Disclaimer: Anything familiar to JKR's books probably comes from there and is hers not mine. Also, Harry Potter, Hogwarts, the Wizarding World, and anything else that has to do with it belongs to the lovely JK Rowling, not me. I'm just playing in her sandbox and building my own Hogwarts in it.
Chapter Nine
In the dark of night, as most of the students of Hogwarts looked through their new books just purchased that very day, Death Eaters began to pop into existence in many different towns and villages around the UK, all of them Muggle. A handful of these towns and villages were home to many Muggle-born and Half-Blood students of Hogwarts.
Lights began to flicker in the buildings, reds, greens, yellows, purples, pinks, blues, and more flashing through the sky, almost like fireworks. Fires flamed ablaze, screams filled the air, and the smell of death began to build up as the Death Eaters attacked and killed without a care in the world.
Those families with Hogwarts students were suddenly full of movement. The households with adult wizards or witches had objects flying around the house into trunks that were then shrunken while those with only Hogwarts students in the home were throwing things into suitcases and trunks. Some of the Hogwarts students were old enough to know how to pack with magic, and those families also had things flying around the house, but the rest had to take a bit more time by adding things to the trunks individually, rather than all at once. Finally, though, trunks and suitcases were packed, lightened, and shrunken by students of all ages as the HPs had taught them how to do that with for their weapons, which allowed them to do it with their bags.
Before the Death Eaters could attack the homes of families with magic in them, pendant Portkeys were activated, families and luggage being dragged from all over the UK to a single home in London that was protected by almost every ward and spell except for the Fidelius Charm and a few of the darkest ones.
In Marauder Manor, an alarm was heard throughout the house, sending every single occupant into a state of alertness as the teenagers rushed to their rooms to gather weapons while the adults tried to find out what the problem was. When they realized the alarm was the one from the pendant Portkeys, everyone quickly prepared to either Floo or Portkey to Grimmauld Place so that they could take care of those who had escaped.
Hundreds of Muggles died in the various attacks that night, but not a single family that had a Hogwarts student in it lost a member of the family this time.
…
Harry couldn't help but be saddened as he saw a dozen families all standing in the living room of Grimmauld Place, looking scared and worried. He recognized the Creevey brothers, Rose Zeller, Robert Chambers, Julian Paterson, Demelza Robins, Sally Fawcett, Lavender Brown, Shawn Sparrow, Spencer James, Zoe Knight, Norman White, and Janice Smith as the students among the crowd of people in the room.
"Harry!" a large number of the students called when they saw him appear in the corner of the room after using his Portkey. At their calls, the adults, siblings, and rest of the students turned quickly to see those from Marauder Manor Portkeying in next or him or entering from the doorway that led to the kitchen and Floo.
"Are you all okay?" Harry asked, moving over to where the students had gathered.
"We're all fine," Colin Creevey said. "The Death Eaters didn't reach any of our houses before we Portkeyed out of them."
"But our towns and homes…" Lavender added softly, her eyes filling with tears. Harry knew it was because she was thinking about her Muggle friends who were most likely now dead.
Looking up, Harry saw that Samuel was speaking to the parents in the room to find out where their various homes were so he could send the Aurors out as soon as possible to deal with the Death Eaters. Around him, his friends were all comforting their classmates and the Muggle siblings of said classmates. Some were young and might actually be going to Hogwarts in the next few years, but most were obviously Muggle siblings as they were older than eleven.
"We've got rooms here and other safe houses so that you'll all have somewhere to live," Harry told those in front of him. "It's the best we can do, but we'll help you as best we can." They all nodded in thanks before turning to go to their parents, hugging them tightly.
"This is going to cause more fear in the Wizarding world," Hermione commented as they watched their friends talk with their families.
"Yes, but more caution isn't a bad thing," Daphne reminded her. "As long as people are being careful because of their fear, the number of deaths will go down."
"Not in the Muggle world," Justin commented quietly, most likely thinking of his own family.
"Unfortunately, there's not much we can do for the Muggles who are unaware of the war," Tracey said sadly. "Let Amelia and my dad deal with it as best they can."
Everyone nodded in agreement at her words, and Harry was pleased to see that they all accepted that they had done all they could to help the innocents of the war. Of course, he had already spoken to Samuel about making more pendants for the Hogwarts students so that they could leave the ones they had at home. Samuel had agreed, and they had been working on making new pendants that took the students to Hogwarts for Hogsmeade weekends as well as a way to escape, just in case.
When he looked around the room, Harry saw that Amelia, Samuel, Remus, Daniel, and Sirius were all missing while Samantha and Daniella were talking with the families in the room. He knew that Amelia and Samuel were at the Ministry, and Harry wouldn't have been surprised if the other three were upstairs setting up rooms and making them larger so that more people could stay in them at one time. The students wouldn't mind bunking together in two dormitory-like rooms as long as there were enough beds.
Harry then watched as his friends went out among their housemates to comfort them and try to distract them from what had occurred. Seeing Euan among them appeared to make the teenagers who had escaped feel a bit guilty about feeling saddened by this because they realized that they had gotten off easy that night. Euan had lost his family and had been forced to fight while they got away without even having the Death Eaters in their homes.
Of course, Euan was waving off their words, saying that the fact that they had lived and escaped just showed that the preparations had worked. That was all Euan had cared about when it came to the attacks; he didn't want anyone else going through what he had if it could be prevented.
"This school year is going to be hard," he heard Maya say from beside him, and Harry nodded in agreement without even looking at her. "We aren't going to get this lucky during every attack, and our friends are going to lose their families without even having a chance of protecting them."
"And they'll have people there to help them through it," Harry told her, "just as Euan has had us to help him."
"I just hope we won't have to do it that often," Maya said as Sirius came back into the room and announced that two of the rooms had been set up with bunk beds for the teenagers while the other rooms were ready for adults and younger kids, though Harry knew he and his friends would be returning to Marauder Manor shortly.
"Me too, Maya, me too," he sighed.
…
The next morning, the front page of the Daily Prophet reported the simultaneous attacks, stating that all families with witches or wizards in them had escaped without harm, though numbers pushing fifteen-hundred were stated for the Muggles who had died in the night.
All around Britain's Wizarding world, families saw the article and felt relieved that it wasn't them before realizing that it could end up being them if they didn't work to protect themselves. Protection was quickly becoming the goal in the minds of the adults, especially those with children or those who were potentially large targets for Lord Voldemort.
Fear was reigning throughout the Wizarding world, but underneath it was hope that the Ministry under Amelia Bones with Samuel Davis as Director of the Magical Law Enforcement would see them through the war without the horror that the first war had been.
…
Harry had to try not to laugh as the others tried to take him out two days after their shopping trip. Only one or two of them had figured out why he was allowing most spells to just hit him rather than dodging, and it was quite amusing. He had both his dragonhide armor and the cloak from the twins on right now, and he was dueling all of the teens in Marauder Manor except for Tracey and Hermione, who had stepped out once it all began to make sense in their minds.
Maya suddenly dropped out as Harry hit Neville on the arm with a Cutting Curse, barely touching him. As he continued to fire Cutting Curses and other hexes that would maim his friends without knocking them out like a Stunner would, Harry watched in amusement as his friends slowly began figuring out why he wasn't being taken out by obvious direct hits. First Daphne, then Draco, Theo, Blaise, Graham, Astoria, and Natalie stopped fighting him. Euan caught on quickly after that, and Susan followed suit. Finally, Hannah, Justin, and Neville caught on and stopped their attacks.
"Took you lot long enough," Harry commented, slightly panting, as he grinned in amusement.
"Why are you wearing armor and your cloak?" Euan asked curiously, and Harry shot him a direct smile.
"Because this is how the HPs are going to learn to fight from now on," Harry informed his friends, and they all gaped at him. "Sirius and I picked up all of the dragonhide armor from my Vault, and he went to his the next day to get even more."
"Between the two of you, we'll have enough armor to protect at least the seventh, sixth, and fifth years, possibly even the fourth years," Hermione quickly said, probably doing the math in her head.
"The armor will let us have extra protection in a full-out battle so that there will be fewer wounds," Susan added.
"Up to a point," Maya pointed out, and the others all turned to her while Harry nodded and pulled off the clothes covering the armor. "See? The main part of the torso and legs are covered, as well as most of the arms, but there are gaps." Everyone looked at where she was pointing and began to nod.
"The elbows, knees, and that small part between the top and bottom parts of the armor," Justin commented, saying aloud what they could all see. "Those who made the armor decided to leave out the elbows and knees rather than try to make them bend with the person, didn't they?"
"To be fair, it's quite hard to do that with dragonhide with how resistant it is to magic," Draco reminded them while looking at the armor closely. "Still, the armor sets Harry has are quite good and will give us a lot more protection than we'd normally have, especially because I believe this armor fixes itself if a spell breaks it?" His last words were in the form of a question rather than a statement.
"That's what I've seen," Harry agreed with a nod before turning to pull on his pants, shirt, and cloak again. "We're all going to spend the rest of the summer training in a set of armor so that we adjust to the difference in how we fight. Fortunately, it weighs as much as a thin set of clothes does, so it won't slow us down with weight, but you'll notice your movements need to change slightly to work the way you want them to."
Everyone nodded and headed in the direction that Harry gestured, where the armor was waiting for them. He knew they would believe him as everyone except Euan could remember how much he had complained about having to learn to fight in his dragonhide armor while training for the Third Task of the Triwizard Tournament.
At least everyone will be protected more in battle with this armor if Hogwarts is attacked, Harry thought to himself while moving to grab a water bottle until the others were ready for more training.
…
Harry smiled a wolf's smile as he ran across the grounds on all four of his paws, Euan laughing in delight on his back with his hands gripping Harry's long fur tightly to stay on. Even though everyone, even Euan, had agreed that the young Gryffindor wouldn't be learning how to be an Animagus, Euan still got to enjoy the fact that his friends were able to turn into animals.
Daphne suddenly ran up beside the two of them in her lion form, and Harry barked in her direction, gaining her attention so that they could share a grin. She ran on when both of them could smell Blaise in his bear form catching up to them, Harry running slower than normal due to Euan being on his back. Blaise suddenly flew by Harry as he tried to catch up to his girlfriend, the pair having finally been forced to inform the entire Manor by Harry and Tracey nudging Astoria into catching them snogging in Daphne's shared room with her and Luna. That had been three days before, and it was just four more until they left for Hogwarts.
"Harry!" a voice barked from behind him, and Harry slowed enough to look to see Padfoot running to catch up to him. They had found out long ago that Terry, Sirius, and he could understand one another if what they tried to say was very basic.
"Yes?" Harry replied with a bark once Padfoot was running beside him.
"Wanted to catch up," Padfoot said with a grin, and Harry rolled his eyes but continued running around the grounds.
He could see a few birds flying above, the sun shining behind them and putting them into shadow. Three cats were wrestling closer to the Manor while two foxes chased one another in a game of tag near them. Daphne and Blaise were still running ahead of Harry, Euan, and Sirius even as a cheetah and a tiger raced past the trio, Susan and Justin racing to catch up to the pair ahead. Hannah was galloping around the grounds as a horse with a snake around her neck and a cougar following her, Maya and Hermione obviously enjoying it.
"Can we go faster, Harry?" Euan suddenly asked in his ear, and Harry grinned again before speeding up and making Euan yell in surprise for a moment before the Gryffindor began laughing. "Thanks!" he yelled happily. Harry just barked in return as Padfoot fought to keep up.
This was a great way to unwind, especially after finding out that there had been another attack the night before that forced another three families to join those already in Grimmauld Place. Voldemort's raids were widespread and caused a lot of death, but not even Harry, who knew what he would have to do at some point, wanted to worry as he pushed those thoughts from his mind to enjoy the run with his godfather and friends.
…
"Harry?" Euan said softly the morning of August 31st when he heard the older boy wake up beside him. He had been awake for over an hour, thinking hard and trying not to cry at some points.
"Yes, Euan?" Harry replied just as softly, obviously awake but sleepy.
"I – I think I'm ready," Euan admitted, looking down at his hands while sitting up in Harry's bed, unwilling to look into the emerald green orbs that he knew were now looking right at him.
"Are you sure?" Harry asked, sitting up quickly and sounding a lot more awake. Euan nodded slowly.
"I need to do this," Euan whispered. "Before I go back to school, I need to go back." He was scared out of his mind at the very idea of returning to his home, but Euan knew he needed the closure before being forced to face the entire castle of students, all of whom knew what he had gone through. He needed to do this.
"I'll tell Samuel at breakfast," Harry said. There was a pause full of silence, and Euan knew that Harry was thinking quickly even as he tried not to remember the images from the attack on his home. The past month had helped him immensely to regain some of his old happiness, especially when he and the others played games, but he was still full of grief and pain and sadness. Maybe this would help the guilt that was clinging to his heart like chains with weights on them, not leaving him alone, not even after the funeral that had been held for them.
"Do you want me to come with you?" Harry asked softly, and Euan realized that he could either try to be stubborn about this or admit the truth: He couldn't do this alone. If it had been anyone else, his answer would have automatically been no, but Harry had been there, had seen his family and home after the attack and before it was restored to what it had once been. Harry would understand more than anyone else in Marauder Manor, and Euan didn't want to be alone.
"Please," Euan breathed out, knowing Harry would catch it in the silent room with his heightened hearing from his Animagus form.
Harry just nodded silently before getting out of the bed to get dressed. Euan looked back down at his hands until he heard Harry walking up to him before a hand was placed on his shoulder. Looking up, he saw sadness and understanding in Harry's eyes, but the Slytherin in front of him knew that Euan didn't want sympathy or pity, just someone to be there with him who would understand what he felt and help him by just being there. Harry had been in his position before with Cedric as well as when people mentioned his parents, and now Harry was using his unfortunate experience to help Euan through his problems.
Harry must have seen that in his eyes as he let go of Euan and left the room, leaving the younger boy to get dressed. Euan knew that he would be getting pitying looks from those who didn't understand what he was going through down in Marauder Manor, though they all understood a lot better than most of Hogwarts would the next day, so he tried to prepare himself for it as best he could before leaving the room to face the day that he knew would be tough.
…
Euan staggered slightly as his feet hit the ground, but Harry steadied him while letting go of the Portkey. Once he had his feet under him, Euan looked around and saw where he was: the kitchen of his home.
Tears formed in Euan's eyes as he remembered the last time he had seen his parents and younger sister alive and healthy, the images placing their worried faces where they had been in the kitchen. Still, he allowed those images to come forth so that he could finally deal with them before older, happier memories took over.
Euan remembered baking biscuits with his Mum and Liz in here. He recalled trying to pull his Dad away from the newspaper at the island in the middle of the room so that they could play football. He remembered reading his Hogwarts acceptance letter over and over after Professor McGonagall left the house, promising to return the next day with a few other families to take them to Diagon Alley for the first time. Memory upon memory of fun times with his family came to his mind, making him smile slightly through his tears.
It wasn't until he allowed the memories to stop coming that he realized Harry had an arm over his shoulders and was rubbing his arm. Harry hadn't said a word since they arrived, allowing Euan to do this at his own pace, and Euan was grateful.
Walking over to the refrigerator, Euan pulled off the pictures and drawings on it, some of the drawings done by him and the rest Liz. The pictures were mainly of him and Liz with one of the four of them together. All of them went into the pouch on his belt that Harry had given him just for this, telling Euan that smaller things would go there while larger ones would go into the messenger bag that was slung across his torso.
Taking a deep breath, Euan went from the kitchen to the living room, where flashes of the battle flew into his mind. One moment he was seeing Yaxley sprawled on the stairs after being hit by his magic, the next he blinked and saw the other Death Eater tied up and bleeding from all the cuts he had given the man, and the moment after that he was seeing a clean and completely whole living room.
More memories of his family came forward, but Euan just allowed them to flow before stepping forward to take the more numerous pictures from the walls, tables, and mantle. He wasn't crying this time, his tears dried on his cheeks. Otherwise, Euan only took the quilt that was neatly folded over the back of the couch. His grandmother had made it for his mother when she got married, and he wasn't going to leave it behind.
As he led the silent Harry upstairs, Euan remembered his mother's screams and decided that he would go into his parents' bedroom last of them all. He walked past it quickly, moving to his bedroom.
While he had a quick flashback to seeing the Death Eaters from his window and went to go look out of it to see a sunny street below, though it was devoid of life at the moment, Euan didn't have much else in this room. He could remember his Mum folding and putting his laundry away and Liz coming in here to try to steal a toy from him and his Dad reading him a bedtime story, but the memories of them weren't as overwhelming here.
Euan went to his closet and dresser to find the rest of his clothes, putting them into the messenger bag. He then found all of the novels on his bookshelf that he wanted as well as some books from when he was very young to take along. Many of his toys joined the bag along with the small blanket that his mother had made for him while she was still pregnant with him. The one his grandmother had made for him had gone into the bag almost the instant he entered the room. All of the pictures in his room he put in the small pouch. Otherwise, he just took the small things like colored pencils and a poster that caught his fancy from his room, knowing he would want them at Marauder Manor, even if he didn't need them at Hogwarts.
Finally done packing up his room, Euan turned off the light and went down the hall to Liz's room, taking a deep breath before entering it and flipping the light switch. Memories hit him so hard that he physically flinched, moving back into Harry, who held him tightly as he fought the onslaught of images.
He was unable to stop the tears that flowed down his face as he remembered little Elizabeth in her pink bedroom with her dolls and other toys. She had forced him to play dress-up so often that he had finally told her that he had other things to do, making her cry until he hugged her and said sorry and agreed to dress-up once again, despite hating the game. Her sweet, soft voice sang songs in his head as he remembered her and Mum singing together in here.
Taking deep breaths, Euan finally calmed himself enough to walk into Liz's room properly. He slowly went around the room and picked up pictures, her favorite doll, a few of her favorite clothes, her blankets from their mother and grandmother, her favorite non-doll toys… Euan grabbed anything that would remind him of her, knowing that she would never brighten his day again, never annoy him by asking him to play with her, never run to him and make him bend down so that he could lift her up, never ask him for a piggyback ride…
Still, he knew that doing this was helping him come to terms with the idea. Liz would always be in his heart, and he would never forget her, always looking at her picture on her birthday and July 30th. This might hurt more than he had hurt since that night, but sometimes it took hurting more for the pain to begin to go away.
Closing his eyes against the tears still resting there even though they had stopped falling, Euan took a deep breath, taking in the smell of his sister, before turning off the light and leaving this room as well. There was only one room left, and it would probably be the most painful of them all, but also the most the most cleansing.
He froze in front of the one room he knew would be the worst to enter: his parents'. Still, he had to do this now, or he'd never get it over with.
With Harry's hand on his shoulder for support, Euan pushed open the door and slowly moved his hand to turn on the light. He didn't even have to enter the room to have memories hit him hard, his tears beginning to fall again.
In his mind, blood coated the floor as his dad and sister lay on the floor, both bleeding from various places. The Death Eater was on the wall, trapped with his wand smashed and his face cut up by Euan's own dagger. His mother was on the bed where the Death Eater had left her, her eyes open with fear and pain on her face even though her hazel eyes were blank.
Suddenly, he blinked and saw a completely clean room without any bodies. His parents' stuff was exactly where it had been a month ago, looking as if a Death Eater hadn't even been in here. It was like his parents were just at work and would be returning any time now to change their clothes before joining him and Liz downstairs to watch some telly.
First Euan took one step into the room, then another and another until he reached the bed. He slowly turned in a circle, taking in the room and Harry standing in the doorway, just watching him. This room gave him no other memories except those of the night of the attack despite Euan knowing he had memories of coming into this room at night after a nightmare to sleep in his parents' bed, all of them overshadowed by the horror that he now saw in this room.
Still, Euan began to slowly find pictures, blankets, clothes, and other personal items belonging to his parents, especially his mother's jewelry, his father's watch and chain necklace from Euan's grandfather, and both of their wedding rings, all of which had been left on their shared dresser for him by the Aurors.
Finally, he stopped the terrible memories of the night and turned to Harry with tears still streaming down his face. Euan knew that coming back had helped, though it would take a while for him to get even close to where he had been before the attack.
Harry took his hand after Euan turned off the light and closed the door on his parents' room, leading him back down to the kitchen before pulling out the return Portkey. Before taking it, Euan knew he had to say one thing to Harry. Through his closed up throat with a choked voice that showed his pain, grief, and tears, he whispered, "Thank you."
Then Euan left his home, knowing he would only return once more to retrieve everything in it before selling it. He could never live here again, not with all the ghosts.
Well, you know you're not feeling your best when it takes until 10:30AM on Sunday to realize you never posted before going to sleep the night before, let alone forgetting to post at all. So… yeah… after a hard enough week at school with my new semester, I've been feeling off all weekend. If I counted the hours, I probably spent more time asleep than awake yesterday. In any case, yes, this ending was a bit sad, but I hope seeing Euan begin his road to real recovery helped. It was just something that needed to be in the story. I'll see you Wednesday.
Posted: 1/29/12
