Encounter at Night
Harry could (and should) have left now to Disapparate outside the grounds – Ginny was certainly waiting – but he couldn't help: He put the wand to his temple and whispered: "Oculi felis". The cat eye spell was a special trick the Aurors kept secret, for it granted them an advantage over any opponent in the darkness. Harry could now walk through the darkest corridors and was able to see quite clearly without the light of his wand.
He began to wander through the castle. To him, every single stone of this building was linked with memories, some of them pleasant or exciting, others painful. This was where he had seen Ginny in the arms of Dean Thomas, in this corridor on the seventh floor Dumbledore's Army used to train in the Room of Requirement, and this ... this was the place where Fred had died. It had happened almost twenty years ago, but it was one of the wounds that can hardly heal: It was practically impossible to meet George without thinking that the other was missing. George had never lost the humour he had shared with his brother, but that humour has had a bitter touch since then.
Get away from here! Harry walked quickly towards the next corridor and turned the corner. He probably hadn't sufficiently softened his steps, because no sooner had he taken a few steps in this corridor than someone whispered "Lumos" behind him and a wand flared up.
Harry had been trained to immediately switch to the highest level of concentration in case of danger. He stopped and turned around quickly, yet carefully, so as not to give himself away again by making a noise. He saw MacAllister standing there with his wand raised, apparently he was on his nightly tour as a Prefect. Quite clever to just squeeze into a niche, wait and leave it to others to make noise. Harry drew his wand out of his cloak.
As quick as a flash MacAllister shot a fan of three "Disinvisibilis". Harry grinned. If he had used an Invisibility Charm instead of a Cloak, he would have become visible now. MacAllister thought for a moment. Then he raised his wand high and said: "Calorate".
Suddenly the light of the wand disappeared. Harry saw MacAllister's silhouette turn into a bright spot of light: Bright yellow on the trunk, red and partly bluish on the arms and legs. Looking down at himself, Harry noticed that his body was also glowing bright yellow. An unknown spell! Immediately he caught MacAllister's silhouette sharply, and did so just in time, for now he saw the other's wand pointed straight at himself and heard him call out, "Petrificus ..." – "Protego!" countered Harry, before MacAllister could speak the entire spell. The full Body-Bind Spell bounced off. MacAllister tried again: "Accio Invis..." – "Expelliarmus!"
MacAllister tumbled, losing his wand that rolled and came to rest about ten feet behind him while the red glow emanating from it faded first to green, then to an increasingly faint blue.
One moment there was silence.
Then Roy said while sitting up:
"You've won. Now, would you please be so kind as to let me pick up my wand so that I can restore our normal vision? I suppose you don't want to see the world in those odd colours for the rest of your life either, do you?"
"Pick it up," Harry replied, his body still emitting that strange yellow glow, "but don't do anything stupid, and above all, don't point your wand at me. I'm faster than you are."
"I know you are," said Roy, picking up his wand, raising it high and saying "Discalorate", whereupon the strange glow disappeared, and immediately afterwards "Lumos". The corridor in front of him seemed empty. "Would you now please put off your Invisibility Cloak, Mister Potter?"
Harry was puzzled. "Why do you call me Potter?"
"If someone cannot be made visible with Disinvisibilis but with Calorate, he must use an Invisibility Cloak, and the only good cloak of that kind in England I know about belongs to the Head of the Auror Department. Moreover, your quick reaction shows you're well trained. And finally, you are a legend. Even now, you are known to love sneaking around Hogwarts at night under an Invisibility Cloak and to prefer Expelliarmus."
Harry took off his Invisibility Cloak. Roy took his wand in his left hand and went over a few steps to Harry to shake hands.
"Roy MacAllister. I'm honoured to meet you, sir."
Harry felt that this was no empty phrase. He took the hand. "Harry Potter. I've heard a lot about you."
"Mostly bad, I suppose?" Roy grinned.
"Not from my son Albus," Harry replied, and Roy's grin turned into a smile.
Neither of them made any effort to hide the curiosity with which they eyed each other.
"You would make a good Auror," Harry finally said.
"That's what I call praise from a competent source," Roy replied, visibly flattered. "Unfortunately, given the current state of affairs, my career is more likely to lead to Azkaban than to an Auror school."
"Are you doing forbidden things?"
"If I was, you'd probably be the last person I'd tell about," Roy replied with a grin. "No, I say things likely to be banned in the near future, and I have no intention of breaking that habit."
There was a pause.
"May I ask you why you are using the Invisibility Cloak, sir? I suppose Professor McGonagall wouldn't mind you moving around the castle freely?"
"No," said Harry, "I'm just coming from her. But if the Head of the Auror Department is turning up at Hogwarts after a day like this, everyone would take it as an attempt to intimidate the Slytherins, and that's what I want to avoid."
"That's very thoughtful, thank you very much," Roy replied courteously.
"By the way, what kind of spell did you just use?"
"Calorate? You didn't know it yet, did you?" grinned Roy, not without self-satisfaction. "I developed it last year for Charming. It's changing the perception of all persons within a certain radius so that their eyes perceive thermic radiation instead of normal visible light. Your Invisibility Cloak keeps only visible light within, not infrared radiation, which is why I could see you."
"Wow! How did you come up with this idea?" Harry demanded.
"I take inspiration from Muggle technology, in this case thermal imaging cameras. I am trying to develop magical equivalents for these technologies. It's a hobby of mine in a way."
"A strange hobby for someone who is against opening up to the Muggle world," Harry said with a teasing undertone.
"I'm not saying there's nothing to learn from them. But you must only take over what you can control with your own means."
"Do you have any more spells of this kind?"
"Sure. For example, you can enchant any liquid to record sounds when flowing. If the liquid is in a water clock and then allowed to flow into the lower chamber, the recorded sound is played. Spoken words can then be clearly understood. Unfortunately, there is little use for it in our world."
"Oh, I think I would have some use for something like that," Harry said, admitting to himself that he liked Roy.
"I'll be happy to show you."
"I'll get back to you on that," Harry promised. They were now walking slowly side by side because Roy had to continue his walk. "At the moment, however, I am concerned with something else. I am not here as an Auror, but as a worried father and citizen. The last two days have been very turbulent and I want to know what's going on here at Hogwarts. And since you are the centre of the earthquake, I would like to know something about you first and foremost. In that sense, our meeting is perfectly fine with me."
"With me too," Roy replied, adding to Harry's surprise: "Just tonight I talked to my friends about contacting you."
"Did you? Why?"
"For two reasons. First of all, you are a Gryffindor. Do you know what the Gryffindors did this morning?"
"Yes, Albus wrote it to me," Harry admitted, "and you can't imagine how embarrassed we are – my wife and me."
"I'd have been very surprised if you weren't. We suspect the Minister of having instructed the Gryffindors to start a kind of psycho war. We believe that the tensions between the houses are being fuelled with the aim of unleashing violence that could then be blamed on us and justify the Ministry's direct intervention into Hogwarts affairs, possibly coupled with ousting the Headmistress. I've warned all the Slytherins not to react on provocation, but nerves are on edge, I don't know how long we can keep it up. All of us, except the Muggle-borns, informed our parents in order to apply counter-pressure on the Ministry and the Daily Prophet to get some relief, but I'm not sure it worked."
Harry stopped and eyed him: "You are a skilled strategist, MacAllister. Yes, the letters that arrived before the end of the working day have caused some unrest in the Ministry, and they won't be the last. Respect, in your difficult situation you did everything right."
He frowned. "But there is one thing I would like to know: Why do you actually confide in me to the point of telling me all this? You said it yourself: I'm a Gryffindor, and on top of that, I'm Hermione's best friend and one of her closest collaborators."
"You've got sons in both houses and certainly no interest in further escalation. Besides, Albus told me that you have no prejudice against Slytherin. Of course, you can report our conversation to the Minister, but then she will only learn that we comprehend her game, and that can't hurt."
"As I told you, I am here in private," Harry said, "and I won't report anything about our conversation."
Roy looked up in surprise but said nothing.
"You haven't yet answered my question about why you and your friends wanted to contact me," Harry resumed the conversation.
"The one reason is that you are a living Gryffindor legend, virtually a star. We hope you can exert a moderating influence there."
"I'm afraid I have to disappoint you, MacAllister. Today's Gryffindors know my achievements only from history books. I haven't been a star there for a long time; their new star is Hermione."
Roy swallowed.
"Not even my own son James," Harry continued, "would do as I say, let alone any of the others. And if it's true that Hermione personally stirred the Gryffindors up, I'll achieve nothing at all, except that she'll accuse me of trying to thwart her policy."
Again, Roy looked up in surprise.
They were silent while resuming the tour.
"And the second reason?" asked Harry.
"Well, er ... we suspect that the Minister is not acting the way she is of her own free will.
He described his and Albus' observations of yesterday to Harry.
"We suppose her to be under the influence of an unknown person who has cast a curse or some other spell on her. Yet we know of Dark Magic not more than what we learn in Defence Against the Dark Arts, and that's definitely not enough to find out if and what kind of curse it is, not to mention an effective counter-curse. But you are not only familiar with this kind of magic, but as the Head of the Auror Department, you are also responsible for fighting it."
"Your concern for the Minister's well-being speaks highly of you, MacAllister," Harry replied, and the irony in his voice was unmistakable.
"But?"
Harry stopped again and looked firmly into Roy's eyes.
"I think I should confront you with some things I heard today and from yourself. I saw you and your friends earlier coming out of your – how shall I put it: Room of Requirement? – and overheard your conversation with Miss Wolfe."
Roy flushed but said nothing.
"I heard a lot of things that pleased me. Unfortunately, I had to learn from your conversation that you had considered killing Hermione."
Roy hesitated briefly. "That's right," he finally said. "However, if you've heard everything, you also know that we've dismissed that idea."
"The simple fact that it occurred to you is shocking enough to me."
"I understand you well, sir. Only, with respect: It was pure brainstorming. We first considered all options that theoretically exist to deal with a situation that, after all, wasn't brought about by us. In any case the idea is definitely off the table," he affirmed.
"But I suppose you made decisions of some kind, didn't you?"
"First, the one you already know, which is to seek contact with you. Second, to find out what kind of curse it could be."
"Why don't you just leave it to me and my Aurors?"
"Because we can't sit back and do nothing. And: If your friend is truly under the control of an unknown Other who is causing her to behave against her nature, who's to say that her next unexpected action won't be to replace you as Head of the Auror Department as soon as she gets wind of your investigation?"
"Hermione?" asked Harry, amused, struggling not to laugh out loud.
"Not Hermione. The one in control of her."
There was some truth in this argument. It was logical.
"You want to go to the Restricted Section to find out about penetration and control spells, don't you?" asked Harry.
"Let's say I will have to look for my information where it is. Especially as I'm sure you won't be giving me a crash course in Dark Magic, sir."
Harry grinned, thought for a moment, then said:
"Please call me Harry. You are a friend of Albus, so I think the 'sir' is inappropriate."
"Yes, I'd love to, sir ... er ... Harry," Roy replied, clearly pleased.
"And if you don't find anything? Are you then getting back to your assault plans?" asked Harry seemingly jokingly.
"No, Harry," Roy replied earnestly. "I promise you. And you know why."
They walked side by side in silence.
When they reached the entrance hall, another question occurred to Harry:
"What kind of room was it that you and your friends came out of last night? Have you moved the Room of Requirement to the basement?"
Roy laughed. "We are not that good. No, it's not difficult to create a large secret room. I simply doubled the wall of a broom closet leaving a little space in between. I magically enlarged this space – done! You would have to measure the inside of the broom closet to see that it is a little smaller than it is supposed to be. But who does?"
Harry nodded appreciatively:
"It's actually quite simple, but hard to come up with. – It's time to say goodbye, it's almost half past two. My wife is waiting for me. I am glad to have met you. To be honest, we had been worried about Albus' friendship to you."
"That's not hard to understand."
"I would like to continue our talk," Harry said, "and I think my wife would like to meet you too. How about visiting us next Sunday afternoon, perhaps with Mister Lestrange?"
Roy looked puzzled at first, but then he smiled.
"Yes, of course, I'd love to. But we're stuck here at Hogwarts."
"I'm sure Professor McGonagall will give her approval if I ask her to, and I'm sure she'll also make her fireplace available to you for the journey."
"Is Albus supposed to come with us too? I'm sure he'd be disappointed if I could visit his parents and he couldn't."
"Of course."
"And James?"
"James shouldn't. I don't think you could speak freely if a Gryffindor was present. I will also impress upon Albus not to tell anyone about the visit."
"Okay, but I hope you don't mind if Julian and I inform the others in our group? They won't say anything, but in important matters we don't keep anything from each other."
"Sounds familiar," Harry smiled. "No problem. So, three o'clock next Sunday."
They shook hands. Harry slipped back under his Invisibility Cloak and got out through the school door. Roy waited until Harry was supposed to be far enough away, raised his wand and said "Calorate". Far away, he saw the yellow spot of light pass through the gate and then suddenly disappear.
"Discalorate." Roy headed off towards the library.