Chapter Sixteen

The Twelve Uses of Dragon's Blood

If there had been anyone waiting outside the classroom door, they were gone by the time Harry left, the Marauder's Map clutched tightly in his hand. He didn't ask Tabitha what she meant about talking to Sirius through the map. He already had too much to think about ... but he wanted to talk to Sirius again. Harry opened the door, ready to ask her exactly what she meant, but he saw a brilliant black bird flying away from Tabitha's window, towards Hagrid's hut. She was going to see Charlie.

Ron and Hermione were waiting with Ginny at the end of the corridor, just hidden from Harry's view. He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he jumped when they spoke to him.

"Harry, what just happened?"

"Why did Tabitha Stun you?"

"Does she know that you know who she really is?"

"What were you doing in there for so long?"

Harry looked at them blankly. To his surprise, he mumbled, "It was nothing."

"Nothing?" Ron said. "Harry, you didn't just spend an hour in there for nothing!"

"An hour?" Harry echoed, looking at Ron blankly. Had it been an hour?

"Yes, an hour," Hermione sighed. "What happened? What did she tell you? You know we were looking through the keyhole, Harry. We saw you two, sitting there and talking. What could you possibly be talking about?"

"You used Legilimency, didn't you, mate?" Ron said. "The way you did to me?"

"I think so," Harry replied. "I didn't mean to ... when I opened my eyes, she was staring right at me, and all of a sudden, I just got hit with all these memories of hers."

"She was trying to wake you," Hermione said softly. "She took close to two hundred points from the Slytherins because they kept laughing and pointing at you. You kept screaming and thrashing around, for about ten minutes, I'd say. You were screaming—" She cleared her throat and glanced at Ron. "Well, you kept saying over and over 'you killed my parents, you killed my parents.' Tabitha looked really scared."

"What did you see?" Ginny said. Harry realized that she was standing very close to him. "When you used Legilimency? What memories did you see?"

Harry looked away guiltily. He felt badly enough about trespassing into Tabitha's memories; should he really tell them to his friends, as well? With a final glance towards her empty classroom, he sighed and said, "I saw her with her father."

"With Rodolphus Lestrange?" Hermione said.

Harry shook his head. "She's not the Lestranges' daughter, Hermione. I was wrong."

Hermione looked puzzled. "But you were right, Harry, she looks so much like Bella—Oh!" She covered her mouth and shook her head. "Harry, she isn't—I mean, he would have been much too young, wouldn't he?" Harry arched his eyebrows, shaking his head slightly. Hermione understood. "Well, well, that's good, isn't it?" she said cautiously.

Ron, his face screwed up with confusion, bellowed, "What are you two bloody talking about?"

Harry looked down at the floor. Hermione said softly, "Tabitha is Sirius' daughter, Ron."

Ron and Ginny's mouths dropped open. "But Hermione's right," Ron said. "Sirius was too young ..."

Harry launched into an explanation, keeping it much shorter than what Tabitha had told him. He also left off the part about her being his cousin. He wanted that to be his secret for now. He told Ron about Charlie and Tabitha.

"The rest of us know," he said. "You ought to as well."

"We didn't know they were married!" Ginny squealed. "Only that they were dating, sharing the flat and such. How exciting! I have a sister! Oh, and Harry, that makes you just like family!" She kissed him on the cheek. Even though she'd kissed him many times before, his face still turned bright red.

"They've been married since last year," Harry admitted, adding quickly, "Sirius got to go." Although Ron still looked angry that his brother had gotten married and not told him, this last bit softened his hard look.

"I'm sure that was good for Tabitha," he mumbled.

"Just don't tell Charlie I told you. I'm sure and Tabitha were going to mention it soon … how long could they keep it secret?"

Ron stayed quiet as they sat down to lunch, while Hermione and Ginny were gushing about what the wedding must have been like. Harry barely poked at his lunch. He felt the Marauder's Map in his pocket, getting heavier and heavier. He had to ask Tabitha how she used it to talk to Sirius. And if she could talk to Sirius, maybe Harry could talk to James.

He couldn't concentrate in Potions. They were brewing a very complicated Invisibility potion, and Harry had accidentally skipped a very simple step. Though Snape had been ignoring Harry all year, he couldn't resist mocking him when, instead of turning the potion a thin, fine green liquid, it became billowing pink steam. "Zero, Potter," Snape muttered nastily. For the rest of class, Harry watched Hermione brew her potion—which successfully turned the rat that swallowed it invisible for ten minutes—as he turned over everything Tabitha had just told him. He didn't even notice when class ended; Hermione tugged on his robes for five minutes before Snape snapped at them to leave.

Hermione looked about ready to burst as they walked up to Gryffindor tower; when they were finally out of the bustling corridors and in the nearly-empty common room, she said anxiously, "Harry, what's bothering you? Tabitha told you something that you didn't tell us, didn't she?"

"What do you mean?" Harry said.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Come on, Harry, I could tell before that you didn't tell us everything, and now something's bothering you."

Harry shook his head. "I'm just still trying to believe it all, Hermione, that's all." He could tell that Hermione didn't believe him, but she stopped trying to get him to open up anymore. When Ron and Ginny arrived back from class, Harry changed the subject. "Okay, Hermione, what have you found out about dragon's blood?"

Hermione immediately perked up. "Well, some of the uses are obviously not what we're looking for—a potion for restoring sick dragons and the like. There are two potions that use dragon's blood that I think are what the Order is planning to use them for. Prepared with asphodel and other ingredients, the blood becomes so potent that it will kill immortal creatures, like humans who have taken the Elixir of Life. If the Order managed to prepare this potion—which would be a task, as it takes nearly four months to brew, and the ingredients are all very precise—and then if they could administer it to Voldemort, he would die in an instant."

"Well, that's unlikely," Ron snorted.

"What's the other potion?" Harry asked.

"Just the opposite effect, actually. It's just as complicated as the other potion to prepare, but it uses different ingredients and will render the drinker impervious to bodily harm, but only temporarily. The Order would make this potion to protect themselves while fighting." Hermione looked at Harry seriously. "My guess is that the Order will be making both potions, and you'll be drinking your fair share of the second one."

"Well," Harry said. "We can always ask Tabitha."

Tabitha didn't give Harry a second glance during their next class. She wasn't treating him much differently than before, which Harry was almost grateful for. He didn't want her to suddenly act nicely, especially in front of the Slytherins. Draco and the other Slytherins were still snickering about the last class, but Harry was finding it easier and easier to ignore them.

He pretended to drop his bag at the end of the class. The room emptied as he slowly picked up his belongings. Tabitha shut the door softly. "The map?" she asked.

Harry nodded. "I didn't even feel you using Legilimency on me," he said.

"Well, I am getting better at it," Tabitha replied with a small smile. "But I didn't have to use it just now to know. I've been expecting you to ask. I'm surprised you didn't ask sooner." She held out her hand. Without speaking a word, she made the Marauder's map fly out of Harry's bag and into her hand. She closed her fist around it gently. She closed her eyes, as if asking the map what to do. She shook her head when she opened her eyes. "You're not ready," she said firmly.

Harry felt a sharp flame of anger shoot through him. "How do you know?" he cried. "Why do you get to decide if I'm ready to talk to my godfather, or my father?"

"Because she knows better than you do," came a soft voice from behind him. Harry turned around. Dumbledore, looking older and more tired than Harry had ever seen him look before, was standing at the door with Remus Lupin and Charlie Weasley. With the familiar twinkle in his eye, Dumbledore said, "She is, after all, the only wizard family you have left." He crossed the room and took the map from Tabitha. He studied the blank parchment with grave interest. Finally, he said, "You're sure, Remus?"

Lupin glanced at Harry quickly. "Absolutely, Professor Dumbledore."

Dumbledore nodded quickly and tucked the map into his long, violet cloak. "I'll be needing this, Mr. Potter, I'm sure you won't mind. And if you'll just run along to class, we have business to discuss."

"You mean about the dragon's blood?" Harry said sharply. "If I'm going to be drinking some potion to make me impervious to harm, I think I ought to have some say in it."

Dumbledore looked at Tabitha sharply. "Did you tell him?" he asked.

Tabitha shook her head forcefully. "No, no, I haven't told him anything about it!"

"Hermione figured it out," Harry said. "All this talk about dragons ... she looked up the twelve uses of dragon's blood, she figured it all out."

"Lock the door, Charlie," Dumbledore said, sitting at a desk by Harry. Charlie locked the door and even sealed it around the frame. Lupin conjured heavy shades to cover the windows. Harry sat down across from Dumbledore. "Harry, you and the other members of the Order will begin taking regular doses of this Impervious potion once we're able to brew it. We have a dragon coming here to Hogwarts after Christmas. We'll be able to use its blood to make this potion, which should protect us against any hexes, jinxes, curses ... even the Killing Curse."

"What about the potion that will kill Voldemort? Are you making that too?"

Dumbledore nodded. "The chances that we will even have the opportunity to use it is incredibly small, but we want to be as prepared as we possibly can be."

"So what do you need my map for?" Harry ask angrily.

"That is no importance to you right now, Harry. We'll have it back to you in due time. Now, I think it's best that you go." Without another word, Dumbledore ushered Harry from the room.

For weeks, Dumbledore, Tabitha, and Charlie were tight-lipped about any Order business. In answering Harry's letters, Lupin wrote only about how lovely Grimmauld Place looked now. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny couldn't think of any reason why Dumbledore needed the map. Luckily, extra homework in November, as well as regular Quidditch practices, kept them busy.

He and Ron kept Quidditch practices going well into December, until sudden heavy snowfalls forced them to let the team rest. They had beaten Hufflepuff in their first match and would be going up against Ravenclaw once the weather turned a bit warmer. His teachers kept piling on homework, and no dared skive even Hagrid and Charlie's class.

As much as Harry liked Hagrid, he could never really say that Care of Magical Creatures had been taken too seriously by most of the students. Hagrid's idea of teaching was to have the class help him raise the wild creatures he found in the forest, but with Charlie as his assistant, the students were regularly being assigned written homework and taking tests. Their workload increased as the Christmas holidays approached, but Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were the only students who knew that they had to be prepared because a dragon was on its way to Hogwarts.

Harry and Tabitha had begun their defense lessons. A few times, Tabitha took him out to the forest to practice against some of the creatures there, but their lessons were mostly uneventful. Harry was becoming so good at Occlumency that they would sometimes forego those lessons to learn new hexes and jinxes. By the end of their lessons, they were both always bruised and exhausted.

After one lesson in early December, Tabitha stopped Harry just before he trudged out of the room. She held up the Marauder's Map. "Christmas, all right?"

Harry grinned. "Christmas is fine," he said.

Usually, in mid-December, Professor McGonagall would collect the names of students who planned to stay over Hogwarts for the holidays. This year, however, Dumbledore announced to them at breakfast one morning, the school would be closed to all students. No one was to spend the holidays at Hogwarts.

"It's the dragon," Hermione whispered. "It's probably coming then, and Dumbledore wants to get it acclimated to the grounds without any students interfering."

"I think it's more than that," Harry said. "I'll bet the Order is going to relocate here for the holidays, maybe to collect some dragon's blood and make plans for the potions."

"So if Hogwarts is being closed for Order business, we'll likely be staying for Christmas," Ron said.

"If we are, I'm sure Dumbledore will tell us," Harry replied.

Dumbledore didn't mention it to them at all, but at their next Transfiguration class, Professor McGonagall pulled them aside.

"You three will not be going home for the holidays, contrary to Professor Dumbledore's announcement the other day. Arthur and Molly Weasley will be spending the holidays here at Hogwarts with the rest of the Order of the Phoenix, so you three as well as Miss Weasley will remain here. Professor Dumbledore will tell you later what you are to do the morning that the other students leave on the Hogwarts' Express, as it will seem suspect that you are the only four students not going home."

"You were right, Harry," Hermione whispered. "Order business."

"But about the dragons, no doubt," Harry added.

The morning before everyone was to leave for the holidays, Dumbledore still hadn't given them their instructions, and Ron was still angry that Charlie hadn't told him that he and Tabitha were married. "That rotten little bugger," he seethed to Harry. "He still hasn't said anything! It's Christmas soon and we're going to be celebrating with my family, don't you think he ought to tell us? Let's head up to his flat right now. Come on, we'll catch him on his way to breakfast."

They found Hermione and Ginny, and the four of them started towards the sixth floor. Harry couldn't place why, but he had a very bad feeling in his stomach that only got worse as they got closer to the flat. Finally, Hermione and Ginny led them to the tapestry of the knight and the dragon. Harry didn't want to go inside; he knew something bad was coming.