Chapter 23: 23. Lady Hogwarts!
The entire place thrummed and Ryan's body shook due to foreign energy of higher density entering his body. Ryan felt his mind expand and connect to every corner of the castle. He could sense everything in the castle, the no. of people, magical creatures, their nature, various objects, Hogwarts shield, all runes in the Heart as well as their uses.
Ryan enjoyed the feeling of mental freedom he felt over the area, but his smile soon turned into a frown. The freedom he was feeling thanks to the intricate network soon felt... restricted. A lot of things were blocking it, damaging it, and some were downright malicious.
Ryan snapped back into his body and opened his eyes. "What... was that?" He questioned. His eyes suddenly went to the crystal. He could almost see a figure in a plain white one-piece skirt and long hair reach out to him, but was failing.
Ryan once again pushed his mana into the pedestal and this time appeared in a plain room, and in front of him stood the same girl, but Ryan noticed that all the features he thought were blurred before actually didn't exist on her.
"... Heir." Ryan heard her call, but her voice was a mixture of a lot of voices, one overlapping with the other.
"Hogwarts?" Ryan questioned, as it was the only identity he could guess for her. He had guessed correctly as the girl in front of him nodded.
"... help" Ryan heard her speak again, and Ryan understood what she was trying to convey at once. She wanted all the obstructions over the wards gone. Ryan nodded to her and got to work. His obscurial burst from his body in all its shadowy glory, soon dying the entire room black as it expanded over the room, attacking all the visible troubling circuits and runes directly, erasing them through Imagine Breaker.
He also analyzed the wards and runes he destroyed as well. Most of the ones he destroyed were easily noticeable, gesturing they were not made by those who had initially designed the castle. Aria provided quick summaries of those arrays. One designed to transfer information about all activating security measures, one to warn of certain spells, one to warn on encountering specific words, one to... peek in the bedrooms of all staff as well as students, one to lower inhibitions... one of a mass confundus to look at the speaker with respect whenever activated...
.
.
.
'...What. The. Fuck??' Ryan's mind had stopped working on the final parts. A mass confuding array to make them listen to every word, one to make them worship, one to make them trust more. What the absolute fuck was happening in this school?
Ryan felt the ward stone Thumm with power as all blocked wards came back in full force, and the castle started slowly getting back in shape. He sensed the defensive film slowly being evened, the cracks being filled, all broken facilities being fixed, and so on. But after everything was coming back into action, Ryan felt another set of problems.
"No, seriously, what the actual fuck is happening here?" He questioned. He sensed extremely dark items present in multiple places and found various curses set to detonate after some time, various blood wards, and dangerous creatures.
"... Hat" Hogwarts spirit spoke, breaking him out of the stupor. It took him a second to understand what she was trying to convey, but Ryan immediately used the wards the summon the sorting hat in front of him. Sensing no dark effects over it, Ryan placed the hat over his head.
"Hmm... Ah, this old hat greets the heir to the four houses" Ryan heard an old voice speak in his head.
"Nice to meet you too, but as you can see, I didn't exactly call you to chat" Ryan spoke, trying to get to the bottom of the matter. His brain was working as fast as it could to try to decipher the roots of all the brainwashing wards in the castle, while Aria worked to erase all traces of unwanted wards and arrays.
Ryan was seeing her make a list of dark items present in the castle, in which he saw the locations, with many in Room of Requirement, some in various other parts of the castle, specifically where smaller ward stones were kept to maintain the barrier around Hogwarts, and some even present in common rooms. The last ones taking him by surprise were the ones present in Headmaster's room and quarters.
Ryan saw Aria get results from wards about the specific nature of these dark objects, through which he came to know about the headmaster's room is filled with blood wards and dark binding artifacts, while the ones present in common rooms had various effects like lowering impulses or fortifying likeminded thinking.
Ryan read the list and realized the items made sure to make what the students of Hogwarts houses were infamous for. Slytherins thinking they are cunning but they actually look down on others, Gryffindor's being brave but idiots who charge without thinking, Hupplepuff's being friendly but having low self-esteem, Ravenclaw's being smart but lacking ability to think outside the box.
If Ryan had any doubts before, he was now certain of one thing. Dumbledore was a dark lord, and Hogwarts was his ground to shape the younger generation into sheep. He was suppressing everything about what kids are known for, their curiosity, their innovative thinking, and their interest in everything new. Living in a place stubbly affecting your everyday life for over 7 years is bound to change everything about your personality.
"Dumbledore..." Ryan muttered with cold eyes. Dumbles was playing too big. He didn't even know what else Dumbles might have done or any other plans he might have in motion. If Ryan entered Hogwarts, he will be surrounded by sheep brainwashed for a while, and the newest generation were just kids, so Ryan couldn't count on them as possible recruits in his plan of turning Magical Britain against him.
"Please tell me how I can be of service." Hat spoke while Ryan's thoughts worked at super speed.
"Tell me everything big that had or may have caused such deterioration of Hogwarts," Ryan asked the hat.
"Hmm, that would be a very, very long list of many idiotic headmasters and dark lords over time, but I can simplify that." The sorting hat spoke softly, "Most wards you may have seen over the ones tied to the castle were done by various headmasters and teachers over the era who thought they could do a better job than the founders. While protection from new curses and magics would indeed have needed, the founders had made Hogwarts in such a way that it would learn and evolve herself after being touched by magic." The hat spoke. Touched by magic was a term used for artifacts that have been in the presence of magic for so long that they evolve beyond their initial capabilities, becoming part of magic itself.
"But even if driven by ego, most headmasters sought to protect Hogwarts." The hat paused. "Until now." He said.
"The compulsion and dark artifacts were all his doings, right? Not Voldemort's?" Ryan asked for confirmation. After all even Voldy would benefit if the people he rules were easily predictable idiots. But Ryan had not received memories of any such actions from the soul shards he had devoured so far.
"That he did. He did not hide anything from me thinking I was just a hat, hmph, the nerve of that youngster, but it did prove advantageous now. Dumbledore is a manipulative man with a big ego, but he is as cautious as well. Especially after Tom broke through all his plans, and even more so because of the prophecy he used to curse about. While I am not sure of everything he spoke about, I do know some tidbits about things he mutters occasionally to his bound phoenix." The hat spoke.
"What is your opinion on him?" He asked.
"A devil, that's what he is. I have seen him talk about doing cruel things and sometimes praising his own ego. He is responsible for the creation of two dark lords, and in both instances, he has come on top. He is a manipulator through and through. Be wary my lord" The hat spoke to Ryan.
Ryan thought about the info he received and gained conjectures from Aria, which she had summarised into
1. Dumbles wanted to rule.
2. Tom was his pawn for the greater good.
3. Tommy Boy broke off from his destined path designed by Dumbles.
4. The prophecy screwed him over somehow.
The best he could hypothesize was that Dumbles wanted to cement his position as a light lord or something along those lines, and he was orchestrating Tommy to be a dark lord much worse than Grindelwald who he would defeat and then rule over Britain. But whatever the prophecy was, most likely Trewlany's but Ryan wouldn't take it as certain until proven, had stopped Dumbles in his tracks for whatever reason, probably because of many books about warnings for people messing with fate, which had caused him to change his approach.
"Any other plans you may know of than these wards and dark artifacts?" Ryan asked the hat.
"Ah, potions, yes. A lot of potions, compulsion charms, mind reading. This is how he usually acts." The hat said, grumbling about the founders torturing Dumbles for endangering kids. Ryan had Aria scan the entire school for all dark objects he would need to destroy before Dumbles returned.
"What about the wards? Won't he apply everything again?" Ryan asked.
"Normally a headmaster has an equal right of the castle wards as a lord of the four founder houses, and twice that of an heir of those houses, but you have authority as the heir of all the houses, and Pendragon, so you have priority and can limit him if you so desire. I would recommend controlling the portraits, he likes to use them too much to spy. And there is also the current head of Slytherin house, making potions for the fool and supplying them in the ingredients of the kitchen occasionally." Ryan nodded as Aria finished developing a mental map of Hogwarts with all problematic items marked on it.
"This will be one long night," Ryan muttered and took over the wards to keep an eye on the castle, then sunk into his shadow to move around the castle.
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Chapter 24: 24. Plundering!
Ryan let Hogwarts work on healing herself while he first teleported to Filch's office. Ryan put all dark items in storage for analysis, but he had Aria analyze one right then. The Maruder's Map. She analyzed the map and fed all details to Ryan while synthesizing a better one herself. He was sure that the map should have been with the twins by now but decided to ponder over it later.
Within seconds Ryan held a black disc in hand with a hologram Hogwarts above him sending all information in real-time. Maruder's map was made by students, so the castle had given them some permissions, but Ryan was the one with the most authority over the castle, so he had all permissions available to him. Aria had also keyed it to his mana signature to prevent anyone from getting their hands on it, and if anyone manages to kill him and get it, well, they are more than overqualified to launch a direct attack than infiltrate Hogwarts.
Ryan sent the new map to his storage while placing Marauder's map back with a tracker attached. Aria showed him around with the new 3d map and he teleported around, getting all the dark items he could. Ryan left Headmaster's cabin for last and swept the Room of hidden things. He swallowed everything and made the huge hall clear of everything in it. Cackling at the successful haul, he had Aria sort out the found money to store it for Hogwarts fund and sort the diadem.
Ryan was surprised to find that the diadem wasn't the only soulbound item in the room, but he suppressed his curiosity and had Aria devour the soul shard from the diadem. He then sneaked into Dumbles's room and looked around with mystic eyes. Ryan found the entire room hold a ward to detect truths and lies as well as intentions, magic levels, and other things. He also detected a faint whiff of Calming Draughts and Veritaserums, something he had memorized from his days in Bulgaria. While calming draughts were known to be odorless, his sensitive nose was still able to detect them.
Ryan followed the scent trail and noticed different sweets laced with them. Ryan chuckled at the thought of Dumbles being exactly the man most parents told to not take candy from. He noticed that the headmaster seemed to have a fetish for all things blood, with nearly all devices using blood in some form. Blood trackers, blood wards, blood suppressants. What Ryan found odd was the Phoenix stand too having multiple blood arrays on it, all with markers about submission and suppression.
Ryan immediately guessed that the old fool had forced the Phoenix to bond with him, and the story of Fawkes appearing to save his life was probably a hoax. But the next moment when he tried an in-depth analysis using magic, his instinct went haywire, making Aria immediately take over and enter battle mode. For the first time in his new life, his heart had started beating so fast and he started sweating.
His mystic eyes had not indicated any danger, but the moment he wanted to scan the array, he received the scare of his life.
"Aria, what the hell was that?" He asked, still on edge.
[Data is inconclusive to reach a definitive answer. The highest probability is of the particular magic is related to someone stronger than you master. All symbols observed by your Mystic eyes have been memorized and searched through the database, but no match has been found. But considering that many symbols seem to have similar placements to runes, it is likely they are related to a hostile being.] Aria spoke to him.
This increased the danger level of Dumbles in Ryan's eyes to the maximum. He thought he was dealing with some old fool, but the Dumbles of his timeline seemed to be much more dangerous than he had thought.
Ryan clicked his tongue in annoyance. He was thinking of messing with Dumbles and enjoying seeing the fool panicking around but those objects proved he was not dealing with a normal wizard. Now Ryan also had to consider the consequences of his actions.
First, the disappearance of the death stick, and then all his plans for Hogwarts would push Dumbles to the edge, and with access to magic that could affect himself, his play could easily backfire. It was all going so simple, with him being OP and enjoying playing around, and now a problem has shown itself.
"Yare Yare... " Ryan muttered, checking off another entry on his list. Ryan decided to leave and think about his discoveries at his home, rather than make another idiotic decision on a whim.
Leaving multiple shadow critters around the office to report to him, he decided to finish his job and moved towards the room having Hogwarts Book and Quill. These were another set of objects touched by magic. Ryan asked permission from Hogwarts to show his name, which he noticed had 'Harry James Potter' written there.
Taking Hogwarts' permission, Ryan had his name shifted around to somewhere else and made it 'Ryan Black', and made sure to not show any other titles he would go to acquire later, then left the room back to the heart of Hogwarts. He linked himself back and found most of the castle was healed and it would soon start to update according to new knowledge. Ryan didn't know why Dumbles moved all knowledge to the forbidden section and did not erase it, but didn't question it. Unfortunately, his current priority was to think about his new discovery than study the books, so he would come back later.
*A Few Hours Later*
A burst of fire erupted in the middle of the Headmaster's cabin of Hogwarts, and it faded down to reveal a man with a long white beard, dressed in eccentric, yet gaudy blue robes and half-moon glasses with a phoenix above his shoulder.
"Ah, back home. Thank you Fawkes" He spoke in a jovial tone. But to the phoenix, it seemed to be filled with mockery. It didn't respond and sat down on its perch silently, as it didn't want to go through torture due to disobeying his 'master'.
Dumbledore looked at the Phoenix with a cold gaze for a moment before he switched back to his cheerful grandfather persona and took out a lemon drop to eat it, but his hand just stopped midway. The expression on Dumbledore's face vanished as he took out his wand and tried using all forms of spells, but found what he had felt before was indeed true.
All his modifications to Hogwarts had disappeared, and even while having the authority as the Headmaster, he could not access the wards of the castle. Dumbledore couldn't make heads or tails of his predicament. How could it be possible? He quickly took a lemon drop laced with calming draught and began brainstorming.
The only ways Dumbledore could think of which could cause his current trouble was either the castle had a reset option in case too much harm was done... or there was someone with greater control over the wards than him.
'But that's impossible.' Thought Dumbledore. Ravenclaw line died with the founder and her daughter, the Hupplepuff line died due to him making Tom kill the last heir, and Tom himself was the Slytherin heir, but he shouldn't be anywhere near Hogwarts, and the Griffindor heir, which could only be someone from the Potter line, were in his control.
Dumbledore kept thinking and found that the only way this had happened is if Tom had claimed lordship of Slytherin's house, but that raised too many questions. How did Tom get himself a body? How did he get to Grignotts when goblins should have attacked him right after they had realized his identity, and how did Tom gain knowledge of Hogwarts's ward scheme? The curse Tom had attempted to put on the DADA position was there only because he had allowed that. Dumbledore started having a headache due to constant musings.
"No no no, this can't be happening. Not when Marcus is about to appear for the new semester." He thought, pacing around. He paused, then his eyes wandered to the portraits and tried to connect to them. He felt his connection and didn't find anyone else connect to them, making him confused.
Dumbledore quickly brought a parchment and Quill, and pricked his finger with the quill, applying some blood to its tip, which made the quill turn red. The quill scratched the paper, but no words appeared on it. Closing it and putting it in a letter, Dumbledore brought out a stamp and sealed it. The letter suddenly started turning into black liquid and seeped into a puddle, disappearing.
Dumbledore sat down, lost in his thought with a serious expression on his face, unaware of small eyes looking through the shadows, seeing his every action, much like the hat near him.
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