Chapter Eleven: Something Happens
Later that month Maxis and dad came back.
Our Illusions class had missed four classes so Maxis started grinding information into our heads insisting that she still wanted a topnotch class at the end of the year. One day Hermione and I stayed after class to ask her about Harry's mom and dad. She turned very solemn-like when we asked and denied that she knew anything. We followed her out of the room and asked her if she was sure, and she still denied it. She walked with us to Transfiguration and then left us to go to the dungeons.
Later when we were in the room above the D.A.D.A room we kept hinting about it but she just kept saying she didn't know. She was also looking very sick. Her face was flushed and she kept grasping her arm.
"Did the dementors get to you that badly?" asked dad noticing as well.
"Hush." She answered, "the first time you came into our house you fainted because of one, but no it's not that. It's my arm. It's acting up again. Something's going to happen." She rolled up her sleeve revealing a nasty looking scar on her arm. She started to rub it.
"Yours does that too?" asked Harry.
"Occasionally."
"How'd you get that?" I asked.
"Werewolf bite. It keeps acting like a warning signal."
Us kids looked at each other.
"Werewolf!?" Hermione said surprised.
"Yes. Didn't you see on the full moon?" she said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"We saw two dogs, and a wolf." Said Ron.
"Two wolves and a dog." Corrected Remus.
"I said the ministry didn't like how I worked on full moons. I work as a werewolf, under the influence of wolfsbane potion. I chase poachers into traps. Then they stay there until I'm human again, and then I turn them in. I'm sure the ministry wouldn't release quite as many if I wasn't a werewolf, and speaking of wolfsbane potion did Snape leave any?"
"Nope." Said Remus "I checked, so if he did leave any he certainly hid it well."
"I'll brew it." Volunteered Saraan "I'll have to get into Snape's private stores though."
"Dumbledore will let you." Said dad. "Also would you mind mixing some bubo-tuber puss with some dragon salvia and put it in a jar. Shake it a bit. Then put it on a shelf where he's sure to see it and open it."
"Let me guess. It'll explode all over him, won't it?"
"Something along those lines."
"You'll never change will you?"
"No I won't. Now excuse me because I think I'll go eat dinner now." He answered.
He transformed into a dog and walked down the stairs.
"Guess you should too." Said Saraan.
We got up and walked down the stairs into the D.A.D.A room, followed by the adults (if you could call them adults). Out in the halls people were milling about. We had only walked about five feet when there was a sudden… BANG!
I jumped back looking around. Everyone pulled out their wands and I did the same. There was a hole through the ceiling and smoke poring through it. People started to cough. Then some one realized some thing.
"It's a muggle trick!" some one yelled "it's tear gas!"
Right away Saraan started using wind spells. Other people who knew them joined in, and soon the gas was gone.
"Who did that?" yelled Harry.
"I'll give you three guesses." Said Hermione sarcastically.
"Would Voldemort actualy use muggle things?" I asked.
"He wanted to surprise us." Explained Remus "if we weren't expecting it then he probably thought we'd die. But I think he forgot that we have muggle born students at this school who'd figure it out."
"What's going on here?" asked someone.
Professor Mcgonagall was coming up behind us.
"Gas." Said someone.
The professor looked alarmed. She started to mutter to herself about 'how could Voldemort attack the school with muggle things' and walked back around the corner to I assume alert all of the teachers.
Dinner was served in the common rooms that evening, but Hermione and I took ours up to the girl's dorm, so we could talk privately.
"Defenses around the school must be down." Hermione said digging into her mashed potatoes.
"I just can't believe that the infamous Voldemort has resorted to tear gas!" I started to giggle. "I shouldn't be laughing but it is funny. Shouldn't he be using the un-forgivables or something?"
Hermione shrugged "maybe he's trying a stealth attack, but no… the daily prophet reported that there have been many dark mark sightings so it's not the stealth game."
"Maybe he's trying to just weaken defenses." I said.
Little did we know how much he was planning to weaken defenses?
(A/N-wait till you see how much he lowers defenses and what happens I'm particularly proud of it. I don't think any one else has though of doing it.)
-Kendra Black (a.k.a- Aphrodite Black)
Chapter Twelve: Muggles
Small attacks like the tear gas incident continued through the New Year. The defenses of the castle were slowly lowering according to Fleur, because they were very hard to keep up with Voldemort taking them down as soon as we did. And we still couldn't catch Voldemort in he act. Also around Europe it was evident the Voldemort was trying to regain the kind of control he had when our parents were kids. Dark marks were appearing, people were disappearing, and more masked people (death eaters) were appearing in public places. One day the Daily Prophets big headline was "Do We Tell The Muggles About Voldemort Or Not?"
Apparently there were some witches and wizards that felt the muggles should not be alerted about Voldemort. I personally felt differently. I mean the muggles could be attacked at any time and they wouldn't even have a warning. But anyway this was now the big subject being debated in the wizarding world now. The Minister of Magic felt that the muggles should not be alerted, so his supporters followed this. Dumbledore on the other hand said that they should be alerted, for it was in their best interests to be ready. He was thinking about only alerting the heads of the most powerful countries in the world, so that they could just tell the smaller countries that it was just a normal war.
It was on a Monday in January I got a letter from my adoptive parents. The owl landed in my cereal. It was the first one I'd gotten from them. In it was a clipping from a newspaper and a letter.
Dear Aphrodite,
The Army magazine just came out with this article. It hasn't been announced in public yet. Only the military knows. That's how your father got it. We thought that you might be interested. It turns out the Hogwarts has just been discovered.
Love,
Your mom and dad
I took out the article and read it over.
NEW CASTLE DISCOVERED
PEOPLE INHABIT IT
Today in England a new castle just suddenly came up on radar. The US Military made this discovery when they were scanning for a sunken ship. They had never seen the castle on radar before today and that's what makes it so mysterious. The army has informed the officials in the U.K. the US has already flown over it and seen people out side of it. They are now assuming it is inhabited. The inhabitants looked like children. They are thinking it might be some sort of child labor place. England denies know about any child labor camps though, so they are not placing blame.
More news will be reported as it comes.
I almost fainted. I read the article about five times before I came back to my senses. I decided that the castles defenses must have been falling more than we knew. I read the report one more time just to make sure it was true. It of course was. My breathing became sharp and it was hard to do. I slowly poked Harry, Hermione, and Ron and waved the report in their faces. When they read it over Hermione made a small squeaking noise in her throat.
"This has never happened before." She whispered, "I couldn't happen."
"Anything's possible." Said Ron weakly.
I snatched it back and got up from my breakfast table. I slowly walked over to the head table, and handed the article to Professor Dumbledore. He took it joyfully but as he read his joyfulness wore off.
"Breakfast is adjourned." He announced as soon as he was done reading it.
"What'd you give him?" Maxis asked me (she was sitting two seats down.) "A bomb?"
"Something much worse, much worse." I sighed.
(A/N-I don't know about you guys but I'm thinking big trouble. What will the magical world do? I'm also thinking massive memory charm on the armies. Nahhhh! Not original enough. But anyway, this is a problem isn't it? But I was thinking that in the 5th book if Voldemort does go on his "I'm worse than Hitler so I'll try to take over the world" thing then wouldn't the muggles know some thing? I mean like when Sirius escaped they told the muggles, so wouldn'd they tell them something about this. Not the whole truth, but that there was an insane Hitler-like person on the loose?
Oh also would any one mind if I made Minister Fudge do something really bad and then have him resign or get kicked out of office. Or better yet he gets so stressed he just disappears. That's a good one. Sorry to all you Fudge lovers out there but he's gettin' his ass kicked outa' office some how.)
- Kendra Black (a.k.a- Aphrodite Black)
Chapter Thirteen: A Decision
Dumbledore didn't tell the rest of the kids at school about the un-nerving news, but Harry, Hermione, Ron, and I were called to go to the next Leauge meeting.
"How many kids can say they've been to a Leauge Against Voldemort meeting?" asked Ron excitedly.
"only Harry mum and dad, Sirius, Aphi's mum, Remus, Maxis, and Saraan." Said Hermione in her Know-it-all voice. "They went to the first one ever! Remember, and they were all kids at the time."
"Must you do that?" asked Ron.
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"They definitly need to know." said and old man. "for they're own good. Voldemort is getting much stronger."
The disscusion in the meeting was heated. Every one agreed that the muggles had to know, but the question was how and when to do it.
"'ven 'vould 've do it?" asked some one. I could tell he was from Bulgaria.
"'zere must be a way to do it." Said Fleur "the question is 'ow do we do it with out 'ze minister finding out?"
"We'll find a way." Dumbledore stood up. "we'll only be telling the most powerful countries to be safe. Then they can do what they want with the information. Either tell the smaller countries and ask for help, fight on they're own, or discard it completely."
I saw a big problem with that plan.
"excuse me." I said nervously.
The crowd looked my way.
"uh yeah," I started "well there's kind of a problem with that plan. Red tape."
"what?" said someone.
"well I'm from the states, and my adoptive dad is in the military, and I know that you can't just send the heads of states a letter, or just one day walk into see them. It can take days, weeks, or even months for them to even acknoladge you. You have to cut through all the tape. It takes sweet talking, bribes, and they make the terms, and then even after all that they still might not give you any attention. Now I don't know who you were planning to tell in the US but I can tell you unless you have great, and I mean great connections it's gonna take awhile." I finished and looked around. People looked stunned. "Sorry," I added "it's just it's going to take agressiveness to talk to most countries heads. Maybe not England, because you're here already, but the US, China, Russia, and Canada you might have to cut through the red tape. And I'm assuming you'll want to talk to those countries because they are powerful."
"She's right." Said a girl. She looked about 20, and she had an Russian accent, so I assumed she was from Russia. "my country's government can be very hard to get through. We'll need to push."
Dumbledore nodded. "I had not thought of this so I'm glad you brought it up. We'll figure out some way to get through this 'red tape' as you call it." He leafed through some papers "now we'll be telling the US, Canada, Russia, Mexico, China, Japan, Australia, and parts, maybe all of Europe. Do we agree?"
"what about the continent of Africa?" asked an African witch.
"they'll be taken care of." Dumbledore answered.
The witch nodded.
"if that is all you may now look through your folder to see this quarters assingments. Thank you. Sirius, Remus, and Saraan please stay afterwards. I'd like a word."
People looked through their folders. I heard excited mumblings among them, and then most people left. Hermione, and Ron left too, but Harry and I stayed waiting for dad, Remus, and Saraan. Soon enough Dumbledore was done talking to them, they came over to us.
"Aphi I'm leaving." Said Dad when he came over.
"where are you going?" I asked.
"Hagrid should have been back by now. Dumbledore thinks something might have happened to him. Remus and I are leaving to search. Saraan will be staying here. She'll be teaching D.A.D.A, and Potions. Maxis is gone too. Fleur's staying for about a month more then she's going out on a mission."
I bit my lip. "ok."
"I'm sorry guys."
"it's ok." Said Harry.
"listen though, there's something you need to know. the dementors have left Azkaban. They've gone to join Voldemort. Please be careful. Aphi if you've inhereted my first reaction to dementors then I pity you. I used to faint every time I got near one."
"joy!" I said cheerfully
"good," said Dad "Remus and I should go now. I'll try to get back soon. If something happens I'll owl you. Other than that we can't risk security measures."
He and Remus turned to go.
"wait!" I called.
"yeah." He said turning around.
"who's handling the telling of the countries?" I asked.
"Victoria and Shea." Said Remus.
"who're they?" asked Harry.
"a witch and a wizard from Australia. Why?"
"I could help them." I said smiling.
"Aphi…" Remus started.
"Hey, I've got connections. My adoptive dad's a general in the army, and my adoptive mom's a secretary for people in the Pentagon. I could help you if you let me. I can get you in to see people."
They raised their eyebrows.
"Aphi you have school, and with things the way they are we can't risk it."
"how is it dangerous?" I almost yelled it.
"no Aphi." Said dad sternly.
"fine, be like that." I said "come on Harry." I yanked him down the hallway. As we left I heard Remus telling dad that I was just a stubborn as he was. as soon as Harry and I turned the corner I steered him around to double back.
"I'm going to find Victoria and Shea." I said
"Aphi!" said Harry.
"shh! Come on. Back into the room."
we went back into the room. I scanned it and saw that there were only two people still there. I walked up to them.
"excuse me." I said putting on the polite act. "can you tell me where to find two people named Victoria and Shea."
"are you that little girl that told us about red tape during the meeting."
"uh, yeah. But I need those…"
"that would be us." Said the girl. "I'm Vic. That's Shea."
"hi, listen I can help you."
They also raised their eyebrows.
"you're Sirius's daughter right?"
"yeah."
"I heard you and him in the hall. He said no." said Shea.
"please. I no it's not dangerous, and I have connections. I can help you."
"how?"
"I know people in the US military, and in the Pentagon."
"she could help us." Said Shea to Victoria.
"her dad has quite a temper."
"he'll be gone for a while." I told them.
They smiled. "Sit." Said Shea.
"I told you Harry."
Harry smiled and left.
"Now," said Vic "who do we write to first?"
"ok, listen first I'm going to write to Roger Frost. That was who I lived with in New Jersey. I'll explain to him, and then since he's a general he'll hopefuly be able to get you two into see someone face to face, or even talking on a phone, because letters might not even be safe. They might be intercepted. And then when get into see some one you tell them to tell all of the other countries Dumbledore talked about."
"good plan. We'll have to travel then?"
"yeah, so you better get started on tickets and passports. You'll want to pose as muggles, so no one will suspect anything. You only want the top people to know."
"ok, you write to you father, and we'll write to the people in Australia to get our passports and tickets right."
"right, and don't tell my dad."
"why would we?" said Shea "he has an explosive temper."
I smiled, glad to be helping.