Previously in the Darklyverse: Hogwarts shut down to protect its students when Vicky leaked Canadian newspapers to the student body.

xx

February 4th, 1983: Septima Vector

Vicky can't shake the feeling that everyone is staring at her.

Everyone is not, of course, staring at her. Helen Brown is the only person in the castle who knows that it was Vicky who leaked those Canadian papers to the student body, and even Helen doesn't know most of the details of Vicky's involvement in the Order of the Phoenix. Even if she did, she wouldn't be able to tell anyone: the Fidelius Charm has seen to that.

Still, Vicky feels like there's a bright spotlight following her around Hogwarts. Every time she hears staff or students whispering when she walks into a room, she's convinced for a moment that they're whispering about her.

This, of course, is ridiculous. Everybody at Hogwarts has plenty to whisper about, now that the castle has entered full lockdown mode and the students know (some of) the truth about what's really going on in the war with Canada.

You'd think people would be talking openly about it now that they at least know that nobody in the corrupt Ministry of Magic can reach them here—for the next few months, anyway. However, conversations about the war and exactly what was in those newspapers have been happening strictly behind closed doors or cover of Muffliato, as if everybody's still afraid of what will happen to them if they get caught defying the Ministry. Even when Pomona held that late-night meeting in the Great Hall to inform students about the school-wide shutdown, nobody dared raise their voice, relegating their questions to whispers among each other instead of asking them of the faculty.

For her part, Vicky wishes things were out in the open. Half of the point of leaking those papers to begin with was so that the rumor game would stop and people could be honest with each other about what's been happening in the world this past year.

Just when she thought she was done missing Minerva—that Minerva was out of Azkaban and back in her life in a meaningful way—the bloody castle shuts down, and Vicky loses all access to the outside world. The worst part is that, this time, it's entirely Vicky's own damn fault. If she had just kept her trap shut—

—then what? These kids—and her coworkers—would still be in the dark about exactly what's happening out there. They're in danger now if the Ministry gets a hold of them, but how many of them have already lost parents and friends and loved ones to the Death Eaters?

Classes are still in session, as if anything about any of this is normal and the entire faculty and student body aren't worried that the Death Eaters will kill them and their families dead by the end of the year. Vicky has to say, though, that she doesn't envy this year's Defense professor, Tiffany Twycross, her job. Sure, Tiffany's subject is a lot more relevant to the students right now than Vicky's is, but Vicky knows just how much pressure Tiffany has been putting on herself to try to teach the students anything that may help them defend themselves or their families if Death Eaters ever come calling at their homes this summer—as if "how to survive a Death Eater attack" is something that anyone could possibly teach an eleven-year-old in a classroom.

On the other hand, the students in Vicky's classes keep trying to use Arithmancy to try and predict how the war will end and whether their families will survive it. At least Vicky isn't alone: Aja Platz's Divination students have apparently been doing the same thing.

It's not like Vicky hasn't wished every day for months that she could do the exact same—see whether she and Minerva will live through all this. But Arithmancy doesn't work like that. You can learn a lot about a person's future from the numerical properties of details like their name, but you can't really answer questions as specific as "will Canada or Britain win the war?" or "will the Death Eaters still be in power in a year?"

The biggest trouble of all with Hogwarts locking down is that owls can't reach the castle anymore, so the faculty have no reliable way of obtaining information about what's going on out there and whether or when it will ever be safe to open things back up. As of now, the plan is to loosen security at Easter, since Hogwarts doesn't really have the power to keep kids away from their parents on holidays, and hope to god that they'll be safe until everyone returns to school—until things can shut down again a week later if they have to.

They know the Ministry has been trying to get in contact with the faculty because they can see black Ministry letters slowly accumulating at the edge of the grounds beyond the boundary of the wards. Not the wind and not even Accio can push the letters within the wards, and nobody can cross over to get them without being unable to get back inside. Vicky can only hope that the Ministry isn't threatening to retaliate if Hogwarts doesn't unlock; she doesn't exactly know how the Ministry reacted to Pomona's letter informing them of the castle's decision, since they stopped receiving owls before giving the Ministry a chance to reply.

She wonders how many of those untouchable letters contain news that students' parents have been murdered—how many of them are going to have nobody waiting for them at King's Cross at the beginning of Easter break. If the war keeps going at the rate it's going, before long, Britain's not going to have any living wizards left for Death Eaters to terrorize.

War Stories has met every night since the castle shut down, and the number of students attending each meeting has more than doubled. It's not like there are any new developments for the kids to talk about, but Vicky thinks the students just need a forum where they can voice their anxiety and support each other. Hell, the staff have been obsessively doing the exact same thing for each other, even if they try not to let it show in front of the kids.

Tonight's topic of conversation has jumped from speculation about how many more people have died since Hogwarts got cut off from the Prophet to how many deaths the Ministry has concealed from the Prophet in the first place, then back around to what's going to happen to the British Ministry even if the war does end soon. "We know from the leaked Canadian papers that all the people Malfoy put in positions of power when he got in there are Death Eaters," says Marshall Fawley nasally. "Even if they all get ousted or killed or imprisoned, who's even left to take over? Is there anybody else in the—what do you call it—like—"

"Like a line of succession?" supplies Deb Cygnet.

"Yeah. Like that. Is there?"

Arya Peakes says, "I'd write home to my dad and ask—he's in the Ministry; he knows this kind of thing—but thanks to whoever leaked those stupid papers, I can't."

She rolls her eyes. Vicky looks pointedly away.

"We don't need to write home to find out," drawls Helen. "Hogwarts is home to the biggest wizarding library in England, remember? Did anybody think to do any research in there into this?"

"A few of us in Ravenclaw wanted to look into it," says Stuart Woodbridge—

"Of course you did," snickers Mark Coot.

"—but we haven't been able to find anything definitive. The books we thought would have the best chance of having that in there had already been checked out."

And then, to Vicky's shock, Horace says stiffly, "I know. I'm the one who checked them out."

He sounds nothing like his usual unctuous self; his voice is low and a little raspy, like he hasn't used it all day. Come to think of it, Vicky can't remember hearing him speak for the whole meeting up until now. She's a little surprised—not necessarily that Horace would want to do research into the Ministry line of succession, but that he'd admit it to the kids. He's always been a reluctant co-leader of War Stories, considering that Vicky pressured him pretty hard into stepping into the role in order to encourage more Slytherins to join, and she's never been able to get a straight word out of him about how he feels about Minerva and Albus's involvement in the Order.

Everybody's staring at him by now. "And?" Helen probes. "Did you find any information?"

"I can't say for sure what will happen if the Death Eaters are displaced," says Horace carefully. "We don't know for sure exactly which Ministry officials are secretly… but if it is every head of department, after them, the lineage starts trickling down through the Wizengamot in order of seniority. Right now, that would mean the next Minister would be Tiberius Ogden."

Feeling a little relieved, Vicky leans back in her seat and rubs her temples. She doesn't know Ogden well, but she does know that he was a friend of Dumbledore's. As Minister, Ogden wouldn't be making decisions unilaterally, but Vicky couldn't choose a more supportive member of the Wizengamot to come to power while Minerva's fate is hanging in the balance.

"This Ogden bloke—what do we know about him?" asks Deb.

"He made a bunch of public statements condemning Malfoy when Dumbledore was executed," says Helen. "He almost resigned, didn't he?"

"Wonder why he stayed," Marshall muses.

But Vicky's pretty sure she knows exactly why Ogden stayed. It's probably the same as the biggest reason that she herself has stayed at Hogwarts instead of traipsing off to Canada to be with Minerva. War isn't just about running away to put yourself in danger and be a big hero, and Vicky has a responsibility to these kids—to stay for them, to educate them, to support them.

She's done a pretty good job of educating them, she thinks: none of them would know what's really happening out there if not for her. Supporting them, on the other hand…