Title: Strings of Fate

Author: Knife Hand

Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated

Spoilers: Nothing Specific, general for first few books.

Rating: R

Disclaimer: I do not own Hermione, or Luna, or Ginny, or Cho, or... I would buy them all but I am broke.

Summary: Being raised only by his Aunt, Harry comes to Hogwarts not only knowing about the Wizarding World, but with a kind of training no one at the school is expecting.


Harry, Susan and Gwen were sitting on one side of the Staff Room while Dumbledore and the four Heads of House sat on the other. Helena was off to the side with The Barron, The Friar and Sir Nicholas, the four House Ghosts. They were not having the meeting in the Headmaster's Office, at Helena's insistence, as that would have implied potential disciplinary action.

"So, Mister Potter, when you informed Professor Vector last year that you could hear the Castle, did you mean Miss…." Professor Sprout began.

"Not exactly." Harry replied. "At the time I could only hear her in my head. It was not until the DMLE were here that I found out she could… manifest."

"It was after you destroyed those two items, Headmaster." Helena informed.

"Yeah, those things hurt me." Gwen piped up. "Nasty stuff. I can usually stop that kind of stuff getting in or inform Sister that they are there and get her to tell the Headmaster or something. This was inside my… brain I guess, it's hard to explain. Anyway, it was beyond, or within or whatever, where I could influence. It was like a giant buzzing right in my ears so loud I could hardly hear anything else, at least when it came to detecting dark artefacts. Before none of those things that Susan's Aunt found would have gotten in."

"If you… um, manifested back then, why was both Mister Potter and Lady Ravenclaw so surprised to see you in the Great Hall?" Professor Flitwick asked.

"Because she escaped." Susan replied, glaring at Gwen.

Helena sighed and then took up the explanation.

"Gwen should be confined to The Heart." Helena explained. "At least for the next several months to years. The last time she manifested, back when The Founders were still running the school, it took eighteen months for Gwen to be able to leave the Heart. Of course, back then there were a lot more adult students leaning here and Gwen's manifestation was much older and even taught classes. Given a thousand years of adolescents leaning here, her appearance is now younger, and her personality more childish."

"Sister!" Gwen whined, proving Helena's point.

"Then how did Miss…. Does she have a surname?" Sprout asked

"All the Founders considered Gwen their daughter. Those of us learning here thought of her as either an elder sister or a favoured relative." The Barron said, surprising everyone. "She was generally referred to simply as Gwen. Things were less formal back then."

"I could be Potter. Or Bones. Or Lovegood. Or…." Gwen began enthusiastically.

"No!" Helena commanded. "If you feel you need to use a surname, use Caisteal."

Professor McGonagall could not help but laughing at that.

"Care to let us in on the joke?" Dumbledore asked.

"Caisteal is Gaelic for Castle." McGonagall replied.

"Fitting." Flitwick observed.

"Then, how did Miss Caisteal get out of this Heart?" Sprout finished her earlier question.

"I was leaving The Heart and Gwen did not want me to go, so she grabbed onto me and was seemingly pulled out of The Heart." Harry informed.

"I see a major issue." Snape said. "With a revelation this public, it will spread to the darker elements of our society very quickly. They will see opportunity at controlling the Avatar of Hogwarts Castle."

"Let them try, it'll do them no good." Gwen said. "I can always de-manifest."

"Don't be cocky, Gwen." Helena scolded. "Remember what happened with the Earl and the Viscount?"

"Hey, not my fault." Gwen shot back, getting sceptical looks from both Helena and The Barron. "Ok, maybe the aqueduct and the fist explosion, but I was totally not responsible for the second and third ones and I never even went need that carriage, so you can't blame me for the entire entrail thing."

"My point, dear Sister." Helena said sarcastically. "Is that you are still vulnerable, if not necessarily in the way Professor Snape meant."

Gwen slumped slightly in her chair and flickered for a moment.

"See, you are drained already." Helena observed. "You need to get back to The Heart to recharge."

"Ok." Gwen said tiredly, standing.

"Yes, well I think we are done here." Dumbledore announced.


Lucius Malfoy sat in the study of Malfoy Manor sipping a finely aged brandy. There were two letters on the table in front of him. One was a franticly written message from Draco stating that somehow the Potter brat had been able to get the Magic of Hogwarts Castle into the body of a teenaged girl. Lucius would have written it off as a delusion brought on by his son's… new condition or something, but the boy had stated that The Grey Lady had made the announcement in front of the whole school, so there were ample ways to verify the information, which Lucius had sent out carefully worded letters of his own to try and verify. Given how outlandish the claim was, and how Slytherin his son is, Lucius almost believed it.

The second message was more concerning, particularly with the Post Script added by Amadeus Carrow. The message was from the Dark Lord. There were only two men alive who were aware of the return of the Dark Lord, even if it was in wraith form. Well three if you counted the young Death Eater who the Dark Lord was currently Possessing, which Lucius didn't. Partly because the man had quite a lot of Magical Power and a shocking lack of intelligence. He made the Crabbe and Goyle families look like geniuses in comparison. Mostly though because being Possessed by the Dark Lord was basically a death sentence. The man was dead already, it's just the message had not filtered through to what had passed for a brain when he was still in control of the body. The little moron though it was an honour.

The other man who knew was Amadeus Carrow, one of the Dark Lord's oldest and most loyal followers. A founding member and close friend to the Dark Lord, as far as the Dark Lord had friends, Carrow was the de facto leader when the Dark Lord was not around. Even the rumours that Amadeus' twin granddaughters, who were due to start Hogwarts next year, were the offspring of both his daughter and his son. One or two brave people, after making sure no Carrow was within fifty miles, whispered that it may not have been Amadeus' son who had fathered the twins, but Amadeus himself.

When he had shown up slightly after the start of the current year at Hogwarts had started, the Dark Lord had demanded the diary he had left with Lucius for safekeeping. While the Dark Lord had been upset about the plan that had been put in place, a plan that had been provided to Lucius by the Diary itself, he had been willing to let the plan proceed. Then the Bone bitch had gotten involved and ceased, then destroyed, the Diary.

Amadeus Carrow had passed the judgement on the Flints and Draco at a Death Eater meeting for them being named by the DMLE. Lucius' own punishment was as bad in its own way as Draco's by being turned into that beast. Lucius had been forced to swear an Unbreakable Vow that he would not disown or remove Draco from inheriting unless he was able to produce another male Heir the old-fashioned way. No blood adoption, no potions or spells to ensure contraception and the production of a male heir. It was Draco, with his infected condition, or a naturally conceived and delivered child, and he was oathbound to try for another Heir.

Picking up the brandy glass in front of him, he downed it in one gulp. He was sure Narcissa would be upstairs having a glass or two of wine to fortify her own nerves as well. The successful birth of Draco, even with spells and potions to ease and fortify the pregnancy, had been something of a miracle. Narcissa had experienced two miscarriages before Draco and one after. After the third miscarriage, the Healers had said there was a good chance that another pregnancy would kill Narcissa.

Torn between the love he felt for his wife; his affection for his son, even with the new condition; and his training and upbringing to keep bloodlines pure by producing strong and untainted Heirs. He slowly trudged up the stairs, to reluctantly risk the life of his beloved wife by the orders of a Dark Lord existing as a parasite in the body of a moron.

TBC….