CHAPTER 10-The Castle Gives Up More Secrets
Albus and Sirius put up more wards which would prohibit apparating out of the tunnels and entry of anyone with the Dark Mark. This was not a sure fast safety feature as most of the new followers didn't have the mark and if there was an exit then anyone could enter as long as they didn't have the mark.
It would appear that only the Dark Lord could create the mark on their arms and he had not been around for awhile. That is not to say there wasn't a line of idiots waiting to receive it when he returned.
They arrived back to Sirius'office, with the two Death Eaters in tow about the same time that the Auror's arrived. Sirius shared with them the evidence and memories of the attack on Draco and Ginny, including the wands. They took out Crabbe and Goyle and moved them to a separate room. Moody was sure that the parents of the boys would not authorize veritaserum and it would take at least a week to get authorization to give it to underage youth. He decided he would try an old ploy that worked only when the target was very stupid.
He left Sirius' office for an hour then he came back in and started smiling at the three boys who we still in the holding cell. "Well your buddies flipped on you and we have the whole story. We won't need to question you as we can just use the evidence we have and set a trial date for you guys. We have decided, based on the story given to us by Crabbe and Goyle, to charge you with attempted murder.
Moody knew what had happened only because Severus and Albus can read minds. Neither Crabbe nor Goyle had any idea anyone was walking through their thoughts. It looked like their father was teaching them how to keep people out of their mind but it only worked if they really thought about it and concentrated hard. By the time they thought about it Severus and Albus had what they needed and no trace was left that they had been there at all.
It would never hold up in court but if they used the information carefully perhaps they could get the boys to confess. They could only wait another hour or so before they were bound by law to have their parents, or in this case the lawyer of their parents, present so they had to work fast.
At first the three boys in the holding cell were convinced that Moody was bluffing and they would not utter a word. That was until Sirius sat down, at a desk right near the holding cell, and started writing up his notes. He would stop once in a while and ask Severus to correct him on details that they could only have gotten from Crabbe and Goyle. All of a sudden all the boys were fighting each other for deals.
They were divided up and all promised that they would only be charged with Felony Assault instead of murder. What was funny about it all is that Felony Assault is all they could charge them with anyway. The Murder thing was something they wish they could use but the boys didn't know that. They would be fuming when they found out that they all received the same charges.
Soon everything was wrapped up and Moody, the Death Eaters and the boys were sent to the Ministry. Sirius sent a message to Draco, Fred, George and Ginny asking them to come to his office along with Arthur, Molly, Alice and Severus.
Once they had all arrived and tea had been served Sirius explained to them what had transpired. He assured everyone that they had captured the ones who had hurt Ginny and Draco. As a bonus they had also come upon a cell of Death Eaters and managed to capture a couple of them and close down whatever they were doing.
"Arthur and Molly, you need to know that Fred and George are the ones who came to me with enough information for us to capture them," said Sirius. "We want to congratulate both you boys for your work and also for not trying to capture the culprits yourselves. We all know how tempting it had to be."
Molly and Arthur were proud of the boys and made sure to let them know, although, they too, were surprised that the brothers didn't try to bring a little justice into the lives of those who had hurt their sister so badly. Perhaps they were growing up after all.
Fred and George were very, very embarrassed by receiving all the credit for what happened. Of course Ginny and Draco were really rubbing it in by thanking them profusely for turning in the boys and assuring that the culprits would be brought to justice. If looks could kill then Fred and George would be charged with the murder of said Draco and Ginny. As it was they had to sit there and take it. The Twins knew they would have sweet revenge on those two very soon.
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When Alice arrived in the infirmary Poppy was working as a frantic pace over Lupin. He looked pale, almost grey, and was not conscious.
Alice walked up and stood beside the bed. She was there a couple minutes before Poppy noticed her. After a few minutes Poppy slowed down her feverish pace and said to Alice, "I think he'll make it. It was touch-and-go there for a bit, he had lost so much blood. What made it worse is that he had not completely recovered from the full moon transformation. He won't be doing any tap dances soon and will have to stay in the hospital for a week or so, but he should have a full recovery."
"I am glad to hear that" said a voice coming from the doorway. Poppy and Alice looked up and recognized Tonks walking toward them. "If he didn't make it I would have to bring him back to life long enough to kill him" she said with a smile on her face. "I guess everything has a silver lining" said Tonks. "If I heard you correctly, he will be on bed rest for a week and if that is true then he is in for a few long, honest talks, because he won't be able to avoid me" she said with a very ornery smile.
Poppy and Alice laughed and thought to themselves that Lupin would probably heal very quickly as he would have great motivation to get released from the hospital. It was apparent that Tonks was very much in love with the man. Lupin kept avoiding any type of emotional discussions because of his 'furry little problem' as Sirius called it. He felt that since he was a werewolf that he couldn't possibly make a good husband and he loved her so much he wanted her to move on and find a more deserving husband. Tonks was having none of it and Poppy was sure that perhaps she could find a few reasons to keep him in the bed a bit longer than a week, just to help Tonks.
Alice sent Severus a patronus, letting him know that Lupin was out of danger but it would take a while for him to heal. She also let him know that Tonks had arrived so she would be leaving and to meet her in the residence as she had some serious snogging on her mind.
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The next day the announcement was posted for the Quidditch tryouts. Gryffindor tryouts would be held Saturday at six in the morning. It was difficult to work Quidditch around all the extra classes that the Companions had to take but if they made the team then Professor Alice said they could replace one class of Physical Training with Quidditch practice. Everyone was thrilled to be able to get on brooms again, everyone except Madam Pomfrey and she just started stocking up on potions.
Harry sent Hedwig off with a letter to Griphook asking him to share the information about the potential for a bank heist with Ragnot. Harry shared that they had a traitor in their bank but he didn't get the name so they would have to try and find out who it is. He signed off with all the proper salutations and such and was sure that Ragnot would be pleased.
By the end of the day he heard from Griphook telling him they had caught the traitor and wanted to thank him for reporting information about the potential heist. If they had lost that much money at one time then it would appear that Ragnot might have had to pay a very heavy price, and it would not have been paid in gold, according to Griphook. So Ragnot was in Harry's debt and to top it off there was a large reward for turning in the plot so please let him know what he wanted them to do with it; deposit it in his account or send it to him.
Harry wrote back that he wanted an account set up for the Weasley Twins to be used as capital in starting their joke business eventually. He also wanted them to notify the Twins and to keep his name out of it completely.
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Harry, Hermione and Ron were walking back from the library when water started dripping on them. They looked up and water was pouring over the stairway like a waterfall. As they followed the water trail it led them to a girls bathroom. Hermione said, "No one uses this bathroom because of Moaning Myrtle."
"Who is Moaning Myrtle" asked Ron.
About that time Moaning Myrtle introduced herself then dove into the toilet right next to where Ron was standing, completely drenching him.
"Oh yuk!" said Ron. "What in the world is her problem?"
"She is always like that" said Hermione, "Let's get these faucets turned off so the water quits running down the stairways."
They got the water flow stopped and as they walked out of the bathroom they happened to look up on the wall, opposite the bathroom, and saw a message written there in, what looked like blood. "Heir of Slytherin has Risen, Beware all, the Chamber of Secrets has been opened again and your end is very near." It was positioned so that they would not have seen it as they entered but only when they walked out of the bathroom.
Right next to the sign was Filch's cat, hanging from a torch, petrified, and right below the cat they found Percy with a mirror in his hand. Harry sent a patronus to Sirius telling him an emergency was in progress and where they were.
Sirius was there in no time and the next thing they knew a voice came through the air ordering all students to their common rooms. "You guys stay here, I have a few questions and I am sure Professor Dumbledore will also."
Dumbledore arrived and they shared with him about the dripping water and how they came to the bathroom to turn off the faucets then they found the note, Percy and the cat. Dumbledore listened them then sent them off to their Dorm with a 'thank-you' but no information. The trio was livid! "Here we help out and they treat us like babies who are being sent to their rooms" said Harry.
"They are just trying to protect us" said Hermione, receiving a very dirty look from Harry. "I'm not saying I agree with them, because I don't! I just feel that they see us as younger than we really are and not capable of handling the information that they are dealing with. The only way we can change their minds is to share with them what we already know and we are not about to do that. Soooooo lets just let them be comfortable in their ignorance and we will continue to gather information our way."
Ron stared at Hermione and said, "When did you get all that parent knowledge?"
"Well," said Hermione, "My parents have this habit of talking about everything. When I get in trouble the first hour of it is talking it out and the last ten minutes might be punishment. I used to think it was a bunch of garbage but recently I realized that I can use this parent psychology to my favor."
Harry laughed then said, "Let's get back to the Dorm before the adults lose their psychology and get mad."
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Severus and Alice decided that since the five Death Eater snake-etts were caught that it would be safe for Draco to move back into the Slytherin Dorm again. It was nice having their son around at night but they both knew he needed the socialization that went with living in a dorm. If they kept him out too long he would lose the connections he needed to make friends and he had a few years yet before he would be leaving Hogwarts.
Draco packed his stuff and Severus walked him back to the dorm. Draco had talked Severus out of holding a house meeting and threatening everyone but could not talk him out of escorting him back to his room in Slytherin House.
Seveus felt that if everyone saw him with Draco the message would ring loud and clear that they were not to mess with Draco. If they did they would be messing with Severus and that is not something any of them wanted.
Draco was eager to start searching around the Slytherin fireplace to see if there was a secret passageway hidden there. He would have to wait until much later when everyone was in their rooms but he was sure that if the tunnel system connected to the other common rooms then it had to connect here also.
One of the first things Draco did was to attempt to fulfill a request by Hermione. She wanted him to check out the rooms of the five boys captured and see if he could find a hair brush with samples of their hair. When he questioned her she just said that, "In the future we just might find the need for those hairs and this might be the last chance we have to get them."
Draco was sure she was talking about using Polyjuice Potion in the future but it was a very difficult potion and took a long time to make. He had never done it but had seen Severus do it for the Aurors at the ministry.
Whatever she had in her head, he had learned not to question it, so he grabbed some bags from the utility room then went to check out the dorm rooms. As luck would have it Severus had not cleaned out the belongings yet so Draco took the hair brush from each room, bagged and labeled them, then put them in his trunk for safekeeping until he could give them to Hermione.
Draco worked on his homework until everyone went to bed. When he felt like they were all settled in for the night he began checking out the walls. He used the passwords they used on the other doors but nothing happened. Then he remembered that the password used on the door near the statue was different so perhaps this one was different also. He uttered, "Voldemort Open" and heard the grating noise of a door opening. He looked behind the tapestry and there it was, a secret doorway. He was flabbergasted that no one had stumbled across these doors in the common rooms before now but he knew they hadn't. The Slytherins wouldn't be walking all the way to the statue if they knew about the entrance in their own common room. Draco looked around one more time then went through the door. As he had thought, it was very dusty and there were no tracks in the dirt that surrounded the doorway. He lit the torch over his head and the torches worked the same way they did at the other entrances. As he walked forward they lit for him and if he walked backwards they went out. If he manually put one of them out with his wand then they would not light automatically. This was good to know in case he met up with other people.
Draco wasn't sleepy so he decided that he would explore a bit on his own. He told himself he wouldn't go near the place where the Death Eaters meet, although he was sure they would not try and return for a long time.
He was pretty much near the ground level so he didn't have to descend but did have to walk up a flight. It was a good thing he brought a marker with him because from that point the tunnel broke off going in three directions. He first marked the doorway to the Slytherin Common Room then drew an arrow with a date to let remind himself what day he was going in a certain direction. As he walked through the tunnel he noticed that there were not as many rooms. He passed only two rooms, both were empty, before he reached the next intersection.
Before he could choose what direction to go he heard a very familiar voice, his Father. He peeked around the corner and saw Severus and Professor Dumbledore sorting through paperwork on a table. It was then he noticed the table was located in the same room that the Death Eaters were when the kids came down here the first time. He sure didn't want his Dad to see him so he quickly but quietly went back the way he had come.
When he arrived back at the first intersection he decided it was safe enough to perhaps explore in another direction so he followed the tunnel that skirted the castle wall. Soon he heard another noise and at first he was scared that his Dad had moved and that now he would meet up with him. But the sound was too loud to be his Dad as Severus was a silent walker who you almost never knew was around until he was right on top of you. With that knowledge his curiosity was peaking so he continued on.
At the next turn of the tunnel, he peeked around and saw Ginny doing the same thing he was doing, exploring. He snuck up on her and grabbed her around the mouth so that she wouldn't scream but let her see who he was. Once she recognized him he released her and smiled. "What are you doing down here?"
"I might ask you the same question" she said in a normal voice. He quickly put his finger to his lips, signaling her to be quiet. Then in a whisper he told her that he had seen his Dad and Professor Dumbledore going through papers down at the main tunnel. They found the nearest room and went around the corner then sat with their backs against the wall. "I found the secret entrance to the Slytherin Common Room", said Draco. "I figured that if the tunnel system connected to the other rooms then it probably connected to Slytherin. The only difference is the password, ours is Voldemort."
"Hermione told me about the connection to Ravenclaw so I thought I would check it out" said Ginny. "Our password is the same as the rest of them so I guess yours is the only one that is different. Of course we don't have anyone in Hufflepuff so I can't be sure."
"There is one more leg to this part of the tunnel system I want to check before I go back, do you want to come with me?" asked Draco.
"Sure, let's go" said Ginny.
As they walked in the other direction Draco noticed a few more doors that they could check out later. It would seem that this section of the tunnel had doorways rather than rooms. When they reached the end they found the door that Draco wanted to check out. It looked rather special in that it had the caldron design on the door. He spoke the password 'Merlin' but nothing happened, so he tried 'Voldemort' and the door clicked. He slowly opened the door and stood there stunned. They were at an entrance to his Dad's office next to the Potions classroom. He quickly shut the door and looked at Ginny. "This is interesting, I would hazard a guess that Dad doesn't know it's here. Wait until the rest of the crew hears about this."
"It's getting late said Ginny, we had best head back to our rooms before someone notices we are missing."
"Yeh, you're right, we had best get back. If for no other reason than we need to be awake for classes tomorrow."
With that they started back and when they had walked about two hundred yards they turned a corner and ran right into none other than................. Severus.
The look that Severus gave them should have killed them on the spot and they both thought that later they would probably wish it had.
He grabbed them both by the scuff of the neck and proceeded to push them toward the exit behind the statue.