. A simple blow to the head, one punch to the face, and the victim may lose consciousness and never recover. There is no safe way to stun anyone.”
Professor Dawes paused, glared at her house, and slowly repeated. “There is no safe way to stun anyone.”
She continued, “As far as the DMLE is concerned, there is an equally compelling reason to not use Stupefy. If your enemy has a friend in the fight, they can revive your target. Other restraining spells have the same problem. Incarcerous and Petrificus Totalus can be terminated with one Finite. The DMLE officers have to use heavy hitting spells to disarm and disable the enemy without putting them in the permanent spell damage ward.”
No one responded.
“I repeat. Never use Stupefy, not for training, and absolutely, never in a real fight.”
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