A/N: Thanks for the reviews! Honestly, you're all gonna have me spoiled soon! I'll be expecting more and more!
Chapter Sixteen: Through the Eyes of A Murderer
It hadn't worked. That Potter brat's luck had won out in the end. Again! Instead of him drinking the poison, that fraud Trelawney had!
Now Dumbledore would be on the look out for anything suspicious and Potter's security would be up-ed. That ungrateful arse!
He didn't deserve anything! Not the fame, the glory, the friends! It should have been his! Instead all he got was a mere passing, dismissive glance, a pitying look, while he, Potter had gotten it all.
Even his family had been over looked! Everything they had sacrificed for Dumbledore and they were but a mere afterthought!
For a minute, thestranger rested on the outskirts of Hogsmeade. Getting into Hogwarts had been easy. Harry Potter wasn't the only one to find out many of Hogwart's secret passageways. Having no friends helped make his goal easier.
He had had an obsession with The-Boy-Who-Lived ever since he could remember, the murderer mused as he began to walk back home. He had read every book on the boy he could find before entering Hogwarts! And what luck to have his obsession sorted into his House! From Potter's first night at Hogwarts, he had watched him, studied him. Know thy enemy.
He just watched and simmered in silent anger as the boy won a place on the House Quidditch Team, made his own band of loyal friends and admirers and save the Philosopher's Stone. And that was just the brat's first year!
But this year would be different. His master had returned! Although Potter had escaped again, it wouldn't be long before the Dark Lord killed that bastard off for good. Harry Potter didn't just have his enemies to worry about, oh no. There was a snake in the lion's den.
The Auror's had arrived at midday. The kitchens were blocked off and every single House Elf was questioned. Winky was the only one to have had any interaction with the murderer but another House Elf, Twink, had seen a cloaked figure flee the kitchens not long before Harry left.
When the House Elf questioning was over, Dumbledore, as Headmaster gave a new order. House Elfs were no longer able to obey anyone who was not a student or professor at Hogwarts. Nor were they allowed to obey anyone they could not identify. The location of the kitchens was then put under an advanced Hiding Charm, just a step under the Filidilus Charm, from anyone who did not already know of it's whereabouts. Those who did, would have to be identified and kept track of.
The amazing thing about all this was the person had to have been a novice, having used a House Elf who can remember almost exactly the instructions they are given under 'Imperio'. The Ministry had done many case studies on the Unforgivable before making it an Unforgivable and those tests included it's effect on house Elfs. Hermione would probably have an apoplectic fit after hearing that bit of information, but Harry had no desire to stroke the flames of S.P.E.W. ever again.
Then everyone who was currently living at Hogwarts, was gathered into the Great Hall to be questioned. A small dosing of a simple truth serum cleared everyone, although Harry was questioned furiously, as he was practically witness to the whole thing.
Then of course, Cornelius Fudge, the daft idiot, couldn't resit the temptation of visiting Hogwarts and 'expressing his deepest sympathies' on the 'loss of such a fine member of society'.
Once he heard the way in which she was killed, he was quick to hint, quite heavily, that there was a Potions Master hiding at Hogwarts.
"I find it most amazing, Albus, that you still let certain members of your facultyteach during these hard times. The Ministry would be more than happy to supply you with some more suitable professors, if the need were to arise."
Harry, who was still being questioned by Dawlish, the only non-Order Auror present, stopped and cocked his head to the side. While Fudge and the rest of the occupants of Hogwarts, who had been declared innocent, were all the way across the Hall, Harry's improved hearing could pick them up just as if they had been shouting in his ear.
Dawlish was asking Harry for the hundredth time if he had noticed anything suspicious when Harry cut him off.
"Excuse me, someone has let the Minister off his leash without his muzzle."
Harry missed the amused look Dawlish gave him as he was already making his way across the Hall.
Fudge was borderline smirking right until he caught sight of Harry's cheesed off facial expression and looked horrified.
"Do you have selective hearing or are you just that dense? You know what? Why am I even asking an inept dorkwad like you?"
Fudge didn't look very happy at Harry's tone of voice. Or choice of words for that matter.
"I am investigating the murder of a Professor, Potter!even though what I do is none of your business! A murder was just committed in a castle full of Death Eaters, an ex-convict and a dangerous Dark Creature!"
Not the best thing to say to an obviously peeved off Elemental Veela.
"Did your puny brain not register, Fudge, that barely a week ago, you swore a Wizard's Oath to keep the bloody hell out of Hogwart's affairs? And to not accuse any of Dumbledore's spies of Death Eater activities?"
Fudge glowered at Harry before waving his hand in Sirius and Remus' direction.
"You still have Black and the werewolf! It would have been easy for them! It's second nature to a dangerous dark creature to kill!"
The word 'creature' was really starting to tick Harry off. Remus got that same look that Harry hated, the look of acceptance that people thought him a creature, less than human. Remus was a person, damnit!
"Might I remind you, Fudge, that you are insulting my family." Harry was speaking in a forced-calm voice, but his eyes were dark and swirling with anger. "Sirius was found innocent, meaning he has a clean slate. And Remus," He stressed the name, hating Fudge for calling the kind-hearted man a creature. Would he feel that same way if he knew of Harry's true nature? "He is a person, not a creature. Are you going to punish him for being a victim of circumstance or fate orwhatever you believe rules the universe, when we don't punish you for your stupidity? You have an idiocy complex so large it needs it's own area code!"
Instead of keeping his mouth shut and just looking stupid, Fudge had to open it and prove it.
"If Black was so innocent why'd he run? Only those who are guilty run!"
Harry closed his eyes, his hands curled into fists and mantra-ed to himself. "You will not hurt anyone, Harry. Fudge cannot help his stupidity, he was most likely born that way. Violence solves nothing."
Sirius stepped forward to defend himself, sick of the last fifteen years of doubt.
"How could I prove my innocence without a trial? How could I do anything when you have given the order to 'Kiss on Sight'? You're just upset that you look like a fool now that the truth is out."
Dumbledore had a cold look on his face, his normally warm blue eyes looking like ice. "You racist ideals will soon loose you your job, Cornelius. Instead of making alliances and treaties with our undetermined allies, you are making enemies for years to come. Everyone here is a dear friend of mine and I will not tolerate your disrespect of them. At all."
Fudge was shaking violently with his own anger. "You need to fill two positions in this school before it opens in three weeks! Do you think you can find a competent Divination and Defense teacher in that amount of time with out my help?"
Dumbledore was unruffled. "Of course. I already have the perfect candidates, if they accept. I'm sure you know Narcissa, she is a registered Seer with the Hall of Prophecy at the Ministry. Andsince the return of Voldemort-" Fudge yelped at the named." Many parents have written, asking for the return of one Remus Lupin as Hogwart's Defense Professor. Apparently, many students have told there parents that Remus was the only competent Defense teacher they had had yet and many parents feel they have judged him too swiftly. With Sirius on as his assistant and supply Professor during the full moon, I'm sure Hogwarts will be running as smoothly as it ever has."
Dawlish took that time in interrupt the group of irate wizards with his report.
"Minister, it appears as though Sybil Trelawney was not the intended target of today's attack."
Fudge looked at the Auror, shocked. "Oh? And pray tell, who was?"
Dawlish jerked his head in Harry's direction. "Mr. Potter here. It appears that the murderer also knows Mr. Potter personally, having known his favorite type of tea and even the location to the kitchens.
Fudge grinned nastily at Harry. "Another one? My, my, my. People just seem to drop dead around you, don't they, Potter?"
Harry felt like he had been kicked in the stomach. Fudge had a point. His parents, Cedric, Sirius although he came back and now Trelawney. Ron and Hermione had been put into many life-threatening situations and Ginny, who Harry had barley known, had almost died in his second year!
"Sybil's death is yet another sign that war is approaching, Cornelius. A war you could have very well prevented, had you acknowledged Voldemort's return earlier. Now, you are finished your investigation, I must ask you to leave. Your Oath will not withhold the strain of staying here much longer."
Fudge glared at Dumbledore but knew he had gotten to Harry.
"I'll be back Albus. With Mr. Potter here,I suspect You-Know-Who will want Hogwarts under his control soon. Good day."
Albus looked at Harry, whopale with his eyes averted form everyone. What Fudge had said was Harry's weakest spot.
"Harry, what the Minister said is not true. It was his revenge for embarrassing him. You do seem to make enemies with very important people."
Harry's lips tilted upward in the tiniest of smiles. Dumbledore put a wrinkled hand on the Veela's shoulder.
"It is harder to forgive a person for being right than it is to forgive them for being wrong. That is the fault of pride. It is a tasteless, sizeless object, that can sometimes be the most difficult thing to swallow."
Harry nodded and sighed. "I'm going to go for a walk. I'll be careful."
Dumbledore held out an arm as Sirius went to go after his godson.
"Let him be for a moment. He must forgive himself before he can forgive those who have wronged him. He must not excuse his guilt, tolerate or smother it. He must look it in the face, call it what it is, let it's horror shock, stun and enrage him and then he must forgive.(1)"
Harry sat up on the Astronomy Tower roof watching the sun set. Everything had been fine up until they had discovered someone else was trying to kill him. It was probably on Voldemort's orders but not Voldemort himself. Harry would have felt it. Dumbledore would have felt it!
But what Fudge had said had really got to him, because he had just voiced Harry's own thoughts before Sirius had returned from the dead. People did drop dead around him, but it was the fact that it was because of him that scared Harry.
His ears picked up someone coming up the Tower stairs just before the smell of coffee, vanilla and cinnamon reached his nose. Draco. Another loved one he could very well loose.
Draco sat down beside him on the roof and was silent for a moment.
"What's wrong?" The concern in his voice made Harry pull up the old 'it's okay' mask.
He smiled at the blond, in what he hoped was a convincing smile and said "Nothing."
Draco's face was serious as he gave a skeptical look.
Harry closed his eyes and whispered almost inaudibly, "Everything."
Draco was obviously struggling in trying to be sympathetic, but it wasn't aneasy coming ability.
"Would you like to talk about it? I'm not a great conversationalist myself but I figure after years of listening to Pansy my listening skills should be pretty good."
Harry grinned. Draco was rambling. "And here I thought all these years you just liked to hear yourself speak."
Draco glared at Harry playfully. "It's called an image, Potter.You should know, yours is the Gryffindor Golden Boy."
Harry's misled disappeared and he looked back at the sinking red sun. "Yeah, too bad I'm far from golden."
Draco sighed and pulled out a tuna sandwich and some chocolate cookies. Harry's mouth watered when the smell of seafood and chocolate. Draco grabbed a cookie for himself and let Harry have the rest.
"You missed supper. Your godfather said you'd like this. Something to do with the Elemental Veela thing?"
Harry munched no his sandwich, his eyes closed with a heavenly expression on his face.
"I'd bite your arm off for any kind of seafood and sugar. Mostly chocolate. And I would kill for strawberries."
At the word 'kill', Harry's depressed mood came back.
"What Fudge said really got to you, didn't it?" Draco finally asked, after nearly ten minutes of silence.
Harry shrugged. "It's true. No, hear me out." He asked as Draco began to protest.
"My parents died to protect me, right? Well you don't know it but I needed to be protected from Voldemort at all costs. In my first year, he said that my mother needn't have died. Dunno why, he probably would have enjoyed killing her if she just stood aside and let him kill me, but that's not the point. She died for me. I may not have cast the spell that killed her, but there is a chance she could still be here if she had just let me die."
"Then there was Cedric Diggory. I knew I hadn't put my name in the Goblet, knew there was someone trying to kill me, but I still told him to take the cup with me. And again, while I didn't cast the curse that killed him, Wormtail would have flown the coop if only Cedric had shown up, afraid of being discovered. But since I was there, Cedric was a spare."
"And I fell for that trap just in June and pulled Sirius into a mess at the Department of Mysteries, which ultimately got him killed. Because I was there. And now just this morning Trelawney wouldn't have drank the wrong tea, if I wasn't there to accidentally take hers. She wouldn't even have had to worry about poisoned tea if I wasn't there."
Draco looked at Harry in shock before grabbing his arm.
"Harry did you tell your parents to stand in front of that killing curse for you? Did you ask Cedric enter the Triwizard Tournament? Did you tied Sirius up and drag him to the Department of Mysteries? Did you make Trelawney decide to have breakfast in the kitchens today? No. Those were their on choices. Your parents chose to die for you. Cedric chose to enter a dangerous competition. Sirius chose to follow you that night. Trelawney chose to leave her tower! You can't save everyone Harry. Voldemort would have Britain by now, if you hadn't been there that night!"
Harry looked into Draco's stormy eyes as he desperately wanted to believe what the Slytherin was saying.
"I know that. I really do. But I can't stop thinking that because I care about these people, I put them in danger. You are now in danger! Your mother and father! Your friends! Just because I'm here."
"Harry, we're all in danger anyway! My family has been Dumbledore's spys since they graduated from Hogwarts! Professor Snape since before that! You didn't ask my parents to do that! It was their choice!"
Harry sighed. "I'm just worried about you, that's all. Hogwarts isn't the safest place in all of Britain. Nowhere is."
Draco scooted closer to Harry as the Veela lay his head down on his mate's shoulder.
"I know. I'm worried about you too. After all, in the end, it's you their trying to kill."
Both were still as they watched there twinkling start comes out, hoping the other would be safe this year.
A/N:Harry has a guilt complex. Poor chap! He needs a hug! Part of Dumbledore's 'speech' was form a quote by Lewis B. Smedes.
Thanks for the reviews again! I'm almost at 300!
S.Tangerine