Chapter 30 – A Whole Lot of Aftermath
From the Journal of Freddie James Potter – 5 October 2013
I am writing this collapsed in bed, nearly unconscious. The headmaster and others convinced me after breakfast that the best approach to not having slept at all last night was just to power through today and perhaps retire an hour earlier than normal. It is now two hours earlier than normal and I'm feeling near to dead. I don't regret staying up – so much happened today.
The Ministry finally got the Placentia parents and Marshall to talk, convincing them that without Ministry help, they had no chance of seeing their daughter Mercedes again. The invasion had failed. The members of the second wave had fled and tried to sink into anonymity. Mercedes might be tied up, abandoned, and starving and thirsting to death in an old shack, from which her captors had fled. Speed was needed if she was to be saved. A nine-year old had little chance of rescuing herself.
Director Shacklebolt told us that the Placentia parents confessed to taking bundles of food and hard drink to a spot in Cissy's forest, a couple of miles beyond the northern end of Potter's Forest. They left the bundles beside a large rock. When they returned the next day, the bundles would be gone. They thought footsteps led farther to the north. Director Shacklebolt wanted student volunteers to overfly that area on their brooms, looking for signs of magic, or human life. We would be given viewers that would reveal magical engineering concealment and a viewer that showed hot spots. Scorpius, Maxwell, Teddy, Archimedes, Iona, Rose, Marshall Placentia and I volunteered. After confirming that we felt strong enough to fly on no sleep, Shacklebolt named us as his hunters. We were to spot from a distance, not approach any suspicious site we found. We could send a Stone message and a team of aurors from Hogwarts would be there quickly. The aurors were too busy to perform the casual search themselves. They will still defending Hogwarts, while searching for evidence hidden within the castle and grounds. I was alert enough to instantly realize that we had been given this job, solely because of our ability to quickly message him through the Stone. I didn't get to use one of the viewers. In an abundance of caution, I was secretly told by Shacklebolt that I must keep one hand on my wand and both of my eyes on Marshall – there was still a small chance he was a bad guy. This wouldn't be the first instance of deadly sibling rivalry.
It was twilight when we took off to begin our hunt. It was this late, because the Placentias didn't cooperate until late afternoon. We couldn't have flown much earlier, because too much light made the viewers useless.
Flying at night is difficult. It is hard to see obstacles until you are about to fly into them. At the start of the flight, there was plenty of light to see the trees and to fly a safe distance above them. As darkness descended upon us, we all scanned the horizon to make certain there wasn't a particularly tall tree or rock in our distant path. We seemed to be high enough. I guess it's also tough to maintain a constant altitude in the dark, because an hour into our flight we were forced to pull sharply up and to the left as an unexpectedly tall tree was suddenly right in front of us. I write this calmly, but my heart was in my throat as I tugged on my broom handle to steer away from the tree and slid further back on the broom to pull the nose up and climb. My feet nicked the outermost tree branch, changing my path only slightly. I was past the tree and still in control of my broom. I breathed again, only then realizing I had stopped for half a minute. I had to take my eyes off of Marshall as I maneuvered. When I looked back to where he should be, he was gone. Traitor or crashed into the tree? I quickly halted the others, telling them we must quickly search for Marshall. Iona was using the heat viewer. She almost immediately called out that Marshall was stuck in the tree.
We flew down to rescue him, but he yelled to us that he was fine and we should keep searching for his sister. Rose stayed and circled above the tree, so that we would know exactly where Marshall was stuck. We only had to fly another ten minutes, before we spotted both strong signs of magic and fainter heat signs. We circled around a point half a mile from the site we had identified and waited for the aurors. Two additional aurors were sent to rescue Marshall. We were told to go back to Hogwarts and bed. The flight home took only a half hour. It's much quicker, when you don't have to search the ground. By the time we landed and entered the Great Hall to report to Shacklebolt, he had already received a message back from his aurors that Mercedes had been found alive, along with two captors. They had all been 'Off!ed' from the air and were being Apparated to the Hogwarts branch of St. Mungo's for treatment. I didn't need to wait for anything else. I assumed that Marshal would be rescued. If was off to my dorm room for journaling and sleep. I would happily have skipped the journaling, but knew that I would forget important detail if I waited until tomorrow.
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From the Journal of Rose Weasley - 5 October 2013
I feel better about myself. Night flying isn't easy, but I did it. I'm not the one who hit the tree. I was brave enough to monitor Marshal on my own, at night, in a strange place, knowing there likely were baddies nearby. That's a step forward for me. Marshal was very brave. I flew close enough to the treetops to be able to shout back and forth with him, so that he didn't feel abandoned. That may not have been wise. If there were baddies really close by, they could have heard us.
Mum messaged me that she was going to meet with Anile tomorrow. I can't help thinking that any meeting right after the really big bomb has to be a very difficult, awkward meeting. It was mainly Anile's enemies who died at the army base and the ancient temple, but they were still Venerans and I had heard one of the British officers say that nobody could live within thirty miles of the base for several decades or eat food raised within a hundred miles for at least a decade. That was certain to be unpopular.
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From the Journal of Iona Sparks - 5 October 2013
I actually flew into battle next to Freddie. How exhilarating! I'm sure this experience will make us closer than ever. And, we saved a life and helped capture two second thoughts after volunteering to hunt for Mercedes. I wondered how dangerous it really was. I wondered if I was a good enough flyer to keep up with the others. It couldn't have turned out any better. I was afraid - not terrified or anything close to that, but a little scared.
A few days ago, Rose confessed to me that she felt a hopeless coward, because her wand hand shook as she tried to curse the invaders who were racing toward our defensive line. I told her that of course she wasn't a coward. It had been true when we told Freddie that his shaky arms and whiteness in Auntie's class were not the result of being terrified. The same must be true of her. Rose instantly demanded "then tell me, what other cause could it realistically be?" She calmed when I immediately told her "the horror of injuring another person by cursing them in anger. With people shouting 'Avada Kedavra' and running at you like crazy people, even using the 'Petrificus' or "Expelliarmus' feels like deadly warfare. You're a good person. Auntie has told me that there is a big risk in being a good person."
I told her Auntie's conclusion about why the Voldemort War was so long and why we lost so many friends and allies. I can quote her exactly. She said it more than once, but it stuck in my mind the first time she said it: "It wasn't Voldemort's horcruxes. Young Potter showed that with all his horcruxes, Voldemort could be reduced a state not much worth worrying about for years. It wasn't that the Death Eaters were better fighters than we were. They weren't. It was their willingness to kill. To use the illegal 'Avada Kedavra' as if they had never learned another curse. Even if we won a battle, if we dropped them with a 'Petrificus', the were back a week later, trying to kill us, again. When we lost, we were dead and out of the fight. Our goodness made the fight horribly uneven and cost so many good lives. A good, sane person has a hard time killing, even in battle."
Today I told Rose that I had been right. It was so brave of her to volunteer to stay alone with Marshal. Flying around in the dark, just above a tree that had already done in Marshal, not knowing how close the enemy might be. That was really brave. I couldn't have done it.
I should write down the ending of Auntie's story, although I don't think I'll ever forget it. "Eventually, I realized that my sense of personal must give way to protecting the innocent. That is our highest duty. I set my scruples aside and I used the 'Avada'. I used it more than once. I knew how to make wands. i made myself spares and i destroyed each wand that killed. I felt bad about killing, but worse about all the innocents whom we were unable to protect with our good curses. I never budged Dumbledore from his own philosophy of goodness. So much guilt about his sister. In the end, he used a boy to do his killing. That was unjust. The young are more entitled to keep their goodness than the old are. I wanted to be Minister, but I couldn't challenge Potter. We treated him so unfairly." I promise this is word-for-word what Auntie said. I have an excellent memory and this made a huge impact on me.
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From the Case File of Prosecutor Longbottom - 6 October 2013
Mercedes captors, the two Wizards who refused to give me their names, did not kidnap Mercedes. The Placentia parents were positive that other Wizards did the kidnapping. I arrested the two mystery guys for holding Mercedes captive. I have to give them credit for not killing the girl. That shows there is hope for them. I will send their pictures to the other Wizarding governments. I didn't think they were British. Their English was off in a way that growing up hidden-in-plain-sight in very rural England can't explain.
I've charged two dozen of the Hogwarts invaders. I know their identities and their wands fired the 'Avada Kedavra'. A lot of work left to do. To many unidentified baddies.
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From the Journal of Headmaster Longbottom - 6 October 2013
I'm so proud of my students. They are braver than we were at their age. A quarter of the students stood up to protect their fellow students and their school. Those who manned the line had it particularly tough. That must have been extremely frightening. First-years on the line! It was way too much to ask of school students, but there weren't enough aurors to do it on their own. I thank the Light Guardian that none of the students who sided with the school died. I do mourn the death of Hestia. I think she was basically good of heart. I'm also grateful to the Light Guardian that none of the students had to kill, even killing not-on-purpose has a big effect on a kid. I saw what killing the worst Wizard ever with a non-killing curse did to Potter. He was seventh-year age.
I am counting on Mother to provide Justice. This time the punishment must fit the crime. I will fight to see that happen.
I told the Elves that a lot of kids will sleep in this morning and requested that they please give them proper breakfast, whenever they arrive. Nobody gets marked absent form a morning class today.
I may not be as kind a person as I once was, but I'm glad Slytherin killed as many attackers as he did. I'm glad we used the really big bomb on the soldier caste of Venera. It was time to finally send a clear signal that we will not abide adults harming and killing our children for their own, twisted, political purposes. It takes a truly twisted adult to try to murder a child. Those who do this will not be missed by me. Yes, I find that I am still very, very angry.