AEU Chapter 14
Harry sat back from his collected stack of books, deep in thought about what he had read.
His mind couldn't really grasp the amount of fear, destruction and death Voldemort brought to the world for so many years. People died by the dozens in every day of the war, with the Ministry of Magic barely managing to keep the wizarding world a secret whilst also trying to save as many people as possible. There were perhaps two hundred Death Eaters, and hundreds and thousands of other wizards making up the dark side's army. Led by Voldemort, his inner circle and with some nasty creatures on his leash, they were quite literally taking over the country.
As he continued reading about the murders, the armies of corpses ravaging the populace, the Dark Mark cast over so many settlements signifying their end and the whispers of the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters, Harry felt the first prickles of fear when he thought about Lord Voldemort.
Before he had been an abstract idea, someone who had killed his parents but was gone now. After all this research though, it did not seem possible that he, Harry, had destroyed Voldemort that night. Hagrid's words about Voldemort being broken but not dead came back to him now. If the man was out there somewhere, he could be the one behind all of these incidents but then…
Harry tried to think rationally, Voldemort couldn't be behind everything, could he?
Perhaps it was a new threat who wanted whatever was hidden within Hogwarts, who just wanted to distract everyone from defending that task by killing the least experienced member of a Quidditch team, therefore singling Harry out as an obvious target.
Unable to shake the unsettling feeling in his stomach, he looked over at Hermione, whose face was white with reading about the deaths of so many. Records of the Daily Prophet were hardly as reliable evidence as Harry's source books, but even they painted a picture of blood and thunder across magical Britain and sometimes even beyond, reports going as far away as Albania, speaking of the Death Eaters' ferocity.
"I just can't believe it all Harry," she said in a low voice.
"I don't know what happened to him after that night after he killed my…my parents, but I don't think he died," Harry said slowly, scared to think of the alternatives.
"From everything I've read, he was terrified of Dumbledore for some reason. He never came close to Hogwarts or took the Ministry by force because of the headmaster," Hermione said with some fake confidence with an undercurrent of panic.
Harry stood up and stretch before patting her shoulder reassuringly.
"We'll figure this all out Hermione. We need to get going," he said before filing his books away using the levitation spell he knew along with the libraries own return system.
Hermione sighed and rubbed her eyes, "You know we need to go to someone about all of this. Even if Voldemort turns out to be smoke and mirrors, someone is trying to get into Hogwarts to steal this object, whatever it is," she said whilst clearing away her own books.
"We can speak to McGonagall after dinner, she's our head of house anyway, she should listen to us," Harry decided, before the pair strolled down to the Great Hall at a leisurely pace.
Ron was already there, attacking a large pie of some sort. He gave a nod of acknowledgement to Harry and then looked carefully at Hermione. She rolled her eyes; the day before she and Ron had argued about his habit about talking with his mouth full. They still were not friends as much as Harry tried to make them gel together. Whilst they were coming around to the idea, they seemed to enjoy bickering too much to develop any further attachment yet.
"Okay, what did you get?" Ron said eventually, before turning a little green from the various details Harry and Hermione relayed to him.
"Bloody hell, my parents told me a few things about the war and all but I never knew about all this…So do y'think You-Know-Who is behind all these attacks and stuff?" he said at first in anger then with a quieter panic in his voice.
"We aren't sure, that's the problem. We don't know enough about the world we are in to know if there are any other forces out there that could take Hogwarts or break into Gringotts," Harry said in frustration.
"Well, the only other person I can think of is Grindelwald, that bloke who-"
"Dumbledore defeated in 1945?" Hermione interrupted with curiosity.
"Is he still alive?" Harry asked in bewilderment.
"Yeah, Dumbledore didn't kill him; he just put him in his own prison," Ron answered, "But I don't think it's him to be honest. The place is nearly as impregnable as Azkaban-"
"-More so from what I've read-"
"And Gringotts and Hogwarts?" Harry interrupted this time, stopping Hermione dead and leaving Ron even more scared.
"Let's tell the professor first before we do any more thinking on this. We need to know of the staff are aware of this thief," Hermione said, sweeping off to the staff table to get an appointment with McGonagall.
"Harry, do you really think You-Know-Who is here?" Ron asked him disbelievingly.
"I don't know mate. It's not like it's not possible. I wouldn't put anything past him from everything I've read. But…I don't know. I hope not," Harry said.
The walls of the Hall did not seem so safe anymore. The people around him ate and chatted on unawares of the danger that was circling around him. Harry shivered from the thoughts that entered his head, the feeling that he was being watched by unseen forces, desperate to kill him and everyone else in the room.
If McGonagall was confused by the trio's sudden request for a meeting it did not show in her face when they came into her office.
"Well? Miss Granger told me that you needed to speak with me on a matter of urgency," she said briskly.
"Professor, we think that the person that attacked Harry could be linked to the break in at Gringotts earlier this year," Hermione said.
McGonagall's face tightened noticeably as Harry continued, "We figured that the object within that vault was moved here, seen as Hogwarts is more remote than Gringotts, just as secure from thieves and also an easy place to trap someone should they appear."
The transfiguration teacher sat silently watching them, so Harry carried on through his feelings about the attack on him, the troll being let in on Halloween night and the sealing off of the third floor corridor flag-posted to them that someone had been attempting to both steal the item and kill Harry.
"Because it takes great magic to break into Gringotts and Hogwarts, both without being caught AND the person tried to kill me directly plus sent in a troll to try and distract everyone without thought for loss of life that could result from that action, we assume the person is working for Voldemort or is perhaps...Voldemort himself," Harry concluded, watching carefully the reactions that had happened on the woman's face.
She had gone through shock, interest, respect and resignation within a few seconds.
"Mr Potter, I must first instruct you that nothing that I am about to tell you must go beyond this room," McGonagall began, her office door shutting briskly with an unspoken command, "First of all, we know that someone is trying to steal the item hidden within the third floor. We made the announcement of the dangers of going there public to ensure the thief knows where the object they seek is. We also know that the man is already inside the school and is waiting for his chance to steal the item."
"I assume it's a trap?" Hermione asked, concentrating on the new information.
"Yes Miss Granger, the headmaster knew the thief would find where the object was sooner or later, so we decided to ensnare the man in a tempting trap. We fully expect him to make his move by Christmas when many of the students will return home," McGonagall shifted in her seat, "We do suspect that this man is working with You-Know-Who in some capacity. For this reason, I must ask you all to abstain from your investigation and exercise extreme caution for the rest of the term, particularly you Mr Potter."
The group sat in collective silence for a while, each within their own thoughts.
Finally, Harry sighed and stood up, "Thank you for your time Professor. We won't look anymore into this," and he motioned for the other two to follow him out.
"So what do we do Harry?" Ron asked later in the Common Room.
"I think its best that we stay out of all of this. We don't know too much magic after all," Harry said, laying out a reasonable plan that the other two swiftly agreed too.
"Hagrid must know something about all of this, I wouldn't have thought the teachers would have missed out on the opportunity to get some monster to guard the object," Hermione said logically after a period of reflection, causing Harry and Ron to wince in horror at exactly what Hagrid had suggested to put only a few hundred meters away from where they sleep.
"Erm...on second thought, let's check with Hagrid to make sure that whatever he put in the place is...um, safely contained," Harry said, eliciting nods from the two others.
"So otherwise, it's business as usual then?" Ron asked in relief about not interfering directly with Lord Voldemort.
"Yeah, we really shouldn't be screwing around with this sort of stuff. I mean, they set up these traps to ensnare Voldemort. We will almost certainly die if we attempt to set foot in that corridor, although we should definitely check to see what sort of horror Hagrid put in there," Harry said cautiously.
The group smiled, relieved that their part in this had come to an end before Ron groaned at the large pile of homework he had allowed to build up.
Hermione looked at Ron slumped at a desk before rolling her eyes and turning to Harry, "I don't think he's going to be moving for the next few hours. Do you want to grill Hagrid now?"
"We probably should, before he gets agitated by Christmas and whatnot. I'll be down in a minute," Harry said, running up to his dorm room to grab his winter cloak.
The pair set off towards Hagrid's hut not knowing exactly what they were getting themselves into.
"So that's the situation in a nutshell Albus," McGonagall finished, sighing in her seat.
The headmaster was drumming his fingers together in thought and the other house leaders were taking in what the trio had uncovered in their own ways.
"At the very least, all this means that the Dark Lord has taken the bait and is moving within Hogwarts using Quirrell," Professor Snape said calmly.
"That's all well and good but the plan was that he would be going straight for the stone, not after our students!" Professor Sprout said irritably at the potions master.
"Harry Potter is protected in more ways than one. We shall all keep a closer eye on him from now on, but to be fair, we should have been doing that anyway," Dumbledore said, turning towards one of the silver spindly instruments, one of the few that he himself had made, and noted the magical essence it was detecting was the right level.
"I fully expect Lord Voldemort to make his move in the Christmas break. He would be a fool to wait any longer, especially as the school shall be emptied by all but a few for two weeks. That opportunity will not come up again until the end of the school year," he explained to the staff assembled, "Whilst Mr Potter will almost certainly stay over for this time, Voldemort should be focused enough on final planning and actually doing the deed that everyone should be reasonably safe in the castle."
"Has Fudge been told about any of this?" McGonagall said with a hint of consternation, the Minister was not the strongest of souls at the best of times and every year seemed to slip further up his own office.
She was not expecting Dumbledore to smile and say, "Oh yes, the Minister knows something is up, along with Madam Bones and a few select aurors. Hopefully they will be all here to see Voldemort's attempt. That will go a long way in making Fudge take magical law enforcement seriously again, and it may even shake his trust in Lucius Malfoy…though I don't hold out hope there."
Taking in the disbelief from his staff, he chuckled a little and said, "Ah. You expected me to lure Voldemort back into this country, thus irreparably proving that he is alive and dangerous, without showing the authorities? Why on earth would I do such a thing?"
Snape eyed the headmaster curiously, "And Potter? Do you expect him to sit this one out?"
"Do you expect him to intervene, Severus?" Flitwick said in surprise.
"But of course. How could he not? A chance to see his parents' executioner trapped so close to him...why would he not want to 'wander'?"
The room erupted at the sound of the last word. Dumbledore silenced them all by saying, "If…if Harry wishes to journey with us, I cannot deny him. If my suspicions are correct, I may need him to go down there at some point anyway. And…well, I want him to see the mirror, if only once. I think it would do him good to see what lies within his heart."
The meeting was quiet for a time before the various members excused themselves. McGonagall remained however.
"You realise that Mr Potter and his friends might not wait for us Albus? Hagrid has always been the weak man in this chain of ours and his friends might easily take what they need to know from him."
Dumbledore turned sternly round to look her in the eye, "Minerva, you and I both know that whilst he may seem to be a child, already the pain he has dealt with in his life has forced him to be wise beyond his years. He knows our plan and he also understands what is at stake. Give him some credit and even if he does become clouded with emotion, trust Miss Granger to turn him right. They might be children, but children surprise even myself with their sensibilities sometimes, as well as their foolishness."
The woman could find to argument against what he said and so nodded and briskly walked out of the room.
Dumbledore hummed quietly as he sat back down in his chair. "Christmas is coming…the goose is getting fat…"