In Every Darkness
Chapter Seventy Seven: Life Goes On
26.12.1996
The shock that the entire Wizarding world went through, losing both of it's most important and trusted leaders and hero figures (whether or not those concerned were worthy of the trust and hero-worship) in one day, would last for many weeks to come.
Students were flocking back to Hogwarts from their holidays, for although Dumbledore had been killed there, it was still widely regarded as the safest place in the world. After all, the Minister of Magic had died in his own office … If these two places had both been invaded, how easy would it be for homes to be broken into? At least the parents knew that everyone in Hogwarts would be on the look-out for likely ways that an assassin could have made his or her way into the school.
Ron, Hermione and Ginny were among the first back, arriving on Boxing Day evening. "Harry! Oh, Harry!" Hermione cried, teary eyed, throwing herself into his arms and crying on his shoulder. Behind her was a just as grieved Ron, who was doing a slightly better job of containing herself.
"Oh, is Mudblood being comforted by her famous boyfriend?" a drawling voice that could belong to one person only came from a little to the left.
"Shove off Malfoy," Harry, Ron and Hermione snapped as one.
"Hit a nerve there, did I?" the Slytherin smirked. "You might be the Wizarding worlds little hero again, Potter, but the Dark Lord will triumph," for the last sentence, Malfoy leaned close to them, so no one else would over hear. "You can try and stall him as long as you like, but he managed to have your precious Dumbledore killed in his own office … and the Minister of Magic. He's more powerful than you could ever imagine, and there's no way that a sixteen year old boy without his greatest mentor could possibly beat him."
"Dumbledore may be gone Malfoy, but I am not," Harry said steadily. "Nor are many others who will defy Voldemort till they draw their final breath. I will never rest until Voldemorts mere memory is dust on the wind, and all of his supporters are behind bars, where they will cause no more trouble. Come on guys, we're wasting our time," he turned and led his friends away.
"Big words, Potter, big words," Draco Malfoy murmured, watching Harry walked away. The Gryffindor gave no sign that he had heard.
Draco stepped back, almost melting into the shadows as he watched Potter and his friends walk away, talking quietly. They were obviously upset about Dumbledore's death, but Draco was surprised to see that they were ready to continue moving forwards, continue defying the Dark Lord.
He could not bring himself to doubt Potter's words. Gryffindors Golden Boy would, no doubt, spend his final breath cursing the Dark Lord… If the Dark Lord was still around to bother with cursing.
For the first time, Draco felt a tiny stab of doubt that this might not be the case. Potter had managed a lot in the five a bit years since he had found the Wizarding World. He'd managed to defy the Dark Lord a further three times.
He had escaped after the Dark Lord and his servant Quirrell had tried to steal the Philosopher's Stone, not only alive, but triumphant, having managed to keep the Dark Lord away from the stone, almost at the cost of his own life, when he was only eleven.
In fourth year, he had watched the Dark Lord be reborn – an honour that Draco had not been granted, though his father had – and had, again, escaped alive, with the Triwizard Cup and the dead body of Cedric Diggory. He'd actually brought back the dead body of his rival, even though the delay might have cost him his life… and nearly had, according to Lucius.
Only half a year gone, he had taken some of his friends to the Ministry of Magic to do his best in preventing the Dark Lord from gaining a weapon that Draco knew little about. Certainly, he had lost his godfather – Draco had, of course, heard about that from those in his family who walked free, and supported the Dark Lord – but he had escaped again, appearing unscathed, and his friends were all also alive.
Draco had, until that time, allowed himself to believe that the Dark Lord was definitely superior to Harry-bloody-Potter, and that the Gryffindor boy had only managed to 'triumph' because, at first, the Dark Lord had been bodiless, served by a bumbling idiot, and then because the Dark Lord was only newly awoken, and therefore had made a slight mistake … But that last time…
The Dark Lord had been completely powerful by that stage, but still Potter had managed to survive.
Was the Dark Lord as powerful as Draco had been lead to believe? As his father had always claimed?
And where was his father now? Imprisoned because he had served the Dark Lord.
Whose side should he chose, Draco wondered. He was no longer certain which would be the victor, and no Malfoy would ever join the losing side, no matter what his or her beliefs stated.
"Draco," a soft voice purred in his ear, sounding like honey, but a just a little bit too sweet. He felt lips gently touch themselves to his cheek.
"Pansy," he greeted coolly, shaking all those confusing thoughts from his mind. He was a Slytherin, and a plotter. He would do what he had to, when it came time to chose a side. It would be nice, having someone would morn him when he was gone, not die some unlamented Death Eater, buried in an unmarked grave and forgotten by all.
But it would not do to give up his views entirely either. It was a difficult situation, and Draco had no intention of making a choice on the matter until he was better informed … So for now, he could enjoy being the 'King' of the pure-blooded Slytherin children who still cared for their heritage…
He walked back to the castle with Pansy hanging on his arm and gushing about how wonderful he was, with Crabbe and Goyle trailing behind, as always, and wondered what it would be like to have real friends, who wouldn't desert you …
"That Malfoy!" Ron snarled as they walked up the stairs into Hogwarts. "Thinks he's so good, being a Death Eaters son, thinking that You-Know-Who was the best thing to ever happen to us …"
"Come on," Harry interrupted quietly, not wanting to argue about Malfoy at present. He didn't feel that this was the time for anger, not quite yet. Once Dumbledore's funeral had passed, then they could turn their minds to revenge … Now was time to grieve the ending of an era, and the loss of the Wizarding World's greatest leader (in Harry's mind, at least).
Boxing Day passed, and life went on, but everything was overshadowed by grief. Minerva McGonagall became Headmistress on the twenty-seventh of December – the Board of Governors had been quick to appoint her, not wanting the school to be without leader for long.
On the twenty-eighth, Professor Severus Snape turned up after his term-long holiday, much to the disappointment of the majority of the student body. Michael McGonagall, however, ended up taking his Aunts position of Transfiguration Teacher, since she would no longer have time to do this as well as being Headmistress.
This, everyone supposed, was better than nothing.
By the morning of the twenty-ninth, the Ministry was under the guiding hand of a middle-aged woman named Genevieve Maguire, a member of the Order of the Phoenix, who had formerly worked as an Auror.
No one let slip that it was Alastor 'Mad Eye' Moody whom she answered to, and who really made most of the decisions, with the aid of the rest of the Order, and, though they did not know it, Albus Dumbledore.
Genevieve was only Acting Minister, and a new Minister would be chosen in due course. Frankly, Harry hoped that Genevieve remained in her position for some time to come. At least he knew that she wouldn't make stupid decisions, with the Order behind her.
"Did you ever meet her?" he asked Ron and Hermione, who both shook their heads.
"I've heard of her though," Hermione offered. "She rarely ever comes to meetings, because last year she was very close to Fudge in the Ministry, and couldn't do anything to violate her position. No one knows that she's one of Dumbledore's closest informats."
"How do you know that?" Ron demanded – Hermione had never mentioned this to him.
"I snuck downstairs and listened to your parents talking," Hermione replied. "They were discussing who could act on their behalf with the Ministry, and Mr. Weasley mentioned Genevieve. Mrs. Weasley didn't know who that was, so he explained it all to her. They didn't know I was listening," she added, a little smugly.
"We're a bad influence on you," Ron said, though there was respect in his eyes as he said … though perhaps not a respect that she wanted.
However, looking at the faint blush that stained Hermione's cheeks, Harry wondered whether it might not be that she did want it … Interesting.
But he put that from his mind for the moment. He had more things to do than worry over the possible crush that Ron might have on Hermione, and which Hermione might have on Ron … Who knew what would become of teenage crushes? His parents had lasted, but how many others did?
Soon enough, school was back. Some things had changed, and other's hadn't. Professor McGonagall was still teaching Transfiguration, but Professor Tonks had become Head of Gryffindor House. Harry wondered what would happen if Tonks left at the end of the year as most of the Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers did.
He found himself hoping that she wouldn't, one Wednesday afternoon. Today, Tonks had paired everyone up into Gryffindor/Slytherin pairs. Harry was paired with a girl named Blaise.
He vaguely remembered her from the Sorting ceremony, she'd been the last one left up there, in front of the whole school, and he had remembered feeling a little sympathetic. Since then, he'd rarely ever seen her. She never really drew attention to herself in Potions, which had been the only class he'd shared with her until this year, and, from what he'd heard recently, spent most of her time working in the Slytherin dungeons.
She was also quite good at Defence Against the Dark Arts, which was why she was paired with Harry. Tonks usually duelled with Harry, because no one else would have lasted long.
"I hope you'll go easy on me," Blaise remarked. "I doubt I'd last long if you really tried."
Harry was a little surprised to note that her tone held a bit of humour, which he would never have expected from a Slytherin his own age or above – most of his year had been in Malfoy's group, making them somewhat … Ill-disposed towards the Gryffindors.
"I'm sure you'll do fine," Harry replied. Perhaps this young woman would end up joining DA – it would be nice to be able to befriend a Slytherin his own age. His closer friends in Slytherin were the first years. The rest of those in DA were fairly content to be taught by Harry, and to agree with his views, but they were not particularly interested in becoming close friends with him.
Harry didn't mind. He wouldn't want to make friends with someone who wasn't really willing to be friends. "Begin!" Tonks called from the front. Today she wasn't duelling with anyone, but would be wandering around correcting the students.
Harry was the only one who knew that this was because she would be grading the student ability this lesson, and he only knew because he had been keeping an eye on the progress of the class with her, and she'd ended up asking his opinion of which students would do well when paired together.
Today's basic exercise was to have first one of the pair firing offensive spells, and the other blocking them to the best of his or her ability, and then swapping over. Blocking did include dodging unfriendly spells if one did not know how to block them.
Harry had allowed Blaise to chose what order they would go in, and she had elected for him defending first. Privately, Harry thought this a bit of a bad idea, because it would mean that she would be tired by the time that it came to defending herself, and therefore give him a greater chance of getting passed her defences… But he kept this to himself. She had chosen.
"Expelliarmus!" she cried the moment they were given leave to begin. She nearly caught Harry off-guard, as he was concentrating on the rest of the pairs around the room, but he was quick to re-focus his attention on the current situation.
Very fast, he cast a rather sloppy shield spell, which absorbed Blaise's. While she was in the process of casting a new curse, Harry quickly strengthened his shield, which would absorb minor curses, and got himself ready to counter stronger ones.
"Stupefy!" Blaise cried now. Her voice was nearly drowned out by those of the pairs around them. Harry sent a reinforcing spell at his shield, knowing that it should be able to hold up, but also knowing that nothing was certain.
Half an hour later, Tonks called halt, and those who had been on the offensive sat down wearily, as did most of the defenders.
Harry still felt fairly fresh, but then, the rest of the class hadn't been training under Tatsu Kendo in physical defence, offence and durability.
Parvati, who had been paired with Millicent Bullstrode (not a combination that Harry would have recommended, but Tonks had decided on that pairing, without consulting him), had to go the hospital wing, because the other girl had ended up punching her in annoyance.
Millicent
got a detention and lost ten points, for using a physical attack rather than a
magical one, and also because she was supposed to be defending, not attacking
in the first place.
"How's it, Harry?" she grinned at him,
walking over to where he was standing, and where Blaise was sitting a little
distance away.
"Hi Tonks," Harry replied, smiling faintly.
"Since Bullstrode seems unable to restrain herself with confronted with Gryffindors," Tonks made a slight face, which Harry assumed was because she had been making something of an effort to use 'normal Professor speak' instead of her usual slang, but still didn't like it, "I thought I'd swap Blaise around to her. You can do your offensive spells against me."
"Sure," Harry replied with a shrug. It was probably for the best anyway. Blaise, already worn out, wouldn't be doing too well at deflecting Harry's curses. After a lot of training with Sirius on the magical grounds, and some extra with Tonks, plus regular training with DA, Harry would be, Tonks had often said, easily able to pass the Defence Against the Dark Arts NEWT exam.
"Five minutes!" she added to the rest of the class, who took the opportunity to get a good rest and go back to sitting with their friends. Blaise remained on her own, Harry noted.
Another half an hour later, Harry and the rest of the class made their way from the Defence Against the Dark Arts room. Harry felt that he'd done very well against Tonks, even if he'd only managed to get two spells passed her shield, and that was only because he'd used the spells in very quick succession, which each required different blocking spells.
"Harry Potter?" a voice, female, came from behind him. Harry turned around to look at Blaise.
"Hi Blaise," he replied slowly. What did she want?
"Can I … can I talk to you?" She asked, very fast.
"Well … You are already doing that," he pointed out slowly. "But I guess I can allow you to continue."
She laughed nervously. "Well … I know about your group, DA, after all, who hasn't these days … and I'd kindalikajoin …"
"You'd like to join?" Harry repeated slowly, to make sure that he'd gotten it right.
"Yeah," Blaise said, looking down in embarrassment. "I know you don't usually let Slytherins join …"
"What gave you that idea?" Harry demanded. "Slytherins simply usually do not wish to join. Most of the first three years are members of DA, they just don't put it around, because they know that the older Slytherins will beat them up for it."
"Oh, well, that's quite likely," Blaise agreed.
"Aren't you afraid that they'll beat you up?" Harry asked.
"No, not really. I don't think many of them even realise that I'm in their house. I keep to myself, and they don't usually notice me. They'd take me for someone from any house – except maybe Gryffindor."
"Why not a Gryffindor?"
"The Slytherins know every Gryffindor. They make a point of it, just so that they know who's the 'enemy'," Blaise said, rolling her eyes.
"Well, if you want to join DA, we meet in the Room of Requirement every Friday," Harry finished. "If you don't know where that is, just ask anyone in Gryffindor that you see … most Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs know the way as well."
"Thanks. I want to learn to duel," Blaise said, a grim look on her face.
"Any particular reason?"
"You-Know-Who killed my parents over Christmas," she said bitterly, unshed tears bright in her eyes.
"I didn't hear about that," Harry remarked.
"You wouldn't have," Blaise replied. "My family is reclusive... I don't think we've made much of a name for ourselves in the past two hundred years. Us kids go to school, go home and stay there, using magic infrequently when we need something we can't get otherwise. Our ancestral home is out of the way of everything, with loads of Muggle-repellent charms and things."
"When you're ready, you might want to tell me about how and why your parents died," Harry said. "Trust me, a sympathetic ear helps a lot, but not until you're ready to share."
Blaise nodded. "I'll see you on Friday," she said, and walked off.
"She's hot," Ron remarked, walking up behind Harry, and Hermione, behind him, kicked him lightly. "What?" he protested. "She is!"
"She's a Slytherin," Harry replied. "In our year."
Ron gagged.
"She seems alright," Harry said, laughing at his friends predictable response. "She's joining DA."
"You let her?" Ron sounded somewhat strangled now, and Hermione had a very disapproving look on her face.
"Of course," Harry replied. "She wants revenge, and do get her revenge, she needs to learn to fight."
"Revenge for what?"
"That's hers to disclose if and when she wants to," Harry replied.
None of them noticed Blaise, hidden behind a statue, smile as she heard this. So, the Weasley boy didn't like Slytherins, Granger seemed not to care either way, and Potter could keep something private from his friends, if it wasn't his to disclose in the first place. Good. She looked forward to working with them all, for different reasons.
***
Well, there you go! Over 3000 words in this chapter. Hopefully makes up a little for the recent lack of updates!
Thanks:
Falene, Falene, solar1, TuxedoMac, Tortie, schmanski, athenakitty, Wytil, Nasser Himura, Estel-rules, Sasinak, Hermionegreen, Dumbledave, Flame of Shadow, adge9631, Sirius24, MiakaChan5, Wynjara, Nicoletta, Musicstarlover, Romm, shdurrani, cantfindagoodname, um…dunno, gaul1, Kaye, Nomysp's angel, MikiBaby, harryluvzginny, PhoenixPadfoot89, steven, jbfritz, some chick, Stix-the-Rebel, harryluvzginny, Celtic Guardian 7, uNoeWho, @!%$#!@%%$!, Maxx77, AnnabelleLeigh, torifier126, Phoenixdor Dragonclaw, Eowyen lady of horses1361, Songbreeze Swifteye, Clare7, Mr. Happy Java Man, Haunting Darkness, dweem-angel, Jaded Angel8, eloisamuggle, harryluvzginny, Numba1, fcuking cathy, misty43, Prongs4, bigstu, GothicBlackRose, summer, Anilia Hawkeye, Steven, Steven, the_ladyhawk09, dnd4ever, Kat Granger, KK37, Lady Reaper of the Shadows, Falene, harryluvzginny, harryluvzginny, harryluvzginny, greatestofthefour, Evil Anti-Patriotic Elf Named Cin, Butler, AnimeGurl, Twilight Dusk, kia, PhoenixTearsp322, Lady of Hogwarts, harryluvzginny, Luny, harryluvzginny, harryluvzginny.
To Mr. Happy Java Man, High Lord of Coffeenia,
We accept Our Royal Cousins apologies with an open heart. We understand that thy time has been much taken up by other matters. We offer Our aid to thy cause. As We are a Goddess Ourselves, perhaps We can aid thee in some manner? We are happy that thee enjoyed Our latest chapter, and sincerely hope to hear from thee more often in the near future!
Sincerely,
~WolfMoon~
Lady Death,
Queen of Tenebralia,
Goddess of Darkness and Evilness.
Evil Anti-Patriotic Elf Named Cin and All Titles Which Do Apply,
We are happy to hear that as Our friend, thy interest in Our stories continues. We hope that thy mother recovers soon, and will do Our best to give Our blessing, though the blessing of the Darker Forces do not always live up to the title of 'blessing'. But We will do Our best for Our friend, and thy mother.
School is going well for Us at present. We have a trig test on Tuesday, which We are NOT looking forward to, and a History test in a few weeks time, which we don't mind so much. We have also learned the meaning of 'camaraderie' in recent times, which We are somewhat proud of. We had not even known it existed.
Sincerely,
~WolfMoon~
Lady Death,
Queen of Tenebralia,
Goddess of Darkness and Evilness.
Twilight Dusk and All Titles Which Do Apply,
We are grateful for thy sympathies, but We are coping. We have convinced Our PE (nasty, hateful subject) teacher that he should take Us and Our class on a white water canoeing/kayaking excursion, and also an abseiling excursing. We also have a very cool history teacher. We do not anticipate too much of a wait between chapters after the next few weeks, We will be making them longer, but updating a LITTLE less frequently. Still at least twice a week, We hope, for each story.
Sincerely,
~WolfMoon~
Lady Death,
Queen of Tenebralia,
Goddess of Darkness and Evilness.
Kia – a griffin is an animal with the head and forequarters of an eagle, and the hind-quarters of a lion.
WOW! A whole 83 reviews! That's a lot *happy smile* please review again and tell me what you think of the chapter. Sorry for jumping along a bit, but I couldn't think of anything to write a detailed scene of this time around …REVIEW.
~WolfMoon~