Chapter 11 

Harry was sitting on a bench outside the Hogwarts castle, overlooking the lake. The early May sun was still warm on his face even this late in the day. It was Thursday afternoon and he had time between his last afternoon class and dinner to just sit and enjoy the fine weather. The previous month had been a busy one and it was nice to just take some time and do nothing much of anything. The most momentous event had come early, that is the birth of Dominique Weasley, which took place at the Potter home because Fleur went into labor while there for James' first birthday party. 

Harry had to smile to himself as he thought of the days that followed. Ginny and the house elves pampered the new mother and baby outrageously and before leaving three days later to be driven back to Shell Cottage by Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Fleur said she would highly recommend Meadow Crest to any expectant mother. She got serious then and thanked Harry and Ginny profusely for taking such good care of her and her new daughter and for all the attention that Victoire was given, especially when her 'uncle 'arry' was home. 

There were several other interesting events that followed. Harry had to laugh to himself when he thought about a particular incident that occurred late that first Sunday afternoon. Despite what had occurred upstairs with the birth, the lingering well wishers and just general family chaos, the scholars carried on in the basement. Harry was in the library playing a friendly game of wizards chess with Abagail. Well, it was friendly between them; the pieces were going at each other with their usual hyper-antagonism. They were interrupted by a respectful knock on the door frame. 

"Master Harry, Professor Vector wishes to speak with Master Harry, please," Kreacher said. 

"Of course, Kreacher, please show her in." 

The little house elf stepped back and with a bow gestured for the Arithmancy Professor to enter the library. Professor Vector was followed by a young man of medium height and slender build. Harry recognized him immediately as Angus MacAskill. He was surprised that the youngster wasn't taller, Harry remembered him being at least a few inches taller than anyone in that class of first years. Now he was perhaps only an inch or so taller than Harry. 

"My apologies for interrupting your leisure time, Harry, I understand it's been a hectic weekend for you." 

"No apologies needed, Professor. Yes, it's been a bit busy but things seem to have calmed down," Harry replied. 

"Very nice to see you, Miss Westwood," the older wizard said, looking at Abagail. 

"Good afternoon, ma'am," she replied. 

"Harry, I wanted to bring young MacAskill along. I know you remember him from your seventh year but I thought it wise to renew the acquaintance, considering the amount of time he might be spending here." 

"That's a great idea, Professor," Harry said as he turned his attention to the student. "It's good to see you again, Mr. MacAskill." 

"Sir," the young wizard replied in a deep but quiet voice. 

"Hello, Angus. It's nice to see you again," Abagail offered to her schoolmate. 

Harry noticed the boy had been studiously avoiding looking at Abagail from the moment he entered the library. At the girl's direct greeting he was compelled to look at her, his nervousness obvious. All he could respond with was a barely audible, 

"'lo." 

Professor Vector caught Harry's eye and her expression was a mix of mild exasperation and some resigned humor. Harry tried hard not to smile. 

"So, can you tell me anything new, Professor?" Harry asked, gesturing to the empty chairs near the chessboard. 

The professor nodded to Angus to take a chair. The boy seemed to hesitate, since either chair would put him next to Abagail. Professor Vector shook her head and said, 

"That one will do, Angus." 

The young man slid into the chair directly in front of him while his teacher moved around to take the one opposite. Harry watched as the boy made a determined study of the chess pieces. Harry looked across at Abagail who raised her eyebrows a bit. 

"Well, I can tell you what isn't new, Harry. We've yet to identify in any way the earliest pictograms. That don't resemble anything we can find from North Africa or the Middle East. We're starting to look at early Asian civilizations but I'm not hopeful. It may be that our friend created them himself, for his own purposes. You're sure he said that there was some sort of key included?" 

"Yes, Professor. I'm sure that's what he said. I just have no idea what exactly he meant." 

"It sounds like you need a Rosetta stone," Abagail said in her breathless voice. 

"A what?" asked Professor Vector. 

"The Rosetta Stone," Harry said, "was a stone tablet found by the French in the Egyptian desert around two hundred years ago. It had writing on it in old hieroglyphs, a newer Egyptian script and in Greek, if I recall right. It took a while but someone figured out that it was the same writing in the three different languages. It allowed scholars to decipher the ancient hieroglyphs for the first time. It was quite a breakthrough." 

"That being the case, the young lady is very correct. That's exactly what we need," Professor Vector said. "What do you think, Angus, any chance that something like that exists in all that writing?" 

The boy shrugged and then cast a sidelong glance at Abagail. 

"Have tae look," he said in what sounded like a heavy Scottish burr. 

"Well, young lady, you've given us something to look for at least, not to mention getting this young fellow to string three words together," the Professor said with a small smile. 

Angus' eyes immediately fell to the chessboard. Abagail's eyes went wide and she blushed a bit. 

"Well, we won't keep you from your game. I know how fractious wizards chess pieces can get. We'll see what kind of Rose stone, or whatever you call it, we can find. Come along, Angus, time we headed back to Hogwarts." 

"Aye," Angus replied as he stood up and gave Harry a brief nod and an even briefer one to Abagail. 

They both watched as the teacher and student walked toward the door, Professor Vector going through first. Angus hesitated and then without looking directly back said over his shoulder, 

"White king's knight tae B6," and then he disappeared through the doorway. 

Harry and Abagail looked at each other and then down at the board. Harry realized that with that move on Abagail's part, he was done in three more moves. He looked at his ward and then tipped over the black king, much to its annoyance. Abagail giggled, then laughed, Harry only shook his head. 

Mr. Weasley took it upon himself to deal with the construction of the strong room adjacent to where the Study Group was working in the basement. The excavation for the foundation of the house had unearthed a fair amount of field stone. Since they didn't match the color that the architects had picked out for the house itself they were piled in a back corner of the property for future projects. Arthur found willing assistants in the two younger house elves, who spent a portion of their day levitating stones into the basement, where the elder Weasley, with occasional assists from his sons constructed a stout, if not particularly spacious room. He then built some shelves to place the various boxes of the Tome sections as well as space to place translations when they became available. If was near the end of April before he was finished but the end result was sturdy, secure, and managed to look as if it was part of the original construction. 

The Quidditch park in Derbyshire was receiving its own intense attention. In the week that followed the meeting at Harry's home, the folks from QUABBLE had acquired a copy of an old tax map that clearly showed the outlines of the property and where the boundary markers should be located. While not the largest parcel of land in the county it wasn't too far off and it was clear that four pitches and the general purpose building would only occupy a portion of the land. 

With map in hand a crew had located the markers, some of which had to be freed of decades, if not more, of overgrowth. Most of the field stone house that had been collapsed on top of the smugglers was just pushed into the basement and then dirt was graded over the top. The remaining stone was used to make some repairs to the foundation of the barn. The wooden structure of the barn was demolished. Some inroads were also made on erasing any traces of the bunker and a plan was drawn up to seal off the caves. It was anticipated that there would be a number of children about the place once matches began and children are drawn to holes in the ground like moths are drawn to a flame, with equal potential for disaster. 

By the end of the second week, sites for the pitches had been selected, the appropriate spells applied and the goal rings at each end erected. As discussed, no permanent grandstands of any kind were to be built. This was to be a fliers facility and the spectators would be encouraged to provide their own, picnic-like experience. Harry was invited to see the progress on the second Saturday after the birthday party and he was amazed at what had been accomplished. Not affected by the concealment spells, he could see the goal hoops on their tall poles. Since there were no stands to hide, the effect of the concealment spell was to fool the muggle eye into seeing stately old trees clustered here and there on the property. 

He was pleased to see that the old stone house was nowhere to be seen and the bunker had been demolished and covered over. Workers were still in the process of filling in the entrances to the tunnels with rubble. With the actual barn gone, the foundation looked rather expansive. Dunbar Oglethorpe walked him around on the stone expanse, showing the lines that had been drawn to show where various facilities might be placed. The final design of the general purpose building was still being discussed. 

Harry was very pleased with what he was seeing and said so. Oglethorpe indicated they expected to have the facility up and running by mid-May, mostly due to the need to set up the system for reserving the pitches, advertising and the like. Harry told him he was looking forward to seeing the facility in use. He then Disapparated home. It was near lunchtime so he found Ginny in the kitchen with James waiting for him. 

"So, how's it coming along, sweetheart?" Ginny asked. 

"Very well. They're much further along than I would have thought. About the only thing left is the building they've been talking about. Oglethorpe said they needed some time to set up the administration details but they hoped to have the pitches available by the middle of May." 

"That's terrific, Harry. I know you might be a little tired today, but would you be interested in taking a trip to Diagon Alley. I need to look for a few things and it would be nice for James to get out and about. 

"Sure, that should be great. I'm not all that tired and we haven't had an outing of any kind for quite a while now. It's good that James is old enough to be able to travel with us." 

"Thank you, sweetheart. We can go as soon as we are done with lunch," Ginny said with a smile. 

"Um, aren't we supposed to wait an hour or something?" 

"That's for swimming, Harry," she said, looking at his completely deadpanned expression. "Bloody dragon," she muttered almost to herself. 

Once lunch was done and James was dressed appropriately for an outing, the three Disapparated from the front porch to Harry's favorite spot near Gringotts. Since adequate funds were in hand they skipped going to the bank and headed out into the Saturday afternoon crowd. There were a number of greetings, some shouted from across the Alley. They spent a pleasant afternoon walking from shop to shop, picking up the few things they both needed, spent some time talking with George at the joke shop and had a light desert with Angelina. 

James was showing remarkable patience and resiliency, particularly with the number of strange faces he had to endure mere inches from his nose, so they decided on an early supper at the Cauldron. Hannah was ecstatic to see them, and since it was a Saturday, Neville was called down and told to bring Alice with him. As Harry sat on the bench looking at the lake he had to smile at the memory of that happy afternoon. 

With his smile still intact he roused himself from the bench and made his way back into the castle for dinner. The improving weather did war with the specter of year end exams and the weather won. He could see that many of the students had either been to Hogsmeade, the morning's Quidditch match, or apparently in most cases, both. They were a tired but happy looking bunch. 

As he took his place at the faculty table he looked out to see if Abagail was there yet. She was and it appeared from the look on her face that her mood was improving as well. She looked up and gave Harry a small wave and nod which he returned. While it was evident that she was still troubled by the situation with Tom, it looked to Harry that she was starting to put it behind her and moving on. 

"Hullo there, Harry, how are ya?" 

"I'm doing fine, Hagrid, how are you?" Harry replied. 

"Ya know, Harry, I'm sorry I couldna make the party fer young James, but I'm workin' on a present fer 'im. I don't think it'll be ready fer another month or so." 

"That's alright, Hagrid. I know it can be tricky for you to travel sometimes. Anytime you're ready, just let me know," Harry said. 

"Cheers, Harry." 

As their conversation was ending, Bill Weasley came up to his place at the table. He was looking a little bleary eyed. 

"Hello, Harry, Hagrid." 

"Hiya, Bill," Harry replied. "How are things going? You look like your not getting much sleep." 

"That's because I'm not. I've been home most nights to help Fleur. Mum comes out during the day and that helps, but I'm on night duty." 

"Youngun's need lots of care, human or othawise," Hagrid said knowingly. "Don't know how ya dads manage it." 

"Oh, come on now, Hagrid," Harry began. "I've known you to stay up around the clock to care for a sick creature. You spend days and weeks and months to make sure your animals are healthy. You've spent more time caring for your 'younguns' than any three dads I could name." 

Hagrid didn't reply but there was an embarrassed smile behind that big, bushy beard and a twinkle in those beetle black eyes. Bill laughed a bit and then pulled something out of his pocket. It was a copy of the Prophet. 

"Was wondering if you saw this, Harry," he said as he laid the paper down on the table in front of his younger brother. "Turn to the sports page." 

Harry flipped over a few pages and came to a large headline across the top of the page. 

'PUBLIC QUIDDITCH PITCHES TO OPEN SOON' 

Below the headline was an article describing the completed pitches, the planned 'general purpose' building and the procedures for reserving time as well as the availability of the first-come-first-served pitch. According to the article the QUABBLE folks were managing the operation of the facility but they paid full compliments to the anonymous benefactor who donated the use of the land. Harry had to smile a bit at that part. 

"It's amazing how this has moved so quickly, Bill. I fully expected it wouldn't happen until next year," Harry said. 

"Well, I think a couple of things helped push it along, Harry. The first was that the folks at QUABBLE had been banging their heads against the wall that was the old Sports office at the Ministry for so long that once they saw an opening with the old Head leaving they jumped at the chance. The second is I think they were anxious to get the chance to play themselves. What you've got going up there is pretty much unique, Harry. A public, family oriented Quidditch park. I got an owl from Dunbar this morning. He said as soon as this edition hit the streets the other day, they've been inundated with messages." 

"So when do we get our team together?" Harry asked. 

"Funny you should mention that, Harry. El and Charlie are already working on it," Bill said with a laugh. 

Harry finished his dinner a while later in a decidedly good mood. He took his place at the Gryffindor table and began going through his notes on where he thought his classes stood in terms of readiness for the year end exams. A few students stopped by to ask some questions. While he was sitting by himself during a lull, a medium sized barn owl swooped in and dropped a note on the table in front of him. He picked up the folded parchment. It had a Ministry seal pressed in the wax. He opened it. 

It was from the new head of the Sports Office informing Harry that contact had been made on his behalf with Viktor Krum and Harry was encouraged to see that Viktor would be happy to hear from him. Viktor was the captain of the Vratsa Vultures Quidditch team and an address was provided where he could be reached. He'd dispatch a message as soon as he got home the next night. The issue with Durmstrang was a constant little itch in the back of his mind and the sooner he found something out the better he'd like it. 

That night as he slept in his new room the dragon rode the still night air around Hogwarts, alert and searching. It was a testament to his concern that he remembered the dream in its entirety the next morning. That afternoon before leaving for home he checked one last time with Abagail who, much to her credit, didn't give the typical teenage response pointing out she was a big girl and he was worrying too much. Instead she thanked him for his concern, assured him she was doing fine and with the busy weekend ahead getting ready for her NEWTs she wouldn't have much time to think about it. With parting hugs Harry was on his way home. 

On the following morning, as the pattern had developed, members of the Study Group began to arrive around ten o'clock. They would arrive at the rear door via the Floo Network. Harry wasn't sure what fireplace they were using at the other end but he had a feeling that it was Professor McGonagall's doing. By coming to the door to the mudroom they had immediate access to the basement, thereby avoiding having the academics traipsing through the house if they came to the front door. 

It was around mid afternoon when a breakthrough of sorts was made and Dinkle appeared at Harry's side while he sat in the grass in front of the house, playing with James. Ginny asked for some quiet time so she could work on some notes that Charlie had provided for his dragons book. 

"Master Harry, Professor Vector asks if Master Harry can come to the basement." 

"Sure, Dinkle, I'll be right there. Um, isn't it a little soon for you to be up and about?" Harry asked. 

"Dinkle's day begins at the noon hour on the weekends, Master Harry. Dinkle is needed to help the Professors sometimes." 

"Oh, I see. Alright, well I'll be right there," he told the elf, who disappeared. "Well, James. Let's take a look at what they've come up with." 

Although not speaking intelligibly, James was getting to be very vocal and what came out in reply to Harry's comments sounded positive enough to be taken as a 'yes'. Harry scooped up his son and carried him into the house and down into the now well lit basement. He found Professor Vector and Angus huddled over a table. Professors Sprout and Slughorn were likewise engrossed in sheets laid out before them on separate