Chapter Fifteen:
Ambrose Von Derek
Harry wasn't sure where time was going these days. The grounds of Hogwarts flamed with color and then settled into a muddy chilly windswept grey. It was already the middle of November before the students knew it, and hints of winter were appearing here and there. Harry simply sat at the foot of his bed staring into empty space. His mind was not on his studies. He kept seeing the chaos of the attack at St. Mungo's in his mind's eye as Voldemort ransacked the halls scorching staff and patients alike. He remembered the words Voldemort had flung at Lily, his mother, in the vision Harry had been swept into in the corridors of Hogwarts the night the Dementors had attacked. What did it mean? Who had his mother denied killing; a brother, she'd said. Who?
It was early in the morning, but not terribly early. Already Harry could here the rustling and everyday sounds associated with the students preparing for another day at Hogwarts. Soon the Great Hall would be ready for students to eat breakfast and Harry would make his way down there. He sighed. Sirius and the remaining occupants of Harry's dormitory were sound asleep.
No matter how he tried, Harry couldn't keep the nightmarish scenes of the fate of all the people at St. Mungo's out of his head. He rubbed tired dull eyes behind his lenses and sat drifting in thought. Time followed its procedure of late and Harry blinked slightly startled when he found Ron awake and nearly fully dressed peering over at him anxiously.
"Are you alright Harry?" asked Ron.
"Yes," replied Harry forcing himself to focus on the present, "How are you?"
Ron sighed too and said, "Just fine."
Ron sat down next to Harry and stated, "You know Harry there's nothing you could have done. You were at Hogwarts when it happened, and there's enough going on here at school to keep you busy and on you toes as it is. Dumbledore didn't even know about it until after it happened. It's time to concentrate on exams coming up now. Remember, soon as we finish with those, it's off the Burrow."
Harry knew Ron would make this attempt to distract him sooner or later and besides there was more bothering him than that. Harry still had no idea who his mother supposedly had killed and who Voldemort was searching for.
"Harry?" inquired Ron still staring at him.
"I'm fine. I think I'll go down to the Great Hall," Harry finally responded. He washed and dressed quickly and went to join as they headed towards the Gryffindor common room.
Harry could see that Ron was glad for Harry's motivation to eat something and they both went downstairs to the Common Room to find Hermione sitting there alone.
"Good morning," greeted Hermione sweetly, shutting the book she had been reading
"Good morning," mumbled Harry and Ron together.
"We were going to go down to the Great Hall for breakfast," continued Ron.
Hermione seemed to like the idea, stood up, started walking toward the portrait, and said, "Let's go."
Starting to feel more like himself, Harry followed Ron and Hermione to the Great Hall. On the way down the long sometimes shifting flights of stairs covered with portraits of famous witches and wizards, some of whom were still yawning and stretching in the morning light, Hermione said, "I've taken some time to begin some research about this MoonPearl Tear. It's quite strange really."
Intrigued Harry continued to listen, "I looked on the Outernet and all I could find were all the things that confirmed what Harry had said Dumbledore told him. The Tear is very potent, and that the instructions for preparing it were kept secret by fear of it being overused, whatever it does." She shrugged, her forehead wrinkled in thought.
"So, basically we're back where we started," concluded Hermione still frowning.
That's when it hit Harry. Finally something made sense, "Not exactly."
Ron shot a puzzled glance at him and Hermione looked towards him also, both eager to listen to any new theory, "Hermione said that the list of ingredients were hidden. Well do either of you remember the detention that Snape gave me?"
"Which one?" asked Ron chuckling.
As the three entered the Great Hall they grabbed plates and Harry continued, "The one that I had this year with the essay. Anyway, he made me research the history of the Malevolent Mixture and the article I read stated that it was being used so often that the list of ingredients were hidden inside random copies of a particular, common book."
As Harry stopped to gather himself some kidneys Hermione was smiling encouragingly. Apparently she was starting to understand what Harry was saying, "I don't know why I didn't about it before! You're brilliant Harry!" she added nodding her eyes sparkling.
Clearly frustrated Ron exclaimed, "Well, I don't know what Harry's getting at! So if you please, I would like him to finish!" he muttered glancing around and lowering his tone after observing that several of the other students were staring curiously over in their direction.
Hermione backed off and Harry concluded his suppositions as they sat down at the Gryffindor table, "Look Ron, the article said that hiding the more potent spells and the lists of the ingredients for these certain spells was common practice One had to know where to look, and have special magical devices,Veracitectors, in order to retrieve and use them. We know the MoonPearl Tear is a very ancient spell, so maybe the list of ingredients for the Tear is magically hidden inside our copies of The Forgotten Arts: Ancient Self-Protection. All we need is a Veracitector."
"A Veraci-what?" asked Ron.
"A Veracitector," replied Hermione clearly irritated. "It does make sense Harry. That must be why the shop that carried the authentic copies of the book was raided." After taking a spoonful of porridge she continued, "A Veracitector is used to translate ancient runes or to reveal the truth. The only problem with Harry's theory is that you can't just have any Veracitector, you have to have the right Veracitector for the right spell. In other words the one that was made for that certain use."
"So… what we need is a Veracitector that's designed to read the list of ingredients in our books?" asked Ron, catching on.
"Exactly," replied Harry.
It was just then that Dumbledore stood up at the Staff Table. The attention of everyone in the Great Hall was diverted to him, and it was also then that Harry saw something that he hadn't seen in three years. Remus Lupin was sitting at the Staff Table. He looked a little woebegone, but his eyes sparkled.
Yes Lupin was back at Hogwarts. He still looked somewhat pale and wan but the changes in him since the other night in Hagrid's cottage were incredible. He even looked fairly younger. Harry was glad to see him and was sure that Dumbledore's announcement had something to do with this so he listened as Dumbledore began,
"I have two items to discuss. The first being the return of Remus Lupin, some of you may remember him as a professor at Hogwarts not very long ago. He has returned to the Staff. As you know Remus is a were-wolf so permission from your parents had to be gathered before he could return to the Staff. That task has been satisfactorily completed. Remus will not be returning as a professor but rather in a special role as the new Hogwarts Defense Minister."
This statement roused commotion around the Great Hall. Hogwarts Defense Minister? What was that? Dumbledore had expected the outburst of talk and continued on over the murmerings,
"This position has been created by the school governors due to the fact that Hogwarts has unfortunately been breeched. The person fulfilling this position will be in charge of all watches with the aide of our Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Miss Isis Agapanthus."
There was a little more commotion about this but it stopped and Dumbledore continued,
"The second item I would like to discuss is the fact that this year at Hogwarts there will be an Autumn Ball. Some of you students may remember the Yule Ball that took place here in past years. The rules and the guidelines are the same. The reason for this event is that the revered Warlock, Ambrose von Derek, will be paying a long visit at Hogwarts. I ask that all of you be on your best behavior and as he is a very irritable man, I ask you not to perturb him."
Dumbledore finished speaking and sat back down. At the same time Harry saw Jack and Will Abersum exchanging devious looks. Harry had to chuckle. Naturally they felt honor bound to pull a joke on this guy if Dumbledore said they couldn't.
"Do you know who this Ambrose von Derek guy is?" asked Ron.
Hermione looking terribly ashamed with herself replied in a whisper, "No."
"Sorry, didn't quite catch that," stated Ron.
"I don't know who he is!" exclaimed Hermione, her face red.
Hermione quickly sought to change the subject and exclaimed, "Anyway, can you believe it? A Ball and Lupin is on staff again!"
"Yeah… I wonder how Dumbledore managed to get Lupin on staff is he needed every parent's permission," stated Ron.
"Well, it's really not that difficult," replied Hermione and seeing Ron's face at this she quickly added, "Malfoy's father is the only one that would have any influence on what people would choose and since he's in Azkaban…"
"You mean was in Azkaban," corrected Harry, "He escaped remember. He probably was one of the people that helped attacked St. Mungo's."
"Maybe," said Ron quickly and desperately trying to change the subject so Harry didn't think about St. Mungo's again added, "Let's go talk to Lupin."
Deciding that this was a good idea and abandoning their breakfast dishes, Harry followed Ron and Hermione to the Staff Table. When they arrived they found a clean shaven freshly robed Lupin ravishing a plate heaped with food. At the sight of them he looked up and he smiled his perfect smile, his stormy eyes twinkling with more life than Harry had ever seen in them before.
"Well, how are you?" asked Lupin in a jovial manner.
"Just fine," replied Harry a little surprised at Lupin's dramatic change.
"We're very happy that you got a position on Staff again," said Hermione.
"Well, thank you," said Lupin.
"Do you know who this Ambrose von Derek person is? I've never heard of him before," inquired Ron.
"Yes, as a matter of fact I do. That is something that I would like to discuss with you in private,"answered Lupin. "So, unless it's a problem, why don't you come see me after your classes today. I'll be staying with Hagrid for the present."
"We would be delighted to," replied Hermione frowning slightly.
And with that the three walked off to their first class.
Time broke with its previous routine of swift passage and the day went extremely slowly. To top it off Harry's last class of the day was Potions. Grumbling, Harry wrapped his robes around him as he neared the Potions Dungeon.
When they entered the Dungeon Snape was sulkily pacing the room. He was oblivious to the bottles of curiosities and vats of steaming substances looming out at them in the gloom. Harry looked at Hermione and they both chuckled silently. Clearly Snape was upset about Lupin being back.
After the rest of the class had entered the dungeon Snape looked up and announced, "Today we will be covering the Shunning Solution. I can tell you that sometimes I wish to use this particular potion with certain people but…"
Harry and Hermione chuckled again, "I will be pairing you up with partners and I will be testing the strength of your solution by trying to pair you up again tomorrow. Here is the list of pairs."
Snape tapped his wand against the blackboard and the list appeared. The students scanned through the parings quickly. To Harry's disgust he found that he was paired with Malfoy.
"It's really a good thing Harry! If your solution is good he won't be able to go anywhere near you afterwards!" reported Hermione after looking at the blackboard herself.
Harry guffawed and moved his materials to Malfoy's table, "I see your favorite professor is back at Hogwarts."
This particular remark had come from Malfoy, but Harry wasn't really worried about it for he replied, "I see your father failed to prevent it due to his absence."
Malfoy frowned at this and they set to work. The Shunning Solution called for a lock of hair off the person that was being shunned. Harry and Malfoy yanked bits of hair off each other simultaneously and dropped them into their solutions. Both mixtures turned into a glacier blue color.
When Snape observed that everyone had done their solutions correctly he tapped his wand on each individual's potion and a large bottle appeared, containing the Solution with a tiny atomizer at the end,
"Now everyone spray the Solution on any part of you that you wish."
After delivering these instructions Snape made his way back to his desk. Harry picked up his bottle, aimed it at his arm, and sprayed. At first nothing happened so Harry watched Malfoy do the same. Then all of the sudden Harry felt like Malfoy and himself were magnets of the same polarity. Slowly they were being pushed apart. It was working neither could approach the other, they were instantly repelled.
After Harry had been moved back a couple feet the feeling and the movement stopped. With a grin of victory, Harry went and grabbed his things and made his way back to Hermione. The bell rang and they both found Ron and headed towards Hagrid's Hut.
They found Hagrid cutting up a log of wood. When he saw them Hagrid asked, "All righ' there Harry? Lupin's inside waitin' to talk with yeh."
Harry, Ron and Hermione thanked Hagrid and entered the Hut. Lupin was sitting on a chair in Hagrid's kitchen. He was reading the Daily Prophet. When he saw them he gestured for them to sit down.
After a few moments Lupin said, "Forgive me but I've just finished Hagrid's treacle fudge."
Ron sniggered and Harry laughed. Lupin cleared his throat and said, "Well, on a more serious note. I want to tell you who exactly Ambrose von Derek is. He's real name is Gabriel Lovegood."
After seeing Harry's reaction Lupin replied, "Yes, I do believe that his niece is a fifth year. He went to school with me and your father. Very strange fellow (Hermione chuckled at this). His brother was a little older and left Hogwarts when we were in our second year. Anyway, he ended up becoming one of Voldemort's most trusted servants. They were like brothers. Soon however Gabriel knew he was making a mistake, so in secret he met Dumbledore and together they devised a scheme so that Gabriel could leave and Voldemort not know it. However, Voldemort suspected something and had Gabriel kill his brother's wife to test his loyalty."
"So that's what really happened to Luna's mother!" realized Harry.
Lupin nodded and continued, "Dumbledore had Lilly; yes, Harry, your mother, pretend to kill Gabriel so that Voldemort thought that he was no longer alive to serve him. This is part of the reason why Voldemort hated your mother so much Harry. Dumbledore has been helping to hide Gabriel's new identity all this time and not even his family knows any of this.
Ambrose Von Derek or Gabriel Lovegood also happens to own one of the two halves of the Veracitector that can reveal the list of ingredients for the MoonPearl Tear. The Order of the Phoenix believes that Voldemort has realized Dumbledore's scheme and is trying to kill Gabriel and confiscate his half of the Veracitector."
"So Luna's uncle is going to hide here?" asked Harry.
"Precisely," answered Lupin.