It wasn't always that one saw a Gryffindor and a Slytherin together, especially a girl and a boy and those who had seen it yesterday had spread their own theories by breakfast the next day as Harry and his group realized when they walked into the great hall.
All of the eyes were on Harry and Daphne, who both were together with Hermione, Susan and Luna.
While one could easily see the look of anger on the faces of many of the Slytherins the Gryffindors were baffled knowing about this recent development. Were Harry and Daphne dating? Were they friends? There were many theories that had been floating around since dinner yesterday.
Slughorn saw Harry walk in and raised his glass of water looking at the boy. Harry didn't know how to respond to that so he didn't as he looked at the Gryffindor table when Neville walked over to him. "I saved you guys a spot," he said.
"Thanks," Harry said, surprised at Neville's gesture as they followed him to the end of the Gryffindor table where they all sat together when Thomas Quilt, a fifth year Slytherin and a prefect stood from his seat and headed for them. However, to his shock, almost half of the Gryffindor table stood and came to stand behind Harry's group. The fifth year Slytherin wasn't expecting this as he was clearly surprised. He glared at Daphne, who just sat there without being affected by any of it.
"Do we have a problem?" surprising everyone but the Gryffindors who stood in unison behind Harry's group Neville said as he walked forward. Harry looked at him in nothing but full surprise and utmost gratitude when Neville was joined by Fred and George Weasely and then Seamus and Dean along with others.
Clearly the Slytherins wouldn't show such a unity as Thomas looked behind him at his housemates who all just kept looking at him like he was an embarrassment to them all. "This isn't over!" he spat glaring at Daphne before walking over to his seat. As Daphne watched him go she looked at her friend Tracey smiling towards her. She smiled back before Harry's words distracted her.
"What did you do?" Harry asked looking at Neville.
"I just reminded our fellow Gryffindors the true meaning of house loyalty," Neville said. "Congratulations to you both by the way."
Harry couldn't help but hug Neville as the boy just stood there without returning the hug for a moment until he did. "I can't thank you enough," Harry said before looking at others, "all of you guys."
"It was mostly the twins who convinced everyone else," Neville said looking at them. "Without them this wouldn't have been possible."
Harry looked at the two Weaselys who stood there with a look of pride on their faces. "How can I thank you?" Harry said.
"You don't have to," Fred said. "Do you remember what we told you after you knowingly let our mother get off with less sentence than what she deserved?"
"Consider this a little repayment for what you did for our little sister, too," George said. "If you should know she also voiced her opinion when Neville came to us regarding what could happen today. So if you should thank anyone it should be Ginny."
Harry was surprised but he looked at the red haired first year who was looking at him with a smile. Harry smiled and nodded his head once in gratitude. Ginny nodded back. "But still," Harry said, "this was really something that you guys did together."
"During times like this we all have to stick together," George said.
"Especially when you know that the snakes are living with you in the same building," Fred said glancing over at the Slytherin table that didn't look like they were enjoying as much as they did last night. "I still can't believe how satisfying this was. Look at their faces, getting the taste of their own medicine."
"I owe you guys one," Harry said, "and you can collect it anytime."
Fred placed a hand on Harry's shoulder before walking back to his seat. "Oh," he stopped and turned to look at him and Daphne, "congratulations to you two."
Daphne smiled along with Harry. "Thank you," she said as everyone went back to their seats while Harry and his group sat around Neville. "Thanks, Neville," Daphne said half-hugging the boy.
"Yeah, I never thought it would come from you," Luna said dreamily as Harry and the rest looked at her as if she'd said something wrong.
"I can understand," Neville said with a slight smile. "And I understand why you would think that I wouldn't help you guys in situations like this. Like I said, my animosity is with the Yayu. I only slightly despise Harry because he's the Yayu's vessel but that doesn't mean that I wouldn't stand with him. He didn't ask for any of this so…Besides, what happened right now…the real credit goes to Voldemort."
Everyone looked at him confused. "How?" Hermione asked.
"Well, with him back everyone in the magical Britain is starting to look for Harry again," Neville said.
"They think that since he 'defeated' Voldemort last time as a toddler he would do it again," Daphne said understanding what Neville said.
He nodded. "So if you look around," Neville said, "you have almost the entire Hogwarts having your back against the Slytherins. Of course, the Gryffindors thought of it first, which is mostly the reason why it happened, what happened a few minutes ago."
"Doesn't that sound like you exploited their hope, though?" Hermione asked.
"Does it really matter?" Neville said. "Most of us get to have something by exploiting others. Even most of the Gryffindors are like that. Besides, I don't see anything wrong with what I did, especially with the twins. They genuinely owed it to Harry for what he did for Ginny and reducing their mother's sentence by not providing complete facts and evidence during her hearing so I thought maybe they would like to help return a tiny bit of that favor to him."
"You mean they knew that you were asking for their help despite knowing the situation?" Daphne asked.
"They couldn't have agreed more," Neville said as he looked at Harry. "I know it sounds like they are having your back just because they think you will save them from Voldemort but everyone does things for others while expecting a return. It's just human nature."
"And how will they react when they come to know that it's actually a Slytherin who's going to save them from Voldemort?" Harry asked.
"I guess only time will tell," Neville said before he went back to his breakfast as did Harry and others.
Harry glanced over at the head table wondering why no faculty had come to see what had happened a few minutes ago and saw Dumbledore eating without any worry or interest. It seemed odd to Harry seeing the man was ignoring things that had taken place just now. Before coming back to Hogwarts Harry was wondering whether he will face problems from Dumbledore over the fact that he and Daphne were betrothed but now it seemed like he didn't even care. While that sat well with Harry as he had no intention of telling Dumbledore things about himself it also worried him as Harry wondered that the old man was acting like this because he had some sort of plan under his sleeves.
One could never be too careful around Dumbledore. Harry knew that.
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For Dumbledore nothing regarding Harry concerned anymore. He only come to find out the truth about the prophecy during the winter holidays and to say that he was shocked would be an understatement. To think that the chosen one was Draco and not Harry had baffled the man to his core. Everything he had worked for till now had been rendered to waste. All that planning, predicting the outcomes and strategizing accordingly…it was all for nothing.
And now Draco was dead, too, which meant that Voldemort had won over the prophecy without even knowing about it. In reality, though, the prophecy never specified who would win. It just said that one would defeat the other and in this case it was Draco who'd lost so that meant that Voldemort had emerged victorious. But did it really mean that no one could defeat him? Dumbledore knew there were still two horcruxes to be destroyed before Voldemort could be completely and fully made vulnerable and the fact that no one knew where those two horcruxes was proved to some extent that maybe Voldemort will emerge victorious in the end after all.
That spelled trouble for Dumbledore's ultimate goal for having absolute power – the divine beasts. His and Grindelwald's goals were the same but Gellart was far ahead of him as Dumbledore was stuck with the useless phoenix. He just needed one of their powers and then the others would be easy to get. He knew Grindelwald had to struggle for his first divine beast's hunt just like he was struggling now but Grindelwald had succeeded so he would, too. But will it be in time, Dumbledore wondered.
For now, though, he had realized that he had nothing to do with Harry as since the prophecy was about Draco and not Harry, the boy didn't matter anymore to him. In one way it was better as Dumbledore was finding it hard to win over the boy's trust but it seemed now he would have to take Voldemort down himself. At least that way he would still be the hero in everyone's eyes but will it help with the case of Grindelwald he didn't know.
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There were a few hanging faces in the dungeons. The fact that Greengrass had apparently bested them all was still unbelievable…especially to the boys. For the girls of Slytherin, though, it was a moment of both joy and realization as they came to know how many of their boyfriends had wanted to marry Daphne in the end and not them. Luckily she was now betrothed to Harry which meant their boyfriends will have to marry them.
But that begged the question – was it okay for Daphne to be happy with the outcome? Everyone in Slytherin knew how important it was for Daphne to marry into one of the pureblood houses for the benefit of the dark lord's causes. Now that she hadn't and that her family was in hiding everyone in Slytherin was looking for ways to get their own kind of revenge on her.
They all came up with many ideas but in the end they realized nothing would work to the extent they wanted it to. Some went over to talk to Daphne's friend Tracey who had put up an act of being betrayed by her by being betrothed to Harry. Daphne had come up with this plan where Tracey had to lie that she didn't know about the betrothal until the school had resumed and everyone knew about them.
She would call Harry and Daphne names, glare at them in public. She hated it but it kept her out of everyone's suspicion that she was actually still friends with Daphne. Being safe was in everyone's priority list right now as one could see all the students evading contacts with Slytherin house members.
Slughorn was a ray of sunshine in all of this, though. Everyone had thought that after Voldemort's return and the Slytherins becoming smugger and confidant because of that will cost other houses more so in different ways but then word got out that apparently Snape had resigned. The reasons for that were unknown but it was enough for everyone to be happy enough in these dark times. Slughorn was immediately liked by everyone but the Slytherins as unlike Snape he wasn't biased for his own house. He would properly explain things in the class and would score everyone based on their performances. He even introduced the top scorers of his course to the Slug Club, a special club he had revived after being hired again to teach at Hogwarts.
Harry finally came to know how Slughorn knew so many famous people as he got a letter from Sirius. Apparently the man's priority above all things was to make connections. He would do so by figuring out which of his students had the potential of becoming famous and successful people in their future. The Slug-Club was an example of that where he would invite his star students, get to know them better and build trust with them so that they would include him in their success when the time comes and his intuition was almost always correct as the man had an eye for talent as almost all the students from his Slug Club had become famous one way or another in the past.
It didn't sound that bad to Harry but Sirius did warn him to stay wary of the man. Harry kept that in mind as he folded and put Sirius' letter to the side. He sat there in the small hall/living room of his quarters thinking about things that had come to take place now since it became known to the world that Voldemort had returned. Time and time again Harry's mind would wander over to where Remus was. He was in more danger than ever since Voldemort and his followers were now actively engaged.
There was also the thing with Grindelwald and the divine beasts which Harry didn't know when that trouble will knock on the world's door. Amongst all these things happening or about to happen Harry found a little solace amongst the company of his friends and Daphne who currently sat in the hall beside him on the couch by the fireplace reading a book she'd borrowed from Harry's manor.
He looked at her; immersed in the book she looked so peaceful. Harry knew that since the night she'd started to live here with him she'd become a lot more open to him. He knew that back when she lived in her dorm in the dungeons she would erect wards around her bed and have light sleeps just to make sure she was safe and that no one had their wands pointed at her in the middle of the night. It had happened a few times as Harry had only recently come to know after Daphne had moved in with him.
Pansy and her friends had tried to attack her in her sleep during their first year. If that wasn't bad she'd been targeted by some boys from her own house whenever they would find her alone in the corridor. It was all because everyone wanted a piece of her and her family fortune. It became more and more frequent by the end of last year when Voldemort returned but was in hiding. No one but the Slytherins knew of his return and so they wanted to grab their 'prize' which they saw in Daphne and her family's fortune.
That trouble was still not gone and Harry and she both knew it wouldn't until Voldemort was destroyed and all his followers were defeated or put behind bars. Until that happened no one was safe.
"Do you want to take a walk?" Harry asked looking outside as evening approached.
Daphne looked as well and nodded her head so they headed out to enjoy the beautiful day while it lasted a few more hours. They never stopped receiving looks of anger, disbelief and expressions from all of the houses' students but fortunately after Neville and the twins' efforts the Gryffindors were now supporting Harry and Daphne's betrothal…for now.
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Grindelwald opened the door and found Fenrir standing outside. A smile came upon he old man's face as he stepped aside to let the alpha in.
After the attacks on Christmas Eve Grindelwald had moved out of the Riddle Manor and had made a small house on top of a hill at an undisclosed location. He'd given the location to just one person that that one person was in his house right now.
"Would you like some tea?" Grindelwald offered. Fenrir shook his head as he took a seat in one of the chairs and looked around the small house.
"You are living a cozy life," said the werewolf.
"All I have are what is necessary for my survival," Grindelwald said as he took a sip from his cup and sighed in relief. "I believe that no man should have more than what he actually needs which is why I don't like the society. They keep wanting more and more like a never-ending thirst."
"It is a never-ending thirst," Fenrir said. "Isn't the same case with you, and the divine beasts?"
Grindelwald's smile vanished as he looked at the man sitting in front of him. "Have you thought about it?" he asked after a minute's pause.
"I have," Fenrir replied. "I see what you mean."
"And what is your finding from all of that?" Grindelwald said.
"The dark lord will lose," Fenrir said.
"And?"
"His arrogance and blindness towards his enemies will be the main reason for it," Fenrir said. "You were right." Grindelwald smiled. "But there's also something else."
"Is it about one of your strays?" Grindelwald asked receiving a look of surprise from Fenrir. "I know everything, wolf."
Fenrir looked at him. The man always gave him the sense of creepiness but at least he hadn't treated him like garbage, something that the dark lord did all the time. "What should I do about it?" he asked after a moment's pause.
"What do you think?" Grindelwald asked back.
"He's not a danger to me now and he never will be," he said. "I can always finish him after everything's over."
"If you allow the weed to grow it will take over the garden before you know it," Grindelwald said, "and then you'll have to use more force to remove it and you might not even succeed."
"He's not a weed," Fenrir said with a smirk, "and I am the world's strongest alpha."
"If you keep thinking like that then there's no difference between you and Tom," Grindelwald said. "Even with all the power you have you can always be defeated just like Tom was by that kid over a decade ago, just like I was by Dumbledore all those years ago. Never underestimate your enemy or the threat approaching you. That will be your biggest mistake and by the time you realize it will be too late to even regret about it."
Fenrir nodded. "So I guess I will see to this weed problem then," he said standing up and walking towards the door.
"Have you given a thought to my offer?" Grindelwald asked as Fenrir stopped.
The alpha turned to look at him with an expressionless face. "I have," he said.
"And?"
"You'll know," Fenrir said before leaving the house.
Grindelwald smirked looking at the door as he sipped from his cup.
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"Is everything ready?" Voldemort said.
"It is, my lord," Bella said bowing. "We are all ready to move out on your orders."
"So do it, then," Voldemort said with a smirk as Bella grinned maniacally before leaving the room.
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Scrimgeour was in his office when he heard a ruckus. As he stood up wondering what was happening, all the trinkets placed in his office indicating the various layers of protection in and around the ministry started blinking and making sounds at once. His eyes widened with realization as his wand slipped into his hand from the holster, now pointing directly at the entrance of his office when the door burst open.
He fired hexes after hexes without stopping as piles and piles of death eaters formed at the entrance of his office. Scrimgeour took a sharp breath in as he tried to look beyond the piles of the death eaters and saw a layer of dead bodies of the security that stood outside his office.
Suddenly he felt a familiar chill and looked towards the window as a shadowy figure floated away, freezing its glass panes before they shattered to pieces.
Scrimgeour snapped his fingers as his backup wand slipped into his other hand from the holster which he pointed at the window. "Expecto Patronum!" he said as a large cloud of blinding white light escaped his wand filling the entire office with it while repelling the dementors that were trying to enter through the window.
He cursed his age and the fact that he'd been slacking off unlike Moody as he felt his exhaustion take over. He'd been constantly casting for the last ten minutes without a pause and that could take a toll on anyone when suddenly the piles of death eaters that he'd on his office entrance were blown away as he saw Kingsley enter the office with a few aurors covering his back.
"Minister," said the DMLE head as he looked at the man with hard eyes before he realized what Scrimgeour was trying to stop as his eyes moved over to the window before he too, cast a patronus charm. Their combined effort worked as the dementors left…for now. "We need to move!"
And with that he grabbed Scrimgeour's hand and along with the aurors who he had brought with him headed for the safety. "Is he personally here?" Scrimgeour asked.
"We don't know yet," Kingsley said, "but his army definitely is."
"What's the situation?" Scrimgeour asked.
"We've lost almost half of our forces," Kingsley said. "The wards are under continuous attack and the curse breakers are under attack as well so they can't bring back the wards up. The bottom four floors have been completely overrun by mountain trolls, vampires and death eaters and they are on their way to upper floors."
"What are our options?" Scrimgeour asked, already knowing the answer.
"At this moment…nothing," Kingsley said looking into Scrimgeour's eyes when suddenly two of the aurors who were with him got hit with the killing curse as they looked right ahead and saw about twenty or so death eaters and two trolls.
The remaining aurors who were with Kingsley fired back but they were no match for the numbers in front of them as Kingsley dragged Scrimgeour back knowing their path was blocked. Suddenly Scrimgeour grabbed Kingslay's arm making the DMLE head look at him in surprise.
"You're an honest man, King," said the minister with a smile. "You don't have to waste your life in trying to save someone like me. You and your men…retreat. I'll try to give you guys a path."
"Minister, what are you…?"
"Don't," Scrimgeour said stopping him. "It doesn't matter whether or not you save me. I'm old now and like a blunt knife. We both know that the ministry is lost but that doesn't mean that the people who actually will matter in this fight will have to uselessly sacrifice themselves for weak and old men like me. You guys go. I'll hold them of."
"Rufus, snap out of it!" Kingsley shouted making the aurors who were with him look at him.
Scrimgeour smiled. "I wonder if you will make a better minister than me," he said as he waved his wand and made a parchment appear out of thin air. He wrote something in it with his wand before putting it in Kingsley's pocket. Kingsley looked at him with wide eyes as Scrimgeour pushed the man away before casting a powerful shockwave that threw everyone off of their feet.
Kingsley looked at the man as he stood there in the middle of the corridor with his wand raised high and a fiery look in his eyes as he aimed it towards the death eaters and the trolls. "Leave now while you've still got the chance, King!" he said. "Aurors! As minister of magic I outrank your boss so here's my order to you. Protect King and leave this place."
The aurors looked at Scrimgeour with open mouths and wide eyes before looking at King who just lay there on the floor with his eyes closed and tears flowing. The aurors looked at each other before pulling Kingsley up and taking him away as Scrimgeour look at them go with a smile on his face before he turned towards the incoming death eaters and trolls. His demeanor changed as he narrowed his eyes.
"It was a fun few years of my life," he said to himself.
The aurors and Kingsley made it out of the ministry building when the floor on which Scrimgeour's office was exploded with a loud bang. People screamed in horror as did the death eaters who were all taken aback by the explosion as Kingsley dropped on his knees as he looked at the burning building and more specifically the floor which had just exploded.
Suddenly everything fell silent. King didn't need to turn around to see what it was as he already felt the chill down his spine. The aurors who were with him, however, did and now they trembled in fear as they saw the man in black robes and his pale, boney body standing there with a grin on his face as he looked at the ministry building when he noticed the small group of aurors standing protectively around Kingsley and his grin grew wider.
Voldemort started walking towards Kingsley as the aurors took a step back before looking at each other and then standing their ground. One of them moved back unnoticed to where King was while his fellow aurors stood with their wands pointed right at Voldemort.
The people on the streets along with Voldemort's followers, all watched this with fear and amusement in their eyes. "I commend you on your bravery, aurors!" Voldemort said. "You are setting an example for many people present here today but unfortunately you should know when to give up. So I ask this to you all nicely – fall back. That man you are protecting means nothing to you so why do you even care?"
"Ready?" one of the aurors said to another as they all nodded. "You ready, Elgort?" the auror said to the one who was standing behind them with Kingsley.
"I am," Elgort said.
"Fumos!" they all screamed in unison as an explosion surrounded them with a thick curtain of smoke.
Voldemort began to laugh when suddenly killing curses started to come out of the cloud of smoke. With just a wave of his hand he floated the rubbles in the path of those killing curses before casting a strong wind charm to blow away all the smoke when he realized what had happened as his grin got replaced with a frown and soon a look of anger and a little bit of embarrassment as he realized he let these aurors play suck a childish trick on him."
"We won't give up on our boss," said one of the aurors as he grinned at Voldemort. "And we are not afraid of you…"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!" the anger-filed screamed filled the entire place as Voldemort fired a large-scale killing curse taking out almost everyone present along with the aurors who stood facing him.
He stood there, panting in anger as he looked at the fallen aurors and some of his own followers who'd got caught in his spell. He then screamed once more before apparating away with a loud pop.
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Kingsley fell hard on the ground and grunted painfully as he felt a few of his ribs break due to the impact. The portkey travel was harsh and came as a surprise for him for he didn't know that it was forced upon him. As he stood up he looked around wondering where he was when he saw a hooded man walking towards him. He immediately got on his guard with his wand pointed at the mysterious man who raised his hands showing the DMLE head that he meant no harm. Even then Kingsley didn't put down his wand as the man came and stood a few feet away from him.
"Who are you?" King asked, panting and wincing from the pain he felt in his chest. The man slowly reached for his hood before he revealed his face as Kingsley trembled with utter shock as he looked at the familiar face. "How…How can this be?"
"I will tell you everything, King," said the man, "but for now I need your help for what's coming."
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Thanks for reading…
