Chapter 11: The Eye and The Ear
"What?" said Harry, Malfoy, and Ron at the same time.
"My dad?"
"I didn't know what he was doing here, but he told me to come with him. He's my uncle, so I trusted him. I went with him, but when we got down here he said, 'Sorry, Scott,' then did some kind of spell."
"Let's get him up to the hospital wing," said Harry. "We're already in enough trouble."
Malfoy looked dazed. "Okay," he said, helping Scott to his feet. Scott was shaking and could not stand. Malfoy picked him up and carried him out of the Chamber.
The three of them took turns carrying Scott until they were at the hospital wing. Harry pounded on the door.
Madame Pomfrey, the school nurse, opened the door. "What are you all making such a racket for? This is a hospital wing!" When she saw Scott, she let them all inside.
Malfoy, who was carrying his cousin at the moment, put him in bed. He had either fallen asleep or passed out on the way upstairs.
"You three had better get back to class. Your teachers will be wondering," Madame Pomfrey instructed.
As the three boys were walking along, they realized they all had Care of Magical Creatures now. "Hagrid likes you," Malfoy said. "He'll let you in late. You have to get him to let me off."
"We will," said Ron, who would have never believed he was agreeing to help Malfoy.
By the time they got to class, they were twenty minutes late. "I know it's you guys," said Hagrid, "but I can't let off twenty minutes late!"
"We had a problem," explained Harry. "Malfoy's cousin got hurt!"
Hagrid looked at him oddly. "Now wait a minute! Since when have yeh been helpin' Malfoy?"
"Long story," said Harry.
"Well, I guess I can let yeh off, but not again."
"Thanks!" the three boys said, as they went to look at the new creatures Hagrid had today.
"What happened?" asked Lauren, as Harry and Ron came up next to them. Harry and Ron told them the story.
"That's really strange!" said Hermione.
"Yeah, I don't think Mr. Malfoy would do that to his own nephew!" said Lauren.
"Maybe he was under mind-control or something. The Dark Lord can do that, you know!" said Malfoy, coming over to defend his family.
"Oh, quit trying to defend him! We all know he would do Dark things like that!" Ron shouted.
"No fightin'!" said Hagrid loudly.
"I don't know why he did it," said Malfoy, quietly, "but I don't think he would on his own."
"We can ask Scott more later when he's better," said Lauren, "but for now, let's just concentrate on the lesson."
All that week, Scott stayed in the hospital wing. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Lauren decided that they should let him rest and get his strength back before questioning him, but Malfoy went to see him anyway. He could never figure anything out, however, because Scott had already told him everything he knew.
"Why don't you just ask your Dad in an owl?" suggested Harry, when Malfoy complained. Meanwhile, Harry had already sent Sirius a letter via Dumbledore. Other than that, they were totally stumped. No one knew why Mr. Malfoy would attack his own family member.
They hadn't heard anything about Lord Voldemort either, until the Daily Prophet came one day at breakfast. Hermione didn't even need to open the paper to see. The headline was so big, she could see it from half way across the Great Hall:
Azkaban Has Been Cleaned Out
She showed the newspaper to Harry, Ron, and Lauren, who all read the article to themselves.
The wizard prison, Azkaban, has been broken into, robbed, cleaned out, attacked, whatever you like to call it. Seems it happened weeks ago, but the Ministry chose not to tell anyone. Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic, said, "We did not think it important for everyone to panic when we have the situation under complete control." When asked who he suspected was the criminal behind it, Fudge said, "We have no idea, as they did not leave a trace or clue."
Azkaban's condition, as seen by our reporters, was even worse than usual in some cases, but better in others. The place was deserted. The dementors are all gone, and so are the prisoners. Fudge also stated that when he and Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, went to inspect Azkaban, most of the prisoners were found dead. He and Dumbledore buried the bodies. It was also noticed that the more recent prisoners and some prominent Dark wizards were missing from their cells altogether.
This event happened a while back. Why did the Ministry disclose this information from the public? Could this be the work of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named? The Minister strongly denies this, saying You-Know-Who is long gone. Could this break in and the disappearance of the Durmstrang Headmaster, Igor Karkaroff, who was proven to be a former Death Eater, be linked? Could they be possible signs of the Dark Lord coming back to power? Let's hope and pray not, and also hope the criminals in Azkaban who have escaped will be put back in their proper place soon.
"If everyone knows about this, they'll start panicking. They should never have written this article!" Lauren said.
"Fudge is gonna be mad," said Ron. "He didn't want anyone to find out about You-Know-Who coming back."
Harry had been so busy with the article, he hadn't noticed that a large school owl had dropped a letter on to his breakfast plate. "Hey, Harry, what's that?" Hermione asked, and Harry looked at it for the first time. It was written with emerald green ink, and in loopy handwriting Harry recognized as Dumbledore's. He opened the letter. It read:
Dear Harry
I have some bad news to tell you. I need to go away to Professor Lupin's again. That may not sound like bad news to you, but here it is. Voldemort has been sighted. He was not seen at Hogwarts, but in England, and I don't feel it will be safe for you if I am not here. I know this is short notice, but you need to come with me. This time, it would be better if you left your friends here. I do not want them to miss classes, and I don't know how long we'll be gone. Be ready by eight o'clock tonight, and meet me in the entrance hall.
Professor Dumbledore
Harry was shocked and stunned. Voldemort sighted? Everyone else seemed too shocked to say anything.
At 8 o'clock sharp, Harry met Dumbledore at the front door. They had walked silently out to the grounds. When they had gotten a good distance from the school, Dumbledore called the Knight Bus. By the next afternoon, Harry and Dumbledore had arrived at Lupin's. The same people where there, Sirius, Lupin, Ms. Figg, bet there was also another person Harry did not recognize.
"Hello, Harry. Mundungus Fletcher's my name."
"Uh, nice the meet you Mr. Fletcher." This was the person Dumbledore had been talking about the last time he had been there.
When the group was not eating, Harry was often bored. He had plenty of schoolwork to do, but it wasn't very entertaining. He soon came to exploring the small cabin and the grounds around it.
One day, he was walking around in Sirius and Lupin's room looking at a book of spells on the bookshelf. He sat down on the bed with the book, and heard a thump. He turned around. When he landed on the bed, he had knocked over Sirius's suitcase, which was sitting on the edge of the bed.
Harry thought it would be rude of him to leave the stuff all scattered on the floor, so he bent down to pick it up. He had almost gotten everything back in the suitcase when he noticed something small and black across the room. He crawled over to pick it up.
The small item looked like a small black ear. Wonder what it does, thought Harry. He turned it over and over in his hand trying to figure it out. Just then, Sirius came in.
"What are you doing?" he demanded, snatching the ear from Harry.
"Your stuff fell out of your suitcase and I was just putting it back." He watched as Sirius closed and locked the suitcase.
"Now it won't fall over anymore," Sirius said smiling, but Harry couldn't help thinking he looked a bit angry as he left the room.
All that night, Harry couldn't stop thinking about the device in Sirius's suitcase. He wished he could ask Ron or Hermione about it. What did the thing do? What was it for? Where did he get it? He was sure they would be able to answer his questions.
The next day when Sirius was out of his room, Harry looked in his suitcase again, but the ear was not there. Sirius must have taken it with him. Harry felt discouraged, but later, after he had gone to bed, he heard quiet voices in the hallway.
"He has a right to see it." This voice was Dumbledore's.
"But he's not ready yet!" Sirius.
"We need to tell him the truth. He deserves to know."
"Oh, alright. We'll tell him in the morning." The lights went out and the house was silent. But Harry was thinking. Were they talking about me? What do they need to tell me? Is it about Voldemort? Is it about that weird thing in the suitcase? Thinking about these questions, he fell asleep.
Harry awoke the next morning and dressed. He went to breakfast as usual. They must not have been talking about me last night, he thought. He did some Transfiguration homework, ate lunch, and then went to sit outside. It was getting chilly and approaching the winter holidays, but he didn't seem to care. He was lost in thought.
In fact, Harry was so lost, he didn't notice Dumbledore coming outside and sitting beside him. It was a few minutes before he came back to earth. "Oh, I didn't see you, sir," he said, startled.
"That was apparent." Harry could see that he was holding something in his hand, but could not see what it was. Dumbledore followed his eyes down and opened his hand. Harry gasped. It was the ear, but it was accompanied by a small black eye.
"What is that?" Harry said without thinking.
"It's a wizard monitor. We use it to see what's going on in another room. It's mostly used for parents with small children or babies."
"Why would Sirius have one of those in his suitcase?"
"Well, this is a very old monitor. It's about fourteen years old." Dumbledore looked at Harry very closely.
"Was it…mine?" Harry asked slowly.
"Yes. Your parents used it to keep an eye on you when they were not in your room."
Harry looked at the magical device carefully. This thing had memories of his childhood. He started to think about what he could learn from this, but Dumbledore cut him off.
"Harry, let me warn you. This has very powerful memories on it. Sirius did not think it was time to show it to you yet, but I think you are ready. It is your decision." He handed Harry the eye and the ear. "When you have decided what to do, I will show you how to work it, if you want."
Harry looked at it. He wanted to see what it held, and yet, he knew the memories would be painful. Part of him did not want to see it, but part of him did. He stood up, but Dumbledore called to him.
"Before you go, I have one more thing to say." Harry looked at him intently.
"Christmas holidays are coming up, and I am going back to the school. No doubt you will want to come along and see your friends?" Harry had forgotten all about the holidays. He nodded. "I also believe you have another Quidditch game coming up. You can't get out of practice you know." Dumbledore smiled, and they both walked back into the cabin.
The rest of the day Harry spent packing and thinking. Now that he knew what the device was, he wished he didn't know. He couldn't decide whether to work it or not. Dumbledore said it had bad memories on it, and Harry didn't want to see them. However, he did want to see his parents and himself as a baby. He didn't know what to do. Finally, he decided to talk to Ron, Hermione, and Lauren about it. They could give him good advice.
Harry was soon back at the castle. He and Dumbledore had arrived late at night, and he had decided not to wake Ron. The next morning, he was woken by the sounds of Ron getting ready for Quidditch practice. Harry stood up while Ron was bending over his trunk to get his robes.
"How can you have practice without me?" Harry asked, making Ron jump three feet in the air.
"When did you get here?" asked Ron.
"Late last night. I didn't want to wake you up." Harry quickly got his robes and broom and they walked down to the field together. On the way, Harry told Ron about the monitor.
"Yeah, we have a bunch of those in our attic. Mom used to have one in every room so she could see what we were doing. She wanted to keep us out of trouble. Don't think it worked. And you know what? I saw her putting one in Fred and George's room during the summer. She tries to keep an eye on them."
Harry continued to tell Ron what the eye might have on it. "What are you going to do?" asked Ron.
"I'm not sure. I was going to ask you."
"I think you should watch it. It'll be cool to see what you were like when you were little." Obviously, Ron had forgotten about the bad events in Harry's past.
"Maybe I'll ask Hermione, too," Harry said.
"Ask me what?" came a voice from behind them. It was Hermione and Lauren walking down to watch Quidditch practice.
"What are you guys doing here?" asked Ron.
"We came to watch practice. We always do," answered Lauren.
"What were you going to ask me Harry?" Hermione asked.
Harry told Lauren and Hermione the whole story. When he was finished, Lauren said, "Well, it's really up to you, Harry, but if I were in your position, I would watch it. You want to know what's in your past, don't you? You can always turn it off if it's too painful."
"I agree," said Hermione, "if it were me, I'd want to see what really happened."
"I was thinking that," said Harry. "I'll go to Dumbledore tonight and he'll tell me how to work it." The four of them walked down to the field.
