Fortunately, everyone had seemed to accept my explanation that my godmother was a crazy and powerful witch who'd apparently been friends with my mother, and that her "lessons" were often hard to follow and painful. All of this was true, but what I'd danced around was that I knew who she was. Percy, at the very least, would probably feel obligated to report that he'd spotted Bellatrix Lestrange. I wasn't ready to get caught in between whatever agenda she had and Dumbledore.
Plus her continued patronage was dangerous but likely necessary. I became especially convinced of this by the second weekend of December, when McGonagall had posted a sign-up sheet in the Gryffindor common room. It was a list to fill in for everyone staying at Hogwarts over the winter break. I'd planned on just ignoring it and seeing if they'd let me get on the train to London. She caught my eye across the common room and I wandered over. "Mr. Dresden, I've gone ahead and added your name to the sheet," she explained.
"Why?" I asked, not thinking of anything else to say, then covering with, "I was planning to visit with friends over the break." I actually wasn't, not having anyone I trusted to let me out to accomplish what I needed to, but it seemed like a vague enough excuse.
"I'm sorry, but with a certain individual's interest in following you when you're outside of Hogwarts," she said, hopefully meaning Dawlish rather than my godmother, "it wouldn't be safe for you to stay with most families. The Weasleys might be fine, but their boys are staying here as well."
"So I'm basically a prisoner here?" I said. It wasn't a whine. I certainly wasn't a 16-year-old reacting badly to being shut down by an authority figure.
"Take it as you will, Mr. Dresden," she shrugged. "There are certainly worse places to be a prisoner."
"And this summer?" I asked, wondering if I was just trapped here until I turned 17.
"Albus is looking into suitable situations for you. One of us will inform you when that's sorted."
Just like I didn't whine, I certainly didn't walk off in a huff at the injustice of it all.
I did have a fallback plan, and since McGonagall and Dumbledore weren't going to even pretend to think about my free will, I wasn't going to regret putting it into action. The rest of the term flew by as I made preparations, and the Sunday night before Christmas, I put them into action.
The first step was waiting to be sure Percy was asleep. I'd taken a long afternoon nap to be ready to stay up all night, so I was in no danger of nodding off while I waited for him to finally sink into a regular, shallow breathing that I could hear across the room. Quietly and slowly, I grabbed my stuff and slipped out of bed. While Percy was becoming less of a narc, just like with knowledge of my godmother's identity there was no way I was trusting him with my plan to sneak out of the castle.
Down in the third-year's dorm, Fred and George had already cleared the middle of the floor and set up a chalk circle surrounded in runes. Sharing the ritual for how to hide the Trace had been the last step to getting total cooperation from the twins. Fortunately, it was neither difficult nor dark. The only component of consequence was demiguise fur, for the invisibility aspect, and it needed hardly any. I'd been able to get enough for at least three castings of the ritual from fluff left over in empty packets of the stuff in the runes workshop.
"Percy went down quick," Fred grinned as I slipped into the room.
"Up bright and early to waste his whole holiday studying," George elaborated.
"And you think you can cover for me?" I asked.
"No problem, Harry," Fred nodded.
George explained with hand gestures, "We have a whole series of things like, 'I just saw him heading that way,' before we have to break out the special effects."
"Unless someone needs you for an emergency, you should be good at least until curfew tomorrow," Fred finished.
"Then let's make this happen," I said, stepping into the circle.
Fred joined me, I put some magic into the working and felt the circle snap closed around us as it filled with the power of the ritual. From the pocket of my transfigured muggle coat, I pulled out one of the small Harry "voodoo dolls" I'd pre-made and held it for a moment at the harmonic center of the magic. The doll was wrapped in twine, and I imagined I was unwrapping the Trace from me as I unwound it from the doll. As I finished, the ends were still attached to the doll, turning it into an amulet.
"I give the thread of my magic to you, for all that spy upon me," I said, handing the necklace to Fred.
"I will stand between you and the watchers," responded Fred, taking it and hanging it around his own neck.
Feeling the magic was fully charged, I used a toe to break the circle and sensed the power wash out. I felt slightly weaker, some of my magic left in the doll to stand in for me against the Trace. As far as the Ministry was concerned, the doll was now me, and Fred's spells would register as mine, while mine didn't register at all.
Unfortunately, the ritual was kind of vague about how long it would last. More time, more magic, and more distance would risk ending the effect early, which is why I'd made extra. But I hoped I wouldn't need to use them.
George quickly cast a cleaning charm to remove the circle, and the three of us slipped down into the common room. He'd pulled out a ratty old sheet of parchment I'd sometimes seen them with and was regarding it carefully. After a minute he said, "Looks safe. Clear between here and the passage if you go now. Good luck, Harry."
"Thanks guys," I said. I didn't say, "See you tomorrow," because I didn't want to be a liar.
I made it to the statue of the one-eyed witch the twins had showed me by the defense classroom, gave it a tap and the password, and was about to slide down the hole that opened when a quiet meow stopped me.
"I just have to run some errands, Missus," I told the cat. She cocked her head to the side, then head butted my leg so I would give her some scratches. "I'll see you later," I assured her, but I wasn't sure if she believed me. As I slipped into the claustrophobic secret passage and the statue closed up, I thought I heard her make a sad meow.
Getting outside the school wards was actually a pretty big undertaking in a small, dark tunnel, particularly when I didn't want to waste magic on a light charm. I'd walked this with the twins earlier to make sure it was clear, and I listened as I walked to make sure nothing else was in the tunnel with me. While I tripped a couple of times and hit my head on the low ceiling once, I otherwise reached the end safely.
I felt it when I crossed the Hogwarts wards into Hogsmeade, and I could have just apparated from there, but Bellatrix had made a good point about the rath. So I lurked underneath the trap door at the end of the tunnel for several minutes, listening to make sure the shop above was quiet. Then I carefully opened the passage and slipped into the chocolate shop and out the nearby back door. Fortunately, it was easy to open from the inside.
After dark in late December in north Scotland was obnoxiously cold, damp, and windy. Hopefully no one was watching the outside. In case they were, I tried to move like just someone trying to get across the town, even though my inclination was to creep. In this weather, someone being sneaky would stand out more than someone walking briskly as if trying to get out of the cold.
The moon was not far past full, so there was still enough light for me to find my way to the rath, particularly after spending so long in a pitch black tunnel. I heard a few things moving around in the underbrush of the woods, but even magical beasts would think twice about hunting on a night like this one, so I reached the mound without incident. I half expected Bellatrix to be waiting for me there, but she'd likely just been tagging along with Lucius rather than having any kind of sixth sense about my plans.
When I'd last apparated, I had splinched the hell out of myself, and I was still a little scared of it. But that was probably the worst situation to try it, I'd built my staff so it could help, and, if Bellatrix was to be believed, the rath would give me a huge boost to going long distances safely. Taking in a breath and hoping it wasn't my last, I deliberately determined my destination, turned in place, and disappeared.