Professor McGonagall was sitting through another meeting about those damn trolls. Well, not Goran, of course. The dead ones. The worst part was she couldn't really object to how much everyone was reacting.
Mountain Trolls in a school, for Merlin's sake.
Thankfully for everyone, Harry had somehow found out, taken care of it... violently. Half the people in each meeting didn't even argue the idea, as if it was NORMAL for 11 year olds to kick troll and take names.
Well, normal for the Boy-Who-Lived. Sadly at this rate, it may well be true.
Thankfully this meeting was simply a staff one, so Minerva was USED to being annoyed with most of them. "The boy probably brought ALL the trolls, trained them, and then tripped as they killed each other."
She sighed. "Thanks Severus, we will keep that in mind."
Everyone paused suddenly as Albus Dumbledore rose to his feet. "Trolls have been known to trip. Severus has my complete confidence."
He then sat on the table.
Minerva tried NOT to sigh. Too much sighing had to be bad at some point. "Thank you Albus. Are you implying that you agree with Severus that Harry was secretly gathering trolls?"
The man smiled, eyes glittering. "Well, he is a bit young to be gathering as a single father. But I suppose everyone sows their wild oats at some point." He held open a huge pouch. to Professor Sprout. "Watermelon dear?" Filius Flitwick gently rested his hand on Dumbledore's shoulder. "Albus, Harry is not the natural father of the troll. He is acting as a parent only. I am fairly sure that he is not attracted to female trolls."
Albus gave a knowing nod. "I must say, I didn't realize the boy was homosexual."
Everyone paused for a moment. THAT was a mental image. With a light cough, Professor Sinistra leaned in. "Headmaster, Professor Flitwick was trying to imply that Harry Potter is likely attracted to other humans. Based on his expressions, likely women."
Albus gave a regal nod, turned to Severus Snape and held open the sack. "Severus, care for a watermelon?"
With a sneer, the man focused on the group. "That Potter brat is likely gathering more dark creatures as we speak. Expulsion should be the BEGINNING of his punishments. Maybe something with a bit of blood to it."
Caretaker Filch gave a ragged and dark grin. "Aye, bring back some of the good punishments, the old stuff. I still oil my chains, and the screws are ready when needed."
A very tired and stressed Minerva glared at the man. "Thank you, Mr. Filch. I will keep that under advisement." Her eyes slightly glanced toward the greasy man spewing anti-potter propaganda. Probably unprofessional to think about such things. Oh well.
With considerable effort and only one accident involving a watermelon, Professor McGonagall tried to get through the meeting without turning anyone into a shoe.
Harry had worked through several books about warding at this point, and was narrowing his focus down to one book that mentioned a strange sounding but VERY useful charm. The Fidelius charm.
From the description, it did three things. First, it bound a location and marked it. Second, it moved everything inside the marked area into an alternate dimension, a pocket reality, only accessible if a secret is known. Third it actively created a field where knowledge of reality could only be kept or remembered if the secret was known.
Harry had been studying it for hours now. The benefits were huge. Secured areas were unreachable in any form or method if the secret is unknown, the secret had to be willingly given or it would delete itself from the memory of anyone who found it. Only the secret keeper was able to write, speak, or think the secret. It acted like a virus, spreading from person to person, leaving very small changes.
Not only was your home protected from almost ANYTHING, at least anything that didn't damage reality, but even the existence of the home vanished. So no one would even think to TRY and find it.
The downsides were huge though. If the secret keeper was known, they could be emotionally forced to tell the secret. Torture and such of a physical or magical nature would prevent the secret being stolen though. Casting the charm was rough as well, although most of the power was used by moving the area into another reality, which is why it was heavily restricted on how large an area the charm could protect.
Still, the memory and secret part was cheap to cast... and Harry could see uses for this. If he could modify what the secret was, then just about any information could be protected pretty darn well. Maybe he could even make himself his own secret keeper?
No, it doesn't look like it. Making one's self the secret keeper broke the charm, since it kept trying to both give the secret and take it away until it ran out of energy.
But what if one of his aspects held it?
Harry grinned and went back into his notes. Information security would never be the same after this.
Tracey was looking at Daphne like she was a flamingo. "So... Harry offered to rope us?"
"NO! Merlin, just... just listen when I speak, ok?" Stupid blushes. "He would connect us with magic, and teach us a couple of abilities he has. It would protect your mind from Professor Snape and others who use Legilimency to read minds."
She tilted her head. "Uh... but won't it feel weird? I never heard about having other people's magic in you." She gave a slow smile. "It sounds a bit dirty." Daphne gave an exasperated sigh. "EVERYTHING sounds dirty to you Trace. Now listen, the part I am not sure about it that he has to 'settle our cores' so we can access our own mind worlds."
Tracey raised an eyebrow. "Settle our cores, huh?"
Daphne's face was now fairly red. "Look, it just SOUNDS wrong when I say it."
She grinned. "But it sounds right when Haaaary says it."
Tracey received a pillow to the face.
Susan and Neville were going through a fairly large set of texts, building a list of non-lethal spells along with which book to find details.
Neville nodded. "Add Impedimentia. It seems to do random effects for a set amount of time... freezing motion, binding, pushing, tripping... The varied nature makes it hard to prepare for." Susan nodded. "I definitely think we should have Expelliarmus. Auntie says it is mandatory, since it attempts to remove any item the target thinks of as a weapon. You have to cast it several times though if they have more than one wand or sword or whatever."
Neville grinned as he wrote with these new 'pens'. Quills were miserable compared to these. "Tongue Tying and Jelly-Legs curses should be added. Both affect the body and make battle harder. Especially if there is lots of dodging, or they are bad with silent casting."
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