Payback Time

Well, this is the end. It was only going to be a short story to begin with. There was no TWT because Dumbles died.

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“You know, now that we’ve donated all the good stuff to the school, we can get the treasures for ourselves,” Harry said a few days later. They had been at this every day a few hours a day since they found the Room. “And now I can do the broken stuff. I know I can fix it up and sell it, or donate it,” he added, thinking hard on what he wanted to do.

“You can do whatever you feel is right,” Sirius said, since they had already given so much to Hogwarts. Hooch had enough brooms for the entire student body twice over. The library had more than enough books, and was turning the rest away, since there was no more room. All the donations were made anonymously through the Hogwarts house elves. Even the professors had stocked up on their private libraries.

Snape and McGonagall had lucked out on some old classic books from the founder’s times. Dumbledore had put some in the headmaster’s private library as well. There were some that were added to the restricted section. Dumbledore tried to get them banned, but he was overruled.

“I think, I’d like to split the profits between us, charity, and the school, but not the things I give to my friends,” Harry said, though he knew there would be things he’d keep for himself as well. There were also many things that Ron and his family could use, not to mention Hermione and Neville. Just more so the Weasleys.

So, that’s what they did for the next few days, and what they would continue to do throughout Harry’s schooling. It would take them all that time to get the room cleared, and they made a deal with the house elves that the little guys would tell the headmaster or deputy that there was a lost and found, that way it wouldn’t get as massive as it had.

In the end everyone benefited from the funds. The Weasleys went from poor to moderately okay. Harry, Sirius, and Remus were already well-to-do, and now they were better off. Hermione increased her funds as well. Neville turned down most of what Harry offered, and he gave it mostly to St. Mungo’s for the help that he thought they gave his parents. No one ever knew it was Harry that healed them.

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Albus stood in front of the Veil again. He was alone this time, and he waited for Death to come and get his wand. He stared into the abyss and was not afraid. He knew his time was soon and he made peace with that.

“So, the last of the horcruxes is gone. I have the soul of Tom Marvolo Riddle now. I will collect my wand,” Death said as it stepped out of the Veil. Its skeletal form cloaked as usual, billowing in the air. The room frosted as it spoke. The temperature dropped to freezing.

“I have come to give it to you willingly,” Albus said, holding it out to the being. It had been a good wand and served him well throughout the years. He was sad to see it go, but he knew this was the right thing to do.

“Yes, you have,” Death said, holding out its hand, and calling the wand to it. The Elder Wand floated from Albus’s hand to Death’s, and it was finally home. “The cloak is harmless and will stay with the Potter family until it doesn’t,” the being said cryptically.

“I am sure that young Harry will be happy to know that,” Dumbledore said, glad that something good would happen to the boy. He didn’t want to be the one to tell the child that Death wanted his cloak back. So, it was a good thing that it didn’t.

“Yes,” was all the being said as it turned around and moved to leave.

“How much longer?” Albus asked, wanting to make sure he had his affairs in order. He was sure he did, but he might have overlooked something.

“Not long,” was all Death said as he stepped into the abyss.

“Thank you,” Dumbledore said as he turned to leave the room. He was glad that he didn’t have long to wait. It was tedious to wait for anything, but more so to wait to die.

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It was the first day of school and Harry wanted to pull some pranks on the entire student body. The first thing he did was to call down lightning from the sky to clean the Sorting Hat. It gave a huge sneeze as centuries of dust flew off it.

“Thank you,” it said in a cheerful voice. It looked much better, and it was the color of purple under all that dirt. “I have not felt this good in decades,” it said and then started singing the song of the year.

Then Harry made the candles form the words ‘Welcome to Hogwarts’ over every one’s heads. This caused everyone to cheer.

Then he set off a light show, similar to that of fireworks, which made everyone cheer harder.

Then he cast a spell that was like the mood hair, only this one was more of a personality hair. It showed what kind of person they were by the face that radiated over their head. If they were a happy person, then a yellow smiley face would show. A sad person would get a blue sad face, and so on.

Harry was sad to see that Ron was a dull green angry face. He really hoped that could be changed. Hermione was an orange frazzled face, showing she was prone to anxiety. Neville’s was a dim yellow face with a small smiley face, which meant he was happy, just shy. There was a lot of confusion and there were a lot of conversations going on.

Dumbledore stood and said, “Yes, this is quite a feat of magic, and I do wonder if it does give an insight that is sorely needed to some. However, would the perpetrator please disburse it,” he requested, with a twinkle in his eye. His sign showed he was not manipulating but telling the truth that he was concerned.

Harry quickly waved his hand under the table and the faces disappeared. He hadn’t meant it to cause problems, he thought it might have been funny. However, it didn’t work out like that. Maybe next time he’d just change the color of everyone’s hair.

All of this was done inconspicuously, so that no one knew of his magic. He was still keeping that a secret. He would tell them one day, but not until he was much older and ready to handle the responsibility that came with the demands people would put on him.

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The week went well, with only minor pranks happening. There were a few incidents, where Harry had to make someone go away before they cause problems. He thought of it as using the Jedi mind trick. He’d just wave his hand and say, “Go away.” and they did. He didn’t like fighting. He had enough of that with Dudley.

Snape’s class was as awful as it usually was, and Harry wasn’t sure what he was going to do about that man. He did turn his hair clean and made his clothes new, but that just served to piss the bloke off. Now they were on their way to Remus’s class and Harry couldn’t wait to see what the ex-werewolf had in store for them.

Remus led them into the teacher’s lounge to face a boggart. Snape was there and made some derogatory comments about Neville, which Remus waved away. When Neville’s boggart of Snape turned into a granny dressed version of the man, Harry got an idea of what to do to the man. He didn’t know why he didn’t think of it before, after all he’d spent a good part of the summer as a girl.

At dinner, he waved his hand under the table, and Snape turned into a female version of himself. The ‘woman’ yelled harshly, “Who did this?” as ‘she’ stood and glared at everyone. “I will see you expelled,” ‘she’ yelled, staring straight at Harry, who was laughing with everyone else.

The whole Hall burst out laughing, even the teachers, though they were trying not to. Dumbledore, chuckling quietly, got up and tried to reverse the spell. It didn’t work. He lamented that he didn’t have the Elder Wand, but he thought that it might not matter. This spell was master quality work. It was a complete transformation, which amazed the old man. He didn’t think that was possible without a potion.

“Whoever did this, needs to undo it right now,” he said, giving everyone his patented disappointed grandfather look, though the sign above his head showed this was a mild manipulation, so Harry ignored it. “I am very disappointed,” the old man sighed, his sign did show that was the truth.

The student body was still laughing or giggling, and they were all talking on who would have done this. The Weasley twins were crowing that whoever had were better than even they were. They were stating loudly that they would proudly get into a prank war with the culprit.

Harry waved his hand again and Snape returned to normal, and everyone ‘aw’ed at that, like they were disappointed that it didn’t last. However, one moment later, Snape was a woman again. Harry had made it that every time Snape thought bad things about him, Sirius, Remus, or his friends, he would be a woman for five minutes. It would only stop if the man stopped thinking bad things. He wasn’t going to release the man from the spell. If Snape were as smart as people said he was, he would figure it out on his own.

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It was time for Hagrid’s class, and they were trooping down to the man’s hut. The monster books were all bound with various implements, such as belts, ropes, and ties. Harry thought they were funny, but the rest of the class thought they were annoying. He sent out some calming magic, so the books didn’t bite anyone, but the others didn’t know that yet.

Hagrid told them to open their books and Harry did, showing everyone else how. Draco made some nasty comments, so Harry said, “I hear there’s some treasure over by that tree.” He pointed to a pine tree to the side, which set the boy immediately off to find whatever there was to find.

With Draco out of the way, the class went on without a hitch and soon enough they were learning about hippogriffs. Harry had a great time flying on Buckbeak. The blond boy came back later with a shiny knut, smiling like he had found gold. Harry saved his life after he insulted the hippogriff, but this time no one blamed the boy, because he had not been there for the lesson.

Harry took to getting rid of Draco many times that way. Soon many people cottoned on to the trick. All they had to do was mention that they saw a treasure and off Draco went. It became a running joke among the student population. Sometimes the boy actually found something, more often than not, it was something small, like a knut.

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Dumbledore passed away halfway through the school year. He was mourned throughout the wizarding world. His funeral was lavish and well attended. He was not buried on the Hogwarts grounds, as per his instructions. He was buried in Godric’s Hollow with the rest of his ancestors. Aberforth was there and mourned his brother with his stoic way.

Harry was upset that the headmaster hadn’t let him heal him, but he understood that it was the man’s request to pass away under his own will.

It was after the funeral that Harry was consoling Hermione, when she gave him a kiss on the cheek. He sat there with his hand on his cheek and wondered why she did that and thought that maybe it was time he had that talk with Sirius about girls.

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Years later, Remus finally talked Harry into curing the werewolves of Britain, so the now adult Harry came out about his powers. He had graduated Hogwarts and became a Lord in his own right. Sirius had taught him all he needed to know, and he was a man of leisure. The money they had made from the Room of Requirements had seen to it that they never needed to work again. Harry did play professional quidditch for a while, but he got bored with it, and did charity work now.

He was dating Susan Bones right now, but it wasn’t as serious as they’d like it to be. He was only twenty years old, and she was an Auror. They weren’t ready for marriage yet. He had dated Hermione in school, and they had parted as friends. She was now the head of the DMLE and loving every minute of it. They were still very close.

His Hogwarts years had been normal. He had hidden his talents well. He was just a kid with all his friends. Sure, he pranked with the twins, and after they graduated, but he didn’t get caught doing anything spectacular. They were just normal years. They were good years.

“Harry, come on, they are waiting,” Remus said, hurrying the man along. He had been waiting for this day for years. They had broken the curse on the DADA position when he had first started working there, and he had kept the job for the last seven years. His secret that he was not a werewolf had never been broken. And Snape had never been believed when he tried to out him, because of his own curse, which he still had.

That is until today. Now everyone would know that Remus was not a werewolf and that soon no one would be. Harry would cure anyone who wanted to be cured. They would find Greyback and either cure him or kill him. Either way that man would never infect anyone again.

“I’m coming,” Harry said, fixing his robe to sit right on his shoulders. He moved to go to the yard in front of his manor were all the werewolves were waiting. The press was there, and this would be the moment he would out himself as the greatest wizard since Merlin.

Was he ready?

Well, he’d better be.

He stepped out to a cheering crowd and lightning flew.

A new world began.