"So you convinced Hagrid to tell you everything," Marina interrupted the endless tide of excitement the next evening.
Their giant friend had come home last night and, of course, the foursome had immediately gone down to visit.
Marina was just as happy the man was back, but she hadn't slept worth a damn and was therefore in a poor mood.
McGonagall had taken fifty points from Gryffindor, even though no one suspected what had really happened with Zabini. They just assumed she had used a non-verbal jinx or something.
Well, better her than the twins and Harry. From the disappointment on the toad's face, she'd had much more in mind as punishment for them.
"Today's lesson was cool, too," Susan admitted excitedly. "He brought thestrals."
Which meant only a handful of the students would have been able to see what they were studying. But Marina groaned.
"Umbridge could not have liked that at all."
"What she likes even less is Hagrid," Hermione grumbled.
Of course. Umbridge and half-breeds.
"Well, it's only another two weeks to Christmas. Then we get a much-needed break."
Never in her life had Marina looked forward to leaving the castle this much. But between the toad, the Slytherins she had recruited to be her private squad, Hagrid's refusal to tell them how he had gotten himself beaten up, and the fact that Dumbledore was still nowhere to be seen or found, Hogwarts was not anybody's favourite place right now.
The only good thing were the DA meetings. Between her and Harry, they were managing to whip the whole bunch of kids into shape. They'd even gotten a new member. Rolf Scamander, grandson of the famous magizoologist and distant cousin to Anthony Goldstein, had joined after overhearing his friends talk about it. It didn't hurt that he was talented and had no problem catching up.
Sometimes, there wasn't much for her to do, other than to watch and correct a few wand movements. It gave her time to think. Unfortunately.
Mostly, it just made her madder. Fudge was officially out of office now, but his las act had been a pain. Somehow, he had convinced the Wizengamot to approve a decree that allowed Umbridge to keep her status as High Inquisitor. Not to mention that he had added a caveat, that if for some reason Dumbledore was removed, Umbridge would be Headmistress.
So even with the coward out of power, he and the toad were up to something. It would take a disaster of epic proportions to remove Dumbledore, yet they seemed pretty confident that it would happen soon.
The Order wasn't doing well either. People kept disappearing, and up until the moment he had been escorted from the building, Fudge had maintained that Bellatrix and Crouch alone were responsible.
Amelia was now interim Minister of Magic, approved by the whole Wizengamot. The pure-blood fanatics hadn't dared oppose her appointment. All of wizarding-kind respected Susan's aunt too much for them to risk a ruckus. She had made her deputy the new Head of Magical Law Enforcement.
Unfortunately, fear and foolishness were not restricted to the former Minister. Even now that Amelia had started telling the truth, people did not believe it. As far as the world was concerned, Amelia was Dumbledore's ally and promoted his propaganda.
Marina sighed. At least now they didn't have to watch their backs from the ministry anymore. The department heads and Amelia were working around the clock to somehow guarantee their safety. And those officials who resisted the new agenda were removed from their positions.
Christmas couldn't come soon enough though. Everyone needed to unwind and take a breath.
Noise woke her. It was the middle of the bloody night, yet from the sound of it, the entire house Gryffindor was awake.
Cranky beyond belief – it was the first night she had been able to sleep in a week – she pulled her robe over her pyjamas, grabbed her wand, and went downstairs.
Just about everybody was huddled in the Common Room. McGonagall was there too, none too pleased at being woken at this hour, and listening to Ron trying to explain that Harry had woken up screaming from a nightmare.
Harry, however, insisted it hadn't been a dream.
Marina elbowed her way through the confused crowd, toward her rattled brother trying to explain that Arthur Weasley was dying as they were speaking.
A chill ran down her spine. Harry, despite everything, was not prone to hysteria and he sounded very sure that what he had seen had actually happened.
When she reached him, she put a hand on his arm, in an effort to calm him somewhat.
It backfired. The moment she touched his bare skin, her knees buckled.
Images passed before her Inner Eye, residue of whatever had enabled Harry to witness something that had happened hundreds of miles away.
But it was her sight that filled in the blanks that whatever Harry had experienced hadn't been able to tell him. Like, for instance, that Arthur hadn't been the only one on guard duty.
Angelina, who had materialised the second Marina had crumpled, helped her back up.
She swallowed against her sudden nausea and met McGonagall's eye.
"Professor," she said, unable to keep the tremble out of her voice. "Harry is right. Arthur is dying. And Jupiter isn't doing too well either."
McGonagall's eyes widened in shock, most likely because the witch wasn't used to hearing true fear in Marina's voice.
She silently thanked Merlin that none of the Notts were Gryffindors – her panic would have sent Carmen and Ty into a tailspin.
In short order, Harry had put on his own robe and the three of them were off to Dumbledore's office.
Marina stood silently by as Harry once again told his story. The headmaster… she couldn't pinpoint it exactly – he had to be using occlumency – but he had been expecting something like this.
Portrait inhabitants were sent, the Weasleys and Notts rounded up, and a portkey took them all to Grimmauld Place before Umbridge could catch on.
Her father was already waiting for them, and convinced the worried kids not to run off to see their fathers.
But she was worried about Harry. As he recounted, yet again, how he had known about Arthur, he altered his story and left out that he'd seen in from inside the snake's head. The guilt was churning his insides worse than his concern for Arthur.
Marina had no clue what to do about it. She understood that he must have seen in from inside Nagini because Voldemort had been possessing his snake at the time.
But how did Harry get inside the maniac's mind?
Whatever the answer might be, it couldn't be comforting.
Marina had stayed behind with her Dad as everyone else was herded to visit the recovering invalids. Arthur would be fine, once they figured out how to counteract the snake's venom, and Jupiter would be released tomorrow, barring unforeseen complications. He had been hit with a nasty curse, and only his shield had kept him from dying.
Today, Marina had an agenda.
Ever since the kids' first visit to St. Mungo's, they had been… twitchy. And Harry was downright depressed, isolating himself from everyone. It had taken her Dad a while, being depressed himself because he was back in the house he hated, but he'd noticed.
So now, they were about to do something absolutely no one else would have approved of in any way before: confront Dumbledore.
Up until today, he had been quite preoccupied making sure Umbridge didn't hear about any of this. All their friends had been sent home for the holidays, and so there was nothing the toad could do, for the time being.
This morning, Dumbledore was joining them at headquarters, supposedly to brief the members of the Order. He'd be in for a nasty surprise.
Marina, Harry and all their friends had banded together and confronted their parents. Arthur's and Jupiter's attack were exactly what they had been so afraid of when they'd heard that the 'adults' were guarding the prophecy and risking their lives for absolutely nothing. And after a good deal of arguing, begging, and tears from most of the girls, their parents had caved and promised they wouldn't go back on guard duty.
Nobody would be dying to protect a prophecy that wouldn't do Voldemort any good.
Flames came to live in the fireplace, revealing a whirling figure. Floo powder was a risky way to travel, still, but Grimmauld Place was under a Fidelius, so even if the Fudge-loyal faction of the ministry was still watching, they'd never know where Dumbledore had gone.
"This is unexpected," the old wizard stated once he'd cleaned himself up and stepped out into the kitchen.
"I want the truth," Marina said without preamble. "Enough is enough, Professor. I don't know what it is you think to accomplish by not speaking to Harry anymore. What you did manage to do however, is make him doubt himself. So now I want to know: how the bloody hell did Harry see into Voldemort's mind from who knows how far away?"
Dumbledore didn't say anything, rather standing statue still. Then-
"Sirius, perhaps we should talk about this alone and –"
"I'm afraid not, Albus," her Dad shook his head. "My girl expected a reply like this, you see, so…"
The kitchen doors opened and Remus, Hestia, the Tonks, all the Weasleys except Ron and all the Notts entered, along with Elias and Amelia Bones.
"You used my brother as bait," Marina accused the headmaster quietly. "You could have stopped him competing last year. Instead you used him to figure out what was going on, damn near getting him killed. And I didn't say anything. Not even to Harry, because Merlin knows he needs something – someone – stronger than Voldemort to believe in.
But enough is enough. Ginny and Ty already disabused him of the notion that he might be possessed. And Harry has no clue how to use legilimency, not to mention it wouldn't work over such distances.
How is it that those two are connected?"
Dumbledore looked at the assembled Order members backing her up and sighed into his beard.
"You're asking questions you don't want answered."
"That's not up to you to decide anymore, Headmaster," Marina replied grimly. "Maybe you've been fighting this fight on your own for too long, but either way you're done using my brother to do it. At least as long as he doesn't know exactly what's going on.
He has a right to decide for himself how much he's willing to risk."
And considering that he'd never hesitated risking his fool neck before, she didn't see what Dumbledore was so worried about anyway.
Recognizing that he was outvoted, Dumbledore sat down heavily.
"I had been hoping to spare you this as long as possible… but very well. Do you know what a Horcrux is?"
Everybody froze. Marina didn't but suddenly she was very cold.
"It's black magic," she answered. "Someone … takes a piece of their soul and … stores it in an object. As long as the horcrux exists… one is virtually immortal."
Who would have thought that inheriting a whole library full of dark magic books that made her nauseous would come in handy someday?
She had a very bad feeling she knew where this was headed.
"I have spent years collecting information, and it is my considered belief that Voldemort has created a horcrux. Rather more than one, actually."
Almost in tandem, everyone slumped into seats or against the wall and furniture, too horrified to keep standing.
"That's how he survived the Killing Curse rebounding on him," she said quietly, terror almost choking her. The bastard really was immortal.
"Indeed."
Marina took a few deep breaths and forced herself to block out everyone's emotions – even David's, who had come up behind her, ready to catch her should she stumble.
"While that's … interesting to know, what does it have to do with Harry getting a front row seat in Voldemort's mind?"
Dread was weighing down her insides. A voice inside her head – sounding suspiciously like Pheora always did – whispered she knew the answer already, feared it. But she couldn't grasp it just now.
"A horcrux is created by killing someone. Ending someone's life rips a person's soul apart – even Tom's – and the split-off piece is put into the object.
The soul tears the moment the curse is cast, not the moment of the victim's death."
And just like that, Marina's terrible, awful instinct surfaced, making her sway from the horror of her suspicion.
Dumbledore watched her struggle, a knowing glint in his eyes. He sounded sympathetic when he spoke again.
"When his curse rebounded on himself, one half of his remaining soul was destroyed. The other half … latched onto the first living thing in reach."
Nobody moved a muscle. She suspected no one was so much as breathing.
She forced her voice cords to function.
"So what you're saying is … Harry is a horcrux."
Suffice to say, everyone was appalled. How was she going to tell her brother that? How was she going to soften the fact that he was hosting a piece of that monster inside himself?
But they had even bigger problems. Due to her photographic memory, she remembered everything she'd read about horcruxes in her grandfather's books.
"A horcrux can only be destroyed by the one who created it, by basilisk venom or by fiendfyre," she recited grimly. "Just how were you planning to destroy the one inside Harry?"
"I … don't know," Dumbledore admitted. "There has never been a living horcrux, so … there seems to be no way. Horcruxes need to be destroyed to be rendered useless."
Her father was out of his chair faster than she could blink, and only Remus' timely intervention saved the headmaster from her father's anger.
"You were going to sacrifice Harry," her Dad thundered, outraged.
"Only if I cannot find another way," Dumbledore replied quietly. "Then only Tom himself can destroy the piece of his soul within Harry."
Everyone was outraged. No one but Marina could feel Dumbledore's agony over such a plan. But she refused to sympathise.
"Well, forget it. There has to be a way to get it out of Harry without killing him," she announced grimly. "We can worry about destroying it later."
"Where do we even start?" Carmen asked, still stunned. "It's black magic beyond anything used in our lifetimes."
"Benjamin has to know of someone we can ask," she replied dryly. "Narcissa too. Hell, Borgin & Burkes is a place to look if nothing else. Plus, the Ministry must have heaps of confiscated books, considering all the convicted dark wizards. Amelia?"
"Yes, there are vaults in the Department of Mysteries," their new Minister answered with a nod. "I'll get everyone clearance."
"What do we tell Harry?" one of the twins asked, for once as serious as everyone else.
She squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed her temples, a migraine pulsing behind her lids.
David wound an arm around her from behind and pulled her against him, taking most her weight; as if hoping it would take the burden too.
Marina squeezed his arm, opened her eyes with a deep breath and answered.
"The truth. We promised him no more secrets, so we tell him everything. He can handle it. It might take a good while to process but he can handle it."
She sincerely hoped.
