Author's Notes: Things come to a head in this chapter. It becomes quite
obvious that something is very wrong in the wizarding world. Sirius Black
makes an appearance, as do the kids.
Disclaimers: If you recognize it from the books or movies, it doesn't belong to me.
Chapter 57: Trouble is Brewing
Harry Potter spent his New Year's Eve with the Weasley family. Which worked out quite well all around; Harry's godfather and guardian, Sirius Black, was in the mood to cut loose and celebrate the turning of the year at the pub. Who had the more raucous good time was up to debate, as the Weasley twins orchestrated a midnight fireworks display the likes of which had never been seen in that part of the countryside. Molly Weasley was chasing around the garden, threatening the boys with all manner of punishment, while Arthur had to work quickly in order to reinforce the muggle repelling wards in place around the Burrow and surrounding land in case any curious and amazed villagers should try and find out where the elaborate light show came from.
With the weather turning nasty, Molly finally managed to bring order to her household and get all of the boys back into the house. Arthur entered shortly after, shivering from the cold and worn out from having to work so much quick magic to contain the pandemonium. After Molly ranted for nearly a quarter hour at the twins over the spectacle they had caused, Arthur took them aside and quietly congratulated them on putting on such a good show. Harry and Ron kept their noses down during Molly's ranting and sneaked up the stairs to Ron's room undetected. It was just the boys that evening. Ginny had been invited to a girls' party being held by one of her friends from school, and would be sleeping over. Hermione was spending the holiday at home, at her mother's request. Ginny would come home early the next day, and that evening, Sirius and Hermione would come to join Harry and the Weasley family for dinner.
After the commotion had fully quieted down, and the elder Weasleys retired to bed, the twins apparated into Ron's room. Fred performed a locking and soundproofing charm on the door, while George pulled a small flask of fire- whiskey out of his pocket. The boys stayed up 'till the wee hours passing around the otherwise forbidden drink, and telling funny stories from school. They finally wound down and fell asleep just before the first light of day.
As the night came to an end, the head of household professors gathered in the teachers' lounge at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, to commiserate with each other after a long night of patrolling the school grounds and corridors. Despite the fact that there were so few students staying on over the holidays, the professors had their hands quite full controlling pranking and mischief making.
Professor Sprout sat on the sofa, rubbing her tired feet and whining for a headache potion. Professor McGonagall shot her an impatient look, and then sympathetically passed her the silver flask from which she had been drinking. Professor Snape dropped wearily into an armchair, reminding the two witches that his suggestion had been to put all the students to bed in a full body bind 'till morning. Sprout shot him a nasty look, declaring the idea to have been barbaric; but McGonagall confessed that in retrospect, the idea actually had some merit. Professor Flitwick was off assisting Filch, the caretaker, in cataloging and storing away all the fireworks, joke shop items, forbidden bottles of alcohol, and other contraband that was confiscated from the students during the night. After Headmaster Dumbledore arrived to wish them a Happy New Year, and to thank them for their efforts in maintaining order throughout the school, the professors dispersed to their respective chambers for a well-earned bit of rest.
On his way to his chambers, Professor Snape stopped by the Slytherin dormitory to release Crabbe and Goyle from the full body bind he had placed them in just after midnight, when he caught them trying to enchant the stone gargoyles lining the dungeon corridors into waging an aerial battle. A thorough search of the common rooms turned up a bottle of wine, stashed between the cushions of a chair. With a smirk, he transfigured the wine into vinegar and tucked it back in its hiding place. After the boys were released and warned not to venture out of the dormitory until suppertime, Snape finally made it to his private chambers and was asleep by the time his head touched the pillow.
With the other boys sleeping in, Harry Potter was the solitary witness to the glittering fairyland of ice, which could be seen from the upstairs window. He had a disturbing dream again. Except this time, the baby crying was not in a graveyard, but in a large spooky old house. In his dream, he wandered through dark labyrinthine hallways, trying to find the source of the crying. As he worked his way closer to the sound, the cries became louder and more high-pitched. He finally entered a room, painted all in black, with a large ornate iron crib in the corner. He didn't want to see what was in the crib, but in the dream he was drawn towards it with an irresistible pull. He approached the crib and saw a baby wrapped in tattered cloth, its face hidden from view. One tiny fist flailed against the wrappings, as the child cried on. To his horror, Harry watched his hand in the dream reach into the crib to uncover the baby's face. And as his worse fears were confirmed, it was the same serpentine distorted face, the one that he had seen under Quirrell's turban and also that night in the cemetery, after Cedric Diggory's death.
It was settled. He would have to tell somebody about the dream, somebody who could help him figure out why he was dreaming such things. He decided to confide in Hermione later on that day. She was clever enough to know what to do, what kind of charm to cast or potion to take to prevent disturbing dreams.
As the rest of the Burrow and the Hogwarts castle started to stir, Professor Snape woke, and quickly readied himself for the rest of the day. He checked his sitting room for any owl post. Finding none, he summoned a house-elf to check the owlery for any undelivered messages he might have received. Assuming that Mira had simply stayed up late and slept in late as well, he shrugged the lack of correspondence off and went to fetch his house charges to serve their detention. Scrubbing the dungeon corridor floor clean of all fireworks residue, by hand instead of magic, would be their punishment. The boys busy with the floors, he propped the door to the Potions classroom open so that he could work while keeping an eye on them.
As the afternoon drew on, he checked again to see if he had received any owl post, and decided to send Mira an owl, to make sure she had indeed returned from her cousin's house safe and sound. With no reply by suppertime, he grew a little concerned about her and sent an owl to her cousin's house. When the professor returned from the dining hall, there was a scroll waiting for him on his fireside table. Not a reply from Mira, but from her cousin, Susan. Susan wrote that Mira had indeed been at the party, but left feeling a bit unwell from indulging in too much rich food and drink. She was probably at home nursing a hangover and bellyache and felt embarrassed to be seen in such a state. The professor decided to send another owl. In the morning when she woke up and felt better, Mira would find the scrolls and write to him, letting him know what had happened. Disappointed in not being able to see her, but satisfied with the explanation that she had just overdone it at the party, he pulled a book off of his bookshelf and spent the rest of the evening, reading in front of the fire.
After supper at the Burrow, the teenagers gathered in the sitting room while the adults sat around the table sipping brandied tea. While Ron and the twins played with a set of trick gobstones, which the elder boys had been experimenting on, Harry was able to pull Hermione aside, and tell her about the dreams. As he expected, she was very concerned. But he did not expect her to demand that he tell Sirius that night after they got home.
"Look Harry, either you tell him tonight, or I will owl him tomorrow. I mean it. I want an owl from you confirming that you told him by noontime tomorrow."
"All right, all right! I'll tell him. But I still don't think this is as big of a deal as you seem to think it is. I mean, it can't be anything more than bad dreams, right?"
"I don't know. But whatever it is, it's not normal, and it's disturbing your sleep."
Harry sulked the rest of the evening, worrying about throwing all of the adults in his life into a stir over a couple of bad dreams. Sirius would scold him for not coming to him right away. He'd owl Dumbledore. Dumbledore would want to see Harry right away, and they would both blow it way out of proportion. They might even get McGonagall or Pomfrey involved. He was sick and tired of being at the center of excitement and just wanted to be left alone. That night, he started to tell Sirius, but decided it could wait until morning. No use in spoiling a holiday.
At noon the next day, Harry had still not told Sirius about the dream. True to her word, an owl arrived from Hermione, demanding an answer. He put her off, replying that Sirius had gone into Hogsmeade before he even woke up and wouldn't be home until time to fix supper. He'd tell him as soon as he saw him. Not sure if Hermione would buy his excuse or not, he tied the note to the owl's leg and sent it back on its way.
Growing concerned at not receiving any replies to the owls he sent Mira, Professor Snape sent off another one at noontime. He would finish up his work in the Potions laboratory, and if he had not received a reply during the afternoon, he would inform Dumbledore and go check on her in person after supper.
After they finished their supper, Harry told Sirius about the two dreams. As he had suspected, Sirius was very angry with him for not saying anything sooner and immediately went to the fireplace to have a fire-talk consultation with Dumbledore. The headmaster was equally concerned and asked that Sirius bring Harry on through the floo fire right away. The pair arrived in Dumbledore's office, and Harry sat down to tell the whole story to the old wizard.
After a messy afternoon working on a troublesome potion, Professor Snape went to his bedchamber to change clothes for supper. It would be rude to show up at the table wearing dirty robes, and the professor was very meticulous about his dress. He put on the tunic coat he had worn the last night he visited Mira. As he buttoned the sleeves, he noticed a slight bulge in one of the pockets. It was Mira's hair elastic. After he pulled it out of her hair, it must have somehow wound up in his pocket. Smiling wickedly at the memory of that night, he brought it up to his face to try and smell her fragrance.
He felt a cold, tight feeling in his chest. Instead of her dark curly hair, there were silky blonde hairs tangled up in the elastic. Was she a natural blonde whose hair would return to its natural color and texture once removed from the head? He knew of no grooming potion with that effect, and the whole thing felt very much like dark wizardry. Something nagged at the back of his mind, but he couldn't see the connection. Suddenly it dawned on him and the implication of what may have happened hit him like a cold wave. Knowing that something was very wrong, he grabbed his cloak and ran through the corridors and up the stairs to the headmaster's office. Shouting out the password while still halfway down the hall, he burst into Dumbledore's office and nearly ran headlong into Sirius Black, who had been standing in front of the fire.
"What the hell are you doing, charging into the headmaster's quarters like a crazed hippogriff?"
"I don't have time for you Black, where's Dumbledore? This is urgent!"
"Well, you'll just have to cool your heels and wait a minute; He's in his office with Harry, discussing an urgent matter of his own."
Snape pushed past Sirius and continued towards the closed door of the headmaster's office. Black reached out and grabbed him by the arm. The professor wheeled around with his wand drawn and pointed it in Sirius' face.
"Let go of my arm Black! Mira could be in danger at this very moment, and I do not have time to throw a few curses at you, as much of a pleasure as it would be!"
At the commotion in his sitting room, Headmaster Dumbledore emerged from his office, with a quizzical look on his face.
"Severus, is there something wrong?"
Professor Snape shrugged off Sirius' hand, and turned to the older wizard.
"Headmaster. I have to talk to you immediately. It concerns Mirabelle, and it's very urgent. She may be in danger."
Dumbledore nodded to the professor, and motioned back into his office for Harry to come on out. Harry crossed the floor, a shocked expression on his face, over the commotion, which had taken place in front of the fireplace. Dumbledore ushered the professor into his office, and turned to Harry before closing the door.
"I would like for the two of you to stay for a moment. Just in case I need to have another word with you."
Dumbledore closed the door behind him and listened to Professor Snape's story about the owls to Mira going unanswered, and finding hair, which appeared not to be hers, tangled up in her hair elastic. He also explained how he had only just realized that the stolen potion ingredients were essential in brewing the illegal Polyjuice potion, which could be used to temporarily take on another's physical appearance. If somebody had indeed posed as Mira using the Polyjuice potion, she could be in grave danger.
Dumbledore remembered his last brush with Polyjuice deception. The incident involving Alastor Moody a few years back. He agreed that the matter warranted immediate looking into. He got up from behind his desk and called Sirius back into the room and closed the door.
"What did you bring him in here for?"
"Because he's going with you to the tailor shop to find her. If there's dark magic involved, I don't want you going alone. This could be a trap."
"No Albus. Not with him. I'd rather go alone."
"I'm afraid you're not. You are going with Sirius, and that is the end of it. You are willing to accompany him, aren't you Sirius?"
"Of course headmaster, anything you ask, anything for her."
Sirius exaggerated the "you" and the "her" in his reply to make it quite clear exactly why he was going.
With a snarl, Professor Snape rose from his chair and headed out the door.
As Sirius rose from his chair, the headmaster placed a fatherly hand on his shoulder.
"Sirius, I know that the two of you do not share any good will towards each other, but please make sure he doesn't do anything foolish."
"Of course headmaster. I'll do what I can."
Black turned and exited the office and told Harry that he would be back soon, and asked the boy for an object which he removed from his pocket. Sirius hurried out of the office and down the stairs and central corridor to try and catch up with the professor, who was already out the door and struggling through the icy wind towards the main gates of the school. Sirius watched him blast the gates open with his wand and disapparate as soon as his foot crossed over the magical barrier, which protected the school.
Disclaimers: If you recognize it from the books or movies, it doesn't belong to me.
Chapter 57: Trouble is Brewing
Harry Potter spent his New Year's Eve with the Weasley family. Which worked out quite well all around; Harry's godfather and guardian, Sirius Black, was in the mood to cut loose and celebrate the turning of the year at the pub. Who had the more raucous good time was up to debate, as the Weasley twins orchestrated a midnight fireworks display the likes of which had never been seen in that part of the countryside. Molly Weasley was chasing around the garden, threatening the boys with all manner of punishment, while Arthur had to work quickly in order to reinforce the muggle repelling wards in place around the Burrow and surrounding land in case any curious and amazed villagers should try and find out where the elaborate light show came from.
With the weather turning nasty, Molly finally managed to bring order to her household and get all of the boys back into the house. Arthur entered shortly after, shivering from the cold and worn out from having to work so much quick magic to contain the pandemonium. After Molly ranted for nearly a quarter hour at the twins over the spectacle they had caused, Arthur took them aside and quietly congratulated them on putting on such a good show. Harry and Ron kept their noses down during Molly's ranting and sneaked up the stairs to Ron's room undetected. It was just the boys that evening. Ginny had been invited to a girls' party being held by one of her friends from school, and would be sleeping over. Hermione was spending the holiday at home, at her mother's request. Ginny would come home early the next day, and that evening, Sirius and Hermione would come to join Harry and the Weasley family for dinner.
After the commotion had fully quieted down, and the elder Weasleys retired to bed, the twins apparated into Ron's room. Fred performed a locking and soundproofing charm on the door, while George pulled a small flask of fire- whiskey out of his pocket. The boys stayed up 'till the wee hours passing around the otherwise forbidden drink, and telling funny stories from school. They finally wound down and fell asleep just before the first light of day.
As the night came to an end, the head of household professors gathered in the teachers' lounge at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, to commiserate with each other after a long night of patrolling the school grounds and corridors. Despite the fact that there were so few students staying on over the holidays, the professors had their hands quite full controlling pranking and mischief making.
Professor Sprout sat on the sofa, rubbing her tired feet and whining for a headache potion. Professor McGonagall shot her an impatient look, and then sympathetically passed her the silver flask from which she had been drinking. Professor Snape dropped wearily into an armchair, reminding the two witches that his suggestion had been to put all the students to bed in a full body bind 'till morning. Sprout shot him a nasty look, declaring the idea to have been barbaric; but McGonagall confessed that in retrospect, the idea actually had some merit. Professor Flitwick was off assisting Filch, the caretaker, in cataloging and storing away all the fireworks, joke shop items, forbidden bottles of alcohol, and other contraband that was confiscated from the students during the night. After Headmaster Dumbledore arrived to wish them a Happy New Year, and to thank them for their efforts in maintaining order throughout the school, the professors dispersed to their respective chambers for a well-earned bit of rest.
On his way to his chambers, Professor Snape stopped by the Slytherin dormitory to release Crabbe and Goyle from the full body bind he had placed them in just after midnight, when he caught them trying to enchant the stone gargoyles lining the dungeon corridors into waging an aerial battle. A thorough search of the common rooms turned up a bottle of wine, stashed between the cushions of a chair. With a smirk, he transfigured the wine into vinegar and tucked it back in its hiding place. After the boys were released and warned not to venture out of the dormitory until suppertime, Snape finally made it to his private chambers and was asleep by the time his head touched the pillow.
With the other boys sleeping in, Harry Potter was the solitary witness to the glittering fairyland of ice, which could be seen from the upstairs window. He had a disturbing dream again. Except this time, the baby crying was not in a graveyard, but in a large spooky old house. In his dream, he wandered through dark labyrinthine hallways, trying to find the source of the crying. As he worked his way closer to the sound, the cries became louder and more high-pitched. He finally entered a room, painted all in black, with a large ornate iron crib in the corner. He didn't want to see what was in the crib, but in the dream he was drawn towards it with an irresistible pull. He approached the crib and saw a baby wrapped in tattered cloth, its face hidden from view. One tiny fist flailed against the wrappings, as the child cried on. To his horror, Harry watched his hand in the dream reach into the crib to uncover the baby's face. And as his worse fears were confirmed, it was the same serpentine distorted face, the one that he had seen under Quirrell's turban and also that night in the cemetery, after Cedric Diggory's death.
It was settled. He would have to tell somebody about the dream, somebody who could help him figure out why he was dreaming such things. He decided to confide in Hermione later on that day. She was clever enough to know what to do, what kind of charm to cast or potion to take to prevent disturbing dreams.
As the rest of the Burrow and the Hogwarts castle started to stir, Professor Snape woke, and quickly readied himself for the rest of the day. He checked his sitting room for any owl post. Finding none, he summoned a house-elf to check the owlery for any undelivered messages he might have received. Assuming that Mira had simply stayed up late and slept in late as well, he shrugged the lack of correspondence off and went to fetch his house charges to serve their detention. Scrubbing the dungeon corridor floor clean of all fireworks residue, by hand instead of magic, would be their punishment. The boys busy with the floors, he propped the door to the Potions classroom open so that he could work while keeping an eye on them.
As the afternoon drew on, he checked again to see if he had received any owl post, and decided to send Mira an owl, to make sure she had indeed returned from her cousin's house safe and sound. With no reply by suppertime, he grew a little concerned about her and sent an owl to her cousin's house. When the professor returned from the dining hall, there was a scroll waiting for him on his fireside table. Not a reply from Mira, but from her cousin, Susan. Susan wrote that Mira had indeed been at the party, but left feeling a bit unwell from indulging in too much rich food and drink. She was probably at home nursing a hangover and bellyache and felt embarrassed to be seen in such a state. The professor decided to send another owl. In the morning when she woke up and felt better, Mira would find the scrolls and write to him, letting him know what had happened. Disappointed in not being able to see her, but satisfied with the explanation that she had just overdone it at the party, he pulled a book off of his bookshelf and spent the rest of the evening, reading in front of the fire.
After supper at the Burrow, the teenagers gathered in the sitting room while the adults sat around the table sipping brandied tea. While Ron and the twins played with a set of trick gobstones, which the elder boys had been experimenting on, Harry was able to pull Hermione aside, and tell her about the dreams. As he expected, she was very concerned. But he did not expect her to demand that he tell Sirius that night after they got home.
"Look Harry, either you tell him tonight, or I will owl him tomorrow. I mean it. I want an owl from you confirming that you told him by noontime tomorrow."
"All right, all right! I'll tell him. But I still don't think this is as big of a deal as you seem to think it is. I mean, it can't be anything more than bad dreams, right?"
"I don't know. But whatever it is, it's not normal, and it's disturbing your sleep."
Harry sulked the rest of the evening, worrying about throwing all of the adults in his life into a stir over a couple of bad dreams. Sirius would scold him for not coming to him right away. He'd owl Dumbledore. Dumbledore would want to see Harry right away, and they would both blow it way out of proportion. They might even get McGonagall or Pomfrey involved. He was sick and tired of being at the center of excitement and just wanted to be left alone. That night, he started to tell Sirius, but decided it could wait until morning. No use in spoiling a holiday.
At noon the next day, Harry had still not told Sirius about the dream. True to her word, an owl arrived from Hermione, demanding an answer. He put her off, replying that Sirius had gone into Hogsmeade before he even woke up and wouldn't be home until time to fix supper. He'd tell him as soon as he saw him. Not sure if Hermione would buy his excuse or not, he tied the note to the owl's leg and sent it back on its way.
Growing concerned at not receiving any replies to the owls he sent Mira, Professor Snape sent off another one at noontime. He would finish up his work in the Potions laboratory, and if he had not received a reply during the afternoon, he would inform Dumbledore and go check on her in person after supper.
After they finished their supper, Harry told Sirius about the two dreams. As he had suspected, Sirius was very angry with him for not saying anything sooner and immediately went to the fireplace to have a fire-talk consultation with Dumbledore. The headmaster was equally concerned and asked that Sirius bring Harry on through the floo fire right away. The pair arrived in Dumbledore's office, and Harry sat down to tell the whole story to the old wizard.
After a messy afternoon working on a troublesome potion, Professor Snape went to his bedchamber to change clothes for supper. It would be rude to show up at the table wearing dirty robes, and the professor was very meticulous about his dress. He put on the tunic coat he had worn the last night he visited Mira. As he buttoned the sleeves, he noticed a slight bulge in one of the pockets. It was Mira's hair elastic. After he pulled it out of her hair, it must have somehow wound up in his pocket. Smiling wickedly at the memory of that night, he brought it up to his face to try and smell her fragrance.
He felt a cold, tight feeling in his chest. Instead of her dark curly hair, there were silky blonde hairs tangled up in the elastic. Was she a natural blonde whose hair would return to its natural color and texture once removed from the head? He knew of no grooming potion with that effect, and the whole thing felt very much like dark wizardry. Something nagged at the back of his mind, but he couldn't see the connection. Suddenly it dawned on him and the implication of what may have happened hit him like a cold wave. Knowing that something was very wrong, he grabbed his cloak and ran through the corridors and up the stairs to the headmaster's office. Shouting out the password while still halfway down the hall, he burst into Dumbledore's office and nearly ran headlong into Sirius Black, who had been standing in front of the fire.
"What the hell are you doing, charging into the headmaster's quarters like a crazed hippogriff?"
"I don't have time for you Black, where's Dumbledore? This is urgent!"
"Well, you'll just have to cool your heels and wait a minute; He's in his office with Harry, discussing an urgent matter of his own."
Snape pushed past Sirius and continued towards the closed door of the headmaster's office. Black reached out and grabbed him by the arm. The professor wheeled around with his wand drawn and pointed it in Sirius' face.
"Let go of my arm Black! Mira could be in danger at this very moment, and I do not have time to throw a few curses at you, as much of a pleasure as it would be!"
At the commotion in his sitting room, Headmaster Dumbledore emerged from his office, with a quizzical look on his face.
"Severus, is there something wrong?"
Professor Snape shrugged off Sirius' hand, and turned to the older wizard.
"Headmaster. I have to talk to you immediately. It concerns Mirabelle, and it's very urgent. She may be in danger."
Dumbledore nodded to the professor, and motioned back into his office for Harry to come on out. Harry crossed the floor, a shocked expression on his face, over the commotion, which had taken place in front of the fireplace. Dumbledore ushered the professor into his office, and turned to Harry before closing the door.
"I would like for the two of you to stay for a moment. Just in case I need to have another word with you."
Dumbledore closed the door behind him and listened to Professor Snape's story about the owls to Mira going unanswered, and finding hair, which appeared not to be hers, tangled up in her hair elastic. He also explained how he had only just realized that the stolen potion ingredients were essential in brewing the illegal Polyjuice potion, which could be used to temporarily take on another's physical appearance. If somebody had indeed posed as Mira using the Polyjuice potion, she could be in grave danger.
Dumbledore remembered his last brush with Polyjuice deception. The incident involving Alastor Moody a few years back. He agreed that the matter warranted immediate looking into. He got up from behind his desk and called Sirius back into the room and closed the door.
"What did you bring him in here for?"
"Because he's going with you to the tailor shop to find her. If there's dark magic involved, I don't want you going alone. This could be a trap."
"No Albus. Not with him. I'd rather go alone."
"I'm afraid you're not. You are going with Sirius, and that is the end of it. You are willing to accompany him, aren't you Sirius?"
"Of course headmaster, anything you ask, anything for her."
Sirius exaggerated the "you" and the "her" in his reply to make it quite clear exactly why he was going.
With a snarl, Professor Snape rose from his chair and headed out the door.
As Sirius rose from his chair, the headmaster placed a fatherly hand on his shoulder.
"Sirius, I know that the two of you do not share any good will towards each other, but please make sure he doesn't do anything foolish."
"Of course headmaster. I'll do what I can."
Black turned and exited the office and told Harry that he would be back soon, and asked the boy for an object which he removed from his pocket. Sirius hurried out of the office and down the stairs and central corridor to try and catch up with the professor, who was already out the door and struggling through the icy wind towards the main gates of the school. Sirius watched him blast the gates open with his wand and disapparate as soon as his foot crossed over the magical barrier, which protected the school.