Author's Beginning Note: Rushed chapter! Rushed chapter! Well... don't blame me. I originally had this chapter separated into two chapters, but decided to put them together. This is my longest chapter yet! Woo-hoo! Lol.. Um, I started school Wed., which sucks. I'm going to try and post a new chapter Tuesday if I can get part of chapter eight written tonight and the rest tomorrow.. So, be glad. Well, I got this chapter to you guys as quick as I could, heh.. Well.. I'll just stop my ramblings! ^_~;
Thanks To:
- Shadwmage7 - Well, I can't tell you how I'm getting Draco and Harry (Raziel) together, you'll have to keep reading to find out. And, NO! This will not be a triumvirate relationship!! x_x; *shiver shiver*
- Gwendolyn Malfoy (x2) - *Stares at review* I know you! *point* You wrote Chocolate! Heh, where's the rest of Chocolate: The Life Afterward? *Raises an eyebrow* Thanks for the review! ^_^
- Tenshimagic - I always imagine that Draco is good with children. Scary thought, yes, but well.. it's sort of cute.. Lol, oh well!
- Crazyme - Thank you!
- Aurora - I'm not too fond of Draco/Ginny either.. *shiver* So I agree with your 'No, no, no....' Lol!
- Allaboutme - So-so? Well geez! *laughs* Chapters are short, I know, but I'm making them longer...
Sorry to anyone I missed, but.. I don't think I missed anyone. Now, on with the story, eh?
The Black Snow Owl
Chapter Six: Secret Revealed
Raziel was nervous about going to his meeting. Not only would Draco be there, but Ministry Officials and many important witches and wizards. Raziel wasn't sure how they'd take to having a reporter at the meeting. Which only added to the things worrying him.
He had to be in the main building in ten minutes if he was going to be on time. He knew Ginny was probably frantic about him still not being there yet.
Raziel smiled and walked over to the only thing in his study; the fire place. He tossed his floo powder into the fire, and stepped into the flames.
~ ~ ~ * * ~ ~ ~ * * ~ ~ ~
Ginny was storming down the hall. She couldn't believe Raziel would be late for this meeting. It was extremely important that he be there. How could he be late?! She fumed, turning the corner and plowing into someone.
"RAZIEL!" She growled, realizing who it was.
"Uh, sorry I'm late, Ginny. Second door on the right?" He asked, grinning sheepishly.
Ginny scolded him and ushered him to the right room.
Raziel entered and all heads turned toward him. There were twenty-five annoyed faces, and one turned down toward something they were writing.
Harry appologized for being late and took his seat at the head of the oval shaped table.
Many of the people were casting him disapproving looks, while Draco, who sat in the corner (obviously trying to stay out of the way..) was sitting, ready to write.
"All right, let's get down to business." Raziel said, "I'm sure you all have other places to get to. So..." Raziel trailed off. He had no idea what this meeting was about in the first place. Could this day possibly get any worse? He thought. Wait, don't answer that.
"Right, My. Arloste. Now, as you all know, Diagon Alley has finally been fully repaired." Raziel was relieved when Mitch Laam began to talk. Atleast he knew what to say.
"Though there are concerns about more attacks. There is still reason to believe many of Voldemort's supporters are still around and still very much loyal to him." Mitch continued.
Draco, who was writing away, appeared a bit surprised at the usage of the name Voldemort. Even after the war had ended, people still seemed to call him 'You-Know-Who.'
"There have been a few smaller attacks in the past five months, though hardly any fatalities. We still have believe there might be a larger one soon. So, we are here to discuss new safety measures for large Wizarding towns." Mitch paused for a breath, but before he could continue, the door was thrown open.
All eyes turned on Ginny, who stood in the doorway, looking absolutely terrified.
"Minister!" She hissed. Raziel immediately went to her. "What's wrong Ginny?"
Ginny shook her head and pulled Raziel from the room. "There's been an attack on Hogwarts." She replied once out of earshot of the room. "Remus Lupin and Sirius Black are in your office. Go quickly, I have to get hold of the rest of the Order." She said, letting ho of his arms. Raziel nodded and went to his office.
Raziel entered and Sirius, who had been pacing back and forth infront of the fire place, came quickly to him, followed by Remus.
"Remus, Sirius, what's happened? Ginny said something about an attack on Hogwarts." Raziel studied Sirius, and was pleased to see he looked well, or, as well as one his age should look.
Sirius nodded, "Hogwarts has been taken over. Remus and I were there at the time. Barely managed to escape by floo." He said gravely.
"Do you know who it was? Certainly it wasn't-"
Remus shook his head instantly. "No ,no, it was a group of Death Eaters. We're not ever sure why yet. All we know is Lucius Malfoy was with them."
"That can't be right," Harry said more to himself than to either Remus or Sirius. "Malfoy was in Azkaban last time I checked." Sirius had begun pacing again.
"Exactly. We think they broke into Azkaban and got some Death Eaters out. We haven't been able to confirm it yet. Can't get through to anyone there." Remus said worriedly.
"Can you get through to Zabini? Try to. I need to find Neville and Seamus. We need to get into Hogwarts." Remus and Sirius nodded, "We'll try Zabini."
How could I let this happen? Raziel thought as he left the office to find Ginny. What have I done?
~ ~ ~ * * ~ ~ ~ * * ~ ~ ~
Raziel walked back into his office, followed by Ginny, Seamus Finnigan, Neville Longbottom, Susan Bones, Fred, George, Mitch Laam, Draco Malfoy, and Dean Thomas.
"Did you get to Zabini?" Raziel asked, going to Sirius and Remus. "Yes, right here." Sirius motioned to the fire place where Blaise Zabini's head could be seen floating in the flames.
"Hiya Minister." Blaise said.
Raziel wondered how they could be so calm in this sort of situation. They had had training for this sort of thing, maybe that was it.
"So, what's happening, Blaise?" Raziel sat down in one of the chairs, as Blaise started to explain.
"I'm supposing that a couple of Death Eaters managed to break their buddies out of Azkaban. and the group decided to take over the school. Rotten timing for us, too. The headmaster had to leave for a while the other day. No worries though, everyone is okay."
No worries, right. Raziel thought to himself.
"Well, there can't be a lot of them. There weren't many left in Azkaban. Have any idea how many there are?" Sirius asked, as the rest of the group gathered around.
"I'd say 'round ten or fifteen. I've got myself locked up in my office. They aren't bothering me any."
Sirius exchanged glances with Remus, "That's not a whole lot of them. Think we could take them?" Remus asked, turning to look at Raziel.
"Yeah, I do." Raziel replied, "Get Dean here. We'll be only down two, but we've got you, Sirius, plus Remus and Mitch who are fully trained Aurors. Blaise?" Raziel turned his attention back to the fire. Seamus left the room to go get Dean.
"Is your fire place connected to the floor network?"
"Minister, don't you think they might have the network monitored?" Fred piped up from the back of the group.
"No." Raziel said curtly.
"Raziel is right. This isn't a very planned out attack. They probably gave hardly any thought to it. Now, is it connected?" Sirius turned away from Raziel.
"Yes, it's connected. So you're coming by floo?" Blaise raised an eyebrow, his floating head tilting slightly.
"Yep!" Sirius stood up. Blaise nodded and his face disappeared from the flames.
The door clicked open and Seamus entered, followed by Dean. "I'm back. What'd I miss?"
"That was quick." said Ginny.
Seamus nodded and Raziel explained to everyone what the plan would be once they got to Hogwarts.
"Let's go then."
~ ~ ~ * * ~ ~ ~ * * ~ ~ ~
Raziel was the first to come out of the fireplace in Blaise Zabini's office. Remus and Sirius followed behind him. Once all of them were in the room, Blaise walked over to Raziel.
"Just what exactly are you planning on doing?" Blaise asked, looking around at all the assembled people.
"We'll explain later. Now, Blaise, do you know where the Death Eaters may be? Is there any way to tell?"
Blaise looked back to Raziel. "I have this map. I found it in Filch's office in my seventh year. I'm not sure exactly how to work it, but," Blaise went over to his desk and opened the top drawer. He started to rummage through it.
Raziel had the feeling he knew what map Blaise was talking about.
Blaise hurried back over, carrying a rolled up piece of prachment. He unrolled it and gasps came from Remus and Sirius. Raziel couldn'stop himself from grinning.
"The Maulder's Map!" He said, still grinning.
Blaise glanced up at him, "You know what it is? Know how to work it?" He asked hopefully.
"Er, no, but I'm sure someone here does." He lied, casting his gaze towards Sirius and Remus.
Sirius walked forward and took the map from Blaise. "I haven't seen this thing in forever. Well not since," He trailed off and Remus put a hand on his shoulder. Sirius pulled out his wand and tapped the map, "I solemly swear I'm up to no good." He whispered, tapping his wand in the center of the map.
The map immediately sprang to life. Now there were many move red dots, each labeled by a first and last name, all over the map.
"Woah! So that's how it works." Blaise grinned, and tugged the map from Sirius's grasp.
"Can't believe it's still here." Raziel heard Sirius saying to Remus as Blaise scanned over the map.
"Fourteen Death Eaters in the Headmaster's office. It looks as if half of the faculty is in the dungeons, though all the kids are in their common rooms with their head of house." Blaise said finally.
Raziel nodded and opened his mouth to speak, when Blaise continued talking, "But this can't be right." He said, raising an eyebrow and looking up from the map.
"It's never been wrong before!" Remus objected, then, "What's wrong with it?"
"Everything looks fine, except for one thing. It- this dot has to be labeled wrong. Look for yourself." He said, passing the map to Raziel, and pointing to one of the small red dots.
Raziel looked at the dot he was pointing to and felt himself freeze up. He stopped breathing and continues to stare wide-eyed at the dot.
"What's wrong, Minister? You look as if you've seen a ghost." Ginny said from somewhere behind him.
This brought Raziel back to reality, and he started to breathe once more. "Nothing," He said in what he hoped was a calm voice. "Nothing at all, Ginny." He said as he rolled the map back up and stuck it in his back pocket.
He looked up and met Blaise's confused eyes. "You saw it, didn't you? It was him. Remus said the map doesn't lie." Blaise was cut off as Raziel narrowed his eyes at him. "The map is a fluke." He snapped.
"What did it say?" The twins, Fred and George, said together.
"Nothing. It didn't say anything." Raziel knew Blaise wouldn;t drop it that easily. Who would have?
"Harry Potter!" Blaise exclaimed loudly.
The group stared at Blaise like he had gone insane.
"What do you mean by that, Zabini?" Draco drawled.
Raziel glanced at him, surprised he'd spoken. Draco had been rather quiet throughout the whole thing.
"He's alive, that's what. Show them, Minister. It said Harry Potter! " Blaise made an attempt to snatch the map from Raziel's pocket, but Raziel swatted his hand away.
Draco was the next person to try and grab the map. Raziel, who was sill defending the map from Blaise, didn't notice Draco tug the map from his pocket.
"Bloody hell!" Everyone jumped.
"Zabini is right. Look!" Draco shoved the map into Ginny's hands.
Ginny stared at it for a moment, then looked up at Raziel. Her eyes had gone wide and her mouth hung open.
"You-You're him! Harry!" She sobbed, eyes filling with tears.
Well, fuck, Raziel thought.
* * * * * * TBC.. * * * * * * *
Author's Ending Note- Okay, sorry for mistakes in this chapter. I was sort of pressed for time and stuff. Well this is longer than usual, so be happy. Anyway, I must be going.. ack... cheerio. Please review.