Chapter Five: Necessary Security

Later

Six hours later, Calanthe was still in the Headmistress' office, a big circular room with stars painted on the ceiling. There were a total of 322 stars; Calanthe had already counted them twice waiting for Professor McGonagall to come back; she had left two hours ago when a snowy owl appeared at the window of her office holding a heavy envelope in it's beak. Calanthe hadn't seen her since.

In utter boredom, Calanthe got up off her chair and walked aimlessly about the room. She was just staring out the window when the door opened again with a loud bang that made her jump. Professor McGonagall strode into the room, followed by two tall wizards and a witch she had never seen before.

"Ah," the Professor said. "Calanthe dear, I'd like you to talk to these people about the boy you met in the forest."

Calanthe nodded, then frowned. "I will," she said, "but if you don't mind my asking, what is the big deal about this kid being in the forest? I know it's strange and against the rules for someone to be in there, but sure it isn't worth all this fuss, is it?"

The adults exchanged looks. "Well," said one of the men, who had dark hair, bright green eyes, and wore glasses said, "I'll explain, Please sit down, Calanthe." He waved his wand so that five of the office's chairs formed a circle and they could call talk normally.

Calanthe did as she was told. There was something familiar about the man, but she couldn't think where she'd seen him before until he was seated across from her and she saw his eyes again. They were exactly like Albus'.

"Are you Albus' Dad?" she asked him, startled. It was easier than asking outright if he was Harry Potter.

The man smiled. "Yes, I am," he said. "Albus had written me about you. He tells me you're quite good at charms and transfiguration."

Calanthe blushed. Albus said that? "Oh," was all she could say.

The woman smiled and held out her hand. "I'm Hermione Weasley," she said.

"Nice to meet you," Calanthe said politely. Then something occurred to her. "You're Rose's parents, aren't you?"

The woman smiled sadly. "Yes," she said.

"We'd like to thank you," her husband said, and Calanthe got the strong feeling that he wasn't used to being this formal. "For trying to find her when she ran off into the forest. If you lot hadn't done that.." his voice trailed off.

"Did they find her?" Calanthe asked. She hadn't heard. She been able to speak to any of her friends since they went into the forest. She didn't even know whether they'd made it out.

Professor McGonigall shook her head. "Yes," she said. "But she isn't talking. Which is partially why the quested we're going to ask you are so important."

"Partially?" Calanthe asked, hoping she wasn't being too rude.

Again, the adults exchanged glances.

"Well," Harry said after a moment. "Do you know who Tom Riddle is?"

Calanthe looked at him blankly. "No," she said. "Should I?"

"Not unless you'd gone into the history of the War with Voldemort," Hermione said.

Calanthe began to feel uneasy. "Who is he?" she finally asked.

"Tom Riddle," said Harry, "Was Lord Voldemort's given name. The name he discarded to become Voldemort."

Calanthe gasped. "But Voldemort's dead!" she exclaimed. She had heard enough of the terrible things he had done to be very afraid. "That kid's just calling himself by another name or something! It can't be real, can it?"

Hermione shook her head. "It is real," she said. "But how, I have no idea."

"How can you tell?" Calanthe asked, interested.

"I took a look inside his mind," Hermione said. "Same past. He even thinks it's around eighty years ago."

"Couldn't they just, um, copy the memories inside a new body though?" Calanthe asked uncertainly.

"Yes," Hermione said. "But you can't copy magical powers, and his are here. He hasn't got a wand though, which is curious." She frowned for a moment. "But still, you can see why we need you to tell us where you found him," Hermione said, leaning closer.

"It was in the forest," Calanthe said. "I can't really tell you much better than that. Unless maybe you have a map of the forest or something."

"Then you should show us," Ron said, standing up. But it was dark and Professor McGonagall said it would have to wait until morning.

"Listen," Ron said, intense. "My daughter was out there in the forest somewhere. Something happened. And you're going to keep me from finding out what?!"

"No," Professor McGonagall said calmly. "I am, however, hooping you from putting any other Hogwarts students in danger."

There was a silence in the room. Ron glanced uneasily at Calanthe. Then he sat down peaceably, although his hands gripped the arms of his chair rather harder than necessary.

"I have all the Hogwarts ghosts searching for anything unusual," Professor McGonagall said comfortingly. "But for now, I'd like to hear again exactly what happened when Calanthe went into the forest."

And so Calanthe told them about the unusual section of the woods in which she had discovered Tom Riddle.

"You're right," Professor McGonagall said at last. "We will have to see that section of the forest for ourselves tomorrow."

"In the meantime," Harry Potter said, standing up, "I need to owl my wife. I promised I would just as soon as we knew anything. Hugh and Lilly were frantic when we left."

"I wish you had some better news to send them," Professor McGonagall said, glancing at Ron and Hermione.

Ron, however, was frowning. "What are we going to do about her?" he jerked his thumb at Calanthe, "and the other students who know about Riddle? We can't have them telling anyone Voldemort's back."

"It would cause a national panic," Hermione agreed.

Calanthe looked worried; Professor McGonagall frowned. "What do you think, Albus?" she asked.

Calanthe looked around the room for her friend, but then realized that the Headmistress was addressing a portrait of an elderly man with a long silver beard and bright blue eyes which hung just above the Head's desk.

"I would like to point something else out," the Wizard said heavily, "each of the people who know that Voldemort has returned are in incredible danger, perhaps the young people most of all. Whoever discovered such a magic will doubtless wish to keep it secret. And so we must be prepared for those others to try to discover the fate of the returned Tom Riddle. The Adults, perhaps, will be able to cope. But no one should expect first years to be able to handle advanced, unknown, dark magic."

Professor McGonagall was looking more and more worried by the minute. "What do you think we should do then, Albus? Move them out of the school?"

"I would suggest, for the moment, moving them to Grimauld Place. Since we put the new protection on it, there should be very little chances of any unwanted visitors turning up."

"But that's where we're keeping Riddle!" Ron said angrily.

The Wizard called Albus nodded heavily. "Indeed. Try to keep him away from the students, won't you? Even not knowing his future and without a wand, Tom Riddle is very dangerous and should be treated with caution. I might suggest some spells to keep him from speaking with them. There is a chance he could get one of their wands."

Harry looked grim. "We'll move them as soon as possible," he said. "How many students know?" he asked.

"Seven Gryffindors, four Ravenclaws," said McGonagall. "Grimauld Place is a big house. There should be room enough to house them all, don't you think?"

Harry nodded.

"How will they keep learning, though?" Hermione asked. "We wouldn't want them to get behind on their educations."

Ron stifled a laugh.

"They're all on the basics, still," McGonagall said. "Do you think Ginny would mind teaching them? If I sent her the syllabus?"

Harry frowned. "She still works part time and St. Mungo's," he said. "She was going to start working full-time in a month." He considered for a moment. "I'll have to ask her," he said at last.

Professor McGonagall nodded. "I suppose that's the best we can do for the moment," she said. She sighed tiredly. "Calanthe, wait here just a minute. We're going to get the other students."

"What about our things?" Calanthe asked.

"I'll have them sent over sometime tonight," the Headmistress said, and she, Harry, Ron, and Hermione left the room.

Calanthe got up and went to look outside of the window. It was a beautiful night, peaceful, but for some reason Calanthe felt herself shivering. Something was happening in the Magical World, and she was caught up in it, for good or for worse.

Around ten minutes later, Hermione arrived with three students Calanthe knew vaguely in toe. "These are my daughter's friends," she said, answering Calanthe's questioning look. Calanthe looked them over. Two girls a boy. One of the girls, who had hair not unlike Sabina's smiled at her and stuck out her hand nervously.

"I'm Lara Crow," she said tentatively.

"I'm Kayla," said the other girl. She was tall and dark-skinned with big, mysterious eyes.

Calanthe shook her hand and introduced herself.

"Oh and he's Scorpius," Lara said, jerking his thumb at the boy. He was glancing quietly around the room. "He's really quiet, but he'll soften up in a mo, just you wait."

Calanthe grinned, and was about to share that she knew the feeling when her friends entered. Albus was in the lead after McGonagall and his father, looking worriedly around the room. When he spotted Calanthe, he led their other friends over. Mason looked slightly sleepy. Behind them were another two older students, one of whom Calanthe knew to be Albus' brother James. With him was a friend of his who Calanthe also knew to be called Jerald Towers.

Everyone started talking. Calanthe herself was just about to start telling Sabina what had happened when Professor McGonagall shot some sparks out of her wand for silence. Before long, they had all stretched out their hands to touch a Paper Weight, which Professor McGonagall had turned into something called a Portkey. Calanthe felt a sudden jerk on her stomach, and closed her eyes, feeling slightly sick. When she opened them, she could barely tell the difference between the inside of her eyelids and the swirling darkness of the room they were now in.

"Where are we?" asked one of the Ravenclaws in a small voice.

"This is the old Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix," Professor McGonagall said crisply, lighting her wand. Quickly, the students followed suit. "I'll urge you not to stray very much in this house. It used to be inhabited by Dark Wizards. I'm not sure we ever cleaned out everything that was lurking in here."

All of a sudden, the sound of running feet came from a set of stairs. Several of the students gathered closer together. Then a beautiful, red-haired woman appeared, holding a lit wand.

"You're all here!" she said, rushing over to Harry Potter and kissing him briefly on the mouth. "Come on now," said Albus's mother, "I set up some of the rooms for you all." She let go of Harry and quickly hugged her two sons. Calanthe noticed a two children, a boy and a girl, behind her. They must be Albus' sister and cousin, she though.

"I'm going to leave now, Ginny," Professor McGonagall said wearily. "Your brother's just now dealing with Riddle. Should be over here soon. You've got a spot set up for him too, I trust?"

Ginny nodded. "Down in the cellar," she said. "It should be comfortable enough for him though. I've fixed it up a little, but it's still the most secure room in the house."

The headmistress looked gratefully at her. "Thank you so much," she said. And then she turned on the spot and vanished into thin air. Then Ginny turned to them, smiled. "Well," she said. "Shall we show you to your rooms?"

The lot of them followed Ginny up the stairs, unnaturally quiet. Calanthe could feel something oppressive about the house. For the first time, she wondered how long they would be forced to stay here. Until the person who had raised Tom Riddle was caught? Forever? It was so dark and gloomy here, that Calanthe didn't know if she could stand it. She couldn't help shivering.

Ginny let them strait past the first landing and onto the second, where she stopped. "We've some problems," she said, "with the linens and bedspreads here. Mice have chewed through most of them, and we'll probably have to throw them out. I'll go and buy some new ones tomorrow. In the meantime, I've put warming charms on your beds." Ginny glanced distastefully at the surrounding house. "I swear, we're going to have to clean this place up or I'll go crazy!"

A couple people laughed at that, and the atmosphere lightened a little. James and his friend moved into a room on this landing, at his mother's recommendation. She seemed to think that they might get into trouble.

On the next floor up, Albus and Mason were to share a room with Coal and Scorpius. One floor after that, Sabina and Calanthe took a room at the front of the house, while Kayla and Lara took the room across from them.

"You don't have to stay in these rooms," Ginny said just before she left them, "once we have time to clean up more of this house." And she said goodnight and went downstairs. Dimly, Calanthe could hear the sounds of adult voices from downstairs, although she couldn't hear what was being said. She didn't feel much like eavesdropping either; she and Sabina were tired, and anxious to get to bed.

"This place scares me, a little," Sabina said, pulling on her pajamas.

Calanthe nodded. "Me too. It's kind-of depressing. I hope we actually can change some of this." The grey walls of their room seemed to be sloping inwards towards them. Calanthe hoped it would look better in daylight, although her hopes weren't high. With a heavy heart, she collapsed on her bed and fell asleep.