A/N: A direct continuation of the last chapter with Harry finding himself in the middle of yet more controversy.
Chapter 31 Consultation and Escalation
Albus later told Harry that Salazar Slytherin also was a Parselmouth, and that he made no secret of his ability. As a matter of fact, Slytherin considered it a point of pride, and openly flaunted the fact that he could converse with snakes. In his day, just like the current, it was still a very rare ability to have. When Harry left the office later that night, his mind was in a state of flux. He knew he had to apologize and straighten things out with Justin, but Lily advised him to sleep on it first and let the castle settle down a bit before seeking him out. When Severus backed Lily's advice, Harry decided it was worth listening to and decided to give Justin a few days to calm down some before searching for him to explain what happened. Lily and Severus accompanied Harry back to Gryffindor Tower, and then headed for Ravenclaw as Harry re-entered the common room where he was received warmly by his friends. They beckoned him over to one of the fireplaces and Harry joined them. Harry and Ron sat down on the couch while Hermione claimed one of the chairs facing them.
"Harry, we were so worried about you," Hermione said quietly, before hugging him about the shoulders. Like with Lily, Harry stiffened up and drew away.
"I'm okay, Hermione. Honestly, I am," he replied. "Erm—Dumbledore helped explain somethings…and it's helped."
"I hope so, mate," Ron said, wearing an uncharacteristically worried look. "Word has spread throughout the castle fast, and to be honest, most people are feelin' a little scared of you."
"Really?"
"Mhmm," Hermione nodded. "Not that we are, of course," she quickly assured. "We've got your back, Harry…it's just important for you to know that people are, well, scared of you a bit. I mean, Salazar Slytherin was a Parselmouth, so—"
"—I know that, Hermione," Harry sighed. "Albus already told me about it…I don't need to be reminded of that all the time."
Hermione nodded contritely. "Sorry, Harry," she said apologetically. "In other news, we bumped into Wood on our way here, and erm—well, Ron can tell you more about that."
Harry's expectant gaze shifted from Hermione to Ron, who was frowning. "Wood told me about the deal you made with him," he said quietly, still wearing a frown. "I don't…frankly, Harry, I've got bigger things to worry about, so I told him I'm gonna pass on it."
Harry's eyes widened, but before he could lend voice to his shock and confusion, he recalled Ron's wand snapping just a few hours ago at dueling club. "Your wand…did you manage to—"
Ron shook his head. He reached into his pocket and fished out his broken wand. "Have a look," he said sadly, holding out the singed, broken tip on his palm.
Harry eyed the scorched piece of wood intently, then shook his head. "So, what're you gonna do?"
"I'm gonna try to spell-o-tape it back together," Ron said quickly, eyeing the smoldering piece of wood with trepidation.
Harry thought his friend should buy a new wand instead, but then remembered the cost of his holly and phoenix feather wand, seven galleons. He doubted the Weasleys had seven spare galleons to spend at the drop of a hat, so he perished the thought.
"I think it could work," he said instead, but after looking at the state of Ron's wand up close, he had a hard time believing himself.
"Hopefully Professor McGonagall might have some," Ron declared. He bade his friends farewell and left the common room for McGonagall's office in hopes of finding her.
Once Ron was gone, Hermione sighed and shook her head. "Honestly, I don't think all the spell-o-tape in the world can fix Ron's wand," she said sadly, still shaking her head.
"Might as well try though, right? I doubt the Weasleys have seven galleons just lyinh around," Harry replied, to which Hermione nodded.
She shifted in her seat slightly so that she was facing him directly. "How did your talk with Professor Dumbledore go?"
"All right, I guess." Harry shrugged. "More or less told me a bit about Parselmouths, and how it's a rare 'gift,' so he called it. In any case, I don't even know how it happened, or how I did it!"
A few wary glances were darted in their direction at Harry's loud proclamation.
"You…don't even remember speaking to the snake? Or what you were saying?" Hermione asked curiously.
Harry shook his head. "I'd only ever done it once or twice before, and I never remembered what I was…saying, only that the snake understood me, and I understood it, that's all."
Hermione bit her lip and frowned, leaning back into her chair slightly. "Harry you were hissing and spitting, and—you weren't speaking any human language at all. It was all, well, snake-speak. You're telling me you remember none of that? None of the hissing and spitting?"
"I only heard the snake's voice and my own inside my head, my own voice sounding just like it always does," Harry muttered. "I didn't even know I was speaking another language, or anything other than English, really…it just felt like I was having a normal conversation with a snake."
"Did the snake say anything back?" Hermione asked eagerly.
"Just one word. 'Ok'," Harry answered. "I'd asked the snake to leave Justin alone, and it turned to me and said ok, then laid down."
"Wow, that's weird," Hermione whispered. "Well, at least the snake listened to you, right? You were hissing pretty loudly at it from what I could hear."
Harry shrugged glumly and leaned back into his seat, his eyes staring blankly at the crackling fireplace. "Doesn't really matter, does it? Point is, I'm not gonna be talking to snakes again anytime soon. The less attention that's drawn to it the better."
Hermione tried to give Harry an encouraging smile, but it came out forced and lopsided.
"I think that'd be for the best, Harry."
Harry hit the hay rather early that evening, vowing to himself that he'd go see Justin tomorrow to straighten everything out. The following morning, Harry rose bright and early, only to see Ron pulling back his blinds on his bed. Harry blearily wiped his eyes and put his glasses on, squinting as he saw Ron fiddling with his taped-up wand, trying to get it working.
"How's the wand?" he asked.
Ron frowned and shook his head. "It works, but not very well," he muttered angrily. "Whatever. I'll make do with it."
Harry tried to give his friend an encouraging smile but he was sure that it came across as strained.
He peered out the window only to see blankets of snow falling from the sky and at least a foot and a half on the ground already. "We might not have herbology today, then," Harry muttered under his breath to himself.
He left Gryffindor Tower a short while later, and as he descended the Grand Staircase to the Great Hall for breakfast, he spotted a couple of familiar silhouettes in the distance.
"Severus! Lily!" he called out to them.
Lily spun around in the blink of an eye, her ponytail whacking Severus across the bridge of his nose as she spun, irritating him. Lily's green eyes widened and an unburdened smile sprouted as recognition dawned on her. "Harry!" she said brightly.
Harry hastily descended the three flights of stairs between himself and Severus and Lily.
"Heya Harry," Severus greeted politely. "Where are Ron and Hermione?"
"Hermione might still be sleeping, and Ron's fiddling about with his wand trying to get it working," Harry answered.
"Oh, right!" Lily exclaimed. "How is he? Last I saw him, his wand looked broken to me."
"It sort of is," Harry said grimly. "C'mon, walk with me."
Severus fell in step with Harry to his left, and Lily, to his right. Lily fiddled with her scrunchie holding her hair in its tail. "Is he gonna buy a new wand? I know he's using his older brother's wand at the moment, but—"
"—Ron attempted to fix it with spell-o-tape," Harry said.
They moved past a group of Gryffindor third years, also on their way to the Great Hall for breakfast by the looks of things. "But to be honest…I'm not sure how much it'll help," he confessed.
"If the Weasleys had any money, then they'd be best off getting him a new wand," Severus said, waving his arms about a bit.
From behind them, a strangled noise halfway between a cry and a scoff sounded out, causing the three friends to stop and whirl about. Behind them, about a staircase away, was an angry and indignant-looking Ginny Weasley. Her blazing, hazel eyes were locked on to Severus' startled form, as she stomped down the staircase towards him. It made for quite the hilarious comparison, Lily and Harry realized, to see little, first-year Ginny Weasley stomp right up to Severus and get in his face. They backed away to the side of the stairs to give the fiery tornado that was Ginny Weasley some room.
"Don't ever disrespect my family again!" Ginny snarled venomously, her index finger jabbed firmly into Severus' chest.
Severus' onyx eyes were wide with fear. He swallowed the frog in his throat and nodded quickly, and to his relief, Ginny stepped back from him, brushed some invisible lint off her robes and stormed away.
"What was that?" Severus whispered, gawking at Ginny's retreating form as she swept past them towards the base of the stairs.
"I dunno mate," Harry chuckled, shrugging his shoulders. "But I do know I don't want to end up on Ginny Weasley's bad side ever. Talk about a firecracker."
Severus snorted in agreement and Lily rolled her eyes but was unable to resist a small smile.
"Lets go get breakfast, boys, I'm utterly starved," she said decisively. Without waiting, or even glancing over her shoulder to check if they were following, Lily started off down the staircase with Severus and Harry following close behind.
"What's the plan for today, boys?" Lily asked, as Severus and Harry fell into step on either side of her.
Harry and Severus shared a quick glance, Severus shrugged but Harry turned towards Lily wearing a look of resolve. "I'm gonna find Justin and try to straighten things out with him," he said firmly.
"Hopefully he'll be at breakfast now," Severus noted, earning nods of agreement from Harry and Lily.
Severus pushed open the doors to the Great Hall, but to the trio's collective dismay, Justin Finch-Fletchley was nowhere in sight. "Perhaps he's sleeping in? Herbology is cancelled, after all," Lily mused, though all it got her were a pair of dubious looks from Harry and Severus.
"For some reason, I wouldn't be so sure that that's the reason," Severus said, his tightly-pinched brows making him look an awful lot like Petunia, Lily thought.
They all wandered over to the Ravenclaw table and were given a large berth by the few Ravenclaws present, a lot of whom darted Harry wary looks that Harry wasn't oblivious to. He didn't pay it any mind, and thankfully, neither did Severus and Lily. They plopped down in their seats, only to be joined moments later by Hermione and, to their surprise, Anthony.
"You were still in the bathroom when I left," Severus noted as Anthony slid onto the bench opposite him.
"I was. So I double-timed it to make it here on time," Anthony explained. He ladled some eggs and bacon onto his plate while swiveling in his seat to face Harry.
"Heya Harry, how's it going? Don't mind me now, I'm a halfblood," Anthony joked.
Harry shot Anthony a deep scowl and gave him an 'up yours' gesture, which only made Anthony roar with laughter, resulting in a series of ticked-off looks being shot their way.
"I'm kidding mate, only joking," Anthony wheezed, though that did little to alleviate Harry's foul mood.
"Yeah, sure," Harry muttered. All of a sudden, Harry didn't feel all that hungry anymore. He pushed his plate towards the middle of the table, then abruptly stood up from the bench. "I think I'm gonna try find Justin to straighten things out."
"Wait Harry we can come with—"
"—I need to do this on my own," Harry cut across, silencing Lily's protest. "I don't want to…intimidate him, or anything."
Lily nodded understandingly and sat back down next to Severus. "All right, Harry. Just don't do anything stupid, y'hear?"
Severus snorted amusedly and Harry rolled his eyes in exasperation. "I'll see you all in a bit." With that, he turned around and left the Hall, presumably, for the Hufflepuff commons.
As Harry sped off towards the kitchens, where the entrance to the Hufflepuff Common Room was located, he had no way of knowing that a gaggle of second-year Hufflepuffs had just left their common room and were headed his way. As he rounded a corner, he found himself almost face-to-face with two of them, Ernie MacMillan and Hannah Abbott. They both yelped with surprise and all but jumped back from him.
"Just the people I was looking for," Harry smiled.
"W-what do you want, Potter?" Ernie's voice quavered like a leaf in the wind.
"I just want to talk to Justin, that's all. Just to…to straighten things out and assure him I meant no harm."
"He doesn't want to see you," Ernie squeaked, his eyes bulging wide with what Harry presumed to be fear.
"I didn't mean to scare him," Harry said placatingly. "I was trying to call the snake away from him, to get the snake to calm down so it wouldn't bite him."
"We saw what happened, Potter. We're not blind. We heard you speak Parseltongue, and the snake went for Justin!"
Harry sighed and wiped his face with his hands. "At least tell me where he is then, so I can talk to him."
"Justin doesn't want to see you," this time it was Hannah who spoke. "He hasn't left the common room."
Harry stuffed his hands into his pockets, causing the two Hufflepuffs across from him to tense up slightly. "Well, if you see him…can you at least tell him I didn't mean anything by it? I was trying to call the snake off him…that's what I was speaking in Parseltongue. I guess that's it." With his piece said, Harry gave Ernie and Hannah one more glance before turning about and heading back the way he came, leaving the Hufflepuffs gawking in his wake. With the snow dying down a bit, Harry decided to head outside to pay his friend Hagrid a visit. As he headed for Hagrid's hut, he spotted the man's silhouette in the distance, and from the looks of things, he appeared to be holding something in each of his hands.
"Hagrid!" Harry called out, his voice barely meeting the half-giant's ears over the snow.
Hagrid lumbered around, wearing a grim look. "Mornin' Harry," he muttered.
"What's that you've got there?"
Hagrid's grimace deepened, his thick brows furrowing as he held the object in his hand up to the light.
"Rooster," he muttered. "Killed just last night, and the second one this term, at that."
Harry squinted and wiped the foggy lenses of his glasses. "Any idea how it died?"
Hagrid shrugged. "Probably a fox, maybe a blood-suckin' Bug-bear. In any case, I think I'll have te ask Professor Dumbledore to put an enchantmen' 'round the chicken coop."
Harry nodded. "I can ask him if you'd like?"
For the first time that day, Hagrid's smile returned. "Thanks Harry, that'd be a great help."
Harry shrugged his shoulders slightly as if to say 'it's no trouble at all.' "What're you gonna do in the meantime to protect the rest of the chickens?"
Hagrid sighed loudly. "To be honest, I don' really know," he said. "I'm jus' hoping that Professor Dumbledore'll be able t' help."
"In that case, maybe I'd better head back to the castle and ask him then. I have Transfiguration soon, anyways," Harry replied.
They exchanged farewells as Harry headed back to the castle and Hagrid lumbered off to the forest to dispose of the dead roosters. As he walked back to the castle, Harry's thoughts were cast adrift, mainly wandering towards Justin and how he could resolve that unfortunate situation. He thought about asking one of his friends if they'd be willing to approach Justin, but he didn't want to put them in a difficult situation and have them clean up a mess that was between just he and Justin. Shaking his head, Harry renewed his resolve to find Justin himself and straighten things out between them, Ernie MacMillan and any other potential detractors be damned. As he made to re-enter the castle, Harry took a deep breath and made a silent prayer that he'd find Justin soon. He'd have had no way of knowing at the time, but his prayers were answered all-too-swiftly, and in a way he hardly could've foreseen.
Following the shouts of panicked students, and Peeves, Harry came across just about the last thing he'd have hoped to find. Justin Finch-Fletchley frozen as stiff as a board, all his limbs locked, and his eyes blank and listless as he stared up at the ceiling. Just before him lay the supine, floating form of Nearly Headless Nick, his usually-translucent body now black, dark smoke billowing out of his orfices. While Justin was very much frozen stiff on his back, beside him laid another body. Alive. And moving—trembling, more like. It was Draco Malfoy. Suddenly, a high, shrill voice shouted out from deep within the gathering crowd.
"It was him! Potter! He got Justin!"
Harry recognized the voice to be Ernie MacMillan's, and if he had a line of sight in that moment, he definitely would've cursed him. The crowd leaped back from Harry as if he were diseased, distrustful, wary gazes boring into him from every direction. Harry spun around on the spot, searching, desperate for a friendly face in the crowd, which by now had morphed into a circle around him. Yet there wasn't a friendly face to be found. Before Harry could say anything, Peeves' mad cackle was heard, and Harry's gaze swiveled up to the ceiling of the corridor where Peeves was poking his head through the stone.
"Oh, Potty, Potty, Potter, what've you done now? Killing students? You've gone off your rocker!"
"Silence Peeves!" Boomed a loud, authoritative voice.
Peeves, if it were at all possible, paled. For that voice belonged to one of the few living beings in the castle that he feared. As quick as he'd appeared, he was gone, vanishing up into the ceiling without a trace. Harry swiveled about and found Professor McGonagall, with Lily and Severus hot on her heels, carving a path through the crowd.
"This way Potter," she said sternly, grabbing Harry by the shoulder and all but shoving him through the parting crowd.
Seemingly eager to see Harry get his just desserts, the crowd parted willingly for Harry and the ticked-off Transfiguration Professor marching him forwards. All the while, Harry could hear Severus and Lily badgering the Professor repeatedly, but he couldn't hear what they were saying. It was all a wash. Just white noise. As they rounded the corner and escaped the crowd, McGonagall's pace slowed slightly and her grip on Harry's shoulder relaxed just a smidgen. Harry finally found his voice.
"Pr—Professor, it wasn't me," Harry protested weakly.
"It's out of my hands, Potter, you'll be seeing the Headmaster," McGonagall said coldly, her grey eyes flinty behind her spectacles.
"But I swear I didn't do it!"
"He's right!" Severus all but shouted.
"He was visiting Hagrid, Professor," Lily said, speaking more sedately than the two boys.
"And you know this to be a fact?" McGonagall retorted, leveling Lily with a stern look.
"Ask him for yourself, if you want to! Go on, ask him!" Severus exclaimed, glaring up at McGonagall as though challenging her to disagree.
"Ten points from Ravenclaw for your tone and attitude, Mister Prince. Try me again, and we'll double that," McGonagall said coldly. Severus wisely bit his tongue and averted his glaring gaze to the floor.
"As for what you said, the Headmaster will ask Hagrid to corroborate your story. In the meantime, Mister Potter, you will under the Headmaster's supervision."
Harry hung his head but did well to suppress a sigh. The last thing he wanted was to burden his guardian with additional troubles, yet, that was all he seemed to be doing this year. Lily and Severus were desperate to go with him, but McGonagall warded them off, saying that the Headmaster wished to speak to Harry alone.
"We'll catch up with you later, Harry," said Lily.
Severus nodded in agreement, and the two retreated down the corridor in the direction from which they'd come. With his friends gone, Harry and McGonagall marched on towards Dumbledore's office. For the second time in less than a week, Harry soon found himself staring at the imperious-looking door to the Headmaster's office. Even though it was McGonagall escorting him this time instead of Snape, he felt no more comfort from that fact, for now, he'd be meeting with the Headmaster regarding a very real attack on a student, two students, and not discussing something as trivial as latent parselmouth abilities.
McGonagall rapped her knuckles thrice on the door, following which, a rather subdued voice called out for them to 'come in.' McGonagall didn't waste a moment, opening the door and then nodding for Harry to enter.
"Inside, Potter," she said brusquely.
Harry nodded numbly and entered the office. As expected, Albus was sat at his desk with his elbows steepled on the table before him. To his not-so-great surprise, a pot of tea sat on his desk, seemingly freshly brewed if the steam billowing out of the pot were any indication. Albus waved him over, and just like he'd done a few days ago, Harry numbly walked over and sat down in one of the chairs.
"Tea?" Albus offered kindly, waving a wrinkled hand at the teapot.
"Yes please," said Harry, nodding mechanically.
Albus smiled and poured Harry a cup of what looked, and smelled like chamomile tea. Harry accepted the cup with both hands and took a long sip, the warm tea quenching his parched throat and working wonders with his fraying nerves. Harry shivered slightly as swallowed the tea, then, shakily, set the cup down on the saucer.
"Harry," Albus began, his tone gentle and open. "Can you explain to me what happened as you saw it?"
Harry nodded numbly. "I was…well, I had breakfast this morning with Severus 'n Lily, over at the Ravenclaw table with their friends—then I left and tried to go find Justin. I wanted to apologize and straighten things out—explain that I didn't want the snake to hurt him and was only trying to call it away."
"And what happened after that, Harry?" Albus asked, peering at his ward intently through his half-moon spectacles.
Harry fidgeted slightly and refolded his hands in his lap. "Erm—I bumped into MacMillan and Abbott instead, I asked them where Justin was…and they said that he was still in his dorm, didn't want to come out, I guess. So, I left the castle and headed out onto the grounds towards Hagrid's."
"Potter said as much to me," McGonagall chimed in, her speech crisp and concise.
"I see," said Albus, drumming his fingers on his chin. "And you stayed for a while?"
"A little bit, but he was kinda busy, said that a number of his roosters had been killed, 'n that he suspected it was foxes or…or—I've forgotten the other creature. Oh, and I meant to ask you if you'd be able to put up protective enchantments around the uhh—kitchen…I mean chicken coop."
"I can most certainly help with that," Albus said with a smile, before sobering, a serious look settling on his features.
"If it's not too much trouble, Harry. I'll need to extract your memories of this morning for the time being to verify their authenticity—"
Harry bristled at that. "—D'you think I'm lying?" he said angrily, his fists clenching.
"Of course not, no, I think you're telling the truth, my boy," Albus said calmly. "That being said, I would like to view the events of your morning myself to see if there are any clues I can pick up on with regard to Mister Finch-Fletchley and Mister Malfoy's predicament."
As quick as it'd come on, Harry's anger faded to be replaced with chagrin. "Oh. Right, well—how do I—"
"—I shall take care of the memory extraction, Harry," said Albus. "All I need you to do, is think back to three moments of this morning. Firstly, your chat with Mister MacMillan and Miss Abbott, when you met with Hagrid, and lastly, when you stumbled across Mister Malfoy and Mister Finch-Fletchley."
Harry screwed his eyes shut for a long moment, trying to recall his thoughts and memories of all three moments and bring them to the forefront of his mind. When he felt he was ready, he opened his eyes again. "Okay," he said.
Albus nodded, then stood from his chair and came around the table to Harry's side. "Be still, my boy," he said calmly, before placing the end of his wand on Harry's temple.
Harry shut his eyes and nodded.
"Now, please recall your memories of Mister Mac—"
"—Done," said Harry.
Albus then muttered some indiscernible phrase under his breath and all of a sudden, Harry's head felt slightly woozy. The sensation only lasted for a second or two, vanishing when Albus withdrew his wand from Harry's temple, a wispy, ethereal strand of silver attached to its tip. With a wave of his hand, Albus summoned a large stone basin from one of his shelves, the object soaring through the air with the greatest of ease before landing just to Albus' left. Harry watched closely as Albus brought his wand over and placed the tip of it in the liquid substance filling the basin. The memory extraction process continued for the next two memories—though Harry had some difficulties recalling the third memory of him stumbling across Justin and Malfoy. That had to be repeated twice before Harry and Albus got it right on their third attempt and extracted the memory. Albus theorized that the memory's somewhat traumatic nature must've made it more difficult for Harry's brain to recall.
"I'll view your memories now, Harry," said Albus. "In the meantime, feel free to work on your outstanding assignments if you wish."
Harry's eyes goggled at the Headmaster's words, during such a stressing time, Albus suggested that he work on his schoolwork? He shrugged and then reached into his backpack for his writing supplies and books. Meanwhile, Albus stepped sat down in a chair next to the stone basin and placed his palm into the liquid, then shut his eyes. For the next few minutes Albus remained in a weird sort of trance. Harry had a hard time concentrating on his work thanks to the occasional, jerky movements the headmaster made, though his eyes never opened even once. During the time Albus was viewing his memories, Fawkes burnt to a crisp—today was his burning day, Harry idly noted. He wandered over to Fawkes' perch just in time to see the newborn Fawkes hatch from his egg, squawking about and eyeing Harry cheerily as if nothing had happened. Fawkes trilled and nuzzled his beak into Harry's hand, he couldn't help but smile at the little phoenix's reaction to him. As Harry reached out to stroke the reborn Fawkes' head, Albus suddenly withdrew his hand from the pensieve, his eyes snapping open as he came out of his trance. Albus fumbled for his glasses and placed them back on his nose, as he shook his hand dry.
"Is everything all right, sir?" Harry asked concernedly, he stopped stroking Fawkes and then sat back down in his chair.
"Yes, everything's just fine, Harry. Thank you for your memories," he said kindly. "If you'll remain still, I shall return them to you now."
Harry nodded, taking a sip of his tea and then leaning back into his chair as he awaited his memories' return. This time, when he was struck by that woozy sensation, he was ready for it, remaining up right as one by one, all three memories were placed back into his head by Albus. When the last memory was returned, Harry opened his eyes and his gaze drifted over to the stone basin.
"Sir, what is that?"
"I'd thought you might ask that," Albus said amusedly. "This, Harry, is known as a pensieve. And as I'm sure you know by now, it allows one to view their own, or another person's memories."
Harry nodded, he'd gathered that already.
"It's a very useful item, I must confess, for certain things one witnesses are not always encoded and stored within a person's mind. With a pensieve, I have a complete picture of their surroundings and it allows me to see and perceive things that the person whose memory it is might have missed," he explained.
"Is that why you wanted to view my memories, then?"
"Precisely," Albus replied, as he levitated the pensieve over to cabinet from which he'd retrieved it.
He then wandered past Harry and sat back down in his usual, high-backed chair.
"Now though, I'm afraid I must contact Mister Finch-Fletchley's parents as well as Mister Malfoy's…" Albus voice' trailed off into silence as his gaze hardened, fixing on his solid oak door.
"Professor Snape should be joining us any moment now—"
As if on cue, the door to the office swung open with a bang and in strode wearing a displeased expression.
"Professor Snape, I trust you have news on young Mister Malfoy?" Albus asked, leaning back into his chair.
"He is catatonic," Snape said flatly. "And based on mine and Poppy's observations, in a worse condition than Miss Bergman was following her…episode."
"I see," said Albus, frowning. "Are his vitals stable?"
"Poppy assures me that they are. Physically…Mister Malfoy is as healthy as a horse," said Snape, drawing himself up to stand a little taller. "Though his brain-wave activity is abnormally low."
"Harry, please excuse us for a moment. Return to Gryffindor tower and do not dawdle," Albus said firmly.
Hearing his dismissal, Harry quickly finished the rest of his tea and then shouldered his backpack. He left the Headmaster's office without a word as Albus and Snape continued their conversation.
Once Harry was gone, Albus turned his full attention upon on Snape, who elected to stand in place of claiming one of his chairs.
"Carry on please, Severus."
Snape's frown deepened as his gaze burrowed into some point on Albus' desk. "Mister Finch-Fletchley, like with Mister Creevey, has been petrified," he stated. "Beyond that, I haven't been made aware of the specifics of his condition. Malfoy on the other hand…Poppy believes it best to monitor his condition for the time being and to see if he will rouse himself from his catatonic state on his own."
"Lily managed to do that, but then again, you're saying that Mister Malfoy's state is worse than that of Lily's," Albus said, frowning in thought.
Severus nodded curtly. "Will that be all?"
"Yes, Severus. Thank you for your time," said Albus.
Severus nodded, but as he turned to leave, he hesitated and swiveled back to face Albus. "Will you be making an address?" he asked calmly.
Albus glanced over to the grandfather clock on the wall which read half-past-three. "This evening, I will be. Oh, and Severus…"
"Yes, Headmaster?" Severus said, barely able to suppress his impatience to leave.
"I feel it prudent to say not to speak a word of what's just happened to your friends, the Malfoys," Albus said firmly, his blue eyes twinkling with hardened resolve. "I shall inform the Malfoys as well as Mister Finch-Fletchley's parents myself. In any case, I believe you have plenty on your plate to deal with as it is."
Again, Severus nodded, but this time he didn't hesitate as he turned to leave the room.
The sound of Severus' footsteps faded as he left, as Albus attempted to get all his thoughts in order. First thing's first, to head for the Hospital Wing to check over Malfoy and Finch-Fletchley's condition. Next, to pay a visit to Mister Finch-Fletchley's parents, both muggles, so he'd have to apparate instead of using the floo. And lastly, the part he dreaded most, to inform Malfoy's parents of their son's condition. If all went to plan, he should be able to accomplish all three of those tasks in the four hours he had before giving his address to the school at dinnertime, but then again, with a visit to the Malfoy's on his agenda, he doubted everything would go according to plan.
As Albus prepared to leave his office and head to the hospital wing, Harry was nearing Gryffindor Tower, he was almost there when he heard a voice call out to him from another flight of stairs a couple levels beneath him.
"Harry!"
Harry recognized it as Ron, and sure enough, when he turned he glimpsed his friend's head of red hair. Hermione was by his side, waving out to him.
"Professor McGonagall said to return to the common room," said Hermione.
"I know, that's where I'm headed. How was—"
"—Not here!" Ron hissed. "Everyone's talking about you. That stupid sod MacMillan's been shouting to high heaven how it was you that petrified Justin and made Malfoy cathetatonic."
"Catatonic," Hermione corrected.
Ron rolled his eyes at her. "Yeah, that. He's umm—I don't know if you saw it but, Malfoy's—"
"—I heard," Harry said quickly. "I just got done speaking with Albus."
"We should go," said Hermione. Harry nodded and the three friends all hastened to the Fat Lady's Portrait.
Along the way, Harry explained his version of events, right up until the point where he'd left the Headmaster's office. Hermione and Ron interjected from time to time with their thoughts. Before long, they'd made it back to the Fat Lady's portrait where they found McGonagall counting heads as each Gryffindor passed her and entered the common room.
"Ah, Potter, Weasley, Granger. Inside, all of you. That'd make you the last of the second years," McGonagall said crisply.
A flicker of hesitation showed in McGonagall's eyes. "Your younger sister is currently unaccounted for," she said cautiously. "But rest assured Mister Weasley, dozens of staff members are scouring the castle as we speak, and rounding up all wayward students. I'm certain that she'll be here soon enough."
"What? Why hasn't she been found? She can't be—"
"—Inside, Mister Weasley, and don't delay," McGonagall said firmly, but Ron didn't wilt under the deputy headmistress' intense gaze. McGonagall's expression softened, as she added; "You'll be reunited with your sister before you know it." Whether or not McGonagall truly was as sure of herself as she appeared to be was anyone's guess.
Ron opened his mouth to say something but Hermione grabbed his arm and tugged him towards the open portrait hole before he could say a word. They filed into the common room, finding it filled with Gryffindors of all ages. Percy and some of the other prefects weren't there, leading Harry to believe that they were still out in the castle assisting some of the staff members with rounding up wayward students. Harry briefly wondered what Dumbledore was up to during this time as he, Hermione and Ron made their way over to the far side of the common room where there was a bit more free space.
"Ginny's still out there!" Ron hissed, glaring at Hermione.
"We heard," Harry said placatingly to his friend. "Listen, I'm gonna get my cloak, and we can go out and look for her, all right?"
Ron nodded quickly. "Yeah, let's do that. I don't see Percy here so perhaps he's looking for her as well."
Both boys glanced at Hermione, their eyes wide and pleading. "We—that would be breaking the rules…" Hermione said weakly. "We shouldn't—"
"—What would you do if it were your sibling out there with Slytherin's heir on the loose?" Ron asked.
"I don't have a sib—"
"—I know that," Ron snapped, sounding more angry and less pleading now. "But if you did, what would you do?"
Hermione scrunched her eyes shut and breathed a heavy sigh, her shoulders sagging slightly. Harry and Ron waited with bated breath for her response. "I'd want to go looking for them," she said softly.
"Right," said Ron. "And that's what Harry and I are going to do. Now are you in? Or are you out?"
"I'm in."
"Great. I'll just go get the cloak and I'll meet you back here in three min—"
"—One second there, Harry," came a familiar sounding voice from behind Harry.
"Yeah, we couldn't help but overhear part of your conversation," said another voice.
Harry turned around, only to see Fred and George just behind him, the former clutching a piece of parchment paper.
"What's that you've got—"
"—It's our gift to you," said George, grinning widely like a banshee.
"What?"
Fred stepped forward and flipped the piece of parchment around, revealing that it was a map of the castle and its grounds. Harry's eyes widened with shock as he peered closer, for it wasn't any ordinary map, it showed the names of all the students in the castle.
"What is this?" Harry whispered, in silent awe of the impressive piece of magic.
"It's exactly what you think it is," said George, slapping Harry on the back.
"It shows the location of every soul, living or dead, in this castle," Fred elaborated. "And since Georgie-boy and I overheard what you and ickle-Ronniekins were saying just now—" Ron stiffened and shot the twins a scathing glare at that, "—we decided to loan it to you."
"But only on a temporary basis," George was quick to add.
Harry peered closer, his eyes poring over the many names visible on the map. Sure enough, the vast majority of Hogwarts' students appeared to be concentrated in the four common rooms, with a handful of staff and prefects roaming the corridors in search of wayward students.
"How does it work?" Harry asked.
"To close the map, you tap it with your wand like so—" Fred tapped the map with the tip of his wand, "—and say; 'mischief managed'."
Just like that, the map vanished before Harry's eyes, it was just a large, blank piece of parchment now.
"And to activate it, you say this," George continued. "'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good'."
Like clockwork, the map reappeared and Harry's eyes widened in astonishment.
"Before you ask us, no, we didn't make it. We nicked it from Filch's office first year, been holdin' on to it ever since," Fred explained, giving Harry a knowing look.
"And now we're loaning it to you to aid your search, my good man," George joked, slapping Harry on the back.
Harry grasped the proffered map, poring over all its details. "Thanks guys. We'll make good use of this, and you'll have it back before you know it," he promised.
The Twins nodded and headed for the stairs, but Harry lingered behind for a moment as he turned back to Ron and Hermione. "I'll go get my cloak and I'll be right back," he said.
"Do you think we have time to go get Severus and Lily? Maybe they'll know—"
"—There's no space under my cloak," said Harry. "It'll be a tight squeeze with the three of us as it is."
Hermione bit her lip and nodded, her expression turning sheepish as she'd forgotten the size of Harry's cloak. Harry then turned away and left the common room to fetch his invisibility cloak.
A/N2: Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!