Chapter 8
Harry ate a quiet meal with his friends at Headquarters the next morning, and then they all followed Remus to the dueling room for their lesson. He hasn't budged," Salazar was telling Dumbledore from his portrait.
The headmaster sighed, "I now fear for both of them."
"You must do something!" Mme. Pomfrey protested, "I can't help her, and now I can't help him either! I now he's been stubborn about treatments before, but—this is ridiculous! Two days without sleeping or eating?"
"I know Poppy. I agree, something must be done; but I am not ready to give up on them right now."
Harry realized he was falling behind and jogged to catch up. The lesson was again based on accuracy and speed, but instead it was with the full-body bind and the flippendo jinx: 'ivertae stashio.' The main thing that changed was that only Moody, Sirius, Tonks, and Remus were there; the result was a rather quiet lesson.
Once it ended, Hedwig arrived with the day's issue of the Daily Prophet and dropped it in front of Sirius.
Once he picked it up, Sirius gasped and showed the others the front cover. A black and white photograph of him, and another of Peter, were below a bold headline: Sirius Black: Innocent!
"Read it!" Ron urged.
Sirius nodded and did so. "'Yesterday evening, the Ministry received a visit from a wizard (who shall remain anonymous) who had in his custody, the supposedly dead, Peter Pettigrew.
"'Upon immediate investigation, with the Ministry-approved use of Veritaserum, Pettigrew revealed that he was an unregistered animagus, a servant of the Dark Lord, the murderer of thirteen innocent muggles, and that he had been James and Lily Potter's secret keeper.
"'No one had known about the switch except for the Potters, Mr. Black, and Mr. Pettigrew. And, unfortunately, Sirius Black never got the chance to prove his innocence—for he was sentenced to life in Azkaban without a trial by Barty Crouch Sr.
"'We know that we cannot give Mr. Black all the years he was in Azkaban,' Minister Bones said, 'or the years he's spent on the run. It was terribly wrong of us, and we are deeply sorry for all the trouble and terrible things we've caused him.'
"'Minister Weasley also had something to say. 'From this day, all crimes against Sirius Avitus Black are cleared; all records will be destroyed, not a mark against him will be made. We know that paperwork is not the only thing that matters so, Mr.Black, we ask that if you've gotten the chance to read this, please come out of hiding, so that we may finalize the matter of your guardianship to your godson.'
"'Who Mr. Black's godson is, we have yet to find out. Until then, know that Sirius Black in no murderer, nor is he a traitor; he is, in fact, an innocent convict.'" Sirius finished reading and starred at the paper, numb. Harry smiled and began to clap, Ron grinned and followed suit. Hermione threw her arms around Sirius and gave hima hug, then began to applaude as well.
Sloly, a smile appeared on Sirius' face, making it look less gaunt than usual. He looked at Harry—now they really were family.
There was an Order meeting that afternoon, to discuss Sirius' freedom, and the previous Death Eater meeting. Unfortunately, Draco was called that very day, so his report was shorter than usual.
Somehow, Dumbledore had gotten Snape down out of the Infirmary and to the meeting room. To Harry, Snape looked like a dead man walking. Once the main topic was over, Bill mentioned Splikvin, and was quickly hushed by his mother—luckily, Snape hadn't heard.
Dumbledore made Snape stay with the Order for lunch, but Harry noticed that he didn't touch a thing. "Professor," he said quietly, "you should eat something."
Snape didn't answer, but then Madame Pomfry added to the conversation. "The boy's right Severus, you need to eat. We don't want to loose both of you." The entire table fell silent.
Snape's eyes flashed, he shot a look of pure venom at the nurse. "Selena is not going to die!" he hissed, gripping the table so that his knuckles turned whiter.
"Severus, she doesn't look well," Mme. Pomfrey said sadly, with a hint of pity in her eyes,"she hasn't improved at all; I don't think-"
"I don't give a damn what you think!" he snarled, jumping out of his chair to glare Poppy, "I will die myself before I let her!" There was a tense silence, Mme. Pomfrey was clearly frightened.
Then, a weak, raspy voice said, "Well that ain't fair." All heads turned towards the doorway.
Splikvin, dressed in jeans and a loose white shirt over he rnow skinny frame, was leaning tiredly against the doorway, holding herself up. "If I can't die, neither can you." She croaked with a crooked smile. She walked over and gave Snape a hug, "And don't swear at her—it's bad for your health." Snape colored, returning the hug.
Dumbledore smiled, "We are glad you are feeling better."
Sheheld onto the chair, keeping herself up with Snape's help,and looked at Dumbledore, "Thanks—what've I missed? You weren't yelling loud enough for me to hear everything." Snape colored further.
"I'm officially innocent," Sirius told her.
Splikvin smiled, "Good, now you can actually get a job." Several of them laughed.
"You've been ill for almost three days," Remus added, clearly relieved. She nodded, unconsciously rubbing her forearm.
"You alright?" Kingsley asked, noticing this.
She blinked, "What? Oh—yeah, It's just…sore is all." She stopped rubbing and looked at Snape with a lopsided grin. "Now we're definitely twins."
Though she acted carefree about it while the others chuckled, Harry could tell that she wasn't really as easy-going about the Mark—then again, who was?
Harry flew outside for a bit on his broom, playing tag with Ron, Neville, and the twins. Sirius left with Dumbledore, Remus, and Mr. Weasley to the Ministry so his freedom could be finalized.
Then, just as Harry got Ron, his pendent vibrated. He halted his broom. "Harry here," he said, lifting it out from under his shirt.
It was Mr. Weasley,a worried look in his gaze."Harry, Death Eaters are attacking the Ministry, they've blocked the back and front exits. We need you to get the other members and break through, please hurry!"
"Be there pronto," Harry promised and ended the connection. "Hey! Trouble at the Ministry!" he called to the others, "Death Eaters!"
They immediately flew back to Headquarters, where Harry told the other members what the situation was.
"They probably knew Sirius would choose today to go there," Bill said, "Let's go."
Splikvin started to get up from her seat, but Snape stopped her. "You're staying here," he said firmly.
"Why?" she demanded.
"You're not healthy enough."
She rolled her eyes, "I can walk, can't I?"
"That is not enough; you must stay here."
Grudgingly, she sat back down. "Fine," she grumbled. Snape nodded, then they all dissaperated or teleported away.
There had to be at least fifty Death Eaters in the main lobby of the Ministry, half of them standing guard. Quickly, the nine Order members began to stun and/or disarm the dark warlocks. It took them a minute and nine stunned to realize that they were under attack, and then the fight began. Harry found himself extremely thankful that he'd been drilled in rapid stunner firing; it came out as a big help. Apparently, Voldemort hadn't taken the time to see how efficient his followers at dueling, because Harry found that many of them were bad. They were bad, but there were enough of them to make up for it. Harry ended up reviving Hermione after she got hit with a black-out hex, and shielding Fred from an arm-locker curse. Eventually, the barrier of Death Eaters was broken, and those who'd been fighting on the other side came through. Harry glimpsed Remus and Sirius fighting side by side before he was approached by a Death Eater.
Worried, pale grey eyes met his from behind the mask: it was Draco. Good idea, Harry thought, and began to 'duel' his friend. This was the easiest way to not make it look suspicious on Draco's side, but also so no one from the Order or Ministry landed him in prison.
While dueling Draco, Harry also made sure the others weren't in serious trouble. Ron and Hermione were fine, as was Remus—but then Harry saw Padfoot fall to his knees, though he hadn't been touched by any curse. Draco followed his gaze, but before Harry moved an inch, they saw Splikvin appear and run up to Sirius; Harry refocused on his duel with Draco.
Occasionally, he caught glimpses of Splikvin helping Sirius up and out of the fray, while Remus guarded them. Sirius then touched his pendent and disappeared, Splikvin took his place in the battle.
Then, suddenly, all of the Death Eaters dissaperated from the building, leaving more than several of their number behind, stunned, knocked out, or incapable of movement. In total, they'd captured fifteen Death Eaters, and by the looks of it, lost just as many Ministry workers. "I thought you were supposed to stay at Headquarters," Remus said to Splikvin as Harry walked over to check on him.
Splikvin grinned, "I did stay, just not for the entire time."
"How Slytherin of you." Remus commented dryly.
"Just don't tell Sev."
"Too late for that," the potions master growled. "What happened to your sleeve?" he asked.
She looked at her left arm: her robe sleeve from the elbow down was gone. "It was torn obviously," she drawled, "though how remains the question."
Harry looked around to see who all was there; he'd thought he'd recognized some of the voices.
"Oy, Harry! Over here!" Ron called. Turning around, Harry saw Blaise, Cho, and Susan standing beside Ron and Hermione.
"Wow, why're you guys here?" he asked, walking over.
"Ironically enough, we all came to get our apperation licenses," Blaise replied, "I have been wanting to get mine since Christmas."
Harry smiled, "Man, I have to wait until August first to get mine." Then, there was a large amount of flashing lights and the shouted questions of reporters. "Oh no…" Harry groaned quietly. There were at least twenty of them, and practically all of the Order had already left, except for Remus, Snape, Splikvin, Mr. Weasley, Kingsley, Moody, and Tonks.
The last three were busy taking the remaining Death Eaters to Shadow Hold and removing the fallen from the lobby with the help of other Ministry workers and Aurors, so the reporters left them alone. A large number had grouped around Mr. Weasely, but about five had decided to pick on the remaining three Order members. Harry grimaced when he saw that one of the reporters was Rita Skeeter, with her acid-green quick-quotes-quill at hand.
"Hermione," Harry murmured, "Does the threat still stand?"
She bit her lip, "I'm not sure. I haven't talked to her at all recently, and I can't do it now."
"Then we'd better go help," Ron sighed. They nodded.
"Evil woman," Neville growled as the walked past unsuspiciously.
Although they were trying 'not to be seen', Rita Skeeter caught one glimpse of them and exclaimed, "Harry dear!" causing him to cringe inwardly and the reporters to shout out.
"So Harry, why were you here?" Rita asked.
"My friends were testing for their apperation license," he answered, "I came with them." Harry noticed with relief that a few of the reporters left to listen to Mr. Weasely. Splikvin began to leave but Rita stopped her by reaching out and grasping her forearm. "You teach at Hogwarts, correct?"
Splikvin calmly wrenched her arm free, "I do."
Rita's eyes caught sight of the Dark Mark. "Oh my...and what position?"
"Defense Against the Dark Arts," she answered stiffly, "why do you ask?"
"Oh, I was just curious which posts Dumbledore gives to—darker wizards and witches," she said, glancing at the other two professors.
The students growled in warning and anger, snarling at the reporter.
"Professor Splikvin is the best Defense teacher since Professor Lupin!" Cho shouted.
"And Professor Snape is the best potions teacher out there!" Blaise said wrathfully.
"Professor Snape, Splikvin and Lupin are no darker than Professor Dumbledore!" Neville said firmly, glaring at her like—of all things—a Slytherin; the others nodded.
"You keep those kinds of opinions to yourself lady," Susan told her with scowl, "Or next time you come to Hogwarts, I think there might be an accident." If anyone was surprised by a Hufflepuff making a threat, they didn't show it, only nodded in agreement once more.
Rita looked positively harassed; quickly she smoothed her face to calm, she was now the only reporter left. "I see. Well, tell me—howdid youknow of the attack?" she asked the professors, "I daresay you don't look like you still need an apperation license."
Splikvin took a menacing step forward, her tone reasonable and polite, her expression anything but. "Listen, Miss Skeeter, you are really starting to bug me, understand?"
Rita stiffened, Splikvin's words couldn't of been coincidence. "Perfectly."
"Good, and I suggest you get a quill which does not lie." Harry glanced at the parchment and saw: She stepped forward, wand out, words forming a curse—
Pity, Harry thought, it's a good idea. Rita scowled at Splikvin, but was distracted when the quill caught on fire. She dropped it with a shriek, and stamped on it until it was out—and a lump of black ashes. The three professors looked at Harry with raised eyebrows; he shrugged with an all too innocent look on his face. Splikvin's mouth twitched in a grin.
(A/N: I'm glad no one wanted Splikvin to die, she is an amusing character. Again, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and the next one should be up tomorrow or the next day. A.S.Leif)
Coming Up:
More Relatives?
Questions
Then:
Training
Review Response:
BlurryFuture: Good question: where IS Alex? Heh heh, won't find just yet. Mind, it IS chapter seven but it has only been, oh, a few days or so. ;) You'll have to wait a little longer…