Chapter Twenty Nine: Retribution and Flaming Howlers
Retribution was swift. Snape didn't know for sure who had slipped him the tablet, or even that it had been a tablet that had been slipped to him. But he thought he had a good idea of who was responsible.
Or at least who he was going to make responsible for the event.
"Potter," Snape sneered at him as he entered the Room of Requirement for their first Potions class after the incident.
"Yes, Professor?" Harry looked up from his cauldron.
"Ten points from Gryffindor!"
Harry looked at him, stunned. "What for?"
"And ten more! For questioning me... the original ten for slipping a potion into my drink..."
"Me?" Harry looked stunned.
"You, Potter. Do not think you can fool me with your false innocence..."
"My...?" Harry truly was shocked. He hadn't thought that he'd be blamed... he hadn't thought that Snape would give him that much credit.
"Tell me how you did it and I may resist taking an additional ten points."
"But I didn't...?"
"Ten more points from Gryffindor!"
Harry, wisely, shut his mouth. His eyes, however, betrayed him as he looked angrily at the older man.
"You dare to defy me?" Snape looked at him.
"Professor," Hermione interjected, drawing the attention of the very annoyed Snape.
"What... is... it... Miss... Granger?" Snape said in a low voice, not breaking eye contact with Harry.
"How, exactly, do you know that it was Harry, sir?"
"This has Potter written all over it," Snape said, still not meeting her eyes.
"Forgive me, Professor, but you've said yourself that Harry is terrible at Potions..."
"Your point, Miss Granger?"
"Well, I don't know how he would have managed the Charming Charm..."
"Because it is the Charming Charm, Miss Granger... do I need to explain it to a seventh year student that the two are different?"
"No, sir... but as I remember it, the Charm would have had to have been trapped in a potion for you to ingest it... and the only potion that can carry a charm into a human being is a Transtineo potion... and that is beyond the abilities of most seventh year students, much less Harry..."
"So he had help, then, Miss Granger?" Snape turned his eyes on her. "Are you telling me that he had the assistance of someone who is reasonably capable with Potions? Because that would leave you and Draco Malfoy... and we all know that Mr Malfoy is not longer with us, even if Potter could convince him to help him... don't we?"
"I could do it, sir.," Hermione said honestly and without arrogance. "Yes... but I think it's rather surprising that you would think that I would endanger the possibility of gaining a Potions' Mastery Apprenticeship just to pull off a prank. And a rather juvenile one, at that."
The others gaped at her. Hermione ignored them.
But Snape seemed to think about this before turning back to Harry. "You were involved in this somehow, Potter... do not think you've gotten away with it."
Harry, wisely, stayed silent.
"Turn to page eight hundred and seventy two... all of you!" Snape turned back to the front of the room and proceeded with the class. Harry sent a look of pure gratitude to Hermione. Once again, her logic had saved his backside in the final hour.
"I am going to kill your brothers, Ginny!" Harry hissed as they made their way back to the Tower late that afternoon. "Thirty bloody points!"
"Send them a howler," she said.
"What?" he stopped, turning to look at her.
"Send them a howler," she shrugged. "They'll be falling over themselves to make it right with you. Of course... I'd be rather frightened, myself, over the form that that might take... but still, it's always good to have those two owing you."
"Thus speaketh the voice of experience," Ron snorted.
Harry turned confused eyes on Ron. "What?"
Ron shrugged. "Ginny's had the twins under her thumb for years because they've owed her for something or other. Trust her, Harry... she won't lead you wrong when it comes to dealing with those two. She's the only one in the family who can, really."
Harry turned back to the grinning Ginny.
"Let's go to the owlery," Harry grinned back.
Harry found it quite difficult at first to write the howler. He wasn't used to yelling at people... or calling them down for their actions. He'd learned early on to disappear into the background when there was conflict, and allowing his emotions to run wild and overflow into the message, as he needed to do for the charm to work, was difficult to say the least.
"Come on, Harry, you can do better than that!" Ginny was impatient. "Really let them have it!"
"Ginny... I just can't... I..."
"You're not mad enough," Ron stated. "You have to really be angry."
"I know, Ron..."
"Think about how you felt when Snape was calling you down... before I stepped in," Hermione advised.
Harry's eyes flared.
"Good," Ginny grinned. "Now... think about Draco Malfoy..."
"And the attack on your Aunt..." advised Hermione.
"And the attack on Hermione's folks..." Ron said, watching Harry closely.
"And then everything that Snape has ever done to you that was unfair..." Hermione continued. They were all watching Harry now.
"And how what the twins did set him off on you again," Ginny said.
Harry grabbed the quill and parchment from her hands and began to scribble, disjointed, angry words. As he wrote, the parchment began to smoke... and then turn red. It glowed like a flame as he folded it and tied it to Hedwig's leg.
The owl looked at him doubtfully for a moment, then down at the red parchment tied to her leg, and back to Harry, as though to say, are you sure?
"Go, Hedwig... take that to the twins... and make sure they read it!" Harry said in a low, angry voice.
With a hoot, Hedwig took off from her perch and sailed through one of the arches in the tower room. Harry felt his anger dissipate.
"Wow," Ron said.
"What?"
"I've never seen one that red before," Ron said. "It was practically smoking."
Harry nodded, silently, and turned to Ginny, pulling her into his arms. "Gits."
Ginny chuckled against his chest and kissed him hard before pulling away and leading the way back to the common room, where she spent the evening curled up in his lap in one of the big squashy chairs there. The look in Harry's eyes kept everyone else away, which was just fine by Ginny.
The following morning, as the group ate their breakfast in the Room of Requirement, Hedwig came tapping at the window. Ginny walked over and opened it, admitting the owl into the warm room, and she immediately flew to Harry.
Glancing at Ginny and Ron, he untied the parchment from her leg and absently fed her a sausage from his plate as he opened the note. Reading, he didn't even notice as Hedwig dipped her beak in his pumpkin juice, something he didn't normally let her do, because the rich juice had a rather unpleasant effect on her. Surreptitiously, watching him all the time, the owl took another drink before nipping at his ear and then flying back out the window.
Harry read on.
"Well?" Ron asked impatiently.
Harry rolled up the parchment and slid it into his pocket, calmly going back to his breakfast.
"Harry!" Ginny looked at him. "What did they say?"
"Hmm?" He looked up at them.
"Fred and George... the note was from them, right?" Ron demanded.
"Hmm... yes... nothing much."
"Nothing much?" Ron cried, exasperated. "You'd think..."
He stopped as he saw the look on Harry's face.
"They told you."
"Told me what?"
"How they did it," Ron stated, his eyes narrowing. "They told you how to get to Snape, didn't they?"
"Rather," Harry grinned, popping a sausage into his mouth.
"Harry!"
"Oh, fine," he grinned. "Seems Professor Snape goes every Friday night to the pub in Hogsmeade and orders the same thing... one goblet of Shrivelfig wine..."
"How did they...?" Ron began, only to be cut off by Ginny.
"Oh, come on, Ron! The twins spent more time in Hogsmeade outside of school visits than the rest of the school did during visits! Of course they'd know if he made a habit of going there."
"Well, it seems some Polyjuice Potion and a conversation with Madame Rosmerta later... and Snape's pretty," Harry grinned.
"Evil," Ginny sat back, looking at him in awe. "Pure evil."
"Oh... and they've both promised me ownership of their souls if they ever get me in trouble with Snape again," Harry said offhandedly as he stood and retrieved his book bag, preparing for their first class.
"Their souls?" Ginny gasped, looking rather put out. "All they ever promised me was their lifetime devotion!"
They worked hard. Very hard. They all began to gain knowledge and abilities that they knew they wouldn't have, had they not been taking classes separate from the other students, and this somehow translated into their interest being peaked even more. Seamus Finnegan even took to studying in the library outside of classes, which had the girls of Hogwarts looking oddly at him.
The twelve students took to spending their evenings in the Room of Requirement as well as their days... and more than one night they stayed so late that they just transfigured the couches and various furniture into beds and stayed there. There were whispers in the corridors about the group, and the nickname that Seamus had given them leaked out.
And then, one day just before Easter, Dumbledore came to the room and asked Harry to accompany him.
"Professor?" Harry followed the elderly wizard into his office. "What's wrong?"
"You need to go back to Potter Manor for Easter, Harry."
"Oh?"
"Your Aunt..."
"Aunt Petunia? What's wrong? Mrs Granger sent an owl this week saying everything is fine..."
"It is... but you and Remus are her only... she isn't remembering, Harry... and I believe that it is well past time for her to have recovered fully. I am concerned about your cousin..."
"Dudley? Why?"
Dumbledore sighed. "Dudley Dursley has been in some trouble..."
"Trouble? What kind of trouble?"
"His aunt doesn't... there are no restrictions on Dudley in her home. Apparently, the constabulary paid Marge a visit last week with the accusation that Dudley had been bullying another child..."
Harry snorted, "Nothing new there."
"No... but as it is, I believe that he is testing the limits in Marge Dursley's home... and finding none..."
"So? What can be done?"
"I can put the fear of God into him, for one," Dumbledore sighed, resting his chin on his clasped hands. "But in this case, I am afraid it would do little good. Dudley is demanding answers to his questions about what happened... and his aunt is not..."
"Big surprise," Harry scoffed. "So?"
"So, we need to... Harry, we need to make a judgement call. We either decide that Petunia will never recover, and Obliviate both Dudley and Marge – and be prepared to do the same to Petunia should she ever recover her memories, or we bring him to Potter Manor."
Harry gaped. "What?"
"I know that you don't particularly want him..."
"Professor, please do not tell me that you are suggesting that we Obliviate a mother and child... separating them permanently, erasing all knowledge of each other...and... and make them believe that each other are... dead?"
Dumbledore gazed at Harry for a moment. "Harry..."
"Is that what you did to me?" Harry asked in a pained voice. "Is that what happened? Dumbledore... are my parents really dead?"
