"The Harmony Bond"

Chapter Fifty-three.

By Brian Grove

Brian at rescueddoggies dot com

Disclaimer – I don't own HP, and, despite writing about Luna Lovegood, I am not Stubby Boardman nor am I Sirius Black. Bet you never knew that!

Help with "Britishisms"? "thesiteofbrian DOT com SLASH cultural" or see link in my profile.

In the previous chapter...

The Slytherin Monster begins its reign of terror. After discovering that he is a Parselmouth, most people think that Harry is the heir of Slytherin, then Hermione is petrified and Harry ends up the same.

Susan Bones was beside herself. The following day straight after lunch, she met with Fred, George and Ron Weasley, Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood in an empty classroom.

"So why do you want us all here?" asked Fred, unable to keep a note of hostility out of his voice. "Think one of us is behind it now?"

"We need to do something now Harry and Hermione are petrified," Susan replied.

"Why?" sneered George. "I thought you were so sure it was Harry doing it."

"I was wrong, all right? Say what you like. Nothing you say can make me feel any worse about it. And I did say I was sure he wasn't doing it consciously."

"You were supposed to be their friend," Ron accused her.

"I know," she replied, sadly. "There were just so many things which pointed to it being him."

Before Ron could snap something back, Neville said, "Susan is right. Look at it logically. Harry was always around when someone was found petrified and he was a Parseltongue."

"Parselmouth," Luna corrected.

"Sorry?"

"A person who speaks Parseltongue is a Parselmouth," Luna explained. "The Quibbler had an article on how Minister Fudge uses it to control invisible snakes to bite his enemies with cowardice venom."

The others had become used to simply ignoring some of the more outrageous things Luna came up with, so Neville just answered, "Okay, Parselmouth. My point is that I can understand why she thought what she did. After all so did almost everyone else."

"It would be stupid, though," said Ron. "The real heir wouldn't make himself so obvious."

"Coming from the one who thought it had to be Malfoy," George pointed out.

"Well, I was wrong," Ron admitted easily, making his brothers look at him with surprise.

"Where's Ginny?" asked Luna suddenly. "Why isn't she here with us?"

"Not feeling well again," Fred explained.

"We've threatened to tell Pomfrey if it keeps up," added George. "But Posey Percy the Perfect Prefect said to leave her be, she just needs to get used to being away from home."

"Try saying that really quickly," said Fred.

"Or when you've had a few Firewhiskeys," added George.

"Posey Percy the Perfect Prefect," said Fred, rapidly.

"Posey Percy the Perfect Prefect," said George, even more quickly.

"Posey Percy the Perfect Prefect," they both said together three times, finishing in a jumble.

Susan sighed with exasperation. "The point is," she said, "nobody is doing anything. We're being kept in our houses, but nobody is trying to find out what it is, where it is or who is controlling it."

"She's right, you know," said Fred.

"Glad she's right about something," replied George, still not quite ready to forgive Susan.

"Enough!" said Neville sharply enough to make the others look at him with surprise. "This isn't helping Harry and Hermione. And if it isn't stopped, someone might be killed. It might even try to get to them and finish off the job."

"I do hope not," said Luna. "Harry was my first friend. And Hermione's nice to me even if she isn't very good at hiding her opinion about me being unhinged."

"I think we should start by asking Hagrid," said Susan. "If anyone knows anything about a monster here, it'll be him."

"Whatever it is, just don't offer to capture it or he'll want to keep it as a pet," Ron warned her. "He thinks dragons are cute."

"And how are you going to get to see him? We're not allowed out," asked Fred, much to the amusement of the others knowing that what Fred and George were ALLOWED to do and what they actually DID rarely had much to do with each other.

"That's a problem," she admitted.

"We might be able to help you there," said George ignoring looks like daggers from his twin. "We don't have to show them," he added, to placate his twin.

Using a piece of parchment the twins refused to show the others, it was easy to find a way out of the castle, although it was less easy to avoid the teachers and Filch, who seemed to be patrolling almost everywhere they went. Despite pleas from Ron and Susan, they refused to show them what they were looking at. Once outside of the castle, the twins left them and returned inside. "We'll meet you when you come back," they promised.

It was decided that Susan and Luna would be the ones to approach Hagrid. Luna, with her affinity for creatures, would have the best chance of getting Hagrid to relax around them, while Susan would keep her on track, so to speak.

Ron and Neville would go along, but wait outside, keeping guard on the girls. "We would have taken you ourselves," admitted Fred.

"But the staff seem to have this idea that we might get up to things," added George, sounding offended at the very thought.

"Can't think why," Susan replied smoothly.

"Exactly," said Fred, missing the irony in Susan's voice completely. "But they check on us a few times a night now."

"Or send that awful Filch to do it," added George with disgust.

"And we can't even hex him," Fred said in an injured tone, "because the headmaster said if we did, he'd expel us, just like that."

"Or worse," George finished. What the headmaster had actually threatened was not to expel them, but to tell their mother, which as far as the twins were concerned, WAS worse.

So, leaving Ron and Neville on guard outside, Susan and Luna knocked on the big oak door to Hagrid's house.

Hagrid opened it and pointed a crossbow out of the door, aimed far above their heads. With surprise, he looked down and noticed the two youngsters. "What you doing 'ere? You should be in the castle, where it's safe."

"It's not safe in the castle," Susan pointed out. "That's where all the attacks have been."

Hagrid gave a grunt, which Susan took as agreement and, ignoring her manners for once, pushed her way into the house.

"Look," said Hagrid, "we'll all being trouble if you're found down here."

"How are the Thestrals today?" asked Luna.

Hagrid, always easy to distract when it came to "his" animals, entered into a long discussion with Luna about the animals of the forest until Susan, flashing a glare at Luna, said, "Actually, it was about an animal we came to see you."

"Oh? Problem with an owl? Temperamental creatures owls, you have to understand them, you see..."

Before Hagrid could get going on how to treat owls, Susan interrupted him with, "No. We want to know about the monster of Slytherin. We thought you'd be bound to know about it."

Hagrid looked suddenly angry. "Oh. You've found out about that, have you? Well, I didn't do it last time though I was expelled fer it."

To their surprise, Hagrid suddenly burst into tears. "Now I bet there's some'at think it's me again."

"But that's silly," exclaimed Susan. "You can't be the heir of Slytherin. You're half-blood."

"Try telling some o dem that," Hagrid said bitterly.

The hurt and angry tone in his voice sounded so unusual coming from Hagrid that Susan actually forgot for a moment that they had come for information and just said, "We believe you, Hagrid."

It was Luna who asked gently, "Can you tell us about it?"

A short time later there was a sharp rap on the door. "Quick! Hide!" said Hagrid.

Susan hid behind the huge chair Hagrid had been sitting in while Luna hid under Hagrid's bed and Hagrid opened the door.

Susan knew the voice very well. "It's Fudge," she whispered to Luna. Luna nodded, understanding who he was: the Minister of Magic.

"I'm sorry, Hagrid, that it's come to this," the Minister began. "But attacking Harry Potter... I had to do something."

"But I din do nuffing. You tell 'im Professor. You know I din."

"I know, Hagrid," Professor Dumbledore sounded unusually despondent. Obviously, Susan thought, he's fought this and lost.

"I have no choice," the Minister insisted.

"Where you taking me? Not Azkaban?"

"Your record speaks against you, I'm afraid."

Susan could bear it no longer. She jumped up from her hiding place. "That's not true! Hagrid was expelled without any proper hearing. Just because that Tom Riddle said so."

"He'd been raising a monster in the school. Now I don't know what you're doing here..."

"A giant spider. Tell me, Headmaster. Before that girl was killed, how many were petrified?"

"Four," the headmaster answered.

"That's it then. It couldn't have been Hagrid," said Susan, triumphantly.

Minister Fudge looked puzzled.

"Acromantulas..." Susan said the word slowly making sure that she got it right... "can kill, but they can't petrify. It can't have been Hagrid's giant spider. Anyway, he's not a pure-blood. He couldn't be the heir of Slytherin."

"Nor is Harry Potter," said Luna, as she slipped out from underneath Hagrid's bed.

Everyone looked at her, puzzled, as she calmly patted away dust from her robes. She seemed to take notice only after several seconds of staring.

"Not a pureblood. But everyone thought it was him too."

"I think this might be a case for extreme caution," suggested Professor Dumbledore, "and not over-hasty action."

Fudge looked defeated for a moment, then there was a sharp tap on the door. Professor Dumbledore opened it.

"What you doin' 'ere? Get outta my house."

The newcomer, Lucius Malfoy, looked around and sniffed. "I am here to deliver this notice to the Headmaster. Believe me, I do not want to spend any more time than I have to in your... You call this a house?"

The headmaster still hadn't opened the letter.

"You've been suspended. I'm afraid the governors think you've, shall we say, lost your touch."

"How many governors did you threaten to get them to suspend Professor Dumbledore?" shouted Susan, angrily.

"You can't take Dumbledore away! They'll be killings next!" Hagrid cried out, frantically.

Ignoring Hagrid completely, Malfoy said, "Obviously, education here is severely lacking if a student is allowed to talk to a member of the board of governors like that.. Fudge. I'm surprised you didn't put this half-human in Azkaban after the first attack. I may have to raise this in the Wizengamot."

Fudge looked worried for the first time.

Professor Dumbledore looked sternly at Susan and said, "You will show due respect, young lady."

"Come on, Hagrid. Let's go," the Minister insisted.

Susan rounded on him. "You wait till my aunt hears about this. Hagrid never had a trial the first time either."

Minister Fudge turned to Susan. "Your aunt is an employee of the Ministry and will do her job."

"Of course she will: the Wizengamot appointed her as the Head of Magical Law Enforcement five years ago and she will enforce the law, whether or not it is convenient for you."

Fudge flustered about this, before a nasty smile returned to his face.

"We'll see how well she does if he's already in Azkaban."

"Then we'll go to the Prophet! People need to know what's going on!"

"The Editor of the Prophet owes me quite a few favours. He won't let such article be published!"

"Then we'll use the Quibbler! To make people realise what's going on" Susan said, gesturing at Luna by her.

"The Quibbler?" The Minister laughed. "That rag? Be my guests: after their last article about the supposed 'Army of Heliopaths', nobody will believe a word it says."

He walked out with Hagrid, Dumbledore and Lucius behind him, not realising that he had just made two very bad enemies.

The professor stopped for a moment and turned back to the bushes near to Hagrid's front door. "Boys. You can come out now. Please take Miss Bones and Miss Lovegood back to the castle safely."

As the Minister's party walked away, Ron said, "How'd he know? I was sure nobody saw us there."

"My grandmother always says he knows everything," said Neville.

"Let's put down what we know," said Susan. "Firstly. This has happened before and someone called Tom Riddle accused Hagrid and he was expelled."

"And the attacks stopped straight afterwards," added Luna.

"We know a girl was killed in a bathroom and four others were petrified before, just like this time."

"And that's it?" asked Fred.

Susan nodded.

"Well it's more than we knew before," George admitted, "but it's not much."

"The girl who was killed was found in a bathroom," Susan mused. She stared at Luna for a moment. "What if she's still there?"

"I believe it's time we go and have an eyeful at Myrtle, Susan." Luna answered, calmly standing up and gathering her things. "That would be nicer than the other way around."

Author's notes...

Some important differences you may have missed between this story and canon. Dumbledore hasn't given Harry the invisibility cloak, so they can't use it to get to Hagrid's house. There is no car in the Forbidden Forest as they didn't fly it to Hogwarts. Harry didn't see Lucius with Ginny in the bookshop. Harry never got to "meet" the diary so nobody knew anything about Tom Riddle or Hagrid the previous time the chamber was opened.

Well done to the anonymous reviewer "Some Guy Online" who was the only one who spotted the references to a certain amusing document circulating the web. I'll let you know what it is soon, but as a clue – look for anything in the previous chapter or the next one to do with Fred and George's jokes.

It has come to my notice that I've been missing some emails. If you reviewed chapter FIFTY-ONE or FIFTY-TWO and didn't get a reply, that's why. I am also a little behind on replies to reviews in the last few days. I apologise.

Thank you to tumshie for pointing out that I had mistakenly referred to Filch as the gardener.

Thank you to scout-01, Nick Johnes, JJ Rust, EvilFaerie17, VictoriaM2006, Wonderbee31 , who all pointed out that I had misspelled Millicent Bulstrode in the previous chapter. So many people were spotting this, I actually uploaded a correction the same day instead of waiting until I posted this chapter as I normally do.

Thanks to my betas, Nachoman1, a.k.a. Ignacio Ramírez, Militis, a.k.a. Mike, omega13a, Helena and The_Scribbler.

Please review.

Brian

Help with "Britishisms"? "thesiteofbrian DOT com SLASH cultural" or see link in my profile.