Chapter Ten: The Harsh Light of Truth

Willow was in trouble. She didn't know what kind of trouble just yet, but she knew that it was trouble of some sort. She'd just been summoned to the principal's office. – Sorry! You're a headmaster, right. – and while she might be a teacher herself, her gut reaction to being asked to see the man in charge was one full of mental expletives and fear over what would happen to her mostly stainless reputation.

But said stainless reputation was a lifetime ago. This was not her world, and she had been seeking out and actively brewing trouble. So, yeah, maybe it wasn't such a surprise that she had been summoned here after all.

She was waiting now, and also with her was Professor McGonagall, the latter's face an unreadable mask. They were joined shortly by Professor Snape, and then a few minutes later by Dumbledore himself. Willow noted that they were all members of the Order of the Phoenix, though Willow wasn't sure if she counted as a member or not.

"Thank you for coming. Please, sit down," Dumbledore said politely as he took a seat behind his desk.

The Headmaster waited for the others to make themselves comfortable. "There are a few items I would like to address. The first of which is Professor Rosenberg's handling of Madam Umbridge during one of her lessons. Willow, would you please explain what you did to Miss Umbridge and why you did it?"

Willow tried not to gulp too audibly. All three of the others in the room were imposing and intimidating on their own, but here they were together, and she was young and new here. "Well," she began, "I was originally going to do a lesson on the basics of combat. Using magic while moving, dodging, getting in for a closer attack, etcetera. But then I got a note from Frog-Face… Uh, that's Umbridge, I mean. That is to say…"

"I recommend you simply call her 'Madam Umbridge from this point forward, Willow," Dumbledore chided her gently, though his eyes twinkled with laughter.

"Heh heh. Uh, thanks. So, yeah. She dropped a note saying she was going to observe my class. I decided to change my lesson to use her as a teaching tool to show the students that, hey, the Ministry is full of incompetent morons at best and Death Eaters at the worst, and MadamUmbridge was kind enough to act all arrogant and stupid to help me prove my points."

"Do you have any idea what sort of reaction this will provoke?" Snape sneered softly. "Parents will take note of this, and the Ministry will further involve itself in Hogwarts affairs, making the defense of students that much harder. As for the Order…"

"Professor Rosenberg is not formally a member of the Order of the Phoenix," Dumbledore said, and Willow felt as though she'd been slapped. "She is a trusted and valuable ally, but being from the United States, and a self-taught wandless witch, the Ministry will likely place her in a category apart from the Order. She will simply reside alongside us in a file reserved for trouble-brewers, I imagine.

"I am more concerned, however, about her use of magical persuasion on Madam Umbridge. I have heard some highly amusing tales from certain parents who are not quite fond of her, but some of the more traditionalist families have written to express their concerns about such things. As for Madam Umbridge herself, she does not remember the details of what happened in your classroom, only that something unusual did occur in the midst of her observation. I would highly suggest, Professor Rosenberg, that you do not further seek to actively provoke her."

Willow felt her face flush with a mixture of emotions, but she wasn't about to apologize for her actions. "The kids need to know what they're up against. And the bad guys aren't just the killers and the rapists and the violent people. People who work in secret, bribing and whispering and passing subtle laws to undermine the country are just as bad. Not to mention the idiocy in the government that just needs to be pointed out. Umbridge is one of the bad guys, and I'll do what it takes for people to see that. Everything is all right there for everyone to see if they take the time to look."

"And looking they are, Professor Rosenberg," Dumbledore said. "I suspect we have you to thank for that."

Well, that wasn't the reprimand I was expecting."Uh, could you be a bit more specific? Sir?"

"Your lessons, Willow," he said with a smile. "Your students have begun to question the way things work, and they have been in contact with their families. I have received not a few letters from people who just a few weeks ago were flooding my desk with hate mail, but now are re-examining their views. Their support is not yet wholly won, nor is it at all universal. But you have made people willing to listen to reason, which is a powerful weapon in our arsenal."

Willow felt her spirits lift, and she sat up a bit straighter. "Thanks! I mean, not that taking credit matters here or anything. It's just that all it took was a bit of telling the truth and refusing to back down. Shine the spotlight on the shadows, and they go 'poof' and reveal what was hidden. It's really pretty simple stuff."

"I wonder," Snape drawled, "what other 'simple stuff' you have been filling the students' minds with."

Not liking the Potions Master's tone, Willow rounded on him and crossed her arms. "And what do you mean by that, Professor Snape?" she asked him harshly.

The man's mouth curled into a sneer. "Four of my students have become increasingly distraught over the past few days. Mister Malfoy has become lax in his duties as a prefect, Mister Nott has become more prone to nervous outbreaks, and Misters Crabbe and Goyle have become, of all things, slightly pensive. The latter might be a positive change, though it is unexpected. And the unexpected and the unknown worry me. Do you have an explanation for this behavior, Professor Rosenberg?"

Willow smiled a humorless grin. "I do, actually. Let me tell you all what happened a few nights ago, when I met with those four students. I was trying to make an impression, and if I did, then it was worth it. Here's what happened."

FOUR NIGHTS AGO

Willow sat on top of a desk in the mostly empty classroom now that the bell had chimed. Four of her Slytherin students remained at her request, and now came the hard part of trying to shatter their deeply ingrained delusions of the way the world worked.

"So," she said to the four assembled students, "I take it you all have a bit of an idea why you're here talking with me now?" she asked kindly.

Not unexpectedly, it was Draco Malfoy who spoke up first. "You leveled a serious accusation against my family, Professor," he said with all the haughty arrogance he could muster. "My father willhear about this, and when he does…"

"Your father, Draco, would be wise to stay away from me. As would all of your fathers," she warned them in a matter-of-fact tone. "Now, I'm not about to pass judgment on if they've been good parents or not, since I don't know the slightest thing about how you all were raised. I do know, however, that your fathers are all Death Eaters in Voldemort's service," she said casually, not stopping as they cringed at the name, "and that if I ever personally see any of them, I will do everything in my power to capture them. If you paid attention in class, then you'll remember that I don't really like the Ministry, so any attempts to appeal to my sense of fear of the law are in vain."

"Right. So, you're making up the law yourself now, are you?" the young Malfoy accused.

"Not making it up, Draco. Just ignoring it if it gets in my way," Willow said dismissively. "But from what I gather, you all think very highly of your fathers, and I wouldn't be surprised if you intend to follow in their footsteps after you graduate. Or maybe even before. Am I right?"

Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle seemed a bit too dim to understand what she was asking of them. Theodore Nott seemed smart enough to keep quiet, and Draco Malfoy just had to get a word in. "If we were, we certainly wouldn't tell you, would we?"

Willow smiled. "No, I don't think you would. At least not intentionally. But I've noticed that you like to boast, Draco, which will get you in trouble if you're not careful. And I'm not entirely sure you understand what it means to be a Death Eater.

"Now, there have been a lot of nasty, evil people in the world who have managed to get otherwise decent people to follow them in their madness. Evil has a funny way of telling us exactly what we want to hear when we most want to hear it. It's only later, after we're in too deep, that we learn what's expected of us. So tell me, what appeals to you about Voldemort's message? His aims, his goals, etcetera. What makes you admire him? And no, I'm not about to go postal on you for thinking freely. You can think whatever you want, so long as those thoughts don't lead to anyone getting hurt. So go on. Spill."

Crabbe and Goyle still looked a bit too stunned to say anything, and Malfoy seemed to finally realize that he had a big mouth. It was Nott who spoke up first. "Cleansing the world. Getting rid of the unworthy. Making the world a better place by allowing only the best to thrive. That's what I want, at least."

Willow nodded in understanding, but she doubted her young charges understood at all. "Tell me, Theodore, are you familiar with the term 'ethnic cleansing?'"

The student shook his head. "No. Should I have?"

"No, I guess not. It's a term used mostly in the non-magical world. But it generally refers to one group of people thoroughly exterminating another group of people. We're talking genocide here. But the people doing the 'cleansing' didn't just kill people. They raped them. Tortured them. Took pleasure in making them suffer before killing them. Sometimes making their families watch just for kicks.

"Tell me, all of you, could you look into, say, Dean Thomas's eyes as you tortured him in front of his mother? Could you listen to her screams and pleas for mercy while you made her son suffer through the most excruciating torment you could imagine? And yes, I know the Cruciatus Curse can cause immense pain, but there's no way for a spectator to know that. Could you cut into Dean's skin with a knife, drenching the house in his blood while you laughed and enjoyed yourself, forcing his mother to watch her son bleed to death? Did you even know that a person could bleed to death?

"And then, if he wasn't already dead, could you deliver the final blow? Could you look Dean Thomas, your classmate, in the eye, knowing that he'd done nothing to you or your families, and could you snuff the life out of him forever? Could you murder him in cold blood? And then could you do the same thing over and over again, whenever you were ordered to? Could you visit a complete stranger's home, someone you knew nothing about, who might be totally innocent, or even a pureblood who happened to make a mistake, and do to them what I just described to you?

"And," Willow said, making sure to make this point very clear, "what if you got cold feet? Or what if you made a mistake that got your high and mighty Dark Lordangry with you? Would you be able to watch as your one-time friends and allies did these things to you and your family, just to send a message to everyone else of what happens to those who hesitate? Think about that."

To Willow's relief, her four students had paled and looked rather sick. Even Crabbe and Goyle seemed to understand that this was not a path that they had considered going down. Nott looked disgusted, and Malfoy looked positively horrified.

"Too stunned to speak, I see," she said. "Well, you're going to need to find words soon, because we're going on a field trip. Give me just a moment." Willow took out her wand, feeling the need to get the hang of it, and waved it at her students. "Conceal magic."

The four Slytherins found themselves looking at each other in shock, as they appeared to be dressed in distinctly non-magical clothes. The look of jeans and t-shirts made for four very surprised faces.

"It's just an illusion," she told them. "You need to not draw attention to yourselves. Now then! Field trip. Everyone join hands. Physical contact is necessary. And don't even think of refusing. You may not believe it, but I'm doing this all for your sakes. I get that this isn't your idea of fun, but there are more important things. So just cooperate and don't make me force you to do this, okay?"

Her earlier display of power against Umbridge fresh in their minds, the four students quickly joined hands. Smiling, Willow took Nott's right hand in her left and Goyle's left hand in her right. "Okay, then. Let's go."

A gust of magical wind surrounded them, and a moment later they were standing in the middle of a quaint neighborhood just outside of Washington DC. It was early in the afternoon.

"Where are we?" Malfoy asked harshly, looking terrified. "And how is it still light outside? Did you just take us through time, Rosenberg?"

Willow scowled at the boy's impertinence. "Call me Miss Rosenberg while we're here, all of you. And we didn't travel through time, just space. We're in Maryland in the United States, just outside of Washington DC. That's the American capital, in case you didn't know."

"But how is it still light outside?" Nott asked.

Willow smacked her head. "Wow. Just, wow. They really don't teach you anything remotely non-magical, do they? The short version is that every day both starts and ends earlier in the east than it does in the west. It's going on seven o'clock in the evening back at Hogwarts, but it's going on two o'clock right here. It's almost eleven in the morning on the Pacific Coast. I'd be happy to go over the science of it with you later, if you're interested. It's the magic of nature, even if it's not the kind of magic you're accustomed to.

"But we're not here for a science lesson. Look around you. What do you see?"

The students looked around, as if expecting to see something out of the ordinary, but nothing jumped out at them. "There are houses," Nott said. "And there are a couple of kids with a dog over there," he said, gesturing to a boy and a girl playing with a golden retriever in their front yard.

Willow smiled. "Excellent. These are houses. People live here. Families live here. They don't know anything about the Wizarding World, and they probably never will. They're just going about their lives. The adults are at work, the children are at school. Those two kids over there are a bit young for school just yet, but they'll probably start next year.

"Every morning and every night, these houses are filled with families who you've never met, and they are sharing their stories with each other of what their lives are like, just like you might do with your friends and your families. Look again. What thoughts and feelings fill your head as you look at this place, and at those kids and their dog?"

The Slytherins took another look and kept silent, as if fearing Willow's wrath if they gave a wrong answer.

Surprisingly, it was Goyle who answered. "It's quiet. It's like they're just living," he said simply.

"I like the dog," Crabbe added. "It looks nice."

Malfoy tried and failed to hold in his laughter, but he was quickly silenced by Willow's glare. "You're right, Gregory, Vincent. It is quiet. There are thousands of places like this in this country alone. Nobody trying to do anything sinister. Nobody plotting to overthrow the government or stage a coup. No one is even aware of the existence of wizards and witches.

"And the dog is wonderful. He, or she, is even more oblivious than the humans who live here. The doggie just wants to have fun and to make people happy. That's all that matters in its little world. Not that that's a bad thing. It's just a dog thing.

"Now, imagine you had to go up to that house, and tie up those kids and their parents, and kill that dog right in front of them. The kids would cry. You probably would as well if you'd lost a beloved pet. And then you'd go on to torture that boy and that girl, whose only concern was when dinner would be served and how late they could stay up. You would inflict suffering and pain upon them while their parents begged you to stop, and you would only stop long enough to kill them.

"The parents would cry out in horror, wondering why you would do such a thing. They never did anything to you. They had no idea you even existed. But then you would kill the parents all the same. And then you'd burn the house down. You'd then repeat this for every family in every one of these houses in this neighborhood, and then you'd do the same thing the next day in another neighborhood just like this one, until there were none left in the entire world.

"That is what Voldemort wants. These quiet people, whose lives don't hurt anyone at all, are vermin by his creed. Good for nothing unless they are dead. Look at those two kids now, and their dog, and picture them and their parents in every one of these houses. Tell me honestly that you could not only kill them all, but that you could enjoy it, too."

Malfoy and Nott paled and looked like they might be sick. Goyle and Crabbe looked thoughtful for the first time that Willow could recall, which gave her hope.

"Why?" Crabbe asked. "Why hurt them? I… I heard a kid scream once in Diagon Alley. She was lost, couldn't find her mum. The screaming hurt. I don't want to hear that screaming again. Not ever."

Goyle nodded. "I don't, either. My cousin's looks a bit like those kids," he said strangely.

Nott shook his head. "They're just there. Why would we have to kill them?"

"Because they're Muggles," Malfoy said as if it were obvious, but his voice held none of the disgust or arrogance it had once held. He seemed lost in thought, as if trying to make sense of why these people deserved death.

A few minutes passed in silence before a yellow school bus pulled up to a corner a few feet away and began unloading high school students. Willow pointed them out to her charges. "See those people there? Some of them are about your age. They just got back from school today, and they'll go back again, every Monday through Friday of every week, and then they'll come home again. They're just like you, only without magic. Could you really go up to that bus, with all those kids just like you inside, and blow it up? Kill all those kids just because they were born without magic? That is exactly what Voldemort would have you do. And he'd want you to do it for fun.

"Are you still all so eager to follow in your parents' footsteps now?"

Nobody said another word for the rest of the trip. They walked around a bit, observing the different kinds of trees and houses that existed on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. Willow let them take it all in, hoping that they'd realized that these were not things that deserved to burn.

After another twenty minutes, Willow brought them all back to the classroom. None of them asked her about her ability to teleport into and out of Hogwarts. After lifting the illusion spells on the four Slytherins, she sent them off to dinner, but they didn't look very hungry. Willow wasn't hungry either. A glass of water and some sleep would do her some good, though. Yes, that would be nice.

DUMBLEDORE'S OFFICE – PRESENT DAY

"That's it?"

Willow glared at Snape's casual dismissal of her efforts to help their students. "What do you mean?" she asked as sweetly as she could.

"You just talked to them and showed them a tiny corner of the Muggle world? Ignoring, for the moment, that you can somehow come and go from Hogwarts at will, but you expect us to believe that all you did to my students was to talk to them and to show them a single street corner?"

"Yup. Why? Is that a problem?" Willow challenged.

"No, I do not think it is a problem at all," Dumbledore said. "And I do believe that your efforts may go a long way towards preventing future disaster here at Hogwarts. I have no doubt that Lord Voldemort will attempt to exert his influence over the families of students here, and perhaps use the students themselves as weapons in his bid at war."

Now Willow turned her glare on the Headmaster. "Using kids as weapons. Uh huh. Kinda like you with Harry Potter, right?"

"Professor Rosenberg!" McGonagall cried harshly, "there is no call for such language!"

"Oh, I beg to differ," Willow said. "You see, I went to pick up Harry and found him underfed at his aunt and uncle's place, not even allowed to have breakfast with his family, who are a bunch of loud-mouthed idiots who seemed to look the other way when their spoiled brat of a son beats up Harry. You're a canny guy, Dumbledore, so you can't have missed that this was going on. And you just left him there to grow up, abused and neglected and uncared for. And that's not even mentioning the blood magic saturating the place."

"Blood magic?" Snape asked, his curiosity seemingly peaked. "There is power in blood. Great power. What sort of blood magic did you use, Headmaster?" the Potions Master asked, turning his gaze to Dumbledore.

"I, too, would very much like to hear this explained," McGonagall said. "I have always told you, Albus, that those people were no good for Potter. If you can tell me why you left him with them, then you will please tell us now. I think we have earned that level of trust."

Dumbledore looked from Willow's Resolve Face to the resolved faces of the other two Order members in the room. "Well, it seems I cannot keep this secret any longer. Harry's mother died to protect him, and it was that sacrifice that shielded him from Voldemort as a baby. Petunia Evans-Dursley and her son, Dudley, were Harry's only living relatives on his mother's side, and so I trusted in that bond to keep him safe from Voldemort."

"Safe from Voldemort, right." Willow found it hard to believe that someone so powerful and brilliant as Dumbledore could be so blind. Then again, power and brilliance can be abused and taken for granted. I know a thing or two about the power side of that, at least."But was he safe from anyone else? What about the Death Eaters who never cast a spell at baby Harry or his parents? Or, say, an abusive aunt and uncle and cousin who you left him with to protect him? Blood magic is powerful, but it's also unstable. The darkness I felt in that place…" Willow shuddered.

"So," Snape drawled out, his unblinking gaze fixed on Dumbledore. "You kept him safe from the Dark Lord at the cost of exposing him to danger and abuse from everyone else. This isn't what we agreed on, Dumbledore. Your blood magic may have made things worse for Potter had the spell never been cast."

Willow turned to look at Snape. "Did you just call him 'the Dark Lord,' Professor Snape? I thought that was a title that only those with a certain respect for the man used."

Snape sneered at Willow. "The Dark Lord exerts considerable influence even without the use of magic. I was once among his followers, and I play at that role even now. You are in no position to presume anything, Miss Rosenberg," he said a touch defensively.

"That will do, both of you," Dumbledore said softly, his quiet authority silencing them both. "Regardless of anything else, it appears that you have pointed out a blind spot of mine, Willow. I have been quite preoccupied with keeping Harry safe from Lord Voldemort that I have not been quite as focused on his happiness and safety in regard to other factors."

Willow snorted. "Those 'other factors' being his life, you mean?"

Dumbledore sighed. "I suppose I do, at that," he conceded. "Severus, would you kindly keep a close eye on your charges? They will no doubt need your help in the days and months to come. Minerva, do keep a lookout for Harry and his friends. Whether they find trouble or trouble finds them, there will be trouble surrounding him one way or the other."

"Hmph. That much is plain," McGonagall said haughtily.

"And Willow," Dumbledore said, "I highly encourage you to continue your brutal truth-telling in your lessons. You were right that shadows only exist so long as no light is cast upon them. Be a beacon for the students, Professor Rosenberg, and help them find their way."

Willow merely smiled, not needing to hear anything else. "Count on it."