Disclaimer: Harry Potter above the port was the color of JK Rowling, tuned to a dead channel.
A/N: Bonus chapter! It's super short, but I got off tempo with my extra material, and this gets me back on track. It should give you something to tide you over until I get the next one done. Enjoy!
Also, I need to give a shout-out to John Gilmore, who is currently producing an audiobook of the Arithmancer series on YouTube. He just finished the Arithmancer, with MP3s hopefully coming soon. It's well-performed and worth checking out.
Chapter 19: Bonus: Exterminate!
The twenty-nine muggle victims of Greyback's last rampage had been "disappeared" from the muggle world under the guise of a witness protection program. They were introduced to the magical world, told of their disease, and told of the resources available to them. Three of them committed suicide. Of the remaining twenty-six, twelve of them were family members of the kidnapping victims. The Ministry tried to keep tabs on them, but they lacked the resources, and there was only so much they could do without probable cause. They eventually determined that they had been approached by one or more of Greyback's other muggle followers, who would not be on the Registry. The information spread through word of mouth, and the muggles travelled by muggles means that the Ministry didn't understand well enough to follow, and most of them slipped through their fingers.
The result was that under Greyback's direction, twenty werewolves descended on one of the many magical communities of Germany. Unlike Britain, which had only a couple of large wizarding villages and quarters of cities, Germany had a bunch of small ones left over from the days of the Holy Roman Empire. It was impossible to tell exactly what Greyback had done with the Wolfsbane Potion, but it was likely that he did something similar to his attack on Hogwarts: taken a full course for himself and given the rest of his pack one dose each, making them just sane enough to follow him.
Whatever the method, they took the magical quarter of Wittenberg by surprise and overwhelmed its local defences. The magical community of what was once Saxony was virtually wiped out, and the survivors added to Greyback's pack. The disaster was so great that it took most of the next day for accurate reports to get out.
The political fallout was unclear. Britain, Germany itself, and possibly France had all dropped the ball in keeping Greyback contained, and everybody was blaming everybody else. But despite a lot of shouting and great efforts to track down Greyback, little of note happened in the next two weeks.
Looking back afterwards, Harry thought the most remarkable thing about those last few weeks at Hogwarts was that he managed to get through his O.W.L. exams while half-expecting Voldemort to come bursting through the front doors at any moment, Dumbledore or no Dumbledore. However, their frustratingly vague intelligence still indicated he was planning to make a move in the final week between the O.W.L. exams and the end of term.
There was considerable fear among those who knew this that they might be wrong—that the attack might come sooner, but nothing happened aside from Greyback's attack. Harry wished he had time to relax and enjoy Hogwarts in those weeks, or to spend with Luna, but he really didn't. It was all revising (and not just because of his sister's influence), and before he knew it, exams were past. Now, all that was left was for the other years to review their marks—and for Voldemort to make his move.
At one point, Harry wondered if that was deliberate. Would it benefit Voldemort to go out of his way not to disrupt exams? In terms of keeping the wheel of society turning, maybe? It didn't seem like his style to worry about such things, but there were those around him who might.
Granted, they didn't know for certain whether he would make an attempt on Hogwarts. It seemed outrageous that he could, but Cho's vision suggested it: the Quidditch Pitch burning and students fleeing the castle across the grounds.
Harry and Hermione had heard from Sirius that the Board of Governors were seriously considering dismissing early to avoid the danger, but they didn't know if that would trigger the attack early, or if Death Eaters would attack the Hogwarts Express instead. Even if it was vulnerable, Hogwarts was the best place to stand up to a siege, and if Voldemort did take over the Ministry as he seemed to think he could, Hogwarts would be the only place of refuge left. Given what the Seers were telling them, staying looked like a bad move, but all the others were worse.
Either way, that meant it was now or never. Exams had just ended, and it was the last Saturday of the term. He'd told Fred and George they needed to move tonight. Just around the time pudding appeared, it happened.
It started with a loud bang that made everyone jump. Dumbledore immediately rose to his feet, but Harry quickly half-rose from his seat, looked up at the High Table, and winked at him. A moment later, the doors of the Great Hall crashed open, and something rolled inside.
To the uninitiated, it might have been some sort of bizarre cooking and cleaning machine. Its shape was similar to that of a salt shaker—if the shaker were four feet tall—and its arms seemed to be made out of a plunger and an eggbeater. Its head had two blinking lights and a single eye stalk attached, swivelling back and forth.
Two more of the machines flanked the first one as it entered the Great Hall and the lead machine screamed in a disturbing, mechanical voice, "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"
The voice alone might not have affected most wizards, but the real chaos came from the muggle-borns, many of whom, not having any sofas to hide behind, leapt from their seats and ran away screaming.
The three Daleks split up and rolled down the aisles between the House Tables. They shot Roman candles from their guns, those being the closest they could get to a proper death ray, and Harry thought it looked excellent, but then it all went wrong. One of younger the muggle-borns who wasn't in on it lost his head and screamed, "You-Know-Who's teamed up with the Daleks! Run for your life!"
The hysteria was contagious. Spells started flying all over the Hall. Fred and George jumped up and shouted, "Whoa! Whoa! We don't have anything to do with You-Know-Who!" One of the Daleks was blasted into pieces and knocked on its side by students. (Harry had also warned the twins that under no circumstances should anyone be inside the Daleks, just in case.)
The older muggle-borns quickly realised it was a prank and tried to calm down the others, but things only really got back under control when Snape shot to his feet and shouted, "Weasleys! Detention!"
Everyone stopped and stared.
"Which professor looks the most like any of the Doctors?" Harry had asked when they were planning the prank.
"I suppose Remus could make an older Peter Davison," Hermione said. "It's not a great match, but it's really him or Snape."
"Hm…Snape would be funnier. And I think he could pull off Paul McGann if we can hex the hair onto him."
They honestly had no idea how, the moment he stood up, Severus Snape suddenly had curly hair and was wearing a muggle three-piece suit. It must have taken the combined efforts of Fred, George, and Remus to pull off, and the laughter quickly calmed the brewing disaster in the Great Hall.
Snape looked down at his clothes. "What have you done?" he hissed.
Just then, the two surviving Daleks rolled up to the foot of the High Table and screamed, "It is the Doc-tor! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"
They shot roman candles at Snape. Snape whipped out his wand from his sleeve, but there was a crack, and it changed into a metal tool that made a funny whirring sound. His eyes bulged out as the students laughed some more. "What?!" he gasped, and he frantically patted down his altered clothes, finding his real wand tucked farther up his sleeve. He blasted one of the Daleks into a smoking wreck with a single curse.
"The sonic screwdriver!" the other Dalek screamed, spinning around. "Retreat! Retreat!"
Snape blasted it before it could get away. Then, even though the Weasley Twins had already outed themselves, he turned his gaze on Harry. "Potter," he growled, "I don't know how, but I know you're behind this somehow."
Harry grinned: "You can't prove a thing, Professor. You just destroyed the evidence."
Even though it was the last week of term, and even though classes were over, and even though he didn't have any hard evidence, Snape still managed to find an excuse to give Harry detention on Monday. Fred and George and Lee Jordan got it too, and the rumour was that he'd tried everything he could to give Remus detention while he was at it, but Harry thought it was worth it—one last hurrah before the storm broke.
True, Professor Dumbledore lecturing them about how reckless that prank had been was more punishment than Snape could give them. They had nearly caused a stampede, after all, but once Snape was targeted, it was pure gold, and everyone thought it had been a great end of year prank, even though most of them had had no idea what was going on.
More worrying was the news Cho have him after dinner on Saturday. She'd been trying her hand at Tarot reading, but that day, the cards stopped cooperating entirely. She told Harry and Dumbledore that every time she dealt them—relating to Hogwarts, anyway—in a statistical impossibility, she always got the same three cards: the Tower—disaster, the Hanged Man—surrender, and the Three of Swords—heartbreak. Even Professor Trelawney said it was the most disastrous reading she'd ever seen. Whatever was coming, it was going to be bad.
On Sunday, Cho ran back to Dumbledore saying that the reading had changed. Now, it was the Tower, the Hanged Man, and the Two of Swords—difficult decisions. That was at least a little better. It seemed to suggest a way out, but Dumbledore had no idea what it could be.
On Monday, Cho was strangely cheerful. The reading, she said, was now the Tower, the Hanged Man, and the Ace of Swords—a card that was supposed to mean a breakthrough, new ideas, or even success. Still no clue was it meant, but for a little while, it was a glimmer of hope.
Harry was embarrassed to say it took him until Tuesday afternoon to make the connection. Cho told him she was trying another reading for today, and he and Hermione watched. She drew the Tower, the Hanged Man, and the Fool.
"Beginnings? Innocence?" she said. "That doesn't sound so bad."
But Harry tensed: "Wait a minute, the Fool's number zero, isn't it? Bugger! That's what we are! That's not a reading; it's a bloody countdown! We have to warn Dumbledore!"
He jumped up to leave, but at that moment, Cho grabbed his wrist. He looked back at her as she stared with wide, blank eyes, and her body jerked as the prophecy she'd been seeking for weeks broke through:"Winter is coming!"
"Huh?"
"The wolf has broken from his bonds. The demon of fire rides forth, his heart set on conquest. Tonight, they will come against the rulers of the land. The shields of the rulers will be broken, and London will fall…"
"…Tonight, the sea will rise to cover the land," Sybill Trelawney rasped a completely different prophecy to, of all people, Hagrid. She wasn't even supposed to be outside the castle, but she had come down to his hut as if in a daze, and Hagrid knew a prophecy when he saw one. He knew this was important and made sure to listen carefully. "Tonight, fire will rain down upon the fields. Tonight, the legions of Helheim come out. They will set upon Hogwarts, great magics will be wrought, and all refuges will be lost…"
"…Twilight will fall, and the monsters will come," Fan Tong's creaky voice sounded. Her body trembled with the strain of what seemed the most notable prophecy she'd made in months, while Change Jie tried to support her. "The Tiger prowls in the shadows, hiding his enemies' sight. The Jaguar laughs and strikes down whom she pleases. The Lynx charges to claim his throne, an army at his back. The Leopard roars and transfixes his foes, hungry for revenge—"
Severus Snape, who was on shift watching her, fairly cringed when his Mark began to burn. Not now! He would have to risk the few minutes he needed to hear the prophecy and tell Dumbledore. And then…he didn't know.
"—The enemies of the Leopard will be trapped until the day is done, and Europe will fall into darkness. Winter is coming!"
