Rachel stepped into the Weasley's backyard at Mrs. Weasley's bidding, leaving Severus inside with the rest of the adults. It was a beautiful sunny day with a light breeze making the heat more tolerable.
"Rachel! Come sit with us!" Ginny called, waving to her. Luna was sitting in front of her, her long hair halfway braided, and Theo was sitting nearby.
Rachel walked across the grass, avoiding some chickens, and sat down on the blanket near Theo. "Happy birthday, Ginny." She set down her bag and pulled out the present she had wrapped - a book on historical Quidditch maneuvers and how they could still be used in modern games - and set it with the other gifts.
"Thank you," Ginny said, her hands now busy again with Luna's hair.
"Mrs. Zabini didn't mind you coming?" Rachel asked Theo.
"She said she felt it was safe enough as long as I stay within the property - it's not like anyone expects me to be here," Theo said. "I'm not going to be able to join you all for shopping in Diagon Alley though."
"I'm not either. Professor Snape felt I would be too identifiable if I went with all of you." He had told her this a few nights ago while they were making plans, and while Rachel didn't like it, she did understand his reasoning. Any Hogwarts student would recognize an unknown person with her friend group and realize that it was her.
"If we ever get our book lists. And our grades. Poor Hermione is going to melt with anxiety if they make us wait much longer," Ginny said.
"Why haven't they sent us our grades? Has Professor Snape told you?" Luna asked, tilting her head slightly.
"He hasn't said anything." And Rachel hadn't asked. She wasn't looking forward to receiving her grades and the longer it was delayed the better. "I think the book list problem is that Professor Dumbledore hasn't found a Defense teacher yet."
"Can't imagine why not," Theo said. "There can't be that many qualified people to take the position in the first place. Add the fact that the job is cursed and the current political climate, I bet Professor Dumbledore is having to seek people out and ask them to take the position."
"That's too bad. Professor Moody...well..." Ginny trailed off.
"He was a decent teacher, but a little bit frightening. I don't like that he was so threatening to Rachel," Luna said.
"I didn't like that either, but he was better than Lockhart by far," Rachel said. She had seen Professor Moody a few times at Grimmauld Place, but other than fixing her with a stare and nodding in her direction, he'd left her alone. She thought Severus' presence helped with that.
"That is a painfully low bar. I cannot imagine a worse teacher than Lockhart." Theo was smiling despite his words.
Rachel smiled back. "That's true enough."
"Hello!"
They turned to see that Hermione, Neville, and Millie had arrived.
"Happy birthday, Ginny!" Millie said, coming to sit down in the space between Ginny and Theo. "It's good to see you too, Theo."
"It's good to see all of you," Theo said, his smile now a little more reserved.
"Yes, happy birthday, Ginny. I'm glad my Gran let me come," Neville said, sitting down next to Luna.
"Well, we're all glad to be here." Hermione knelt down next to Rachel and pulled a gift from her satchel. "Presents, of course."
"Thank you," Ginny said. "I'm just glad we all get to see each other. Summers can be a little bit boring, although this one has been less so for me at least."
"What have you been doing?" Hermione asked.
Ginny glanced at Rachel and Rachel looked around. "I don't think anyone can overhear us," Rachel said.
"We've been at the headquarters for the Order, helping," Ginny said quietly.
"Helping with the war?" Millie asked, sounding worried.
"Nothing that exciting. We've been helping clean up headquarters and brewing potions for the Order under Professor Snape's instruction," Rachel said. She and Ginny had agreed that they shouldn't write anything about the Order in their two-way books, just in case.
"Do you know what's happening with the war?" Theo asked, his brow furrowed with concern.
"Not much. They don't let us anywhere near the meetings. The twins have tried to listen in, but my mom has been casting an Imperturbable charm on the door," Ginny said, shaking her head. They were all leaning in closer now.
"Professor Snape has been trying to keep me out of it, but I've heard a few things," Rachel said, uncertain if this was really the right time to tell them what she knew.
"Like what?" Neville asked.
"The Dark Lord wants something, I don't know what, but they're trying to figure out his plan to get it," Rachel said. That was something she'd gleaned from a conversation between Sirius and Remus.
"And they're posting guards. My dad doesn't come home some nights because he's guarding something," Ginny added.
"And...do you remember Professor Karkaroff?" Rachel asked.
They all nodded, their expressions ranging from thoughtful to worried.
"The Dark Lord killed him, almost a month ago," Rachel said.
"That's terrible," Hermione said, bringing her hand to her mouth. "That wasn't in the paper."
"It wouldn't be, I'm sure the Dark Lord kept it quiet, probably out of the country even. I can't imagine Karkaroff would have stayed in Britain after he'd fled," Theo said, shaking his head.
"I saw that Professor Dumbledore lost his position as Supreme Mugwump a few days ago," Hermione said. "I can't believe that Fudge has this much sway over people."
"My daddy says it's not just Fudge though, it's everything he's set up around him. It's the Daily Prophet, and the members of the Wizengamot who are elected and count on Fudge for keeping their seats," Luna said, ducking her head to allow Ginny to finish pinning up her braids.
"And the Death Eaters with money to keep the rest of the Wizengamot in their pockets," Theo said grimly.
Rachel frowned, remembering that Theo could be sent back to his father by those same Death Eaters with deep pockets.
"So what do we do?" Millie asked, her brow creased with worry.
"I'm not sure there is much we can do for now. Obviously Professor Dumbledore isn't going to let us join the Order, and for good reason, we're not ready for that yet," Hermione said.
"There's no way he'd allow us to join as students," Rachel confirmed. Severus had told her as much last year.
"So, for now, we have a birthday party. There's plenty of time to worry about the war later," Hermione said with a nod.
Millie nodded and turned to Ginny. "What do you want to do for your birthday?"
"There will be cake in a little bit, and you can meet my brother Charlie, he's here from Romania for the week. He can tell us all about the dragons he cares for, if you'd like. And really, just spending time talking about normal things with my friends," Ginny said, her shoulders relaxing.
"We can do that," Neville said with a small smile.
"What exactly are normal things?" Theo asked.
"Well, I've been meaning to ask you this, Rachel, but has Professor Snape said anything about our grades?" Hermione asked.
Luna started laughing, followed shortly by Ginny, and Rachel felt herself smiling.
"I haven't asked," Rachel said. "But he's here, in the kitchen, so you can ask him if you want."
"That's a good idea," Hermione said. "And our book lists, of course. There are only nineteen days before we go back to school."
"I can't believe it's so soon already. This summer has sucked, but it goes by quickly," Millie said. "At least at Hogwarts I can hex my sister without getting into too much trouble."
"Would you actually hex your sister?" Luna asked, looking curious.
"Depends on the day. She's a nightmare. Ginny, is that offer to trade your twins for my sister still on?" Millie asked.
"Given how much the twins have been bothering my mom lately, she'd probably love to trade them for your sister," Ginny said. "Have I told you what they're doing?"
"In general?" Neville asked. "Besides causing a vast amount of chaos wherever they go?"
"Besides that," Ginny said with a smile. "They're trying to start an owl order joke shop. Mom thinks that's hardly a suitable career, she wanted them to go to the Ministry, but of course look what happened to Percy."
"What happened to Percy?" Hermione asked.
Ginny's face fell. "He doesn't believe that You-Know-Who is back. Got into a really bad row with mom and dad and left the house. He won't return their letters or even talk to dad at work. Didn't send me an owl for my birthday either."
"I'm sorry," Rachel said. She couldn't help but feel a little bit responsible. It wasn't like she went around telling people that the Dark Lord was back, that had been Professor Dumbledore, but still.
"He'll have to come around when people really realize that You-Know-Who is back, won't he? Eventually people won't have a choice," Millie said, frowning again.
"I hope so. I just hope it isn't too late. And now we're talking about the war again. Why don't we go tell my mom it's time for candles and cake. And then we can open presents," Ginny said, getting to her feet.
"Yes, let's. What type of cake is it?" Hermione asked.
"Chocolate, of course," Ginny said, leading the way back into the crowded kitchen of the burrow.
Rachel grabbed her camera from her bag and followed. She wondered if their entire year was going to be like this, where the silent war managed to sneak its way into every conversation and every moment of their lives.
"You have mail."
Rachel covered up her yawn and then glanced at the kitchen table. "All of that is for me?"
"Yes, we had a number of owl visitors this morning," Severus said, taking a sip of his tea and setting aside the Daily Prophet.
She was a little disappointed she'd missed that. She liked seeing the owls. There were two large envelopes, one from Hermione and one from Luna, and a letter with a Hogwarts seal. "Grades and maybe our book lists?"
"Not your book lists. When I spoke with Albus yesterday he indicated that he had one last attempt to secure a Defense professor."
"Will they just cancel the class if they can't find anyone?" She hoped not. They still needed Defense. With everything that was going on, maybe that was the class they needed most.
"If Albus cannot find a qualified Defense professor, the Ministry will supply one, and we do not want that to happen." Severus scowled for a moment before returning to his breakfast. "Open your grades. You did very well."
Rachel sighed but opened the letter and braced herself before she read it. "This can't be right."
"What do you mean?"
"It says I got all Os and I'm third in my year," she said, turning the letter to show him.
"Yes, that's accurate. That was what showed on my grade reports for students in my House as well," Severus said, peering briefly at the letter.
Rachel frowned and sat down. "But it can't be right. I didn't do that well on Professor Moody's exam. And I know my history exam wasn't that great. Were they grading me lightly because I was in the Triwizard Tournament?"
"According to Moody's notes that he made with your grade report he said that you were progressing adequately and were well placed to continue to your next year of Defense instruction. I would be astounded if he had graded you more easily for any reason. And I feel certain that Binns was barely aware that there was a tournament, let alone your involvement in it. I do not believe any of the professors graded you more leniently this year. You didn't even ask them for extra time for your assignments." Severus' gaze rested on Rachel.
"I just don't feel that I earned all Os," she said, looking at her grades again.
"I think you've set unrealistic standards for yourself. Even your professors are not searching for absolute perfection. They know that it's unachievable. You learned all the material that was presented in class and then demonstrated your understanding. That's all they're looking for."
She fidgeted with the hem of her skirt. Why were grades so hard? "I don't know. It doesn't seem right."
"Maybe bring it up with Torey? Maybe she can help you understand your feelings about this. In the meantime, all I can do is assure you that you were graded as any other student and that your grades are accurate," he said.
"Maybe," Rachel said, pushing aside her grades and reaching for Hermione's envelope. She pulled the pile of parchment out and began looking through it. "Oh, Hermione."
"Dare I ask?"
"This is our study plan for our OWLs. I'm not sure when we're actually supposed to fit homework into all of this," Rachel said, flipping over a sheet of parchment and leaning closer to read a notation in Theo's handwriting.
"I do not want you to over study for your OWLs. Yes, they are stressful and they are important. But your health and having a balanced life is more important. You will not skip sleeping or eating in order to study." Severus was frowning down at the study plan.
"We won't." Rachel was pretty sure Theo and Millie wouldn't let that happen. "We're going to be busy this year."
"Yes, your OWL and NEWT year are invariably the busiest you will be at Hogwarts."
Rachel set aside the stack of parchment to go through later, though she didn't know what Hermione thought Rachel would find that she and Theo hadn't. She opened the envelope Luna had sent and found a note and two copies of the summer edition of the Quibbler.
'Rachel,
I thought you might like to read this and wanted to know if you'd pass a copy onto Sirius since his interview is in this edition on page three. Also, there's an arithmancy and rune puzzle that I made that you might enjoy, see page sixteen.
Lots of love from Luna.'
She smiled and opened the Quibbler to page three, curious about what Sirius had to say. Her smile faded as she read. Sirius had spoken honestly about his experiences in Azkaban: about the endless suffering he'd endured, about the starvation and screaming, about how he could see the person in the cell across from him convulsing when the Dementors passed through, about having the only thought he could cling to in order to stay sane - the knowledge that he was innocent.
Luna's father hadn't uncovered any evidence suggesting that there were other innocent people in Azkaban, but also pointed out that the vast majority of records for people sent to Akzaban were sealed by the Wizengamot, including Sirius' record.
"Did Professor Dumbledore ever find out if there were other people in Azkaban who were innocent?" she asked Severus. She had forgotten about it a little bit, with all of the chaos of the tournament.
"Last year he held an inquiry at the Wizengamot and he and a committee he chose reviewed the files of every current prisoner of Azkaban. He was satisfied that Sirius was the only case where there hadn't been a proper trial," Severus said.
Rachel noticed that he didn't say guilty. She supposed that was as good as they were going to get, though she was coming to discover she had a firmly held belief that no one should be in Azkaban. There had to be another way. She collected all of her mail into a pile and got up to go back upstairs.
"Don't you want breakfast?"
"I'm not hungry yet. I'll have something in a little bit," she said. Her stomach currently felt like a rolling mass of snakes.
"Do you want to try a Stomach Soothing potion?" he asked, clearly not believing her.
"No, I'm just not hungry right now. I'll have some toast in an hour or two." She left before the conversation could continue.
Up in her room she dumped her mail on her desk and went to her bed. She wasn't sure Sirius was actually going to want the copy of the Quibbler that Luna had sent for him. It surprised her, a little bit at least, that he had said those things when he knew they were going to be published. It felt too private. But she supposed he had wanted people to know what Azkaban was actually like.
She looked at where her two-way book was sitting. She suspected that her friends were writing that they'd received their grades as well, but she didn't really want to share what hers were right now. It still felt wrong and his assurance that she'd been graded fairly hadn't made it any easier. Maybe Severus was right. Maybe she did need to talk to Torey.
"You should all have your full class lists as of today, now that OWL scores for our incoming sixth years have been taken into account. Minerva notes that we have an incoming class of forty eight first year students, which is the largest class we've had in almost ten years," Albus said, looking up from his notes.
Severus nodded to himself. It made sense that the class sizes were starting to get bigger again. Many people had chosen to hold off on having children until after the war. Severus' own year at Hogwarts had sixty four students, which he had learned was around average at the time.
"The position of Care of Magical Creatures will be taken temporarily by Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank until Hagrid's return. I have been informed that the Defense position has been filled by senior undersecretary Dolores Umbridge," Albus continued.
"What happened to Amaryllis?" Filius asked.
"She would not take the position, no matter what I offered her," Albus said, shaking his head. "I have asked an acquaintance of mine to begin the process of becoming certified for the position so we can hire him next year. But for the time being, we will have Dolores."
"Is there truly no one else?" Minerva asked.
"I assure you, I have contacted everyone with the qualifications regardless of their teaching ability. I'm afraid my reputation, and the reputation of the position, proceeds us." Albus paused and he looked over his staff. "This may be a difficult year. I have no doubt that Minister Fudge has sent his undersecretary here with the intention of taking control of the school. It is likely they will seek to remove me. They may even attempt to remove some of you. I will do everything within my power to ensure the sanctity of the school."
Severus frowned and saw his expression reflected on the faces of the other professors. This did not bode well, not for any of them.
"I intend to have book lists sent out to the students as soon as we have received Dolores' selection for her students. Heads of Houses have already submitted their prefect selections to me. I believe this takes care of all staff related business until we meet at the end of August," Albus said, dismissing them.
Small conversations broke out around the table and Severus got to his feet. He had left Rachel at Grimmauld Place, deciding it was better for her to be with people in case of an emergency. He trusted the Fidelius charm on his house, but he was still leery of leaving Rachel alone when the Dark Lord sought her.
"Severus, walk with me back to my office, if you would," Albus said as he approached.
"Of course," Severus said, following him out the door.
"What do you know of Dolores Umbridge?" Albus asked once they were in the corridor.
"Only what you have told us," Severus said with a feeling of foreboding.
Albus nodded. "She is fanatically loyal to Minister Fudge. He was the one who selected her for her position of undersecretary when she was just a Ministry clerk. I have never confirmed this, but I believe Dolores' uncle paid him to do so. Dolores is related to the Selwyns."
Severus waited. Nepotism in the Ministry of Magic was nothing new and hardly the worst of its crimes.
"While I believe Dolores' primary task is to unseat me, I believe she will be interested in undermining Rachel as well," Albus continued.
That is what Severus had been waiting for - and been expecting - to hear. "In what way?"
"At the very least, she will wish for Rachel to say that Voldemort did not return on the night of the third task - that she was mistaken, or that she lied."
Severus shook his head. "What do you wish her to do?"
"That is up to Rachel," Albus said, coming to a stop and looking at Severus. "If you and she believe that it's safer, she may certainly say that she was mistaken."
"I doubt that Rachel would be willing to do that. She may not speak of it publicly, but she is very aware of how the Ministry and the public are reacting to this," Severus said.
"It is undoubtedly a burden on her, one she shouldn't have to bear. The choice is hers." Albus met Severus' gaze.
"I will let Rachel know that she has the option," Severus said, though he had very little doubt that Rachel would choose to stand by the truth.
Albus nodded and they continued walking. "What is our readiness status at headquarters?"
"Poppy and I have prepared the infirmary in the cellar. We are still filling the potions' cupboard, but that should be completed before we return to Hogwarts. The house itself is still undergoing cleaning and renovation, but we can safely house members of the Order there now. You can speak with Black or Lupin if you want more details on the progress they've made. I believe we are at a near functional capacity at this point."
"Good," Albus said. "I have no doubt that we all will be watched very closely this school year. I fully expect them to begin monitoring Hogwarts' floos. Since headquarters is under the Fidelius charm, they will not be able to see where we are going, but we should apparate to headquarters unless it is an emergency."
"Understood," Severus said, though his understanding was more than just the instructions. The Ministry was going to be monitoring them to try and identify Order members.
"Please keep me up to date on the situation with Rachel," Albus said as they reached the stone gargoyle that guarded the Headmaster's office.
"I will. As it stands there is nothing new to report," Severus said.
"Good. That is the best case scenario. I will see you at our appointed time," Albus said, the gargoyle stepping aside for him automatically.
Severus turned to make the walk back, intending to check on his classroom and private lab before he returned to brew at Grimmauld Place. Their year had just become more complicated.
Rachel was halfway through a bowl of oatmeal when an owl arrived at the window. Since Severus was engrossed in the newspaper, Rachel got up and took the letter from the barn owl.
"I don't have anything to give you, but you can have some water from Gladys' bowl if you want," she told the owl.
Gladys gave a low hoot, which Rachel wasn't sure if was an invitation to the other owl or a warning to stay away. The barn owl took off without taking a drink and Rachel took a moment to scratch the side of Gladys' head while she examined the letter. It had the Hogwarts' seal on it, but it was a little bit lumpy and heavier than just the book list would account for.
"Severus, this says it's from Hogwarts, did you want to check it before I open it?" she asked.
"Best to be sure," he said, putting down the paper and pulling out his wand.
Rachel brought him the letter and watched as he silently moved his wand over it.
"Everything is as it should be," Severus said, tucking his wand away again. "Finish your breakfast and then we'll have a brief conversation about the contents."
She raised her eyebrows, wondering what could be in the letter that needed discussion, but sat back down and began to eat again. He clearly wanted her to eat before they had a potentially upsetting conversation and she thought it wasn't a bad tactic even though she could already feel her stomach twisting with worry. She managed to finish her oatmeal and watched as Severus exchanged the paper for his cup of tea.
"As you may have guessed, we now have a Defense professor for the year, however it is not someone that Albus has chosen," Severus said after he set down his tea cup.
"If he didn't choose them, how did we get them?" Rachel asked, already confused.
"The Ministry filled the position. Dolores Umbridge, the senior undersecretary to the Minister, will be the new Defense professor. As I'm sure you can imagine, this brings several problems, some of them potentially concerning you," he explained.
Rachel thought for a moment. "Because she won't believe that the Dark Lord is back?"
"Not only does she not believe that the Dark Lord is back, she will want to stop anyone saying that he is. Albus suspects that she will ask you to publicly recant your position."
"She wants me to tell people that I lied?" She couldn't imagine doing that, for multiple reasons.
"I imagine she won't care about the particulars, you could say that you lied, that you were confused, that you were misled. Albus says that you may decide what you want to do. He seems to believe there will be quite a bit of pressure on you," Severus said, watching Rachel closely.
She shook her head. "I'm not going to. I wouldn't do that to Professor Dumbledore. And, it's not just that, it's me too. I said that he was back and people know it. I'm not going to lie and say he isn't."
Severus nodded. "That would be my preference as well, but I must warn you, my ability to intervene and Albus' ability to intervene will be limited. Umbridge will be attempting to oust Albus from his position as Headmaster, and will be trying to remove any teachers she sees as undesirable. I will still protect you from any overt threats, but there will be little I can do if she decides to make this a matter of school discipline."
"Meaning she could give me detention if I don't do what she wants?" That didn't sound terrible. Frustrating and unfair, but not terrible.
"It's a possibility. Umbridge is unknown to me. I'm not sure what tactics she will use. We need to be on our guard. I don't want you to aggravate her in any way. Be perfectly polite. Answer questions when called on, but otherwise don't engage with her. Be on your best behavior. And outside of class, stay out of her way."
"I can do that," Rachel said. "Can I warn my friends?"
"Yes, please do. I imagine they may be targeted by association," Severus said.
Rachel frowned. She didn't like the idea that her friends could get into trouble just by being friends with her. "Can I open my book list?"
"Yes, of course."
Rachel opened the letter and silver badge with a green C on it fell out onto the table. She smiled. She had known she was going to be made Quidditch captain, but it was different seeing the badge. "Thank you."
"There's no need to thank me, you earned the position," he said, though he looked pleased.
She opened the letter and saw that they only needed two new books: The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 5, and Defensive Magical Theory. "Good thing there's only two, I need to get OWL revision guides as well."
"That's fine. Shall we go to Diagon Alley this Sunday?" Severus suggested.
"That should be fine." She wished she was going with her friends, but she understood why she couldn't.
"How are your clothes? Do you need anything new for the school year?"
Rachel sighed. "No. I'm still short."
"You're growing, I can see that you're taller than you were last time this year. Check your skirts and robes and make sure they're the appropriate length before we return to Hogwarts," he instructed.
"I will. But I don't think I need anything new," Rachel collected her badge and the letter. "I'm going upstairs for a bit, then I'm going flying I think."
"That's fine. Defense practice after lunch and then brewing in the evening." It wasn't quite a question.
"Yes, that works for me," she said. She dropped her bowl and spoon into the sink and pointed her wand at them. "Scourgio patella." The dish washing charm did make this a little bit easier, but she mostly used it because magic was fun. She set the bowl and spoon into the drying rack and then went upstairs.
She placed her captain badge on her desk where she could see it and then collected a quill and her two-way book and sat down on her bed. After saying her password with her wand tip resting on the cover, she flipped it open to where their conversation had left off last night.
'I made prefect!' was written in Hermione's handwriting, her letters a little bigger than usual.
Rachel smiled. Everyone knew that Hermione was going to be made a prefect, everyone but Hermione it seemed.
Theo and Millie had written notes of congratulations beneath it.
'Congratulations, Hermione!' Rachel wrote, and then she paused as she tried to think about what she wanted to tell her friends about their new Defense professor.
'Professor McGonagall made me a prefect. My Gran just about had a heart attack. Both my parents were prefects,' slowly appeared in Neville's handwriting.
'Congratulations to you too, Neville!' Rachel wrote, pleased for her friend.
'Neville, that's wonderful! Both of us!' Hermione wrote back.
'Congratulations, Neville! Any idea who the Slytherin prefects are?' Theo asked.
'Pansy and Draco, I think. Professor Snape wanted people who were in the common room more than we are,' Rachel wrote, hoping that Theo wasn't too upset about not being made a prefect. He certainly had better grades than Draco.
'That makes sense. I didn't expect to be made prefect anyway. I'm a little surprised you weren't, Rachel. Congrats Neville!' Millie wrote.
Rachel decided not to tell them that Severus had offered it to her. 'I'm Quidditch Captain this year, so it's okay. And I didn't particularly want to be a prefect either. Professor Snape told me about the new Defense professor and said I can tell all of you. It's not good.'
'In what way?' Theo wrote.
'Professor Dumbledore couldn't fill the position, so the Ministry did. Her name is Dolores Umbridge. She's the Minister's undersecretary, whatever that means. Professor Snape says she's going to try to make Professor Dumbledore leave and the teachers that she doesn't like too. She doesn't believe the Dark Lord is back and doesn't want anyone to say that he is. Professor Snape says she might try to get me to say that I was wrong about him coming back. He said you might be targeted because you're my friends. He said that there's not much that he or Professor Dumbledore can do to stop her. We're supposed to be on our best behavior with her and avoid her when we can.'
She looked over what she'd written, trying to see if she'd left anything out.
'The Ministry sent her to unseat Professor Dumbledore? This is worse than I'd thought,' Hermione wrote after a moment.
'There are still limits as to what she can do as a professor. I'd be surprised if she could force Professor Dumbledore away from the school. The Board of Governors is responsible for the Headmaster's position. Obviously she's a threat, but I'm not sure how much damage she can really do,' Theo wrote.
'I guess we'll know more when the school year starts. It's good that we know to be careful around her though,' Neville wrote.
'We'll see, but if Professor Snape thinks it's going to be a problem, I think we have to be prepared. I don't think Professor Snape would say that we should worry about this if it was nothing,' Millie wrote a minute later.
Rachel nodded to herself. Severus wasn't likely to warn her about something when there wasn't actually a problem. She hoped that they were just preparing themselves for no reason, but she suspected that it was going to be another rough year in Defense class.
Rachel made her way down the third floor hallway. The second floor was finally clean and in his spare time, Sirius had been tackling taking down the wallpaper. Remus had forbidden him to pull up the carpeting just yet since that was going to be a dirty and probably rather smelly job considering the state of the carpet. Right now, Sirius, Remus, and Severus were having a meeting with Professor Dumbledore in the kitchen, and Mrs. Weasley was talking to her kids in the sitting room because apparently the twins had caused some sort of problem - again. Ginny had motioned to Rachel to go ahead without her and Rachel had decided to come see what they were dealing with.
So far she had found three bedrooms, a bathroom, an office, and now she was at the last room. The door was locked so she pulled out her wand. "Alohomora."
The lock clicked open and Rachel opened the door and peered inside. She could see daylight filtering in around the edges of the long curtains, but it was otherwise dark. There were dark lumps, which she suspected were armchairs and sofas, and it seemed like there were more cabinets and shelves around the edges of the room.
"Rachel. Come here," came Severus' voice from deeper in the room.
"Severus?" Rachel asked, taking a few more steps inside. "Weren't you just downstairs?"
"Come over here," he said, now becoming clear as he moved toward her.
"How did you get up here?" she asked, wondering if there was a secret staircase or passage or something. That wouldn't be surprising in a house like this.
"Shh, this won't hurt if you hold still," he said, and suddenly his hands were on her, pulling her body against his.
Rachel froze for a moment, her heart in her throat, panic overwhelming her. Something about this wasn't right. This wasn't Severus, it couldn't be. She twisted in his arms, surprised at how strong and immovable they were, and then finally dropped to her knees when she realized she couldn't move him. She scrambled back to her feet and ran for the door, not bothering to pull her wand until she was out in the hallway. With her hands shaking, she pulled the door closed hard. "Colloportus."
She walked over to the staircase and sat down on the top stair, shaking too badly to trust herself to go down the stairs at the moment. Severus was in the kitchen, with Sirius, and Remus, and Professor Dumbledore. That was a boggart.
That was her boggart?
She was aware that a person's boggart could change over time, but...that was her boggart?
What was wrong with her?
Rachel pushed herself to her feet and made her way down the stairs, all the way to the ground floor, and went to the doorway of the kitchen. It was cracked open.
"And what then?" Sirius asked.
"We take it one step at a time. Without further information that's all we can do right now," Professor Dumbledore said.
"That's it?" Sirius asked, sounding incredulous.
"What exactly do you want us to do?" Severus asked, clearly annoyed.
That's what Rachel had been waiting for. Severus was here in the kitchen and he had been the entire time.
"Something that isn't sitting around in headquarters with our thumbs up our asses," Sirius snapped.
Rachel walked away and went back up the stairs, coming to a stop at the top of the second floor landing and sitting back down again. It was good that Severus had been downstairs. Actually, it was really good that no one had seen that. She didn't have an explanation for it. At least, not an explanation that she wanted to think about too closely. She set her glasses in her lap and covered her eyes with her hands. What the hell had just happened?
"Rachel?"
Rachel uncovered her face and put her glasses back on. "Hi Ginny. Your mom is finished?"
"Well. Fred said that maybe Percy had the right idea with leaving, and my mom said 'if that's the way you feel' and then left the room. So that's not good. Are you okay? You look a little, uh, ruffled," Ginny said, pointing to her own hair.
Rachel smoothed down her hair and wished she'd thought to tie it back today. "I found a boggart in the third floor sitting area."
"Oh no, are you okay?" Ginny asked, coming up the stairs to sit next to Rachel.
"I got away, but it took me by surprise. I didn't even think of using the Boggart Banishing Charm. I just locked it back in there." Rachel couldn't even begin to think of a way to make that funny.
"I don't think I would think of the charm either, if it caught me by surprise." Ginny fell quiet for a moment. "You did boggarts in Remus' class, right, with everyone in the room?"
"Yeah." Rachel was suddenly glad that her boggart had been a Dementor for so long. It would have been a disaster if that had happened in front of her classmates.
"Professor Moody did boggarts with my class last year, except he had us come into the classroom one by one. Said you should never give your enemies information they can use against you."
"That sounds like something he would say," Rachel said, though she thought it probably was a better idea not to show your classmates your greatest fear. It was just embarrassing for everyone involved.
"Doesn't it?" Ginny shook her head. "My boggart is Tom, from the diary. When I was using the diary, I would dream about him. I have no idea what he actually looked like, but given who it is, I think it's probably pretty accurate."
"Probably," Rachel said, not sure what to say. She knew that the experience with the diary still hurt Ginny, but she hadn't realized that it was her worst fear.
Ginny shook her head again and smoothed her hair away from her face. "Professor Moody, after I finished using the Boggart Banishing Charm - which took me a few tries - he asked me if an upper year Slytherin boy was bothering me, and said he'd do something about it. Which was nice, but impractical given the situation. I told him it was old stuff and it was over with. And it is over with, but it's still in my head sometimes."
"I think I know what you mean," Rachel said. "I still have nightmares about certain things. And sometimes the day after the nightmares, it still feels real. Like my mind just goes back there."
"Exactly. Sometimes I still have those nightmares too. Which is kind of stupid. It's been over two years now. I'm fourteen years old, not eleven," Ginny said.
"Two years isn't a long time. It seems that way, but for something like that, it isn't really." Rachel turned to look at Ginny and found Ginny looking back. "I'm not sure the nightmares go away at all. I think over time they get better, so that it's not every night. And it gets easier to go back to sleep after them. But every so often, they're just worse for no reason."
"They're always worse for me right before we go to school and right after we get there. Once I get used to the routine again, and really remember that the diary is gone, then I'm okay usually. Are you having nightmares about what happened at the third task?" Ginny asked, looking worried.
"No." Which in its own way was weird. She hadn't forgotten, and it had been an awful experience, but it hadn't made its way into her mess of nightmares, except for the nightmares about the maze itself. "Thankfully I'm not. It's just old stuff. Can I ask, what did your Boggart Banishing Charm do to him?"
The corners of Ginny's mouth rose in what wasn't quite a smile. "It took a few tries, but what worked was having him collapse with ink pouring out of his mouth and his nose and his ears, all the ink I put in the diary. I think Professor Moody was a little bit scared of me when I started laughing at that."
Rachel smiled. "That's good. That's smart."
"Well, first I tried setting him on fire, but that didn't work," Ginny shrugged, but she had a small self-satisfied smile.
"Rachel." The call was distant, but Rachel could tell it was Severus' voice.
They got up and went downstairs and found Severus in the main hall with Sirius and Remus, with Ron and the twins lurking around the entrance to the sitting room.
"I need to go pick up a few things for the cellar. Will you be alright here for the next hour?" Severus asked.
"That's fine," Rachel said.
"We'll brew when I return," he said, moving around people to get to the front door.
"In the meantime, let's get started on the third floor while we have a whole group to work," Remus said as he looked over them.
"There's a boggart in the sitting area on the third floor," Rachel said quickly, having no intention of going in there again until it was gone, but also not wanting anyone else to go in there unaware.
"Oh dear, you do look a little pale. Let's get you some chocolate. You used your Patronus or the Boggart Banishing Charm?" Remus asked, moving toward the kitchen.
"Patronus," Rachel lied, following him toward the kitchen. She wasn't about to tell him that her boggart had changed.
"I'll take care of the boggart," Sirius said, placing his hand on Rachel's shoulder. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, I shut it back in there and locked the door," Rachel said, forcing herself to stay still under Sirius' touch. It was uncomfortable, but it would cause questions if she pulled away.
"Let me take care of it, Sirius," Remus said as he reappeared with a bar of Honeydukes chocolate.
"I can handle a boggart just fine, thank you," Sirius said dryly, squeezing Rachel's shoulder once and then heading upstairs.
Rachel accepted the piece of chocolate from Remus. "Thank you."
"Of course. Would you like to sit down for a bit? Are you feeling dizzy or faint?" Remus asked, looking her over.
"No, I'm just fine," Rachel said. "My Patronus did its job." It felt weird to lie to Remus, but it was necessary.
"Good. In that case let's head upstairs and we can get started in one of the other rooms. Where's Molly gone to?" he asked.
All three of the Weasley boys shifted uncomfortably.
"I think she's just visiting the bathroom and she'll join us soon," Ginny said, turning to raise her eyebrows at the twins.
"That's just fine, let's get started then, she'll know where we are," Remus said, passing them and starting up the stairs.
Rachel trailed behind as the group started up the stairs. She ate the chocolate, even though it made her feel a little sick to do so, and tried not to think about everything that had just happened.
"How was your week?" Torey asked once they were both seated.
"Busy enough," Rachel said. "Severus says I should talk to you about my feelings about my grades."
"Do you want to talk to me about how you feel about your grades?" Torey asked, arching an eyebrow at Rachel.
Rachel shrugged. It wasn't the burning issue on her mind, but she didn't know if she was ready to talk about that either. "I guess. I don't know that it's important."
"Important enough that Severus is concerned about it. Do you know if there's a particular reason he's concerned?"
"I received my grades and I got all Os and it doesn't feel right. Like, I don't feel like I deserved Os in some of my classes. Severus says that the professors weren't grading me more easily because of the tournament, and I know he's right, but I don't know how else to explain my grades," she explained, rubbing her fingers restlessly against the side seam of her jeans.
"Were there classes in particular you felt this way about, or just overall?" Torey asked, seeming interested despite the fact that it was a rather mundane topic of conversation.
"Mostly Defense and History. I don't feel like I did particularly well on either of those exams. For Defense, we had to duel against the professor for a few minutes. Afterward he said that I needed to use a variety of spells and not just ones that were easy to cast. Why would he say that and then give me an O?" Rachel asked.
"Even students who are doing well have some room for improvement. Did you see the other students in your class dueling as well, or did he do the exam privately?"
"Everyone in the class was there," she said, not seeing what Torey's point was.
"Do you recall how your classmates did?" Torey asked.
"Theo and Draco did pretty well, they were probably at the top of the class. Hermione and Millie also did well, but I think they were a little nervous. Neville too, he struggled a bit more. I'd say the rest of the class didn't do as well as us," Rachel recounted.
"And where do you think your performance fell in that?"
Rachel frowned as she considered it. "Theo, Draco, and I were the only ones who didn't get hit by one of Professor Moody's spells, so I probably did about as well as they did."
"And it stands to reason that the professor gave the best students in his class the top mark and graded down from there. An Outstanding grade doesn't mean perfect. Perfection is impossible. Any reasonable professor knows this," Torey said.
"I suppose. I just- I feel guilty. And I don't know why," Rachel said, shifting uncomfortably on the couch.
"I think perhaps you have cultivated some unreasonable expectations for yourself. The guilt could be coming from your evaluations of yourself not matching your professor's evaluations. You said that you had thought perhaps the professors had graded you more leniently, but Severus said they hadn't. Do you believe him?"
"I don't think he'd lie to me. And, I think he's right. I have a hard time seeing Professor Moody or Professor Binns grading anyone leniently. But, I still don't feel right about it," she said, not liking where this conversation was going.
"We've talked about this a little before, about how you feel like you have to perform at a certain level, whether it be at your grades or at Quidditch. We've also talked about how Severus doesn't have those expectations of you," Torey said, tipping her head as she watched Rachel.
"I know he doesn't. I just want to do the best I can. It's important to me." Rachel looked down at her knees, frustrated both with Torey and with herself.
"And the best you can doesn't have to mean perfect. I guarantee you that you will not be perfect at everything you try. There will be plenty of things that you start out with that you won't even be good at, especially at first. That's okay. That's part of learning. And you don't always have to try your best either. You can do something just for fun. You can decide that you don't want to spend the time on something and that average is good enough for whatever that is. All of that is okay. Do you have any ideas about why you feel like you have such high expectations of yourself?"
Rachel shifted in her seat again. She knew this was going back to stuff with the Dursleys and her childhood and she really didn't want to go there today. "I guess. I don't really want to talk about it. What do you know about boggarts?"
"About boggarts?" Torey asked, accepting the topic change with ease.
"About why they change forms for people," Rachel clarified.
"Generally the form someone's boggart takes will change for one of two reasons. The first is that they've mastered the fear that the boggart previously portrayed, and the second is that something changed and a new fear has become more powerful. Has the form a boggart takes for you changed recently?" Torey asked.
Rachel nodded. "I accidentally found one in Sirius' house yesterday. I didn't even realize it was a boggart at first." She had decided not to tell Torey about the Order or about headquarters, just referring to Grimmauld Place as Sirius' house.
"I imagine that was pretty scary," Torey prompted.
"I don't understand it," Rachel brought her hands up to her temples. "My boggart is supposed to be the Dark Lord, especially after what happened in the graveyard. He used the Cruciatus curse on me twice and tried to kill me. I'm afraid of him. He is actually a pretty serious threat to me and to Severus."
"Fear isn't always logical. I believe your boggart used to be a Dementor?"
"Yeah. At least it was as of May," Rachel said.
"Do you feel like anything has happened to help you overcome the fear you'd felt regarding Dementors?" she asked.
Rachel thought about it for a moment and then nodded. "Actually, yeah. Severus had me practice against a boggart, in case they put one in the maze. And I was both able to use my Patronus charm to drive off the Dementor and use the Boggart Banishing charm on it. I think part of why I was so scared of them before was because Dementors made me feel so helpless - they left me unconscious pretty quickly. But knowing that I can hold them off with my Patronus makes them a lot less scary."
Torey smiled. "That's pretty powerful, to face your fear directly and find that you can stand against it. I can see why your boggart's form would change after that. You don't have to tell me what form your boggart takes now, if you don't want to, but we might be able to work out why it takes that form if you want to talk about it."
She bit her lower lip as she considered it. She did want to know why this was happening, if only so she could stop thinking about it. "You won't tell Severus?"
"Not unless you ask me to directly," Torey promised.
Rachel looked down at where her hands were twisting together. "It was Severus. He called me toward him, and then he grabbed me and pulled me against him. I almost didn't escape."
"Pulled you against him in a sexual way?" Torey asked gently.
Rachel nodded, feeling a weird mixture of guilt, anxiety, and shame twisting her stomach. "And I don't understand it. I don't think of Severus that way. I haven't been afraid of him doing something like that for years."
"I think in this case it's less about the specific action and more about the broader picture. Sometimes boggarts interpret our true fears in a very crude way. I think this about a fear of Severus betraying you, and that would be a very visceral betrayal," Torey explained.
"I don't think Severus would betray me though. I trust him," she said, though she was a little relieved that Torey didn't think it was about sex.
"Exactly. You trust him. How many adults have you had in your life that you can say that about?"
"He's the only one that I can trust with everything. Other people in my life know bits and pieces." Rachel frowned as she considered it. "I would lose pretty much everything if he betrayed me."
"Which is a pretty understandable fear. You've put a lot of trust in him in a lot of ways. He's protecting you from the Dark Lord. He's protected you at school in a variety of circumstances. He's given you a safe home. He knows about some of the very difficult things that you've experienced. That is a lot when before you met Severus four years ago you didn't have any trustworthy adults in your life. It is natural that you'd be afraid of something going wrong, and also natural that the boggart's version of the betrayal would echo something you've already experienced," Torey explained.
"So, you're saying that's normal?" Rachel asked.
"Under the circumstances, yes, I think it's perfectly normal," Torey said with a nod.
Rachel exhaled, glad that there wasn't actually something wrong with her. Torey would know if it was something to be worried about. "It's okay if I don't tell Severus about it, right?"
"That's entirely up to you. However, I will say that you can't always control when you come across a boggart and who might see it."
Rachel nodded. She'd found that out the hard way yesterday. "I think it will be okay, Hogwarts is kept pretty clear, and we've pretty much finished with the major parts of Sirius' house. I don't want to tell Severus."
"And that's okay, it's your relationship with him and you're not obligated to tell him," Torey said.
"Thanks," Rachel said, leaning against the back of the couch. Oddly, she felt a little bit better about the whole thing now. At least Torey was helpful with some things.
Severus had turned Rachel's hair red this time, to match the red of the person he Polyjuiced into. Rachel had gone back upstairs under the pretense of getting her money pouch, but had really gone into the bathroom to see how she looked with red hair. She thought she might almost be mistaken for a Weasley, but she didn't have their freckles.
She hurried back downstairs, knowing that Severus was waiting for her.
"You have your wand and your portkey?" he asked.
"Yep," Rachel touched the chain of the necklace and patted her skirt pocket.
"Stay close to me, I do not wish for us to be separated. If we do get separated, find somewhere out of the way to wait and send me your Patronus with your location." Severus studied her, his expression serious.
"I will." Rachel wasn't too worried. They'd never been separated going to Diagon Alley before.
"Alright, let's go." He offered her his arm.
A moment later they were standing at the opening of Diagon Alley. It was about as busy as usual, with people carrying shopping bags and stopping to chat. Rachel looked around as they walked and realized that it was like the night of the third task had never happened. No one here was afraid that Death Eaters or the Dark Lord might show up. A small part of her was glad and hoped it stayed that way. If they could keep the war an ephemeral thing, just between the Order and the Death Eaters, that would be better for everyone. She expected the Dark Lord wouldn't be satisfied with that, though she couldn't quite say why.
They started with the apothecary, Severus purchasing her a potions kit refill. From there they went to Scribbulus' and Rachel got three sheaves of parchment since she was always on the verge of running out at the end of the school year and two new black self-inking quills. In the sweets shop, Rachel purchased some chocolate frogs and jelly slugs for herself, some sugar quills for Millie, and some ice mice for Luna. She could share the chocolate frogs with Ginny and Neville, and neither Theo nor Hermione were very big on sweets. At Athertons she bought two rolls of film and three packets of photo paper.
"Is that everything you need this year except for your books?" Severus asked.
"Yes. I'm going to get Ogden's OWL prep books since that's what my study group is working from, but I can pay for those," Rachel said, walking by Severus' side as they made their way up the street toward Flourish and Blotts.
"No need for you to pay, it's for your education." Severus came to a stop and put his hand on Rachel's shoulder. "Let's go in here."
Rachel had just enough time to look back and see Pansy shopping with her mother. She shivered. The last time she'd seen Pansy's mother, she'd been in that graveyard and Pansy's mother had been wearing a hood and a mask. Severus guided her into the nearest shop and they found themselves surrounded by cauldrons of every conceivable size and material.
"Ah, Hogwarts, yes? We've got pewter cauldrons right over here. Kids will melt through them," the shopkeeper called.
Rachel blushed - she'd never melted a cauldron in her life!
"We'd like to look at some of your other cauldrons, her student cauldron is fine for now," Severus said, his hand still on Rachel's shoulder as he guided her further into the store and away from the windows.
"Of course, any particular material you're looking for?" he asked.
"What sizes do you have on silver cauldrons?" Severus asked.
"Not many, they're expensive and not high in demand. Come take a look behind the counter," the shopkeeper said.
Rachel watched as Severus examined the silver cauldrons. They were all of equal size to her student cauldron or smaller. She glanced at the windows every now and then, but Pansy and her mother didn't pass by.
"All of them but this one are silver coated," Severus said, tapping a small one with his fingertip.
"They are, but it's the coating that is the important part," the shopkeeper said.
"For most potions, but not for all. Thank you for your time," Severus said, guiding Rachel back out of the shop. "Can't find a proper silver cauldron in all of Britain," he muttered.
Rachel peered around once they were back on the street, but she couldn't see Pansy or her mother anywhere. "Is it alright now?"
"I think so. I merely wished to be cautious. Let's go to the bookstore and be finished with our errands," he said.
She kept herself from asking questions, such as would they have been recognized, and what would have happened if they had been recognized, though she suspected the answer would have been they would have apparated home immediately. She was supposed to share a dorm room with Pansy when she got back to Hogwarts, which she hadn't given much thought to until now. Pansy was her friend - not as close as her friends in the study group, but they were friends. Surely it would still be alright?
Inside Flourish and Blotts Severus stayed close while she picked up the two books on her book list and then a pile of Ogden's OWL study guides. Then she went over to the magical creatures section and began looking for a good overview on snakes. She found a thick book that seemed to cover just about everything she might want to know about snakes and added it to her stack.
Severus looked at the book with a somewhat bleak expression. "I was under the impression you wished for a cat, not a snake."
"I would like a cat, but I should wait until I'm finished at Hogwarts," she said, knowing that for whatever reason Severus really did not want to have a pet, not even an owl for mail.
"Then why the book on snakes?" he asked.
"If I can talk to them, I should probably know more about them. Seems like it could come in handy one day, though I suppose you don't often run into random snakes," Rachel said, managing to shrug while balancing her pile of books.
Severus reached over and took about half the stack. "That seems reasonable, though I will say I do not wish to have a snake in the house."
"That's fine, I wouldn't bring them in. I just don't want to offend them or say something stupid when I talk to them."
"Can snakes be offended?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I have no idea, but it seems like a bad idea to offend something that can bite you. I think that's everything I need. One day I'm going to need a bigger trunk," she said. At least the OWL guides were paperback and not too thick. She should be able to fit all of them in there.
"Often people will purchase a new trunk after their last year at Hogwarts, before they leave home," Severus said as they walked back to the front of the shop.
"Makes sense, but I don't know if there's a trunk big enough to fit all my books." She smiled. Having too many books was a pretty good problem to have.
"There are trunks with magically extended space, some of them even have bookshelves built in."
"I should tell Hermione, she'd love to be able to take her bookshelves with her everywhere she goes." Rachel set her stack of books down on the counter and dug into her pocket for her money pouch.
"I'll pay," Severus said.
"I can at least get the snake book," she offered.
"No need. It's educational," he said.
Rachel thought that Severus spoiled her a bit. At least she wouldn't take it for granted like Dudley had.
"Is there anything else we need to do while we're out?" Severus asked once they were back in the street.
"I don't think so. Let me check my list," Rachel said, pulling out a folded piece of parchment from her pocket. She scanned through it and shook her head. "That's-"
Severus suddenly grabbed her arm and a stomach twisting moment later they were back in their sitting room.
"What did you see?" Rachel asked, a little shaken by the abrupt apparation.
"Alecto and Amycus Carrow. Seeing the Parkinsons may have been a coincidence. Seeing the Carrows was not," Severus said.
"They might have been there with Hestia and Flora? Shopping for school?" Rachel asked.
"Perhaps. But I don't think so," he said. He dug in his pocket and pulled out their shopping from his pocket. "You can unshrink these yourself, I presume?"
"I can," she said, accepting the bags. "Would they have recognized us like this?"
"Likely not, but I didn't think it was wise to stay and find out. Anything else you need can be purchased by owl order."
"We've got everything. I'm going to take this stuff upstairs," she said, watching him for a moment before turning away and climbing the stairs. She didn't think she'd ever seen Severus panicked quite like that before. She wondered if he would have had the same reaction if she hadn't been with him.
She set all of her shopping on her bed and used her wand to unshrink the bags and packages one by one. She opened one of the chocolate frogs and grabbed onto the frog and checked the card. Bowman Wright, the inventor of the Golden Snitch, born and lived in Godric's Hollow. She didn't think she had that one.
After waiting for the frog to stop moving, she took a bite and wondered if this was how it was going to be until the war was over. Unless they were in a safe place like their home or headquarters, there was a possible threat of Death Eaters. And out of anyone, Rachel thought the Dark Lord wanted her and Severus. And probably Professor Dumbledore too, but she thought he wasn't in quite as much danger as she and Severus were.
Deciding this wasn't a problem she could solve now, or maybe not at all, Rachel began flipping through her new text books to see what they'd be learning this year. The Standard Book of Spells was as expected. The Defense book was something else entirely.
Severus was wearing his best dress robes, which wasn't saying much. Almost all of his robes were plainly cut and black, and the only real difference in these was the fabric. He had never really figured out how to make clothing look good, so he had taken the easy way out. And he thought that black suited him. At the very least it matched his hair.
Theo's hearing was set for ten o'clock, in courtroom eight. Severus had left Rachel at headquarters, trusting Black and Lupin to at least keep her distracted for a few hours. It didn't require any of his observational skills to see that she was very worried about the hearing and what would happen to Theo. She had wanted to come, but Severus had insisted that it was best if he went alone and that she wouldn't be allowed in the courtroom regardless.
The trip through the Ministry had been uneventful and Severus found himself outside courtroom eight in a reasonable amount of time. A security wizard was standing guard. "My name is Professor Severus Snape. I'm here to speak at the guardianship hearing for Theodore Nott."
The guard took a clipboard off the nearby podium and flipped through several pieces of parchment. "You are expected. You may enter."
Severus nodded and entered the courtroom. Ignatius Nott was already seated at a table, along with a person that Severus suspected was a solicitor. The rest of the room was empty.
Ignatius stood and Severus froze, ready to go for his wand. Severus read contempt in Ignatius' gaze, but Ignatius did not pull his wand.
"A mutual friend of ours is looking forward to seeing you soon, Severus," Ignatius said, breaking the silence.
"I wish him luck with that endeavor," Severus said, keeping his tone bland. He had no intention of winding up in the Dark Lord's clutches.
A joyless smile lifted the corners of Ignatius' mouth. "It is I who will be lucky on that day. Traitor."
Before Severus could respond the door opened and several people filed in. The first three people took seats on the raised dais, presumably they were representatives of Family Services. A young woman that Severus recognized as Amberlyn Moores, a Ravenclaw who had finished at Hogwarts five years ago, came in with Theo. Severus was disappointed, but not surprised, that Celeste Zabini did not join them.
"If everyone will please take their seats, we'll begin," said the older woman who was seated on the dias.
Theo and Amberlyn took a seat at the remaining table and Severus took a seat behind them.
"We're here today to determine who shall have guardianship over the present minor, Theodore Nott. He is presently residing with Celeste Zabini and Boris Worlfrickson, after being removed from his home with Ignatius Nott on the second of July pending an MLE investigation. If I'm not mistaken, the results of the MLE investigation are now in our records," the older woman continued.
"They are," the man on the left said, shifting through a pile of parchment. "Ignatius Nott was found guilty of casting Ondine's curse on his son Theodore Nott on the first of July, 1995. He paid the five thousand Galleon fine on the sixth of August."
Severus frowned. A five thousand Galleon fine for torturing and nearly killing your own child. What was the world coming to?
"So noted," the older woman said, making a note on a piece of parchment. "Ignatius Nott has petitioned that his child be returned to him."
"If I may speak," Amberlyn said, standing up.
"Yes, the advocate for the minor may speak," the man on the right with the thick mustache said.
"Both myself and Theodore Nott request that the petition to return custody to Ignatius Nott be denied. We both believe that Theodore will be in life threatening danger in Ignatius Nott's custody. This is based both on the attack that occurred on July 1st, previous instances of abuse, and Ignatius Nott's standing as a Death Eater," Amberlyn said.
"If I may," Ignatius' solicitor said, also standing. "There is no evidence that Ignatius Nott is a Death Eater. This is nothing more than a child's puerile fantasy, placed in his head by the administrators at Hogwarts."
"Enough," said the man on the left. "We are not the appropriate court to determine if someone is a Death Eater or not. That is best left to the aurors and the Wizengamot."
"You don't believe that whether or not someone is a Death Eater should be taken into account in a custody matter?" the man on the right asked.
"Of course, but not on the basis of hearsay," the man on the left said.
"As there has not been an investigation into the matter of Ignatius Nott's status as a Death Eater, this is inconsequential for our hearing today," the woman said. "Advocate Moores, you indicated there have been previous instances of abuse?"
"Yes, ma'am, however they were undocumented. If you'll check the notes from the MLE's investigation, you'll see that Theodore has described one of the instances," Amberlyn said.
Severus glanced at Theo. Theo was sitting with his head bowed, seemingly weighed down by these proceedings. Severus could understand. At his age - at any age - he would have hated to have his family's dirty laundry dragged out for everyone to see.
"Theodore reports that Ignatius Nott removed his tongue over speaking about his deceased mother. How old was he during this incident?" the man on the right asked, looking at the parchment spread out in front of him.
Amberlyn leaned down to whisper to Theo and then stood up. "Theodore was eight at the time."
"And I'd like to say that this alleged incident never took place. This is absurd. Ignatius would not harm his only heir," Ignatius' solicitor said.
"I'd like to address Ignatius Nott directly," said the man on the right.
After a moment of whispering, Ignatius' solicitor stood. "Yes, he will answer."
"Why did you cast Ondine's curse on your child?" he asked.
There was a deafening silence in the room as everyone turned to look at Ignatius.
"It was a mistake. I was angry and I made a mistake. I pointed my wand to cast the countercurse and Theodore disappeared. It will never happen again," Ignatius said, his tone full of grief and contrition.
"That's not true," Theo said. "It wasn't a mistake. He knocked me to the floor. Kicked me in the chest. And then, more than a minute later when I was trying to stand up, he cast the curse. There was no mistake."
"If it had been another curse, almost any other curse, I'd be inclined to grant Ignatius Nott a reprieve. Ondine's curse requires the intent of harm to be cast correctly," the man on the right said after a moment.
"What of the current guardian, are they willing to raise Theodore until he reaches the age of majority?" the woman asked.
Amberlyn spoke again. "Yes, ma'am. I have a statement from Celeste Zabini indicating she would be happy to raise Theodore." She stepped forward and passed each of the Family Services members a piece of parchment. "I also believe that Theodore's Head of House, Professor Severus Snape, has come to speak on his behalf."
"I would hear what he has to say," said the man on the left.
"Yes, any light you're willing to shed on this situation would be appreciated," the woman said.
Severus got to his feet and moved so that he was standing between the tables. "As Miss Moores has stated, my name is Professor Severus Snape and I serve as Theodore Nott's Head of House and Potions instructor at Hogwarts. I have gotten to know Theodore over the past four years and have found him to be an excellent student and an honest young man. I also have the acquaintance of Ignatius Nott, going back nearly seventeen years. I fully believe that Ignatius Nott is capable of harming his child and that Theodore will be in imminent danger if he is returned to Ignatius," he paused, trying to figure if he should say more. He had decided to leave the fact that Ignatius was a Death Eater out as he believed it would undermine his own position to admit to being a former Death Eater.
"Has Theodore ever come to you in your capacity as Head of House to tell you that he was being abused or threatened by his father?" the woman asked.
"Not directly, but my daughter, who is good friends with Theodore, has come to me numerous times indicating that she was concerned over Theodore's safety over the summer months. Theodore was not allowed to keep correspondence with his friends out of fear of what his father might do in response," Severus explained.
"Preposterous!" Ignatius stood. "Theodore kept up numerous correspondences with his friends over the summer months. I saw the owls myself."
Amberlyn bent down to whisper with Theo and then stood again. "Theodore has clarified that he was not able to keep correspondences with his friends who his father knew to be half-bloods, such as Professor Snape's daughter, or muggleborns. He believed his father would harm him if those friendships were revealed."
"My son does not have friendships with half-bloods or muggleborns," Ignatius said, shaking his head and ignoring his solicitor's attempts to get him to sit back down.
"And I can assert that is incorrect, Theo has had a four year friendship with my daughter, who is a half-blood," Severus said.
"That's enough. If you are not currently addressing us, be seated. Professor Snape, am I correct in understanding that your own daughter indicated one of her friends, one of your students, was being abused, and you did not investigate further or report the matter to Family Services?" the woman asked.
"I asked Theodore if he would be safe over the summer and let him know that he could tell me anything he wished to," Severus said.
"And what was Theodore's response?" the man on the right asked.
"If I recall correctly, he thanked me and assured me he was well. I let the matter drop for the time being, not wishing to pressure him. I did not believe there were any indicators of abuse that would have been revealed by an exam or I would have taken him to our matron," Severus said.
"Do you have anything else you wish to add?" the woman asked.
"Only that as an educator who has observed Theodore for these past four years, I truly believe that it is in his best interests not to be returned to his father." Severus waited for a moment before he returned to his seat. He only wished there had been more he could do.
"I would like to speak on Ignatius' behalf before you convene to make a decision," Ignatius' solicitor said, standing up.
"You may," the woman said.
"Ignatius Nott is not the perfect father. I would say no such thing exists. He made a mistake. A serious mistake, yes, but a mistake nonetheless. He is a man who wants to correct and resume his relationship with his only heir, the only thing he has left of his deceased wife. We petition you, please return Theodore to the place where he belongs."
"Thank you. Does the advocate for the minor have anything to add?" the woman asked.
"I do," Amberlyn said as she stood. "Theodore has but one desire right now, the desire to be safe. He fears for his safety at the hands of his father and for good reason. Ignatius Nott purposefully cast a dark curse on his son, a curse that would have killed Theodore if it hadn't been treated in time. A curse that would have done permanent damage to his organs if he hadn't received immediate help. As Theodore's advocate, I ask you, don't place Theodore in the position where he has to break the law by apparating while underage in order to receive help. Don't return him to someone who is shown to be willing to grievously harm him."
"If that's all, we will deliberate. Please remain seated," the woman said. A moment later a privacy ward was in place and the three members of Family Services began to silently speak.
Theo turned around his chair to look at Severus and Severus nodded to him.
Right now they didn't have a plan beyond getting Theo to Hogwarts in a week and dealing with the fallout then. He didn't have to guess that Theo would make a run for it if he was returned to his father. Under other circumstances, they would have Albus throw around his political weight, but at the moment that would only make things worse.
"We have made our decision," the woman said.
Severus couldn't tell if the fact that they had come to a decision so quickly was a good sign or not.
"Ignatius Nott's petition for custody of Theodore Nott has been denied. Theodore Nott will remain in the custody of Celeste Zabini and Boris Worlfrickson until he reaches his age of majority. This hearing is adjourned," the woman said.
Severus stood and he could see that same relief he felt reflected on Theo's face.
Ignatius followed his solicitor toward the door but stopped in front of the table where Theo was sitting. "This is far from over. You will regret this."
"Mr. Nott, please refrain from speaking to Theodore before you are removed from the Ministry," Amberlyn said calmly as she stood.
Severus rested his hand on his wand and waited, but Ignatius walked away.
"Thank you," Theo said to Amberlyn, then he turned to Severus. "Thank you, sir. Thank you for coming and speaking for me."
"Of course, I was glad to," Severus said with a nod. "Is Celeste here in the Ministry with you?"
"No, she couldn't come, but Amberlyn said she would take me back to the Zabinis," Theo said. He moved away to thank the people from Family Services.
"Thank you for speaking for Theo," Severus told Amberlyn quietly.
"I'm just doing my job. This is what I want to be doing, though it turns out I didn't need my NEWT in Potions for it after all," Amberlyn said with a small smile.
"You would have done well to continue on a career path in Potions, but I'm pleased that you've found work that you wish to do," Severus said. "You'll take Theo directly back to the Zabinis?"
"I will. I'm not unaware of the danger he is in," she said, her expression now serious.
"You may have made some enemies yourself today." He felt the need to warn her.
"My home is well-warded. I'm not afraid of the Death Eaters," she said, though she turned to check on Theo.
She should be. Everyone should be afraid of the Death Eaters. She was simply too young to remember the Dark Lord's last reign of terror. "Regardless, I suggest you exercise caution."
"I always do," Amberlyn said as Theo returned to them.
"Mr. Nott, I expect I will see you on September first," Severus said.
"I'll be there. I'm looking forward to it," Theo said, smiling at him.
"Then I'll take my leave. Good day to you both," Severus said, glad to see that Theo was in better spirits.
"Thank you, sir," Theo called after him.
Severus made his way out of the Ministry and then apparated to Grimmauld Place and let himself in. Now that Theo's mind was at ease, it was time to ease Rachel's worries as well. He found Rachel, Black, and Lupin sitting at the kitchen table with Chinese take-away boxes spread around.
"Severus," Lupin said. "Come have something to eat."
Rachel jumped to her feet and rushed over to him. "What happened? Did they send him back? Is Theo alright?"
"Theo is fine. Family Services has given the Zabinis custody of Theo until he turns seventeen," Severus said.
"Oh thank god," Rachel said, rubbing her throat with one hand - a sure sign she'd been experiencing anxiety. "I was so worried. We were making plans to try and hide Theo in Knockturn Alley until he could get to Hogwarts."
"I'm glad that was unnecessary," Severus said. "Eat your lunch and then we'll go, we have other things to do today."
"Come eat, Snape. The rest of us will get fat if you let us eat all this dim sum," Black said.
Reluctantly, Severus took a place at the table next to Rachel and looked over the foriegn food. He could barely name most of it.
"Rice and chicken isn't bad," Rachel said, pushing a carton in Severus' direction. "We finished the third floor bedrooms. The last place to clean is the attic, and I don't know if we're going up there."
"You're not," Black said. "Though if Snape wants to take a crack at it, he's welcome to do so."
"Sirius," Lupin said, shaking his head. "We'll tackle the attic in bits and pieces over the next few months. For now, we have renovation to contend with."
Severus ignored them and began to eat. The sooner he got Rachel out of this mad house, the better.
