Disclaimer: Everything you recognize belongs to JK Rowling.
From the last chapter:
"I will decide who brews what!" Tom shouted, enraged. "Tell Slughorn to brew around the clock. I will brook no disobedience. I want hundreds of witches and wizards sleeping the living death by the middle of next week. Harry's birthday will not go uncelebrated, and this is only the beginning. He becomes of age this year, after all." A high laugh ripped through the room.
Harry shuddered and pulled away. Tom Riddle was planning to take the whole magical world hostage under his guise as minister, at least as many as still trusted the Ministry of Magic. If this was the beginning, what was he planning for his birthday, less than ten days away?
Chapter 49
"We need to call a meeting!" Harry said, puffs of breath coming out of his mouth in sharp pants after he stumbled out of an orange tree in the manor's mirror room early the next morning. He'd managed to sleep on the return trip from London to the shores of Yorkshire, but that had been a fitful thing, full of starts and shocks as he remembered the snippets he'd heard of Tom Riddle's plan to hold the entire magical world hostage.
As risky as listening in to that conversation had been, Harry was glad he had. Although he hadn't known it, they couldn't have afforded waiting till Ollivander completed the eavesdropping charm by activating the quick quotes quill. Perhaps that was why the wandmaker had felt so urgent about hurrying the Dursleys along.
"Uhhhh?" Neville lifted a groggy head from his hammock, "Whatcha...Harry?"
Harry's swift footsteps jerked to a halt on the hardened soil pathway when he heard Ollivander disagree.
"Harry, any meeting will be more productive if the participants are well-rested. A few hours now will make little difference."
Harry's shoulders slumped. He wanted to shout, to deny that. They had only ten days to prepare, and less than that if they were to counteract the Ministry's plan to house those who drank the draught of living death. But Ollivander was right. They had to think clearly if they were to make an effective plan.
"I'll just go by the library, then. See if Hermione is awake," Harry said.
Ollivander nodded, approval crinkling the corners around his eyes. "Sleep would do you good, too."
Harry consciously stilled his body before nodding. His need to act was coming out in a tapping foot and hands rustling in his pockets, searching for something to help this situation. "I'll try," he promised with a sigh."What time is it, anyway?"
Ollivander looked out the wide panel of windows to their right. "Dawn has not yet arrived. I would estimate it's around two or three in the morning."
"I miss watches that tell real time," Harry said, both hands balled up in his pockets. He turned around and left. "Night, Neville."
Light snoring met his ears, and Harry smiled. Good old Neville had probably fallen back to sleep right away.
Harry didn't take a direct route through the corridors to the library. Despite Ollivander's counsel, his mind worried over the problem of how to protect the people Hogwarts had sent potion to. Even if Harry didn't know those students all that well, he still knew their faces.
Tom's implied threat was clear. People would simply not wake up or the potion would be found faulty if Harry or the Order tried to impede Tom's plans. It was an amazing strategy, really. The blame would fall on Hogwarts and Professor McGonagall for sending out batches of deadly potion, thus driving an even greater number of wizards and witches into the waiting arms of the Ministry. Brilliant. Horrifically brilliant.
"Harry?" A high voice, soft and familiar, stopped Harry in his tracks.
"Hmm?" he said, turning around. Luna's blond hair had a soft, ethereal glow from the hallway light. Her skin looked paler than normal, her body shrouded in a white nightgown that covered her from neck to ankle. Her bare feet must have been soaking up the chill of the stones since she gave a small shiver.
"The nargles will keep bothering you if you just ignore them."
Harry was becoming familiar with Luna-speak. He sat down, leaning his back against the rough hewn stone. She joined him, and Harry rested his head against the wall, looking at the ceiling while he explained their predicament. "...and so my hands are tied. How can I defeat Tom if every time I try, scores of people die?"
Luna sat in silence for minutes, her eyes staring at the opposite wall as if she hadn't heard him, as if she were sitting alone. But finally she folded her hands in her lap and spoke. "Why don't we rescue them from dying then? After they die?"
Harry shook his head, not surprised at the nutty response. "Because the goal is to prevent people from dying, not snatch them back from their next great adventure after they've died. We all die, sooner or later. I just don't want this lot to die now because of me."
"A pity," she sighed, and her jaw trembled a bit before she firmed it. "Right, then. So why don't you make their death later rather than sooner?" She turned her head to look at Harry, one delicate eyebrow raising.
"That's what I'm trying to do," Harry said, groaning at the headache forming behind his eyes. He rubbed his temples. Maybe he should skip the library and just go to bed.
A tinkling laugh danced out of her, and her eyes brightened as if Harry had told a joke."No, I mean, put a barrier between them and death. Or put a barrier between them and those who would do them harm."
Harry gritted his teeth. Luna wasn't usually this obtuse. "If we could do that, then we wouldn't be at war." This basic fact seemed to escape her.
"Oh, Harry." This time she sighed. "Did you forget your wand? I've seen how you can do remarkable things with it. If magic can make a portal to the other side, like the veil in the Department of Mysteries, then why can't you create a barrier?"
Harry stared at Luna. He said nothing for one long moment, his tongue frozen with shock. Was that even possible? What she said made a crazy amount of sense. He wrapped his arms around his knees and drew them up to his chest and thought.
He tried to picture what a barrier would look like. Would it be like gauzy curtains pulled around each person to protect them? Perhaps it would be a wall of sparkling light, reflecting any spell back on the user.
Questions pummeled his brain. How would the death-eater kill the sleeping folk? Poisoning their air? Did people who drank the draught of living death even breath? Would they use avada kedavra? Did that take too much energy to use on hundreds all in one go?
And what was death, anyway? The separating of the soul – the essence of Harry – from the body? And if that exit was blocked, the soul forced to stay in the body, what would happen if that body had a mortal wound, such as a knife to the chest?
Harry's heart pounded, excitement tripped and skittered through his veins, and he had to still his drumming fingers. "Do you have any idea how to make it work? My wand seems to help me extend the effects of already existing spells, it doesn't create new ones." Harry promised himself he wasn't going to access the external pool of magic for this. He'd save hundreds of lives in the short run, but at enormous cost. If Tom Riddle lived as a result of the equalizing boost he would receive, thousands could easily die.
"My mum was working on a way before she died," Luna's matter of fact words came out without emotion, but the slight glistening of tears betrayed her. "She was trying to reverse, or inverse, the avada kedavra spell, but something went wrong."
Harry looked at his worn shoes. "I'm sorry," He didn't really know what to say. Sorry could never make up for losing a parent. He knew.
"Don't be. She died doing what she loved." Luna shifted sideways, pulling her legs up underneath her. Her eyes were hard and determined with no trace of dreaminess now. "The killing curse rips souls from their bodies. She was trying to reverse that – create a spell that strengthened the anchoring between our body and soul so no spell, no magic, could rip it apart."
"Wow." Harry couldn't think of anything else to say. Why had no one tried this before? "It didn't work out, though."
Luna shook her head and looked away, her mouth pulling down at the corners. "Today's the anniversary of my mum's accident. I was watching when she placed the charm on herself and tested it. It had worked on the kittens, you see. But it must take more power for a larger body." She stopped and swallowed before continuing. "If the charm only needs a power boost, your wand might be the key."
Harry worked his tongue around in suddenly parched mouth. "We might want to test it first, Luna," he said, his voice coming out thin and strangled.
"I'm willing to volunteer," her face was serene, her eyes alight with an inner glow.
This time Harry shook his head, vigorously. "Muggles test things on animals first. We're just going to have to find a large enough animal to try it on. If it doesn't work, we can always slaughter it for meat. Maybe Hagrid will have an idea."
Luna's laughter peeled through the corridor, bouncing off walls and creating a harmony of sound. "I think he's got a pen of blast-ended screwts he's been tending in the Forbidden Forest."
"Perfect," Harry agreed, relieved she wasn't insisting on volunteering for the job. "Big and magical, and no one will miss them but Hagrid."
Breaking the news after breakfast about Tom Riddle's plan didn't go over well at the Manor. Harry sat back in his chair in the dining room and let the noise wash over him. He knew how they felt.
"My family – they're going to kill my family!"
"We've got to rescue them!"
"We've got to stop him!"
"Tell Percy what they're doing. He wouldn't countenance that!" Molly's shriek pierced the pandemonium.
"Percy wouldn't believe us!" Ron's voice, equally loud, stopped that line of argument cold. Percy wouldn't believe anyone from an organization outside the authority of the Ministry of Magic.
Mad-Eye Moody's peg leg stomped on the floor as the man hefted himself to his feet. "Quiet down, quiet down. Increased training between now and Harry's birthday." His magical eye rolled around to stare at Harry. "No excuses. Everyone attends every day. The twins have a few surprises tucked up their sleeves, and we'd best all learn how to use them."
Harry nodded his agreement. After finding A Key to Hogwart's Hidden Secrets, he'd have more time to train. He hoped, anyway. He had no doubt Mad-Eye would run him to exhaustion, which was all the better to keep him from worrying.
Pain exploded in his shin as something hard and pointy hit it. Harry jerked his head away from Mad-Eye and looked across the long table. Hermione stared at him, eyes wide and intent. She held a book protectively in one hand between her and the table, while she pointed at it with one finger. Harry had been around Hermione long enough to know she had something crucial to tell him. Now? He mouthed at her.
She shook her head no. Harry nodded at her once, and Hermione relaxed. No doubt they'd discuss her findings after this meeting finished. She probably hadn't wanted him to begin training immediately.
At this rate, he'd be stuck in a chair all day long.
He returned his attention back to the group. Mad-Eye had sat down, but everyone still whispered to their neighbor in worried tones. Harry caught a few snatches.
"I can't fight if they'll kill my cousins!"
"Or my grandparents."
"What about my mum and dad at St. Mungos?"
Harry identified that last one as Neville's, and he straightened with surprise. He hadn't thought of Neville's parents. Was the ministry giving the hospital food to feed their patients? He couldn't imagine Tom sanctioning the use of such precious resources on what he no doubt thought was a waste.
Should they try to get food to St. Mungos? Everything they had to do flooded Harry's mind. He had to figure out how to block the avada kedavra with a spell, something never successfully done before, even if Luna's mother had come close. They had to figure out a way to remove the horcrux from his blasted scar, access Gringotts and get rid of that horcrux, figure out a way to kill Tom, and then feed all of the magical world - as well as the muggle world - if possible.
Stress tightened into a hard knot that sat in his chest, constricting his breathing.
Next to Ginny, a few seats down from Hermione at the end of the table, stood Luna. Harry couldn't hear her since the noise in the dining room drowned her out. She tucked her blond hair behind her ears, tapped her throat with her wand, and began again. "EXCUSE ME, I KNOW EVERYONE IS TERRIBLY AFRAID, EVEN MAD-EYE. YOU CAN TELL BY HOW HIS EYE IS SPINNING SIDEWAYS...oh, you've all quieted down. Excellent. I've got a solution, at least part of one. So there's no need to be afraid. At least not as afraid."
"What is it, dear?" Madame Pomfrey asked in the pregnant silence that followed.
"My mum, she was working on a way to keep a soul anchored inside a body. She'd created a spell opposite the killing curse. But it needs a bit of tweaking."
Exasperated huffs and derogatory whispers met this pronouncement, but Madame Pomfrey and Luna ignored them.
"Luna, how much success did your mother have?" Madame Pomfrey's eyes narrowed as she concentrated on the petite witch.
"She was able to protect kittens from avada kedavra, but I'm afraid that didn't work when she reflected the killing curse back on her. Did you know mirrors don't reduce the impact of the curse? But I think we can make it work with Harry's wand."
Silence reigned once again, as it often did when Luna spoke. Harry fought down the embarrassed flush in his cheeks by reminding himself how sad it must have been for Luna to watch her mother die that way years ago today, and the heat left his face.
As much as Harry had tried to keep the news about the strength of his new wand from spreading, there had been little hope of that. Nothing was private in the Manor, even without portraits to spread the word. At least there'd been no sign of traitors or imperiused people yet, so Tom couldn't have word of his wand.
Madame Pomfrey leaned forward toward Luna. "Kittens, you say? I wish your mother had consulted with me. We could have modified the strength and power of her spell to suit humans..." She glanced around at all the faces staring at her. "What? I excelled in runes and arithmancy, I'll have you know. I planned to go into spell research before I became a nurse. Then the war came," she waved a hand as if waving away years of regret.
Relief flooded through Harry. Maybe he wouldn't be responsible for casting that spell on hundreds of people. If the spell failed, he'd wonder for the rest of his life if he could have done something, been somehow better, to save their lives.
"They might not use the killing curse," Augusta Longbottom pointed out while adjusting her vulture hat. "A bludgeoning spell would do the job. Or a cutting curse."
Harry heard someone gag, which set others off. He couldn't blame them. The thought of walking amongst defenseless people and slaughtering them turned his stomach, and he swallowed hard to keep down his breakfast of seaweed, fish, an orange slice, and a bite of egg. He'd relished that bite of egg, and he had no intention of experiencing it a second time as it came up again.
"I disagree." Madame Pomfrey tapped her fingers on the table while she thought. "All bodily functions are suspended once you take the draught of living death. Theoretically, death eaters could cut their heads off, and they would be fine if I reattached them before we revived them."
Harry heard someone throw up in earnest at that, and he frowned at the waste of food. As understandable as it was, they couldn't afford weak stomachs when every calorie counted.
"Fire," Mad-Eye said. "That wouldn't be reparable."
Madame Pomfrey nodded. "So we cast Luna's spell – modified of course – and a fire-proofing spell on their bodies. That may be all we can do for them."
"Which would be miraculous, in and of itself," Molly said, her eyes bright with excitement at the possibility.
"Not miraculous," Arthur contradicted. "Magical."
The tension flowed out of the room as everyone laughed and began talking
"All right then," Minerva stood up, but a strong voice interrupted her.
"If we're going to be casting spells on all these people," Ginny said, "Why don't we take their bodies with us and store them here? Wouldn't they be safer that way?"
"That would alert the ministry," George said, clapping an arm around his sister, who shrugged it off.
"And prompt an investigation," Fred added, leaning past his brother.
"Percy would be in a tizzy," George grinned at his brother.
They both nodded and turned to rest of the table. "Let's do it!"
Laughter ran through the room, and the twins sat back in their chairs with satisfied smiles.
"Before certain people get ahead of themselves," Augusta Longbottom cast a prim eye on the twins, "We have no place to put them; all of our space is devoted to growing crops. We're packed to the rafters as it is! If this house had rafters," she sniffed. "And I don't know how many more rooms we can carve out of the cliff and still manage to keep the Manor stable. Spells can only do so much to prop up tons of rock."
Remus Lupin leaned forward in his chair near the far end of the table and spoke into the silence. "We'd have to consider the logistics of the situation, as well. It would take hours for one person to transport hundreds of bodies. It seems unlikely we could accomplish that without bringing the entire Ministry down on our heads and ending our best opportunity to protect the sleepers."
"What if we reduce the number of sleepers, then?" Xenophelius Lovegood said, bouncing up and down in his seat with enthusiasm. "I've been tinkering with the old radio equipment here. I could turn it into a broadcast station to warn people!"
This time Minerva shook her head. "The ministry can track the source of such magic-based broadcasts, unfortunately, and exposing this location or the broadcasters to capture is unthinkable."
Xenophilius jabbed a triumphant finger in the air. "Not if we use a relay put in an inaccessible location!" Light reflected off his yellow-tinged teeth.
"And what location would be both inaccessible to the Ministry and uninhabited?" Minerva's clipped words told Harry she was exercising her patience.
"Why, Hogwarts, of course!" Xenophilius said, raising his eyebrows with surprise. He looked around. "All we have to do is get our relay within the boundaries. Surely our good wandmaker here can manage that. There's plenty of trees there!" He chuckled to himself, pleased with his solution.
Everyone turned to Ollivander.
"A tree not visible to the naked eye from the boundaries would be desirable," Ollivander said after a long pause for thought. "Else the ministry could summon the set - if it's possible for magic to pass through Hogwart's boundaries."
"A determined enough wizard might be able to do so," Minerva said, lips thin and tight. She'd remained vague about the details of the lockdown even with the inhabitants of the Manor.
Ollivander nodded. "A tree inside the building would do the job, if it hasn't died yet."
Professor Sprout cleared her throat, and everyone looked in her direction. "Most trees ought to be near dead by now, due to lack of air. But you may be able to use the rosewood tree in my office. It's the only one inside Hogwarts proper that I know of. I have a fondness for the flowers, you see, and I can get it to bloom several times a year indoors."
"Excellent." Minerva looked from Ollivander to Xenophilius. "We'll need that in place later today. If we broadcast on all channels just after the Ministry's announcement, we'll reach as many people as possible."
"Why not before?" Molly asked, her curly red hair bouncing with the force of her words. "If we predict the Ministry's moves, surely more will believe us!"
"Or," Kingsley countered, entering the fray, "if the Ministry cancels the plan before it goes public, our credibility will be damaged. And Tom Riddle would then take a different set of hostages, like those at St. Mungos."
Harry glanced at Neville. His fingers had tightened around the table's edge, white knuckles standing out against the dark wood. Neville's parents would be helpless.
"What are we going to do, then?" Ginny asked, "Cast spells on the bodies or bring them here?"
"Both," Mad-Eye's gravelly voice silenced the frantic whispers Ginny's question had produced. He turned on his peg leg to face Luna. "Your mother's spell – if it can be finished – could turn the tide of this war. Finish it! As for space, we'll use my trunk. It has several rooms, and I have an aversion to rattling around inside it after spending a year locked in it. I'd rather sleep in a hammock."
No one laughed at the reference to the time Moody spent captured by Barty Crouch Jr. during Harry's fourth year.
Minerva stood and rapped her cane on the floor to get their attention. "Mad-Eye, you're in charge of the mission to retrieve the sleepers as well as battle training. Luna, work with Madame Pomfrey and whomever else you need in order to finish your mother's spell. Xenophilius, we need your relay radio station ready to deposit at Hogwarts by noon-" she flipped her pocket watch open, "three hours from now."
Everyone stood up as the headmistress concluded the meeting. Harry caught Hermione's eye and gestured with his chin in the direction of the library. She nodded, and Harry fell in behind her and Ron to attend his second meeting of the morning. He pushed through the crowd of excited people, their cheeks rosy and eyes bright now that they'd been given assignments in the fight against Tom Riddle.
"Why's everyone so happy?" Ron bent his head close to Hermione to ask the question. "We just got some really bad news."
"That's not happiness, Ron," Hermione glanced up at him, one hand on her hip in exasperation, the other hand clutching her book close. A smile softened her response. "It's hope."
Harry had to admit his own step had an extra spring in it. He pushed past a few more groups, about to leave the room, but he stopped in place and listened to Neville's excited question.
"Luna, how exactly does your mum's spell work? I'd like modify and embed it in my seeds. If I substitute the value in the spell representing the killing curse for bugs and diseases – their life-threatening danger - our yield will skyrocket..."
Harry shook his head, smiled, and hurried after Ron and Hermione. The way Neville was going, he'd be breeding sentient plants in no time.
To be continued...
