CHAPTER 25- Reflections

Things were rather tense at the breakfast table, the next morning. The kids had been informed that Percy was in an isolation cell and would remain there until his Father determined otherwise. They were also informed that there were new wards around the cell and if they made any attempt to break them then Severus would know and they would find themselves experiencing the same treatment in one of the other many cells located in the basement.

Molly was still not speaking to Arthur and constantly mumbling insults, under her breath, loud enough for those close could hear but quiet enough that no one felt they were being drawn into a conversation. Everyone could tell that she was livid and would probably remain that way for quite a while.

Arthur had moved into one of the spare bedrooms, further confusing the Weasley kids, as they had never witnessed this happening before between their parents. They could also see that their fathers face was set and that he was not going to change his mind.

Albus informed everyone that he and Bill had upgraded the wards. Moody had finally released them from isolation and the kids could start playing outside once again.

Basically everyone was working hard at staying out of the line of fire.

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Percy was in shock. As he looked around his eight by ten foot cell his mind was having problems wrapping itself around the picture. He was dressed in a standard Azkaban prison uniform and there was a bed, a sink, a commode and one door with a small four inch by twenty four inch window and a cup.

He was left with his own thoughts as company, there were no windows, no sound and no people. His meals showed up on the floor by the door at prescribed times and the containers disappeared automatically thirty minutes later, at least he thought it was about a half hour but he had no way to tell the time. He had learned this lesson the hard way when his first meal vanished before he was able to finish it. The food was good and nutritious but not fancy by any stretch of the imagination.

Today a note accompanied his dinner meal. He quickly opened it hoping for some good news but was sorely disappointed.

Percy,

I received this note and thought since you felt that your actions did not affect anybody else that you might learn some insights from it.

Father

Arthur had included the note he received from the Death Eaters. Percy read the note and felt a sinking sensation in his gut. What had his Father said? "You need to realize that what you do affects others."

It had taken all his courage to escape from the Death Eaters only to be imprisoned by his own Father. He knew he might be in a spot of trouble for going off on his own but this was ridiculous! He had used his skill and talents to escape and make it back on his own and that should have proved his point that he didn't need to have a baby sitter all the time.

That is what his brain was telling him but his heart was trying to share with him a different message. If it had not been the objective of the Death Eaters to make his Father spy for them he would have been killed. He had only been kept alive because they wanted to use him to hurt the Order, his family, and his Father. But it had only been a couple days and Percy was not yet ready to even think about being wrong.

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Molly was having a similar battle. Her heart just wanted to hug her son and make everything alright again. She rationalized that all boys make mistakes, but life goes on. He was alive and that was all that counted. The Mother in her was screaming and the language it was using was beating up on Arthur. She felt that if she really threw a fit about this situation that he might give in and let Percy go. Instead he remained firm in his decision and complied with her request to move out of the bedroom until he could come to his senses.

Her logical brain was speaking to her of another message. She knew that Percy had been withdrawing from the family. He was at an awkward age, being too young to be on his own yet to old to really relate to all the younger kids. She and Arthur had talked about the need to give him more responsibilities and quit treating him like a child. Things were just happening so fast that they had not gotten around to it yet and now it was a bigger problem.

Molly knew they were going to have to come to a compromise but Percy had to admit that he was part of the problem before they could even start that dialogue.

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Severus and the rest of the Adults required the kids to use the time between breakfast and lunch for training and study. The professors had assigned plenty of holiday homework, much to the dismay of the kids. From breakfast they made their way to the library with the exception of Blane.

Blane was still meeting with Professor Lupin trying to work through his experience with Tom Riddle. Blane didn't remember much of it but as the Professor explained, "Just because your conscious mind does not remember that doesn't mean that your sub-conscious mind is equally blank". Blane was having fewer and fewer nightmares and beginning to understand what had happened to him and that it wasn't his fault.

Sirius also wanted Blane to bond with the rest of the kids as he tended to be very quiet and withdrawn. Granted he was a year younger but he was still old enough to mix with them and learn how to live in a family environment and socialize with real friends.

Sirius figured that Blane couldn't be around the twins very long without being drawn out of his shell. What he didn't count on were the Twins taking him under their wing and teaching him everything that the Adults would rather he didn't know.

Sirius's bed had been 'short-sheeted' and he wasn't really sure if the Twins or Blane had been the culprits. At first he was a bit ticked but quickly thought back to his days as a kid and figured that 'short-sheeting' a bed was mild. If that meant that Blane was coming out of his shell then perhaps it was worth the embarrassment. He decided that he would allow for two more pranks before he struck back with a few pranks of his own.

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The kids were in the library trying to find resources to help them complete a Potion Essay that was rather troublesome. Add to that a very stubborn Hermonie who refused to help them and it was turning out to be a very boring morning.

Hermonie was finished with all her essays and was working hard on another one of her projects. She wouldn't share with anyone what it was but it seemed to keep her very focused.

Hermonie never shared much about what she was doing until she felt she had the answers to her research problem, and this one was giving her fits.

She had overheard the word "Horcrux" and she was as determined to find an answer as the library was determined in not granting her access to the books she would need.

It was frustrating having to take the time to solve numerous problems that were standing in her way just to finally get back to the original question. This might frustrate the average student but it just fueled the fires for Hermonie.

Ten minutes ago she finally found a spell that allowed her to bypass the restriction placed on her in the library. Now she was working on a spell that would allow her to change the cover of the book she was working with to one that would be acceptable to her Dad if he should catch her reading it.

By lunch time the kids had finished their essays and Hermonie felt she was ready to tackle those books that had been placed off limits.

Harry and the group chose to go outside and check out the rest of the property after lunch but Hermonie indicated that she still had a few final touches to put on one of her assignments and would follow them later.

Hermonie found it to be slow going as she could only pull one book to read at a time. She never knew when Severus, Albus or someone equally observant who frequented the library might check on her activities.

It took a couple days to figure out the catalogue system only to find out that it was just like a magical computer system. She could write a word on flat permanent parchment then it would disappear and list of books dealing with the subject matter would appear on the parchment. You could further refine your search by adding or subtracting descriptions and words to the parameters. It was a pretty slick system and Hermonie wanted to ask Professor Dumbledore why it wasn't used at Hogwarts.

While she no longer had to search the shelves for subject material related to her search, she was still slowed by the process of only being able to pull one book at a time but it was better than no books.

She checked her watch and it was getting close to dinner time. 'Perhaps just one more book' she thought to herself. She found the tome way back in the corner and when she pulled on the book it would only tilt and would not slide off the shelf. She tried to pull it off the shelf again and the same thing happened. She thought for a moment then pulled the book out as far as it would tilt then left it.

It took only a few seconds before she heard a click and a whole section of bookcase, the size of a very small doorway, slipped forward about an inch. She had found a secret passageway.

After checking the library to make sure she was still alone, Hermonie pulled the doorway open slowly. Nothing jumped out at her and surprisingly it did not smell old or musty.

When she looked in all she could see was darkness so she pointed her wand and cast 'Lumos'. The tunnel seemed to stay flat and straight but she couldn't see very far by just using her wand.

Hermonie really wanted to investigate this passage and almost talked herself into exploring at least part of it when her common sense or perhaps self-preservation kicked in.

'Anytime we do things alone we get caught and we end up in big trouble', she thought. Calming her excitement she closed the passage door and decided to ask the kids to meet with her tonight. Together they might be able to explore the passage, remain safe, and most importantly stay out of trouble with their parents.

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After Lunch the kids decided to check out the barn area. They had completed a quick walk-thru with the House Elves when they first arrived but they had not really taken a close look.

Looking at the barn, Harry called it a 'Hallmark Moment' which just confused most of the kids who had no clue to what he was talking about. The classic barn structure with snow all around and on its roof, you couldn't find a more beautiful picture. The only difference might be the kind of animals that you would find once you went into the barn.

The floor of the barn was raised and made of concrete. The floor sloped toward a drain in the middle which would help rid the barn of any excess water that might accumulate.

The ground floor housed Thestrals, Hippogriffs, 'Abada" or Miniature Unicorns along with the standard unicorns and horses, a couple milk cows, goats, and a small herd of beef cattle. The second floor was for hay, grains, food suppliments for the winter, a cooler where meat products were kept for the Thestrasls when it was too cold for them to hunt.

The third floor housed the bird population such as Owls, and a number of Phoenix.

Hagrid had explained to them that he brought with him a numbered of endangered animals like the 'Abada' and the Miniture Unicorn family. The Phoenix's felt safe here with all the wards and there was also a Centaur village, brought over from Hogwarts. The Centaur population was becoming too great to comfortably stay in the Forest at Hogwarts so a spin off family agreed to move to Snape Manor Forest. It would give them space so needed for growth and they would also serve so protect Harry and the manor.

If Harry were still in the muggle world he would have called all this space a fairy tale and perhaps in a way it was. One thing he did know, it was wondrous and beautiful.

By the time they had explored every nook and cranny of the out buildings it was time for dinner and they headed toward the manor.

Dinner was full of excited, noisy talk as the kids relived their afternoon discoveries. Toward the end of dinner Harry noticed that Hermonie was being very quiet. He watched her for a few moments and noted that she was eating a moderate amount of food for Hermonie so she wasn't sick. That only left two options; First she was mad and if she was mad she would not be eating at all, so that was out. That meant that Hermonie had some information she was itching to share but could not because they were in mixed company.

Figuring it out he looked at her and smiled, letting her know that he knew. He turned to the kids and said, "I think we ought to take Hermonie out to the barn and show her those cute little miniature unicorns".

Going back out into the cold was the last thing that the kids wanted to do but they all caught the look in Harry's eyes and agreed that this was something that was a must and that Hermonie needed to see this special treat.

The kids talked Severus into letting them carry a thermos of hot chocolate with them and began to bundle up. Severus cautioned them not to put on too much thermal wear as during the night the barn is closed up and heated.

Soon they were off, all wondering what kind of news Hermonie had to share with them. Once they arrived they checked the place out to make sure no one was there then sat around on hay bales, sipped chocolate and listened to Hermonie as she shared with them the story of her finding the hidden passageway at the back of the library.

Everyone was in silent thought for a few moments then their eyes began to sparkle and they knew that they were in for a couple days of heavy planning. They would all be in the library the next morning and that would be a good time to start the exploration. First hey could send a couple kids down the tunnel while the rest of them could cover their absence if someone should come in.

One of the twins would definitely go exploring as the other twin could cover for him. If Draco, Ron or Harry were missing when an adult came into the library it would send an immediate red flag so Neville and Hermonie would go also. Neville was getting downright dangerous with his wand and would serve well as a protector. Also he was able to cast a Patronus now and could call for help.

They decided that for the first trip to only explore for thirty minutes. They wanted to take this slow and not set off any alarms. They had experienced enough trouble over the past few months and were learning to be more careful and protect themselves from discovery.

Once they had their plans in place they headed back to the manor reminding each other to be very excited about the wonderful animals they had discovered in the barn area.