CHAPTER 9: STARTING WITH A BANG OR TWENTY
The boys had ended the day rather satisfied with their acting chops just as much as having rattled the old coot of a wily headmaster. The girls had merely been amused. The first night in Hogwarts Castle was only the beginning. Stage by stage, they would end Dumbledore once and for all, taking a break in between, to wipe the dork lard off the face of the earth as well.
They all went to bed, confident that they would pull it off, after all.
Both Neville and Harry spent their first night in the castle, sleeping rather poorly. All night, the Castle plagued their dreams with images of a scraggly looking fat rat, while they tossed and turned restlessly.
It was around 3 AM that Harry jolted awake, remembering why the rat was important.
More important, though, was the thought rattling around in his head that he had no idea where to go looking for this rat. It could be anywhere. Hiding unseen, unheard, and un-noticed for more than ten years, it would not be easy to smoke out or hunt. He hadn't a single clue where to begin. He paced round and round, his stocking-ed feet scuffing the cold, stone floors, stubbing on the bed, the trunk, and on his own feet as his mind raced.
Even wide awake, his mind kept being bombarded with images of the rat. It took his sleep-addled brain a little while to figure out that it wasn't his overactive imagination but the sentient Hogwarts showing him the rat! It meant that the rat was here. Too close, was his very first thought. Was it a mistake, coming to Hogwarts? Everything and everyone was strife with danger, hidden, perceived, and even unthinkable.
On an instinctive impulse, he reached out and touched the walls, closing his eyes and pressing his cheek and palms to the stone in an attempt to figure out what the castle was telling them. The castle responded with alacrity, flashing images of a red and gold dorm with the Weasley boys holding the rat many times during the last three or so years. Ha! Gotcha!
Harry shook Neville awake and called out to Tosser. While Tosser waited Harry thrust a pepper-up at his sleepy friend, gulped down one himself, and while steam still streamed out his ears, he briefed Neville on what was happening. It took less time for them to figure out the implications than it took for Pepper-Up to kick-start their minds.
The rat had been hiding as a pet. And right under everyone's noses. How did Dumbledore not sense it? And the other teachers? Most of them had known the feckless rat long enough, yet none of them had seen the animagus magic on it? It seemed more than a little improbable. Such depths of treachery belonged to fanciful fiction, not their real lives, certainly?!
They held a brief discussion and decided not to involve anyone else except Granny Gus and Aunt Amy. Most especially, they wanted to keep Harry's impulsive and reckless godfather out of this completely, hoping that cooler heads would prevail. They then instructed Tosser to fetch the rat from the Gryffindor boys' dorms, either 3rd year or 5th year or first year, and make sure the critter was stunned and secured in an escape-proof cage.
Tosser was absolutely not to be seen or felt by even the castle elves, ghosts, portraits, or even any other detection wards. Tosser nodded and vanished with a pop and the boys then headed out into the trunk to wake up the dragonesses once again. One mirror call and five minutes later, the ladies flooed to join them in the trunk and the boys briefed them, imploring secrecy even within the grey alliance.
Knowing the impulsive and volatile tempers of the men of the group and the fragile state of Selene herself, this was best initially handled amongst themselves. Soon enough, Tosser popped directly into the trunk holding an inert rat ensconced in a seamless cage. As a precaution, Aunt Amy cast an animagus detection spell quickly followed by an Identity Revealer used by the Department of Mysteries handling cases. Discovering Pettigrew alive and hiding in the headmaster's domain was another nail damning the old man.
For good measure, Aunt Amy stunned the rat three more times in quick succession before transfiguring the cage into a chair with handcuffs and locking Pettigrew into it. She then petrified him neck down and cast an Auror grade truth spell, and then enervated him. 5 drops of veritaserum down his throats ensured he couldn't hedge around or even attempt ambiguity.
The interrogation was a sickening eye-opener. Harry and Neville were taking turns restraining each other and Granny Gus and Aunt Amy were not faring any better. Pettigrew had a lot of things to say, and not a single confession was even remotely endurable.
What emerged was a horrid tale of pettiness, jealousy, and early spying.
He had been planted rather early on Black, Potter, and Longbottom at the headmaster's behest before he switched allegiances. He had switched sides, not because he had feared torture or death, but had simply been seeking greener or at least easier pastures.
He confessed to lusting after Lily, Alice, and Marlene McKinnon who had been dating Sirius Black, on and off. He confessed to spiking their foods with mind-control potions specially created by the headmaster during the first world war. His confessions then began to take a darker turn, though the headmaster's role never diminished. From mildly offensive, repulsive perversions like sneaking in his rat form into the girls' dorms in all four houses, to his role in a sordid incident of willful rape and murder of a neighborhood kid in the summer he turned 14.
They had to wonder if the rat had been born human at all; his confessions certainly did not imply any such. The crimes the rat had committed before he had finished his OWLs were bad; worse was these vile acts being covered by the headmaster. Every collaboration between the two had been bargained as a price for more spying.
Joining the Dark Lord at the age of 15, although not just because the headmaster's prompting and support felt like a safety net for being true to himself. He almost sounded like he was gloating as he confessed, especially when he talked of the initiation through the gruesome murder of Joshua Phebes, a Muggleborn classmate.
The confession that finally brooked a grim smile on Aunt Amy's face was the rat telling them that the dark mark was a dark perversion of soul magic and cannot be accepted by the unwilling or doubtful; it was dark magic that tainted the soul through murder, torture, and rape.
As the interrogation continued, his list of crimes grew to astronomical proportions. The murders of the order members and their families like the Fenwicks, McKinnons, Prewitts, MacMillans, Abbots, and Edgar Bones and his wife. The horrific betrayal of the Potters.
The rat wasn't done yet.
It was like an avalanche of horrifics as the odious man continued to spill. The final confrontation with Sirius Black and his escape. Hiding with the Weasleys for years. How Molly and Albus had caught him early on, extracted a Wizard's oath to protect the Weasley kids and continue to spy for Albus, invading the Auror's office, Archives and the Department of Mysteries for Albus far-too-many-middle-names Dumbledore.
By now, Aunt Amy and Gran were furious beyond words. They couldn't just pick who to tear limb to limb first, though. Incidentally, the rotten rat was at hand; Albus was still mostly untouchable. Not for long, they vowed, furiously.
Amelia made a mental note to ward the entire ministry against illegal animagus access and pass on news of potential security breach to Croaker of the Mysteries. Ironically, she internally chuckled at the wicked turn of phrase and redirected her energies at figuring out what to do with the evil little sleazeball.
Getting angry and then literally beating the snot out of the vile creature would feel good, immensely satisfying in fact, and yet it would solve nothing. None of them could afford to take risks, especially at this stage in their lives.
Gran was slumped in her chair, tears silently coursing down a furious face. Amy was pacing the trunk furiously, struggling to reign in her anger and rampaging thoughts. Dawn was fast approaching and the boys simply wanted the problem handled and dealt with. It wouldn't be long before the rat was noticed missing and fingers started pointing. That was when Harry had a brainwave.
It was literally a grey shade for a solution to their problem but would neatly wrap up all angles of the problem that Pettigrew was becoming. Declaring the capture of the rat would clear up young Black but solved nothing and would in all probability, would nudge Dumbledore towards paying more than necessary close attention to their activities as a group and as individuals well.
At her core, Amy was a practical soul. She revered the law, but she fought for justice; she was no stranger to the paradoxical fact that more often than not, justice and law weren't the same thing. Contrary to popular assumptions, Amy was willing to bend the law to ensure justice in the long term. It had simply been a useful illusion to maintain that she was far too rigid in her adherence to Laws to be compromised or bought or influenced easily.
This was about justice, not the rights and rules of law. And when Harry detailed his plan, the other three finally lost their haunted, sickened look and took on a grimly satisfied mien.
Augusta Longbottom won the round of wand parchment spear and cast the strongest compulsion she could summon at the rat-man. He easily folded to her will and wrote out a letter warning Dumbledore not to play games he can't afford to mess up. Peter accused Dumbledore of deliberately allowing the Dark Lord into the castle to threaten Pettigrew. But Peter railed that wasn't going to fall for Dumbledore's petty mind games.
Until he felt safe, he wrote in a hasty scrawl and shaking hands, he admitted that he was going to go so deep underground even dwarves would have trouble digging him up. Peter wrote that by the time Dumbledore found this letter, Peter would be long gone; it would be an exercise in futility to look for him. It sounded nervous and flighty and erratic, just like the man who penned the letter.
Hedwig appeared at Harry's side, perched atop Tosser's head, and agreed to drop the letter with Fawkes. The phoenix would do his best to make sure Dumbles got the letter only next evening when it would be too late. That would give them plenty of time to stow the rat away in the dungeons of the Black Manor and decide at leisure how creative they could get in punishing the vile man.
The deed was rather easily done. Peter of the weak will and a malleable mind had literally no defenses and, succumbed to the very first compulsion cast. It disgusted the four how pathetically easy he had been. From there, it wasn't a far leap of logic to consider how much was his own ideas and how much the perversions of power-hungry maniacs like Voldemort or Dumbledore. It was a disturbing reality when there was only a shadow of a line to differentiate the good guys from the bad guys.
A few more stunners and a forced transfiguration later, an insultingly pretty snuffbox, now rune-carved to hold form until deliberately and specifically released headed off to sit pretty in Amelia Bones' DMLE office. Somewhere in the back of her head was a vague idea. She weighed the viability of a timed release of the magic locking the rat man in this form when there were witnesses who couldn't be bought or buried or influenced. Not any time soon, but a vague maybe.
Harry and Neville exited the trunk, leaving the ladies to discuss, and went back to their dorm room. With less than two hours left for the Great Hall to open for breakfast, the two decided to go for a run to kill time as much as to clear their heads. When they returned an hour later to their common room, they were met with shocked purebloods.
Every single one of them was staring at them in confusion and, in some cases, even shock. They could comprehend neither their workout clothes nor their messy and smelly condition so early in the morning. It was an anathema to willingly appear in public in such a state of disarray.
Dora was the first to recover and scold them for wandering off by themselves. Her father being a muggle born, she was not stranger to the concept of exercise, although it was an unknown practice in the magical world. Susan quickly came to their rescue and prompted the discussion by loudly exclaiming if they had been out wrestling trolls to look and smell like one, themselves. Justin guessed they had probably been working out and asked the boys if they would mind if he joined from the next day onwards. Neville and Harry quickly agreed, extending the invite to anyone interested.
Harry and Neville did a mental rock-parchment-wand. This time, it was Neville's turn to play the audiences.
He turned to Susan and the others listening in. He explained that everyone in his family thought for the longest time that he had no magic; so, he had been trained in the muggle ways in preparation to live in that world. Getting the Hogwarts letter had been a surprise, one that he hadn't really expected. But here he was, anyway.
He was still adapting to the idea that he would have a magical life. It was cool. But not entirely something he could blindly walk into. He was finding it difficult to work out the actualities of being disconnected from the biggest threat in the world for the next seven years he would spend here in Hogwarts. And frankly, he scoffed, this place was like a bubble untouched by the real world. Ernie scoffed at the frankly ridiculous idea of considering the muggles dangerous.
Harry could see that Ernie wasn't the only disbeliever; the other purebloods across all years nodded in agreement. They listened in a growing sense of shock as Justin, Dora, and the other muggle-born students talked of different kinds of weapons, transportation, and more.
It frightened them; even the estimated numbers of the muggle population in the nearest city alone and just how many of them there were in the world. It made everyone taking muggle studies distressed and angry that they were all being set up for failure. Susan and Harry exchanged a look; this news would have made its way to the entire school in no time soon. Agitation was a chaotic crescendo spreading through the present crowd, like Vivaldi's Storm.
Neville swiftly diffused the volatile situation, excitedly exclaiming that he sure was glad he finally manifested magic last summer before he went and got himself lost in the vastness of the muggle world. Harry was quick to take up from there and ask how did he manifest. Neville then began to regale them all with a grossly exaggerated tale of his accidental magic, bouncing off the pier and down the garden paths.
Harry talked of turning his teacher's hair blue and shrinking an ugly jumper and even apparating once or twice. Susan told of summoning books and cookies and dolls and floating pillows and teacups while playing. The whole common room was soon exchanging tales of their earliest bursts of magic. It took a few more minutes before everyone was too occupied with their chatter, and Harry and Neville finally slipped off to get ready.
They had discussed a suitable strategy to handle classes. All four of them were years ahead of the others; they had to be very careful not to end up upstaging the others and falsely claiming to be geniuses. Neville and Susan were all for blowing everyone's minds. But Harry and Daphne made rather convincing arguments for being discrete and do just enough to be better than others but not certifiable geniuses.
In the end, they decided to be selective. Neville picked Herbology and Potions to show off his skills. It surprised nobody. His family had a rich history of a long line of herbologists, potioneers, and apothecary business suppliers, after all. Susan picked Transfiguration and History in the honor of her parents' memory and Harry loved the idea.
He would ideally have preferred to wait and watch before revealing his skills selectively. But he was, for now, leaning towards DADA and Transfiguration in his father's honor, and Charms and Potions to celebrate his mum's memory. Daphne had picked Charms, Potions, and Astronomy. Susan then proposed the brilliant idea of gathering as a large, cross-house study group and gradually build up a network that way.
With that plan in place, the three 'Puffs and the Lone Snake hoped they were as ready as they could be and stepped out to their respective common-rooms. Both girls had already reminded Harry multiple times not to reveal even an inkling of a hint of his Parsel-mage abilities.
By the time they returned to the common room, they were just in time to discover yet another unique practice of the Badgers' Hole.
In the Common Room, Dora, their psychedelic haired 7th-year Prefect, was waiting for them with a list and quill in hand and soon began a roll call. There were eight boys and four girls in total, and Harry suspected they were the biggest bunch of first years in recent times.
Aside from the three of the Grey, there was Sally Anne Perks and Hannah Abbot as well as Megan Jones, and Zachariah Smith, Ernest McMillan, Roger Malone, Oliver Rivers, Wayne Hopkins, and Justin Finch-Fletchley. Susan made a mental note to create a dossier for students by each year and sort out their politics, magics, and personalities and test the field, so to speak.
Dora had marked them all as present in a student calendar and led them out to the Great Hall for food, friends, and adventure.
END OF CHAPTER 9.
A/N: A little celebration of a small but personally significant milestone. This is the very first Fanfic I've attempted. And this chapter marks the 100th follow and favorites for this one. I wrote the story, but y'all made the magic happen. Thanks ever so much for the support, the PMs, the reviews and helpful comments so many of you so kindly shared with me. Keep it rolling, and keep kicking my behind-side whenever you feel I need the jolts, too.
PLEASE KEEP THE REVIEWS FLOWING. IT INSPIRES ME EVER SO MUCH.