Just two notes: The dates on the letters and so on aren't wrong. This Interlude happens concurrently with the previous three chapters, rather than after them. Also, this is the only update for today, as the Interlude broke my outline and I need to revise it.
Interlude: The Outer WorldJune 30th, 1996
Dear Harry:
I won't send this letter to you, because you need to heal without being troubled by the outside world, as Peter puts it, and anyway, the owl would take weeks to get through the shadows. But I wanted to write it anyway. It smoothes me out, gives me a sense of balance to be able to pretend I'm talking to you, even if you can't talk back. I can imagine you nodding and watching me, and that helps.
I'm all settled into Lux Aeterna now, and Peter came with me. I can't believe how different the wards are, now that the house is linked to me instead of to, you know, the earth. I think it's calmer. It doesn't snap at everyone and have wards stalk everywhere the way it did when it belonged to James. I can be angry and not have the house get angry with me. I think that's a huge improvement.
The first day here, I explored some of the hidden corridors and the doors we couldn't open when James owned the house, and I showed Peter the room I'd found the sword in. You remember, the sword I used in the battle that talked to me and muffled my thoughts so I could kill? You didn't like it. I still think it's useful.
But Peter didn't like it, either. He frowned and shook his head at the room, and asked me why I thought our ancestors, whoever they were, blocked the room off. I told him I didn't know. Maybe they just wanted to keep the sword from falling into the hands of anyone unworthy?
Peter said, "The sword's dangerous."
"Well, of course it is," I said. "It can kill people."
Peter turned and looked at me. You know me, Harry, I don't have the best memory; I leave that for Hermione. But I remember the way he looked at me, and the exact words he spoke.
"And that's the reason you think it's dangerous?" he asked. His voice had gone all soft, like he thought he had something to tell me.
I scowled at him and said—I remember the exact words because I was so angry—"If you mean that I should think it's dangerous because of the compulsion, then yes, I also think it's dangerous for that reason, too. I had Tom Riddle in my head for five months and Voldemort himself teaching me compulsion, even if I didn't know. I know that things like that are dangerous. But it could kill people both ways. It stabs them with its blade, and it could kill their free wills by putting its compulsion in their heads. I know what's that like, Peter. I might not have seen physical battle very much yet, but I've seen lots of mental battlefields."
That's something I've never really tried to describe to anyone, you know, Harry—the five months I spent trapped behind my own eyes because Tom Riddle was in my head and I couldn't tell anyone about it. I hate him. I want him dead. I don't care if you kill him or someone else does. I just want him gone and dead.
Peter's told me to leave some of the rooms in Lux Aeterna alone for now, and he's started training me in dueling again, picking up where Snape left off. He's a lot better at it, and you can tell the git I said so. For one thing, Peter's Declared for Light, so he doesn't think Light spells are stupid or weak the way Snape does. And he showed me this spell the other day that was brilliant. I can't wait to show it to you.
I love you, and I hope the summer's been good to you so far, even though I can't send this letter and so I can't receive an actual reply.
Love,
Connor.
The Daily Prophet July 2nd, 1996
YOU-KNOW-WHO WOUNDED BEYOND REPAIR, SOURCES HINTBy: Melinda Honeywhistle
Aurors have been unable to locate the hiding place of You-Know-Who since he faced the Boy-Who-Lived in battle, sources confirm.
"I think he's really gone, this time," said an Auror who wished to remain anonymous. "He should have left some trace of a magical footprint if he wasn't. A Dark Lord doesn't just contain his magic like that. And we can't find one."
Others were not so sure.
"I don't wish to judge the fine efforts of our most noble Aurors as lacking, of course," said Aurora Whitestag, 45, who lost both her son and daughter in the Midsummer battle at Hogwarts. She wore a polite smile throughout the interview with this reporter, but it was clear that she was worried. "But I don't think the matter is quite that simple. We knew, last time, that the Dark Lord had fallen. It was obvious from the way the Death Eaters reacted, if nothing else. But this time, most of the Death Eaters were slaughtered, and we can't find any to ask. I don't think we should confirm him gone until we see what his servants think of their master's absence."…
From: the Department of Magical Law Enforcement
Dated: July 4th, 1996
Purpose: Creation of a new departmentDear Minister,
This is to confirm the creation of a new department in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Called the Tracking Division, this department will concentrate solely on the hunting and capture of those wizards who have used more than two years worth of Dark magic continuously. Their primary targets will be Death Eaters still in hiding, as You-Know-Who must have left some sleeper agents in the ranks of the free and perhaps even in the ranks of the Light, rather like former Headmaster of Durmstrang Karkaroff. Other Dark wizards will be of lesser priority, but still fall within the Tracking Division's purview. Several former workers from all Departments, including Unspeakables, have already volunteered for the Division, and its funding will be supported by concerned citizens as well as the usual Ministry vaults. Enclosed please find detailed plans for such funding and a tentative list of the Division's first members.
Amelia Bones,
Head, Department of Magical Law Enforcement.
From: Minister of Magic's office
Dated: July 4th, 1996
Re: Purpose: Creation of a new departmentAmelia,
I know where your funding comes from, and who your main target would actually be. The presence of many people on your roster from the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures rather clinches it. Do stop trying to push werewolf hunts through my office when you should be working on the capture of actual Death Eaters.
This proposal is rejected.
Rufus Scrimgeour,
Minister of Magic.
The Daily Prophet July 7th, 1996
FORMER HARRY POTTER: DANGER OR HERO?
By: Domitian Peaseblossom
A petition currently circulating among the wizards of Britain stands the chance of redefining one of the youngest wizarding heroes ever to live—at least if Philip Willoughby has his way.
"My daughter died in the attack on Hogwarts," Willoughby, 34, said on Tuesday. "But she didn't die because of You-Know-Who." (It should be noted that Mr. Willoughby did in fact use the name of You-Know-Who, but this reporter could not in good conscience print it). "She died because Harry Potter—and yes, that was his name, I think it's ridiculous that children are just allowed to abandon the legacy of their parents whenever they want—killed her."
Though this very paper reported that news some days ago, this is the first sign that some parents are not just sitting back and accepting the deaths as a necessity of war.
"I am circulating a petition among all the parents I know," said Willoughby. He is a Muggle, but he has immersed himself in the wizarding world, he says, and has many contacts among parents in his daughter Alexandra's House. "And they'll send it out to others. What Harry Potter did was murder. If we excuse it in the name of war, what else are we excusing? Terrible tragedies were committed in Muggle wars throughout history because someone thought one murder, one exception, was a good idea. And then there came tons of other exceptions."
The petition is a demand that Harry stand trial for war crimes. Willoughby hopes to gather enough signatures to force the Ministry to pay attention.
"We need to retain our moral compass in this war," he said at the end of the interview. "If we don't, then we're no better than our enemies."….
July 8th, 1996
Dear Harry:
The stupidest thing is happening. One of the parents of one of the children you killed is circulating a petition, trying to collect signatures and demand that you be tried for war crimes.
I set the paper on fire when I read about it. I didn't even think, just cast Incendio, and then there were a bunch of drifting ashes all over the kitchen. Peter looked at me severely, but I think that's just because he hadn't had a chance to read it yet. I don't think that he really disagreed with me.
We obtained another copy of the Prophet, and yes, it's true. Peter was angrier than I've ever seen him before. He went off by himself for a little while. When he came back, he looked smug. I asked him what he'd done, and he just grinned at me and asked why I thought he'd done anything. I told him that he was a Marauder, but that was a mistake, because then he started thinking about James and Sirius and Remus.
Remus wrote me a letter the other day. I didn't read most of it. He told me that he missed me, but then he started talking about you. And—it's sickening, Harry. I think he really believes that you should just help the werewolves and do nothing else, like there aren't other people who are suffering. He accused you of dithering and dragging your feet. That letter got lit on fire, too.
I asked Peter today if he'd show me the basics of the Animagus transformation. He seemed startled, and told me that it would take a long time, especially since he knows that I don't have the same kind of talent at Transfiguration that he does. I told him that was all right. He did mention that part of the reason it took him and James and Sirius so long is that they had to work on it on the sly; they didn't want anyone finding out why they were trying to become Animagi, after all! They couldn't just collect ingredients for the potions openly, and it took them months to learn some of the meditation techniques that you could pick up in just a few weeks if you were working with an instructor out in the open. So it might take me two years, but Peter thinks I can master it, since I have him as a teacher. He did insist that I talk to Headmistress McGonagall when we went back to school and tell her what I was doing. Well, of course.
He started me on the meditation techniques today. I asked him what I should think about. He told me that I need to know my own soul first, and that will guide me towards my form. Once I know what my form is, then I can aim at it and achieve the transformation that much faster. He added that I have to accept the form, too. It took him longer to learn to change because he hated being a rat, at first. He hated what that said about him.
I thought about what a dog and a stag said about Sirius and James, and decided that Animagus forms aren't always right.
I don't know my own soul yet. This is going to take a long time.
Parvati came and visited yesterday. We spent hours talking about nothing, and kissing, and—other things that you probably don't want to hear about, I'm sure, because, let's face it, they're things that I wouldn't want to hear about if you and Draco were doing them.
I know you don't know her very well yet, Harry, and she doesn't know you very well. But I can tell you this here, since I won't ever send you this letter (and there's no way in hell she'll ever know I'm writing it, either). I really like her. She's so normal. She chatters and giggles about her clothes and her friends, and sometimes she has a tantrum, and she doesn't understand Hermione any better than I do most of the time—though I think I understand Hermione more often than she does—and she hugged me when she heard about the battle and what I did, and she owled Lavender Brown with sweets the other day because she heard that she was sick and wanted to make her feel better. And she fights with Padma all the time.
She's real. I think my life's gone mad sometimes, and then she's there, and I'm sure she likes me, too—she wouldn't tell me she did if she didn't, she's not that kind of girl—and she never even blinked when she found out that I wasn't the Boy-Who-Lived. I just really, really like Parvati, Harry.
Maybe you can get to know her better this year at school?
I have to stop writing now. Peter wants to talk to me about something. See you at the end of August, I suppose.
Love,
Connor.
The Quibbler July 11th, 1996
RATS INVADE DAILY PROPHET OFFICESBy: Julian Lovegood
In incontrovertible evidence of the Daily Prophet's involvement in the Rotfang Conspiracy, rats invaded the newspaper's offices yesterday. They appeared to come from nowhere, and the Daily Prophet's owners claim that there was no effort to summon them. "They simply appeared!" was the common wail. They caused great damage, including eating all printed copies of the newspapers ready for today, before departing as mysteriously as they had come.
Alert Quibbler readers, of course, will realize that the involvement of rats points directly to the Prophet's entanglement with the Rotfang Conspiracy, which already includes Aurors, Wrackspurt deniers, and hunters of Crumple-Horned Snorkacks…
The Daily Prophet July 13th, 1996
Are you looking for excitement? Are you tired of being told that you can't have a voice in the world as it is? Do you have things to SAY and no one to HEAR you?
Owl Dionysus Hornblower now! The Maenad Press is gathering interested writers. Whether you write letters, articles, reports, memoirs, or simply opinions, contact us and lift your VOICE!
July 15th, 1996
Dear Harry:
I'm just writing another quick note—that will never go to you, of course—because I'm frightened and can't go back to sleep. (And actually, I'm not sure of the dating. It could be the sixteenth now for all I know, it's so late at night.)
I woke with this itchy feeling on the back of my neck. It took me a minute to realize it was the wards. Someone was outside Lux Aeterna, leaning on them, trying to find a way to slip through.
I went and woke up Peter at once, of course. I might have gone after it on my own two years ago, but I've learned better since then. You've been a wonderful example, big brother, both of what to do and what not to do.
Peter went with me to the edge of the wards. We saw a figure in a dark cloak there. I thought it was a Death Eater. Peter reminded me that most of the Death Eaters were dead, and anyway it would be stupid for someone to wear robes that would make people think "Death Eater" if he really was. He thought that he had his hood pulled up so that we couldn't see his face and recognize him.
…He thinks it was Remus, Harry. He really does. This wizard was trying to break the wards down, and get to us, and probably harm us, and Peter thinks it was Remus. I think it could be another werewolf. Peter's absolutely convinced, though, and I've never seen him both so sad and so angry. He's been locked up in his bedroom writing since we came back inside. I don't know if it's a letter like this one, that will never get sent, or whether he really intends to owl Remus.
I feel kind of strange about that. I mean, Remus is my godfather (unless he's not allowed to be any more, with the new Ministry laws against werewolves having any kind of custody over children). I don't think he would hurt me. But Peter does. He's absolutely convinced of it.
Nothing happened though, really. The wards flared for me when I tried to see the wizard's face, and he immediately Apparated away. No word, no familiar gestures. If we know him, I couldn't see it.
It does make me think of an odd owl I got the other day, though. It didn't have anything with it but a silver Snitch. Peter wouldn't let me touch it. It was a Portkey. Where would it have taken me? I have no idea.
Peter thinks someone's hunting me. He thinks Remus wants to take me and hold me hostage, to use against you.
I think Peter's paranoid. Other than that, I don't know what to think.
I can't see straight anymore. I'm going to bed. Good night, Harry.
Love,
Connor.
The Daily Prophet July 17th, 1996
HOGWARTS HEADMISTRESS DEFENDS HIRING CHOICES
By: Rita Skeeter
A storm of controversy burst upon the British wizarding world yesterday when Hogwarts Headmistress Minerva McGonagall revealed, at the request of parents, her choices for professors at the prestigious school this year.
McGonagall has hired two new professors, one for Defense Against the Dark Arts and one for Transfiguration. Acies Merryweather, the last Defense professor, changed into a dragon and vanished rather spectacularly, continuing the tradition of Defense professors not lasting longer than a year at Hogwarts, which some whisper is a curse.
Many, however, do not find her choice of formerly accused Death Eater Peter Pettigrew for new Defense professor very reassuring.
"It's a disgrace, is what it is," Peter Willoughby, 34, said. His daughter Alexandra died in the attack on Hogwarts in June, and since then he has been circulating a petition trying to bring Harry, the Boy-Who-Lived and the Young Hero, to trial for war crimes. "How much danger is she going to put our children in?"
Other criticism was more measured, but still audible. "As long as the Aurors are certain he's innocent, of course," said Sita Patil, 36, yesterday. Her twin daughters, Padma and Parvati, 16, both attend the school, and Padma fought in the Battle of Hogwarts on Midsummer Day. "I'm terribly proud of my daughters and what they've accomplished so far, but that was against outside threats. Experience has shown that threats coming from inside the school are much more insidious."
Headmistress McGonagall has stood firm in her decision to hire Pettigrew, who was already acting Head of Gryffindor House at the end of last year.
"Peter was a Gryffindor himself," she told this reporter. "And he was a soldier in the First War against You-Know-Who. He's a fighter, and he's a fine teacher. I've seen him working with students myself. I have no doubts whatsoever about my choice to hire him. It's about time that more of the British wizarding world acknowledged his innocence, as a matter of fact."
Her second choice has not stirred as much disquietude, though the selection of a relatively young and inexperienced woman for the post, Hilda Belluspersona, has inspired some questions.
Once again, Headmistress McGonagall is firm in her principles. "I can recognize Transfiguration talent when I see it," she told this reporter. "I ought to be able to, since I was Transfiguration professor at Hogwarts for several decades. I would not endanger my students, especially in a time of war, by giving them less than a competent teacher."
Belluspersona, who is said to be preparing busily for her first year in such a demanding job, was unavailable for comment. ….
The Bird-gazer July 21st, 1996
"Your Weekly Eye on the Magical Skies since 1957"
Increased Sea Eagle Sightings Over Britain's Coasts
We report with pleasure the return of a magnificent bird to our shores: the sea eagle. This raptor can be distinguished from others by its wedge-shaped tail and immense size, as in the photograph immediately below this report. Sea eagles have traditionally rarely nested in magical areas, as they are in direct competition with several other species, but so frequent have the sightings been of late—though always of a solitary bird, flying alone—that some readers have begun to hope that is changing, and British wizards might soon see some nesting pairs.
July 23rd, 1996
Dear Minister Scrimgeour:
Once again, this must be short. I apologize, but snatching time for writing these letters, and doing the necessary research, has become more and more difficult lately. I suspect my father is arranging a marriage for me, or otherwise hatching a plan that involves me. And if I dare to show any defiance to him, then he will break my wand and stuff me full of Dreamless Sleep Potion until he can locate a potion that will break my mind and put me under his control permanently.
I asked you in my last letter if you had ever heard of Falco Parkinson. I asked that for a very good reason. Falco Parkinson was the mentor of Albus Dumbledore. He was also, at one time, the Headmaster of Hogwarts, and several other things. Many well-researched books report that he died, and the authors all think each other wrong in their reports of how. Many more think him nothing but a myth.
He is not a myth. He is alive. I overheard my parents speaking of him more than once. He is the one who began the Order of the Phoenix, or at least gave Albus Dumbledore the idea for it. I fear it is to him that the members of the Order are turning in the wake of Dumbledore's fall, hoping to gain prominence for the Light.
I have managed to learn little about him other than his age and his power, both immense. However, this I can tell you: He is an Animagus, and his form is a sea eagle. It may be possible to prevent him from spying on you with that information, as I know there are wards that can be tuned to sense the presence of a single feather of a certain kind of bird, or even to shut spying Animagi out of conversations altogether. I hope that you can find a use for this information.
Once again, please do not try to owl me back. My father is a fanatic for the Light. That I have managed to write you two letters so far and not get caught is a miracle. But fear has kept me silent long enough. I will continue to write, as long as I can, and hope to see my family be of true benefit to society, instead of the tangled tree of obsessed Light zealots they currently are.
Sincerely,
The Liberator.
July 28th, 1996
Dear Headmistress McGonagall:
I am sorry for writing this letter to you, but I did not know where else to send it. I had not realized that having Harry out of contact with us for two months would prove to be such a problem.
My name is Gerald MacFusty, and I assist my clan in managing the preserve of Britain's native Hebridean Blacks. Harry approached us for information about the British Red-Gold dragon who has suddenly come into the world, the immense female who used to be Acies Lestrange, in late June. She had settled on an isle not far from our dragons, apparently drawn and soothed and calmed by their presence, and gone into what we thought was a starvation sleep. We expected this to last two to three months, after which she would wake ravenously hungry.
It appears that our information on British Red-Golds was spotty; it has been centuries since this breed went extinct. She has woken and flown. Her flight was out to sea, and slow, as though she were searching for something. We believe that her hunger will drive her to feed on the largest prey she can find, likely whales, but we do not know where she will go after that.
If you are in contact with Harry, please tell him the news. A few of our Dragon-Keepers approached her as she woke, and could not hold her. Her mind is wild, like a surging storm at sea, beyond anything we have encountered.
We will pass the warning along the coasts of Britain and Ireland, and hope that will suffice.
Yours in hope,
Gerald MacFusty.
July 30th, 1996
Dear Harry:
I wish there was a way I really could send this letter to you. I'm so frightened right now. Yes, I admitted I was frightened. That's fine. This is a private letter that no one else is ever going to see, rather like a private diary. I can say that I'm afraid here, and as long as it doesn't paralyze me and prevent me from doing what has to be done, then it's all right.
We received the Daily Prophet this morning, the way we always do, and Peter got it first. He spat his porridge out. I asked him what the matter was, and he passed the paper over to me without a word.
Harry—they're hunting werewolves. The Ministry got a department formed somehow, on a technicality, that's allowed to do it. They've killed two of them already. The photograph on the front page of the Prophet was of a hunter holding up two scalps, one of them white and one of them brown.
That's when I realized that no matter how angry Peter is at Remus, he still loves him. He conjured a Patronus—his is an image of a shining tree—and sent it out as a message to Remus. He explained to me, when I asked, that the Order of the Phoenix used to do that all the time when they had to speak to each other, fast, and owls wouldn't do. Then he started pacing around the kitchen.
My throat hurt. I wondered what would happen if no message came back, and then I wondered what would happen if we received an owl saying that Remus was dead.
I sat with my head in my hands for a while. That's all I really remember.
Then a Patronus came back. It was a wolf, which I suppose shouldn't have been a surprise. It ran in a circle around Peter, and his face grew calmer as I watched. He let out a long sigh and looked at me.
"He's all right," he said.
I nodded, and then went upstairs so that I could write this letter.
It's started, Harry. The storm's started. It's strange that I never really felt that way before. I mean, there was the storm of Light at Hogwarts, and the storm of the Dark on Midwinter when the Light came up and asked that I give you some power if I was loyal to you. And Voldemort came back even before that, and tried to come back three other times. There have been all sorts of times when the world could have changed, at least for us if not for everyone in the outer world.
But I've never felt this way before, like there's a storm blowing around me and a war coming, and everything's trembling on the verge of a fall.
I hope you come home soon, Harry. I know that you need the time to heal, really need it, but we need you here, too. You're the phoenix who can sing us through the storm.
Love,
Connor.
