The Power of the Potters ✔

Part 12: The first strike

Harry hated Halloween… He really hated Halloween. Not only was it the day a madman decided to listen to half of a prophecy and murder his parents, but it was usually a day where horrible things happened to him. He was almost a hundred percent sure that the day was cursed.

Trolls in the school, the Chamber of Secrets re-opening, Sirius Black breaking into the school and attacking the Fat Lady - despite his innocence, and his name unexpectedly being drawn by the Goblet of Fire for the Triwizard Tournament… and now snakeface attacks Azkaban.

Harry gave a sigh and put down the butterbeer that he had asked the house elves to bring to the room after Lady Black left. The Hogwarts house-elves were technically not allowed to accept orders from students, but being Lord Gryffindor had many perks. Rather than going to Defense and Charms buzzed, he decided to go to Flitwick afterward to explain the situation. Maybe the former dueling champion would be willing to be his chaperone for his mission tonight.

He might have to go to Dumbledore too about Defense. He'd be damned if he went to Professor Weasley. He massaged his temples and downed another butterbeer.

He quickly messaged his uncles FC, Milton and Orville over the cellphone-like device Uncle FC and the Australian Unspeakables called a holoport. It was basically a magical, mobile telephone with the ability to see and broadcast images or simple text messages with excessive and insanely complex runic components.

The Australian Unspeakables kept a close eye on non-magical scientific and science fiction advancements, much more so than their British counterparts. Sometimes they even supported their non-mag counterparts in their scientific developments. If Harry remembered correctly, the Australian Unspeakables invested in an Australian non-mag company named Australian Holographics in order to develop their holoport.

Harry kept the sleek and expensive looking device - definitely out of some Star Trek film - on his person at all times. FC was in talks with his superiors to see if the Potter Family could get a few more of the devices. Since it allowed for instantaneous audio-visual communication, reduced their reaction time to life-threatening events and would go a long way in keeping his family connected, Harry didn't mind spending a few tens of thousands of galleons on it.

I might even grab one for Hermione and Ron.

At that thought, he quickly called for the house elf to bring him another butterbeer and thanked it so graciously that the creature seemed close to tears. The thought of his best friends and the state of their relationship would have been grounds enough for him to order a whole pack of butterbeer.

Hermione had taken to avoiding him at all costs, even going in the opposite direction when he walked toward her. He still had no clue why she was behaving the way she did. Whenever he asked Neville, the only person who he talked to at all nowadays, the blond would only tell him to ask Hermione or look at his memories of the Hogwarts Express.

Harry wanted to strangle the blond sometimes, but he controlled the urge to the best of his abilities. Hermione only hung out with Neville, and only talked to him as well. Harry had the feeling sometimes that the blond was purposefully misleading him to sow discord and in order to keep Hermione to himself.

And Ron… Ron was avoiding him for both of their sakes. They had had a small discussion the first night back in the Tower, both barely holding back the Blood Feud-fueled need to attack each other. The redhead apologized for the actions of his mother and for the money that was stolen. He had no knowledge of it. The fact that the redhead with the emotional capacity of a teaspoon and the temper of a dragon initiated the conversation made Harry miss his friend even more. Harry knew how money was always a difficult issue to discuss with his first friend.