You Can Start to Make it Better

Monday, 16 November 1998

They’d reached the end of training and Harry was far more awake than his peers. He didn’t even want to ask how late Neville and Susan had stayed up and Luna, while slightly more lively than the other two, also looked dead on her feet.

“Can we shower before we go sniff around the school for this curse like cadaver dogs?” Harry asked, wanting to give the other three a moment to get it together before they dealt with whatever bullshit Tom had left behind. Not to mention the fact that they all absolutely reeked.

“That gives me an idea…” Salazar said instead of answering the question.

Harry thought about what he could possibly mean for a second before he started shaking his head vehemently, “I am not wandering around the school as a Grim and literally sniffing out the curse!”

“If you don’t find it today you are spending this Saturday doing just that,” Salazar responded.

“Alright,” Harry acquiesced, “can we shower though?”

“Go ahead, we aren’t going to micromanage this,” Rowena said before anyone could come up with any more harebrained ideas, “if you need help you know how to reach us. Just remember to be incredibly careful and let your magic flow out as much as you can. I agree with Salazar, I think you’re going to be able to feel it before you see it.”

“Thank you,” Luna said, turning to leave the room, “meet downstairs in an hour?”

Once she had an agreement of some sort from Susan, Neville, and Harry, she headed out of the room.

“See you in a bit,” Harry said, ducking out and heading up the stairs. “Moony?” he called softly as he stepped into his quarters. He wasn’t sure if Theo would be awake yet given the day off and the fact that Teddy had been sleeping later recently.

“Morning, love,” Theo’s sleep-thick voice called from the bedroom.

Harry smiled and headed into the room, dropping his dueling robes in the laundry basket by the door and walking up to the bed, “good morning,” he greeted, pressing a kiss to the top of Theo’s head, the only part of him actually visible under the pillows and blankets, “I have an hour, and it sounds like Ted’s still asleep. I’m gonna shower and then I’ll make breakfast, any preferences?”

“Do you have time to make pancakes?” Theo asked, voice muffled by his pillow.

“Sure, baby,” Harry said softly, running his fingers through Theo’s hair and pressing one last kiss to his forehead, “I’ll wake you up when they’re ready.”

By the time Harry was out of the shower, Teddy was starting to wake up, so Harry quickly got dressed and headed into the nursery to get him ready for the day. Once Teddy was secured in his highchair, Harry quickly made a bottle and breakfast for himself and Theo.

“Time to wake up,” Harry said, stepping into the bedroom, “breakfast is ready.”

“Coming,” Theo groaned before literally rolling out of bed. He grabbed one of Harry’s hoodies from the wardrobe, despite the fact that most of his own clothing was in the wardrobe as well, and followed Harry into the kitchen.

Harry handed Theo his plate and pulled Teddy out of the highchair and settled him on his lap so he could feed the kid and himself at the same time.

“I’m going to be gone most of the day,” Harry told Theo once he’d woken up a bit more, “we’re trying to find where the Defense Curse is anchored. Apparently, that’s why we don’t have school today. They needed the classrooms empty for us to search.”

“That does not sound fun,” Theo responded, “breaking the curse might be fun, but finding it sounds like a nightmare.”

“I can’t figure out how no one has been able to find it, it’s a little absurd. Also, it’s gotta be absurdly powerful to survive the wash the new wards did and to not be detected by the Goblins.”

“Not to mention that it survived Tom,” Theo pointed out, “I kinda assumed that once he died the curse would die too.”

“Apparently that was too much to hope for,” Harry said, “are you okay with Teddy all day or do you want me to call Andi?”

“No, I’m good,” Theo responded, reaching out to run his thumb across Teddy’s cheek, “I’m just going to get some reading done, we can hang out.”

“Alright,” Harry said, smiling fondly at Theo, “get ahold of me if he does anything new.”

“I will and I promise to keep a camera on me for the same reason. I think he’s going to start crawling soon.”

“I think so too,” Harry said, squeezing Teddy’s feet, “he’s also so close to saying a word, he babbles all the time, and you can tell he thinks he’s talking he just hasn’t quite gotten there yet.”

“What do you think his first word’s gonna be?”

“I’m not sure but apparently there was a furious debate over whether my first word was Dada or Pads.”

“It was one hundred percent Pads,” Theo responded with a laugh.

“That’s my bet,” Harry responded with a sad smile, “Teddy’s been making sounds that sound vaguely like ‘Da,’ so I don’t know if we should just count that since that’s what we’ve been calling me.”

“What do you think, Teds?” Theo asked, tickling Teddy’s side, “was that your first word or do you have something else up your sleeve?”

Teddy just babbled in response.

“I think that was an answer though I haven’t the foggiest clue what it means,” Harry said with a light laugh as he handed Teddy over to Theo, “I’m going to head downstairs, the sooner we start the sooner this is over. I’ll see you two later.”

“Be safe love,” Theo said, pulling Harry down into a quick kiss.

“I’ll do my best,” Harry responded, kissing Theo’s cheek and then Teddy’s head, “we’re sticking together as a group and our first step is talking to the ghosts so hopefully we’ll get it narrowed down.”

Harry ducked into the bedroom to finish strapping on his various holsters and, after a moment’s thought about how stupidly cold the lower floors get in winter, threw a hoodie on over his t-shirt.

“Love you!” he called over his shoulder as he darted back through the kitchen and out the door.

“Love you too!” Theo’s voice responded as the door closed.

Harry ran straight into Neville as he entered the hallway, nearly sending them both flying down the stairs.

“Hey, Haz,” Neville greeted, reaching out to steady them both.

“Hey, Nev, you ready for this?”

“I think I should be asking you, Sal made it seem like we’re meant to use you as a human Voldemort detector which can’t be a good feeling.”

“I’m really not looking forward to feeling traces of the magic that hit me with an Avada twice, but such is life. All I’m really hoping for is that what we find is just a curse anchor. Death has confirmed about a hundred times that there are no remaining Horcruxes but it’s still right there in the back of my mind.”

“I’m sure the defenses will be similar so you being on high alert is a good thing either way.”

“Too true,” Harry responded as they reached the sitting room. Luna was sitting in a chair reading and looked up with a soft smile when they entered before turning back to her book.

A minute later Susan joined them.

“Alright,” Luna said, getting their attention, “the ghosts will meet us in that dungeon room that Sir Nick uses for parties at our command, but there’s two we should talk to individually.”

“Do we want to split up or go as a group?” Susan asked.

“Splitting up works since Harry and Luna are the pair that Myrtle and Helena are most likely to talk to,” Neville said, “which of you wants to talk to which and who should go with?”

“Luna should talk to Helena because sometimes she’s a bit cryptic and Luna’s more likely to follow her train of thought and, if worse comes to worse, can command her,” Harry reasoned.

“And Harry should talk to Myrtle because, worse comes to worse, he can flirt the answer out of her,” Luna teased.

“Alright,” Harry said with a laugh, “Susan why don’t you go with Luna, Helena is more wary of men in general than Myrtle is. Send a Patronus when you’re done. After we talk to these two we’ll know if we actually need to gather all of the ghosts.”

“Portraits are another option,” Susan said, “though they’re not great at giving directions to something that isn’t a permanent fixture, so that should be our last resort before we make Harry run around as a dog.”

“Let’s get this over with before I lose my mind,” Harry said, pulling Neville toward the portrait hole, “I still can’t believe that fucker somehow hid the curse from Hogwarts herself when he wasn’t even a true heir.”

“I don’t even think I could figure out how to do that and I’m a recognized Lord,” Neville responded.

“I think it has more to do with wanting to hide it from the castle,” Luna mused as they walked down the hall, “none of us has anything we want to hide from her so we can’t figure out how, he wanted to hide something, so it worked. He was always oddly good at intention-based magic.”

“It’s because he’d been doing intentional wandless magic since he was a kid,” Harry told them. “Some of what Dumbledore told me of the shit Tom got up to before he even got to Hogwarts was bone-chilling. I’m about 95% sure he wandlessly, wordlessly crucioed children based on intent alone in that cave.”

“Fuck,” Neville muttered, “let’s find this curse and destroy it.”

“Go team,” Harry said with a half-smile, “let’s go.”

With a nod, Luna and Susan turned off and headed up the stairs while Harry and Neville started down the stairs to the second floor.

“What are the odds Myrtle saw anything?” Neville asked as they walked.

“Low,” Harry responded, “but I’d rather ask her when she’s alone than expect her to say anything about Tom in front of a group.”

“Alright I’ll follow your lead.”

Harry took a steadying breath stepped into the second-floor girl’s bathroom.

“Myrtle?”

Harry and Neville stepped back as water splashed out of the closest stall.

“Harry,” she said in a high voice, fluttering her eyelashes, “you came to visit!”

“Hi, Myrtle,” Harry said, smiling kindly, “sadly I’m not here to just chat, we have a couple of questions we need to ask.”

“Oh, alright,” she said, settling near the window, “how can I help?”

“We’re trying to figure out how the Defense curse is anchored, we know that Tom Riddle is the one who placed the curse, and we’ve narrowed down when he placed it to the day he came to interview with Dumbledore for the Defense position,” Harry explained. When he saw Myrtle was still listening attentively, he continued, “do you happen to remember anything about that day? Did you see him come into the school or hear him in the halls?”

She thought it over for a moment before nodding slightly, “I remember hearing his voice several years after he left school, so it’s probably the day you’re talking about. He was complaining and walking around the North Tower, but I don’t remember anything more specific, I’m sorry.”

“No, that’s helpful,” Neville assured her before turning to Harry, “wasn’t Defense in the North Tower our First Year?”

“Yeah and then it moved with Lockhart,” Harry responded, turning back to Myrtle to ask, “where was the Defense classroom when you were a student?”

“Classroom 104 in the North Tower,” she answered, “does that help?”

“It really does,” Harry said with a wide smile, “thank you, Myrtle, I’ll come by sometime soon to just chat, have a good day!”

“Bye Harry,” she said with a bright smile, “bye Neville, good luck with the curse, you two. Stay safe!”

They both waved goodbye and headed into the hall. Harry pulled out his wand to summon his Patronus but before he could get the incantation out, a silvery hare appeared at his feet and Luna’s voice spoke, “classroom 104 in the North Tower, Susan said it’s where Defense was your first year.”

“Looks like we don’t have to gather the ghosts,” Neville said.

“I’m glad,” Harry said with a light sigh, “they are so helpful but with that many different sources of information it would’ve been a headache.”

“Am I losing it or does this feel too easy?”

“It definitely feels too easy,” Harry said, running a hand through his hair, “those defenses are going to be no joke.” He dropped his wand into his hand again and summoned Prongs, “go to Luna and tell her to not enter that classroom under any circumstances until all of us are there.”

“What’re you thinking?” Neville asked.

“Defense was in that classroom for however many years but the year after we have Tom’s shade as a professor we move.”

“You think he added more defenses or curses to the room itself and, what, Dumbledore just sealed the doors and picked a new classroom?”

“That’s exactly what I think.”

They took one look at each other and picked up the pace.

Harry let out a sigh of relief when he saw Susan and Luna sitting on the floor outside the Tower entrance waiting for them.

“Is he being paranoid or rational?” Susan asked Neville as they approached.

“Rational,” Neville answered before explaining Harry’s thoughts on why they’d moved classrooms.

Susan winced, “Merlin I’m glad we didn’t just walk into the room. What’s our first step?”

“We’re starting an open legilimency channel,” Harry said, tone brokering no argument, “Bill taught me the spell, curse breakers use it at dig sites. We will only cast protection charms and shield charms until all four of us have agreed on a course of action and we will not, under any circumstances, touch anything in that room with our bare hands. Not the desks, not the walls, not the floor. Touch nothing.”

“Can you cast the charm for all four of us or do you need to teach it?” Luna asked.

“We need to cast it on each other, it’s a simple variation of Legilimens which we can all do. The incantation is Legilimens Exportai, got it?”

“Got it,” they echoed.

Once the charm was cast, they were able to filter thoughts to each other. It was a good thing they were all practiced in occlumency otherwise it would’ve been rather loud.

Can you hear me? Harry asked. At everyone’s nod he pulled out his wand and stepped toward the door, alright, follow me and remember, touch nothing.

He sent a charm at the door to open it, refusing to even touch the knob and waited until everyone was inside before closing the door behind them, wanting to contain whatever they might find.

Should we ward the door? Neville asked.

Simple shield charm, nothing more complicated, Harry responded, alright, no detection spells yet, just reach out to the castle’s magic and see what you feel, I’m going to try to sense Tom’s magic.

It took three full hours of stretching their senses to feel the magic of every inch of the room, a rather difficult task when the very stones were magical.

Got something! Luna said, standing in the west corner of the room looking at the ground, Harry can you come see if it’s familiar magic?

Harry stepped up behind Luna and almost recoiled at the feeling of the magic, how did I not feel this the second I stepped in the room?

I’d guess it has some sort of proximity charm on it, Luna responded with a shrug.

Are we all on board with running diagnostics and then getting out of here and sealing the door? Harry asked.

Once everyone agreed, they each ran a series of diagnostic charms. Some they’d learned from Bill, some from their families, some from books, several from the Founders, and several from Death.

Let’s get back into the hall before we put all this to parchment, Harry said as they cast, everyone agreed.

After three hours of sensing magic and nearly a full hour of casting diagnostics, they stepped into the hallway and sealed the doors themselves before reaching out to Hogwarts and asking her to seal them as well.

As closed the legilimency line and Susan said, “should we go back to our library to put all this on parchment?”

“Smart,” Neville responded, “also, what time is it?”

“Only 1:00,” Harry said around a wide yawn, “I’m exhausted.”

“Yeah I’m going to bed as soon as we look these over,” Luna said, echoing Harry’s yawn.

They took a shortcut back to their tower and trudged up to the library where they filled dozens of rolls of parchment with the results of their diagnostics.

“You think the founders realized that we weren’t ever going to have to enter a classroom a student might be in on a class day?” Susan asked as they watched ink spread across yet another sheet of parchment.

“No,” Harry responded, shaking his head as much as he could while lying on the table, “Sal made it seem like he thought we were going to have to scour the castle top to bottom, we just lucked out with Myrtle and Helena knowing where we needed to look.”

“But we didn’t luck out in the curse breaking department,” Neville said, letting out a low whistle as he read over one of the pages, “this is so far beyond what any of us can sort out.”

“Let me see,” Susan said, reaching out for the page. She read it over quickly, eyebrows raising higher every few seconds, “he’s right, this is above our paygrade.”

Harry grabbed the page and moved it so Luna could read over his shoulder.

“We can maybe break most of the protections and curses around it, but none of us is skilled enough to deal with the actual curse,” Harry said, letting out a sigh.

“I don’t even think Bill could break that,” Luna said, leaning her head against Harry’s shoulder, “we can talk this over more later but we’re hardly functional right now. Roll up these parchments and start a new shelf and we’ll figure it out.”

“At least we’ve got the deal with the Auror department for now,” Neville said, pushing away from the table, “that should keep well trained professors on staff and also, hopefully, avoid total disaster.”

“I almost wish this thing was more like a Horcrux,” Harry said, “I walk around with a basilisk fang all the time, I could destroy a Horcrux easily, but I can’t just stab this thing and move on.”

“I don’t even want to suggest you try to stab it and move on,” Susan said, shuddering as she read over another sheet, “if we were going to try basilisk venom I’d want to have a puddle of it in the middle of a remote field and drop the cursed stone into it using a levitation charm from behind several barriers, both physical and magical.”

“Long story short,” Luna said, standing up with a huff, “this is going to be a project.”

“At least we know where it is,” Harry said heading toward the door, “I’m going back to sleep, goodnight.”

“Night,” everyone chorused as they split ways.

“You think we’ll ever break this?” Neville asked as he followed Harry up the stairs.

“Someone will,” Harry answered, sounding rather confident, “I just don’t know who.”