Chapter 35: 35 Halloween Rush Part Two

Harry once more went over Dumbledore's plan for the third floor and looked for the reason or the reward to be gained. Just fighting Voldemort on Quirrell's head wasn't enough, in Harry's opinion. Voldemort would have been there searching for something.

It took a few minutes for Harry to discover that the prize would be the Philosopher's Stone. It took him almost until class time to sift through Dumbledore's tactics to track down where the thing was held. At the bank and Hagrid had to retrieve it when picking up Harry Potter to entice him with it.

That skeevy old bastard. Harry thought with a chuckle as he took out a sack of items he had in his inventory to keep them safe as he stored and sorted through everything in the Room of Lost Things. He opened it and easily found the small wrapped bundle he had taken from Hagrid that day and completely forgot about.

Cloth Wrapped Bundle.

Harry chuckled at the thing having a slight concealment charm on it to stop anyone from immediately knowing what was inside. Even Dumbledore's grandfather glasses couldn't see through it. He dispelled it and opened the cloth.

The Philosopher's Stone, Refined Version 13, 1899.

Just for fun, Harry thought at it. Identify.

This magical artifact is the result of hundreds of years of alchemy experiments by the famed Alchemist, Nicolas Flammel. It produces the highly sought after Elixir of Life that grants eternal life, can change any metal into gold, and can be sacrificed to convert a constructed homunculus into living flesh and blood.
Warning: Homunculus Conversion creates a soulless abomination that people and animals will instinctually hate.

That's good to know. Harry thought and placed a single finger on the red gleaming surface.

Your Alchemy knowledge is insufficient to recreate this object.

I figured it would be too good to be true. Harry thought and mentally checked the books that Dumbledore had in his secret stash. There were two on Alchemy and neither of them had the information to let Harry research the stone's properties or to break it down. He also didn't have the recipe for the Elixir of Life potion or the procedure to convert metal to gold.

But did Harry need them? He was The Gamer after all. It let him do things as long as he had the required skills or items. Like apparition. Even though everyone else was limited by restrictions, he could apparate anywhere he wanted. He just had to be careful of other factors.

Harry examined the stone for another few seconds before he stored it into his inventory. He didn't expect anything to happen automatically and waited for ten seconds anyway. He concentrated on it while inside his inventory and he felt that it was like a locked dresser.

A drop-down menu appeared and gave him the choice to produce a vial of Elixir (once per hour), convert a piece of metal into gold (once per day, limit 1 foot square, 1 inch thick), or to sacrifice it.

Harry nodded at his power working so well and chose the Elixir option, just because he could, and saw it was the exact same one that Kreacher had drank when Harry had accepted him as a Familiar. He held in his laugh at that, because his Gamer power had already been accessing the Philosopher's Stone to benefit him.

“There you are!” Padma's voice exclaimed as she and their friends entered the amphitheatre-like classroom where the History of Magic class was held. “I've been looking all over for you.”

“Why? I told you where I went.” Harry said to her as she came down the stairs to give him a hug.

“You said the third floor and nothing else.” Padma said.

“That's because I didn't need to. What's right after lunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays?” Harry asked her with a smirk.

Padma huffed and sighed. “History.”

“Yep!” Harry looked at Hermione beside her. “Did the headmistress return your property?”

Hermione nodded several times and didn't speak.

Harry held in his sigh. “I'm sorry, Hermione. I didn't mean to scare you like that.”

“S-s-scare me?” Hermione asked, her voice a little shaky, and looked at Padma. “Is he feeling okay?”

“Let me check.” Padma said and pulled Harry's head down and planted a kiss on his forehead where his scar used to be and held it for several seconds. “I didn't feel any fever, so he's fine.”

Harry just stared at the two of them.

Hermione blushed as she took out a piece of paper from her backpack and handed it to him.

“What's this?” Harry asked and went to open it to read it.

“Not here.” Hermione grabbed his hand. “When you're alone with Padma tonight.”

“I don't understand.” Harry said. “If you want me to wait to read it, why give it to me now?”

“Because Griffindor courage can only last for so long.” Hermione said and leaned forward to kiss his cheek. Her face went beet red and she hugged her backpack. “No one has ever defended me like that before, Harry. Thank you.”

“Anytime.” Harry said and Hermione nodded before she went to sit in the closest seat. Susan was next to her and gave him a pointed look that he couldn't discern. Hannah just looked surprised.

“I'll show you the memory later of what happened after you left.” Padma whispered to him, gave him a quick kiss, and went to sit beside Hermione.

Harry put the note into his pocket instead of into his inventory, because he would have immediately absorbed the knowledge if he did. “All right, you lot.” He said and everyone settled down and stared at him. “I've already impressed you all with the bloody battles that are going to be on this year's exams.”

“What?” “Really?” “You're serious?” A bunch of people said at the same time.

“Yes, and now I'll give you the background to the government that everyone should know.” Harry said and heard several groans. “Hey, now. I know how to teach a class properly. I'm not an idiot.”

That made a few people laugh and giggle at the reminder about Ron in the Great Hall.

“This is what the Wizengamut looks like.” Harry said and waved his wand at the floor in several patterns. The seat of their government grew out of the floor and showed off something that looked like the inside of the parliamentary buildings for the muggle government.

“Cool.” Terry Boot said.

“Now, the so-called base of the seats are the Sacred 28, or the apparently pure blood families that are the backbone of wizarding society.” Harry said and 28 of the hundred or so little seats in the gallery lit up.

“You don't believe that?” Susan asked, surprised.

“Why would I? It was a man named Cantankerus Nott that wrote the book called The Pure Blood Directory. It supposedly listed all of the families that were still fully pure blood by the 1930s.”

“What do you mean supposedly?” Hermione asked.

“Oh, that's because he was a completely biased git and only included families be believed were important or hadn't angered him during his life.” Harry said, to the shock of everyone. “The families he listed were Abbott, Avery, Black, Bulstrode, Burke, Carrow, Crouch, Fawley, Flint, Gaunt, Greengrass, Lestrange, Longbottom, Macmillan, Malfoy, Nott, Ollivander, Parkinson, Prewett, Rosier, Rowle, Selwyn, Shacklebolt, Shafiq, Slughorn, Travers, Weasley, and Yaxley.”

Everyone wrote down the names and listened as Harry said each name again and then commented about each of them. When he was done, he pointed a finger at Padma.

“Tell me what's wrong with that list.” Harry ordered.

Padma stared at it and caught her breath. “The biggest omissions are the Bones, Potter, and Vance families.”

“Crabbe, Goyle, Brown, Gamp, and I think Prince and Pince were also pure bloods back then.” Ernie Macmillan from Hufflepuff said.

“Hold on, there were Slytherin families not included in the 28?” Anthony Goldstein asked, surprised.

“Shocking, right?” Harry asked and nearly everyone nodded. “I can't tell you if there was money exchanged or not for some of them to be listed, or that the ones not included were solely proponents against the pure blood agenda or refused to bribe the man.”

“If that's true, then most of what you said is conjecture.” Hermione offered.

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Harry beamed a smile at her. “That was exactly my point, Miss Granger! Ten points to Griffindor.”

Hermione blushed a little and lifted her head slightly, to show that she appreciated the praise.

“The Sacred 28 was pure conjecture, based solely upon the opinion of one man. It had no real basis in fact, in truth, or even had evidence.” Harry said. “However, people believed it to be true, so they became the bedrock of wizarding society and...”

Everyone listened, enraptured, as Harry outlined how everything came about with the changing wizarding rule, legacy seats that were inherited by families only, and how once they were gone, no other seats were opened to allow younger families access. They remained empty and no one changed it, despite it being the wizarding world's governing body.

It had remained the same for hundreds of years and by this point, nearly half of the seats were permanently empty.

*

The Halloween Feast didn't really have any actual food. It was all sweets, pies, candies, cookies, various drinks, and more eye-catching colors than should have been legally allowed. Surprisingly, it was a mix of both wizarding candy and muggle candy. Everyone loved it, except for one particular student. He had made a brief appearance and kissed his betrothed before he excused himself.

Harry had a particular errand to run that was a long time in coming and Kreacher was more than happy to help.

*

The Dursleys had always had the most popular house on the street, except on Halloween. They did not decorate. They did not give out candy. They did not even have their lights on. Freakishness was not welcome at their house and they avoided the freakiest of days as much as they could.

However, they adored their spoiled son Dudley, so they allowed him to stay with his best friend Piers Polkiss for the night. That meant Dudley benefited from trick-or-treating every year and usually came home with a garbage bag (or two) that were full of sweets. This year, even though Smeltings was a boarding school, the Dursleys had arranged for their Dudders to return home for the weekend.

Dudley didn't realize something was going wrong while he and his gang beat up another kid and stole his candy. They didn't want to do all that walking around and gathering the candy normally, so they raided the kids that had already done so. They already had two garbage bags full to split between them and were quite happy about that... then everything seemed to freeze.

“Big D? What's going on?” Piers asked.

“Dunno.” Dudley responded. He couldn't move anything except his mouth and his eyes.

“The Ghosts of Halloween have come for revenge.” An eerie voice warbled from all around them.

Dudley and his gang stared as the kid they had pummelled was lifted up into the air. His bruises faded and his swelling eye disappeared. His costume fixed itself, as did the treat bag he carried, then a pile of Dudley's candy flew out of his loot bag and filled the kid's treat bag to overflowing.

“Wow! Thanks, Ghosts!” The kid exclaimed as he was stood on his feet and hugged the stuffed treat bag.

“Tell the others that were robbed and beaten that we will visit them as well.” The eerie voice said.

“You got it!” The kid said and glared at Dudley and his gang. “You're finally going to get it, you big fat bully!”

The eerie voice let out a cackling laugh. “Yes, they fully deserve what's going to happen to them.”

“Yay!” The kid said and ran off, yelling the whole time that the Halloween Ghosts were making Dudley pay.

“Y-y-you can have all the candy.” One of the other kids offered. “Just let us go.”

“Ghosts have no need for candy.” The eerie voice said. “And soon, neither will you.”

A cackling laugh started to fill the air around them, then they felt small hands pull at their hair, slap their faces, and tear at their costumes and clothing. Soon, the little fists started punching them all over and little feet joined in. It took nearly half an hour before all four of the bullies had been beaten badly and they still hung in the air, their silent crying the only sign that anything that happened.

Then everything turned cold. Frost flowed over the ground around them and the four boys felt a deep fear that they had never felt before. Dudley pissed himself as frost formed on his torn clothing.

“I am disappointed in you, Dudders.” The now normal voice said and Dudley caught his breath. “I had thought with your main target out of the way, you would have no reason to torment and torture. I'm sorry that I was wrong.”

“H-Harry!” Dudley exclaimed. “You won't get away with this!”

“Dudley, Dudley, Dudley.” Harry said and a figure dressed as the Spectre of Death faded into view right in front of them and a little gnarled demon stood beside him.

“AHHH!” All four boys screamed.

“BA-HA-HA-HA! You're terrified of me!” Harry said and took off the mask. “You finally get to feel what I felt growing up with you bastards hunting me all the time!”

“It really is Harry!” One of the others said, shocked.

“You're really going to get it when we're free!” Piers spat at him.

“Are you an idiot?” Harry asked with a chuckle and put the skull mask back on and pulled up his hood. “You have to suffer for what you did before I let you go.” He said and moved back to wave his hand at them. “Feed as much as you want, just don't take their souls.”

Four floating beings that the boys couldn't see, swarmed around them. The boys screamed and yelled as the Dementors started to tear out every happy memory from their minds. All of the sadistic things they enjoyed doing to other kids, especially Harry, were consumed greedily.

Half an hour later, the four boys were huddled up on the ground, pale and shivering. They were emotional wrecks and felt bone chilling cold that was never going to go away for the rest of their lives.

“I've checked your memories.” Harry said in that eerie voice. “Your parents know what you're like and even encourage it, just like Dudley's, so they are going to get a visit from the Ghosts of Halloween, too.”

The four boys didn't respond, because they were lost in their own living nightmares.

“These are the addresses.” Harry said and told the Dementors where to go. “Halloween is almost over, so go have fun.”

The Dementors nodded and started to split up and moved off.

“Don't forget to leave their souls! You don't want the Ministry to find out you're out here!”

One of them waved and they flowed around the nearby house and out of sight.

“Master, should we leave them here?” Kreacher asked.

“No, let's bring them to Dudley's. We still have to visit his parents and make them pay.” Harry said. “Are you sure you can handle them on your own?”

“Yes, Master.” Kreacher said and clicked his fingers. All four boys floated up into the air. “The filthy muggles deserve what is going to happen to them.”

Harry nodded and walked towards Number Four, Privet Drive. Kreacher walked beside him and thought he was the best master in the world.

*

“Good morning, I'm Jim Belham, and this is the morning news.” Jim said. “Our first story is a disturbing one. The bodies of a man and woman were found beaten bloody and strung up with barbed wire on the lawn of their own house last night. Since it was Halloween, everyone thought it was a prank and they used mannequins covered in blood. This turned out to not be the case as police investigated and...”

“...the son was arrested and kept muttering that he did it...”

“...probably spend the rest of his life in prison...”

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