Chapter 28
Preparation for the Ambush
It was settled then, we were going back to Hogwarts to find the lost diadem of Ravenclaw.
The one problem…we didn't know what we were going to face. We couldn't just charge into Hogsmeade banner raised and screaming for rebellion victory!
I sat on the window ledge late a night a few weeks after we decided to break into Hogwarts, wondering what Snape and Voldemort would do to prevent break-ins. Snatchers? Death Eaters? Dementors? What if all my planning had been for naught?
I couldn't sleep at all, I just stared out the window every night, my mind whirring at breakneck speed. What more could I do to prepare myself, and the coven for what was to come?
I was thinking so hard that I was giving myself a headache. What the fuck could I do? I couldn't protect all the coven in Hogwarts should the heist go completely awry.
Draco and Mel were sound asleep, Mel curled into Draco's chest and Draco's arms wrapped around her.
"Han, what are you doing up?" Harry asked, coming into the bedroom from downstairs.
"I couldn't sleep. I've been thinking." I said.
"What's on your mind, Mei-Mei?" Harry asked, coming towards the window seat and wrapping an arm around my shoulders.
"What could be at Hogwarts to protect the diadem." I said, leaning my head on his shoulder. "Dementors, Hippogriffs, Snatchers…I can't do it all, I can't protect the coven on my own."
Harry stood up and lead me to bed, laying me down. "Hannah, we can train the coven until you're certain you're ready." Harry said. "You can't stress it, Hannah. Or you'll never get to sleep."
I nodded, resting my head on Harry's shoulder. They say that mother knows best. Yeah, whoever said that first obviously wasn't an orphan. With me, at least I had someone…my brother. I guess brother always knew best in my case.
Harry wrapped an arm around me. "Relax, Harley."
I smiled, closing my eyes. "I love you, Ge-Ge." I said.
"I know, Mei-Mei." Harry said, kissing my forehead.
"I know you know." I said. "I just feel that I don't tell you enough." I whispered, closing my eyes.
"I love you, Hannah." Harry said as I fell asleep.
…
The morning of the ambush I was awake at eight, before anyone else. I slipped out of the room and out of the house, going for a run in the woods to clear my head before I made breakfast. Knowing my coven, they'd be awake at nine, quarter to if I made breakfast.
Running had always cleared my mind, as did my music. I was singing this morning, singing along to my Wicked songs.
I had a bad feeling that No Good Deed would become my theme song during the Hogwarts ambush. I felt like someone close to me was going to die.
I shook my head, shaking the thought from my head as I went back into the house, into the kitchen and fishing food from the fridge for breakfast, turning on the stove and putting toast in the toaster.
I started grilling bacon in one pan and cracking eggs into another, buttering the toast with my telekinesis (had to admit, my powers came in useful sometimes.) as I heard someone coming downstairs.
"Something smells good." Draco said behind me, wrapping his arms around me from behind. "Good morning, Spitfire."
I rolled my eyes. "Good morning to you, too, Cato." I said, setting toast on the table with mind power. "I must admit, I love having telekinesis." I said, buttering another batch of toast.
Mel came running into the kitchen, crying. "Dracy!" Mel sobbed.
Draco picked Mel up. "Bad dream, sweetie?" Draco asked.
Mel nodded, burying her face in Draco's shoulder. "Daddy raped me again!"
"Again!?" I asked, setting the table. "Draco, what happened at the Manor?" I said. "And I want the whole story, no detail left out!"
Draco sighed, holding Mel tightly. "Well, we were kidnapped in Diagon Alley by a couple Snatchers that we after me and Mel, at the time I didn't know why they were after Mel, at least until we got there.
When Father locked Mel and I in my old room, I found a book in the shelf. It was a memory book…me and Mel when we were younger."
"What?" I said. "That makes no sense, how would you know Mel when you were younger?"
Draco shrugged. "I said the same thing, but then I read up on the Malfoy family tree…and Mel was in it…connected to me. So that made Mel…"
"Your sister." I said. "Wow…then what's this about your father raping Mel?" I asked.
"Well, every day we were there, Father kept me in my room when I wasn't eating in the dining room. He brought Mel out every so often to work with the house elves. But then…a day before the coven was captured…Father had some Death Eaters in the Manor…and he made Mel get dressed up and go down with him."
I gasped. "Then what?"
"I did the Harley thing of course, I picked the lock and went down to the drawing room. Mel's dress…well, what was left of it was thrown in the hall."
I paled. "He didn't…" I whispered.
"He did. Him and his friends gang raped my little sister. So I dragged her out of there and took their wands, locking ourselves in our room to console Mel." Draco whispered, holding Mel's ears. "But she was impossible to console so I Obliviated the memory from her mind."
"Than why would she have a nightmare about your Father raping her?" I whispered.
"I overheard him talking to his friends…he's raped her before." Draco whispered back.
I paled. "That explains a lot." I said. "She can't go into the school for the ambush, what if there are Death Eaters there? They'll call the other ones, including your father."
"She has no one else to take care of her." Draco said. "Besides, I'm not going to let her out of my sight."
"This could be dangerous." I told him.
"I know. We can't let her, James or Felwaters fight." Draco said.
"Maybe we can find a safe haven for them all." I said. "Steal a walkie-talkie set and give Mel one and you another and hide her away so she's not in the battle."
Draco nodded, wrapping an arm around me as Mel went back to sleep. "That's actually a good plan." he said, standing up. "I'm going to put Mel back to bed. I'll be right back."
I nodded. "Done." I said as I tossed a few spices into the eggs, taking the bacon off the stove and putting it on a platter, putting some more bacon in the skillet.
I finished making breakfast and I could already guess who the first one down and seated was.
"Good morning, Ronald." I said, grabbing orange juice.
"How'd you know it was me?" Ron asked as I handed him a glass. "Thank you."
"Hannah cooked." Hermione said from the doorway. "Obviously you'd run at the smell of excellent food cooking. Oh, thank you, Hannah." she added as I handed her a glass of orange juice. "Need help?"
"No thanks, Hermione." I said. "I'm just about done." I said, putting the full glasses of orange juice on the table as Draco came back down, hopping up onto the counter.
"Get your aristocratic ass off my counter!" I said, smacking him with a towel. "What were you raised in, a cowshed!?"
"No, love, that was you." Draco said, earning more whacks to the head with the towel.
Everyone laughed. They loved watching me beat Draco up.
"Hey, that's connubial exploitation!" Draco said.
"It's only considered connubial if you married her!" Harry said. "And so help me, that's not gonna happen."
"It may, Potter!" Draco said, getting off the counter as I hit him. "Ok, ok, you win, Spitfire, I'm off the counter!"
I hit him some more with the towel, laughing.
"What is this for?" Draco asked.
"Nothing. I just like hitting you!" I said laughing with everyone else as I sat down.
"You're a right foul bitch sometimes, you know that?" Draco asked.
"Yes. But I'm your right foul bitch." I said as everyone grabbed food, Ron taking a majority and stuffing his face.
"Yes, Ron, eat up, because we have Skinner to do after breakfast." I said. "We gotta train for the ambush and plan."
Everyone rolled their eyes. "Alright." Ron said. "As long as you make lunch!"
I rolled my eyes. "Sure, Piggy, whatever you say." I said, starting to eat.
…
When everything was cleared away, I got up and flicked my wand at the dishes, putting them in the sink.
"I love magic." I said, grabbing my wand as the dishes did themselves. "Come on, outside." I said.
Draco grabbed his wand and followed me outside.
"Alright." I said. "The first thing I need to teach you that I taught Emily. The Patronus Charm."
"The silvery thing you can do with a Dementor?" Draco asked.
I nodded. "Exactly. The first thing you need to know is the invocation. Allow me to demonstrate." I said, drawing my wand. "Expecto Patronum!" I said.
My silvery fawn erupted from the tip of my wand and danced around me.
"That brings down a Dementor?" Draco asked, staring in awe at my fawn.
I nodded "Yep. The trick is to think of something happy. The happy thought drowns out the depressingly gloomy feeling that the Dementors emanate."
Draco nodded with a smirk. "So I just have to think about you and I'll get a Patronus?" he asked.
"Awe!" I said, blushing as I reached up to kiss him. "In all seriousness, though, anything that makes you happy will create a Patronus." I said, kissing him again. "Now go on, try it out."
Draco nodded, drawing his wand. "Expecto Patronum."
A silvery mist burst from his wand.
"Ok, ok, try again." I said. "That was a good try." I said.
Draco smirked, trying again and getting a more corporeal shape from the mist.
"That's it, you're getting there!" I praised. "Go again."
"Expecto Patronum!" Draco shouted.
A large snake burst from the tip of his wand, winding around me.
"YOU DID IT!" I screamed excitedly. "HOLY SKINNER YOU DID IT! Do it again!" I told him.
"I just did it, though!" Draco said.
"I wanna see you do it again!" I said, crossing my arms.
Draco sighed. "Alright. Whatever Highness wishes. Expecto Patronum."
I beamed as the snake wrapped itself lightly around me again. "Why does it always wrap itself around you?"
I shrugged. "Try focusing on protecting yourself." I said.
Draco nodded and the snake fell off me and wrapped itself around Draco before lunging at nothing.
"HOLY FUCK, MALFOY CAN CONJURE A PATRONUS!" Harry shouted.
"I taught him myself!" I said proudly. "I taught him so well!"
"Future Defence Against the Dark Arts professor right here!" Draco said, raising my arm.
"Draco, you know I want to be an Auror!" I hissed.
"Right now you are." Draco said, kissing my forehead as the coven came out. "A rebel Auror, but still an Auror."
I smiled as the coven assembled. "Alright," I said. "We're going to start with pairing up." I said. "Pair up in a group of two or three."
Harry and Draco grabbed my arms in an instant as everyone paired up.
"Alright," I said when everyone paired up. "We're going to spend today working on magical defence." I said. "We'll start with the Disarming Charm…you know, Expelliarmous. Allow me to demonstrate with my idiot Haymitch here."
"Love you, too, Mei-Mei!" Harry said.
I smirked the same as Draco. "Expelliarmous!" I said.
Harry's substitute wand flew from his hand and Draco caught it, tossing it back to him.
"Alright, you lot practice and I'll go around and improve." I said. "And Haymitch, Cato, don't kill each other!"
Draco groaned, grumbling.
"Draco!" I said.
"Sorry, love." Draco said as everyone set to work.
"Oh, this is going to be good." I said, starting to assist the younger members of the coven with the Charm.
"NO!" Mel shouted, making a jet of water knock Willow off her feet.
Draco and I gaped as Mel paled. "Sorry, Prim, I'm so sorry!" Mel said, starting a fire and warming Willow up.
"Dude…" I whispered, turning to Draco. "You don't think?"
"That Mel's like you when it comes to that sort of thing?" Draco asked. "Yep, I'm starting to think that's the case."
"In that case." I said. "Harry, you're in charge. I'm going to teach Mel how to use her powers." I told everyone. "Mel, come with me." I said.
Mel stood up and followed me into the forest. "Ok, I want you to try and hit me with a fireball." I said.
Mel looked at me, cupping her hands and creating a ball of fire and throwing it at me.
I shot a water ball at it in retaliation. This was going to be a while.
…
Late that afternoon, just before we left for Hogwarts, I was making one last dinner for the coven, setting the table with a snap of my fingers.
This was going to be a last meal of sorts for the coven. For all we knew, we were going to die that night. So I thought I'd make Ron happy by cooking dinner. He had an unhealthy love for my cooking.
I set the turkey on the dining room table and settled my skirt. "OI! Dinner's ready!"
At this, everyone came in from outside, covered in mud except for Mel and Draco.
"Hannah!" Mel said. "I beat them all up!"
"Except for me." Draco said, sitting down as the coven followed suit, cleaning themselves off with a flick of their wands before sitting down.
I smirked at all of them and sat down to eat.
"Alright, I'd like to say something." I said, standing up again. "Tonight's going to be the last night we'll be in exile. I'm positive this time tomorrow we'll have our lives back. We won't have to read a book and look over our shoulders for Death Eaters. But…if something happens, I just want to say it was a privilege to kick ass with you."
"Here, here!" Harry said, clinking glasses with me.
"MEOW!" She-Cat said. "I have something to say, too!"
We all shut up to listen to what She-Cat had to say.
"Fireball has a long name!" She-Cat said.
We all laughed. "She-Cats!" I said.
She-Cat sighed. "Hannahs. Now on a serious note." She-Cat said, clearing her throat. "I agree with Hannah, it was a privilege to work with all of you. And I say, that should the battle come out as we want it to, that we'll meet here afterwards and have a big dinner to celebrate."
"Yeah!" Ron said. "Hannah's cooking!"
I sighed. "Yes, Ronald, I will cook." I said as everyone ate.
"We're going to kick some ass." Hermione said, taking a sip of soda. "Sherlock, why don't we go through the plan again?"
I nodded. "Alright, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ivy will go into the Room of Requirement to locate the Horcrux." I said.
My brother, his best friend and mine nodded.
"Should we run into Dementors I will lead the Defence with Draco, Sheila and She-Cat."
My boyfriend and other friends nodded.
"Kairi, you'll get Willow, Katherine and Melody away from the school should a battle ensue and then return. Girls, you are not to go anywhere when you get to the safe house."
Kairi and the underage nodded.
"Emily, Raven, Wolfie, Drosie, Blaise, Blake, Alvaro, you'll be in charge of defence against Death Eaters." I said.
The rest of the coven nodded.
"Good. We know the plan. Any questions?" I asked.
Mel put her hand up.
"Posey?" I said.
"Do I have to go to the safe house?" Mel asked.
"Yes." I said.
Mel looked upset as she grabbed Draco's arm. "How will I know if Draco will be ok?"
"He'll be with me. And I'll have Kairi find a safe house near the battle." I said. "Close enough to keep you in the loop but far enough to keep you safe."
Draco nodded. "I like it." Draco said.
…
When dinner was eaten and the plates cleared, I spent a little more time training after I changed into my black jeans and t-shirt, tying on a choker as I threw daggers, arrows and spells at trees, hoping for the best possible result.
When I was done, I packed up my weapons, sitting in the middle of the clearing I did my training in, trying to calm myself for what was to come when I felt someone behind me.
I grabbed a bow and arrow and whipped around, making to shoot when I set the bow down. It was just Harry.
"You ready to kick some ass?" Harry asked.
"Damn straight." I said, looking up at the stars and sighing. "D'you think Mum would be proud?" I asked.
"You bet your Skinner." Harry said, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. "They'd be so proud of both of us."
I smiled. "I love you, Ge-Ge." I said as Harry walked me back to the house.
"I love you too, Mei-Mei." Harry said as everyone came flooding down, all wearing black as Mel scrambled out of Draco's arms, hopping onto a stump, turning to the coven as Draco wrapped an arm around me.
"Ok, this is hard to say but we've trained for such a long time for this moment." Mel said determinedly. "Tonight we avenge those we lost and loved. Tonight is the night the Death Eaters eat their own death. Tonight You-Know-Who dies. Han?" Mel asked, turning to me.
I nodded, standing up with her. "Tonight the Dark Lord dies and all of us who are living in the shadows and see him in nightmares will be able to hold their heads up in victory! For tonight is the night all of us, be we ex-Hogwarts students, brothers, sisters, lovers and friends will come together and defeat one who has taken so much from us. With Tom Riddle's death comes the birth of a new generation. A generation that will need to hide no longer!" I jumped up on the stump with Mel to finish the speech. "It may be hard and we'll be cut, bruised, mangled and the like, but we will never, ever go down without a fight. And if we die, then know we died for the birth of a new generation. Tonight at the fall of the Dark Lord a flag will raise…our flag. The flag that symbolizes all we lost, gained and fought for. This is it…tonight we win!" I said. "Viva la Revolution! Viva la Vendetta e Vittoria Congrega!"
The coven cheered. "Viva la Vendetta e Vittoria Congrega!"
Mel glared at me, pushing me off the stump.
"HEY!" I said as Draco hoisted me up.
"Yeah, I definitely believe in you." Drosie said. "We're going to lay our lives on the line for a girl that can get her ass kicked by a first year girl?"
"Shut up, Drosie." Draco said, setting me on my feet.
"Thank you." I said. "Now, let's go. Disillusionment Charms, everybody. Harry, get your Invisibility Cloak!"
I got my Invisibility Cloak the same as Harry as everyone cast Charms on themselves to make them invisible.
"Ok, grab your patrol group and head to the main road of Hogsmeade!" I said, grabbing Draco, Sheila and She-Cat and starting to the Apparition point.
"Hannah." Draco said.
I turned around. "Yes?" I asked.
Draco kissed me deeply, lifting me off my feet. "I love you."
"I love you, too." I said before spinning on my heel.
…
When we got to Hogsmeade, there was a loud piercing wail that rang through the village.
"A Caterwauling Charm!" I whispered as the wail continued.
"No, it isn't." Draco said. "Someone must be getting tortured!"
I gasped as Draco got under the Cloak with me, drawing me to him as we heard rapid footfalls.
"Death Eaters!" I whispered, paling as Draco grabbed me by the waist and holding me tightly.
There were a dozen, easy, sprinting to the High Street with wands aloft, cloaked and hooded.
"Accio Cloaks!" one Death Eater shouted, waving their wand.
I grabbed my Cloak's folds, keeping it drawn to mine and Draco's body, but it didn't move. The Summoning Charm didn't work on it!
I sighed in relief. "Not under your wrappers, then, Potters?" the Death Eater who tried the Charm. "Spread out, they're here."
Half of the Death Eaters were running towards our position and I gasped, my heart starting to race.
Draco grabbed my waist and whisked me into the nearest side street as the coven followed suite.
Now, I was so scared I was shaking as I bit my lip.
Draco held me to his chest, brushing hair from my forehead.
"We should just get out of here!" Hermione whispered.
"Yeah, back to the forest, we'll be safe there." Draco said
We tried to Disapparate, but it seemed the air around us was turned into a solid wall. We were trapped!
"We know you're here, Harley Quinn. And that you have the Potter Twins with you! There's no escape, you won't get away. We'll find you!" a Death Eater shouted.
"They were ready for us!" I whispered in a panic. "They set the Caterwauling Charm off so they knew if we were going to show up and now they've done something to keep us here!"
"Shh, Hannah." Draco whispered as the Death Eaters talked amongst themselves.
"Why not Dementors?" a Death Eater shouted. "Give them free reign, they'll find them quick enough!"
"The Dark Lord wants them dead by no hand but his!"
"And the Dementors won't kill him! The Dark Lord wants the Twins and Harley Quinn's lives, not their souls. They'll be easier to kill when they've been Kissed first."
We all paled. We were trapped and doomed! There was nothing we could do now. In order to protect ourselves, we'd need to cast a Patronus, and that would instantly give us away.
The air around us got colder, and the light was instantly sucked away. I paled, clinging to Draco for dear life.
Draco and I grabbed our wands. I was not going to suffer the Dementor's Kiss. It was Draco getting on one knee and popping the big question that I thought of when I started to cast my Patronus.
"NO!" Harry hissed. "I got it. Expecto Patronum!"
Harry's stag burst from the tip of his wand and charged, sending the Dementors off and sending a triumphant roar through the night.
"It's them, it's them, over there! I saw the stag!" a Death Eater said.
I paled, hearing the Death Eaters coming into the alley as a door to my left opened.
"Potter, quick, in here, upstairs, keep your cloaks and Charms on!" a rough voice said.
Draco grabbed me and lead me up the stairs into a sitting room, the coven seated around as the rough voiced person talked to the Death Eaters.
Mel shot up, running into Draco's side, sobbing with fright as I was on the verge of doing the same.
"We're fine." Draco told Mel as she nuzzled into his side, Draco wrapping an arm around me. "We're going to come out of this alive."
I took a deep, shaky breath and listened into the conversation between the man that saved our lives and the Death Eaters.
"So what!?" The man shouted. "So what, you send Dementors up my street, I'll send a Patronus back at them! I'm not having them! I told you that! I'm not having it!"
"That wasn't your Patronus!" a Death Eater shouted. "That was a stag, it was Potter's!"
"A stag!" The man shouted. "A stag! You idiot-Expecto Patronum!"
Something large and horned came through the man's wand, it charged head down up the High Street and out of sight.
"That's not what I saw…" the Death Eater said, soundingless certain.
"Curfew's been broken. You heard the noise, someone was in the street against regulations-" one of his companions said.
"If I want to put my cat out, I will, and regulations be damned!"
"You set off the Caterwauling Charm!?" The Death Eaters asked.
"I told you it was a Caterwauling Charm!" I hissed to Draco.
"Touché." Draco whispered.
"What if I did? Going to cart me off to Azkaban? Kill me for sticking my nose out my own front door? Do it, then, if you want to! But I hope for your sake that you didn't press your little Dark Marks and summoned him-"
"Which they didn't." Draco whispered. "I would have felt it in mine." Draco flexed the arm around me.
"Yes, I get it, you have the Dark Mark, it can be useful, now enough!" I whispered, listening into the conversation some more.
"He's not going to like being called here for me and my old cat, is he, now?" the barman said.
"Don't you worry about us." said one of the Death Eaters, "Worry about yourself, breaking curfew!"
"And where will you lot traffic potions and poisons when my pub's closed down? What'll happen to your little sidelines, then?" the barman asked.
"Are you threatening-?"
"I keep my mouth shut, it's why you come here, isn't it?"
"I still say I saw a stag Patronus!" the Death Eater shouted.
"Stag!?" The barman screamed. "It's a goat, idiot!"
"All right, we made a mistake." said another Death Eater. "Break curfew again and we may not be so lenient!"
I sighed in relief. "They're gone." I told the coven, taking my Cloak off, Harry drawing the curtains shut as I took in my surroundings.
Hermione collapsed in relief into a wobbly chair in a sitting room with a threadbare carpet and small fireplace, which above the mantle rested an oil painting of a pretty blonde girl who stared at all of us with a sort of sweetness that radiated off of Melody.
We heard the barman shutting and bolting the door before going upstairs, Harry staring at a small rectangular mirror like the one Sirius had given me before he died.
The barman entered the room and looked at Harry and I. "You bloody fools!" he said gruffly. "Were you on the mickey, thinking of coming here?"
"Thanks." I said. "We can't thank you enough, you just saved all our lives."
Harry walked up to the barman, looking up into his face. He had long stringy wire grey hair and beard. He wore spectacles, which behind shone eyes of a piercing brilliant blue.
"You're the eye that I've been seeing in the mirror!" Harry said as him and the barman. "You sent Dobby and saved Harley's life!"
"I could've saved myself!" I chirped.
"Yeah, this coming from someone who was practically beaten to death, yes, Harley, you would have been perfectly capable of saving yourself!" Draco said sarcastically.
"Can it, Cato!" I said as the barman looked around for the elf.
"Thought he'd be with you. Where've you left him?" the barman asked.
"Uh, in a six foot hole about…" I said, thinking. "Three hundred miles that way." I said, jerking a thumb behind me. "He's dead, Bellatrix Lestrange killed him."
"And almost killed you." Draco added.
"Cato, shut the fuck up!" I told Draco.
"That's too bad." the barman said with an impassive face. "I liked that elf."
At this he turned around and started prodding lamps and lighting them with his wand. That's when I realized…the blue eyes…the long beard.
"You're Aberforth." I said.
Aberforth neither confirmed or denied it. Instead he lit a fire in the fireplace as Draco wrapped his Cloak around me.
"How'd you get the mirror?" Harry asked.
"Bought it from Mundungus about a year ago." Aberforth said, looking to me and Draco. "Albus told me what it was. Been looking out for you two."
Ron gasped. "The silver doe! That was you, was it?"
"What are you blithering on about, Weasel-King?" Draco asked.
"Someone sent a doe Patronus to us!" Ron said.
"Ron, he just proved his Patronus was a goat!" I said.
"Was it you, then?" Harry asked me.
"Me!?" I asked. "Harry, my Patronus is a fawn. Not a doe. A fawn is a baby deer." I said. "I don't produce does."
"Oh." Ron said. "Well, I'm hungry!"
"You just ate dinner, you moron!" Draco and I said together as Aberforth went to get food.
"That was three hours ago!" Ron said.
I sighed. "Skinner forbid that you don't eat seven square meals a day." I said as Aberforth set food in front of the coven. It was silent except for the chewing of bread and the clinking of goblets.
"Right," Aberforth said. "we need to think of the best way to get you lot out of here. Can't be done by night or…well, you know what happens. We'll wait until daybreak, then put your Charms and Cloaks back on and head for the mountains. Might see Hagrid. Take these lot with you." he jerked a thumb at the coven and turned to me. "Except for you, sweetheart, I'd leave Lover Boy here."
"WHAT!?" I shouted, standing up. "No way!"
"Princess, they'll be on his backside quicker than anything. I'd Obliviate his memory, too, in case he's caught. Make him forget everything about you."
"No way!" Draco and I said together.
"Besides, we can't go. Your brother left us a job to do." Harry said.
"Get out of here, Potter. Leave this school, leave the country if you can!" Aberforth said. "Forget my brother and his schemes."
"We've got to!" Harry said.
"Got to? Got to!?" Aberforth said. "Why got to? He's dead, isn't he? Go now, before you follow him."
"But you're fighting, aren't you? You're in the Order of the Phoenix." I said. "And besides, why should I Obliviate Draco's memory?" I asked.
"I was." Aberforth said. "The Order of the Phoenix is finished. You-Know-Who's won. Anyone who says different is kidding themselves. And, Princess," Aberforth turned to me. "Potters can't live happily ever after. This isn't a fairy tale. You and Dark Mark here are two of the most wanted people in the wizard world. You honestly think that you can run off and live happily while watching your back for his father?"
"We'd find a way." Draco said angrily. "I'm not letting her go abroad without me."
I smiled as Draco wrapped both arms around me, Mel hopping onto Alvaro's lap.
"We can't leave." Harry said. "We've got a job."
"Give it to someone else!" Aberforth said.
"I can't give it to someone else. It's got to be me or Hannah. Dumbledore explained it all-"
"Did he, now?" Aberforth said, getting up and looking at all of us. "And did he tell you everything? Was he honest with you?"
I looked to Harry and knew he wanted to say yes, but the word was caught in his throat. Aberforth seemed to know what Harry was thinking.
"I knew my brother, Potter. He learned secrecy at our mother's knee. Secrets and lies…that's how we grew up. And Albus…he was a natural."
Aberforth looked up at the painting of the blond girl, which made me think. There wasn't a picture of Professor Dumbledore or anyone else besides that girl in the house. And…if that was Aberforth…that girl had to be…
"Mr. Dumbledore?" I said. "Is that your sister, Ariana?"
"Yes. Been reading Rita Skeeter, have you, Princess?" Aberforth said tersely.
"Elphias Doge mentioned her to me." Harry said. "And I told Hannah."
"I wouldn't read Rita Skeeter if you paid me." I said.
"Or me." Draco added. "She has no sense of the word privacy."
I nodded, looking to Draco as Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ivy started a debate over Ariana and we found out what had happened to cause her and her mother's deaths.
When she was six years old, a band of Muggle boys saw her doing magic and beat her up because she couldn't show them the trick. Aberforth's father beat up the bastards and went to Azkaban for the rest of his life.
After the assault, Ariana refused to do magic and went half insane trying to keep it bottled up, but when she couldn't control it, it'd blow up out of her. This caused the Dumbledores to move to Godric's Hollow.
When Ariana was fourteen, while Aberforth was at school, she had gotten into one of her temper tantrums and had accidentally killed her mother, abruptly ending Albus Dumbledore's plan to travel the world with Elphias Doge. Instead, he settled in as the breadwinner and head of the family.
Shortly after, he met a Dark wizard named Gallert Grindlewald and they started looking for the Deathly Hallows, these things that Death had bequeathed to three brothers in a fairy tail in a book of Hermione's which consisted of an Invisibility Cloak, the Elder Wand, which was a very powerful wand; and a Stone that resurrected the dead.
Just before Aberforth went back to Hogwarts, he confronted Albus about the Hallows hunt because Aberforth feared that the hunt would effect Ariana. This resulted in a large duel in which Ariana was killed.
"Gone, gone forever." Aberforth sobbed.
"I'm…I'm so sorry." I said.
Aberforth cleared his throat and wiped his nose before continuing.
"Of course, Grindlewald scarpered. He had a bit of a track record already in his home country and didn't want Ariana set on his account, did he? But Albus was free. Free from the burden of his sister, free to become the greatest wizard in the-"
"He was never free." Harry said.
"I beg your pardon?" Aberforth asked.
"Never. The night your brother died he drank a potion that drove him out of his mind. He started screaming, pleading with someone who wasn't there. 'Don't hurt them, please. Hurt me instead.'"
Draco and I shared a look before looking to Harry. I hadn't known what had happened the night Dumbledore died.
More talk. There was more talk about Dumbledore using Harry and I for the greater good. Just collateral damage for the downfall of Voldemort.
I cut in. "As much as we'd love to stay and bicker over the greater good." I said. "But we need to get into the school and get something." I said.
Aberforth sighed and turned to the portrait of Ariana. "You know what to do."
Ariana moved out of her portrait, back, instead of out of the frame
The coven and I shared a confused look until Ariana came back with a boy through a tiny spot in her portrait. Closer and closer they came until their heads and shoulders filled the frame.
The boy had longer hair than I had ever seen it. His face was mauled all to hell and his robes were ripped.
Suddenly, the frame whipped on a hinge and down clambered the real Neville Longbottom, face full of joy when he looked at my brother and said:
"I knew you would come! I knew it, Harry!"
