Chapter Ten – A Meeting With The Headmaster

I was thrilled that rather than being lectured at or asked impossible questions, we actually brewed a potion in potions class. I learned that I'm good at potion making. As expected, I paired with Draco. Not as expected, Draco allowed Muggle-born me to take the lead, helping me by chopping ingredients and reading the text to me as I worked. Potions making is much like cooking and Aunt Petunia had required me to do most of the cooking, from the age I was old enough to reach the stove top.

As he roamed among the potions benches, Professor Snape frequently paused at our table. He complimented me on the quality of my work. I knew he was being sincere, because I just felt that I was good at this. On his last pass by our cauldron, his message was more for Draco than for me: "excellent work Ms. Potter. If I could have a few minutes of your time after class, Mr. Malfoy."

He was gone, before Draco could say a word. I couldn't imagine what Draco had done to get into trouble. His focus had been entirely upon me and helping me to prepare the potion. He hadn't so much as glanced at either Pansy or either of the Gryffindor benches.

I was worried, so I waited outside the potions room. I wanted to know immediately what complaint Professor Snape could have about Draco's conduct.

I waited ten minutes. Draco did not look chastened, so I assumed it couldn't have been too awful.

"I didn't do anything wrong. Professor Snape said I should consider this a prophylactic talk. He mainly talked about himself and your mother. He once drove her away by accidentally calling her a Mud-blood – that's about as nasty an insult that you can hurl at a Muggle-born Wizard. It means dirty blood or mixed blood. Ignorant pure bloods practically despise the Muggle-born. Anyway, Professor Snape warned me that I must never call anyone a Mud-blood, unless I am eager to lose your love and friendship."

"You wouldn't say anything that nasty."

"The old me might have. We pick up things our parents say. I've heard my father say that twice. Some of his friends say it a lot. It's a Slytherin thing. The Slytherin House master has used that insult to rouse up the house against Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. The older students told me that Professor Snape has done that every year – until now. It's strange – both ways. Snape is a Muggle-born. So was Voldemort.

"I mentioned this to Professor Snape and asked why he had changed. He said things at Hogwarts were too disturbed to encourage such nonsense. He needed calm to figure out what was wrong. He said he wants to protect me from the special nastiness he senses. Do you think I need Snape's protection?"

I angered Draco by foolishly responding: "of course you don't – not with Goyle and Crabbe."

He stomped off, without a kiss or even a goodbye. I searched for him. When I found him an hour later, I apologized and kissed him.

"It's alright. You really do always say what you think. I didn't pick Crabbe and Goyle as protectors. My father picked them – I suspect he pays them. I don't know if they are mainly supposed to protect me or to spy on me. I know Goyle sends off an awful lot of owls. I caught him receiving an owl message written in father's hand. I didn't recognize the owl, but I wouldn't expect father to be so stupid as to use an owl I might recognize."

We made up and snogged and went off to dinner together.

Dumbledore's simple announcement chilled me to the bone.

"Professor Trelawney's mother has taken ill again. The professor fears this might be the end and has asked to be excused for the remainder of term. If you have first level Divination, I shall be your instructor. If you have second level, the course is canceled, but you have sufficient time to choose another course. Professor Trelawney hopes to be with us again after Christmas break."

I turned to look at Draco. He was looking at me and he was as white as I felt I must be. This was very serious. I had a private meeting in less than a day with the powerful Wizard who had just done who knows what to Professor Trelawney, simply because I had met with her. What would he do to me? He hadn't wanted me at Hogwarts. He hadn't wanted me in the Wizarding world at all and he most certainly hadn't wanted me anywhere near his precious Harry.

I couldn't sleep. I played the possibilities over and over in my head. What had Dumbledore overheard? What would Professor Trelawney have admitted to, before he did whatever he had done to her? It was all my fault that she was gone.

Being awake, but lying quietly amidst my thoughts, I was able to spot Pansy leaving her bed and our dorm room. Her actions seemed furtive, so I followed her far enough to determine that this wasn't a bathroom run. Nor had she gone to our common room to read. I peered down the stairs and spied her leaving the common room and turning left into the corridor. I wasn't dressed for following her, so I returned to bed.

I must have fallen asleep, because I heard Pansy's snores. I got out of bed and dressed. The twins were stirring, so I asked them to join me for breakfast. I told them about Pansy. Brinda said that she saw Pansy sneak out once, about three days ago. I confided my worry about being called to Dumbledore's office after he caught me speaking to Professor Trelawney.

"And now Trelawney is gone." Brinda observed.

"Exactly. Now you understand why I'm so worried."

Draco joined us. "I came up early – I suspected you wouldn't be able to sleep and would need a comforter. I see you found two. I know when I'm redundant."

Breakfast was a blur, just tasteless food shoveled into my mouth. Draco watched me almost eating. He looked worried for me.

"You can do this," Draco assured me. "Fill your head with other thoughts so he can't read your mind. It is said that Dumbledore can do that, although he's not supposed to do it with a student. As I say, he cheats. I'm told that his favorite phrase in these situations is 'is there something you wish to tell me?' It's a trap, but you can't just refuse to play his game. You have to give him something, just not something terribly important that he doesn't already know. You'll be fine. It doesn't hurt to ask him early along 'are you snooping in my head, it feels like you are?' That should put him on guard that you might report him. You're a Slytherin. You are as cunning as he is. You don't know what he wormed out of Trelawney, so it is best to lie as little as possible and to only tell plausible lies – things you might have misunderstood are fine. Good luck!"

"Just make sure you send the owl right away."

The door to Dumbledore's office opened and I walked in. "You wanted to speak to me headmaster."

As he led me further into his office, I saw that Harry was already seated and facing Dumbledore's desk. I took the other seat, reaching out to hold Harry's hand and give it a little squeeze.

"Do you have anything to tell me, Miss Potter?"

"Yes, I do. In case you have plans to make me disappear like you did with Professor Trelawney, you should know that Draco has sent an owl to his father. He will make sure that all the Wizards know what you did to me and to her. You never wanted me here. You didn't want me to live at the Dursleys or to ever see Harry . I'm here only because Professor Trelawney intervened to save me. Yesterday you were very upset that I would ask Professor Trelawney to help interpret my dream. You never told me that I couldn't talk to any of the professors, and yet she is the second professor who seemed almost too frightened to talk to me. Then right after she talked to me you announced that she was gone. Did you kill her?"

"What? Is that really how the Slytherins think of me? No, of course I didn't kill her and I wouldn't harm you. I'm not in the habit of murdering my faculty. I just suggested that she take off a few months and learn to stifle her rebelliousness. It really is a new side of her personality, which began with your appearance in our lives. Now that I've answered your question I will ask again if there is anything you want to tell me."

"Yes, I suppose there is."

I felt a tickle in my brain and mentally swatted it away. I guess, in my anger at such a very personal intrusion, I must have swatted it away very soundly, because Dumbledore winced in pain and put a hand to his forehead.

"That is very rude and I was led to believe that snooping in a student's brain is not permitted. Do it again and I won't be so gentle. Okay, what do I want to tell you? I guess the first thing is that I know you want to separate me from Harry. I know you've told more than one professor that I don't really exist, that I'm some sort of fraud and not really Harry's sister, that you've seen me and that I don't look at all like Harry or my parents. You seem to think that I was magically conjured up by some evil Wizard, like McGonagall changed her desk into a pig."

"That was a serious mistake. As a one-year old you didn't look like much of anything. I truly believed Harry didn't have a sister, so you must be a phony and Professor Trelawney was duped. This year I just saw you at a distance at the train station. Perhaps I saw what I wanted to see. Yes, seeing you up close, of course you must be Lily's daughter. Yes, I know I've wronged you. Blame it on an old Wizard's conceit that an impression he had when you were one-year old must be true. Perhaps my mind was tampered with, so that I would do something truly horrible. It is my career to protect and nurture students. I can't explain why I decided to throw you away, other than I thought that was necessary so that Harry could become Harry.

"And no, of course you weren't just conjured up. You can't make a living thing by transfiguration. Professor McGonagall made a poor imitation of a pig. I'll bet she turned it back to a desk almost at once. That's because such a pig, even one created by as gifted a Witch as Professor McGonagall can only last for a couple dozen heartbeats. You can't fake life. A magically created life can't think, or grow, or survive for more than minutes. As I said, I am truly sorry, but I interrupted you, please continue."

"I know that Emako is real. I've lived with her my entire life." Harry had no doubts. "I am a real boy, with a real life. To this real boy, I'm Emako's twin, not 'the boy who lived' or 'the famous Harry Potter'. I'm lost here. I don't know whom I can trust, apart from Emako and Ron. I know I shouldn't trust you."

"Would you rather just go home and give up on being a Wizard," Dumbledore asked Harry. Harry only shrugged.

I broke the silence.

"I know that you forced the sorting hat to put me into Slytherin. I know that you made sure I had no warning that it would be a very bad thing for me to say anything bad about Voldemort or to call him 'the Big Bad V' to members of Slytherin House. I know that with no home-learned defensive magical skills, you expected Pansy to seriously injure me, or worse. The second thing I want to tell you is that I know you believe Voldemort is still alive. I guess the third thing I should say is that Draco Malfoy is my new boyfriend."

"That's quite a lot. I know that Pansy attacked you and that your wild magic almost killed her. I know that what you just did to find me inside your head and throw me out is very powerful magic. Yes, I wanted Harry here without you. I believe that Harry is very important to all of our futures and I didn't want to risk you messing that up. I didn't believe Professor Trelawney when she said that you somehow were important. I thought she was justifying her balking of my plans for Harry. I was wrong. Your magic is very strong and Harry needs you.

"I now see that you may be almost as important as Harry. I also see that many of my faculty will turn against me if I don't accept you. I would have made absolutely certain you never came to Hogwarts, had I realized the extreme effect you would have upon Professor Snape. You are too much like your mother and I handled the situation clumsily. I'd move you to Gryffindor, if I could, but that would raise far too many questions and put you and Harry at greater risk. Having you inside Slytherin might help us. Draco can be saved and I'm sure other Slytherins will follow the two of you."

Harry banged his fist on the desk.

"I want Emako. I hardly see her. I need her back. You say you are a friend and you want to help me, but you act like an enemy. If you want to be my friend, then give back Emako." Harry told Dumbledore.

Dumbledore shrugged and spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness.

"Now you see me as your spy inside Slytherin?" I asked Dumbledore. "There are some Slytherins I don't like, but I won't betray Draco."

"No, not exactly a spy. To ask someone to spy for you is to put them at very grave risk. Is there anything you want to ask or tell me about your conversation with Professor Trelawney?"

"She had a secret to tell me. You interrupted us before she could tell me what that secret is. I know that it involves Voldemort and Harry and me. What is the secret? I feel I can't be safe unless I know the secret."

I felt Dumbledore inside my head again and swatted him out of my mind as hard as I could. Dumbledore screamed, held his head in both hands and lowered it to his desktop.

"Sorry, but I warned you not to do that. Draco told me that it is illegal and warned me that you would try regardless of that. He knows about you."

"Ah. And has Draco told you that his father is a Death Eater? That's one of the supporters of the dark Wizard Voldemort – the Wizard who murdered your parents and almost killed Harry."

"He told me that his father was Imperiused into behaving like a Death Eater."

"Yes, that is one possible explanation for Lucius Malfoy's behavior. Unfortunately, that is the explanation that our government chose to accept and Lucius is a free man and the power behind the Minister. I am quite certain he actually was a Death Eater… is still a Death Eater. I have no problem with Draco. You might be a good influence upon him. But, you should take this warning very seriously: Lucius Malfoy is a very serious threat to you, to Harry, and to those around you. He will do his best to corrupt his own son."

"So you know better than the government about Draco's father. You didn't answer my question about the secret."

"I know I didn't. It would be dangerous to tell you the secret now. You are too young to understand and you would do something foolish. You would do well to heed my warning about Lucius Malfoy. He is evil."

"Thank you. I will be on my guard."

"Must go!" Harry declared as he stood up and grabbed my hand. I let him lead me out of the office. He was very upset and trying not to cry.

Draco was waiting. "The owl got away safely," he told me. "Professor Sprout arrived at the Owlery just a minute after my owl left." I told her "you're too late, now Dumbledore won't be able to hurt Emako."

"That certainly could have gone better," Dumbledore said to nobody in particular.