HAVEN
Thank you to everyone who reviewed over the past couple of weeks. Your words are encouraging and extremely wanted!
xxxxxxxxxx
Chapter Nine: The Folly of Old Men
"Severus has applied for the Defence Against the Dark Arts position again, Albus. Don't you think you're being rather unfair in withholding it from him?" Minerva asked as she sifted through the applications. Because of the disappearance of one Harry Potter, some of the issues in the school hadn't been addressed, like the DADA position.
The headmaster smiled.
"When I find a suitable replacement for his Potions classes, I will gladly appoint him as DADA professor. However, greatness can be a burden sometimes, as most of us well know, and Severus' aptitude in potions makes it difficult for anyone to match his calibre."
He was holding a piece of paper, frowning at it, before handing it over to the deputy head.
"What do you think of this?"
She glanced at him over her spectacles, skimming the words. Her face paled.
"Al…Albus! Is…is this a joke? Surely you are not considering…"
Albus was stroking his beard, gazing at the fireplace.
"She has a vast amount of knowledge. You know we cannot discriminate if nothing is proven, Minerva."
The Transfiguration teacher looked appalled.
"But Narcissa Malfoy? You can't be serious, Albus. It's just…too preposterous."
The headmaster's eyes twinkled.
"No…no I think it will do nicely."
Minerva narrowed her eyes.
"I know in the past you have made some shady decisions about appointing people to teach here, and I am in full favour of giving everyone the benefit of the doubt, but when someone is so blatantly associated with Dark Arts, and their family is so deeply immersed in the inner circle of Lord Voldemort, who's husband could, possibly, have contributed to the state Harry is in now…no, Albus. I don't think I agree with this at all. And I will make that most clear."
She stormed out, and Dumbledore looked taken aback to his staunchest supporter throw her towel in the ring. He stroked his beard, but nodded. Narcissa Malfoy…if she was a spy, perhaps they could turn her work around in their favour. He pulled some parchment towards him and began drafting a reply.
xxxxxxxxxx
Remus felt ashamed for storming out on Sybill like that when she had been nothing but nice, even considerate in sharing her vision with him. A vision was a very personal thing to a seer, but still, her idea of Albus Dumbledore…
He whirled down the corridors, onto the grounds, storming towards Hogsmeade to floo back home. Home. With Harry, and Percy. His feet touching the cobbled street, Remus wasn't aware of other people until he literally ran one over.
"Oh Merlin! I am so sorry…" he apologised, chastising himself for losing his head. His face split into a smile when it seemed Lady Luck favoured him after all.
"Ron. Hermione…I wasn't aware that today was a Hogsmeade day."
Hermione smiled at him and winked.
"It isn't."
Ron's eyes darted along the momentary empty street.
"Mione…" he started, and Hermione nodded, tugging at the werewolf's cloak.
"It's not safe here. We can't talk."
The two urged him over towards the shadier side of Hogsmeade, towards the Hog's Head. They moved inside, glad for the anonymity the seedy pub brought. Settling down in a corner, Ron had barely taken off his cloak before Hermione spoke.
"Have you seen Harry?"
Her voice was anxious, pleading. She was clenching her hands and her whole body was leaning forward, a plea for an answer. Ron covered her hands with his and she shot him a brief smile before calming down.
Remus was torn. On one hand, he wanted to tell Harry's friends about his condition. He doubted they'd heard from Dumbledore, and that alone made him itch to tell them, knowing they had gone without information as long as they had. However, he didn't trust Dumbledore not to raid their minds if he suspected anything.
Hermione nodded, slowly.
"It's all right, Professor. I think I understand."
Ron looked confused.
"I don't", he said, earning a look from Hermione and a fond smile from Remus. The redhead raised his hands in defence. "Well I don't!"
Hermione shook her head.
"Never mind, I'll explain it to you later. Professor…"
Remus leaned forward, smiling.
"Ms. Granger, I am not your professor any longer. You are free to call me Remus…or Moony, if you want."
Hermione blushed.
"Right, well…Re…Remus. We've been looking through all the books on adoption laws that we could find, but it's very difficult, especially since you're a classified Dark Creature. Adoption is virtually impossible, and the fact that you won't have Dumbledore's backing…if you were Harry's father, or blood related, then there might be a case to be made, since there hasn't been an adoption case since the invention of Wolf's Bane, but as that isn't applicable…" Hermione sighed, pushing her hair out of her face. Remus looked disheartened and Ron gave a smile.
"Come on Moony. It's just a setback, all we've got to do is look at it from different angles. I'm sure we'll find a way. You know me and Hermione won't stop till we find something…you know we're fully behind you."
Remus smiled, touched. He turned serious again.
"Ron, it might be nice if you wrote to Percy."
A scowl crossed the Gryffindor's face, but Lupin held up a hand to stall any protest.
"Percy has been invaluable to me in the past few weeks. He's trying his best, Ron. He's not a bad person…just a little overzealous sometimes. We all have points in our character we're not proud of. We all need someone to forgive us…especially family."
His amber eyes bored into Ron, who lowered his head. Hermione nodded at Remus before glancing at her watch.
"I think it's time we head back to school." She poked Ron in the side and he jerked up, glowering at her. They got up, Ron waved at Remus. Hermione shuffled her feet before throwing her arms around Remus.
"Tell him we love him. That we're waiting for him. No matter how long it takes", she whispered in his ear before letting go and allowing Ron to lead her out of the tavern. Remus smiled softly. He stood up, crossed to the bar and asked to use the fireplace. The man nodded, jerking a thumb over his shoulder, and in a few minutes Remus was home again.
xxxxxxxxxx
"Draco! Draco!"
Draco Malfoy looked in distaste as Pansy came running up to him, waving a letter.
"It's for you, it just arrived."
Draco snatched the parchment from her hands and turned his back to her, ripping open the envelope and scanning the contents. His face twisted into a smirk.
"My mother's coming to teach DADA here."
The students in the Slytherin common room whistled and applauded, and Draco felt like a hero. This would be great! His mother coming to teach DADA was a blessing in disguise; another teacher to back up Slytherin. It would be fantastic!
Sensing it was time for lunch, he walked down the hall, the other Slytherins following their unofficial leader. Pansy drifted towards the back, until all of the other snakes had passed her and she watched them disappear around the corner.
She moved towards the staircase, letting herself be carried up before switching to another one and repeating the same process. Almost at the highest parts of the school, she turned left into the Owlery.
The room smelt a little musky, but Pansy paid no attention to this as she pulled a letter from her pocket and whistled. A large Northern Hawk owl flew down to her and she silently tied the letter to its leg.
"Go." She didn't linger to watch it fly away, but immediately hurried down to the Great Hall, plastering a smile on her face and giving a high pitched giggle as she sat down.
xxxxxxxxxx
"Harry! Harry…" Remus shook the silent boy.
"He's only been asleep for a bit. Leave him be." Percy leant in the doorway, a tea towel in his hand.
Remus nodded. "I just wanted to tell him his friends…I…love him."
Percy chucked the tea towel back in the kitchen.
"He knows."
Remus sighed. "It's not the same as telling someone."
Percy nodded.
"So how was it?"
Remus shrugged.
"I'll have to go back…I…it's war, Percy…it's war. Again."
Harry stirred and his eyes opened. He stared at the wall, a finger caressing the inside of his palm.
"Harry?" Percy came forward to the couch. "Do you want something to eat? Some chicken soup?"
Harry blinked, but that was it, and Percy ran a hand through his hair. He disappeared into the kitchen and came back a few minutes later with a bowl of broth. Remus wrung his hands until Percy glared at him.
"Stop hovering!"
The werewolf threw a lost look at his cub and went outside, leaving Percy alone with Harry.
Percy took great care in getting Harry up right and lifted the bowl to his lips. He blew across it softly and Harry copied him before allowing the redhead to tilt the bowl. It scorched his throat, but Harry swallowed all the same.
Percy frowned at him, before dipping a finger in the soup. He yanked it out and put the bowl heavily down on the table. Harry flinched, and Percy ran his hands through his hair again.
"Harry, you should've said that the soup was too hot…I can't…I can't HELP you if you won't talk to me. Please…please talk to me…"
Percy leant against the table and stared at Harry. For a moment it looked as if the boy was lucid, his eyes were clear, though dull, and they appeared to stare right at Percy…but the moment was lost before the redhead could do anything, and Harry went back to gazing at the wall.
Percy picked up the bowl and walked to the kitchen, closing the door behind him so no one would see him cry.
xxxxxxxxxx
Draco Malfoy couldn't wait to see his mother. The fact that he…they…Slytherin would have an ally in the school appealed to him immensely. He was so excited he felt like bouncing off the walls…almost, of course, because Malfoys didn't behave undignified in public, but nevertheless, his eyes were shining as he stood in the hall waiting for Narcissa Malfoy to arrive.
Albus Dumbledore swept down the stairs and Draco tried to repress a sneer. Fucking busybody. The headmaster gave Draco a benign smile.
"Excited to see your mother, Mr. Malfoy?"
Draco inclined his head.
"Yes sir. It has been a few weeks since I saw her, and I miss her terribly. I'm very pleased she'll be teaching us."
The headmaster turned cerulean eyes on him.
"Yes…yes, so am I. I believe she will prove a great asset for this school."
'To the Slytherins at least' Draco added mentally. They stood side by side, silently, when Draco felt a curious sensation, a tingling in his mind. He turned to the Headmaster, who was looking at him intensely.
The pressure increased and Draco pushed against it as hard as he could. The touch felt foreign, and cold. The mental probe appeared to be searching for something, but what Draco didn't know. Thoughts of Narcissa, and Slytherin winning the House Cup pushed to the front of his mind and he battled the intrusion until his face was red with exertion.
Finally, the strain stopped, and Draco had to clutch the banister to keep himself upright.
"Are you all right, Mr. Malfoy?" Dumbledore asked, eyes bright as always.
Draco managed a nod before he collapsed. The headmaster looked mildly concerned and the Slytherin had to repress the urge to say something extremely loud and inappropriate.
"Hospital wing", he gasped before clutching his midriff and stumbling towards Madam Pomfrey's healing wand. As soon as the old man was out of sight, Draco's eyes narrowed. Legilimency. He'd heard of it, of course, but never known anyone proficient enough to actually use it. Lucius Malfoy, had, to his great disappointment, been unable to master it, but had trained his son in recognising the signs.
'Fucking mental case' the boy snarled internally as he stumbled through the hallways. What the fuck was the point of raping his mind? His mother would've spotted it immediately…or so Draco would like to think, but whatever the case, the headmaster was playing a dangerous game.
'He was searching for something…what could I know that he would want?' Again, Harry Potter writhing in blood flash before his eyes and he slammed his fist into the stone wall in frustration that he couldn't remember before falling to the ground, cradling his hand.
"Malfoy?"
He managed to glance through the blond strands but when he tried to lift his head he cringed in pain. Feet hurried over to him, and he felt a pain relieving spell sooth the worst of his shivers.
"Come boy, we have to get you to the hospital wing."
Looking up at his rescuer, he felt himself stiffen as Sybill 'Crackpot' Trelawney regarded him calmly. Only…she didn't really look like the batty divinations professor. She looked…sort of…normal.
"Mr. Malfoy? Do you need the hospital wing?"
He nodded, unable to put anything into words as she ushered him to Madam Pomfrey, who put him to bed for a case of 'mild shock'. He wanted to ask the Professor to stay, wanted to talk to her and have her explain…but he didn't know how to ask, and before he could try, she was gone.
Frustrated, he loudly complained until the mediwitch came and force fed him some Dreamless Sleep potion, and he sank into oblivion.
xxxxxxxxxx
Sybill Trelawney couldn't resist a smirk as she left Draco Malfoy in the robust but able hands of Poppy Pomfrey. On the one hand, she really shouldn't have 'blown her cover', so to say, but the expression on the blonde Slytherin's face had been priceless and she gave another snicker.
Walking towards her loft, she changed her mind and headed towards the headmaster's office. Remus' visit had unsettled her and she knew a talk with Dumbledore would most likely soothe all her worries.
However, as she stepped past the gargoyle and was lifted up to the old man's office, she heard a female voice and hesitated before knocking.
"Come in Sybill." The calm, authorative voice of the headmaster quelled her fears and she stepped through, miraculously managing to school her expression into a neutral face as she spotted Narcissa Malfoy delicately sipping tea in front of Albus Dumbledore's desk.
Well. This was new.
"Sybill…what can I do for you?" The headmaster looked as harmless as ever, but with the conversation with Remus still lurking in the back of her mind, the Divinations professor smiled dimly.
"Oh, nothing Albus," she prattled, "I didn't mean to interrupt! I was really just checking how the division between the classes will be now that Firenze is staying on as a teacher as well, but I can tell you're busy, so…"
"Firenze?" Narcissa Malfoy interrupted. "That is an odd name for a teacher."
"He's centaur." Sybill answered, suppressing some strange form of glee as Dumbledore looked mildly reproving and the blonde woman as if she had swallowed something particularly nasty that was sticking in her throat.
"How…quaint. I've always had a fondness for these…progressive schools."
The sarcasm was palpable and Sybill congratulated herself on a job well done, until the old wizard cleared his throat.
"Well, Sybill, I'm sure we can talk about that at a later date. Actually, I am most pleased that you paid me a visit. I wonder if you would be so kind as to escort Professor Malfoy to her quarters and see that she has everything she needs."
The seer almost pouted, but managed to keep a tenuous hold on her professionalism.
"Of course Albus. Mrs…ah, Professor…if you'd follow me."
Draco's mother rose and offered an elegant hand to Dumbledore, who shook it. She picked up a small bag before following the other professor to the door.
Out in the hall, Sybill couldn't help but reassure herself by checking to see if her wand was still up her sleeve. A soft laugh tinkled through the hallway. Bright blue eyes, but without the incessant twinkle met hers.
"I don't bite, Professor." Narcissa Malfoy said with a smile, and Sybill found herself grimacing back.
"I apologise. I am a little wary nowadays. One cannot be too careful." The seer regarded the other woman, but the latter merely nodded and said,
"Too true."
Sybill wasted no time in escorting the new Professor to her quarters, wanting to spend as little time as possible in the vicinity of someone so closely linked to Dark Arts. She nodded her head politely, but was already backing away when Narcissa stiffly inclined hers.
Something felt off about all of this, and Sybill cursed her ancestors for destroying the gift she could have used so desperately right now.
xxxxxxxxxx
Harry was sitting in a corner on the floor. He liked having his back to the wall, felt secure that nothing could attack him from behind, and this way he could have his eyes on what was approaching him at all times.
He tried hard to ignore Percy's crying, but it wasn't easy. He wanted to do nothing more than walk up to him and comfort him…if he could only remember how. Remus was still outside, and yet Harry felt that there was something missing.
As the werewolf came back into the room, he stopped in front of Harry, not too close, but near enough to help.
"Remus?"
Remus shivered at the fragile tone. He wasn't sure how to handle Harry's fluctuating personality and being more of a nuisance then an aid to Percy made him feel like he was doing absolutely nothing to make Harry better. Though Sybill had said it was near impossible.
"Yes cub?"
Harry looked up, looked around the room, hands raising slightly as his agitation became clear.
"Where's Sirius?"