He had decided to just bite the bullet and start scavenging the Room of Hidden Things for his purpose. To be perfectly honest, the elves did a good job at cleaning up everything, and to his disappointment, there wasn't a pile of lost gold and silver in the room. Since the elves were the ones to actually put everything, they wanted to throw away there, anything that seemed valuable, like gold, was given back to the headmaster. All the books were just normal schoolbooks that were lost over the years. There was a lot of information that wasn't in the new books and more than a few classes that were cancelled. Harry didn't know that there was an entire class just to focus on conjuration. It was a NEWT class of course, but it was interesting that it was later lumped with transfiguration.
However, it was in the briefcases that Harry found the most treasure. Well, there were hundreds of them, and most of their enchantments had worn out. Thankfully, the spacial expansion worked fine and held pretty well. The luggage usually contained personal items, which often included gold pouches, a few books, some clothes, and a few artefacts that probably used to be charmed. Harry had gotten over a hundred galleons already just from finding gold in briefcases. It wasn't much in the grand scheme of things, but it was still enough for him to forgo visiting the bank in the summer.
Anyway, Harry had learnt a lot of spells to sort through the mess and used it to separate sections of the Room into books, briefcases, and whatever else there was. Almost everything was just garbage, that he put aside to practice vanishing charms on them later.
So, long story short, Harry's spent his time productively. The only thing he regretted was the fact that he had to delay most of the business meetings that he had planned to have during the Christmas holidays since he accepted Arcturus Black's invitation to spend Christmas with him, and while he liked the man, he didn't trust him enough to handle any kind of financial matters that concerned the Potter family. He would have to sneak out of the castle to attend the meetings. He already knew of a few hidden entrances so getting out wouldn't be an issue. The problem would be the fact that his absence would need to stay unnoticed so that no one tries to get involved in his personal affairs.
He didn't really regret spending time with Arcturus. Not only had the man given him most of the materials he needed to craft his colt, but Harry also found that he genuinely liked the man's sense of humour, and his war stories were very wild, to say the least.
The Black Patriarch's expression after seeing the Colt being made was hilarious. When Harry explained what it was, his eyes kept widening with every word and his jaw dropped just a little bit further the more he realized what it was that Harry created.
An instrument of perfect death. A weapon capable of killing anything with a soul.
To say that he was impressed would be an understatement. Harry was sure that if he wasn't already the head of House Potter, the man would have forced the Black crest on him and paraded him around like a trophy.
To be perfectly honest, Harry didn't think he could replicate the process of creating a weapon of that calibre again. He didn't know how he could explain it, but it was like the path he had taken to create it just wasn't there anymore.
And that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. The Colt wasn't a weapon to be used lightly. It was why Harry kept it in a warded box in his trunk. Every single one of these seven shots had to count. They had to matter. And reserving one bullet for a magical weapon of mass destruction that threatened the lives of an entire generation of wizards and witches, was an easy decision to make.
Honestly, Harry wasn't that concerned about the fight with the King of Serpents anymore. The Colt, coupled with his Basilisk Glare resistant goggles, and his arcane hearing to warn him from any hidden danger, Harry thought that his chances at killing the beast were pretty good.
The Potter scion looked back and saw that Blaise was still asleep. He sighed in exasperation and decided to just stay in the common room until his friends woke up.
He decided to sit down in his usual spot and read a book. This time, it was a basic theory about extension charms in general. It was interesting if a dry read. Which was a shame, because the topic was fascinating.
Of course, his reading was interrupted by a letter levitating towards him. The Potter scion didn't know who would contact him like this, but his eyes widened when he understood who the sender was. There was a green wax seal on the letter. It had the shape of the same crest that he wore on his robes every day, the Slytherin crest. This was a message from the court of Slytherin.
The moment he opened the letter, it floated up and started speaking in a soft female voice, "Harry Potter, you are hereby summoned by the Court of Slytherin regarding an issue pertaining to the unwritten rules on the house. Please follow the glowing green line to your meeting place in the next five minutes. Thank you for your cooperation. The Black Bishop of Slytherin, messenger of the court."
A green line appeared from the letter and spread to the familiar secret entrance of the ritual rooms. The court's headquarters must be there. Thankfully, the common room was deserted, so, no one heard his summoning.
Harry could ignore it, he really did. Alas, he was a curious boy. And who didn't want to solve a mystery? The Potter scion grinned to himself, "I have a feeling that this will be interesting."
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