Author Note: DennisUD: Well Sirius cares about Harry and feels he still has a duty to him. So while he is very focused on finding Pettigrew he has the bigger issue of helping deal with cleaning up the mess left over from his era. Although his help is going to be one of those interesting things that Harry may wonder if its really a good thing. As for a battle between This Sirius and the way I'm thinking Bella will be after her stint in the ban it will be interesting. It could be everything from mutually assured destruction to they go off to grab some fish and chips at the local pub with a pint. lol.
In this episode we see the first month of the new school year. Meet the new defense professor and see how linguistics can be very important.
Once again I own nothing, I wrote nothing, I claim nothing.
Professor McGonnegal had waited to see if the stairs of the tower accepted Veronica when they did she grunted with a shrug and made a note to give Albus his sickle tomorrow.
In the dungeons Draco was sitting up thinking. He was given a task to cause chaos, havoc and trouble. He opened his trunk and dug through it until he came to the special hidden compartment. Inside there were several special potions he had been given. He would give people some quit time to get complacent. Let them think this year was going to be a calm one before he would start his plans. That filthy mudblood Granger would be prime target other than Potter would go crazy if anything happened to her. Draco doubted Dumbledore would even be able to restrain him in that case.
Analyzing the situation logically Draco came to the conclusion that messing with any of Potter's girls would be hazardous to his health. Potter would come after him first and it was doubtful that Dumbledore would be able to restrain him. Especially since Neville would be right there beside him. Longbottom was turning out to be a rather formidable sidekick to Potter. With the restriction that he couldn't go after Potter at all Draco grumbled. If he ever wanted to take the mark like his father he was going to have to be cunning and obedient to his dark lord. That meant no targeting Potter. Which also meant that if he couldn't neutralize Potter he couldn't go after the mudblood or the other girls.
Veronica intrigued him. She had turned out to be a lot prettier than he thought was possible. Starting from Ron Weasley he had expected something like a combination of Pansy and Millicent. He wondered if she was still as gullible and easily manipulated. If so he might get to have a good looking piece of tail. But he would have to consider things carefully. If she grew a spine along with tits he might have a problem.
He was going to have to carefully consider his targets. Limit them to mudbloods and blood traitors that had no links to Potter. Which was getting more and more difficult the older they got. He was friends with far too many people. And he kept making more friends. Just how the hell did he do that? Draco had a circle of associates but no one he could honestly call a friend. Crabbe and Goyle had his back because they were obligated to. Pansy got on her knees because she was obligated to. Zabini associated with him because he wanted to be on the winning side and get his fair share. Bulstrode because Draco let her bully others. And occasionally paid her a compliment or treated her nicely. Same way Draco treated his owl.
Draco slammed the lid shut and put it back in the trunk. He was not going to have as much fun this year. Especially if the Weasley girls had been plucked by Potter. If they weren't virgins that was going to complicate things. He would worry about that tomorrow.
=====xxxxx=====
The Granger household was one of a handful of Muggle homes in the entire U.K. That had goblin wards on it. It had taken sliding a few galleons into the right hands to get the required permits expedited, fortunately Remus knew the right people to make it happen. Harry had bought and paid for them so that the Grangers, all three of them would be as safe as he could possibly make them. Even when Hermione was not there he didn't want her to suffer the sting of losing her parents the way he and Neville had lost theirs.
They even had a pair of house elves. Dan and Emma not entirely certain they needed house elves, the magical teens had pointed out how they could be very useful on many levels. Security guards, companions, as well as staff. Plus after Dobby had almost invaded the Longbottom Estate as well as coming into the school and following them to the Alley showed without their own security the wards would not be enough.
The only problems though were as muggles the Ministry prohibited them having elves and that as muggles they did not have the magic to bond with elves in the first place. Hermione bonded with the elves and set them the task of protecting her parents when she wasn't there. With orders to get them to safety above all other things, even if it meant disobeying Dan or Emma. She was also made the ward master for the house. Although she assigned both house elves the rights to alter them at Remus' suggestion.
The two elves had taken their duties very seriously and being a mated pair they knew each other and worked together efficiently. Their previous master had been an elderly witch who passed away leaving them without a home. Toki and Reldan slept in a section of the attic Dan had cleaned out and let them decorate and set up for themselves.
Reldan woke up in the early morning hours. He felt the wards tingle like something had plucked at them. Just a gentle pluck but still a pluck. He checked the wards and followed the vibrations until he reached the location of the pluck.
Harry had been forced to balance his desire to make the house impregnable and the Ministry desire for secrecy. As well as Dan and Emma being able to have a normal life. He had placed on the house the standard anti-fire, anti-accident, anti-dangerous creature as well as the anti-harmful intent wards. That was the best the Ministry allowed on any muggle structure from a coastal fishing shack to Buckingham Palace. Which made Dan a bit concerned and proud at the same time. Remus promised though that he would put a few of the slightly grey zone wards on the house to bolster their defenses. But only under triggers that if the other wards collapsed or otherwise the elves would have the discretion to activate them.
Reldan had been informed of the two animagi who were running around and so he activated the stone with the Anti-animagus ward inscribed on it. Just to make sure.
In the sewers under the house a smug rat was moving forward when he felt a strange tingle pass through the air in front of him. He had just been about to transfer from the street sewer pipe into the exit pipe from the house . He checked the wards again and discovered the anti-animagus ward. If he tried to travel down the pipe any further he would be forced back into his human form. And a 4 inch pipe did not work for that kind of transformation.
By the time he had returned to the surface and was carefully heading back for the house from the sewer grate he realized he had walked past where the Granger house should have been several times.
Reldan had activated the Somebody Else's Problem field and awoken Toki to help him guard the house and occupants.
The Rat was becoming rather vexed as he kept walking back and forth. He tried counting houses and kept coming up one short. His mind sliding right over things so he wasn't sure exactly how many houses had been on the street when he began this. He knew they lived on this street in a house.
He decided to go to their dental practice and wait for them there. Somehow their daughter must have protected her home and her parents. No doubt with help but hopefully their practice would be a lot less protected.
The two elves waited an hour and when no more disturbances occurred they gradually relaxed their state of readiness. Their duties were rather light with the Grangers so they did not need to do too much other than guard or other tasks Dan and Emma said they could do.
=====xxxxx=====
The next morning Dan and Emma went to their dental clinic in the business district of Crawley. They met their secretary Millicent and their hygienist David and set about going over the day's appointments. A rat had spent most of the morning trying to find a way into the building as it was a modern well built office complex they shared with several other medical professionals. He had finally found a way in and was curled up behind a wall panel in the office. His task assigned by the dark lord was just to study these muggles for now and see how they could be useful to get to Potter.
Reldan was quietly dusting the top of the false ceiling and washing the supports when he sensed a small creature nearby. Following his senses he soon came to a section of section of false wall that divided the large area into smaller offices. He looked closely and saw a sleeping rat. As Lady Hermione had told him to be gentle to creatures that were mostly harmless he snapped his fingers sending the rat to the nearby pet store.
Pettigrew woke up suddenly in a cage with several other rats. He looked around and sighed as he realized that somehow he got caught. As he couldn't apparate in his rat form he decided to relax. At least the cage had some food and water and a couple of pretty lady rats so it wasn't all that bad. The Grangers were apparently going to be trickier than he had first thought.
=====xxxxx=====
The next morning was Monday September second. Hermione woke up in a start just before dawn and couldn't get back to sleep. She showered and went down to the common room to study to take her mind off the bad dream she had.
When the others came trickling in for breakfast she tried to cheerfully great them but was still a bit put off by the dream. They noticed and sat down with her, "Hey what's wrong?" Harry asked with a bit of concern in his voice.
"I had this really really weird dream last night. There was a dark shadow just outside my parent's house. I couldn't see it, I couldn't tell what it was but it was ominous and dangerous."
Neville had a serious look on his face as he shook his head, "Sounds like the wards got activated last night."
Harry sighed, "Yeah Remus was telling me about it in case things happened at Grimmould."
Hermione gasped as her hand flew to her mouth, "You don't suppose something happened to mom and dad?"
"What else happened in the dream?"
"Well eventually it went away, the shadow, and I woke up. But I felt really uneasy for about an hour or so before it seemed to calm down. I felt a bit of a tug on my magic too. That might have been what woke me up."
"One of your elves probably took care of it. They must have turned on the other wards Remus installed." Harry said looking at Neville who confirmed it with a nod.
"Yeah since you're the ward master you have a mental link to them. Gramma is ward master for the estate and the dower house. She's skilled enough she can feel whenever anyone crosses the wards and tell who it is."
"Well that's great. I wonder if I could sense mom and dad?"
Neville and Harry held a brief consultation with Luna and Lavender before they turned to her, "Maybe. Since they aren't magicals they will show up dimmer but if you concentrate you might be able to sense them. I think Professor Flitwick might be the one to ask about that."
"Thanks Neville. I guess if anything had gotten through I would have felt it?"
"Probably. I wonder who or what it was that tried to get in." Harry frowned.
"Who knows but we better get to breakfast. Ronnie may be a girl but she still has a healthy appetite." Lavender laughingly said.
=====xxxxx=====
Veronica was sitting at the table talking to the girls of the Quidditch team explaining what happened once again. She was telling a less and less detailed version each time Harry noticed.
"Hey Harry, guys. You're late."
"Well looks like Dear Veronikins is taking after mom there Harry. Better look out."
"Really dear brother, why do you think dad had an entire plug collection in the garage."
"Oh go and get stuffed you too. I was just worried. With this crew they could have been attacked by giants or something on the way here."
Fred sniggered, "More like like checking out all the broom closets between the common room and here."
Luna sat down and speared a sausage rather viciously making Fred wince, "Broom closets? As if. Besides none of the ones between Gryffindor Tower and here are nice enough."
The conversation turned to normal teenage pursuits of music, classes and how the new teacher was going to be in class.
Professor McGonnegal came over just before breakfast was done, "Miss Weasley."
Swallowing the last of her pancake she looked up, "Uh yes professor?"
"There is a question of your name. Your chosen name is Veronica, now, but you still go by Ron?"
"I go by either one. I mean yeah my official name is Veronica now and that's what all my papers say but if someone calls me Ron or Ronnie or something I'm not going to ignore them."
"Very well then as school policy is to refrain from using first names during classes it will not change things, however I will inform the other professors of your preferences for outside normal class times. Good day everyone." She said then briskly moved off.
=====xxxxx=====
The first few classes went rather well. Snape reminding Veronica not to get her protrusions into her cauldron to the snickers of the Slytherins. Flitwick giving Hermione some hints on how to use the bond with the wards in her home to sense the conditions there, after class.
Professor Throne was their first class after lunch and the buzz from the morning classes was that he was testing everyone to see where they were in their education and skill level. He also had them show him their physical agility and strength.
Walking into the classroom they were relieved to see now massive posters of himself like Lockhart had. The various gizmos Dumbledore had installed were gone. The room this year had several targets on the wall, a set of weights and several boxes lined in a pattern. There was a table along the wall for them to place their things as there were no desks at all. The professor was sitting there in a brown tweed suit. After taking the roll he stood up and pointed at the door.
"Okay everyone As you may have noticed there are no desks. That is because defense is a practical class. You will not be taking notes you will be learning. Your homework will be to read the next skill and practice until you can come to class and master it. Now I have a list of the skills you should be capable of from the previous year. If you will please pair off I will run you through your paces and see where we stand. Mr Potter you and your retinue will pair off with another student and not each other for this."
Soon it became obvious to everyone there was a definite skill curve with Hermione, Harry and Neville holding the top three spots so closely that it wasn't sure which of the three was the actual best. With Lavender, Ron, and Draco following up quite closely. Professor Throne did not say very much during the class just watching. Stopping a few students like Seamus who got things so off kilter they became dangerous.
Once they had gone through the list he sighed. "Very well looks like some of you have a rather lot of revision to do. We shall over the next few weeks bring you all up to the same speed. As for those of you who I feel are already at those levels you may continue to work to hone your skills. Now we will work on the physical aspects of defense."
Draco grumbled something under his breath to Crabbe who looked decidedly unhappy.
"What was that Mr Malfoy?"
"I said why would we need to do anything like a common muggle. We're wizards we have magic."
"Accio Draco's wand." The professor said with his hand out. Draco's wand ripped out of his hand to land in the professor's.
"Very well Mr Malfoy strike me down with your magic now."
"That's my wand. You took my wand."
"Yes I did. Now what are you going to do?"
Draco spluttered and posture before raising his hand and calling for his wand. Even though the professor was standing there with Draco's wand in his open palm nothing happened. The Professor let him try until sweat was pouring off Draco's brow. He tossed Draco his wand back casually.
"As you can see wandless magic is possible but difficult. The wand acts like a focus and channel. The muggles call these things amplifiers. However with training and effort and practice you can achieve your spells without it. The words are a focus. You eventually do not need them if you are strong enough."
"So how do we get strong enough?"
"Part of it is your innate ability but most of it is practice, practice, and practice. Training, exercise for the body and mind. Which brings me to the other half of your tests. Strength, agility and ability. So let's go through that."
=====xxxxx====
After class was over it was obvious that the physical health of a lot of the students were not as good as others. Professor Thorne sighed a lot during class.
"Okay everyone your homework is go back and practice the spells you are having trouble with. We are going to be working on you each class. Mr Potter could you and your retinue remain?"
Veronica looked like she was going to leave before the professor said that included her.
Once the classroom had emptied out the professor smiled at them, "Very good. You showed just enough power to be the head of the class but not your true levels. Very wise."
Harry gave a cocky grin, "I don't know what you mean sir."
"Oh of course not. However you all just volunteered to be my assistants with the other students. I want everyone capable of doing the best they can to defend themselves. Also since all of you can cast a patronus I will be recruiting you to escort students on their Hogsmeade visits."
"Sir? They put Dementors in Hogsmeade?"
"Yes a small team of them. The local constable is not happy. He has asked if we could do anything to help."
"I guess we'll do our best." Hermione said looking worriedly at Harry.
"I know you will. Harry will you be alright with this?"
"I'll try sir."
"Well we have a month before the first visit so you can work on it."
=====xxxxx=====
Madam Bones was sitting in her office trying to do paperwork and deal with the various reports of people having bad reactions to the Dementors. She had two people already get killed by them. Fudge was still not listening to her recommendations to put the damn things back in Azkaban where they belonged.
Looking up when her office door opened without a knock she felt her day get even worse. Striding into the office like it was hers was Dolores Umbridge, personal toadie of Fudge and general annoyance. Short, chubby, with a face that looked like it had been slammed into the wall several times and an overly disgusting fondness for the color pink she made Amelia sick. She pushed down her rising desire to do violence and stared at the being with a blank slightly annoyed expression.
"Hem hem. Amelia do you know anything about where Percy Weasley might be?" she demanded in her incongruent soft childish voice.
"No. Only that he saw his girlfriend off on the train and then left. What makes you think I know anything."
"Well you've had your attack dog Moody and his pack of hounds breathing down his neck over the last month. Instead of sending them out to find that hideous criminal Black."
"We have had Mr Weasley under protective observation due to a potential link he had to Mr Black." Amelia tried to keep most of the annoyance out of her voice as Moody's team was supposed to be secret.
"Oh yes that confused little boy's story that Peter Pettigrew had been hiding as their pet rat. Such an imagination." She giggled almost causing Amelia's lunch to come back for a visit. As it was she had to swallow some gorge back.
"Yes well it was one of the few leads we had as to what Black might be interested in."
"All based on the pernicious little lies of an attention seeking little brat. Black wants to finish the job he started and murder Potter. That's all he want's as he serves his dark master."
"Assuming that's true and Pettigrew..."
"Peter Pettigrew is dead. Murdered in cold blood by that animal Black. We will not remind you of that fact again Ms Bones. You are to pursue active and actual crimes, not fairy tales and flights of imagination from confused little attention seeking children. Do not allow yourself to become confused as to your duties or we will have to relieve you of them." The pink clad creature shrilly declared with an angry sneer.
"I know what my duties are. To preserve the secrecy of our world, uphold the laws and protect the citizenry. I am attempting to carry them out to the best of my ability."
"Well see to it that you do so or else we shall have to simply find someone much better equipped to handle them. Now Cornelius no longer wishes to hear of anything involving a hunt for, investigation or even a rumor that Peter Pettigrew is still alive. He is dead. His mother still has his poor finger in that glass jar she was given on her mantle. Now there will be. NO. More talk of this nonsense. Quit trying to resurrect the dead."
"And this is official?"
"Well we are reasonable adults here I don't suppose we need to put anything in writing yet. Cornelius much prefers to keep his office friendly." She said with a insincere smile.
"Oh yes of course. Absolutely, I understand. Now back to the subject of Percy Weasley." She said hoping to get the woman out of her office soon.
"Yes since you lost him. It behooves you to find him again."
"I had already placed a notice out for him. I sent an officer over this morning to speak with his parents but they have not had contact with him for several weeks aside from a brief dinner visit where he was quite rude and improper with his sisters."
"And did you check his flat?"
"We haven't entered it because we do not have sufficient reason to. There has been utterly no evidence that anyone else has entered it."
"Well then perhaps you should send someone over to enter it. Make certain he is not lying injured or ill within the home."
"He lives in a muggle neighborhood. We will have to be careful."
"Why not send that shape-changer girl Moody co-opted out of the Academy. She can look like Percy and not arouse any suspicion. Really do I have to think of everything around here?"
"Very well I will see to it immediately. Is there anything else Madam Undersecretary."
"No I believe that will be sufficient. I just wanted to remind you that there are more important things than ghost hunts like missing important ministry officials and murderous traitors running wild. So now that you understand how things stand. I shall leave you to your duties. he-he" She said in a cheeky cheerful tone.
Once the madam undersecretary left Amelia took a moment to polish her monocle. The toad irritated her beyond end but she and Cornelius were cheek to jowl in the way they ran the Ministry. If she spoke she did so in his name as Amelia had discovered the few times she had gone over the woman's head. Amelia had no illusions that her career would be quite short if she continued to pursue the Pettigrew is alive angle. She would have to back off on that. Moody would not be happy but then he was never happy except when he was busting criminals and most especially dark wizards.
Touching the crystal on her desk she called Moody in make arrangements to investigate what happened to Percy Weasley.
======xxxxx====
Nymphadora approached the flat that Percy Weasley shared with his girlfriend. Since her dad was a muggle-born she had no problems with the muggle world. She actually liked it as it seemed so much more vibrant, alive and moving. The music, the clothes, everything was so fluid and moving fast. Changes came everyday in the muggle world which suited her just fine. Being a metamorph she loved change and embraced it. She had several close friends she could copy down to the last mole after intimate inspection unlike the face she currently wore. She had to copy Percy off of his Ministry identification pictures and a few the his mother had let her study. Which let her get the general features right but she had to use generic everything else which she hated.
Opening his door she hoped he wasn't actually home. She had done that once and the moment of confusion running into the person she was impersonating had given her the chance to stun them. Only it seemed he wasn't home.
Exploring the flat it was strangely quiet. The common areas such as the kitchen and living rooms lacked any sign of human habitation except for the usual furniture. There was no food in the cupboards or refrigerator. This was not a good sign.
She came into what was obviously the girlfriend's bedroom. Neatly organized clothes hung in the closet and laid in the dresser drawers. A few toiletries and such laid in the bathroom. Nothing unusual.
His bedroom on the other hand was where it took the turn into wrongness. Everything was neatly boxed and labeled with several letter neatly written on the desk. She skimmed the top letter and knew this was going to be a long night.
=====xxxxx=====
Albus Dumbledore was awake and sitting in his office at one in the morning. He did not enjoy this sort of thing much anymore. Once he hit a century he enjoyed a nice quiet glass of warm milk and then to bed. Only Amelia Bones had just left after bringing him some most distressing news.
Apparently young Mister Percy Weasley had gone missing. Not only gone missing but had done so allegedly in remorse for his actions in service to the Dark Lord. Who he freely admitted still lived and was at the Malfoy Manor in Wiltshire.
She told him that the letter further pushed for Harry or anyone to deflower the Weasley girls as soon as possible if they had not been already. It was of vital importance to the safety of the wizarding world for them to not be virgins any longer then they could as the Dark Lord wanted them for some reason. Which disturbed him on multiple levels.
Amelia said the letters went on about several other things but that Umbridge had shown up and seized the letters before she could read all of them. Things that were going on inside the Ministry and the Wizengamut itself. Umbridge took the letters saying that obviously they were the delusional ramblings of a sad and sick person. The stress of his job and his family failing to make something of themselves had driven him into a depression.
As this had involved the Dark lord and the Ministry was officially burying it she wanted him to have the information. Dumbledore had thanked her for bringing this to him and offered her a teaching position should things go badly at the Ministry. She had chuckled darkly thanking him but she would stay as along as she could.
Albus knew exactly why Tom wanted to use the Weasley girls for his re-birth. The same reason he had hoped Harry would have a child with one of them to unite two of the Peverall brother's bloodlines and bring two of the Deathly Hallows together. That way the one destined to unite the Hallows would be born and become the Master of Death. Tom though wanted to be the one to be the Master. His fear of death was far too strong to allow him to be rational about this.
The dark ritual he wanted to use though would result in a dead Weasley girl and that was not a good thing. Remus had told him what Harry said about the ritual. Fortunately the Quintet had not looked it up, even Hermione had not managed to find much but then those sorts of reference books were in the restricted section. Although Remus was looking through the Black family library at Grimmould and would no doubt discover the information himself soon.
Albus decided that he would give things a bit longer before he tried meddling again. Harry seemed to be gathering the girls around him and as he was not an unattractive young man Albus had no doubt the course of nature would work things out in the end with the matter of their virginity. As for what happened to Percy Weasley though that was not going to be as easy. Either Black had taken him or he had decided to run away before Black did so. Either way Albus doubted they would see young Percy alive again.
=====xxxxx====
The next day the Weasleys were taken off by Professor McGonnegal and told about their brother's disappearance. They didn't know what to make of it. They hadn't been told about anything else just that he had gone missing.
The twins shrugged and said served him right as he was a prat. He abandoned the family and could just stay away. They didn't feel any love lost. Ginny was sad and worried while Veronica just sat staring at the floor numbly.
When asked if they needed some time off from classes they all said they would be fine and went about their day.
The Quintet did what they could to comfort and help the Weasley girls. Veronica was torn up by the idea that Black had taken her brother because of what she said. Even if he had been to save her own life or at least avoid being tortured. She went to bed sad even when Hermione let hr cuddle with Harry a bit on the couch and cry.
=====xxxxx=====
The next several days went well. It seemed like Percy had decided to leave everything and everyone behind according to the letter he wrote to his parents. He was going to go on to a new adventure and start over with a new identity. He sent a letter to Veronica and Ginny extolling Harry's virtues and encouraging them to have as much sexual relations with him as possible. As frequently as possible. Even going so far as to suggest locations, positions and techniques.
Those letters were turned over to Professor McGonnegal as they did not sound like Percy had written them according to any of the Weasleys. Percy not being that vulgar or descriptive. Professor McGonnegal showed them to Dumbledore who reported them to Amelia. The writing showed that it was Percy's hand that wrote them but that he might have been being told what to write.
The Quintet wondered what was going on but since there wasn't anything they could do about it filed the strange things and kept on. They studied and worked on their classes. Tutoring some of the other students in their year that had been having troubles in Defense class. Aside from the mystery of the disappearance of Percy Weasley their lives were settling in to be a normal teenage routine.
=====xxxxx=====
Percy woke up on a cot. He took inventory of his body and couldn't feel his legs but otherwise everything seemed to be there. He looked down and saw he still had legs. They just were not responding, like they were attached to someone else. He struggled to sit up and poked himself in the legs. They did not respond, he didn't feel them. It was beginning to scare him. He began to breathe hard and looked around the room. It seemed to be a normal bedroom, only there was no windows, only one door, a dresser, a desk and a single overhead lamp within the room other than the bed. He threw himself off the bed with a loud thump and began to pull himself to the door. He was Percy freaking Weasley A pure blood he was not supposed to be crawling on the floor like a common animal.
Reaching the door he tried to grasp the handle, scrabbling at it his fingers could only barely touch the slick brass with the tips. Causing him to beat his forehead against the bottom of the door and start crying. He heard someone start laughing from behind him and rolled over by pushing with his arms.
"That's the water closet there Percy. Not that you'll get to use it. Rather funny watching you crawl like a worm."
"What. What did you do to me Black."
"Oh I severed your spinal cord just above your third lumbar disk. Really it was no trouble at all you see I have this knife that's designed to do that. It was my great aunt Cassie's knife. Really a shame she got killed by her fiance. But then that's the breaks."
"You did what? Nobody can heal a spinal cord injury. Not even magic can heal that."
"Yeah that's why I did it. I wanted to watch you crawl like the pathetic fucking worm you are Percy. You see I made you over the last several days tell me everything you know. All about how you knelt before the dark lord and swore allegiance to him. How you sold out your entire family and Harry for a position under the dark lord. Your a bigger buggerist than your sister was. Bending over to get fucked by him. Letting the rat molest girls at school. Letting him have your own mother. Just so you can get power and riches. How you had decided that if it was a choice between your girlfriend and bringing the dark wanker back fully you'd choose your master. Well I just couldn't stand that. I mean I've seen your girl Perce. Throwing that scrumptious piece of tail away for the dark one. No. Just no. I mean I broke out to deal with the rat and discovered I got much bigger things. You guys still wanna kill Harry. Kill his girls. Unhunh honeybuns. Ain't happening."
"So you're going to kill me now. Or are you going to torture me more."
"Oh I'm not going to torture at all. This is is not torture this is a life lesson, for the rest of your short pathetic life. You see Kreacher has this really interesting piece of shine that I want to look at but he says it was my deer departed brother's. He wasn't going to give it to me unless I killed him and I can't kill the little blighter no matter how much fun it would be. I need his help. So we came to a compromise."
"Okay so what. How's that going to help me. You've crippled me. Just kill me."
"Oh shut up Perce. You've got to make everything all about you don't you. Oh look I'm a pure-blood. I deserve a better home, I deserve a better job. I'm entitled because I'm one of the blood elites." Sirius said in a mocking sing song voice.
Perce was sitting on the floor crying ignoring Sirius. Until suddenly his head slammed back into the door as Sirius dropped down and grabbed him by the chin again. He tried to push him off but he got his head slammed again so hard that he saw stars and felt something wet run down his neck.
"Perce. Perce. Perce. Look I'm not going to kill you. I swear and promise that I. WILL. NOT. Kill you. I need you. You're vital to my situation." Sirius let go of his chin and start brushing his hair gently in an almost lovingly way. Talking to him in a soft almost fatherly tone.
"Just because you're a selfish, arrogant, bigoted piece of shit that sold his sisters to the dark lord so their wombs would rebirth him. Just because you helped get your dad fired at work and helped set things up for the eventual fall of the ministry . Just because of all that I SHOULD kill you. I should flay your skin off and wear it for a fancy dress party. But I can't. I really can't. Now let's get you cleaned up and dressed we've got a lot of traveling to do."
======xxxxx=====
Percy was floating behind Sirius and Kreacher as they stood on a rock along the seaside somewhere. He had no idea where he was as the elf had come in dressed him and then they popped out. He had asked for his wand only to be laughed at.
The next thing he knew he was floating in a cave behind the elf. Bobbing along like a child's balloon. "Sirius where are we? What are we doing?"
"Oh going shopping."
Percy shook his head before Sirius grabbed his arm and slashed his palm drawing blood in a crimson line. Next thing Percy knew he had his hand slapped against the wall where he felt a drawing sensation against his magic. He felt like he was going to swoon when Sirius and his crazy little elf stepped through a door that he hadn't seen before.
"Okay Kreach where is this thing?"
"Island in the center it lies. Across the water we must go. Touch it not lest you join the ones who float though."
"Right okay. So we pop?"
Kreacher took his arm and the three of them were soon standing on a small island. Percy saw there was a small font standing in the center of the island. A greenish glow coming form a mist circling overhead made him wonder what his part in all this was going to be. Taking a closer look at the font he saw that the basin was filled with a inky dark liquid. There was laying on the side of the font a pearlescent shell like a drinking cup.
Percy suddenly collapsed to the ground as the elf canceled his spell on him.
"Okay Perce here we go. I need whats in that basin. Unfortunately the liquid in there is a rather nasty potion. Its basically a despair potion. As I need Kreacher to get me out of here, and I'm already quite crazy enough this is where you come in. You're going to be drinking this."
"NO. I've heard about those. You said you wouldn't kill me."
"You're right I did. And I won't kill you. A despair potion makes you want to kill yourself. See isn't linguistics fun." Sirius said with a barking laugh. He then grabbed Percy's chin and scooping a large cup of the liquid out began to shove it in Percy's mouth. Cup after cup was forced down him as Percy began to sob and cry and bawl. He begged forgiveness for giving his sister to the dark lord. Promising to giver her over. He had been one of the ones at the ritual holding her down. He had tried to kill Luna with one of the spells he threw. Eventually though it stopped.
Sirius pulled the locket out of the basin. Holding it out to the elf the ancient being took the one around his neck off and handed it to Sirius who knelt down and hung the wet locket around the neck of the elf like he was being awarded a medal. Percy watched this through eyes that burned with tears. His throat was dry and parched and he began to beg for water.
"Oh yeah no problem. There's an entire lake of it Perce. Have at it." He said as the elf popped him out of the cave.
Percy looked around as the green mist started fading. He saw a lake of endless black water and began crawling.
=====xxxxx=====
Pettigrew had been laying in the cage for several days he supposed by this point. Being fed, pampered and having ladies to play with definitely made his life worth living. However he would have to face the wrath of his master if he didn't figure out some way of delivering the Grangers to him. He could claim he had spent the last week doing research and not get tortured too badly.
And to be honest he had been thinking about it. The Granger home somehow had wards on it. That was the only explanation that made sense. With the daughter at school though no one should have been available to activate or raise them, much less power them. Peter wasn't the brightest wizard but even he knew muggles couldn't power wards which is what made them such easy prey during the last funtimes.
Plus there had been no wards at the office. He was certain about that. That was more like someone had detected him. Who or what could have detected him. That's the problem. Muggles should have if they saw him at all just seen a brown rat. Muggles didn't have any special powers. They must have somehow gotten a witch or wizard to work for them. That was the only logical explanation. He would have to go back to the dental office carefully and see which one of the people it was.
The next time the handler showed up to clean and feed them he leapt out of the cage. The young girl who was working that evening after close tried to grab him as he ran under a shelf then out the other side. He shifted back to his human form and when she ran around the corner all she heard was the word stupefy.
Peter looked at the young brunette laying on the floor. He bent down and picked her up as he apparated out. Why waste any resources he thought. Besides she looked a lot like that Granger girl.
=====xxxxx=====
It was Saturday and the Quintet was gathered in an empty classroom. The Weasley girls and Susan Bones were sitting with them talking.
"I'm not sure we're going to need a defense club. It seems like we have a very proactive professor this year." Hermione began.
"True I mean Dumbledore was good but he taught theory and only some practical. He wasn't as focused on preparing us to fight as this guy."
"Professor Dumbledore Neville." hermione corrected gently.
Veronica snorted, "Yeah well Professor Dumbledore seemed to want to just sit and talk about stories last year a lot."
"Well if you had been paying attention many of those stories highlighted examples of things we would need to know. Like Protego doesn't work against physical projectiles that's how muggles killed so many wizards during the purge of 1423." Luna pointed out as she did her stretching exercises.
"Okay yeah I know. That's what Protego Maxima is for. So you don't get hit by crossbow bolts."
"Well no one has tried testing it against modern firearms. The older black powder was barely stopped by Protego Maxima but the statute of secrecy came about before modern weapons. The bullets travel so much faster, plus there are missiles and bombs and that's not even counting nuclear weapons." Hermione stated with a sigh.
"Newclear weapons? What you can't see them?"
"No Ron NU-cle-are not new-cle-ur...they harness the power of the atom and can level an entire city in a single blast."
"No way Hermione that's like impossible."
Neville grunted, "I'm a pure-blood Ron and I've even heard about them."
"Yeah but dad has said most of that stuff is no big deal."
Ginny scoffed, "Dad barely understands how a toaster works. Remember the light bulb store?"
Veronica looked embarrassed, "Oh yeah. That."
"The light bulb store?" Harry couldn't resist.
"Dad bought some light bulbs only he didn't know they needed an electric lamp, So he went to the store to buy a lamp and got distracted and asked all kinds of strange and stupid questions and then he didn't know a lamp required electricity so he asked if he could buy some of that and if it came in buckets or boxes."
Hermione ran her hand over her face to avoid laughing but Harry stared at her then started chuckling for a minute.
"Oh sorry guys. That just. Your dad is just amazingly typical of pure-bloods. He has no clue but at least he's trying to understand. Someone like Malfoy would have no idea how to survive in the muggle world."
"Uh not really Harry. The Malfoys have electric lights and modern stuff in their mansion. They just have them enchanted to work in a magic environment."
"What how?" Hermione was suddenly interested.
Veronica shrugged, "I have no idea he said they cost quite a lot on the black market. Apparently a lot of pure-bloods are willing to get muggle things but not admit they do."
Neville frowned, "And the ministry looks the other way?"
"According to dad the Ministry is owned by the pure-bloods. That's why his department was only him and two other old guys. And they were the ones that was supposed to find muggle things being misused."
"It sounds like the Ministry is getting more and more corrupt."
"That's actually why dad uses the Rotfang conspiracy to speak out about it otherwise the Ministry would close him down. They only allow certain things to be published. The Daily Prophet is essentially part of the Ministry public information office."
"Great. No wonder magicals have no common sense or knowledge of the bigger world."
"Well I mean what's the big deal Hermione. We're doing okay."
"Oh really VeRONica." she said pressing emphasis on her former name.
"Okay so there's a few problems but you can't tell me the muggle world is so much better. I mean muggles catcha cold they can die, muggles have to work twice as hard and take those dirty smelly cars and stuff to get anywhere. Without magic they just miss out on so much of the world."
"No our world isn't perfect, neither is the wizarding world. That's why we have to stand up and do something about it. And my parents are muggles and do very well thank you very much.
Veronica sighed as she shook her head, instead of continuing the fight with Hermione though she shrugged her shoulders. "I guess. I just don't think I'd want to live like a muggle."
"Well no one is asking you to. Just to respect them. Muggles and magicals are both humans. Just with different abilities."
"Are you sure?"
"What's that supposed to mean Veronica?" Neville asked with a slightly angry timbre to his voice.
"Well I mean are you sure? Magicals live longer, we don't catch the same diseases, we don't get injured as easily. Drop one of us out a third floor window and we'll maybe break an arm which takes an overnight stay, drop a muggle off a third floor window and they'll be in hospital for months."
"That sounds a lot like the blood supremacy stuff Ron." Harry quietly said.
"Yeah I guess but it is true right Lavender. You've studied healing. Mom told us all this. She wouldn't have said this if it wasn't true." Ginny said.
Lavender frowned like she was trying to figure out how to say what she wanted. "Well yeah some of that's true but Muggles can do things we can't and their technology is getting better everyday. Because they don't have magic they've had to find ways to do things."
"Too bad it's illegal to use even beneficial magic on muggles." Luna sighed as she bent over backwards in an arch. Before standing on her head. She was wearing denims instead of her uniform skirt.
Harry was distracted by that before he realized what she had said, "What? You mean if say Dan or Emma got sick or injured it would be illegal for us to heal them?"
Susan nodded, "Yeah if you get caught it can be anything from a year to life in Azkaban."
"Even if I helped my own mom and dad?"
"You're in that kinda loophole zone Hermione. As they're your parents you would get a fine probably. I mean I heard about Harry putting wards on your house but he was allowed to do that since you're his betrothed and live there. Otherwise unless you own the house you can't have wards. Same way with your house elves. Its a criminal offense for Muggles to have house elves."
"Its like they want to leave Muggles defenseless."
"I know. Aunt Amelia has told me that mom went crazy trying to protect her family. She was trying to get them to leave for Canada or elsewhere, only before they could leave the country they got killed. That was only a few days before mom and dad got killed. They were going to flee too."
"Well we don't have that luxury. We'll have to fight. So let's practice and work on our spells and stuff."
Veronica sighed and stood up. "Gee might as well do my homework while we're at it."
Hermione laughed, "Harry finds brainy girls sexy Veronica."
"Oh. Well in that case what page professor?"
=====xxxxx=====
Pettigrew had studied the dental practice from the outside. Twice he had wound up inside the pet shop if he tried to infiltrate during the day. He had explored at night and gone everywhere. Seen the few drugs they kept to numb people and almost got in trouble with something called an ecksray machine. It made him tingle when he played with it a bit but otherwise seemed useless.
So it must have been one or the other of their employees. Looking at the two of them he decided the female was the more likely one. The male was just too weak and effeminate to be a true wizard. Unless he was acting. He seemed good at his job but otherwise a bit too flippant on other things. Ghe woman was organized, precise and in control. When asked for things by the Grangers she already had them ready. She was the sort of witch that many pure-bloods hoped their daughters would grow up to be. He wasn't sure exactly what sort of spells she used though as she had to hide it in front of the muggles.
He turned into his human form so he could follow her on the bus. She got out and walked to an apartment building. Dropping back to his rat form he managed to scurry into the walls and after a few hours found her residence. She was getting ready for bed with a towel wrapped around her. Oddly there didn't seem to be any wards up around her or the place. She used her magic wand to turn off the vision box and went to her bedroom. Pettigrew transformed in the kitchen then made his stealthy way to her bedroom. He struck first stunning her from behind as she bent over to get into bed.
Securing her to the bed he examined her home. He was surprised to find no magic potions, no robes and no other magic items at all. She must have them hidden behind secret panels. He cast several detection spells only for them to all come back negative. He was upset there was no way that muggles could be thwarting him like this. No other explanation at all.
He woke the girl up. She tried to scream but a quickly placed silencing charm on her prevented that. He let her go for several minutes as she struggled and tried to scream with no sound escaping the bubble. He smiled watching this enjoying the view of her panic causing wild spasms through her body as she struggled. Bella had taught him that the muggles did have a few interesting ideas about torture and restraining people. Of course she had taught him that by using them on him but he didn't mind. He missed Bella sometimes.
Once she stopped struggling and laid there crying he released the silencing charm.
"Hello. What's your name?" She didn't respond of course. Peter hated it when they got quiet like this. He sighed then said, "Imperio cooperate with me, I'm your best friend."
She stopped crying and looked up at him with a gentle smile. "Hi."
"So which house where you in?"
"I went to Curie House."
"Is that in Beauxbatons?"
"No its in Saint Katherine's."
"That's a muggle school?"
"Whats a muggle?"
"Aren't you a witch?"
"No I'm a nice girl."
"You can't do magic?"
"No of course not silly. Magic isn't real. You know that."
"Gaaah. So how are the Granger's being protected." He exclaimed.
"I dunno. They have insurance on the practice."
"Not what I meant. How did they know I was there."
"We've never seen you before. Sorry."
He stupefied her once again. "Stupid bint. She must be a muggle. So I'll have to see the other guy. He must be it."
He started to release her but then thought waste not want not.
======xxxxx=====
A few days later Hermione received a note from her parents. They were doing well although they had to get a new hygienist as their current one got into an accident with a bus. Millicent was acting odd as she had given up on wearing bras apparently and was a bit scatter brained. They gave her a few days off to get feeling better. Reldan had said that they had a rat problem briefly but he had dealt with it. Although the cute girl Dan liked at the nearby pet shop that looked like her had gone missing. They hoped she and the others were doing good and that nothing too bad was going on there this time.
"Harry are you sure you can't get wards put on the office?"
Harry sighed when he read the letter she handed him, "Yeah I am. It was a major pain to grease enough palms to make getting your home protected as it is. Trying to get the dental office is impossible."
"Damn. A rat though."
"I know. Reldan came highly recommended. He'll be motivated to help."
Veronica took her letter and tore it into tiny strips. Then waded the strips up and set them on fire . "Bad news from home?" Lavender asked.
"If it's like the one we got it's mum wondering what Veronica has done wrong to keep Harry from getting into her knickers." Fred said with a forced laugh.
"What?" Hermione sighed grumpily.
"Yeah she basically wants me to do everything possible to seduce, coerce or otherwise get Harry to deflower me."
Ginny stomped out of the Great Hall after causing a ball of parchment at the Hufflepuff table to burn.
"I would say mum sent one to Ginny too." George observed.
A first year girl got up from the Slytherin table and casually strolled out behind Ginny. Neville elbowed Luna who was wrapping a pancake around her porridge looked up to see what he was gesturing about. Seeing the Slytherin girl slip out the doors she frowned at him, "Ginny just left, she got a letter too."
Luna shoved her entire porridge pancake in her mouth and got up to follow.
"So why is your mother so adamant that I get the two of you into bed. I mean she knows I'm already taken."
"And taken and taken and taken again." The twins sang together.
Ignoring them Hermione turned to Harry "She knows more than she has said."
Harry shook his head as he looked around at the various students moving around, chatting with their friends, grabbing foods from the table that was not next to them.
=====xxxxx=====
Ginny had gone into the loo and was splashing water on her face as she looked in the mirror. A Slytherin girl with waist length glossy deep brown curly hair and very dark almost black eyes came in. She smiled at Ginny then went to turn to go towards the stalls, unfortunately she slipped and knocked Ginny down. Falling on top of her the girl began apologizing profusely.
"Oh my god, oh my god I'm sorry I didn't mean to do that. I hit a slippery spot on the floor. I'm really sorry." She was trying to get up and help Ginny up when Luna came in.
Finishing the porridge pancake she looked at the first year and Ginny, "Are you alright Ginny?"
"Yeah she just slipped on the floor."
"Did she pull any hairs from you?"
"Uh no?" Ginny said looking at her tightly braided plait down her back. Susan wore her hair like that and Ginny liked it. So Susan taught her how and they would braid their hair each morning while chatting about the classes and homework.
"Did she draw blood at any point." Luna asked fixing the girl with her unblinking stare.
"No Luna she didn't."
"Who sent you to knock her down."
"No one. I had to go to the loo and I slipped on the floor. Wow sorry is she your girlfriend? I'm sorry I didn't mean to do anything."
Ginny replied no while Luna replied yes. Luna looked at Ginny who glared back, "We are negotiating the status of our relationship." Luna finally said which made Ginny snort and finish washing her hands.
"Uh yeah well if you'll excuse me." She said and went into a stall.
"Ginny are you sure you're ok?" Luna said coming up next to the red head.
"Yeah Luna I'm fine. And no that's not just a line. One of the benefits of last year is I have a much larger pride to fall on."
Luna smiled at her, "Very well. We know about the letter. Veronica got one as did your brothers."
"Oh sorry. So what does Harry say."
"A great many things but this is not the place to discus it." She said tilting her head towards the stall.
"Oh yeah okay. I guess I should finish breakfast."
"That would be a good idea."
=====xxxxx=====
Just before lunch Draco caught up with his new friend. The curly haired first year had some serious potential as she had approached him once she figured out how the power structure of the dorm worked. Offering herself and her services to him freely. She was a pure-blood whose older sister was a year above him in Gryffindor. The two sisters had very different personalities and the one he was approaching had a very useful little magical gift.
"Romilda. There you are."
Glancing around to see if anyone was looking she bowed slightly, "Master."
"So what did you learn?" Draco said starting to walk.
"She is still pure sire."
"You're sure?"
"I am. I touched her right in the fanny. She doesn't even self pleasure."
Draco sneered, "Well that means that Potter's claims about having plucked her are a lie. I bet her older sister is the same."
"I don't know sire. I have to make physical contact to use my ability."
"hmm. Well they'll never let you that close to her. She's attached herself to one of them at all times damn near."
"The Lovegood girl came into the loo and caught me. I don't think she sensed my ability but I know she read my aura."
"Well that won't tell her much about you."
"Probably. She's stronger than she lets on."
"No matter. Go about your classes."
"May I service you tonight sire?"
Draco smiled Harry may have his little harem but he was certainly getting his own worked out.
=====xxxxx=====
After dinner the Quintet plus two were called by Minerva to come with her. Taken to the Headmaster's office they looked around in confusion.
"Is there a problem?" Hermione asked looking around.
"Perhaps Miss Granger." The headmaster said from a side office. "I have a small mystery that arrived by Goblin courier earlier today."
Going into the office they saw a small workbench with an ancient locket sitting on the middle of it. It was an ugly large heavy looking piece of hammered gold with a stylistic snake made of some kind of smooth green stones inlaid upon it.
Professor Snape was using an eyedropper to place some sort of potion on it then touching it with a swab to test the properties of the material.
"So do any of you recognize this?"
Luna tilted her head as she seemed to go into her mind, "It looks like the locket around the neck of Salazar Slytherin in his painting."
Hermione looked at it closely and nodded, "Yeah it does. Is it?"
Albus looked at Snape, "It reads as alchemical gold, the stones are Connemara Marble. Otherwise it seems to be magically inert and unimpressive."
Harry though was feeling a prickling tingle creeping up his spine. His scar was itching and feeling like he had a sunburn. He reached out and carefully touched the locket and yanked his hand back as his scar suddenly felt like an ice pick had been plunged into it. He fell backwards into Neville who caught him. Helping him into a nearby chair that appeared out of the floor Neville said, "Well that's how he reacted to the book. So that must be one of them."
"Apparently so." Snape declared flatly.
Hermione was watching Harry who waved away Lavender's help. "So now what?"
"Well I have some of the basilisk venom left which should destroy it. Although I do not know if the Dark Lord will sense the loss of these parts of him."
Albus nodded, "A small risk. If he has distributed his life force across several of these items then we should be able to remove a few of them before he detects any loss. Go and retrieve the venom Severus."
After Snape left Albus sighed, "Harry I am sorry for not warning you. Your ability to sense the Horcruxes is invaluable."
"Have you found anyway to get that one out of his head yet?"
"No but I did discover the details of the Kandorian re-birthing ritual that they attempted to perform on Ginny and will attempt to use on them again."
"We know it'll kill us." Veronica said.
"Oh it will kill your body. That is for certain. Your womb would within moments produce a full grown human male bursting from you. That is lethal. Your soul however would be absorbed into the body, powering its growth and life. Merging and being destroyed by the soul of the being that is re-born through the ritual. Your soul would never cross over to the afterlife. It would not be able to return as a ghost. Reincarnation would not even be possible. It would be gone, shredded and eaten in the ritual. Even if he was destroyed your soul would be gone. What is worse the re-born will now have all your knowledge, thoughts and magical power added to them. Plus they would have all of the magical benefits of your bloodline."
Everyone sat silently until Veronica whimpered slightly. Ginny stared ahead with her mouth open.
Minerva swore in Gaelic then sighing, "And there is no way to prevent this?"
"They would have to remain under protective custody constantly. Any chance to capture them or take them near the days of the vernal equinox or Beltane would have to be prevented."
"Or they would have to be uh well."
"The ritual will not work on a individual who is not a virgin Harry."
Minerva pursed her lips but said nothing as the teens looked at each other.
"I will not of course try to meddle in this. It is a decision all of you will have to make for yourselves."