Chapter 5 Trace
Cool air was wrapping the entire town of Hogsmeade. A short wizard turned up the collar of his old trench coat on a platform of the station. He squinted at the cloudy sky. He was informed that they would come by broom. After watching and protecting Dursleys, he had been stationed at Hogsmeade. Auror's job would never end. He couldn't remember when he had a holiday break. It didn't mean the boss let him work so hard. Dedalus Diggle loved his job. He came to like it more after his favorite newbie, the hero Harry Potter determined to follow the same path. He had lots to tell him. It was his joy.
He made sure his wand in his pocket of the robes and glanced at his wrist watch. It was ten past two. The sunlight was weak behind the clouds. Then he grinned at the dots coming closer to the ground. Here they came. Potter and Weasley glided down the air, landed on the edge of the platform brilliantly. He came closer to the young men.
"Did you have a nice trip, lads?" Dedalus looked up at their face and gave them a broad smile. He was shorter than Harry and Ron.
"Hardly," Panting heavily, Ron pulled out his wand. He tapped the handle of the broom. Soon it got shrunken so small that he could shove it into the pocket of his navy-blue uniform.
Harry did the same job as Ron. He liked the pocket of his uniform. It could stow his belongings as much as Hermione's beaded bag. He touched the tip of his wand on the cuff trimmed with silver fluting. It turned into ordinary teacher's black robes.
Ron looked perplexed a little, "Will we become professors?"
"Do you prefer a student in disguise?" Harry asked him.
"No, but do we really need this?"
Dedalus showed his intention to approve. "A good idea. Nobody will suspect teachers in this town are investigating something." Instantly, his brown trench coat was changed into black robes.
Ron was reluctant to do the charm. That was not where he was good at.
"Practice is the only way to master the charm." Dedalus encouraged him.
"Okay," Ron concentrated his attention on the spell and tried transforming his uniform. It worked. He gave them a shy smile.
"This way, professors." Dedalus descended the platform and led them to the destination.
They walked through the high street in the village. Dedalus didn't stop any shops there. Ron talked to Harry, "This path, if my guess is right…"
"Yeah, I know."
When he answered, Dedalus stood in front of a dodgy pub and turned to them. "Have a pint, professors?"
Aberforth Dumbledore looked sullen and continued wiping a glass. His bright blue eyes sometimes stared at Harry as if he would say something anytime soon. Ron sat at the corner and smiled at the portrait of Ariana awkwardly. She was standing radiating a peaceful atmosphere in the picture frame. Harry carried two mugs of Butterbeer and sat the opposite of Ron.
Dedalus kept chatting animatedly at the counter, "Mr. Dumbledore, I'm so happy to have these war heroes. I heard you fought well at the battle."
Aberforth finally opened his mouth, "Dedalus, I thought I talked all about the woman. What do you want to know more?"
Dedalus sipped Butterbeer, "I heard she was pregnant. I reckon it must have been hard for an expectant mother to transform herself."
Aberforth served goat cheese for him, "Freshly made this morning." And he pulled his wand to deliver it onto the table where Harry and Ron were sitting at.
Ron got a whiff of the cheese and had a bite from it. "Good!"
Aberforth grinned satisfied and urged Harry to try it. Harry picked a piece of it and took a bite of it. It tasted creamy and sour. He liked it, too.
Harry asked, "Did you meet the woman who transformed into animagus, a raven?"
"Aye. She seemed to be very interested in you." Aberforth's piercing light blue eyes stared at his.
"Me?" Harry was startled. "Why?"
Ron asked with his worried look, "Why did she get interested in Harry? What was she like? Wasn't she a Death Eater?"
"No, she wasn't. She didn't have a Dark Mark on her arm. Some people may think she is beautiful. Her hair was black ink and she had heavily lidded eyes with long eyelashes. She was jealous of Ariana's skin even she was in the portrait. She seemed to feel ashamed of her tanned face." Aberforth looked up at the portrait. "Stared at so intensely, Ariana had gone to visit her other portrait frame at Hogwarts."
"So you had a chance to observe her well. How long did she stay here?" Harry asked.
"Not so long. The other witch took her away after she regained her strength to stand and walk."
Dedalus chimed in, "I heard that part. Are you really sure you can't remember the other's face?"
"Sure. It was unlucky for me Ariana wasn't in the portrait at that time. The hooded witch must have enchanted me. When I try to remember her, everything gets blurry." He stood in front of the portrait.
Ariana in the portrait gestured by placing her hand on the chest as if she tried to say sorry to her brother.
Harry and Ron exchanged glances. Harry wondered how powerful the witch's magic was. Dumbledore's brother, Aberforth was brave at the Battle of Hogwarts. He could be said he was one of the best warriors.
Dedalus started pacing up and down in narrow space beside the counter. It seemed that it was the sign when he contemplated to make shreds of witness one piece. He mumbled,
"An exhausted woman landed in front of this pub in a non-registered animagus form, a raven. When Aberforth took care of her, she didn't have the Dark Mark. So she is not a Death Eater. She was pregnant. At least, we need to inquire her what true motive was. A mysterious witch took her away. Only eye witness can't remember her face…"
"Can we collect and review the memory?" Harry asked Aberforth.
"Yes, you can. Before collecting my memory, I'll show you the room upstairs. She rested there for a while. I let her drink water. Though the glass was already washed, you may find evidences."
The wallpaper of the room had a brown tint at the peeled edges. A faded quilt on the bed had the fragrance of mildew.
"When did you clean this room?" Ron screwed up his face.
"I clean this room once a week, mostly on Sundays. But I didn't last Sunday. I thought you would need investigation. So it has been untouched for ten days." He picked a small spider hung from the ceiling and blew it out from the window.
Ron flinched to see it and looked up the ceiling in horror as if more of them might descend from there.
Harry noticed a string of ink black hair on an off white pillow and collected it into a freezer bag. It was Gawain's idea. Since they got a new boss, Muggle items had been often adopted. Dedalus peeked into a litter bin at the corner. He beckoned Harry forward,
"Give me one more bag. I missed this among the tissue papers before." Dedalus levitated a crumpled paper and put it down into another freezer bag Harry held out. He looked around the room once again and said, "We are done. Let's get your memory, Aberforth."
They went down the stairs.
"Why did you draw three blanks?" Hermione asked Ginny who was sitting at the desk with her chin propped on her hands with a severe look.
"The Gryffindor Quidditch team needs a Keeper, a Seeker and one more Chaser." Ginny heaved a big sigh.
"You forget Dean Thomas."
"I can't let him join."
"Does he still have some feelings for you?"
"I don't know. The reason is for Harry."
"Oh, I see. He will be jealous of him."
"Yeah…"
"Tryouts will help you?"
"I think so. Oops, what's the next subject?"
"Seventh Gryffindor students will have DADA and Astronomy in the afternoon." Hermione said and closed her schedule notebook.
Ginny shoved the note in her pocket of the robes and stood up. She slung her school bag on the shoulder and said, "Let's go."
On their way to the classroom, Hermione spoke excitedly, "It will be thrilling. It's the first DADA lesson for us!" She marched into the classroom.
Ginny didn't follow her and stopped before entering the room. It was once a place of fear. That was the place where Seamus was tortured by Carrows to protect junior Gryffindor students. Thanks to Neville, she was barely saved from being the target as Potter's ex-girlfriend and a blood traitor's sister.
"Ginny, are you okay?" Hermione asked her anxiously.
Ginny smiled weakly, "I have flashbacks of last year."
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know what happened here while we were…"
"Hermione, I'm okay. Where shall we sit?"
"In front, if you don't mind?"
"Fine. Let's see the Ice Queen in action up close."
"And we can ask about her surname, Evans."
They sat together in the front row next to Parvati and Demelza, who smiled at them cheerfully. Demelza spoke to Ginny, "When will be tryouts?"
"Next Saturday. I'll make posters tonight." Ginny answered and set a textbook and a quill on the desk. Then she noticed she had finished up her parchment when she wrote a letter to Harry last night. "Can I borrow a sheet of parchment?"
"Sure." When Hermione handed it to her, Professor Evans entered.
The strawberry blonde witch walked up elegantly through the aisle between the desks. She wore grass green robes and her hair was braided and wrapped around her head gorgeously. She spoke confidently, "You were given a textbook from the Ministry. If you want to learn from the textbook, go home. I'll teach you what are not written there. Any questions?" Her voice took on the status of divinity.
Mesmerized completely, getting caught up in her posture, Hermione held up her hand straight in the air.
"Miss?" Professor's fresh basil green eyes pierced Hermione.
Thrilled at her stare, she stood up and asked, "I'm Hermione Granger. Your surname is very familiar to me. Where are you from?"
Professor Evans gave her mystic smile, "I won't tell you until you prove you are smart enough to learn my hometown. Your task has already been started. Any other questions?"
Mystified by her short remark, Hermione sat down. Ginny raised her hand,
"I'm Weasley. Last year, educational curriculum didn't function at all. Teachers taught students Unforgivable Curses. I'd like to tell you that we don't want to learn the Dark Arts. Teach us real defense against evil act."
Evans's eyes got intense at Ginny's words. "Very well, Miss Weasley. I'll accept your request." She turned around and climbed up the platform where an old battered box was set.
It was about the size of a Quidditch chest. Ginny expected they could see traditional Quidditch gears or something similar to them. Then all students were astounded by an unidentified object Evans took out with her both hands. It looked like an egg. They could see cracks on the rusty colored surface.
"Is this a dragon egg?" Hermione uttered.
"That's' right. We will learn how strong the dragons had been. I'll tell you the things nobody taught you before."
"But, professor, this is not Care of Magical Creatures class." Hermione retorted.
"Is it too early for you to learn about Merlin's magic? If you don't like this, I'll change my plan." Evans was going to put the egg back into the box.
"Wait, professor, please continue." Hermione begged in earnest.
"Good." Morgana Evans closed her eyes. Her old memory, her rival flashed back in her mind. It was about time to change his rule after a long time. Very long time.
After Harry collected Aberforth's memory into the phial, he passed it to Ron. Being tensed, Ron put it into his inner pocket of the robes. Shaking the head, Aberforth stood up,
"Well, it's easy to review it at my brother's sanctuary. Do you want to do shortcut to the castle? Use the portrait. Ariana,"
Dedalus cut in, "This time, we will feedback your memory at the headquarters. It depends on the outcome, we may need teamwork."
When they got ready to leave for apparation, an ordinary school owl landed on the signboard of Hog's Head Inn and dropped two letters on a step at the front door. Aberforth threw a slice of bacon up in the air high so that the owl could catch it with its beak. As soon as the owl caught it, it flew away. Ron picked up the letters and handed Harry the one of them,
"It's from Ginny. This is from Hermione." He looked very happy.
Harry's face brightened up at the news, too. He unfolded the letter hastily. The words talked to him as if Ginny was chatting near him. She wrote her anxiety about tryouts. She missed him for her team. He missed Quidditch. He missed Ginny.
"Dedalus," the two trainees spoke together. And they smiled shyly. Their intention was clear.
Dedalus grinned mischievously, "Okay, boys. I understand you miss your sweetheart. I'll change to plan B. Review the witness's memory using the Pensieve at the Headmistress's office. And patrolling Hogwarts will bring us more information." The short wizard looked up at the young wizards and winked at them.