Chapter 18
Once the three days had passed, Sirius and Remus apparated to Dumbledore's secret location and found him waiting for them in front of the fireplace in the very small room. They examined the place more closely and saw that three cups of tea were indeed waiting for them on a table in a corner of the room.
"Thank you for coming Sirius, Remus," Dumbledore said, nodding slightly to them both, his expression very serious, "Let's have our tea before getting down to business."
Dumbledore then conjured three chairs for everyone to sit on. Sirius and Remus sat silently sipping their tea, wondering what possibly could have happened to Snape during his mission.
Finally, after many minutes, Dumbledore put his tea cup down on the little table and said, "Perhaps it is time that I explained to you what has happened to Severus. Follow me."
Dumbledore led them to another room that was joined to the one they were in. This other room was even smaller than the first and contained only a bed and a small bedside table. Sirius and Remus saw that Snape was lying very still on the bed with his eyes closed.
"Albus, are you sure he's not...dead?" Remus asked with concern.
"No, he is not dead. But I am afraid that he may actually be worst off. He appears to be trapped in his dreams. Not just ordinary dreams, but ones in which he is forced to relive the worst and most painful periods in his life." replied Dumbledore.
"Sort of like...an internal Dementor..." Sirius said, reminded of his long and horrible stay at Azkaban.
"Yes...I have performed a calming spell on him so that he may not have any dreams at all, though this is only a temporary cure. I would have liked to take him to St. Mungo's to get treated, but I am afraid the Death Eater who did this might break in the hospital and finish the job." said Dumbledore.
"How did this happen, Albus?" asked Remus.
"Severus was investigating if the Death Eaters had another plan to try to infiltrate Hogwarts from the inside, perhaps through a student this time. At great risk to himself he went to a known Death Eater meeting spot to see if he could find some information there." said Dumbledore.
"Malfoy! It was Malfoy!" Snape mumbled in his sleep.
"What?!" said Sirius in surprise, "What's he talking about?"
"I cannot be certain. But it was Lucius Malfoy and another Death Eater unknown to me who attacked Severus. I do not know the details of the conversation that Malfoy and the other Death Eater were having, but I assume they were talking of some plan involving a student at Hogwarts." said Dumbledore.
"But, Harry and Violet! Are they safe?!" asked Sirius with concern.
"You know as well as I do that just being inside the halls of Hogwarts does not keep you completely safe. But I still have faith in the other teachers in keeping the students as safe as can be expected." replied Dumbledore.
"So, Snape is just muttering the name of his attacker?" asked Remus.
"Either that, or name of the infiltrator. I don't think it would be too huge a leap to believe that Malfoy is using his own son to gain information or do things for Voldemort from the inside." said Sirius.
"You may be right, Sirius, but we won't know any of this for certain until Severus wakes. I will stay with him until he does." Dumbledore said.
"So what should we do now that this has all happened?" asked Remus.
"I believe that we should turn our energies to finding out where Voldemort is exactly and what his next move is, but now we must be extra careful about our movements, since the Death Eaters are now alerted to the fact that we have some of their intelligence." said Dumbledore.
"Yes. And when I visit Harry and Violet at this next Hogsmede visit, I'm going to tell them to especially be on their guard." Sirius said.
And I'm going to tell them all to keep an eye on that Draco Malfoy...Sirius thought.
"We can all stand to be a little more careful..." Dumbledore replied, glancing at Snape.
"We should go now. We will be in touch." said Remus.
Dumbledore nodded to them in agreement. Remus and Sirius looked at each other and apparated back to their cottage.
It was the day before the Hogsmede visit and George still needed to think of a way to meet Sophia there without Fred finding out.
I've had enough of this sneaking around! I'm going to tell her that I'm George tomorrow once and for all! George thought, slightly disgruntled.
He kept thinking about that as he walked with Fred to their first class of the day: Care of Magical Creatures. As they were about to go outside to the grounds, George noticed Sophia down the hall from him.
I've got to tell her that I'll meet her an hour before we leave Hogsmede in the Three Broomsticks. Hopefully Fred and Lee won't come in till later...George thought.
George dropped his bag on purpose so that he could stop. He motioned to Fred to go on without him and busied himself with pretending to pick up his things until Fred was safely out of sight. Then he hurried to catch Sophia before she walked into her classroom.
She noticed him walking up, smiled, and said, "Hi, Fred. So we're still meeting tomorrow, right?"
He smiled back and said, "Yeah, of course. But about that. Lee,...George, and I wanted to check out some things in Zonkos when we go to Hogsmede this time to get more ideas for our joke shop. It is okay if we both meet in Three Broomsticks an hour before we all leave Hogsmede?"
George hoped he sounded convincing because he made everything up on the spot.
"Yeah, that'd be great." Sophia replied.
"Well, I have to get to class." George said, "See you tomorrow."
George waved and quickly walked off to catch up with Fred in Care of Magical Creatures.
It was now the morning of the Hogsmede visit and everyone was getting ready to leave. George paced in the Common Room, trying to think of a good excuse as to why he wasn't coming to Hogsmede, but came up with nothing. Then he noticed that Fred and Lee were coming up to him.
Oh man...I hope my story telling skills are up to par...George thought.
"Hey, George! We should hurry up and go so we can get a carriage to ourselves." said Lee.
"Oh, well, I'm not going..." said George slowly.
"What?! But they were going to get in some new trick candy shipments in today at Zonkos!! You're not going to miss those, are you?" asked Fred, in shock.
"Uhh...I have to study." George said, lamely.
"What?!?" Lee and Fred exclaimed.
"Yeah. I have to study." George said a little more strongly this time.
Fred and Lee exchanged a look of surprise and puzzlement, and then Fred said, "O...kay...I guess we'll just tell you what we saw when we get back..."
"Oh. Thanks." said George, slightly guilty for having to lie to Fred and Lee once again.
Then Fred and Lee walked off. George breathed a sigh of relief.
Now to meet Sophia later tonight...I really hope nothing happens this time so that I can tell her who I really am...George thought.
Ron, Violet, Harry, and Hermione sat in the carriage that would take them to Hogsmede. Hermione carried the food that they packed for Sirius.
While watching the scenery outside the carriage while Hogsmede got closer and closer, Violet said, "I just can't wait to see Sirius! I can't get over the fact that he's my uncle! A whole new relative I never even knew about...I don't believe my dad never told my mom and I about him! Even if I only spent a few days with him before I came to Hogwarts, I thought he was a pretty cool guy."
"Yeah...Sirius never told me anything about his family either...I always just assumed that he was an only child and that his parents had died already. Now I really want to meet your dad just to see what he's like." said Harry.
"Well, after getting to know you, Violet, if you are anything like your dad, I'm sure he's a pretty wicked guy." Ron said with a smile.
Violet blushed slightly at the compliment. In a few minutes, the carriages finally stopped at their destination: Hogsmede.
"I thought we'd never get here! Let's go!" said Ron.
All of them got out of the carriage and Harry led the way to the cave where they were to meet Sirius. They all made sure no one was following before making their way up the hill where the cave was. After a long walk up the hill, they finally got to the top. They slowly made their way in the cave, bending their heads to get inside.
"I've been waiting for you guys to get here."
Everyone turned their heads toward the voice and found that it was Sirius.
"Oh, here, we brought you some food like you asked." said Hermione, handing Sirius the food they had brought.
"Thank you so much!" Sirius said, digging in right away.
They all waited for Sirius to finish eating before anyone said anything. When he finally finished, he turned to Violet.
"So how do you find Hogwarts, Violet? I see you've made friends with Harry, Hermione, and Ron...I suspected that would happen...trouble makers always find a way to get together," Sirius said, smiling and poking fun at Violet, "Reminds me of my days at Hogwarts...So? Fill me in."
The four put their dark thoughts about the Scepter aside for a moment to answer Sirius's questions.
"Well, besides the fact that we can't apparate in Hogwarts, which really sucks, I think it's a really cool school. And, even if I do miss my friends back at Notalans, I think I've made some great friends here too," Violet said, smiling at Ron, Harry, and Hermione, "Also, since no one knew me too much here, I got the guts to try out for Quidditch."
"Really?" Sirius asked in pleasant surprise, "So what came of it?"
"I'm a chaser." Violet replied, quite pleased with herself.
"That's really great! Wow, I still can't believe I have a niece...God, am I that old?! It seemed only yesterday I was turning seventeen..." Sirius said in jest.
Then his face turned serious.
"I'm just glad the magic in our family didn't die when Dalon and my parents left England..." he said sadly
Although Ron, Hermione, and Violet were at a loss as to what to think, Harry could somewhat relate to the way Sirius was feeling. Not having any family to speak of (although the Dursleys were related to him by blood, he certainly did not consider them family, just something of an unfortunate curse he had to deal with every summer) and then suddenly finding them when you least expected it (Sirius was the only person he considered to be family- after all, he was Sirius's god son).
Then Sirius turned to Harry and said, "And how are you, Harry? Any weird dreams or visions lately?"
"No, but we do have a few things that we wanted to tell you. About the Zyorious Scepter." Harry said, looking to Hermione for support.
"I knew that you three would know about it soon after becoming friends with Violet." Sirius said, thoughtfully.
Hermione took over telling Sirius the rest since she knew the most.
"Well, we decided to look for information about the Scepter in the library since we knew nothing about it. Finally I found one book that described it, and what I read left me in disbelief. I mean, a scepter that can transfer magic from one human to another? I have never even heard of anything like this, but it is easy to see why You-Know-Who would want it. But when I was reading about it, the page that would have told me what activated the Scepter was ripped out by someone!" Hermione finished, expecting Sirius to be as shocked as she was.
But, to everyone's surprise, he gave her somewhat of an embarrassed smile.
"Well, that someone would be me." Sirius said.
"What?!?" the four exclaimed.
"But when?! How?! How did you come into the school without being seen? And why?!?" Ron asked, barraging Sirius with many more questions than he could answer at once.
"Ah, well, I did it while I was a student at Hogwarts, so it didn't matter much if I was seen or not. And I did it then because when my mother told me about the Scepter and what it could do, I didn't want anyone else to know how to use it." Sirius said, trying his best to answer all of Ron's questions.
"So what is the thing that activates the Scepter then?" Violet asked.
"Some sort of dragon claw. My mother told me that we've lost track of who has it and where it may be over the decades, but we just have to hope that one of Voldemort's followers doesn't get their hands on it." said Sirius.
Everyone silently agreed.
"Well, since you've all dug up this information of the Scepter on your own, I don't have to tell you anymore about that, but I do have some more information for you." Sirius said, a dark expression crossing his face, "Remus and I believe that there could possibly be a student at Hogwarts that is giving Voldemort information from the inside. We have no solid evidence, but all clues point toward Draco Malfoy."
"Huh?!" Violet exclaimed.
She regretted her outburst since everyone gave her a strange look.
Oh, man...I really hope I haven't blown my cover...who knows how much of my letter Ron read. I know it was enough because he's been acting weird around me since then, and now this! Violet thought, uneasy.
But Sirius thought that she was surprised since she did not know any of the Malfoys.
"I'm sure you are not very familiar with any of the Malfoys, but they really are a bad bunch." Sirius said.
"That's the idea I got..." Violet said, recovering quickly.
"Yeah, even Violet got a taste of Malfoy's nastiness in her first week here." said Ron.
"Really?" Sirius asked, slightly concerned.
"Tell him what happened, Violet." Ron said.
"Well, I ran into him during a carriage ride to Hogsmede. He basically insulted our family, so I put a truth telling spell on him to get revenge." said Violet.
Sirius grinned in amusement.
"How interesting," he said, the smile growing on his face, "Did you find anything useful?"
"Umm...he does have a teddy bear..." Violet said, feigning hard thought.
Everyone cracked up. Then Sirius looked at her seriously.
"Although Malfoy certainly deserved it, I think you had better watch your back around him. Now he has a reason to get revenge on you, and I doubt he would pass up any opportunities that he gets." Sirius said.
This caused Harry to remember his last vision of Voldemort.
"Oh! I remember I did have another dream about Voldemort! I don't remember exactly what happened in it because I woke up in the middle of it, but Voldemort did mention needing Malfoy for something." said Harry.
Sirius thought about this a moment and said, "I wish I had known about this sooner...Dumbledore has to know about this...I think I should go to tell him right now. I wish our meetings didn't have to be so short, but I'm glad to have gotten to see all of you and made sure you're all fine."
"Yeah...it was nice to see you again, Sirius." said Violet.
"Say hi to Professor Lupin for us." said Harry.
"I will. And remember, you two keep writing to me, okay?" Sirius replied, indicating Harry and Violet.
With that, Sirius apparated out of the cave.
"We should probably get back to town now..." Harry said, leading the way out of the cave.
When Violet, Ron, Harry, and Hermione got back to Hogsmede, Ron said, "Let's go to Honeydukes! I'm totally out of Chocolate Frogs."
They walked into Honeydukes, and smiled as all the good food surrounded them.
"I've gotta be in heaven!" Ron said, slightly dumbstruck.
Then they all just looked around together seeing how much they could take back with them.
"There are the Chocolate Frogs!!" Ron said excitedly, pointing to a shelf of them.
Ron, Harry, and Hermione helped themselves to the Frogs, but they were not Violet's favorites.
"Hey, I'm going to go look for some Fizzing Whizbees." said Violet, leaving the three to the Frogs.
Just as Violet turned into the next aisle, she felt herself being pulled into the dimly lit storeroom near the back of the store. She smiled when she saw it was Draco.
"Wow, you surprised me there, Draco." Violet said playfully.
Draco just smiled in reply.
"But look, they're all – " Violet started.
Draco interrupted her by bringing a finger to her lips.
"Shh...I know the Do Gooders are waiting for you. They always are." Draco said softly.
Without giving her a chance to reply, he leaned forward and kissed her. He ran a hand through her hair, pulled her closer, and kissed her more deeply.
When Ron was sure Violet was a considerable distance away, he elbowed Harry in the side to get his attention.
"Hey, what was that for?" Harry asked, rubbing his side.
"Let's ask Hermione now. About Violet." Ron mumbled anxiously.
"Okay, okay." Harry said, attempting to calm Ron down.
"You ask!" said Ron.
"Fine!" Harry replied.
"What are you guys whispering about?" Hermione asked, putting her hands on her hips.
Ron looked at Harry expectantly and Harry just rolled his eyes.
"Well, I think it should be Ron asking you this, but since he's a wimp, I'm asking you. Is there someone else that Violet fancies, beside Ron?"
Hermione looked at them with surprise, thought about it a moment, and said, "Not that I know of..."
"You're lying! I'm sure you know exactly who it is!" Ron said, pointing an accusing finger at Hermione.
"What are you talking about?!?" Hermione asked in confusion.
"Well, we know that Violet does fancy another guy, just not who he is." explained Harry.
"How's that?" Hermione asked, now curious.
"I actually found out in the letter her friends in the States sent her." said Ron.
"You read her letter?!" Hermione said, surprised at the invasion of Violet's privacy.
"Only a little bit..." replied Ron, slightly indignant.
"We just want to know so we know who the competition is." Harry said.
"This isn't a race, you know. And it's not like it's only between Ron and the other guy. Violet kinda has a say in this too." Hermione said.
"Ah hah! I told you she knew, Harry! She's just not telling us!" Ron exclaimed.
"Look, Ron. If I knew who it was, I would tell you. I really do want her to pick you over the other guy, but it's not up to me. It's up to her." Hermione said.
"Do you have any idea who else she could have told, Hermione?" asked Harry.
"Hmmm...the only person I can think of is Ginny. She and Violet seemed to have gotten closer over break." Hermione replied.
"Ginny, huh?" said Ron, thoughtfully.
"Yeah." said Hermione.
"I guess we'll all have to ask her the next chance we get." said Harry.
"Hey...we should go find Violet now. She's been gone for a while." said Ron.
I hope she's not with the other guy...Ron thought.
After several minutes of kissing Draco, Violet decided she had to go.
With her arms around Draco's shoulders and her forehead touching his, she said, "I need to go...I know they're looking for me by now..."
But Violet really didn't want to go anywhere.
"Let's meet at Hogwarts. This was much too short." Draco said, absentmindedly running a hand through her hair.
"Yeah..." Violet replied, "How about on Wednesday night at 6:00 in the Charms corridor?"
"Yes. That will be fine." Draco said.
Violet smiled, touched his cheek, and said, "I'll see you then."
Draco gave her one last peck on the lips and said, "Bye, Violet."
"Bye, Draco." she said while waving and running back outside to the store.
In looking for Harry, Ron, and Hermione, she ran headlong into someone. She looked up and saw it was Ron.
"Hey, where were you? We've been trying to find you!" said Ron.
"Oh...I was looking for you guys too." said Violet, hoping she sounded convincing.
I really doubt that...Ron thought, sadly.
"Hey, I found her!" said Ron to Harry and Hermione who were waiting near the front of the store.
"Let's get to the Three Broomsticks. I hope we can find a table..." said Hermione.