Chapter Four
A Series of Events
Harry started to walk forwards in to the drawing room and turned his head as he walked to look down the hallway at the backs of the two scurrying goblins. They stopped two doors down and threw a handful of green powder up over themselves and were gone. Harry stopped walking and gazed open mouthed at the little clouds of smoke that remained where the goblins had stood. Professor Dumbledore walked straight in to the back of him. "It's not polite to stare Harry".
Harry turned and walked in to the drawing room. It was a lot brighter than the last time he had been in here. The walls had been painted cream and there were portraits all over the walls; some of them Harry recognised as members of the Order who had been killed. To his left there was a large oak desk with two wooden chairs with red cushions on and a larger chair on the other side.
"Sit down Harry" said Professor Dumbledore directing Harry to a plump red armchair, the same colour as the curtains, that was next to the unlit fire. "Have you had a pleasant holiday so far?" Dumbledore asked as he took the red armchair on the opposite side of the fire.
"Yes thank you sir" Harry replied. "Now Molly and Arthur tell me that they had to fill you in on the adoption, though I must say I would have rathered you heard it from me".
"Its okay" replied Harry rather glumly.
"No it's not but I'm sure you'll learn to deal with your feelings about Sirius' leaving us when you're ready; as long as you know that we are all here to help you. I'm sorry I couldn't be the one to tell you but I had to meet with Mr Grub and Mr Kobald".
"The goblins?" asked Harry.
"Yes. They are representatives of the Goblin Council of Elders. They are putting forward a proposal for the ministry to join an alliance against Voldemort. But you must not mention the meeting to anyone outside of this house. They have already dealt with Minister Fudge but it wasn't very successful and we wouldn't want him to think I'm interfering now would we". Dumbledore replied winking at Harry with a small smile on his face.
As Harry looked at him he realised how old and tired Dumbledore was looking. He had twice as many wrinkles and his blue eyes seemed to have lost a lot of their sparkle.
"You look tired Professor" said Harry looking him straight in the eye. Dumbledore was very taken aback at this and Harry realised after he had said it that he had never spoken to him as a friend before even though that was how he thought of him; kind of like family.
"I am fine Harry, old age comes to us all in the end" and then removing his spectacles and wiping the lenses on the hem of his purple robes "well most of us anyway". He put them back on again and sat up straighter in his chair.
"Well Harry, like I said in my letter, all Sirius' personal belongings have been boxed and are in his room ready for you to look through when you are ready. Buckbeak is back at Hogwarts being cared for by Hagrid as the Ministry has agreed to give him a second chance, though he won't be taking part in any more of Hagrids' lessons!" Harry smiled at this; Hagrid must be over the moon having Buckbeak back he loved strange animals and was most upset when the Ministry was going to execute him.
"Now while you are here you will be able to help Molly organise the filing in the office upstairs though you must swear not to repeat ANY of the information that you might come across while you are fulfilling your duties to anybody else".
"Yes Professor" replied Harry excitedly but trying to look serious.
"I have also gained permission from the Ministry for you to have your apparation lessons here in this house rather than at a test centre, though you will have to take your exam at the Ministry. Arthur is going to teach you as he is a ministry official and Tonks is going to assist him".
"Excellent" grinned Harry. "I'm glad you're happy Harry. Is there anything you'd like to ask me?"
"Well … um … now that you're working with the Ministry I take it that every thing is back to normal?" asked Harry cautiously. Professor Dumbledore chuckled and for a moment some of the sparkle came back in to his eyes.
"Yes Harry I am no longer the senile demented panic-mongering old fool that I was last year and you are no longer an attention seeking juvenile delinquent".
"And Lord Voldemort?"
"Still in hiding. All we are really sure of at the moment is that he is recruiting more death eaters. There have been more dementor attacks but we are still trying to confirm if they are random attacks or deliberate. Now I am only telling you this Harry because you are of age now and you need to know how serious the situation is. You cannot go wandering off on your own anymore and you have to stay among people that we know are completely trustworthy. Alastor and Remus will be giving you some defensive training but you only have a few weeks till your back at school so you must be careful".
"Yes Professor". said Harry.
"Now it's time for you to go to bed; I'm sure Ron will be upstairs waiting for you and I will see you again during the week. If you want me, anytime at all, just ask Molly or Arthur and I'll come straight away".
"Thank you" said Harry his green eyes looking up in to Dumbledores' deep blue ones. For the first time in a long while he felt like he was receiving some real affection and as he walked over to the door he felt closer to Dumbledore than he ever had before, though he still had a niggling thought at the back of his mind that he wasn't Sirius.
As Harry walked back down the hallway to the stairs he didn't see Professor Dumbledore close the door to the drawing room with a single tear running down his cheek. He had had to lie to Harry again, but now was not the time to tell him what might come to be. He'd never had children of his own but he was sure that he would have done the same for them as he was for Harry. After all Harry had come to feel so much like his own child which was making the whole situation so much harder. But then Harry had that effect on most of the adults that had come in contact with him since he was a baby. All except the only family that he had left, they just seemed determined to dislike him. Wiping the tear off his cheek Albus Dumbledore sat back down at the desk and took out the letter he had been writing earlier to his brother, Aberforth, and turned all his attention back to it as Harry entered his bedroom upstairs.
Ron, Fred, George and Hermione were all sat on the beds again waiting for him. Harry told them all that Dumbledore had said about apparation lessons, defence lessons and helping Mrs Weasley, the about the goblins and Ludo bagman. "Well we all know he's a thief and a liar" said Fred.
"Look at what he did to us at the Quidditch World Cup" added George. "But he hardly seems the type to join Voldemort does he" stated Hermione. "I mean, he's too stupid to be a danger to anyone else but himself isn't he?"
Harry remembered what he had seen in Dumbledores' pensieve two years ago and told them about Bagmans' trial for passing on information to death eaters.
"Well something's going on anyway" said Ron "he has disappeared I remember reading something in one of the files about a tip off saying he was in Reading being a dead end; didn't think much about it at the time. Thought they were just chasing up his gambling debts".
"Well if he has changed sides it must be a power thing, because he made a packet off of that Quidditch book" said George.
"Maybe Voldemort offered to protect him from the goblins" suggested Harry, though just as he was finishing that sentence, Fred, George and Hermione vanished from the room with a pop and it was only then that Harry heard the footsteps on the stairs. There was a knock at the door and Mr Weasley came in. "Time to turn the lights out now boys; your mother will be up to check in am minute" and he turned and left. Harry grinned to himself as he put on his pyjamas. Mr Weasley had called Mrs Weasley his mother. Slip of the tongue it may have been but it still felt good and Harry was glad that he was no longer at Privet Drive. Ever since Sirius' death, Harry had taken more notice of the things around him and appreciated them more. Maybe it was his age too. He had had plenty of time over the summer to think about things and he realised that rather than pine for the people that he had lost he had to concentrate on the people that he had, so that he did not waste a minute of the time that he had with them because you never know who may be round the next corner.
Harry climbed in to bed and said goodnight to Ron just as Mrs Weasley came in and turned the light off. For the second time that day Harry felt truly happy.
The next week flew by. Harry had his first apparation lesson with Mr Weasley and Ron and Hermione tested him on questions in the theory book. Harry had quite a nasty bruise on his left hip from hitting the corner of the desk in the drawing room when Mad Eye had propelled him through the air when he hit him with a very powerful knock-back jinx in his first dense lesson. Mad Eye had also caused uproar by giving an impromptu lesson that evening at supper. He poisoned Harry's' drink with an engorgement serum that made Harry's' throat swell up so fast that he couldn't breathe. Moody gave him the antidote immediately and told Harry that he'd failed his first test on vigilance as anyone could try and poison him at any time; but he was unable to finish his lesson as he was having to fight off Mrs Weasley who was alternately trying to hit him with a saucepan and a tea towel, shouting that only a mad man would poison a child. Mr Weasley was trying to calm her down and detach the saucepan from her left hand while Lupin looked after Harry. Though rightly, Moody had an extra large lump on the side of his forehead the next morning and Harry was always careful with his food and drink when Moody stayed for meals after that.
Harry had been helping with the filing for a week now and was just getting the hang of Mrs Weasleys' system. She wouldn't file things alphabetically under surnames because she thought they would be too easy to find if someone broke in to steal them. They tried to convince her that nobody could break in because the house was hidden, but she wasn't having any of it. So she colour coded and numbered them and put them in to piles for Harry, Ron and Hermione to put away. Though for the life of them they couldn't work out how Mrs Weasley determined the colour system; all they knew was they weren't to touch red files unless Mrs Weasley was in the room.
Three rooms on the third floor had been set aside for the filing cabinets. They appeared to be normal muggle cabinets but Harry was shocked when he first opened one because the inside was five times larger than the outside. Harry guessed that they had been bewitched to make the inside bigger.
Every now and again Harry got a glimpse of what was inside the files but he had to be careful because Mrs Weasley caught Fred yesterday sneaking a look at what turned out to be a report on goblin meetings in caves in Scotland and Devon. They couldn't ask what it had meant because they weren't supposed to know.
Two weeks before they were due to go back to school Ron Hermione and Harry were upstairs helping Mrs Weasley when she asked Ron and Hermione to take one big pile of files in to the next room and put them away in the cabinets in there. As they left Mrs Weasley decided to go with them and check that they knew where they were putting them. "You carry on Harry dear, I won't be long".
Harry turned back to his pile and continued putting them away. There were hundreds of files so the Ministry office must be really busy, Harry thought to himself. He had just turned to go over to Green cabinet number three when he accidentally caught the corner of the pile Mrs Weasley had been working on. Eight red labelled files fell off the desk and were scattered over the floor, on the Axminster carpet. Harry scrambled down to pick them up before Mrs Weasley came back, not wanting to make her angry with him. Harry had just put six of them back together and back on the pile when he looked down and saw his name written on a page of one of the files that was still on the floor. He turned his head towards the door to see if he could hear any sign of Mrs Weasley returning but there was none.
He quickly turned back to the pieces of parchment that were strewn on the floor and retrieved the ones that went with the page that had his name on. As he put the unwanted one back on the desk he sat quickly in Mrs Weasley chair and started reading the parchments that he had in his hand.
The date on the file was the day his parents had died. But to Harry's' surprise, his was not the only name in the file. As he pulled the rest of the papers out, two photographs spilled out on to the desk. One was of Harry as a baby with his parents. The other was of a small chubby baby with dark brown hair and a large grin on his face. The baby laughed happily as the father that was holding him was pretending to throw him up in the air. The mother was laughing too and waving at the camera. Harry turned the photograph over and written on the back were the names Frank, Alice and Neville Longbottom. Harry turned the picture back over and then instantly realised it was Neville in the picture but the two happy adults in the picture looked nothing like they had when Harry saw them in St Mungos the year before.
Harry turned his attention to the report that went with the photos, searching through the rolls of parchment for page one. It was dated two days before the day that Voldemort came to Godrics Hollow.
'Violet and Albert Potter, parents of James Potter, have been killed in action protecting their home from an attack by ten, as yet, unidentified death eaters.
Aurors for fifty years, their death is a great loss and the investigation in to the attack has not yet revealed the reason for the assault. Insurance money to be paid to next of kin, James Potter, immediately on conclusion of the investigation.
Alastor Moody
Chief Auror
Department of Magical Law Enforcement'
Harry skimmed the next few pages of witness statements but no more information was given. Then as he turned the fourth page over Harry saw Professor Dumbledores writing; it was a diary entry.
'A private source has come to me with very disturbing information. It appears that Lord Voldemort has learnt part of the prophecy that was told to me in the Hogs Head in Hogsmede by Sybil Trelawney. It appears that the attack on Albert and Violet Potter was the first act undertaken after he heard about the prophecy, as he was trying to find the location of James, Lily and Harry Potter, who I have already sent in to hiding as I fear for the child's' safety.
Whilst James is reluctant to give up his auror duties at the moment, the death of his parents has convinced him to stay in hiding and protect his wife and child.
I am still trying to convince the Longbottoms of the need to go in to hiding and am very concerned for the safety of Neville Longbottom …'
Harry turned to the next piece of parchment.
'Investigation in to the death of James and Lily Potter
It is know known that the location of the Potters was given to He Who Must Not Be Named by their secret keeper Sirius Black. What is not yet known is how the child, Harry, survived the attack but his parents did not. Witnesses have told that nine hooded figures were seen in Godrics Hollow an hour before the explosion. Arabella Figg, a neighbour of the Potters, reported that only one person entered the house, the other eight disapparated to an unknown location. It is not known what happened in the house. Mrs Figg reports that it took approximately two minutes from when He Who Must Not Be Named entered the house to when the explosion occurred. Mrs Figg went to raise the alarm by trying to contact Albus Dumbledore, who sent members of the Order of the Phoenix to the scene. Hagrid, Dumbledores' assistant was first to arrive … Auror insurance policies for Lily and James Potter have been paid to their next of kin … '
Harry skimmed the next few paragraphs but it was all information that he knew.
The next report was in Alastor Moodys' handwriting again dated the same day as Harry's' parents were attacked.
'A private source has now confirmed that the attacks on the Potters and the Longbottoms are linked. A source close to Albus Dumbledore has told that He Who Must Not Be Named chose to deal with the Potters personally as he felt that it was more likely that the prophecy (see 1485.3a) referred to the Potter child, Harry, as the parents were more powerful than the Longbottoms and had a closer relationship with Albus Dumbledore. He had sent his eight followers to the Longbottoms house, however, to kill their child Neville, just to be certain that the prophecy could not be fulfilled. The death eaters left He Who Must Not Be Named at the Potters' house in Godrics Hollow and disapparated to the Longbottoms house. This is confirmed in a witness report. However, when they got there, the child had already been removed. Albus Dumbledore had been at the house twenty minutes earlier due to a tip off from an undisclosed source and removed the child along with his grandmother. Frank and Alice Longbottom refused to leave. Albus Dumbledore had to leave them and unfortunately he was unable to make it too the Potters house in time.
Aurors were, however, en route to both houses when the attacks took place but they also were too late.
The Longbottoms sustained minor injuries as it appears the death eaters 'felt' that something had happened to their master and left instantly. The aurors were, however, already at Godrics Hollow after the explosion when the Death eaters arrived so they returned to their homes to await further instructions.
Both children are now in Dumbledores protective custody and the Longbottoms' are back in work rounding up Death Eaters. Alert status is still high however as sources say that the Death Eaters are still active and looking for their master.
Alastor Moody
Chief Auror
Department of Magical Law Enforcement'
Harry was shocked; he knew that the prophecy could have referred to Neville because Dumbledore had told him, but he did not know that the Longbottoms had been attacked on the same night. Then he remembered that the report said they had minor injuries but it couldn't be minor injuries that put them in St Mungos. Why had Dumbledore gone for Neville first? What was Mrs Figg doing in Godrics Hollow? Did Neville know all this? And Harry realised that he had never known that his parents and his grandparents had been aurors. He had not even known their names.
Harrys' thoughts were interrupted as he heard a door open and footsteps walking down the hallway. Harry shoved all the pieces of parchment back in to the file with the photo of Neville smiling in his parents arms on the top and put the file back on to the pile as Mrs Weasley walked back in through the door.
Harry spent the next hour filing, thoughts spinning round in his head, as Mrs Weasley scurried between rooms with arms full of files. At five o'clock she told Harry that they had done enough for that day and went next door to tell Ron and Hermione.
Harry closed the filing cabinet draw that he had been using and made his way downstairs to his bedroom. He was sat on his bed staring at Hedwig when Ron and Hermione came in. After checking that Mrs Weasley had gone down to the kitchen, Harry told them what he had read. They were both just as shocked as he had been.
"We never knew anything like that Harry" said Ron.
"No, it was never in any of the books" added Hermione.
"I never thought about it before, I mean, I can't believe now that I never thought to ask anyone what my parents did, or about my grandparents. Sirius' mentioned them, but I never thought to ask anymore. It seems so stupid now. I mean, he knew them; there's so much I don't know and I didn't realise until now".
"What are you going to do?" asked Ron, absently stroking Crookshanks who had jumped up on his lap.
"I don't know" he replied. "It could take ages trying to find something in the files even if we could get at them".
Hermione gave a little cough as she cleared her throat "Well Harry, you could just … ask this time. We don't necessarily have to break in to things anymore. You have a right to know and you are old enough now".
Harry hadn't even considered this. "But I shouldn't have been looking in the file to start with".
"Yeah mum won't be too happy" added Ron.
"Well if you don't tell her … if you asked someone who wouldn't say anything to her … maybe Professor Lupin?" suggested Hermione.
"I could, but would he be allowed to tell me? Surely he would have to tell Dumbledore that I had seen the file and then there's Neville too. If he doesn't know what happened, about the prophecy and all, then they may get really angry. I don't know what to do. Maybe I should just go straight to Dumbledore he said he'd come if I needed him".
"There's no need" came a voice behind them. They all spun round to be confronted by Phineas Nigellus peering at them menacingly from his portrait on the wall, with his dark, black eyes gleaming. "I've informed him of your little dilemma and he will be here after you've had your supper. Have a pleasant meal!" And with that, he stalked out of the side of his portrait, back, presumably back to Dumbledores' office.
"Oh dear" said Hermione with a very panicked look on her face.
"Oh well, look on the bright side" said Ron trying to sound cheerful "you haven't got to worry about who to ask anymore!"
Harry looked at them both, then looked back at the empty portrait, resigning himself to the fact that he was in so much trouble … again.
The rest of the evening went quite quickly. Harry, Ron and Hermione had a brief defence lesson with Lupin; as Moody was still in disgrace. They worked on their shield charms and Lupin tried to show them how they could link the charms together to make the shield bigger and stronger; but they didn't manage it. Hermione was very disgruntled by the end of the lesson. After this Harry had a quick apparition lesson with Mr Weasley.
Supper came round quickly but Mrs Weasley was her usual cheerful self so Harry assumed she hadn't heard from Dumbledore yet. Percy had just launched in to a longwinded description of his day when the kitchen door opened and Professor Dumbledore came in. Harry, Hermione and Ron turned and looked up at him sheepishly; only Mr Weasley saw the expressions on their faces.
"Albus" greeted Mrs Weasley "We weren't expecting you! Would you like anything to eat?"
Dumbledore declined and asked for Harry to come and join him in the drawing room. Harry got up and followed him out of the room.
Taking their seats in the red armchairs again, Harry was very surprised to find out that Dumbledore was not angry with him. He just looked sad as he sat in dark blue robes telling Harry about what had happened on the night his parents died. A lot of it was what Harry had read in the file, some of it was new though.
Harry's' grandparents had also lived in Godrics Hollow and had been very good friends of Dumbledores. They had helped him set up the Order of the Phoenix and were well known aurors; Moody had apparently been particularly fond of them.
"But the photograph of the Order, they weren't in it?" asked Harry thinking back to the picture that had been in the photo album has was given for his birthday.
"No, unfortunately Albert had had to go in to work on the day it was taken, but it was your grandmother who actually took the picture, that's why she wasn't in it".
Mrs Figg, he explained, had lived in Godrics Hollow all her life. Her parents were magical but she wasn't, well not enough anyway. When they died she inherited the house which was opposite Harry's' parents house. She had been friends with Lily and James and watched out for them as a favour to Dumbledore. After they died she moved to Little Whinging to keep watch over Harry because a squib didn't have to be registered to live in a muggle area, so Harry could be watched without being traced.
"Arabella is a dear friend" said Dumbledore "she gave up a lot to watch over you because she felt guilty about not being able to help the night your parents died".
Harry felt numb and did not know what to say.
"And now Harry, the rest you must not repeat outside this house; I realise you will tell Ron and Hermione but it MUST end there. You were correct earlier when you said that Neville might not know about the prophecy and the attacks. After you were 'marked' we decided that it would be for the best if he didn't know. The prophecy seemed fulfilled and as he grew up and showed no real signs of magic it reinforced the fact that the prophecy referred to you".
"But his parents?"
"Ah well, you see Harry, Frank and Alice put up a good fight. I had asked them to come with me when I took Neville and his grandmother, but they were stubborn. They refused to flee their home despite the danger. They wanted to stand and fight. And because I knew I still had to get to you, I did not stop long to argue with them. I had just dropped off Neville and his grandmother with a friend of mine when I got the news about the explosion, so I had Hagrid bring you to me. I have always regretted not getting to Lily and James in time. But then who's to say it wasn't fates plan? I went straight to Neville on instinct and because of that both of you lived".
"The report said Mr and Mrs Longbottom only had minor injuries" Harry asked.
"Just cuts and bruises that night, they were very lucky. They said that as they were being attacked, all of a sudden it just stopped and the death eaters grabbed at their arms then disapparated. We know now about the death mark and that it burned when Voldemort was nearly killed, so they knew that something had happened. Frank and Alice still refused to go in to hiding though, and a few weeks after that first attack a group of death eaters came back having decided that the Longbottoms might know where their master was, and also to complete the last instruction that Voldemort gave them. But no matter what curse was placed on them, they refused to give up Neville's' location. The attack was reported in the papers but the real reason was never given, just in case. But remember Harry, you cannot tell Neville, his grandmother does not want him too know".
Harry could understand this completely, after all he lived with the guilt of knowing his parents because of him; and as Neville's parents barely recognised him, they may as well be dead for him too.
All of a sudden there was a great commotion out in the hallway.
"Be careful Arthur! Stay with Moody" Mrs Weasley shouted, "Percy stay with your father".
"Out of the way Molly" shouted Mr Weasley as he burst in through the drawing room door. "Got to go, Azkaban attacking dementors … I mean dementors attacking Azkaban" he cried.
Professor Mcgonagall came flying in to the room behind him. "Ministry calling in all help" she gasped out of breath "breaking out death eaters, got to go now".
Professor Dumbledore flew out of his chair and out in to the hallway and Harry followed as quickly as he could so that he wouldn't miss anything.
"Molly send a message to Minister Fudge now saying we are on our way; use the fire in Sirius' bedroom". Professor Dumbledores' voice was unusually tense and alarmed. He sped downstairs with Mrs Weasley, Percy and Professor Mcgonagall on his heels. As Harry looked over the banisters down to the ground floor hallway he saw Remus Lupin, Mad Eye Moody and Tonks waiting; wands out at the ready. As the adults rushed out of sight Harry gazed down in to the eyes of Ron and Hermione, who were both looking very startled. None of them said anything.