Disclaimer: I own the plot, I apologize if it's been done before. Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling.
AN: Hi! Real AN at the end! Enjoy!
Consanguina
by Jess S
Chapter 10: Running Out of Time
"Harry! Harry!"
By all accounts, Petunia Evans should not have been awake at this late hour. It was well past eleven thirty, with the moon high in the sky. The deep shadows that surrounded her ominously, as she stood in her nephew's room, trying frantically to wake him from whatever nightmare it was that made him scream so.
She'd never heard a scream such as this... one that seemed to express more pain than one should by mortally capable of bearing.
But no matter how hard she shook him, or how loud she called him, he simply wouldn't awaken.
And then, suddenly, his vivid green eyes snapped open, and him screams halted, as he fought to breath, sweat poring from every pore on his body.
"H-Harry?"
Slowly, as if he were almost a century older than he actually was, the teenager's head turned toward the side of the bed, and his eyes struggled to focus on his aunt. "A-aunt P-Petunia...?" he asked, still gasping in air, "Wh-what are you d-doing h-here?"
"I-I came to check on you, Harry..." his aunt replied after a moment's silence. "I thought you were d-dying..."
It took Harry's besieged brain several moments to truly register what she'd said, and when it did, his eyes saddened, and his face took on a mask of a different type of pain than what it had worn moment's before. "I'm s-sorry, Aunt Petunia," he took another gulp of air, "you shouldn't have s-seen t-that..." he finished weekly..."
"W-What was that? What h-happened?" she asked.
Harry remained silent for several moments before replying, still struggling with his breathing while he did so. "I had a... vision, of sort... of the present, not the future..."
"Why?"
"Because... of my scar..."
"Y-your scar?" Aunt Petunia repeated, glancing up at his forehead and reaching up, as if to touch it, but then managing to control herself as he began to cringe away.
"It's really a symbol of sorts... a dark mark..." he told her, "it connects me to Voldemort... I can see what's happening whenever he's emotionally active...or when he's hurting someone..."
"Lord..." Aunt Petunia frowned, "I've heard that name before... where have I..." Suddenly, her eyes widened, "B-but... he was killed! He died the night he killed Lily and James! When he tried to kill you!"
Harry sighed, finally managing to gain some semblance of control on his breathing. Even though it hurt to talk; as he'd just been screaming his throat raw for several minutes, he felt he owed his aunt an explanation... "He's back..."
"Back?" she repeated, her voice fearful as she spoke at a volume that barely qualified as a whisper. Her large, pale eyes wide and no less frightened than they'd been only moments before.
"Yes," he murmured, "He came back a month ago... I saw it..."
"You s-saw..." It was then that Aunt Petunia took notice of his current health, and snapped her mouth shut, visibly trying to control herself. After several moments of this, she released a soft sigh. "Is there anything that I can do to help, Harry?"
Harry blinked, but after a moment nodded; very slowly. "Vivian gave me a potion to help with the pain... it's in the drawer." He told her.
His aunt immediately moved around to the other side of the large bed, and opened the drawer of the table. After rummaging around for a moment, she pulled out a small, green crystal bottle. "How much do you take?"
"Five drops dissolved in warm water," the young wizard replied quietly.
She glanced around for a moment, before hurrying into his bathroom. He heard the tap running for a few seconds before she returned with a small glass of water. Setting the glass down on the table, she removed the crystal that corked the bottle, and carefully poured five drops of the bright (almost glowing) green liquid into the water. Then she corked the bottle and returned it to the drawer before picking the glass up and sitting down beside him carefully.
Harry was surprised, but grateful, when she held the glass to his mouth, one gentle hand at his chin holding his head up, and allowing him to drink.
He was even more grateful when the potion started to take affect, and the pain that had been tormenting him relentlessly began to ebb.
~ * ~
While, vampires and other nocturnal creatures would undoubtedly disagree, it was realistically, rather late for a meeting of any sort... However, another meeting of the Order of the Phoenix was commencing, though not all too well.
"The Auror that was guarding him was a Death Eater?" Madame Vance murmured, her eyes just a barely wider than usual.
"So it would seem..." Dumbledore nodded, "However, we do have one good piece of news."
The order members looked at him curiously, wondering what could possibly hope to brighten the dreariness news as horrible as this was meant to bring.
"Severus has just returned from an Inner Circle meeting," Dumbledore nodded to the obviously exhausted Potions Master, "And, as it happens, not only has Voldemort had no success in locating Mr. Potter, but he also lost one of his own in attempting to do so...." The Headmaster smiled, "Peter Pettigrew was captured by Aurors earlier this evening, which means that Sirius should soon be a free man." He nodded to the escaped convict.
~ * ~
"Why bloody Transfiguration?" Draco Malfoy wondered allowed for nearly the hundredth time, as he struggled over his summer homework.
The class taught by the Gryffindor Head was undoubtedly his worst subject, not because of the teacher; no, Muggle-lover or not, McGonagall knew her stuff and was almost never biased. The reason he performed so poorly in her class was simply because he didn't like it...
He didn't like changing things anymore than he liked being changed himself. He shivered as he remembered what Crouch had done to him when he was impersonating Mad-Eye.
After that incident, his Transfiguration grade had dropped from adequate to barely passing...
Which was undoubtedly why his father had ordered that he finish the homework. He'd put it off until last, and now he was paying for it with several hours of missed sleep.
Of course, his father had yet to return... and Draco couldn't help but wonder what had happened now. The Dark Lord hardly ever called people so suddenly... At least not suddenly enough to take his father completely by surprise...
Draco wasn't sure what to make of it...
Just like he wasn't anymore sure of what to make of his father... Lucius Malfoy had always been cool and to all appearances indifferent to his family in public, but he used to drop the mask a little in private. He used to lecture Draco on his shortcomings, and he'd even struck on occasion.
Lucius had only struck his son four times in Draco's lifetime, when Draco had really messed up. And those strikes had served their purpose.
Draco had never made any of those mistakes since then.
Until today, that is...
Draco truly was surprised by this, he'd done something unforgivable this afternoon; he'd forgotten his place and argued with his father while under direct orders. That definitely should have earned him a strike or at least a small dose of dark magic...
And, even though the calling had undoubtedly distracted his father, Draco couldn't imagine what could distract Lucius Malfoy enough to forget to put his son in place...
At the same time, he wasn't sure he cared. After all, the calling was enough, wasn't it? Draco had been born to follow in his father's footsteps, and to follow the Dark Lord's command. And so he would... Whether destiny existed or not, Draco Malfoy's life had been planned out well before he was born, and he had no reason to dispute that plan...
~ * ~
It was only a few short hours before dawn that Vivian stepped into the entrance hall of her home and made her way to her study. As always, a cup of decaffeinated tea was waiting on her desk, charmed to keep warm. She quickly added her milk and sugar, before grasping the handle of the cup a bit more firmly than was proper and bringing it up to her mouth.
However, before she could take a sip of the soothing beverage, she noticed the owl that was resting on one of the perches by her open window, a letter tied to its talons. Setting the teacup down, she made her way over to the familiar Malay fish owl.
Once again, the silver-crest that held the letter shut vanished when she pressed lightly on it, allowing her to open the letter.
She did not appear the least bit alarmed as she quickly read through the information, which was written in that same elegant script. However, only a few moments after setting it down, her vivid green eyes widened and she was on her feet and hurrying out of her study at a very fast walk.
It took her a little under two minutes to reach her brother's room, using the Manor's many secret/enchanted passageways. And she didn't make a sound as she opened one of the set of double doors and slipped inside.
She stopped short a few steps into the room, and slowly a smile began to make its way across her face as she took in the scene before her.
On the other side of the bed, her aunt slept in the leather-backed chair to Harry's desk, her right hand tightly clasped in one of the young wizard's. Harry himself was also sleeping peacefully, although he did look a little worse for wear.
Noting the empty glass on the bedside table and Harry's obliviousness, Vivian shook her head. Well, that was what she'd given him the potion for...
She quietly made her way around the bed to wear her aunt was. Once there, she transfigured the chair into a kline. Then the Auror waved her wand again to create a blanket, and covered her aunt with it.
Vivian walked around the bed again, and after checking to make sure her little brother was well covered, she placed a gentle kiss on his forehead, and departed.
~ * ~
The jail cell Peter Pettigrew was currently contained in wasn't really uncomfortable. It was a decent size, with a single bed, a table with a chair, a few books for entertainment. Nonetheless, it was more than a little disconcerting.
Just like in the interrogation room, there didn't seem to be any way out of the room, the white walls that surrounded him was unmarked and unbroken, as they stretched from the white floor to the white ceiling. The bed, chair and table were designed the same way the furniture of the other room had been; cold, unforgiving metal. The bed had one mattress, a white sheet, a white blanket and one white-cased pillow.
The only light in the room came from the center of the ceiling. It was obviously magicked to match the times of the day, for now, well after midnight; it emitted only a very small amount of light.
But Pettigrew had already taken all of this in a few hours before, when he'd been brought in here, immediately after the interrogation.
The thought of that room made him shiver. For it was in there that his life had truly been taken from him. And taken by someone who looked far too much like Lily Potter for his tastes...
She was the one that he had feared the most. Only partially because of the fact that she was obviously in charge, and only partially because her presence seemed dangerous...
He couldn't figure it out though! Why was she so familiar?! Was it some cruel twist of fate that the person destined to destroy the life he'd fought so long to keep would look like the wife of the man he'd called a friend for well over half his life, before betraying?
Wormtail wished more than any thing at that moment that he could change into his rat form; as life always seemed so much simpler in the form of a rat. In that form, his fear and guilt didn't seem to reach him. But he had already tried transforming, and found that him was denied that sanctuary...
~ * ~
"Good morning, Harry," Vivian smiled as her younger brother entered the breakfast parlor just before seven that morning. She nodded at the woman who came in a few steps behind him; their aunt. "Aunt Petunia..."
Both nodded, and returned the greeting. "Good morning..."
"I trust you both slept well?" Vivian murmured after a moment's silence, picking her half-empty teacup up to take another sip of the awakening elixir.
Harry spoke up a little too quickly, "Well enough, thank you..." the look he gave his aunt forced her to nod in agreement. He then turned his attention back to his sister. "How did it go last night?"
"Oh, well enough," Vivian replied before bringing a piece of melon up to her mouth, chewing and swallowing. "Although we were interrupted right in the middle of the confrontation."
"Really?" Harry blinked, "By what?"
Instead of replying, Vivian picked up the newspaper she'd set aside when they'd entered, and handed it to him.
Curious, Harry unfolded it and looked it over.
There were three pictures all across the top of the page, and all of them depicted two people. The one in the center was the one he'd seen of his parent's wedding, where Sirius had looked so happy and healthy, he could see Peter Pettigrew not far from him... he didn't look nearly as happy. To the left of that picture was the one of when Sirius when he'd escaped from Azkaban, and the one on the right was a pale, sickly and obviously frightened Peter Pettigrew.
It was the front page of the Daily Prophet, with the cover story he never thought he'd be granted the wish to see, taking up the entire page.
Sirius Black - Framed?
Peter Pettigrew - Alive & Guilty?!
~ * ~
At ten past eight o'clock, members of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement (Aurors) were faced with a shock. For it was then that they were summoned, to capture Peter Pettigrew. For our younger readers, who may not know why this is so shocking, it's really very simple...
Peter Pettigrew was one of James Potter's best friends when they attended school together. Not long after the Potter's died, Pettigrew chose to avenge their deaths on the one who betrayed them: Sirius Black. It was made all to clear when he faced Black however, that he wasn't anywhere near capable of completing that mission. As he was blown to smithereens, along with thirteen other unfortunate Muggles...
This story has been accepted as fact for the last fifteen years... and it wasn't until last night that anyone assumed it might be inaccurate. For, while many of the Aurors had thought they were catching "an imposter", as stated by Private Eric Munch, they found, upon questioning that man under Veritaserum that he was no imposter at all!
Through the course of a two-hour interrogation, we have been told that Pettigrew not only admitted his identity and the fact that he has been alive the past fifteen years, but many other horrifying secrets as well.
1. It was he, not Black, who had betrayed the Potter's to the Dark Lord...
2. He has the Dark Mark on his arm to prove it...
3. He escaped by framing his former best friend...
4. And... He helped his Master return only a few short months before now...
"It would seem," Auror General Vivian Potier told this Auror in a brief interview, "That both the Wizarding Ministry and world owe a number of apologies." And whom do we owe these apologies to?
Sirius Black, for his undeserved imprisonment...
Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ronald Weasley - for ignoring them and not believing them simply because we didn't want to when they told us the truth.
And again, to Harry Potter. Who suffered through watching the Dark Lord's return, only to then be shunned and hated when he warned us of it...
This report would like to be the first to offer these apologies.
~ Rita Skeeter, Daily Prophet
"You know," Remus Lupin murmured as he finished reading the article allowed to everyone at the dining room table at Grimmauld Place, "I never thought I'd see the day when Rita Skeeter wrote a newsworthy article..."
Several people laughed at that, but the man who would've usually laughed the loudest was staring off into space.
"Sirius?" Remus asked, concern as evident on his face as it was in his voice.
"I'm free..." the other wizard murmured into the silence, trembling slightly.
~ * ~
"Harry?"
The Boy-Who-Lived looked up from his seat in the library, his quill still poised over a long piece of parchment. "Yes, Vivian?"
His sister smiled as she made her way over to them, her moves as graceful as they were silent. "What are you working on?" she inquired as she took the seat across from him.
"Potions..." he sighed.
"Still?" Vivian laughed, "Really, it isn't that bad, Harry."
"I know... I've just never been overly fond of the subject... habit, I guess..." he sighed, before offering a slight smile, "I'm almost done though! Just two inches left!"
"That's good," the Auror smiled. "But don't forget to proof read it when you're done."
"Umm... Would you mind...?"
"I'll take a look at it as well, if you like."
"Thanks," Harry breathed, relieved.
"Would you mind putting it on hold for awhile?"
Harry blinked, "No... Why? More training?"
"Yes, I was thinking of starting your lessons in Occlumency."
"To stop my visions?"
"Well... not stop them, just control them." Seeing his incredulous look, she sighed, "I don't know if we can stop them, Harry... I've been trying; potions, charms, and even some forms of ancient magic. Nothing's worked."
"Then what makes you think Occlumacy will?"
"Occlumency," the Auror corrected gently, "gives you a better understanding of - and therefore helps you control and protect - your mind." She shook her head, "It won't be easy. Occlumency is one of the most difficult forms of magic in existence. It ties so deeply into us... It's the closest thing modern wizards have to the ancient magicks..."
"Why?" Harry asked curiously, "Why is it so..."
"Difficult? Powerful?" Vivian offered with a soft smile, before shaking her head wearily. "The mind is incredibly complex and possesses many layers of information, of life..." she shook her head, "It is our that we use to do everything, from breathing, eating and walking, to reading, casting spells and flying brooms.... Without the brain, life would be nothing like we know it, even though we technically wouldn't know it."
"But..." Harry frowned, "What about the Imperius curse? If the brain is so powerful, shouldn't that not be possible?"
Vivian raised an eyebrow, "The Imperius curse controls peoples minds by forcing the multi-layered contraption into one-layer channel, too compact to think for itself, it therefore serves as a channel for the caster." She smiled, "And no two minds, nor people are quite alike. Some are stronger than others, everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. Most people are easily controlled by the Imperius curse... others are not. Most of the people who are capable of resisting it need weeks to do it. Some need only days, others hours, a small few minutes, and an even smaller few - when trained - can become invulnerable to the curse."
"Like me..." Harry murmured, "I can resist it!"
The Auror nodded, "I know..." She raised an eyebrow, "Shall we?"
A few short minutes, and several magical passageways later, found the siblings in the 'training room'.
"What'd we do?" Harry asked, looking around to see if anything had really been changed for these lessons... As far as he could tell, the only noticeable difference were the pads; which had increased in thickness. Apparently Vivian expected a lot of falling during this training...
"You may use any methods available to disarm me, or defend yourself in any other way you can think of." She told him. "While I attempt to break into your mind."
After a moment's thought, Harry nodded, falling back into one of the defensive stances she'd taught him over the last few weeks.
"Very well," Vivian nodded, "Brace yourself... Legilimens!"
At first, Harry didn't know what had happened, one moment he was staring into his sisters identical emerald gaze, and the next his vision blurred, and he felt himself falling into those vivid green pools. Then images began flickering across his sight, almost like he was seeing them... but not.
He was five, watching Dudley riding a new red bicycle, and his heart was bursting with jealousy...
He was nine, and Ripper the bulldog was chasing him up a tree and the Dursleys were laughing below on the lawn...
He was sitting under the Sorting Hat, and it was telling him he would do well in Slytherin...
Hermione was lying in the hospital wing, her face covered with thick black hair...
A hundred Dementors were closing in on him beside the dark lake...
Then suddenly, everything blurred again, and he blinked to find himself falling forward down onto the mat. He just barely managed to catch himself and roll out of the fall and to his feet, as his sister had taught him, and he turned back to face her.
Vivian's face was utterly expressionless, but her eyes were sad. "Would you like a bike, Harry?"
Harry blinked, before remembering that that was one of the memories she'd seen. "No, thank you. I'd rather stick to broomsticks, if it's all the same..."
After a moment, his sister nodded, and released a deep breath before meeting his eyes again. Now her intense gaze was as unreadable as her lovely features. "You must remain focused, Harry. Focus, the enforcement of your will, is the only thing that can protect you from mental attack.... Do you remember the meditation techniques I taught you?"
"Yes," Harry frowned.
"Have you been practicing?"
He sighed, "Not really..."
"If you want to help yourself improve in this on your own, meditating will help." His sister told him. "Now, focus... And clear your mind, Harry," she instructed. "Let go of all emotion..."
Harry nodded, and with a sigh, closed his eyes and concentrated on his breathing. Inhaling to a count of seven, then holding that breath and exhaling to the same count. Long hours of meditation under his sister's instruction were undoubtedly the only reason he was capable of clearing his mind. With excruciating slowness, the jealousy, fear, confusion, anger and depression that had been drawn up by the memories Vivian had called forth, slowly depleted.
Somehow, the Auror knew when his mind was clear, for she called him back immediately. "Good... Let's try again now... On the count of three..."
Harry opened his eyes just as Vivian raised her wand.
"One - two - three - Legilimens!"
This time, the foggy vision came on much more quickly, and the flickering memories were no slower...
A great black dragon was rearing in front of him...
His Mother and Father were waving at him out of an enchanted mirror...
Cedric Diggory was lying on the ground with blank eyes staring at him...
And then he was on his knees again, his face buried in his hands, his head aching as though someone had been trying to pull his brain from his skull. A short moment - which seemed line an eternity - later, he felt a gentle touch in his shoulder, and looked up to meet his sister's concerned gaze.
He'd never really noticed before, but the eyes his mother had given him were truly spectacular. Capable of majestically expressing more shades and emotions than one would have thought possible.
Vivian's eyes were currently very dark... sad...
After a few seconds of staring into his eyes, she leaned back slightly, and opened her arms. Without a moment's hesitation, he threw himself into her gentle, loving embrace.
~ * ~
"This is great!" Ron smiled at his best friend's godfather. "You'll be free soon! Fudge'll have to give in to this!"
Sirius Black only smiled softly, still not fully believing that this day wasn't a dream... Of course, that was only one of the problems on his mind. He had three of them. The other was, of course; Harry, or more specifically, his godson's disappearance. The other... well, he wasn't quite sure what that one was... He couldn't seem to remember something. He hated it when that happened, especially when he knew that this was important. He didn't know how he knew... he just knew...
"We should send a letter of apology to Vivian," Remus's suggested broke into his thoughts.
'Yes,' Sirius thought with a nod, 'we should... we definitely should... Definitely? Why definitely? We had every right to be suspicious! Sure we should apologize... but it's not like we've ever done anything else to hurt her... So why do I feel like we have?'
"Actually," Dumbledore replied, his eye's twinkling. "I already sent one a little over an hour ago, inviting her to have supper with us at Hogwarts. I trust all of you will attend?"
~ * ~
It was shortly after she'd left her brother to rest and recuperate (under the protection of Afui Alucinari Dormio, a type of dreamless sleeping potion), that one of the house elves appeared in front of her, offering a letter that had just arrived by owl.
Noting the Hogwarts seal on the front, she raised a curious eyebrow before opening it.
Dear Vivian,
I feel I must apologize for the actions of my colleagues and myself yesterday evening. We were too quick to judge you, especially after all the help you have been these past few weeks.
I truly hope you can find it in your hear to forgive us, and accept my most humble apologies. I would also like to invite you to join us for supper this evening. It will be served in the school's Great Hall at seven o'clock. I hope to see you there.
We may or may not have much to discuss there. But, in any event, enjoy the day.
Most sincerely,
Albus Dumbledore
~ Hogwarts Headmaster
Vivian shook her head, sighing softly. 'How much longer can I keep this up?' she wondered, her brow creased in worry...
~ * ~
To say that the Dark Lord was 'seriously displeased' would be an incredible understatement.
Eyes glowing vividly in the mute silence, he sat upon his dark throne, mouth pressed thin with suppressed rage. His meeting with his Inner Circle was now far from his mind. For the loss of Wormtail had been one thing, and mostly of no importance. But the fact that he'd told the Aurors as much as he had, under Veritaserum or not, was unforgivable.
Lord Voldemort hadn't wanted to reveal himself so soon, but it seemed he didn't have a choice. War, and a new Dark Age, was to begin again, much sooner than expected...
The article before him left no doubt of that...
Now if only he could remember what had been aggravating him before all of this... He knew he'd forgotten something, but he couldn't remember what! However, all it took was the picture on the second page of the paper. There stood 'Vivian Potier' wand raised, obviously taken just as she stupefied the rat.
And that was all it took, for the memories long denied him and the Wizarding world, returned.
End of Chapter 10.
Translations:
Consanguina - related by blood (Latin)
Afui - to take no part in
Alucinari - dream
Dormio - to sleep
Response to Reviews for Chapter 9:
Xirleb70 - LOL, thank you. ^_^
Liedral - LOL... Thank you very much...
*Sigh*... umm... It's not a question of power (for the most part)...
1. Voldemort is the not the only one who can remember, he just has to before anyone else can. The spell the OotP cast was directed at primarily him (and his followers), and just happened to hit the rest of the world as well. Therefore, he has to be the one to break the spell.
2. The Order really drained themselves on that spell (I think ancient magic would be like that) and therefore they had no protection against the backlash, whereas Voldmort (theoretically) wasn't casting any big, tremendously draining spells at that time, so he still had a lot of his magic to shield him, so on some level, he would stand a better chance of remembering.
3. The rest of the Wizarding world (outside of DE's & OotP) didn't really know what the spell made them forget, so they don't know they've forgotten something...yet.
Did that answer your question?
How was this chapter?
Jaded*Secrets - LOL, thanks... ^_^
Well... it's polite to thank someone for paying you a compliment... & I really do appreciate them! I don't know if it makes me write faster for sure... but it certainly encourages me to try. I know that I have a much easier time writing when I receive a lot of reviews...
LOL... My stories help you sleep? They wake me up! LOL. Well, I'm glad they're good for something. Thanks for reading/reviewing (complimenting)!
(Assuming your reading at a late hour again:) Good night! ^_^
Pheonixrising - Thank you ^_^
*Sigh* Wouldn't we all?
That's good to hear...
LOL, yeah, I had fun writing that scene. Although I still think I'd hate having the last name "Munch"... maybe it was just the sentence... but "Miss Munch" and "Mrs. Munch" don't sound any better than "Mr. Munch", to me... Yeah, I suppose that was kind of what he was... Don't worry, we'll see a little more of him later... (Vivian's not happy with him...poor guy...)
This wait wasn't that bad, was it? Although, I can't promise the next one will come quite as quickly... this chapter really was just begging to be written!
Rachel A. Prongs - LOL, thank you...
Better? *blink* *blink* I'm not trying to make him better...
Hmm... I'm not sure that's really true... I mean, Potion's is the only thing he's really bad at (and we all know the reason for that!) I've always thought that Hermione's... interest *cough* obsession *cough* with schoolwork may simply overshadow the fact that Harry himself isn't all that bad... Of course, I suppose it could be the Dursleys fault. LOL, hey there's nothing wrong with trying to see yourself in our fabulous hero!
Hey, I just said that! -_-*...
Yup, yup! Example... although I think Harry would be better following instructions from Vivian that run along the lines of; "Do as I say, not as I do..." ..but I'll explain that a bit more later... ^_^*
Thank you, I'm glad you like it.
Everpresent - ^_^ That's good to hear... and I figure she's pretty well balanced at the moment, so we can get on with the story... LOL, ^_^*, yes, some of my friend's have mentioned that...
That's true... Harry's never really had a role model, or extreme private instruction... until now... ^_~
Yup, pretty much... They still have to get around Fudge... but that's for later... :-D
Hmm... yes she probably should, shouldn't she? In reality, she should hand it over to a different department, but then there's a higher change of him escaping or being assassinated... And, I'll just say right out front, that yes, Vivian hates Peter. Voldemort really ruined her chance at a happy childhood, but it's almost certain that he couldn't have done it without the rat's help. And the rat may've not killed them himself, but there are some people who consider betrayal a greater sin than murder. And Vivian's killed (quite a few times) before, so she has no qualms about death... Ok, I'm shutting up now...
Umm... wh-I'm not sure.... I've got the Malfoys mixed into the plot pretty well, but we'll just have to wait and see... Personally, I don't think we've seen a cannon Draco that can be described as "evil"... I can think of a bunch of other descriptions: spoiled brat, arrogant jerk, weak-minded and overly dependent idiot...etc....
Thanks for reviewing! ^_^
ROG1039 - Thank you. I'm glad you like it...
Yes, I think it's coming along....
AN: Well, that's it for Chapter 10! What'd you think? I can't guarantee that the next chapter will be out as soon as this one... Like I told Pheonix', this chapter was really begging to be written... Well, i hope you guys liked it! Bye for now! ^_^
Bye! ^_^
~ Jess S