Part 35
Minerva took ahold of the book and straightened some of the pages that had been bent or damaged during the last chapter. What more would this book bring? How many more people were going to die before this book was over? If she didn't know that the five people from the future wouldn't have been present at all if they had lost, she would have thought that the light had lost. It seemed like that was the way the book was headed. She sighed. War was hard. Even with an eventual victory, it was obvious by the way that the future people, much less that they were there at all, acted that too many people had died in the war. Why couldn't people just accept others the way they were and stop all the fighting?
Ron and Hermione came slowly back into the room. Both cheeks were stained with tears and Hermione was trembling. Ron glared at the others, as if daring them to comment on the fact that he'd been crying too. No one did.
Minerva cleared her throat, "I'll read this chapter."
The others nodded and gained their seats.
Chapter Two
Harry shook his head, "Just so you know, in this book I will be having my doubts about some things that are brought to light considering your character, Professor," he said to Dumbledore, "Just want you to know that I understand more now. Everyone makes mistakes, and just because you and I were close, did not mean you had to tell me everything."
Professor Dumbledore nodded, but looked apprehensive. He had a feeling that the things that would be revealed were parts of his past that he would never want to discuss with anyone. Things always had a way of coming out into the harsh light of day and he hoped the people in this room wouldn't think too badly of him.
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Ron shook his head, "Again? Seriously, Harry, it seems like there is hardly a time when you aren't bleeding, or at least hurt."
The others laughed as Harry turned red.
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The women tutted at this and the men looked interested to know what he had said.
Harry just shook his head.
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Sirius snorted, "What are they trying to do to you now? Poison you?"
Regulus looked up, he had been sitting with his eyes on the floor, trying not to make eye contact with the other people in the room. It was very unnerving to be the only person in this room that everyone (with the exception of Severus) either actively hated or were very disappointed in him (i.e. the Professors). He didn't know why, but this sounded strange.
Dialogue
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Regulus looked annoyed, "Couldn't they have just been trying to do something nice for you?"
He had noticed, when he was fifteen, that there had been a time during the summer holidays, right before Sirius had left for good, that his brother had seemed really down and worried about something. He had tried a few times to talk to Sirius about it, they were brothers after all, but had never had the nerve to actually say what he had wanted and then his brother had left, being blasted off the tapestry and Regulus had known that to even speak to him at Hogwarts would earn him retribution from the other Slytherins.
Ron growled, "You don't know his relatives. They wouldn't spit on him if he was on fire."
Harry sighed. Looking back, maybe he shouldn't have distanced himself so much that summer. It was the last time he'd seen his relatives, even though he knew, from Hestia Jones and Dedalus Diggle, that they were alright, he'd decided it would be best to leave them alone and let them forget, if they could that he ever existed. He had, however, let them know that he was alive, and gave Dudley a way to contact him if he ever wanted to do so.
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Lily sighed, "I bet your bedroom is as messy as James's and Sirius's are, isn't it?"
Harry blushed, "Well, it was at that time. You'll see in a few moments why it was so messy at this point."
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Albus chuckled, "It would have defeated most people, Mr. Potter."
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"There is a reason why we don't teach even simple healing charms at Hogwarts, Mr. Potter," said Minerva. "They can be extraordinarily dangerous if not done correctly."
Neville and Ginny looked at each other remembering all the injuries that had been suffered during that year and even though the teachers and especially Madame Pomfrey had tried to keep them stocked with potions that would at least alleviate some of the pain, it hadn't been nearly enough. It had broken their hearts to see the younger students especially shaking after a Dark Arts class or if they had somehow gotten a detention.
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Lily shook her head as the males in the room laughed.
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Regulus looked mildly curious, "What would you keep in a trunk that would cause that much blood?"
The others stared at him.
"What? I'm just curious."
Harry sighed, "You'll see."
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"Why would you keep something like that?" James asked softly.
"As a tribute to Cedric, I would imagine," said Sirius. He knew that if there had been an argument or misunderstanding between him and James before he died and all he had had left was something that made fun of him but was something that he could connect with James, he would have kept it whether anyone else understood why or not.
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"R. A. B.?" asked Regulus, startled.
The people from the future looked at each other. Should they warn the younger Black before it came out in the books, what he'd done? Should they tell him what was to come? They decided that they should wait a few chapters and see how the book dealt with it before they had a conference with the man. But they would have to tell him something right before the chapter where everything was revealed by Kreacher at least.
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"You broke the mirror?" asked Remus quietly.
Harry suddenly remembered that he hadn't told that part of the story.
"Yeah, after I reached my dorm after the battle at the Ministry, I was so angry and hurt but I found Sirius's gift and unwrapped it. When I realized that I had had a way to contact Sirius all along and needn't have depended on Kreacher's information, I tried to contact him with it, but there was no way, of course, that I could do so. I was so mad that I threw the mirror back into my trunk and it broke into a hundred fragments. Until this year, the year we're reading about, I never even tried to think about it."
Sirius sighed sadly and put his hand on his shoulder, trying to convey comfort.
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Ron and Hermione sighed. They had tried many times to convince Harry that Sirius's death wasn't his fault. That some things just had to happen and nothing anyone did could have changed them. But Harry was unable to come to grips with the fact that Sirius would have come after him no matter who had tried to stop him.
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Lily and Molly sighed. They understood why the three of them were leaving Hogwarts, but it didn't make it easier to accept.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at each other. If they hadn't been leaving anyway, who knew what would have happened on September 1st.
Ginny and Neville blanched as the same thought went through their minds. The Death Eaters had gone through the train about halfway to Hogwarts. Anyone who wasn't cleared on their blood status was yanked from the train and no one ever saw them again.
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Regulus looked confused, "Why would they do that?"
Harry sighed, "They hate anything to do with magic. Therefore, they hate me."
Even Regulus looked a little shocked at this. How could anyone treat their family like that? Then he thought about how his own family had treated Sirius after he was sorted into Gryffindor. Were they any different? He would have to think about this.
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Regulus looked at the Marauders and shook his head. Leave it to them to come up with something like that. He would never admit, even to himself, that he thought it was kind of cool that they would make something like that. It must have been really useful.
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"Whether it was the real one or not," said Albus, "does not negate the fact that we now know that somewhere there is the real one and that we have to find it. We may have never known that."
Knowing that very thing, had been what had led them to find the horcrux in the first place. If they hadn't known who had taken it, there was no way they would have ever found it.
Regulus looked confused. The real what?
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Harry sighed. Maybe it would have been better had he let her out to fly to the Burrow with a letter the day before. The Death Eaters wouldn't have been there then and she would have been safe. The fact that she had been trapped with no way to avoid the spell was one of the worst things about her death.
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"So that is how they explained her disappearance," scoffed Minerva.
The people from the future looked away. They had had the feeling that Professor Burbage had not simply resigned, but they didn't ever really know.
"As if they would come right out and tell people that they had killed her at a Death Eater meeting," sniffed Regulus, "how stupid do you think we* are?"
Everyone looked at him.
"Apparently very stupid," muttered Sirius to James.
Severus shook his head and put it in his hands. How were they ever going to get through this book without people trying to kill Regulus if he kept making comments like that?
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Author
"It is a very good article, Professor," said Hermione. "There are some things in there that you may not like everyone to hear, but they come up many times in this book, and it might be better if we hear some of it now and you can tell your side so everyone can understand how everything really went."
Albus nodded slowly. He could just imagine what some of the things were that would be revealed. Not that Elphias would do it deliberately to hurt him. He could imagine some other people who would try to blow it out of proportion, though.
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"Why?" asked Lily, a little shocked.
"Because they attacked a member of our family, causing lasting damage. He lost his temper and I can't say that they didn't deserve it. If Magical Law Enforcement had known everything that had happened they might have gone easier on him, but for reasons that I will explain later, when they come up, we couldn't explain and so they just assumed he hated all muggles. Which couldn't have been farther from the truth."
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James shook his head, "Everyone has enemies. No one can please everyone and we shouldn't try. It makes you wishy-washy. Besides, muggles aren't that different from us and we should treat them as we should want to be treated."
"Hear, hear," said almost everyone.
Regulus snorted, "Spoken like a true Gryffindor. But, as I remember it, you don't always treat people the way you would want to be treated. Remember the day of your O.W.L.s?"
Severus growled, "Never speak of that again."
James looked ashamed, "Severus, I…"
Severus turned away. He wasn't quite ready to fully forgive James and Sirius for that yet. Even though he and Lily were becoming friends again, that time would be between them for quite some time. It still hurt.
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"It always will be," smiled Albus and Minerva nodded her agreement.
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Ron snorted, "Who would want to?"
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"It never is fully comfortable, but if you're really their friend, it won't matter as much and you can either learn to deal with it or realize that it doesn't define who they are as a person and that they are just as human as anyone else," said Ron, remembering how much trouble he'd had remembering that.
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Lily looked like she was ready to cry, "I'm so sorry, Professor."
James said, "I didn't know you even had a sister."
Albus shook his head, "Hardly anyone ever knew. It was for the best. She was the one that the three muggle boys attacked. Like I said, there was lasting damage."
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Alice shook her head, "Of course it did. Something like that would always leave a mark. But why would you feel like it was your fault, Professor?"
"Because it was," Albus said softly but didn't elaborate.
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Albus shook his head sadly. So many lives could have been saved in that war, had he been less cowardly and been willing to confront Gellert sooner. He had so much blood on his hands. Why couldn't he ever overlook his own problems and think about others?
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Albus sighed. That was a lot more kind than he deserved. What would everyone think of him when he told them what really happened all those years ago?
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Hermione sighed, "Why are you feeling like this, Harry?"
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Everyone snorted.
Albus smiled sadly, "I assure you, I was once as young as all of you and I have made many mistakes, which is usually why I am so eager to give people more than one chance as long as they are willing to try and redeem themselves."
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Hermione blushed as everyone else laughed.
"What are Blast-Ended Skrewts?" asked Regulus.
"Something that Hagrid bred," said Ron, shuddering.
Regulus sniffed trust that brute to breed something dangerous.
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Harry held up his hands, "Look, I was feeling vulnerable and annoyed. I know that you didn't need to tell me anything about yourself, Professor, it just seemed like I trusted you with everything and you didn't trust me with anything."
Albus nodded, he knew he hadn't been able to trust anyone with things close to him since Gellert. He should try to work on that. Not everyone he met would turn on him when they found out some of the things he'd done. He hoped.
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Dialogue
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"Not completely honest," said Albus, "but it was a favorite present from my mum and I haven't had such a gift since she died, so in a way, it connects with my greatest desire."
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Ginny shook her head, "What else is new? You would have thought they would have learned their lesson from 5th year. Not telling people what is happening will not make it go away and will only hurt the public in the end."
Ron, Harry and Hermione looked at each other. They knew why the government had not been trying to help the public, or at least why Scrimgeour wasn't, and they were still mad at him for it.
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Title of article about Rita Skeeter's book
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"Trust me, Professor," said Harry, "if you want the truth out there, don't give an interview with that woman. Unless, of course, you have something being held over her head to make sure she tells everything exactly as you tell her."
The Trio shared a smirk. Then thinking about the things said in her book and what had happened to Bathilda Bagshot, they frowned. If only that threat had held past the interview in the Quibbler.
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"They'd better not be implying you did it," said Remus.
The people from the future sighed.
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"Because she's such a fountain of truth," snarled Molly.
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Harry sighed. He so wished he'd never read that article.
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"Who would want to look at that woman?" asked Ginny.
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"Says who?"
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"By throwing all ethical practices out the window," Hermione hissed.
Dialogue
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"It did contain some facts," said Harry hesitantly, "but they were so twisted by Rita's viewpoint that they were really lies."
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"Or called her one," muttered Harry.
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"So you could ask people who knew him as well as people who didn't like him, particularly," said Neville. "That way, you have the full story and it's not completely biased one way or another."
The others nod.
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The trio snarled at the mention of that source. It was horrible what that bit** did to poor Bathilda. From what they knew of Bathilda she would never have done or shared what was in that book with someone like Rita.
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"You have to understand them to fight them," said Severus.
Albus shook his head. He'd made a terrible mistake. And he'd spent the rest of his life trying to atone for it.
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Lily snarled, "That's none of your business."
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Alice sniffed, "As if that needs to be put in there. No one needs to know every little detail of someone's life. If he didn't want to talk about it, there was no need to talk about it."
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Lily looked scandalized, "What is wrong with this woman?!"
Harry scowled, "It would take several months to list all of the things."
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The Marauders snorted. "Yeah right."
Albus looked away. He was almost certain that he'd seen a look of remorse and apology in Gellert's eyes when they led him away.
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Harry cringed. He was so glad he'd never read that particular chapter of the book.
Ron and Hermione sighed. Why couldn't the dratted woman leave Harry alone?
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"What?"
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"No!" said the people from the future.
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"At least I know the ones I have are true friends."
"Says the woman who wouldn't know a true friend if they walked up and bit her on the nose," said Ginny.
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"Yeah right."
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"No, everything isn't what it seems. But that doesn't mean you know what really happened either," said Hermione.
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"No one's perfect," snarled Sirius.
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"I'm sorry, Professor," said Harry. "I shouldn't think that you should tell me everything. That is arrogant."
"But, it is also understandable," said Albus with a sigh, "I should have told you some things so you would know that I don't just care about your status as "The Chosen One"."
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"They have always worried about me," said Harry, chuckling, "I look like I should be the worst type of character in their books."
"They think people are criminals based on appearance?" asked Molly. "What a way to live their lives."
Harry sat down hard on the bed. The broken bit of mirror danced away from him; he picked it up and turned it over in his fingers, thinking, thinking of Dumbledore and the lies with which Rita Skeeter was defaming him ...
A flash of brightest blue. Harry froze, his cut finger slipping on the jagged edge of the mirror again. He had imagined it, he must have done. He glanced over his shoulder, but the wall was a sickly peach color of Aunt Petunia's choosing. There was nothing blue there for the mirror to reflect. He peered into the mirror fragment again, and saw nothing but his own bright green eye looking back at him.
He had imagined it, there was no other explanation; imagined it, because he had been thinking of his dead headmaster. If anything was certain, it was that the bright blue eyes of Albus Dumbledore would never pierce him again.
"Maybe someone else has the mirror," suggested Lily.
"I will still be watching you, Harry, you know that all the people who died will always be watching and loving you," said Albus.
"That doesn't make it easier to take their deaths," said Harry. "But it does make me feel better that I know now that I will see everyone one day when I move on to the "next great adventure"."
"I always said he was mental," whispered Ron to Hermione who choked back a giggle.
"Well, that is the end of the chapter," said Minerva. "Who wants to read next?"