Remember Remeber the fifth of November,

the gun powder treason and plot,

I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason,

should ever be forgot

After returning to the common room, Harry bade Luna good night, and climbed to his own dorm. Once there he grimaced. The puppy he had conjured to hold the many tracking charms Dumbledore had already placed on him had decided to wet his bed in the most disgusting way possible.

Cursing quietly, so as not to wake his room mates, Harry went about using advanced cleaning spells to fix up his bed, place the trackers back on him, and vanish the conjured dog.

The next morning, Harry noticed that the portraits and ghosts were paying him an inordinate amount of attention. Harry immediately jumped to the worst possible conclusion, and prepared himself for Dumbledore to attack, bind, and try to oblivate him.

A possible over reaction, but then past experience had taught him never to underestimate Dumbledore's power and cunning.

Never the less, by the time he got to breakfast, neither Dumbledore, nor any of his lackeys had attacked him. Harry watched the head table closely, and noticed that the only one who was missing was Snape.

With a start, Harry also recognized that neither Luna nor Su Li were in the Great Hall. Getting worried, but unable to show such emotion before Dumbledore, Harry finished eating quickly before he got up. It was at this point that Draco Malfoy came over to talk with him.

Harry wanted to scream with frustration. Malfoy had been practically courting Harry for his first year, and it seemed he had decided to resume where he left off last year.

"Potter. Welcome back to Hogwarts." Draco said politely.

Harry knew that Dumbledore was watching and probably listening to this conversation with an avid ear (in spite of being at the head table) so he had to be careful and not rush his words. On the other hand, this seemed far too convenient. Snape was out of the Great Hall, possibly with the only two people Harry truly could rely on in Britain, and Harry couldn't leave because Malfoy was engaging him in conversation. To Harry, who had become attuned to such things, it stank of a set up.

Harry did not let the turmoil or panic he was feeling show on his face.

"Thank you Draco, I'm glad to be back."

Malfoy continued to talk with him, even as Harry subtly moved around him and out of the Hall slowly.

With an even more delicate touch, he used his mental abilities to check Malfoy. He found the blond Slytherin under a minor compulsion charm, tasked with keeping Harry engaged in conversation. It was something even a pureblood like Draco would never be able to pick up. It was a subtle urge, but it was still effective.

The spell was so subtle and weak that Harry could not tell who the caster was, but then, he already knew it was either Dumbledore or Snape.

Regardless, the fact that they wanted him kept busy worried him immensely.

After speaking with Malfoy for some time, he was able to shake him off and return to the common room. As he was walking, he saw Luna walking towards him. When she saw him, a flash of panic and fury flashed across her face before she walked past him with cool indifference.

At that moment, Harry knew what had happened. Snape had used Legitimacy on Luna to force her away from him, likely on Dumbledore's orders. Unfortunately for Dumbledore, Harry knew what he was doing this time, and how to fight back.

HP*********************HP*******************HP

Harry watched Luna and Ginny very carefully over the course of the next few weeks. The former because he wanted to know when it would be safe to break her mental blocks, the later because he wanted to make absolutely sure that his plan for the Diary Horcrux and Ginny was on track.

Five days before Halloween, Harry decided it was time to act. In DADA, Harry planted a subtle compulsion into Lockhart's mind.

That night, Harry snuck out of the Ravenclaw common room and went down into the chamber. The dwarves were finishing up a few issues, but by and large the place was complete. The only things that had yet to be done were the completion of the aircraft factory (which he wasn't expecting for another year or so) and the most powerful active wards which had yet to be powered.

Still, the ritual chamber was complete, and that was all Harry really needed for the night. After preparing the room with blood runes, and placing some sacrificial animals (in this case a few toads and fish summoned from the forest and lake respectively) in their proper places for the ritual, he resealed the room and returned to the main castle.

Still disillusioned, Harry used the passages from the fortress into the rest of the castle to emerge right outside the defense classroom.

While waiting, Harry used his mind to convince Lockhart that his task had been completed. Finally, Harry sensed Luna approaching. To him her mind had a very distinctive feel.

Silently, he drew his wand, and when Luna walked around the corner humming a simple tune he struck.

A beam of red light flashed from his wand and struck her before she could react. Before she could fall, Harry had cast a silencing charm around her, and levitated her into the hidden corridor.

Unknown to him, a ghost had witnessed the attack.

HP***********************HP*********************HP

Harry carried Luna through the long corridor, deactivating and then reactivating the wards that had already been established. Finally, he reached the Fortress and walked through the training dojo on his way to the ritual chamber. A number of dwarves who were still working bowed their heads slightly as he walked past in a gesture of respect, and Harry nodded to them in return. Manners went along way when you were basically raising an entire species back to power. Savior or not, you didn't want to get on the bad side of those you were empowering.

Entering the ritual chamber, Harry placed Luna down on the ground in the center of the room. Then, before she woke, he entered her mind. Luna's mind was chaotic at the best of times, but now it was ten times worse. She was under a series of magical compulsions, and mind based blocks, and in addition to that, had magic trying to force her to remain unconscious. Combine that magic with the presence of another, orderly mind in Luna's own chaotic mindscape, and the place was an absolute mess.

Still, Harry was not to be denied. He swept away the mental blocks, and countered the magical compulsions before sweeping away the rest of the magic that was affecting her.

Still, even with this difficult task accomplished, Harry knew that it was only part of the battle. After all, if Luna returned to the school now, she would be back under mental blocks and compulsions within a matter of days, if not hours.

Thus, in order to prevent that, Harry was preparing to use an ancient Mayan ritual, still used in parts of South America to protect her mind.

Leaving her stunned on the floor of the ritual chamber, Harry went out looking for a small group of Dwarven enchanters. When he found them he asked

"Honored users of magic, would you assist me with the performance of a ritual to protect one who aids me?"

The oldest of the dwarves looked at Harry for a moment, and then he nodded sharply, after which the rest of the enchanters followed Harry and the older enchanter to the ritual chamber.

Seeing Luna laying stunned on the floor brought the dwarves up short, but Harry was able to sooth their fears when he explained what had happened to her.

The five magic users chanted over her for ten minutes, before the sacrificial animals dissolved into smoke and reformed over her chest. Harry knew that this was the most dangerous part, and the reason this ritual was not performed often.

Quickly drawing his wand, without breaking the chant, Harry cast a petrifaction curse at the smoke, just as it touched her body. Had he been even a second off then the smoke would have absorbed the curse, and detonated, killing Luna, and possibly Harry and the dwarves. Fortunately, Harry timed his curse exactly right, and the smoke was burned into Luna's skin and absorbed, leaving only a small black mark on her clothing.

HP*****************HP***************HP

Harry waited a full hour, holding vigil over Luna as she recovered. When he realized that she had been taken from him again by Dumbledore, his heart had frozen for an instant. Then, for a full week, he had to pretend that her rejection of him hurt slightly, but that he would move on. In reality, it didn't hurt him, it terrified him. The thought of losing her again, so soon after returning to the past frightened him even more than the thought of Dumbledore discovering what he knew.

Fortunately, with this ritual complete, Luna would be able to hide her true mind behind an illusionary one, similar to what Harry did naturally in potions. This meant that Dumbledore and Snape could do whatever they felt like, but it wouldn't harm her as long as it was all mental.

Luna groaned.

"How are you feeling?" he asked her softly.

She opened her eyes and said "Like I just got hit by a bludger in the chest."

Harry gave a sheepish grin. "Sorry about that, my stunner must have been a bit to powerful."

Luna simply nodded and said "I'm so glad that this happened before my breasts developed, I think it would hurt much worse if you hit those don't you?"

Harry blinked, blushed and started stuttering. "Well, um, yes I suppose so?" he said haltingly. His face grew even redder as Luna started massaging her chest.

"What are you doing?" he asked her hesitantly. She might not remember, but Harry knew exactly what she was going to look like, and seeing her massaging her chest like that was doing funny things to him even with his mental control.

"Well I'm massaging my chest Harry; I would think that was obvious."

Harry stuttered again, but before he could dig himself deeper into a hole, a dwarf rushed into the rom.

"Sir! We have just discovered a cache of scrolls hidden behind the statue of Salizar Slytherin. Some appear to be over a thousand years old!

Quickly forgetting his embarrassment, and shifting back into work mode, Harry nodded and said "Take me to where you found them." As the dwarf left, Harry and Luna followed him, Luna still massaging her chest.

As the group walked into the statue of Salazar Slytherin, Harry hissed a hello to Seshteth, who hissed back a sleepy "I obey massster" Harry blinked, and then his lips quirked in a small smile.

The guide led Harry and Luna to a small chamber that was hidden in the statue. The hole though the wall which they climbed through to enter the room was raged and uneven, obviously newly broken.

Harry and Luna along with the dwarven scholars, who had rushed to the area once word of the discovery filtered out, stared at the huge piles of parchment. Some were scrolls, some were lose pieces of parchment, and there were even a few bound books.

Harry and Luna looked at the old manuscripts. Some were written in Old English, and practically impossible to read. Fortunately, some of the dwarven scholars were able to translate the works, and had determined them to be records of a specific malady that affected the entire magical world. Others however were much newer, and could be read by the layman, and both Luna and Harry set to it with a will.

"Some of these scrolls predate Merlin!" Luna exclaimed in awe.

"The one I'm reading was written around the Statute of Secrecy. In fact, it references the actions of the ICW in their creation of the statute." Harry said in confusion. "How did these documents end up down in the Chamber?" he muttered quietly.

"What could be the purpose of such a body of historical documents?" one of the dwarven translators asked.

Luna gasped. "They are recording the overall loss of magic in the world!" she exclaimed in shock.

"What?" exclaimed Harry and most of the dwarves.

"This scroll here, it says that because the overall amount of ambient magic in Elvin lands decreased, the wood elves lost most of their power, and were dying out." Luna said excitedly.

Harry looked through the scroll he was reading. "Here the writer says that the shift from staves to wands was both to make it easier to hide from muggles, and easier to cast magic with overall because most wizards could no longer muster the power necessary to cast through a staff."

One of the dwarves asked "If that is true then why are there still magic users in the world?"

Luna looked at an earlier scroll and read the introduction "This body of knowledge, such as it exists, is to be used to track the gradual fade of magic from this mortal realm."

The dwarves frowned and Harry looked on with concern.

Luna continued "When this world was created, magic imbued every rock, every grain of sand, and every being. Over the course of history, as magic was used, less magic could be gathered in one place. Over time magical beings could absorb less and less power from the land. As they drew less power into themselves, they used less power over all. "

Harry's eyes went wide. "That makes sense!" he cried out suddenly, startling the dwarves and Luna who looked up suddenly. "When we cast spells we use the magic within us, but we refill our magical core by absorbing ambient magic. I learned that in Bolivia."

The dwarves were not magical scholars, but even to them, this made sense. One of them said "So if there is less ambient magic in an area… then the magical beings will have to worry about magical exhaustion more often. Worse, if they cast a spell of old that is powerful, they may not have enough power absorbed to power the spell, and they could die of magical exhaustion."

Another of the dwarves jumped up. "Then we must stop the enchanters before they begin warding again, or they may well die!"

Harry nodded quickly. "Go" he said sharply. The dwarf ran from the room.

Harry shuddered at the thought of what would happen to the dwarven enchanters who tried to use more magic then they could hold.

"If this has been going on since the beginning of the world, then do we know when all magic will vanish?" One of the younger dwarven scholars asked.

There was a pause, as everyone in the room realized that the end of magic was inevitable according to this information, before Luna said "If there is a set date, then it must be soon, more magical species have been dying off over the course of the last few decades then in the centuries before that. My Daddy covered that in the Quibbler a few years ago to try and shame the Ministry into placing more funding into the magical creatures department."

Harry frowned and said "So basically, if we live long enough we might well be the last magic users into the world in less then a century. And I thought Dumbledore was a threat." Everyone in the room nodded solemnly.

(AN)

So I'm still writing, and Harry has finally hit a number of snags in his plot, the last of which is the most serious. After all, beating Dumbledore and reforming the wizarding world is kind of moot if the whole magical world will be gone in less then a century.

This magical drain is a new danger, designed to be the magical version of Global Warming (or Climate Change is the "politically correct" term now). And it will be used by both sides as an advantage and disadvantage.

My apologies to wfl's on drugs, but after reading your review, I thought up the ritual to sacrifice the magic of animals to protect Luna's mind.

To my reviewers, thank you all, I'll try to get another chapter out when I can.