Chapter 435: No Time for Caution

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7 June 1995, Hogwarts

Harry Potter made a portal to the Forbidden Forest, having spent the majority of the day in his workshop, putting the final touches on his plans during Ragnarök. As much as he hated to admit it, he was sort of stuck. He had a plan. He had a wonderful plan, well, it was more fitting to say that he had a workable plan and that alone was more than enough.

Theoretically, he was ready. He knew that he was ready. He only needed to perform it during the final task, when Grindelwald and Dumbledore broke the final prophecy. Fate would be muddled, disturbed enough, that Grindelwald wouldn't be able to see what they were planning. It was the only time where it would be safe to pull off his plan, just a small window between the final prophecy breaking and the Champions' ritual, whatever that was, being performed. It would be tight, but it was more than enough to pull it off.

Targeting the prophecy was technically possible, either breaking it before the ritual, or fulfilling it somehow, but Harry had no idea which prophecy would end up being broken. He had asked Snape to give him a list of possible major prophecies in Britain, but he didn't find anything that fit the criteria. They were either vague enough that breaking them was unfeasible or they were too weak to power a ritual like the one that Dumbledore and Grindelwald are planning.

Harry thought that killing Voldemort would stop the two Champions from being able to enact the final ritual, but he now realized that while he did probably inconvenience them, he had also given away an advantage of his own. Dumbledore and Grindelwald weren't going to give up on finding a new prophecy. They could get caught off guard, of course, and end up killing themselves by making a mistake in their ritual while thinking that the prophecy between Neville and Voldemort still existed. However, with Grindelwald involved, Harry didn't see it happening so easily. They probably had another prophecy ready, one that Harry couldn't interrupt in time, and if they didn't then, Harry finally had a lucky break. He didn't hold his breath on that front, of course.

The final task was less than two weeks, and Harry knew that he should be happy to even have a plan, but something niggled at the back of his mind like he was missing something. Technically everything should be going along great, but it was just a gut feeling, and he learned to trust them over time. Sure, the future kids meant that he had won, but that didn't really guarantee anything, not really. He could find dozens of different ways for that to happen, but it still resulted in devastating effects, chief of which being the fact that the Asgardian gods were involved for some reason.

He had tried to confirm anything, to use his fledgeling skill in divination, trying to see anything past the final task, but the whole thing was surrounded by an immense black wall, and he always ended up with a headache. Harry knew for a fact that even Grindelwald wouldn't have been able to do anything like this. It felt higher, in a way, better, and greater than any human, Champion of the Dark or not, would be able to achieve. If he had to guess, it was Time or Fate restricting this, which actually boded well for Harry.

All things considered, Grindelwald was, by far, the better seer. It wasn't even funny. Harry regretted not focusing on the field more. It just didn't come naturally to him. Well, that wasn't exactly true. What he was capable of was beyond what most people would even be able to achieve in the field, especially given his age, but it was something that his Arcane Hearing couldn't help with, and that slowed down the meteoric learning speed that he was used to when dealing with other magics. Grindelwald must have spent decades mastering the field, to be as proficient as he was today, and Harry learned very quickly that he didn't have the time to catch up, not before Ragnarök at the very least.

So, the Black Wall, as he liked to call it, hindered Grindelwald massively. Theoretically speaking, Harry was at his greatest advantage. After the last task, Grindelwald's skill in divination will be nearly useless, he and Dumbledore would have to personally perform the final ritual, where they would be at their most vulnerable, and finally, Harry had a concrete plan to deal with it. The Philosopher's Stone and the World Serpent's fang were ready to be deployed, unseen, undetected in the chaos that the Champions of Light and Dark would bring upon themselves.

So, why was he so worried? Why did he feel like something was missing?

It was extremely annoying, like a puzzle piece that was missing, or a small smudge on a painting. He knew he was on the right path, but something felt wrong.

Sure, there was the giant shadow of his and Daphne's fates in Ragnarök, but Harry had prepared dozens of contingencies, and hundreds of backup plans, and upped the protections on both Black Manor and Daphne's family home.

He tried not to think about it too much, choosing to enjoy the time they had left together, in case it truly was the end. It was a morbid thought, but ever since the entire time travel mess, Harry felt every moment he was apart from Daphne, counting the moments between the reunion.

Tonight was the first time in over a week they spent more than a couple of hours apart, and it was mostly because Daphne wanted to spend time with Astoria and Harry needed some time alone to try to figure out what niggled in his mind, what was missing in his plan.

As he walked back to the castle from the Forbidden Forest, he couldn't help but feel disappointed. He didn't find anything, which felt like a waste of time, he could have used for something else. With his time feeling more limited, with every moment counting, he hated wasting even a single second. The sheer fact that he had to even walk back to the castle instead of making a portal there was frustrating, but he couldn't afford Dumbledore arranging for him to be seen in some way and set the ICW on him. The inquisition that would follow alone would waste more time than he could afford.

Speaking of Dumbledore, something had changed. Harry didn't know what it was exactly, but he seemed harsher, stricter, in a way. It was hard to explain. It was like he was less human, and that definitely didn't bode well for Harry. Harry had no idea what could have caused something like that, especially with the task coming so soon, only that he kept glaring at the last Potter a lot more whenever they were in the same room. Thankfully, Harry tried to avoid the man as much as possible.

The young wizard's musings were interrupted when he saw a small figure hunched near the Black Lake, essentially hyperventilating, in the middle of the night. Slowly, Harry walked towards her, making out the features of a young woman. It was the hair that got him to recognise who it was, as the moonlight bounced off of it, letting its auburn colours show, "Susan Bones?"

The girl stiffened, almost jumping in fright, and yelled, "Oh, it's you, Harry. Bloody hell. You could have given me a heart attack."

"Sorry," Harry answered sheepishly, "I was just surprised to see you here."

"Losing my shit, you mean?" the redhead answered bitterly.

"I suppose that's an apt description. Care to say what's on your mind? You know what they say about burdens shared and all this nonsense."

The girl rolled her eyes, "You really have a way with words, Potter," she stayed silent but thankfully not crying, "We haven't really talked to each other in a while, huh?"

Harry winced at that. He and Susan were relatively close in the previous year, maybe enough to be considered friends when they worked on their runes project. But with the tournament, with Ragnarök, Harry hadn't really found any time to really spend time for her. No, he could have found the time. He had just been distracted by everything.

He composed himself slightly, "Sorry about that."

She rolled her eyes, "Hey, I can forgive it because of the whole 'dying thing' you did at Durmstrang, and I was stuck in Hogwarts after because of the war."

"Nevertheless, I should have contacted you. So, what's bothering you?"

"What else?" she snorted, "That fucking tournament has been nothing but a disaster. I wish I never put my name in. People are looking at me like I'm going to die soon, even Hannah has been distancing herself and crying whenever she looks at me. It's not my fault that I'm stuck competing in this task."

Harry stood there, understanding her dilemma. The Hufflepuff was forced to compete since she's a Champion who hadn't really competed in any other tasks. Most of the Hogwarts lineup was younger students who were forced to do it, and it was obvious that they were all scared. Susan was probably in the worst position since Cedric Diggory's death, her house's rising start, had died in the previous task.

He didn't really know what to say or how to comfort her, "Everything is going to be fine. Olympus happened because it wasn't planned properly, and most of the task was hidden. This time, everything will be fine. Everything is in front of a crowd of people and Europe's best healers will be there in case something happens. There won't be a creature or a gigantic explosion."

"Yes, but Ascalon is a weapon people will be willing to kill for, to go to prison for. Dumbledore said that he would give the sword to the winner, but he didn't say anything about what would happen if the winner got arrested. I'm guessing it'll go to his family and there are a lot of people ready to go to jail to bring that thing into the possession of their family."

Harry had to admit that she had a point there. Dumbledore using fucking Ascalon to bring interest into the task got people very heavily invested in the task's outcome. People would be willing to kill for a legendary weapon like that, and a lot of people who had hesitated on being part of the tournament volunteered and given that they'd end up fighting Hogwarts' Champions which are mostly younger, well, it didn't paint a pretty picture.

Feeling slightly compassionate for the young woman's dilemma, and slightly guilty about not talking to her for months, Harry took out a small pendant from his pocket and gave it to her, "Here."

The girl blushed for some reason before asking, curious, "What is it?"

"Just something I made. I enchanted it to redirect most curses and foreign magic. It's essentially like an invisible shield right above your skin. It should help you in case someone tries to attack you. It's not perfect, of course. It wouldn't stop something like a killing curse, or very powerful attacks, but it should make you a lot safer. They didn't say anything about not being able to bring enchanted items."

The Bones scion stared at Harry, flabbergasted, "I can't take this. This thing would cost a fortune."

Harry simply shrugged, "I made it myself. Believe me, I have a bunch of them. I've been trying to improve them for a while. I even made Daphne a new prototype. Believe me, this doesn't cost anything."

It had been something to keep Harry's mind busy, trying to find ways to give Daphne as much protection as he could manage, given the time frame. He had to admit that they could probably each cost a fortune, given the effort he needed to make them. He had even used Solomon's magic to stop them, making them specifically stop the energies of the Light and Dark. It was one of the countermeasures he made, but it didn't feel enough, not nearly.

For some reason, the girl's grin turned slightly bitter for a second before softening, "Thank you, Harry. I really don't know what to say. I wasn't going to come here, you know. It was completely by accident, on a whim, really. It feels like I was meant to talk to you here, I guess."

Harry gave her a smile, "Fate is funny like that. Sometimes, it needs a lot of coincidences to work, but each small event has… a… reason…"

He stopped as an idea made its way into his head. Everything happened for a reason. In Harry's case, every single step of the way was paved for him by a dead man, a seer who had seen thousands of years later and played the game despite being dead. Harry found what niggled into his mind. Azkaban.

Solomon made sure that Harry would be there, that they would speak, and that he'd have access to his magic. But he could have done that a thousand different ways, so why make it so something as horrible as Azkaban comes to be, that someone like Ekrizdis would cause horrors in his doomed quest?

But what if there was something more to it? It seemed fitting.

And suddenly, everything clicked, and Harry burst into laughter, "Oh, you brilliant bastard. That's it. He showed me from the very first time, everything I needed to see. Oh, that was extremely sneaky."

Susan gave him a confused look, "What are you on about?"

Harry just smiled at her, "You're a brilliant girl, Susan Bones, and I am extremely happy to have talked to you tonight."

He didn't even say anything else and just ran towards the castle. He had it. He finally had it. The final piece of the puzzle, and it fit so perfectly into his plan. Without even caring, he walked as quickly as he could towards the Slytherin common room and found Daphne sitting with her sister, and gave her a wide smile, which she returned, "I'm guessing you found something."

Harry grinned, "You bet I did."

"Fine, tell me all about it after the meeting."

That wiped the smile off his face immediately. He almost forgot about the bloody meeting. The blonde gave him a mischievous look, "You forgot, didn't you? I was actually tempted to send you a Patronus, just in case. You've been cutting things a bit close. We're almost late."

He nodded and gave a smile to Daphne's sister, "Hey, Astoria."

The small blonde grinned widely, "You have a 'meeting' huh? Is that what they're calling it these days. Although, I'm not surprised that Daphne is putting a schedule on your personal time."

He stammered for a few seconds before glaring at the girl, "You know perfectly well that's not what happens."

"Then, what's happening in your 'super secret meeting' then?"

Harry glared at her, and Daphne hit him in the shoulder, "Let's just go, Harry," before turning towards her sister, "And stop acting like a brat Astoria."

The younger girl just mocked Daphne's tone and ran away when her older sister took out her wand to hex her. She then smugly took Harry's hand and led him out of the common room and into a deserted classroom. Her casual smile was gone and turned more business-like, and Harry gave her a concerned look, "Are you sure you want to come?"

"I thought we agreed before that we'd do this together, Harry."

"We did. I'm just making sure. Once we step through these halls, there is no going back, no matter what I want."

She rolled her eyes, "We both know that Fate will involve me, despite what either of us do. I'll feel a lot better if I make my own choices, instead of them being made for me."

Harry nodded and opened a portal. A fraction of a second later, they found themselves in a large room with a circular table. Looking at the people sitting, he realized that they were the last to arrive.

They sat down, looking at the faces of Arcturus Black, Sebastien Delacour, Alexander Marinakis, and Vlad Drakul. The vampire spoke up in a smooth voice, "I'm glad to see you at this time. Let's ignore the pleasantries, we don't have time for that. Instead, let's talk about how we're planning to handle Ragnarök." 

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AN: I decided to add a semi-slow chapter since the previous one was pretty eventful. I don't know if this counts as a filler, but it's definitely a slower one, which was meant to essentially have Harry's plan ready in full. I also wrote in a bit of Susan Bones, since I neglected her for a while and wanted to give her what was essentially a small goodbye by contributing, in some way to Harry's final solution. I don't think I'll involve her in anything else, but you never know. As usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.

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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr

I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.