Chapter Fifty.
As if things weren't bad enough.
"Of course I know who she is!" Day angrily shouted. "So does Harry…Ginny too. If you've read—"
"I've read the reports." McGonagall coolly replied. "And I must congratulate you on being well up to the task."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome. Now please, calm down for a few minutes—we'll need to figure out a way of dealing with this."
McGonagall's brisk manner had something of a calming effect on Day, who upon hearing the name stammered out by a frightened ghost became just as angry as Hagrid did and charged up to Fletcher demanding more information before being forcibly restrained by the Aurors. It took a lot to get him back to the Headmaster's office, mainly threats of what he called a 'Puppeteer' being used on him, but he was still very vivid upon arrival. She didn't need to worry about Harry, seated in one of the office armchairs, slouching over to his right side where his head was supported by his right hand in a complete state of surprise.
Of all the people who wanted him either dead, or in a less than human state, Hazel was a complete surprise to encounter again. But the more he thought about it, the less surprised he was by the fact she was here; she went through a lot of trouble to track Day down in Fresno with a highly elaborate trap, and it never seemed apparent why at the time or afterward. Harry figured then it was an old enemy trying to get back at Day, and all of them just happened to be at the wrong place at that particular time. But what if there was more, he started wondered, sitting there in the chair as McGonagall was trying to console Day on the other side of the room. What if she did know who they were, and wanted to try again?
No, Harry dashed that thought away at once. Voldermort wasn't the kind to allow any other aspiring Witch or Wizard to usurp him, especially regarding the existence of one Harry Potter. He'd go after them just as he had his parents, or direct his Death Eaters to make examples of those foolish enough to try. But Hazel was desperate to regain the power and control that had been taken away from her when she was thrown out of Los Angeles. Going from what Day explained of her, it was easy to picture her as Voldermort's female counterpart as their goals and desires were not all that different…
Except, she was disposed while he was not. If she wanted to gain back that power she once had, stopping Voldermort would be it. And that, Harry figured, would be quite a fight …
But if they did fight each other, Harry began reasoning, wouldn't it not give us the mush needed advantage to bring Voldermort' down?
It was something he just had to share…
"She wouldn't stand a chance against…Him." McGonagall exclaimed. "He's one of the most powerful sorcerers of modern times!"
"You think Hazel doesn't know that?" Day smoothly countered. "I've never seen her turn away from anything that would make her more powerful than before—and I mean anything. She'd sell herself for the power to do. All she'd need is to get close enough to stick a knife into his back—"
"I still don't believe that's possible." McGonagall scoffed.
"But what if they were to fight each other?" Harry suddenly put in, when seeing the chance to. "From experience, they're about the same. And wouldn't Voldermort try to remove all obstacles in his path, before trying to get me?"
Both Headmistress and the Thief paused, staring at Harry with surprise that soon became calculated thought that worked away on Harry's suggestion.
"Look," Harry quickly injected. "Hazel is the perfect match for Voldermort, in everyway possible—though there are differences, like her use of muggle servants and guns. But if they did fight each other, wouldn't it be to our advantage?"
McGonagall's face tightened, while Day was really giving the ideal some earnest thought.
"Mister Potter—"
"I believe Harry has an interesting ideal." Dumbledore spoke from his portrait. "I also find the appearance of this woman in London to be rather troubling. Unless she has a tremendous thirst for revenge against Mr. Day, I would consider that she's here either to form an alliance with, or, somehow, and this is a rather extreme stretch of my imagination, try taking control of the situation for her benefit.
Dumbledore in the portrait then nodded towards Day. "You've stated that she was 'disposed' from power?"
Day nodded. "She was booted from Los Angeles, which she used to run the entire magical scene, this past spring."
"I understand there really isn't much of a legal commission handing magical affairs in that city?" Dumbledore modestly queried.
"There are officials, no better than your Ministry." Day answered.
The portrait Dumbledore considered that answer with a sad shrug and shake of his bearded head. "We all suffer under the corruption of those we've placed our trust to lead us."
He then glanced towards Day again. "The American Bureau Agents who are here, sirs Fredricks and Barnabus, along with Fred and George Weasley as well as you and Harry, are the only available people amongst us who can recognize her?"
"Ginny too." Harry put in.
The Dumbledore portrait turned smilingly to Harry, "Yes, I had forgotten her. Thank you Harry."
"That pretty much rounds out the cast." Day stated. "But Fred's in Hospital."
"There's enough available to make do." Dumbledore's portrait frowned slightly.
"You propose to look for this Bernadine Hazel?" McGonagall finally spoke up.
"Yes, Minerva." Dumbledore's portrait quietly told her. "I intend to use her."
Albus Dumbledore may be dead and buried in that great white tomb out by the lake, but what he's left behind in his portrait was a highly formable mind unafraid to take chances.
Yes, chances. We didn't go over the details of his plan, at first he spoke to both Fred and Barney when they arrived in the office; carefully laying out the fact that for now they were to locate Hazel and keep under watch. There shouldn't be any trouble with Bone on the matter; he's spoken to him before while at the Ministry. (Apparently, there was a portrait of him there as well, as a sort of memorial.) If there were any troubles, he assured them, he'll get in contact with Bone right away. In fact, he would do exactly that once the Agents were on their way.
Well, he didn't exactly…
When they left, he addressed Harry directly. "I'm sorry; I failed to obtain any information from Rowea Ravenclaw. Not that I won't try again, but she's too distraught at this time."
Harry took the news badly, but at least he didn't put up a fuss. It had been quite a long night for him. With all that hope rising up only to burst in his face, he was more stoic than I would have been…
Anyway, I had my own demon to fight.
"You think Hazel came all the way from America just to take me?" Harry enquired as we neared the door to his dorm.
"You've forgotten, I was there too." I told him.
He nodded to that, and turned before the portrait door.
And paused.
"I wish this would all end." He earnestly sighed. "It would be nice to finally live a normal life."
Depends upon what your definition of 'normal' was, I wanted to say. But when it finally formulated, he'd said his good-night and went into his dorm…
A 'normal' life. Quite a concept…
Pity we all can't have one.
The following morning was a bright and clear as all the previous ones had been so far, but the growing chill of autumn was making it felt. Still, snuggling under the warm blankets of his bed, gave Harry a pause from the reality persistently digging his every moment. But at last he'd haft to rise, entering once more the accelerated routine of this years school life with the others.
So far, Gryffindor hadn't suffered too badly from the attrition hitting the other Houses as students were becoming overwhelmed by the amount of work and the speed it was delivered to them. There were some first, second, and third years, who showed promise early, who tried to keep the pace with pure earnest, but many of them faltered and finally failed as they couldn't keep up with the more intelligent amongst them. Only Ravenclaw House could, and loudly did, boast that all of there's were keeping up and keeping up very nicely—as reflected in their total amount of points already accumulated by that time.
They were on their way to reaching Three Thousand.
But Gryffindor House banded together, shouldering the workload, and forging onward. Even Ron, notorious for doing his homework late, was right up to speed with everyone else and helping Hermione at the same time. Quite a feat, considering his own heavy school workload and helping his parents at the same time since George was getting dragged away a lot for his formulas. But the bags under his reddened eyes and definite frown hinted at his fatigue and short temperament, which was much more pronounced than everyone else.
But that Friday, everyone received a very pleasant surprise upon hurrying into the Great Hall for a rapid breakfast. There to greet them was a message board that plainly read:
All Students:
Due to attrition amongst Students, classes are to start two hours later than previously noted.
Congratulations to those of you who've made it through the first month.
"Blimey." Ron simply breathed out, absolutely perplexed by what he'd read.
Others, like Seamus, took a very dim view of the surprise by stating had they'd known they would have stayed in bed another hour. But Harry just took it all in stride smiling all the way to his place at the House Table, after piling his plate with enormous amounts of pancakes, sausages and eggs, then smothering it all under large amounts of syrup. He wasn't quite aware of it though, being lost in the bliss of having made it that far.
"Harry, some of us would like to have syrup too."
Harry blinked, and there was Ginny standing next to him and syrup running all over the table and across the front of his robes. The incident itself was terribly embarrassing, but not devastating as Ginny whipped out her wand uttering tergeo tergo tersi tersum all of the spillage was suddenly mopped up and put back into the container if it never was all of both Harry and the table.
"I learned that from Mum." She smiled down at Harry.
"Yes, because you kept spilling things allover the table." Ron viciously remarked with a telling grin.
That lead to Ginny spinning furiously about to tell her older brother what for, and for the next ten minutes trying to get them apart while hoping to not attract the attention of the monitors, or their fellow students, and settled down. Even while taking an active part of pulling, and finally setting Ginny down in the chair next to his, Harry took the entire matter in stride—enjoying the diversion from the intensely serious regimen of the past several weeks.
So when he finally sat down, he was very much surprised to find the latest issue of the Daily Prophet, neatly rolled and tied for Owl Post delivery, sitting there between himself and his plate…
With the front page headline glaring at him, reading;
Hogwarts Scandal!!!
Numerous felons identified among the new instructors at Hogwarts!
Another Exclusive Report by Rita Skeeter!
Oh, what now, Harry miserably wondered.
9
