Author's Notes:
As always, the world of Harry Potter belongs to J.K Rowling, not me.
Chapter Fifteen
That night Heather dreamed long about being a girl. She found herself standing watching a group of faceless first years being sorted on their first night at Hogwarts. When a form with Professor McGonagall's voice called out "Heather Potter" a young girl with wavy black hair stepped cautiously towards the little stool and sat down. As if from a distance Heather could hear the girl whispering "Not Slytherin, not Slytherin." A moment later, the brim opened and shouted to the hall of faceless students, "GRYFFINDOR!"
Cries rang out, and the girl moved off to the table where she was hugged by Hermione and a very sheepish looking Ron. In a whirl of color Heather saw snippets of things she had been through in her years at the school, but this time as a girl. Battling the troll in the girl's bathroom, defeating the basilisk, sneaking into Hogsmeade through the secret passage. All of these things whirled around her, almost too fast to catch. Then suddenly she saw herself standing in the graveyard, facing down Voldemort the night he had returned. Voldemort cast the killing curse at the girl, just as she tried to disarm him. Their wands connected, and the golden cage formed, lifting the two off the ground. Heather yelled for her to run, to flee, but the girl didn't break the wand connection.
At her cry however, Voldemort turned and saw her standing there. The moment their eyes locked Heather felt herself yanked forward into darkness. Down she spiraled before she landed in the long dark hallway in the bowels of the Ministry of Magic. Pulling herself up she found that she was back in Harry's form. Quickly he walked forward, hand outstretched for the door. It opened into the circular room and Harry walked directly across it. Just as his hand reached out for the knob, a loud snore rent the air and Harry awoke in his bed.
The air of the room felt decidedly cool on his sweaty forehead, and he shivered without meaning to. He knew he wasn't supposed to be seeing that corridor anymore, that Dumbledore wanted him to block it out, but he wasn't able to. He knew that if Snape found out about how far he was getting into the Department of Mysteries, he would be furious.
The next night only confirmed that to Harry. Catching him unawares, Snape forced himself into Harry's mind and saw him walking down the corridor to the black door. Before Harry could even try to force him back out, the attack had ceased.
"I would have hoped by now," Snape said icily, "that something I have taught you would have gotten through that abysmally think skull of yours, Potter. Do you know why I give up my evenings trying to teach you Occlumency?"
"To keep Voldemort from being able to enter my mind." Harry replied
"Don't say his name!" growled Snape, "But that is correct. So then why are you still dreaming about that hallway? Do you think this connection makes you special? That receiving visions from the Dark Lord is somehow a good thing? It is not."
Just as he was about to continue his tirade, the door to his office burst open and Draco Malfoy ran inside. "Oh, sorry Professor. I didn't mean to interrupt." He said, looking questioningly at Harry.
"It's alright Draco, Potter is here for remedial potions." Snape said
"It's just, we found Montague, Sir. He's trapped in a toilet on the fifth floor."
With that Snape sept from the room with Malfoy, telling Harry to return the following evening for his lesson. Harry was just making to leave when reflected light along the wall caught his attention. The source of it was the pensive which lay as it normally did on Snape's desk. Curiosity overcame him and he walked over to it. He wondered what memories Snape was keeping safe incase Harry managed to enter his mind. It had happened accidentally once before.
An hour later as he was fleeing up the stairs Harry thought he would give anything he still had to go back in time and stop himself from entering the pensive. In it he had seen his father and Sirius torment Snape, for no other reason than Sirius was bored. He had always been proud to be compared to his father and had never doubted Sirius in that Snape had deserved whatever they had done to him in school but seeing it for himself shook those beliefs to his core.
Neither Ron or Hermione were in Gryffindor Tower when he arrived, both being on duty tonight with the Prefects, so Harry quickly grabbed the two-way mirror and ran to the Room of Requirement. Once inside, he quickly called his godfather's name into it and waited. It took several minutes before Sirius appeared, and he could see in Heather's face that something wasn't right. In the background Heather could hear someone else moving around.
"What's wrong? Do you need help?" Sirius asked
"I need to talk to you about something." Heather said, not sure where to begin.
"Ok, well Remus is here, Do I need to go somewhere private?"
"No, actually let me talk to you both." Heather said
The image shifted and the two men's faces both appeared.
"I wanted to talk about my dad." Started Heather. Whatever they had expected her to say, it clearly wasn't that. She plunged into what she had seen in the pensive. When she was done neither of them spoke for a moment. Sirius looked slightly uncomfortable, and it was Lupin who spoke first.
"I hope you don't judge any of us too harshly for what you saw there, Harry. We were young, only fifteen- "
"That's the same age I am!" replied Heather
"Look, James and Snape hated each other from the moment they met."
"Yeah, but my dad attacked him just because you said you were bored."
"I'm not proud of it" admitted Sirius quickly
"Harry," said Lupin suddenly, "What did Snape do when he saw you had seen this memory?"
"He told me to get out and that he was done teaching me Occlumency." Heather said, almost unconcernedly.
"He WHAT?" shouted Sirius, so loudly the mirror almost shook.
"Harry, I'll be having a word with Snape, but I want you to go back to him and say that on no account is he to stop giving you lessons." Said Lupin, only slightly more calmly.
"I can't do that, he'll murder me!" cried Heather.
"Harry, nothing is more important than you closing your mind!" said Lupin forcefully.
"Okay, okay" said Heather, trying to placate them. He quickly did his best to end the conversation, not wanting to talk anymore.
That Friday marked the end of the term and the start of Easter break. The fifth years had no time to enjoy their free time, as O.W.L.'s were finally right around the corner. Every free moment they had was spent revising or doing homework, fretting about the upcoming examinations. On the day before school was set to resume a notice went around that all fifth years would be meeting with their heads of houses during the following week for career consultations. Harry's appointment was for the following day at half-past two, meaning he could miss most of Divination.
As he, Hermione, and Ron were sitting around reading the pamphlets that had been left out on various careers, Fred and George plopped down at their table. Conspiratorially Fred said to Harry, "We've been thinking, this place needs some excitement."
"What kind of excitement?" asked Harry, slightly nervous.
"Well, we've decided that our new Headmistress deserves a welcoming ceremony to complete her installation in the top job" said George, grinning broadly.
"We were going to do something this week but we though to ourselves, what was the point of disrupting leisure time." Said Fred
"No point at all," chimed George, as though they were having a debate over it, "Besides, it would interrupt everyone's studying, which we can't have."
Hermione was taken aback at that little bit of thoughtfulness.
"However, with everything back to normal tomorrow we think it should be business as usual. And that means welcoming our new Head properly." Said Fred.
"Why are you telling us this?" asked Hermione suspiciously
"So you can get a good seat for the show, Hermione. Besides, we've all seen how Umbridge is gunning for you Harry, wanted to give you fair warning so you could have a rock-solid alibi tomorrow."
Harry's excitement at seeing what the twins had planned for the day completely drove his appointment with McGonagall from his mind. He raced from North Tower to her office, arriving several minutes late. After he was seated a small sniff from the corner alerted him to Professor Umbridge's presence in the room.
"So, Potter. This meeting is to talk over any ideas you've had as far as a career for after you're done with school." Professor McGonagall said to him over her desk.
"Err- "started Harry, but got distracted at the sound of Umbridge's quill behind him
"Have you had any ideas?" asked Professor McGonagall.
"I've thought of being an auror." Said Harry
"Well, you'll need top marks for that." Said Professor McGonagall, pulling a pamphlet from a stack on her desk. You'll need to achieve five N.E.W.T.s, with no less than an 'Exceeds Expectations"
From behind them came a very loud sniff. Professor McGonagall ignored this and continued on. "The classes you'll need to take are Charms, Transfiguration, Potions, Herbology, and of course Defense Against the Dark Arts."
With this it seemed that Umbridge couldn't resist any longer. Breaking in on Professor McGonagall's train of thought, she asked if Harry had the temperament to become an Auror, and pointed out that anyone applying to the Auror office would have to pass a comprehensive background check, something she didn't think Harry would be able to do. In response Professor McGonagall vowed that if it took her last breathe, she would see Harry inducted into the Auror Department.
As quickly as he could Harry fled the room, glad to be free of what energy the two women were exuding at each other. Standing in the first-floor corridor unsure of whether to go back to class when the sounds of what had to be the Weasley twin's "Ceremony." Down the corridor towards him came what appeared to be a giant Catherine wheel whizzing its way along emitting bangs and pops the entire way.
All over the castle for the next few hours crashes and bangs could be heard all over the castle. It seemed that Fred and George had unleashed their entire supply of magical fireworks, and Umbridge had little luck removing them. Finally her and the Inquisitorial Squad subdued the twins in the Entrance Hall, where they had just come after unleashing a portable swamp on the fourth floor. Covered from head to toe in soot, yet still with a look of supreme triumph, Umbridge gloatingly told the two Weasleys that "they were going to see how troublemakers were dealt with at her school
"No, I don't think we are, do you George?" said Fred, grinning at his brother.
"Couldn't agree with you more, Fred. I think we're done with education."
As one the two raised their wands and summoned their brooms from the Headmistress's office, mounting them before any of the Inquisitorial Squad could react and flying off into the sky.