HARRY POTTER AND THE POWER OF FELIX FELICIS

Harry and Professor Dumbledore returned from the Pensieve to the Headmaster's office.

"Is that all?" Harry asked. "Voldemort asked one question, but didn't get an answer?"

"That memory has been tampered with," Dumbledore explained. "I think Horace is too ashamed of his actions and wants to remember not helping young Voldemort."

"But you know this Horcrux thing is very important. That means you know what a Horcrux is."

"Well, I do, but I think it is vitally important to know what happened between Horace and Voldemort all those years ago."

"Why don't you tell me what you know about a Horcrux, sir? Perhaps we don't need Slughorn's real memory after all."

Dumbledore was silent for a moment, but then he made up his mind.

"A Horcrux," he said, "is an item where a wizard has concealed a part of his soul. If his body is destroyed, the Horcrux works as an anchor that binds the wizard's soul to the mortal world. It is a ritual terrible and Dark; it requires the murder of an innocent. That is how Voldemort survived the destruction of his body."

"But a Horcrux can be destroyed, right, sir?" Harry asked. "We just have to find it, destroy it, and then Voldemort will be vulnerable again."

"Alas, there is a problem, Harry," Dumbledore said. "I have no doubt Voldemort created more than one Horcrux. That was actually why I wanted to know what Horace told him. The question is: how many did he create? He has hidden them securely. Without all the information we can find, we cannot defeat him, ever."

Harry sat down. This was bad news indeed. Would they have to search the world for years and years, not knowing how many Horcruxes there were out there? They would be extremely lucky to find even one of them that way…

Lucky…

"Headmaster, I have an idea," Harry said, feeling excitement rise in his chest. "I need to fetch something from the dormitory. Could you produce maps for us? A world map, and a map of the British Isles, at least."

"I can do that, Harry," Dumbledore said. "What do you have in mind?"

"I'll explain that when I return," Harry said and rushed to the door.

Ten minutes later Harry stepped into the Headmaster's office again. There were many maps on Dumbledore's desk, and the old wizard looked at Harry curiously.

"Could you make them larger?" Harry asked. Dumbledore did so with a flick of his wand. "I have a secret weapon against Voldemort. Professor Slughorn gave me Liquid Luck for twenty-four hours. If it really makes your day perfect, perhaps it will allow us to bypass many of Voldemort's precautions."

Dumbledore was staring at Harry as if he had never heard anyone talking sense before.

"My plan is this: I'll drink the potion, then we'll bet that these Knuts I brought with me will land on the locations of the Horcruxes when I throw them into the air, and then we'll go and get them."

"You are a genius, Harry," Dumbledore said, beaming. "Let us begin."

Harry drank the golden potion. Any doubt he had had about the plan evaporated in an instant.

"I bet a Knut that these Knuts will land on the locations of Voldemort's Horcruxes," Harry said.

"I take your bet," Dumbledore gambled.

Harry threw a handful of Knuts into the air. They fell on the world map, spun for a moment, and fell flat, five of them on top of Britain, the rest of them rolling off the map.

"Aha," Harry said. "He didn't bother to hide them further away. Now I bet a Knut that these five Knuts will land on the locations of Voldemort's Horcruxes on the map of Britain."

"I take your bet," Dumbledore repeated.

Harry threw the five Knuts into the air again. Once they settled, Harry and Dumbledore learned the more precise locations.

"Two at Hogwarts, two in London, and one in Yorkshire," Harry said and took an old parchment from his pocket. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

"Harry?"

"This is the Marauder's Map. It was made by my father and his friends. With it we can find the two Horcruxes that are here at Hogwarts."

They repeated their gamble again, and two of the Knuts revealed the locations of the Horcruxes.

"What?" Harry exclaimed. "That one is in the middle of a wall! And that one is right here, in this office." Harry picked the other Knut. "Oh – it landed on me…?"

"Harry," Dumbledore said, looking sorrowful. "It is as I feared. The night Voldemort tried to kill you a part of his soul broke apart and attached to you. I am sorry, Harry, but you are a Horcrux. I had hoped you would not learn it this soon."

Harry shrugged.

"I'm sure we can find a lucky solution. We can think about it later. We have less than twenty-four hours left to find and destroy the other four and kill Voldemort. And it appears we'll have to break some wall…" Harry paused momentarily. "Wait a second… ah, now I see! It's not inside a wall, but in the Room of Requirement. That's the corridor with the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy. Let's go, Professor!"

Harry hurried out of the Headmaster's office, and Dumbledore followed him after grabbing the Sword of Gryffindor with him.

In a few minutes Harry and Dumbledore stood in front of the hidden door. When walking there, Harry had decided to ask for a place to hide something; there surely was no special place for hiding a Horcrux. After some pacing the door opened, and the two wizards stepped into a huge hall filled with all kinds of items. Piles upon piles, rows behind rows, all containing countless items.

"Uh-oh," Harry said. "We'll have to be very lucky to find anything from here. I bet a Knut that if you conjure a will-o'-wisp it will lead us to the Horcrux."

"I take your bet," Dumbledore said. "Ignis Fatuus."

A blinking ball of light burst from the tip of Dumbledore's wand and began to dance around aimlessly. Harry and Dumbledore hurried after it, turning many times in the maze created by the piles of things Hogwarts' students had stored there over the centuries.

Eventually the wisp began to fly in a circle. As Harry and Dumbledore noticed the tarnished tiara on the pile under the dancing light, the wisp disappeared.

"The Diadem of Ravenclaw," Dumbledore breathed. "Voldemort managed to find it?"

"Apparently he did," Harry said.

Dumbledore whacked the tiara with the Sword of Gryffindor, and a hollow scream echoed from it.

"Gryffindor's Sword can destroy Horcruxes?"

"It is the Basilisk venom that was imbued in the blade when you killed Slytherin's Monster in the Chamber of Secrets. Let us head to London."

Dumbledore created a Portkey, and they disappeared from the Room.

They appeared at the top of Gringotts' stairs, and a startled girlish shriek made them jump in shock. It turned out that none other than Dolores Umbridge had been ascending the stairs and they had materialized right in front of her. She stumbled back, fell down the stairs, and snapped her neck in the process.

"This potion really is potent," Harry chuckled.

A quick gamble later they knew that the next Horcrux was actually in the very building in front of them.

"No one had ever successfully broken into Gringotts and managed to steal anything", Dumbledore mumbled.

"I bet a Knut they didn't have Felix Felicis. I also bet that we'll manage in our break-in without the Goblins ever knowing about it."

"I take your bets."

Harry covered himself with the Invisibility Cloak, and Dumbledore cast the Disillusionment Charm on himself. They approached Gringotts, and the doors were opened in a perfect timing as a hooded witch entered for some late evening business.

(Suddenly, a beetle buzzed over Diagon Alley. It was an unusual occurrence at that time of the year and in the middle of a metropolis. The beetle landed on the corpse of Umbridge and began to investigate. If bugs were able to laugh, it would have chuckled maliciously.)

Inside Gringotts, the two invisible wizards trailed the unsuspecting witch who mumbled something to the Goblin cashier. She was guided to the dark passageway where the cart was waiting for her. Harry decided to take the same cart ride, trusting that eventually he would stumble upon the Horcrux, and he nudged Dumbledore to the direction of the cart.

They went further down the tunnels of Gringotts than Harry had ever visited, sitting next to the witch who suspected nothing. They went through a magical waterfall after which Dumbledore hastily recast his Disillusionment Charm.

Eventually they stopped. The Goblin driver jumped over the gap to the platform and made room for the witch who had stood up.

"Harry," Dumbledore whispered. "Be cautious. That witch is Bellatrix Lestrange."

"What?" Harry hissed and straightened his legs without thinking. Bellatrix was just going to step out of the cart, but since Harry's legs were on the way, she tripped and shrieked as she plunged headfirst into the gap between the cart and the platform.

The shrieks continued for a sickeningly long time until they came to an abrupt end, and the smacking sound of flesh slamming hard against rock echoed in the tunnel.

Harry sniggered. The Goblin stared down in dismay until Dumbledore whispered an incantation,

"Confundo."

As the Goblin just stood there indifferently, Harry and Dumbledore sneaked past him. Then they saw the huge dragon that was snoring next to a mighty vault door.

"It is almost impossible to open these doors," Dumbledore warned. "The specifics are never told to outsiders, but the Goblins must touch them in precisely the right way."

"I wonder if this is the right way," Harry said and slapped the door.

The door opened without protest.

After a gamble and the conjuration of a will-o'-wisp they spotted a small golden cup on a shelf. Dumbledore dispatched it as effectively as the Diadem, and soon they were on their way out of Gringotts.

"That is a strange place for a Horcrux," Dumbledore said as they were studying a map of London with a luckily landed Knut on it. "I had thought Voldemort wanted to hide his Horcruxes in places that are significant to him. But a random Muggle suburb of London… wait a second. I know that place. That is where Mundungus Fletcher lives!"

"Oh? I thought the man was far too incompetent to steal something like a Horcrux."

"I will interrogate him once this is over. Grab my arm, Harry."

They Apparated right into a dark, musty room that smelled of sweat, tobacco, and alcohol. Someone shouted, and Dumbledore conjured a bright light.

"Wha–? Hey! What're you doin' here?" the drunken voice of Mundungus sputtered.

"Stupefy," Harry said, sending the filthy thief back to sleep. "That bastard stole Sirius's things the night he died. Perhaps I should prank him with some Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes."

Harry was starting to feel himself light-hearted, but Dumbledore said,

"Not now. We have a war to win."

They gambled, followed a wisp, and found a golden locket from Mundungus' things. Gryffindor's Sword struck against it, and one more soul fragment was dealt with.

"Then to Yorkshire," Dumbledore said. "Severus informed me earlier that Voldemort had summoned most of his Death Eaters to the old Riddle house. I think I know what the final Horcrux is. The snake, Nagini, seems to have an unusually strong connection to Voldemort. It contains another soul fragment, I have no doubt about it."

They Side-Along-Apparated, and suddenly Harry was again where this all had started almost two years previously. The graveyard where Cedric had died was behind them, the ominous house in front of them. It was time to avenge everyone who had died to Voldemort's mad crusade.

"They seem to be asleep," Dumbledore said as they listened to the snoring coming out of the house. "They probably celebrated something with Ogden's Old Firewhisky."

"Let's see if the snake hears this," Harry said and continued as a hiss, "Come!"

"Speaker?" came a hiss from a nearby bush.

Harry pointed there, and Dumbledore slashed with the Sword. The hisses came to a quick end, and the severed head of the snake landed on Harry's feet.

"Yes!" Harry exclaimed. "I bet a Knut… ouch!"

A sudden pain flared in his scar. It seemed that the death of the snake had triggered some kind of a magical alarm, because after a brief moment the door of the Riddle house was slammed open, and a furious Voldemort was standing at the top of the stairs to the porch. His crimson eyes were aflame with wrath and fear as he saw the two intruders and the dead snake.

"No! Nagini!" he shrieked. "Potter! You! How dare you… Avada Kedavra!"

As the bolt of green light soared towards Harry, he could hear his brains protesting,

No, this can't be happening, I'm being protected by Liquid Luck…

But the Killing Curse struck home, and Harry saw nothing.

Harry woke up, but instead of the darkness of the night all he saw was white mist. He was clearly not dead, and the obvious next thought was that Voldemort's Killing Curse had destroyed the Horcrux within Harry. That made perfect sense, because otherwise the Felix Felicis would not have allowed the curse to hit.

But Harry was not finished with Voldemort yet, and he was quite angry as the white mist was taking the form of King's Cross railway station.

"Stupid hallucination," he snarled aloud. "I want to get back!"

That seemed to be the right command, because the railway station turned back to the misty state, and then Harry's consciousness fell asleep again.

"Harry! Are you all right?"

Harry bolted upright upon hearing Dumbledore's words.

"Yes, I just took a nap," he said.

Voldemort had fallen too. He was crawling at the bottom of the stairs, looking for his wand he had dropped. Harry flicked his wand in Voldemort's general direction and said,

"Diffindo."

The charm severed Voldemort's neck.

"Uhhuh, that was kind of anticlimactic," Harry commented. "But I guess real life is not like movies. Was it like this when you defeated that Grin-something guy?"

"No, it was the most spectacular duel of all times," Dumbledore said.

"Mhm? As a fellow vanquisher of a Dark Lord, I'd say that's a sign of your incompetence!" Harry sniggered jubilantly.

Dumbledore was frowning slightly.

"Harry, you are becoming more and more arrogant. Are you sure the Liquid Luck has not gone to your head?"

"Can't I just be happy that Voldemort is dead? Besides, it took us just two hours or so. Do you happen to know any other Dark Lords I could defeat? If each one of them is dealt with this quickly, I can gather a full dozen of them before the potion wears off."

"Well, the Death Eaters might become desperately violent, just like last time. That house is full of people who might try to take Voldemort's place."

"Okay. Could you cast the Anti-Apparition Jinx around the house?"

Dumbledore waved his wand, creating an invisible magic barrier around the Riddle house.

"Incendio," Harry said. The spell was quite overpowered, and the entire house burst in flames in an instant.

The cacophony of horrified screams was the last thing that was ever heard of the Death Eaters.

"Now, I wouldn't like to waste any more of my valuable time," Harry said after watching the inferno for full ten seconds. "Could you create a Portkey to Las Vegas? There are many casinos there that I'd like to visit within the next twenty-two hours."

"Harry, using Felix Felicis to cheat is strictly forbidden," Dumbledore reproved.

"I know, but Las Vegas is a Muggle place and Muggles haven't banned the potion. Besides, I think casinos don't have any moral claim to their revenues, and I don't plan to use my winnings for myself. I'll donate them to charity! To rebuild wizarding Britain from the ruins of this war… isn't that a noble cause?"

"I cannot deny the unscrupulous wisdom of your words," Dumbledore said, looking as if he would have wanted to. "Let us go, then."

It took less time to bankrupt all of Las Vegas' casinos than to defeat Voldemort, and so Harry and Dumbledore proceeded to do the same in Macau, Singapore, and Monaco. When it was morning again in Britain, they were both very tired, and Harry had become almost drunk with his good luck, and he was giggling hysterically. (A huge portion of his mirth might have been explained by his meeting of a pair of siblings, Vernon and Marge Dursley, who were visiting Monaco. Harry had challenged them in a game of poker and stripped them of all their money, leaving them with a mountain of gambling debts.)

"Harry, we must return to Britain," Dumbledore groaned as the Monte Carlo Casino emptied its treasury for them. "The news will spread once people wake up. I do not want any funny rumours about your disappearance."

"A good idea," Harry said. "I want to present Voldemort's head… to the school! I'll step into the Great Hall… I want to see Malfoy's face! And Snape's!"

He burst into giggles again.

"Chosen One, absolutely. Power the Dark Lord knows not. I guess the power was to get E in my Potions OWL, not buy my own book, and then get the Prince's book from Slughorn… yes, I'm quite sure Voldemort didn't know of such a power."

Dumbledore was looking very concerned upon listening to Harry's rambling, but when the young hero did not resist, he Side-Along-Apparated them back to Britain.

Harry was feeling an unusual exuberance. Was this one of the after-effects of a too large dosage of Felix Felicis? He knew full well that the potion caused extremely bad judgment, but for some reason he did not care. Not in the slightest.

He slammed open the doors to the Great Hall and stepped in, presenting Voldemort's severed head to the entire school. People were fussing and running from one House table to another; the mayhem of hundreds of conversations was immeasurable, and Harry declared,

"Tom Riddle, also known as Lord Voldemort, is DEAD!"

But no one paid any attention to him. It so happened that the Daily Prophet had just revealed a scandalous love triangle between Rufus Scrimgeour, Cornelius Fudge, and Dolores Umbridge who, apparently, had been killed in a bout of jealousy. The scandal had caused a political crisis, threatening the Ministry's war efforts against Voldemort. It was such a shocking incident that clearly the defeat of an insane Dark Lord was nowhere near as interesting to gossip about.

And so everyone ignored Harry.

It was as if he was just a normal teenager who had nothing special on his forehead.

Harry was treated exactly as he had hoped ever since his first visit to the Leaky Cauldron.

Published on the 21st of November, 2019.