Chapter 9
The Malfoys
When the next morning came around, Harry was quite pleased that the outcome of the adventure of the previous night had ended up being only a bunch of detentions with Tonks rather than an actual duel to the death. He was disappointed that he had lost his invisibility cloak in the transaction, but in a strict sense, he had accomplished his goal in finding out what had Tonks and the other members of the Order so worked up.
He began to think about the events of the night before, and also about just what he might do about them. He remembered the fact that he had the Marauder's Map with him, and opened his trunk to get it out. But he was surprised to find that it wasn't there. He continued to look for about half an hour before giving up and making his way down to breakfast, already highly frustrated. He guessed he must have left the map back at the Weasleys' or the Dursleys'. Neither option was particularly comforting. If he had left it at the Dursleys' it was probably already thrown out. If he had left it at the Weasley's, he was reluctant to ask Mr or Mrs. Weasley's help in finding it, in case they would object to him having such a map. It would be understandable given Ginny's experiences with another bit of interactive paper in her first year. They probably wouldn't give it back to him.
So by the time Harry got down to the cafeteria, he decided that as much as it pained him to do so, he was simply going to have to give up on monitoring the school for Pettigrew himself, and simply let it up to the guards to do so. His frustration at this was quickly overshadowed by other intricate emotional problems when he related the goings on of the previous night to Ginny, Ron, and Hermione.
After he had finished the story, Hermione said, "Harry! That was terribly irresponsible! You could've been hurt."
"You told us you wouldn't go anywhere, after we told you we wouldn't come," said Ron, sounding hurt.
"You didn't even tell me you were thinking of doing anything!" said Ginny. "You asked for Ron and Hermione's help and didn't even tell me? You're a prat!" She marched off and sat down by Neville, sitting six spaces down the table. Harry would have followed, but figured he had other bridges to mend first.
"Ron, Hermione, you two aren't mad at me are you?" Harry appealed.
"Of course we are," said Hermione, you snuck out behind our backs."
"And you're mad too?" he asked Ron.
"Well, yeah," said Ron, but Harry sensed some uncertainty in his tone.
"I had to," Harry explained. "I knew something was going on, and I couldn't stand the curiosity. You can't expect me to be content staying uninformed, can you?"
"Well," said Ron, even more uncertainly, "I was okay not knowing…"
"But you were curious, weren't you?" asked Harry.
"Look, Harry, I understand why you did what you did," said Hermione, even though she still sounded a little bit angry. "It seems like Death Eaters seek you out, and I suppose we couldn't really expect you to be content not knowing anything. But now that you know, you won't go sneaking out and doing anything stupid will you?"
"'Course not. I may have a tendency to do reckless things sometimes, but I'm not completely stupid. I wouldn't go out without my invisibility cloak," said Harry.
"Good," said Hermione.
"So, we're all on speaking terms then?" asked Harry eagerly.
Hermione and Ron both answered in the affirmative.
"So what's going on with Ginny?" asked Harry. "Didn't she used to be a nice, quiet girl? And now she's yelling at me."
"Well, she was just shy around you. She's pretty talkative otherwise, as you seem now to be noticing," said Ron.
"But you're glad for that, right? I mean, you're glad she's not shy around you anymore?" asked Hermione.
"Of course," Harry said, although he wasn't sure that it mattered right now, as she wasn't talking to him anyway.
Then, the post came, which, once again, did nothing to bolster Harry's mood. The first thing that Harry, Ron, and Hermione noticed about the front page of the Daily Prophet that Hermione received was that there was a picture of Lucius Malfoy on it. The accompanying story read as follows:
Mass Escape From Azkaban
Despite the attempts of the Ministry of Magic to place skilled Aurors to guard the prisoners of Azkaban, it seems that dementors are the only beings truly capable of guarding the most famous wizard prison. Lucius Malfoy and the other Death Eaters captured in last spring's happenings at the Ministry of Magic have escaped. Fudge vows to do his utmost to get these prisoners back into the cells where they belong, but many remain skeptical about his ability to do this. Meanwhile, citizens are warned to stay on the lookout and brush up on their Defense Against the Dark Arts skills.
"Oh, great!" said Ron sarcastically, once he had finished reading this. "Even now that the Order has got the whole Ministry on their side, the Ministry isn't able to help out!"
"Well, still, it's better than having the Ministry actively working against us," reasoned Hermione. "Although this particular screw-up at the ministry could be devastating for the Order. Everybody's going to have to keep their guard up doubly as much."
At that moment, Malfoy, who had also apparently read the news, came over to gloat. "Looks like my father's too smart to be held captive by the Ministry. Although his success may have been partially due to the general incompetence of the Ministry workers," suggested Malfoy, glancing pointedly at Ron. "Oh, yeah, and Potter, don't think this means we're even or anything, 'cause we're not. You're still going to pay for what you did to my father," said Malfoy ominously, and walked away.
"You know," Harry mused, half to himself, "this is turning out to be a bloody terrible day!"
On Hermione's advice, Harry gave Ginny her space for the rest of breakfast, before going up to the common room to work on the Potions homework he had gotten from McGonogall the night before. That class, by the way, was going pretty well so far. He had received an "Exceeds Expectations" on his reversal potion.
When he saw Ginny at lunch, he apologized to her for not telling her about his plans. He promised that he'd be more open with her in the future. And he meant it too. Aside from the fact that he didn't like being in trouble, he really didn't want Ginny to be upset. Ginny must have noticed his good intentions, because she accepted his apology.
Saturday afternoon saw the Gryffindor Quidditch team kick off its practice schedule. To allow everybody to practice, Harry had all the Chasers try to score on Ron, while one beater tried to help the scoring team, and the other the defending team. Harry simply went about releasing and catching the Snitch and also critiquing the performance of his teammates. He knew that since his team was primarily new, he was going to have to work with them a lot. But he thought that they showed moderate improvement after only just a few hours of practice that Saturday afternoon.
And, despite Harry's concerns, Colin Creevey behaved himself quite well while he was watching the Quidditch practice.
It was only after the practice that he ended up getting himself into trouble.
Despite the headmaster's orders about not being on the grounds unaccompanied, Colin had apparently decided to go back to the castle by himself when the Quidditch players were changing their robes. This was not the extent of Colin's problems however.
It was about dinner time when the team got done practicing, but Harry wanted to go to the library to check out a book about potions to help him with McGonogall's latest assignment.
When Harry notified Ginny and Ron to go ahead without him and that he'd be at dinner a few minutes late, just as soon as he got back from the library, Ron just shook his head and said, "Harry, Hermione's starting to rub off on you. Just promise me one thing." Harry half expected Ron to say something stupid about not sneaking around by himself at night or something, but Ron just said, "You are not, under any circumstances, to read Hogwarts, A History. Understood?"
"Yeah," said Harry, laughing, as he made his way up to the library.
However, in one of the side corridors that he passed on the way there, he noticed a scene that demanded his immediate attention. Malfoy was standing in the hallway, pointing a wand at none other than Colin Creevey.
Harry had his own wand pulled by the time that Malfoy notice him, and both got ready to duel, Colin backing off to the side. "Look, Malfoy, just put your wand down," said Harry, who did not want a teacher to walk in on this scene that would probably land all three of them in detentions.
"Not a chance, Potter," drawled Malfoy. It's just you and me now. It's payback time."
Harry wanted more than anything to hex Malfoy into next Tuesday, but he knew it would be hard to explain Malfoy's injuries to the school nurse. So instead, Harry said, "Debilitatus!"
Malfoy, who had never learned this spell, attempted to cast a curse to give Harry painful boils, and was surprised to find it not work at all. He stood there for half a second, looking confused. Harry was about to stun Malfoy, but by this time Colin had managed to pull out his wand. He stepped in between Malfoy and Harry. "I'll help," he volunteered eagerly, and pointed his wand at Malfoy, and performed a stunning spell before Malfoy had a chance to react.
Unfortunately, Colin's wand had been pointing in the wrong direction. The spell hit Harry.
"I'm so sorry," said Colin, blushing. "I didn't mean to do that!" He turned his wand around, but by this time Malfoy had regained his bearings.
"Expelliarmus!" he said, causing Colin's wand to go flying. He was about to set his sights on Harry when footsteps were heard coming up the corridor. The footsteps belonged to none other than Professor Tonks. Harry was grateful for the intervention.
The Malfoys
When the next morning came around, Harry was quite pleased that the outcome of the adventure of the previous night had ended up being only a bunch of detentions with Tonks rather than an actual duel to the death. He was disappointed that he had lost his invisibility cloak in the transaction, but in a strict sense, he had accomplished his goal in finding out what had Tonks and the other members of the Order so worked up.
He began to think about the events of the night before, and also about just what he might do about them. He remembered the fact that he had the Marauder's Map with him, and opened his trunk to get it out. But he was surprised to find that it wasn't there. He continued to look for about half an hour before giving up and making his way down to breakfast, already highly frustrated. He guessed he must have left the map back at the Weasleys' or the Dursleys'. Neither option was particularly comforting. If he had left it at the Dursleys' it was probably already thrown out. If he had left it at the Weasley's, he was reluctant to ask Mr or Mrs. Weasley's help in finding it, in case they would object to him having such a map. It would be understandable given Ginny's experiences with another bit of interactive paper in her first year. They probably wouldn't give it back to him.
So by the time Harry got down to the cafeteria, he decided that as much as it pained him to do so, he was simply going to have to give up on monitoring the school for Pettigrew himself, and simply let it up to the guards to do so. His frustration at this was quickly overshadowed by other intricate emotional problems when he related the goings on of the previous night to Ginny, Ron, and Hermione.
After he had finished the story, Hermione said, "Harry! That was terribly irresponsible! You could've been hurt."
"You told us you wouldn't go anywhere, after we told you we wouldn't come," said Ron, sounding hurt.
"You didn't even tell me you were thinking of doing anything!" said Ginny. "You asked for Ron and Hermione's help and didn't even tell me? You're a prat!" She marched off and sat down by Neville, sitting six spaces down the table. Harry would have followed, but figured he had other bridges to mend first.
"Ron, Hermione, you two aren't mad at me are you?" Harry appealed.
"Of course we are," said Hermione, you snuck out behind our backs."
"And you're mad too?" he asked Ron.
"Well, yeah," said Ron, but Harry sensed some uncertainty in his tone.
"I had to," Harry explained. "I knew something was going on, and I couldn't stand the curiosity. You can't expect me to be content staying uninformed, can you?"
"Well," said Ron, even more uncertainly, "I was okay not knowing…"
"But you were curious, weren't you?" asked Harry.
"Look, Harry, I understand why you did what you did," said Hermione, even though she still sounded a little bit angry. "It seems like Death Eaters seek you out, and I suppose we couldn't really expect you to be content not knowing anything. But now that you know, you won't go sneaking out and doing anything stupid will you?"
"'Course not. I may have a tendency to do reckless things sometimes, but I'm not completely stupid. I wouldn't go out without my invisibility cloak," said Harry.
"Good," said Hermione.
"So, we're all on speaking terms then?" asked Harry eagerly.
Hermione and Ron both answered in the affirmative.
"So what's going on with Ginny?" asked Harry. "Didn't she used to be a nice, quiet girl? And now she's yelling at me."
"Well, she was just shy around you. She's pretty talkative otherwise, as you seem now to be noticing," said Ron.
"But you're glad for that, right? I mean, you're glad she's not shy around you anymore?" asked Hermione.
"Of course," Harry said, although he wasn't sure that it mattered right now, as she wasn't talking to him anyway.
Then, the post came, which, once again, did nothing to bolster Harry's mood. The first thing that Harry, Ron, and Hermione noticed about the front page of the Daily Prophet that Hermione received was that there was a picture of Lucius Malfoy on it. The accompanying story read as follows:
Mass Escape From Azkaban
Despite the attempts of the Ministry of Magic to place skilled Aurors to guard the prisoners of Azkaban, it seems that dementors are the only beings truly capable of guarding the most famous wizard prison. Lucius Malfoy and the other Death Eaters captured in last spring's happenings at the Ministry of Magic have escaped. Fudge vows to do his utmost to get these prisoners back into the cells where they belong, but many remain skeptical about his ability to do this. Meanwhile, citizens are warned to stay on the lookout and brush up on their Defense Against the Dark Arts skills.
"Oh, great!" said Ron sarcastically, once he had finished reading this. "Even now that the Order has got the whole Ministry on their side, the Ministry isn't able to help out!"
"Well, still, it's better than having the Ministry actively working against us," reasoned Hermione. "Although this particular screw-up at the ministry could be devastating for the Order. Everybody's going to have to keep their guard up doubly as much."
At that moment, Malfoy, who had also apparently read the news, came over to gloat. "Looks like my father's too smart to be held captive by the Ministry. Although his success may have been partially due to the general incompetence of the Ministry workers," suggested Malfoy, glancing pointedly at Ron. "Oh, yeah, and Potter, don't think this means we're even or anything, 'cause we're not. You're still going to pay for what you did to my father," said Malfoy ominously, and walked away.
"You know," Harry mused, half to himself, "this is turning out to be a bloody terrible day!"
On Hermione's advice, Harry gave Ginny her space for the rest of breakfast, before going up to the common room to work on the Potions homework he had gotten from McGonogall the night before. That class, by the way, was going pretty well so far. He had received an "Exceeds Expectations" on his reversal potion.
When he saw Ginny at lunch, he apologized to her for not telling her about his plans. He promised that he'd be more open with her in the future. And he meant it too. Aside from the fact that he didn't like being in trouble, he really didn't want Ginny to be upset. Ginny must have noticed his good intentions, because she accepted his apology.
Saturday afternoon saw the Gryffindor Quidditch team kick off its practice schedule. To allow everybody to practice, Harry had all the Chasers try to score on Ron, while one beater tried to help the scoring team, and the other the defending team. Harry simply went about releasing and catching the Snitch and also critiquing the performance of his teammates. He knew that since his team was primarily new, he was going to have to work with them a lot. But he thought that they showed moderate improvement after only just a few hours of practice that Saturday afternoon.
And, despite Harry's concerns, Colin Creevey behaved himself quite well while he was watching the Quidditch practice.
It was only after the practice that he ended up getting himself into trouble.
Despite the headmaster's orders about not being on the grounds unaccompanied, Colin had apparently decided to go back to the castle by himself when the Quidditch players were changing their robes. This was not the extent of Colin's problems however.
It was about dinner time when the team got done practicing, but Harry wanted to go to the library to check out a book about potions to help him with McGonogall's latest assignment.
When Harry notified Ginny and Ron to go ahead without him and that he'd be at dinner a few minutes late, just as soon as he got back from the library, Ron just shook his head and said, "Harry, Hermione's starting to rub off on you. Just promise me one thing." Harry half expected Ron to say something stupid about not sneaking around by himself at night or something, but Ron just said, "You are not, under any circumstances, to read Hogwarts, A History. Understood?"
"Yeah," said Harry, laughing, as he made his way up to the library.
However, in one of the side corridors that he passed on the way there, he noticed a scene that demanded his immediate attention. Malfoy was standing in the hallway, pointing a wand at none other than Colin Creevey.
Harry had his own wand pulled by the time that Malfoy notice him, and both got ready to duel, Colin backing off to the side. "Look, Malfoy, just put your wand down," said Harry, who did not want a teacher to walk in on this scene that would probably land all three of them in detentions.
"Not a chance, Potter," drawled Malfoy. It's just you and me now. It's payback time."
Harry wanted more than anything to hex Malfoy into next Tuesday, but he knew it would be hard to explain Malfoy's injuries to the school nurse. So instead, Harry said, "Debilitatus!"
Malfoy, who had never learned this spell, attempted to cast a curse to give Harry painful boils, and was surprised to find it not work at all. He stood there for half a second, looking confused. Harry was about to stun Malfoy, but by this time Colin had managed to pull out his wand. He stepped in between Malfoy and Harry. "I'll help," he volunteered eagerly, and pointed his wand at Malfoy, and performed a stunning spell before Malfoy had a chance to react.
Unfortunately, Colin's wand had been pointing in the wrong direction. The spell hit Harry.
"I'm so sorry," said Colin, blushing. "I didn't mean to do that!" He turned his wand around, but by this time Malfoy had regained his bearings.
"Expelliarmus!" he said, causing Colin's wand to go flying. He was about to set his sights on Harry when footsteps were heard coming up the corridor. The footsteps belonged to none other than Professor Tonks. Harry was grateful for the intervention.