Chapter 9

Emma arrived back at noon. Hermione had just finished making a pitcher of lemonade. Harry had made sandwiches and crisps. Auror Hammer ate outside with them. They talked about the inauguration party. She was quite pleased that Harry had also received an invitation saying, "It's really an intimate setting, not like the one that pompous arse Fudge insisted on. There were a hundred invitations sent out. I was amazed that I got one myself. I thought I'd have to work at it instead. Most of em probably went out to the fancy folk."

After lunch, Emma drove them to Diagon Alley. She got her wish at Gringotts. Harry visited Ragnot for a few minutes signing documents, and offered to take them to Harry's vault to get another document. It hadn't occurred to Harry that it had been years since the head goblin at Gringotts had personally taken a customer to the vaults in a cart. On the way down, they stopped for a moment and Emma's eyes grew in wonderment. One of the herders was moving one of the dragons. She gasped audibly. It was huge, at least twenty feet long. Ragnot told her that it was a young dragon that had just come in as a trainee.

Harry was fairly certain that their meeting a dragon hadn't been a coincidence. When they got back in the lobby, he thanked Ragnot for his personal help. The old goblin gave a slight bow and a look that passed for a goblin smile. "My pleasure, Mr. Potter. Enjoy your day."

On the walk to Malkin's, Emma could talk of nothing else. Hermione winked at Harry, and whispered "thanks." Harry and Hermione were both measured for robes. After Harry was done being measured, it was Hermione's turn. Emma showed him some different fabrics as Madam Malkin herself watched. She suggested a slate grey fabric with a silver trim. For Hermione, she found and ice blue fabric that looked fantastic. She asked for an hour to finish. She found matching shoes and a handbag for her.

Harry paid for the robes and asked about armor vests. They weren't Malkin's specialty and she recommended that they go to Redstone's several doors down. Emma was spellbound as they entered the shop. The different hides and the photos of the dragons had taken her breath away. It was one thing to hear about them and certainly something else to have previously seen a photo. However today she had actually seen a real dragon and felt the thick armor hide with her own hand. Harry quietly found the owner and explained what he wanted. Diane the tailor told him that she'd have them ready to pick up or delivery Monday morning. Harry signed a draft, collected Hermione and Emma from the displays and they left to go pick up the dress robes.

Madam Malkin wished them both well as they left the shop carrying their purchases. On the way out Harry purchased a case of butterbeers from Tom. He thought they would make an interesting change from cokes.

Few people had recognized Harry as he had been walking down Diagon Alley. He had filled out somewhat in the last month and his new clothing fit him very well. He had worn a red cap with a football team logo and had worn the prescription sunglasses that Emma had found for him. As such he hadn't been mobbed, and they'd had a very pleasant afternoon. Hammer had taken a few minutes while they were in Malkin's to do a bit of shopping of her own. They all met up by Emma's gray BMW and drove home.

They stopped at the market on the way home and Emma bought some steaks and vegetables for dinner that evening. They got back at 4:00. Harry asked Emma what time she wanted dinner. She replied 6:30. Emma suggested that they go relax for an hour and reminded them that they would both be receiving a crash course in ballroom dancing after dinner.

As it had been raining quite a bit the day before, Emma had some trouble getting the barbeque pit fire going properly. Smiling, Hermione withdrew her wand from her wrist holder and said "Incendio."

Within a few seconds the coals had a nice chalky white ash around the edges. "Good trick, dear," smiled Emma.

"Magic," replied her smiling daughter, borrowing her friend's favorite reply.

Dan arrived home a few minutes later. Harry brought out four bottles of cold butterbeer. "What's this?" he asked.

"A wizarding drink, butterbeer. I hope you like it," said Harry.

Dan tasted it, and smiled, saying, "Excellent. This is really good."

"Guess what I saw today," said Emma entirely unable to contain herself a moment longer.

"No idea," replied Dan.

"We saw a real dragon today. It was huge. It blew fire and had a long tail and wings! It looked fantastically mean and beautiful all at the same time." She was so pleased with herself.

"We should introduce you to our friend Hagrid," said Hermione, shaking her head in disbelief at her mum. "He raised one from an egg."

"Brilliant!" said Emma, amazed. "What kind?"

Harry grinned at her a replied, "A Norwegian Ridgeback. He called it Norbert."

"Fantastic," replied Emma.

"Fantastic?" said Hermione in disbelief. "Mum, it almost bit Ron's hand off, and Hagrid lives in a wooden house! He had to get rid of it. They're illegal under wizarding law to keep as pets."

"What about the one we saw today?" asked Emma, confused.

"Gringotts is run by Goblins, not wizards," replied Harry. Dan and Harry went over to the pit, and watched the steaks burn while Emma and Hermione finished up inside.

They had a nice dinner together, along with Hammer, who thanked them for including her. As Harry and Hermione were bringing in the glasses and plates, Emma asked the Senior Auror about the type of music that they would likely have at the ball. Hammer gave her some ideas and went back to her post.

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While Dan and Emma were going over the basics of a box step and wincing while getting their feet stepped on, Draco Malfoy was down in the sub-cellar of the Malfoy manor casting unforgivables on a practice dummy that Lucius had previously set up in the training room. It was warded so the signature of the spells was muffled, and not traceable.

Draco wasn't a particularly skilled wizard. Excepting the Os that Snape invariably gave him in class, he was at best an average student who had seldom applied himself with his studies. He'd consistently been bested not only by Hermione, but most of the Ravenclaws, half of the Gryffindors, some of the Hufflepuffs, and a surprising number of the female Slytherins. In truth, he had spent his childhood living the role of the son of a baron, and acted every bit the pampered prince that Snape had accused Harry of being.

Draco was ready to prove that he could pull the trigger. Lucius had never spent much time discussing fighting strategy or technique with Draco. Believing that he lacked both discipline to be a good follower, and the vision to be a leader, Lucius let him be, hoping that Draco would attain some maturity with age.

Draco didn't know what mission Professor Snape was going to take him on, but he was positive that he would take his first life tonight. For that, he was ready.

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That night at 11 Snape apparated to the front lawn of Malfoy Manor. He walked the hundred yards to get to the main house and was shown in without knocking. He drew a diagram of the Granger home, and the yard, explaining that they would be apparating to the opposite side of where Snape thought the guard was likely to be.

Snape would stun the guard, and they would ignite the house unless they were discovered. Snape told Draco that most likely the people inside would be asleep and they should avoid being seen if at all possible. He told him that if they were discovered that they were to disengage and portkey back to the manor. He specifically told Draco that the objective was to cause property damage, scare the occupants and leave.

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As Snape was talking to Draco, Hermione quietly knocked on Harry's door. "Harry," she whispered, "Come on out. We're going for a midnight swim."

Harry opened the door and whispered, "My suit's out on the laundry line."

She kissed his cheek and said, "We won't need it. Come on. Bring your wand. It's dark out."

Harry quietly gathered his wand and closed the door behind him. They went down the stairs and quietly opened the back door.

Hit Wizard Wood heard the back door open and went over to investigate. He saw Hermione and the Potter kid come out. She told him that they were going for a moonlight swim and wouldn't make much noise.

He chuckled at them, told them to have fun and walked to the opposite side of the house to give the two teens some privacy.

They went to the pool and Hermione began removing her bathrobe and set it at the edge of the pool. "We're going skinny dipping, silly. Come on in. No one can see us." She kissed his cheek and quietly climbed into the pool. The air was very warm, and the water felt delicious.

Somewhat in shock, Harry set his wand down, took off his pajamas, and glasses, and carefully got into the water.

Hermione found Harry and held his hand as they quietly floated in the water. Harry was nervous, having never been in any sort of similar situation. She gave him a few minutes and she could hear and feel that he had relaxed, at least slightly. Touching the bottom on her toes, she took a step closer and placed his hand on her right breast. She whispered, "It's OK."

For Harry, the sensation was indescribable. He had never felt anything like it. He could feel her warmth against his hand. As he was moving closer to her, they saw a red and a green flash of light from the other side of the yard.

"Shite. Don't make a sound," whispered Harry.

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Dumbledore's instructions had been clear. Arrive, do a bit of property damage, be seen, disengage without hurting anyone and leave. This was an act of finesse. Snape had chosen Draco because he wouldn't ask too many questions, and since he hadn't yet taken the Mark, he wouldn't specifically be questioned about the raid.

Snape had planned on stunning the Auror if they were seen. He knew that the Auror almost always sat on the west side of the house closest to the swimming pool. The portkey that they used wouldn't make the same tell tale Pop that apparation would. Besides with a portkey, Draco didn't need to know the location in advance.

Snape's plan went bad as soon as they appeared. The portkey landed them less than fifteen feet from the Hit Wizard. Their only advantage was that their adrenalin level was high and their wands were out. Wood immediately pulled his wand out and was casting a stunner as his arm was still rising.

Unfortunately Draco had cast the killing curse and had hit Wood as the Hit Wizard's jet of red light was harmlessly striking the ground.

Draco was elated. He'd killed an Auror. The rush of elation was flowing through him as Snape's hand struck his cheek. "Idiot," he hissed. "I'd have stunned him. This wasn't an assassination mission, it was to send a warning message."

Draco started to argue with him as he felt Snape's hand slap his other cheek.

Snape hissed, "We need to ignite the house and be gone in twenty seconds. Can you at least follow those instructions?"

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Harry and Hermione had silently slipped out of the pool. Not bothering to get dressed, they grabbed their wands and crept closer.

Snape and Malfoy called Incendio, and the house began to burn for a few seconds and then went out. "Try again," hissed Snape. Incendio. The flames lit the same spots and seemed to burn a bit better this time.

In the light cast by the flames, Harry and Hermione crept closer until they were about fifty feet from the two wearing Death Eater garb.

Harry whispered to his friend, "Use a reducto charm, aim true. I'll take the one on the right. On two."

As the flames shot from their wands a third time, Snape heard the noise from behind him. As he was turning his head, he felt the impact of Hermione's reducto charm as it hit him just inside his right shoulder. The force of the charm normally used to explode a piece of wood or rock, blew most of the flesh from his right side, nearly severing his arm. He crumpled to the ground, blood spurting everywhere.

Harry's charm had hit Draco solidly in the gut. Malfoy's last moment of consciousness was the sight of a naked Harry Potter, illuminated by the sputtering fire, pointing his wand at him. Like his mentor, he crumpled to the ground.

Harry shouted, "Run inside and get Bones on the cell phone on my dresser. The number is 321. Go."

Hermione didn't need telling twice. Harry banished the two wands and stunned the two Death Eaters. A second later he cast the charm to put out the sputtering fire that the two had attempted to start at the roofline.

The lights went on in the Granger household, and Harry had the presence of mind to go back to the pool and put on his pajama bottoms before he heard the POP, pop, pop, pop, pop, Pop, pop of arriving Aurors, Wit Wizards and Mediwitches.

Inside, Hermione put on another bathrobe and flipped on the outside lights. Amelia Bones arrived fifteen seconds after the others, wand out.

Following their command instruction of Down on the ground, drop your wand, Harry lay on the ground face down.

The Aurors quickly found Wood's body and the two Death Eaters. As the Medi Witch waited for the Aurors to verify that Snape and Malfoy were disarmed, and tossed away the portkeys, they both were losing a lot of blood.

Malfoy began convulsing. His ruined intestines were in bits within a ten foot area of where he'd been hit. There was nothing to be done for him. He died two minutes later, his dreams of following his father's footsteps of cruel fame and glory leaked out onto the grass in the back garden of the house in Crawley.

The Mediwitch cauterized the wounds around Snape's shoulder. She removed the remains of his right arm while another Mediwitch began pouring blood replenishing potion down his unconscious throat. Four units later, he gave a cough, indicating that he had taken a sufficient a volume of the fast acting potion.

Meanwhile Hermione had pounded on her parent's door and they were up.

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Several hundred miles away, Dumbledore sat in his circular office waiting for Snape, who he expected to be back at any moment. He hadn't wanted to take the extreme action of frightening the Grangers to get them to send Harry away, but he felt that he had no other choice. Not knowing the prophecy, they would have no idea of the danger that would await them if Voldemort and his Death Eaters decided to attack their home.

Dumbledore had no idea that his plan had gone so very badly wrong. He had no idea that Severus had drafted Malfoy to come along with him. He had no idea that as he was sitting in his dimly lit office sucking a lemon drop, a hit wizard had been killed and one of his students lay dying.

It would be another hour before he would receive the fire-call message telling him that there had been an attack at the Grangers, two people were dead and his Potions Professor was in critical condition in the secured ward at St. Mungo's.

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"Harry, what happened?" asked Bones, as the three Grangers came out of the back door.

Harry replied, "Hermione and I were out in the pool having a swim when we saw a flash of red light and a flash of green light at the other side of the house. Is Michael all right?"

Shaking her head no, Bones urged him to continue.

"We got out of the pool and could see two Death Eaters trying to burn the house down. We snuck up on them and hit them with reducto charms. When I saw that they were down, I told Hermione to go inside and call you. I restunned them, banished their wands and took a look for anyone else.

She could see that he was wearing wet pajama bottoms hastily put on backwards and knew that he was telling the truth. In a soft voice she told him, "Go inside and get dressed. I need to talk with Hermione and her parents for a few minutes."

Hermione had told the identical story. Again the physical evidence confirmed their stories. She had Church perform the Priory Incantatem charm on each of the wands to validate the last spells performed.

As Bones finished talking with the Grangers, Tonks came up to her and whispered something in her ear. Bones excused herself and Tonks followed out the door. She confirmed that the two Death Eaters were Severus Snape and Draco Malfoy. She authorized the transport of Snape from the scene to St. Mungo's, and Malfoy to the secured holding cell. She asked Senior Auror Church to supervise the examination of the body and for Auror Shetland to catalog everything that was found in the back garden.

There were inconsistencies all over the case. The only things she took as fact were Harry and Hermione's description of the events. She walked back to the pool and found the rest of their clothing by the edge of the pool.

Inside Dan and Emma were trying to understand what had happened and to calm the two teens. Dan wasn't much help, so he stepped outside in time to see the body of Michael Wood being portkeyed away with two of the Aurors. The wizarding war had come to his door.

One of the mediwitches came in and talked with the four for a few minutes. There was nothing more to be done tonight. There were no more questions. The teens' wands had been placed on the kitchen table for them. They could pick them up in the morning. She offered them each a dreamless sleep potion. Five minutes later, the four were sleeping in their rooms. Hammer had volunteered to stay inside for the night while Tonks and Shetland were posted outside. It would be a busy day tomorrow.

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Bones woke early. Hopkirk and Susan had volunteered to take care of the details of the inauguration party at the house that night. She felt like she had one more case to work before turning the department over to Hammer on Monday.

The holes in the case had been nagging at her all night. Draco wasn't wearing the Mark, indicating that he wasn't a full-fledged Death Eater yet. If this had been an initiation exercise for him, she would have expected a group of three to five trainees and at least an equal number of older Death Eaters. She had never heard of a two person training raid. Both Harry and Hermione were consistent in their stories about seeing just the two.

'Why Snape? Why Draco?' It was possible that Malfoy had initiated the exercise, but she found it unlikely that Snape would agree to go along. She believed that he was on the light side, spending more of his time working for Dumbledore than Voldemort. There were a thousand ways that Snape could have talked Malfoy out of the idea or told someone about it.

If Malfoy had decided to do it on his own she'd have thought it much more likely that he'd have dragged his school chums Crabbe and Goyle along with him.

She decided that the raid wasn't planned from the bottom-up, rather that it had been initiated top-down. The question that was on her mind was who ordered the raid?

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Dumbledore rubbed his brow for what had felt like the thousandth time that night. The situation had gone completely off track. As he understood it, Michael Wood was dead, Draco was dead, and Severus was in critical but stable condition. More important, Harry still hadn't been moved to a place of safety.

He would go see Amelia and get the facts. He did not want this misstep to ruin his relationship with Amelia or Harry. Perhaps the story would die with Severus before his deposition.

Alastor walked into his circular office. "Care to own up to something Albus?" Like Bones, the old Master Auror knew that Voldemort would have never ordered Snape to take Draco by himself on a training raid. He doubted that Snape would have initiated an operation on his own. Besides, Snape was a back office guy, who played with his glass containers, not a soldier.

Dumbledore replied, "This has gone very, very wrong. I simply asked Severus to go visit the Grangers and make an appearance to impress on them about the danger of having Harry stay there."

"I'll take care of it," said Moody. "Be someplace highly visible for the next hour." He walked out of the room. 'Why hadn't the old man just left Potter alone?' None of this mess would have happened, and he wouldn't be facing another dirty job.

Dumbledore walked out of the office and found Minerva. "I owe you an apology, Minerva. Let's go to the Three Broomsticks and have breakfast. We haven't visited with Rosmerta for a while." They walked to the fireplace in Dumbledore's office then used the floo to get to the pub. Rosmerta was very talkative and asked them about Bones taking over.

He had been invited to the Inauguration ball that evening and was going to attend with McGonagall. Rosmerta asked Minerva what she was going to wear, and the two women had fun visiting, while Dumbledore sucked on a lemon drop. He would miss Severus, but knew that there was no way to put things back as they had been. Snape had made a bad decision bring the Malfoy boy with him and had paid for it.

Dumbledore remembered back to the promise that many of the Order members had asked him to make after Sirius had come out, not to allow them to be sent to Azkaban. Given the murder of Hit Wizard Wood, there was no way that Severus would face anything less than life in Azkaban, unless it was a dementor's kiss.

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As Dumbledore and McGonagall were visiting in the Hogsmeade pub with Rosmerta and several of the villagers, Moody had entered St. Mungo's. Donning his invisibility cloak, he followed two healers into Snape's room. As they were leaving, he silently cast the spell that would stop the man's heart, then walked out as quietly as he came.

He had liked Snape as a person, but detested what he did and how he treated people. Moody was as up front a person as there was. Snape was not surprised when he felt the spell hit, and drifted out of consciousness a few seconds later.

Moody was not proud of what he had done but knew that Snape would not have been treated with any dignity what-so-ever had Voldemort caught up with him. Azkaban or a date with a dementor were no better. Moody realized that Snape's demise was quite predictable given his profession. Only the timing and the circumstance had been unknown. He stopped by to visit Frank and Alice, then went back home and got ready to attend the inauguration ceremony. Most likely, Snape's death wouldn't be discovered for at least an hour, as the staff believed him to be resting comfortably. The spell was untraceable and highly unlikely to be discovered unless someone was actually watching it being cast.

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Dumbledore reviewed the swearing in ceremonial oath that would be administered at noon. It would be the fourth time that he had read it to an incoming Minister of Magic. He used the floo in his office to take him to the MoM lobby. He made certain to say hello to several people and mentally made a note of who they were, before proceeding to the auditorium.

As people began to gather, he spent time visiting with them, all the while keeping his eyes open for Order members or Harry.

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As Snape was taking his last breath, Dan and Harry were hitting off the third tee. While walking to their balls, Dan thanked Harry for saving his family the previous night. There was no hint of accusation, or blame. He simply was grateful that the two teens had acted so responsibly and more importantly, hadn't been hurt. Emma was making arrangements to have them visit with a Psychologist friend of hers the next day.

The yard and house had been put back to normal by the time that they had woken up. In reality the charms and wards that the two had placed on the house had worked exceptionally well.

Harry was really grateful that Dan had taken the time to spend the morning with him by himself. Dan was equally grateful that Harry was spending the morning with him. Dan wasn't certain that given the same circumstances, he would have measured up as well as the young man that he counted as family.

"Were you scared when you were out there?" he asked cautiously.

Harry's eyes met Dan's and he replied, "I was scared silly the whole time to tell you the truth. Instinct just sort of took over. Do you know what I mean?"

In truth, Dan had never faced anything remotely resembling two killers trying to burn down his home. He had never faced any serious threats to his or his family's safety, but he was a good man. He nodded and said, "I think so."

Dan had something else that he felt that he had to say. After they had hit their second shot and were walking to the green he said, "Harry, I'm glad you were there. I'm honored to count you as part of our family and just wanted to say thank you. You're a good man Harry."

"Thank you sir. I feel the same about you and Mrs. Granger."

Dan patted him on the back. "You've saved our lives, Harry. How about all of us being on a first name basis? OK?"

Harry nodded, forever grateful to the man for not simply chucking him out of his home. "Yes Sir. OK."

A few holes later, Dan asked, "Did you and Hermione know those men?"

Harry nodded. "One was a teacher at school. The other was just a guy living up to his destiny. To answer your next question, I have no idea why they were there. Director Bones will probably question Snape and find out his reasons. They have some really powerful truth serums. She'll find out."

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"He what?" Amelia Bones was livid. Five minutes previously she had been sworn in as the new Minister of Magic, feeling like she had a handle of the case. Now her intended source of explanation was dead. "What happened?"

Shetland didn't enjoy being the bearer of bad news. "He just died. The only people in or out of the room were the healers. I was outside the door the entire morning."

Bones said, "Get me a list of everyone who checked in, checked out or visited this morning, including the hospital staff. Make sure you're getting the original sign in sheets."

The head healer, Crabtree came by a few minutes later and advised her that while Snape had been in stable condition, he'd had a total of five and a half units of healing potion. She mentioned that the victim's heart failed over 50 percent of the time in cases where more than four units had been administered.

Be that as it may, Bones still didn't believe that Snape and Malfoy had acted alone.

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A/N

Thanks for the kind reviews from chapter 8. I haven't finished answering all of them but will if you have a valid e-mail on your account. The story is getting interesting. I had a couple of building chapters in 5-7, but I hope it is going OK now. Questions:

If directly confronted about it, would Dumbledore admit his actions, justify his actions, worm his way out of it, ignore the question, or outright lie?

Are the Grangers responsible parents continuing to keep Harry at their home in the face of obvious danger?

Lordwar's Harry Potter and the Summer of Change is an outstanding work in progress. 2567419.