Merlin's Shadow
Bellatrix Lestrange killed Sirius. She killed his only godfather. She tortured Neville's parents. She tried to kill Ginny. She crucified Hermione. Feeling outraged, Harry was going to cast the Unforgivable Curse at the witch on the floor.
'She is not Bellatrix Lestrange, Harry!' Ron stopped him.
Harry managed to control the impulse. Breathing hard, he observed the woman. As Ron said, her skin was different from the mad woman's. It was darker than the murderer. Ron whispered,
'My mum finished her, you know?'
'Yeah, right.' Harry was calmed down and the rope was pulled from the tip of his wand.
Ron chanted the Levitation Charm carefully over the fake professor, while Harry sent his Patronus message to Dedalus. Before they went to the headmistress's office where they sent fake Sinistra to the Headquarters via the Floo Network, Harry confiscated the ancient book. He wondered if Hermione could read the mysterious language. He regretted he shut the page. He had already forgotten the mysterious words with his mother's last spell.
Dedalus looked satisfied with their achievement and gave instruction to the other Aurors. Fake Sinistra was wrapped with a blanket and carried to the interrogation room.
'Well done, lads. You must continue investigation to find the real professor Sinistra.'
Ron spoke after they came back from the Headquarters early in the morning.
'It was a long night. Before searching for Sinistra, let's get some sleep.'
Harry shoved open the door and put the thick book on the side table carefully.
Ron asked, 'What's this? It looks like a book in the restricted section.'
Harry took the book in his hands once again and checked the front page. There was a Hogwarts stamp.
'What do you want, Morgana? Your kingdom has gone.'
Ruins steeped in the evening gloom. Countless corpses. Trampled soldiers in the battlefield. Dried tears on the face, she forgot shedding tears. Glancing back, her green eyes met his hazel eyes.
'You won, Merlin. Kill me.'
The Killing Curse was not shot from his fingers. He uttered,
'Walk away, Morgana. The sin that you misused the sacred fire of the dragons will not disappear. Your burden will haunt you forever.'
Morgana opened her eyes. The memory in her mind appeared in the dream. She was frightened by Merlin's shadow.
When she got the power, she was sure she would win. However, her prediction didn't come true. It was her mistake that she didn't know Merlin had his oratory to control the dragons. They chose Merlin as the protector of their kind. They agreed with his plot to cut the tie between the dragons and the humans by losing their language. That was how humans in the Wizarding World lost the way to communicate with the dragons.
Morgana happened to wake up after a very long sleep while Rabastan Lestrange misread the Book of the Dragons. She got his memories before she stunned him. She got the other Pensieve memories at Lestrange Manor. She learnt two Wizarding Wars occurred in the modern time. She thought what Merlin had tried in the ancient time was ended in vain. Real peace would embrace the humans when they got a real leader. She would prove it to the world.
A dull sound made Morgana alert. She heard the voices from the next room. Hiding in her Invisibility Cloak, she watched Potter and Weasley carrying Verina out of the room. Her baby was sleeping peacefully in the crib. She drew a trunk under the bed and opened it. She held the baby in her arms. A stairway inside led her down to the dungeon where real Aurora Sinistra was sleeping. She woke her up and cast 'Imperio'.
Verina stared at the dingy wall in front of her. Though she felt pressure on her breasts, she wasn't worried about her baby. Her Mentor would take care of her. What she needed was persuading the Aurors to release her as soon as possible. She couldn't tell about the connection with her Mentor. She pretended yawning while pushing the ring of her finger open and took in a dose of powdered medicine which would resist confessing the truth.
When a brown-haired man entered the room, she was disappointed. His middle-aged boss called him "Dawlish". She had expected Harry Potter would interrogate her. She was totally attracted by his cuteness although she was trapped by his tactics. It was lucky Dawlish seemed to believe her lie that she and her baby's life had been threatened by the remaining Death Eater, Rabastan Lestrange. She told him she thought the animagus, the barn owl was one of the death eaters and asked him for protection from their attack. She added the truth that she left her daughter in the castle and made a story that she was forced to drink Polyjuice Potion and she didn't know where the real professor was.
Dawlish even expressed his sympathy towards her. He promised to find her daughter soon. Verina asked for a cup of tea. He was so kind that he ordered the other Auror to bring it. She could easily put Love Potion from the other ring to the cup. Sipping her cup, she urged Dawlish to drink his. Instantly after he gulped it down, he became her slave. He spared his night-duty room for her and they had a relationship that was not appropriate for the Auror. When he came to his senses, he would have no alternative, being afraid of her revealing their secret, he had to protect her until the day when her Mentor would rescue her.
Hermione was mesmerized by Luna's hint about their extra lesson and she was impressed by professor Morgana Evans's profound knowledge of the magical heritages in Britain and her theory around the possibility that humans would find a way to communicate with the dragons, the warning about misusage of the dragons and the aftermath predicted for the future. Her writing implied that nobody could assert that there was zero possibility to use them as weapons. She remembered Charlie Weasley flew on the back of Norwegian Ridgeback, Norberta to save the students in the battle of Hogwarts. Norberta could understand her mother Hagrid was in danger, couldn't she? What if the dragons were controlled by the bad wizards? Hermione was shuddered and understood what Evans tried to teach. She came to respect the new DADA teacher.