Chapter 22: Where do I belong?
David's chest tightened and he almost started hyperventilating at the sight of the Headmaster in the door. He calmed himself by breathing in and out slowly. Then he addressed Courtney, "We'll have to postpone our dinner plans, I need to speak with your headmaster," he said softly, not looking at the older man.
Courtney's eyes were wide still from the shock of seeing the headmaster and she let out a small squeak in response to her father. Then she scurried to find Amelia and tell her they would not be having dinner that night.
Albus waited uncertainly in the doorway. It had been a big decision to come here without an invitation, and he did not want to push too hard. He had no right to expect anything from this man. David walked over to the window, his back turned.
"Please, close the door and sit down." David fought hard to keep his voice even. He didn't even know what he was feeling at the moment. His emotions were all in chaos. He heard the door close softly and a slight swish of robes indicating the man had sat down.
Silence filled the room.
~~**~~
"Courtney, there you are!" Amelia said happily as she turned the corner towards Mr. Barnes' rooms.
Courtney stopped short in front of her looking very pale.
"Are you okay?" Amelia said in confusion.
"Yeah…fine. Um, we'll have to have dinner with my Dad some other time though. He is talking to the headmaster."
Amelia's eyebrows shot up, "The headmaster?" she repeated.
Courtney sighed and leaned against the wall, "He just walked in a few minutes ago. He looked perfectly healthy! Dad didn't seem surprised that he was just fine." Courtney didn't know what to make of that.
Amelia was silent and then she said, "Does your dad have a split personality or something? First I hear that he is hostile to the wizarding world in general and then he offers to adopt me? I can't figure him out."
Courtney snorted at the idea of her dad having a split personality-it was so close to the truth. "Believe me, I was confused for months, finally I talked to him over Christmas and he told me some things that helped me understand him. Maybe we can have breakfast with him tomorrow."
Amelia looked at Courtney and then said in a soft voice, "You don't understand, do you? I can't just trust that I will understand later. You have known your father all your life Courtney and so you can wait for answers. I can't. I've had too many things taken away from me to trust blindly. I don't need someone else in my life who has problems with me being a witch. What am I supposed to think when someone who I have never met suddenly offers me a home? I am not a Slytherin for nothing, I immediately suspect his motives! What is your father playing at?" her voice had become progressively louder in frustration.
~~**~~
David was the one who finally broke the silence. He sat down on a chair opposite Albus, but instead of looking at him, he placed his head in his hands, squeezing his eyes shut to prevent the tears that threatened. Just why they were threatening, he wasn't sure.
"How did it happen?"
Albus wanted to do more than just answer questions. He wanted to embrace this man and take away all the pain, all the pain that he had helped to create. But David was not giving him that option and so all he could do was answer his questions.
"Kathryn left partway through Courtney's presentation. Megan Weasley followed her. She told me she found Kathryn in a bathroom. She seemed upset but wouldn't tell Megan why. Megan convinced Kathryn to return the presentations. Kathryn had gone to the bathroom on one of the upper floors, because it was the only one she knew how to find. As they were walking down the stairs a painting distracted Kathryn. Megan got to the bottom and realized Kathryn was not with her. Kathryn started down the stairs, but then the staircase moved. Kathryn lost her balance, hit her head on the landing and fell to the floor below as the stairs continued moving."
Tears were silently streaming down David's face now. There was no room for anger at the moment; all he felt was pain and anguish at the loss.
"This school," David said in a broken voice, "has been open for more than a thousand years. The stairs have always moved; has this kind of thing ever happened before?"
"No."
Anger leapt to life in David, "Then how did it happen! Why did my wife die, when this has never happened before?"
Albus closed his eyes gathering his courage to answer.
"The founders never meant for a muggle to enter Hogwarts. The wards were never configured for the possibility of muggle guests. This is the first time in Hogwarts history that more than a few muggles have been in the castle at once+. It was decided by the board and the ministry that it would be too time consuming and power consuming to completely reconstruct the wards to accommodate muggles as they assumed this would be a one time event. So we simply asked that those unfamiliar with the castle to always have someone familiar with it accompany them. It was more polite than saying bluntly, muggles stay with someone who has magic. In the middle of the presentation however, everybody was too involved in Courtney's revelations to realize that two muggles had just left alone.
"Hogwarts itself recognizes magical beings. The stairs never move when students are on them because Hogwarts 'knows' that they are there*. Even squibs have enough magic to be recognized. The stairs would not have known a muggle was on them. So they moved to the appropriate place at the appropriate time. And it was the worst possible moment for Kathryn to be there."
David looked at Albus disbelievingly, "So it was an accident. A freak accident."
Albus could only nod in shame.
~~**~~
Courtney looked at Amelia, somewhat at a loss of what to do. It was not her place to tell her father's secret. She finally shrugged, "I…I don't know what to tell you." She sighed to herself, "Come on, lets get some dinner and then we'll talk." Amelia nodded in agreement, and the two headed to the kitchens. Neither felt like having to deal with the crowds of the Great Hall at the moment, much less with the stares of people wondering why a Gryffindor and a Slytherin of different years were eating together.
After eating quickly they walked back towards the Barnes' suite. Courtney stopped and turned to Amelia when they were a few halls away, "If Dad doesn't have time to explain then I'll tell you, but it is really his story to tell. Not mine."
Amelia frowned and opened her mouth to say something else when three figures entered the corridor, Percy Weasley, Draco Malfoy and Susan Bones, who, Courtney remembered, had been introduced as the head of Magical Law Enforcement. Her stomach twisted as she saw them, dreading a confrontation.
Sure enough, the Minister of Magic spotted her and came to a halt, "Miss Barnes, how are you doing this evening?"
Courtney nodded stiffly without voicing an answer. Percy completely ignored Amelia's presence and addressed Courtney once again, "We are going to be asking a few more questions of you later on, but right now we have some other business to attend to."
Then the three swept off leaving both girls flabbergasted. "What just happened?" Courtney said confused. Amelia didn't answer, but instead started following the trio. After a moment Courtney followed as well.
Courtney's stomach began twisting around itself as she realized they were heading to her father's rooms. Vaguely she wondered what reaction he would have when he saw Draco Malfoy, but then the implications of the three of them together crowded out those thoughts.
"They're going to arrest the Headmaster," she said in disbelief, not even registering Amelia's gasp in response. They turned the corner and watched the Minister, and his entourage, approach the rooms.
However, the door opened while they were still twenty feet from it and the Headmaster exited-evidently finished with his conversation. He did not seem at all surprised to see Malfoy, the Minister and Ms. Bones instead he simply nodded a greeting.
All three seemed a bit taken aback at his attitude—not to mention his good health—and were silent for a moment. Malfoy recovered himself first and spoke in a drawling voice, "Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, we are here to escort you to the Ministry on charges of sharing Ministry secrets and allowing classified information to be disseminated to the public. Your trial, which will be combined with a number of others accused of the same, will be held tomorrow morning."
Dumbledore raised an eyebrow at Draco, "I am sorry, Mister Malfoy, but you do not have the authority to make arrests, even if you are on the Ministry Intelligence Regulation Council."
Draco's face flushed and he clinched his jaw momentarily; for a moment nothing happened. Then he visibly relaxed himself and turned to Susan, "If you would be so kind, as to please perform your duty." Then he turned on his heel and stalked away, passing Amelia and Courtney without giving them a second glance.
The two girls turned their attention back to the situation with the Headmaster and watched as Percy Weasley handed him a portkey that whisked him away—presumably to the Ministry.
The Minister and Ms. Bones turned and headed back towards where Amelia and Courtney were observing from. Not wanting to have to talk to them at the moment, Courtney ducked back around the corner and into a room. Amelia followed and they both waited for the two to pass.
Once the hall was clear they quickly made their way to Mr. Barnes' rooms in hopes of getting some answers.
~~**~~
David heard Albus close the door behind him as he left. Albus had revealed something else that he needed to think about. After he said that the stairs had moved at "the appropriate time" he had admitted, not five minutes later that that was not exactly accurate.
The story that Albus had told him had left him stunned and confused, wondering why fate always seemed to turn his life upside down. He heard some voices outside his door but ignored them and sat down instead, staring into the fire.
Albus had told him that he didn't want to lie anymore and that included telling him the entire truth—including some facts surrounding Kathryn's death that no one but Albus himself knew. David managed to push aside his animosity for Albus for a few minutes and actually appreciated—for a second the man's honesty. No one would have ever found out what Albus had told him—if Albus had not told him he would never have suspected. It was a sign to him that Albus at least had changed from the man who had been his own headmaster.
A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts and he called for whoever it was to come in. Tentatively Courtney and Amelia entered. David sighed and motioned for them to sit down.
He looked at Amelia and saw a number of questions on her face—questions that he knew needed to be answered.
"Go ahead," he said simply, wanting her to take the lead in the conversation. Amelia glanced quickly at Courtney and then looked at David once more asking, "Why did you offer to adopt me?"
Of course, David thought, that would be her first question.
"I never had a family growing up—my guardians hated me and degraded me at every chance. Given the chance they would have done to me exactly what they did to you. I…am sorry I could not offer it to you before, but I offered to adopt you because I…I want to hold on to what little family I have."
Amelia looked at him in consternation, "And just how are we related?"
"You and I are first cousins once removed. I was born Harry Potter—and nephew to your grandmother Petunia."
Courtney felt a swell of pride. It was rather odd, considering that she was the child and he the adult but she suddenly had the feeling that in saying what he had just said he had overcome another obstacle in his way.
Amelia's eyes widened considerably and she gasped as she realized the implications of Harry Potter and David Barnes being the same man. Then, displaying maturity that David admired, she got herself under control and asked a second question—one that was in many ways far more pertinent, "But that does still not help resolve my main concern, as I told Courtney, I do not need any more people—especially relatives—in my life who have a problem with magic. What are your intentions towards the wizarding world?"
David opened his mouth and then closed it. He looked at Amelia for a long time and then looked to Courtney. He could see his daughter wanted an answer to that question as much as Amelia did. "I still have not figured that out yet," he answered honestly, "I still hate them for what they did to me, but…as I said Courtney and Michael are more important to me. Even if I can never again accept the wizarding world as a part of my life I will not interfere with their decisions with regards to magic. I have no right to make that choice for either of them or you. And no matter what decision any of you make about this world I will support you in that decision."
Amelia nodded satisfied. The answer—while not completely what she wanted—was honest and more than she had ever thought she could expect from family. And despite what she said or otherwise indicated, she wanted family desperately. A surrogate family would have been fine, but this was even more promising—a blood relation who was not ashamed of her.
Courtney, on the other hand had started crying, because for the first time she realized what huge changes her father had made in his life to come to this point. David seemed to understand her tears and gathered her into a hug. He released her after a moment, keeping one arm wrapped around her shoulder, and looked at Amelia in a silent invitation for her to join them. Hesitantly Amelia did so and the three of them embraced. Amelia struggled to keep her own tears in then as she realized that this was the first physical affection she had received in five years.
+One of my reviewers told me that in England there is not a real graduation ceremony where parents and family come etc, like we have in the US. This is why Muggle parents don't go to any graduation ceremony. If my information is wrong, sorry.
*In the books it only says that the stairs lead to different places on different days. I take artistic license to say they physically switch from one location to another-as the movies do. However, I am not following the movies in that they move while people are on them (well normally they don't).
A/N Ok, sorry once again about the lateness and the shortness of this chapter. It is only four pages long but this is where the chapter wanted to break and the next chapter is already started. Title of that one? "Trial and Error." Look for that one soon! Yippee! I got over my writers block! Thank you to everyone on the group who commented on the parts I posted—it really helped me to identify the problem and correct it.
Hm, about the evil little mystery twist I put in with Albus telling David something—you will eventually learn what it is. But it has to do with a question someone asked on the group about Megan and Fred Weasley's two oldest children and a comment Professor Snape made as well. This is not a new thing either—I thought about it a long time ago I just never expected it to actually be included in the story—it was supposed to be a side story I would write later.
Anyway! Hope you enjoyed the chapter!
Oh, one more thing! April 1st was this story's first birthday!