Chapter Eight

The Cover up

The next week just dragged on Harry worked harder at his lessons then he ever had. He needed some time where he didn't have to think on anything but school work. His marks skyrocketed and his teachers started to take notice. He kept a constant scan of thoughts sweeping around him. It was Friday at dinner when he finally cracked through Dumbledore's walls. What he saw there shocked him and scared him. He immediately contacted his Sire.

"Sire, we have a big problem."

"Harry what is wrong?" Severus's voice ghosted to him.

"Dumbledore I finally got through, here ill show you." With that Harry sent his Sire the thoughts and plans he had lifted from Dumbledore's subconscious.

"That is a problem alright here is what we are going to do. Anyone you want to remember what you are must come with you tonight for our lesson. I think I know a way that we will be safe." Severus's mental voice sounded very thoughtful.

"Alright, I think I will bring three people with me. Will that be alright?"

"I think what I am planning will work with that amount. Just be extremely careful not to get caught we will only have one shot at this." His Sire explained to him.

"We will be there." Harry added then broke off the connection before Dumbledore or McGonagall could feel it.

Harry waited anxiously for dinner to be over and curfew to descend on the castle. They passed the time talking about the coming Quidditch season now that both Harry and Draco were on the team. Pansy looked a little put out but Blaise joined right in.

Finally when Harry had reached the breaking point of his patience it was time to leave and meet Severus. It was tricky getting down to Severus's quarters without being scene. Draco, Pansy, and Blaise used Harry's invisibility cloak while Harry just used the vampires shadow blending abilities.

They made it to the potions master's quarters relatively quickly. Harry gave the password and they entered. Severus's quarters were neat and orderly done up in earth tones lots of greens, browns, and even some red. Severus himself was sitting on one of the over stuffed brown leather couches with a large book in his lap.

He heard the rustle of the cloak as the three students removed it he looked up smiled and closed his book. "I see you managed not to get caught." He said to Harry.

"You taught me well," was all Harry answered with.

"Uncle Severus what is going on? Harry wouldn't tell us before hand." Draco asked.

"That's because it was too dangerous and it still does holds a lot of danger. Especially for you three, simply put Dumbledore is hatching a plot and if it succeeds we will become the hunted." Severus started to explain.

"What exactly is Dumbledore plotting?" Draco asked again.

Harry answered him this time. "Simple he is getting new laws past at the ministry. They are there to supposedly monitor and detour supposed Dark creatures from their evil ways. It requires all vampires to be registered and then branded. All the more humiliating because the brand has to be somewhere a person could see. There is also going to be a new division of the ministry devoted entirely to Vampire extermination. If the laws progress the way they are it is likely to become illegal to even be related to a vampire let alone be one. If you thought werewolf legislature was bad this is worse." Harry explained some of his anger leaking into his voice.

"So basically he is trying to get both of you killed eventually?" Draco asked again to reassure himself he had heard correctly.

"Exactly," Harry explained.

"So what are you going to do now and where do we come in?" Pansy asked.

"Well it is a relatively simple idea but hard to pull off. With both of our vampiric abilities working together we are basically going to modify the memories of every person in Hogwarts. Through that we can take care of Harry and myself possibly. The only thing we need is a memory to replace it with." Severus explained.

"I think we are trying to hard we need to change a single event and it wont effect the outcome much." Blaise observed. "When Finnegan through the flask instead of them seeing Harry feeding they will see the flask hitting the cauldron and exploding, and instead of trying to kill him with sunlight they try to kill him by depriving him of much needed potions."

Both Harry and Severus thought it over then Severus spoke. "That could possibly work. It will take a little fine tuning but it definitely has potential."

"How exactly are we going to modify that many memories?" Harry asked.

"The same way we modify a single person. We create a fabric of false memories then install it in the right places on the person. All we have to do to modify more people would be making the fabric of memories bigger." Severus explained.

"For now though we need to take care of these three. We must protect their minds from Dumbledore. All we have to do is alter the memory modifying technique. Basically we are going to manipulate the fabric of memories to act like a shield. Dumbledore will see what we want him to and you will remember everything safely beneath that shield." Severus told them.

He then ordered the three mortals to line up next to each other. Next he called to Harry, "Harry give me your hand and open your mind to me. I need some of your power to do this but I will do the fabricating on my own alright?"

"Alright," Harry answered automatically doing as he was told.

Harry immediately felt strange, his magic was running out of him and he had no control over it. He then saw Severus place a hand on the forehead of each of his friends. Every time that hand connected with a forehead a surge of power was pulled from him.

Soon though each of his friends were protected from Dumbledore. No one not even another vampire would be able to see under or around the shield.

"It should be simpler just to modify we wont actually have to touch everyone." Severus explained.

"Harry why did you pick us of all people?" Pansy asked.

Harry answered very simply, "I needed those I could trust around me. I need a few people to know to avoid another fiasco like in potions. You don't mind do you?" Harry asked hesitantly.

"Of course not we all meant what we said. Face it you're stuck with us." Blaise answered. "We will keep you and the professor out of trouble for as long as we can."

"You four need to stay down here tonight. We can't have Dumbledore scanning you now before everyone else is modified." Severus told them and as he spoke two new doors sprang into existence in his chambers. "First door is your bedroom the second is a bathroom. Try and get some sleep you might need it tomorrow we will try and pull this off at breakfast." With that Severus left them to their own devices to go patrolling in the halls.

They entered their bedroom carefully and noted it was one bedroom more like a small common room with four doors leading off. The small rooms were all the same large four-poster beds with silver and green bedclothes. They climbed in and surprisingly fell asleep rather quickly.

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The four students rose early and did their morning routines a few quick charms had them in fresh clothes and they headed out of their small common room to greet their professor.

Severus was definitely not a morning person he was cranky and almost hung over. Harry felt the same way but he hid it better. The five of them waited around until they knew every single person was in the great hall. Then they went up to set their plan into action.

The four students sat together shielding Harry for when he had to go into a trance to achieve the memory modifications. Finally he heard his Sire's voice in his head.

"Alright Harry lets get started, you lend me the power and I will supply the images."

"Fine" Harry answered and concentrated on sending all of the power he could to Severus. Severus bent the raw energy to his will shaping the memory as he wanted it.

When the fabric was constructed Harry figuratively grasped the edges of the illusory fabric and pulled counterpoint to Severus. Soon the fabric of memories hung over the students like a shroud.

Severus and Harry slowly lowered the fabric onto the students. For a second all movement and sound stopped it was utter silence. Then everything picked up right where they left off no one the wiser that an entire hall of students just had their memories changed.

Harry felt proud of his achievement yet angry it hadn't been in time to stop the vampire legislator. How many innocent walkers of the night would get killed under these laws while he got off free? He had that hanging on his conscious the whole day and it distracted him to the point he lost Slytherin several points.

He was really glad when class was over and he could relax in the common room. His friends and him just sat together talking quietly and working on homework. He hoped his life could have a lot more of these quiet down times but he had a feeling that just wasn't going to happen around him.

A/N well here is another chapter hoped you enjoyed it and if you did tell me so please review.