Secrets and Lies
Harry, Sadie and Quirrell were rushed to the Hospital Wing to check them over. Madame Pomfrey understood why they couldn't go to St Mungo's. These events had to be kept secret. No one needed to know just how close Voldemort had come to returning. A phoney explanation had to be given. A malicious, foreign wizard had placed him under the Imperius Curse. That would do. Now the curse was broken.
Sadie and Harry were fine as it turned out, but Madame Pomfrey insisted they stay in the Hospital Wing a few days. Quirrell would have to spend a long time recuperating.
Their Headmaster and Head of House came by to visit. Dumbledore, Snape and the kids stood around Quirrell's bed.
"I must say, you're being awfully generous about all this. I didn't just make an ass of myself. I made a monster of myself."
Sadie put a little hand on his shoulder, her eyes anxious through the holes in her mask. "But you are alright now."
"Indeed Quirinius, you are." Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling. "Young Sadie has saved you from Voldemort. I admit, that I had given up hope that you could be saved. Voldemort would have let you die. He shows as little mercy to his followers as he does to his enemies. So, you have young Sadie to thank for your life and soul being restored to you, even if her methods were a little… ahh… unconventional. You have your life, but your magic powers are lost beyond recall."
Sadie stuck out the overlarge green bottom lip of her mask and nodded. "T-That is a possible side effect of a drastic Medean exorcism. The type for the worst kind of parasite."
"I thank you for saving me, my darling child," said Quirrell. "I have my soul again. Magic is but little loss. You earned the high mark I gave you in Defence."
Sadie smiled sadly and nodded.
"There are still things he can do," said Madame Pomfrey briskly. "How about if Quirinius took over the History of Magic position?"
"My dear child, are you asking me to sack poor Binns?"
"Binns needs to go, Dumbledore," said Snape. "He's literally incapable of adapting his material to the needs of the students."
"I am rather fond of history," said Quirrell timidly.
Dumbledore appeared to consider this. "Perhaps the position needs someone to bring new life to it."
"Or any life at all," said Snape scornfully. "Now you two…" Harry and Sadie looked up. "Albus commends your loyalty and reckless daring, but I will say that I do not approve. Nonetheless, there will be no punishment. If you were in his old house, no doubt Albus would give you points."
"Really, Severus," said Dumbledore. "It gladdens my heart that Hogwarts can turn out students of such loyalty and integrity, ready to put their lives on the line for the greater good and thwart Lord Voldemort. Besides, young McIntyre saved her teacher's life. She was the only one not to give up hope on saving a life. You must agree she deserves credit for that at least."
Snape rolled his eyes.
"It's sad that anyone would give up on saving a life," said Sadie. "And it still sickens me that any of our kind could have supported a monster like You-Know-Who."
"Well said," said Dumbledore.
"Where is the Stone now?" asked Harry
"The Stone is disposed of," said Dumbledore. "Along with the Mirror of Erised. Nicolas has others. The Mirror is too dangerous to be at large."
Sadie gave a great sigh of relief. "Good, I'm so glad Flamel has other Stones. That's a weight off my mind."
"Sir?" Harry asked after a time. "Even if the Stone is gone, Voldemort's still out there. He's going to try other ways to come back, isn't he?"
Dumbledore nodded. "Yes, I'm afraid he will. He is still out there somewhere, perhaps looking for another body to share. Nevertheless, Harry, while you may have only delayed his return power, it will merely take someone else who is prepared to fight a losing battle next time, and if he is delayed again, and again, why, he may never return to power. Now my two young heroes… your mothers will want to see you. Jamie is still busy at St Mungo's and accepted my written assurance that her daughter is fine, but Cora has been very eager to enter the Hospital Wing. She has become quite excitable."
Harry felt butterflies in his stomach. Snape's disapproval would be nothing, nothing at all compared to his mother's disappointment that he put himself in danger.
Sadie slipped her little hand in his.
Cora burst into the Hospital Wing. She looked terrible. He blue eyes were streaked with green (her version of being bloodshot – she did have green blood). Obviously, she'd been crying. Her red hair was dishevelled. Harry felt a surge of guilt at the look she gave him. Dumbledore restrained her, gripping both her green arms in his long fingered hands. "Calm yourself, my dear Cora. Remember, my staff should not show great outbursts of emotion."
Snape gave him a sardonic look.
"Is it true?" Cora stared almost wildly at them, her blue eyes appearing to start out of her green head. Her voice sounded choked. "You went charging into danger with that maniac on the prowl…? How you could…?"
Then she sagged in Dumbledore's grip. "Dumbledore, please, I just want to hug them. I am calm, honest."
Dumbledore released her and she grabbed them both in her arms, hugging and kissing them fiercely, her tears dripping onto them both.
Madame Pomfrey stroked her long red hair. "There, there, dear. I for one agree with you."
"You should be proud of their heroism, Cora," said Dumbledore. "Harry has thwarted Lord Voldemort a second time. The evil one failed to kill him as a baby and now he has failed yet again. It is heart-warming indeed, don't you agree?"
Cora rounded on Dumbledore. "And why did he want to kill Harry in the first place? Tell me the truth, Headmaster."
"The truth," Dumbledore sighed. "The truth, Cora, is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution. I shall answer your questions as best I am able, unless I have a very good reason not to, in which case I must beg your forgiveness. I shall not, of course, lie to you." Dumbledore sighed. "Alas, the first thing you ask of me, I cannot tell you. Not today, not now. I must ask you to put the question from your mind, dear girl. I will tell you one day, Harry, when you are older. It is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe you are ready now. When you are, you will know."
"Rubbish!" stormed Cora. "You are deliberately withholding things." She breathed through her green nose, her blue eyes glinting and her bosom rising and falling.
"Secrets and lies… they have always been part of the magical world," said Snape.
"I'm afraid it is so," said Dumbledore. "It is because we live in a hidden world, that secrets and lies are a part of life."
"Wish we didn't," said Sadie sadly. "I hate that there's no harmony between Magic and Muggle. There's so much we can do for each other."
"I for one agree with you, but I cannot overrule the Ministry for Magic, or make others see the truth to life," said Dumbledore smoothly. "I do try to learn from the Muggles for my part. I read the Muggle newspapers as well."
Sadie smiled at him with the lips of her mask.
"I'm not interested in your secrets and lies, Dumbledore," said Cora. "Not when my boy's life is at stake."
"Professor Dumbledore is a very great wizard. We must bow before his judgement," said Snape, his expression unreadable. Madame Pomfrey was looking at Dumbledore askance. But Cora folded her arms and glared, the lamplight shining off her green nose and cheeks. Probably she realised she would get no more from Dumbledore. At any rate, she did not interrogate him further.
00O00
Madam Pomfrey was a nice woman, but she was very strict. Visiting times had to be tightly scheduled. Harry and Sadie pleaded with her at length before she finally relented and gave permission for their friends to visit. Even so, she restricted them to coming in one at a time, and then only for very short visits.
"Harry! Sadie!" Draco exclaimed as he rushed in the door. "How are you? Not faking it, I hope?"
Sadie chuckled and hugged him.
"Hello, Draco," Harry smiled. "All right?"
"We've been so worried about you both," Draco told him. "Pansy's eating everything in sight that Crabbe and Goyle haven't got to first - Tracy has stopped eating. Millie's restless."
"We're fine," Harry assured him. " I've had worse."
"We both have," said Sadie nodding, her purple hair rippling and bouncing. "Don't worry Draco. We're coming out of the Hospital Wing tomorrow."
"Just in time for the end-of-year feast," Draco said gleefully. "The points are all in, and we flattened the other Houses. Gryffindor were smashed in their match against Ravenclaw and have come bottom for both cups. Weasley is livid."
"Good." Harry was delighted that his House had taken both Cups once again this year and proud that he had been a part of their victories.
Madam Pomfrey chose that moment to come bustling over. "All right, Mister Malfoy, that's enough. The others are starting to froth at the mouth a bit. Get you gone."
Draco got to his feet. Under Madam Pomfrey's stern gaze, he slouched out the door.
"Harry! Sadie, my love!" Tracy squealed as she flew to their side. She hugged Harry as best she could, her sudden weight driving the air from his lungs. Blonde hair covered his eyes and the smell of Tracy's shampoo invaded his nostrils. Harry felt her lips mushed into his cheek. Then she grabbed Sadie in her arms and kissed her fiercely all over her mask. "Don't you ever worry me like that again," she said fiercely. She was crying and Harry could tell that this time, her tears were genuine. She hugged Sadie so fiercely that the small girl squeaked and wriggled in her arms. "Don't be so stupid again. I won't let you." Harry supposed that she regretted letting Sadie follow him at all.
The remainder of the visits were very low-key. Mostly they made small talk; sometimes they just sat together.
After the visits, Harry was tired. He began to doze off. His head tipped to the side, and the unruly black hair fell away from the scar on his forehead.
Sadie snuggled down in the bed beside him and nuzzled his neck with her cold, mannequin face. "Rest easy, dear Harry."
After a good night's sleep, Harry felt almost himself again. The two of them were awake bright and early in the morning.
Trying not to run, they walked as quickly as he could down to the Great Hall where the first year Slytherins were standing outside the doors.
"You're late," Draco drawled at them. "Lazybones."
"Draco!" Daphne admonished him.
Tracy didn't waste words, but started hugging and kissing Sadie again.
The doors opened and the Slytherins were bathed in a glow of light. The Great Hall was completely decked out in the Slytherin colours of green and silver to celebrate Slytherin's winning of the House Cup, which was displayed at one end of the Slytherin table with the prefects. The Quidditch Cup was on display at the other end with the Quidditch team. A huge serpent banner covered the wall behind the High Table.
The dull roar in the Hall hushed suddenly, and then after a couple of uncomfortable moments, Harry raised his chin and marched over to sit down with the team. The others took the seats that had purposely been left empty nearby.
Dumbledore and the other Professors arrived moments later. The babble that had gradually resumed died away. As the Professors took their seats, the Headmaster remained standing.
"Another year gone!" he said cheerfully. "And now I must trouble you with an old man's wheezing waffle before we tuck into our delicious feast. What a year it has been! Hopefully your heads are all a little fuller than they were. You have the whole summer to get them nice and empty before next year starts.
"Now, as I understand it, the House Cup needs official presenting. The final points stand thus: In fourth place, Gryffindor, with three hundred seventy points; in third, Hufflepuff, with three hundred eighty-three points; in second, Ravenclaw, with four hundred twenty and Slytherin, five hundred three."
A storm of cheering broke out across the Slytherin table, Harry cheering as loud as the rest. Flint raised up the Quidditch Cup in both hands and waved it around. Bole and Derrick started a chant of "Sly-Ther-In!"
The cheering took some time to die down. Harry could see Professor Snape looking very eerie, wearing what appeared to be a smile. He looked over at Harry, as if he knew he was being watched, and nodded slightly as if to say, 'Well done.'
"Yes, yes, well done Slytherin," Dumbledore said at last. "And now, let us feast!"
Harry set to the food with a ravenous appetite. He would have liked to avoid questions about what had happened down in the dungeons entirely, but his teammates were eager to hear about the test with the keys. He stayed away from the subject of Quirrell and especially anything having to do with Voldemort. That must be kept secret. Draco, Tracy and the rest had no idea they had helped their two friends defy the former Dark Lord. After awhile the topic changed, and he began to actively participate in the conversation.
Harry loved life at Hogwarts. He would remember the feast for the rest of his life. He would not forget the feeling he'd gotten when one of the sixth year girls, Heather Duke, brought out a camera to take pictures of the Quidditch team together with the prefects and both Cups. Pictures of all kinds were taken, at both the feast and the after-feast which happened back in the Slytherin common room.
The after-feast involved loud music, lots of sweets, and plenty of silliness on behalf of everyone. Niles the prefect assured him that this was typical of the end-of-year celebration when the House had taken both Cups. "Or just one of the Cups," he added reflectively. "Or any time we're not under the stress of school. You'll find out about those parties when you're older."
"Why just for the older kids? We've got stress too," Theo objected.
"It involves alcohol," Pansy said, pulling a weird face. She and Theo held hands. Since the showdown with the giant chess pieces, they acknowledged their feelings for one another.
Harry didn't know what time he went to bed, but the sun was starting to rise over the lake when he finally shut his curtains. He was out cold in half a heartbeat.
Exam results came the next day at breakfast, and Harry opened his as eagerly as everyone else. To his extreme satisfaction, he passed with excellent marks all around. Harry's best mark was Defence Against the Dark Arts. He was best in the year at that subject. He had scored even higher than Draco, Hermione, Sadie and even Theo and Tracy. His second-best mark was in Potions. Harry knew he'd earned it all.
The morning was spent comparing marks with everyone else. Theo and Tracy had done the best of the first year Slytherins. In fact, only Terry Boot of Ravenclaw and Hermione Granger of Gryffindor had scored higher marks overall. Even Crabbe and Goyle had managed to scrape overall passes, though barely.
In the few short hours they had remaining, wardrobes were emptied, trunks were packed, and notes were handed out to all students, warning them not to use magic over the holidays.
Harry would be staying with his mother in her little garret room at Hogwarts over the summer. Only Sadie knew all about her and precisely when Harry would be at Hogwarts. Cora had calmed down now that her son would be under her eye for the vacation.
"You must come and stay with us again," said Sadie, winking at him.
"You may also pay us a short visit at Malfoy Manor," said Draco loftily. "There. Aren't I good to you?"
They laughed at his silly tone.
00O00
In the dorm that night, Sadie payed Harry a short visit, although Tracy was insisting that her green-faced friend sleep with her tonight.
"We did extraordinary things together. Didn't we, Dark Healer?" said Harry. "We're a dream team."
She put her little arms around him. Her mask rippled as her features underneath moved to form a kissy face. "We've only just started. Wish I could say more now, but I will say this. I've realised what power my mask did boost. It was Occlumency. I hated You-Know-Who probing my mind in the Mirror Chamber and started studying Occlumency." She held up a scroll of old parchment. "I smuggled this into the Hospital Wing. It seems I'm the perfect Occlumens, 'cause I'm always wearing a magical mask. All I had to do was try. I can block out You-Know-Who. I can even block Dumbledore, and he's easily the smarter of the two."
"Huh. You've blocked Dumbledore with Occlumency? In the Hospital Wing? Why? What were you keeping from him? What were you lying to him about?"
She tapped her shiny green nose. "Can't tell, in case he should probe your mind. I had to do what I did. Anyway, he kept stuff from us… from you especially, and that's not fair, is it?"
"So it's fair to trick him in return?"
She kissed his cheek with the cold lips of her green mask. "It's for the good of everyone."
00O00
The next morning after an early breakfast, the other Slytherins all piled into horseless carriages for a bumpy ride down to Hogsmeade Station. Harry hugged and kissed Tracy and Sadie goodbye and shook hands with Draco. Now he had the Summer at Hogwarts ahead of him. Harry walked back to the castle where his mother was waiting for him.