Chapter 16
Insane.
10:15 am 9th June, Law's Household.
At breakfast Charlie could sense the uneasiness oozing from the adults, Alex in particular, she as if trying to make it look like nothing was wrong but she kept fidgeting with her cutlery while constantly glancing over all the children as if she were running a mental tally of them, including Harry who as usual was in his room, as she turned to look towards the stairs time and again - discreetly enough that none of the other kids caught it - while she also took deep breaths to calm herself.
As the breakfast came to an end Richard rose from the table and announced, "everyone I need a moment of your attention, please follow me."
All were surprised but gave him a nod and as Richard was about to say something else, Harry came down from his room with his cutlery in his hands and he proceeded to lift his charge's cutlery and signaled for the boy to follow him which he did obediently, and as soon as they were done with their new routine where Harry washed the cutlery while John observed how he did it, and then John washed himself while Harry supervised him, had it been anyone else Richard would've told them to leave the chores be for today but as it was Harry whose primary interaction with them were moments like these he made an exception, and as soon as they were done with their routine Richard said, "Harry good job once again, but now if you will please come with us, there is an important discussion to be had in the family."
Harry gave him a nod and started to follow him as they were beckoned, they were taken to Richard and Judy's bedroom, which being the master bedroom was also the biggest in the house, there was a TV in the corner of the room and its screen displayed photo of a gaunt man with long hair, Harry instantly recognized him as Sirius Black, the Death Eater responsible for the attack on his parents.
As soon as the children were seated Richard pointed towards the screen and said, "now kids I need you to understand that you are perfectly safe, but you must still be careful when you go out, now look at the photo displayed on the Telly, that man is Sirius Black, he is a very bad man, and if you ever see him go and inform the nearest adult you can find is that clear?"
As the children nodded once Richard started giving them a thorough explanation of what he wanted them to do if they ever spotted, and other precautions he wanted them to take like going anywhere in pairs, once he felt he was thorough enough he started to quiz them, "John, who's the man on the telly?"
"Umm he's Serious Black, and he's a really bad man," replied the child with a quiet voice - as he was instructed to talk in such a manner if he were to ever spot the man in question although it seemed the boy would need to be coached a little - and it brought a small smile on Richard's face leave it upto their youngest to make the situation light.
Then moving on he asked another child, "so Rachel what would you do if you ever spot him somewhere?"
"Uh I should inform the nearest possible adult, but while doing so i should also make sure not to point towards him as he might see it and get us in trouble, and if possible I should inform either someone at home or a bobby if i can find one," was her reply.
Giving her a slight smile and nod Richard continued his impromptu quiz for a while longer and when he was satisfied he told most of the children to leave except the oldest 5, and addressing them he said, "okay now i know you know that you know how to be safe and how to take care of the kiddies, but i need you to promise me something, you won't leave any of the kiddies unsupervised alright? And I also want you to promise me not to do anything reckless if you ever saw him, or for that matter get into any other dangerous situation, is that clear?"
Then he dismissed three of them only Charlie and Harry remaining in the room, then he went towards the cupboard in his room and removed a rectangle box from it, it was a mobile phone - It's the Nokia 101 They released it last year! Exclaimed charlie as it was handed to her - now addressing her he said, "this was originally meant to be a birthday gift for you, but given the circumstances I believe now would be a better time, now understand me young lady I have full faith in you but I need you to promise me that you'll treat it as the privilege it is and not as a right, is that clear?"
The reply he received was a tight hug and multiple nods from the girl in question.
Parting from the soon to be 18 year old, he turned towards the odd yet all the same endearing boy that they had picked up last year, and crouching down to the boy so that they were looking eye to eye he began, "now Harry i don't know how you view us, if you like us or if you're indifferent to us or whatever, nor do I want to know, but I want you to know that we love you and care for you, so I want you to promise me that once you go back to that school of yours you will stay careful and do everything you can to keep yourself safe, is that clear?"
The raven haired boy took an unusual pause and after a few seconds nodded once, after which they too were sent away to do whatever it was they wanted to do.
That night the Emerald eyed wizard went back to Hogwarts later than he usually did at night, spending the earlier time setting protective enchantments on every resident of the house, and even when he returned to Hogwarts he spent his whole time with the girl rather than his experiments.
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06:38 pm 1st September, Scottish Highlands.
Remus John Lupin was having the weirdest day of his life, and that definitely topped the time he and his friends went to vegas for Prongs's bachelor party, a trip he remembers only in flashes.
He had read in Dumbledore's letters about how unique Harry was, and how despite physically resembling James quite a bit they had nothing in common, but it was an entire another matter to be confronted by the said reality, nothing could have prepared him to meet the silent boy he did that day when he boarded the Hogwarts Express, the boy simply gave him a nod when he was greeted and went back to reading, Russian folklore about the Koschei it seemed if what little he could make out was right, nodding in approval he sat across the boy and then before he could say anything more to the boy they were interrupted by two girls entering the compartment, one a blonde with blue eyes and one a redhead with freckles - a weasley if he had to ever guess one - and they took a seat next to the raven haired boy, the redhead giving a look he couldn't decipher and then both too removing their own books and reading, thus forcing him to postpone any further dialogue with the boy.
As a few hours flew by he realized that was just the beginning of it, a carbon copy of James, who was most decidedly not like him in every way given that his late friend despite being a good student could not be voluntarily made to shut up even if his life depended on it, to the point even the teacher's gave up on trying to shut his motormouth in the classes and simply resigned themselves to it, though partly because he never said anything hurtful to anyone, just all the random comments that came to his mind like how some spells were weird or how some creatures had some defining features or atleast what he considered defining features, unlike his son whom he hadn't heard make a single noise.
Now a few hours well into the journey as they were nearing the castle he started to feel a small chill, the Dementors, he realised immediately, as his lupine senses went on edge, but when he peered through the window glass, the sight that greeted him made his blood go cold, the dementor's were flocking to the train in droves, but they weren't doing anything to it, in fact he would even dare say they were trying to keep an arm's reach worth of distance from them, far enough to run away if necessary but also close enough to attack if forced to, and after having seen Voldermort use these demons in the first war he knew very well whatever was happening wasn't normal at all, so he decided to make the best of circumstances, and promptly removed the emergency chocolate no 4 that he kept in his front pockets and started eating it - after offering some to the children of which the girls accepted yet the boy declined - and left his thoughts to be visited on a later time.
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07:54 pm 1st September, Hogwarts Entrance Chamber.
Minerva took a deep breath trying to calm herself down, she had come to know soon after Black's escape, the ministry in all of it's incompetency yet again managed to surprise her with it's stupidity by placing dementors - of all the Merlin be damned things dementors - near children, if she had a say in it no child - or adult for that reason - would ever be near those loathsome creatures- especially poor ms Weasley, after last year's debacle she had hoped that the girls would have a good year, unfortunately it didn't seem to be in the cards for her - though as it stood she did not, so all she could do was pray to whoever, or whatever, was listening to her that no harm comes to her children.
Nonetheless for now it was time to do some work, straightening her back she looked all the disciplinary teacher she is and went to make the final preparations to greet the first years, but before she could go to the ante chamber she heard the main entrance creak open, and very distinct sounds of someone, or two someone's coming up the castle, her cat animagus did give her some extra senses, nothing ridiculous just better hearing and sense of smell, and they were someone young if their light footsteps were anything to go by, so she went by to check as it was too early for any of the students to be making it up to the castle, and as she reached near the sounds she was left stupefied for more than one reason, primarily It was ms Weasley and ms Lovegood who had just entered the school - a small part of her mind noted that it was a good thing as that meant they were away from those things, but being second years they were inexplicably early, until you counted the person apparently escorting them, her emerald eyed enigma.
She saw them walk up to her and halting quite close to her, then Harry greeted her with his customary nod and turned towards the girls giving them a nod too and then broke into a fast jog towards the inner sections of the school, which was quite obviously not the direction of the great hall, and it seemed that his companions had not been informed or consulted about this as they were blinking at the sight of it looking quite startled, quite a lot like herself a few moments ago.
Shrugging off Harry's usual antics, she looked over to the two girls, Ginny specifically, she looked a far cry better than what she looked like last year after the debacle in the chamber, it seems those special counsellors in egypt did work out at least as expected, she had been informed by Arthur that Ginny still suffered from PTSD - the usual, fear of dark, and would tense up whenever anything related to the chambers incident was brought up, sometimes leading to a panic attack - but it was a work in progress, and she was supposed to keep writing to those counsellors, she also noted the brown eyes the girl was sporting, the muggle contact lenses that ms Granger had advised to hide ms Weasley's new red ones, so she said to the girl, "ms Weasley tomorrow before breakfast please report to my office, we have a few things to discuss."
To which the redhead nodded and then meekly looked towards her blonde friend and then the great hall, Minerva mentally snorted all Weasley's were alike in that respect, thinking with their stomachs.
Giving the girl a soft smile she said, "now hurry up the hall, you'll get some of the best seats given how early you were."
And the two did just that.
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08:24 am 1st September, Director Hennessey's office.
"Sir, we are not going to take any action with regards to Sirius Black's escape?" questioned Spectre as she organised the notes she had made with today's discussions with the director.
The wizened man hummed a few moments and then turned towards his young protege and began, "until ordered to or such circumstances arise no, you can even say his escape is quite fortunate for us."
The young woman simply furrowed her eyebrows, unable to follow her mentor's line of thought.
Chuckling for a few seconds he gave her a small smile ang began, "so look at it this way, Sirius Black, a death eater, The Death Eater, who was accused of being responsible for the attacks on Potters and Longbottoms and of being Voldemort's right hand man, not to mention how he fooled Dumbledore for so long - and I must admit, despite our dramatically varied philosophies about life, death, and everything in between I will always admit that he is one scary and perceptive man, though not infallible, definitely not - is no small feat, and now he has escaped the one prison which the British ministry termed as inescapable, and the longer he stays away the worse it looks, which can be used in future as leverage to pressurize them when it is really important."
She gave a small nod of understanding at that and then immediately followed it with a question, "why not deal with him now? He's weak from so many years of imprisonment, not to mention quite vulnerable right now with a severe lack of resources, why let him run free and risk him becoming problematic or even dangerous in future?"
Without skipping a beat, he answered, "In reverse order, is he weak from from his years at Azkaban? Most likely, is he vulnerable? Equally unlikely, a man like him who not only managed to retain a clear mind around those demonic guards but also escape, is like a cornered animal, highly unpredictable and even more dangerous, though to be honest I must admit all of my sources have found less than nothing about any of his moments, which is both good and bad, good because it means he hasn't approached any of the Death Eaters or Sympathizers, bad because obviously we are in the dark about his moments, and even if we manage to track him now any attempt to capture him will most likely cause lots of death and destruction, both of which can be avoided if we let him grow a little complacent, paranoia will allow him to escape us, overconfidence will be his downfall.
And what after we capture him? As it stands we aren't well liked by most governments because they think we're working based on someone else's agenda and we wouldn't be able to convince anyone that he poses an international threat of the kind we usually deal with given the current circumstances, and then they can use this as an excuse in future to cut down our activities, to hinder us from doing what we need to, and that is a best case scenario if we capture him alive, and if we don't and things get out of hand we'll most likely be dismantled and all that will remain of us are some file records."
She took a few moments to digest it and then gave him a small and slow nod at understanding.
He smiled softly at that, it was part of the reason he took her under his wing in the first place, she was capable of learning from other's experiences and point of view, something few were capable of, and once she has enough years under the belt she'll be dangerous, scarily dangerous, then he started speaking again, "That would be the primary assessment of the situation, the secondary benefits that we could reap from it - or the losses we could suffer - namely Hades, though in the small picture it seems inane to worry so much about one agent, but the bigger picture compels me to focus on it, if he reacts badly to this whole situation we can use it as an excuse to persuade him into retirement when the time comes and he wishes to part from us, yet if he deals with it in a calm manner and should he - however unlikely it is - wishesh to stay with us we can use it to sow a sense of order and well sense into him."
She nodded and took a few moments to contemplate everything they had discussed today, and also what they hadn't discussed, things he hadn't told her due to varying reasons.
With a soft smile on his face he interrupted her thoughts and said, "now my dear i must leave as i have some other matters to tend to, and I would appreciate it if you get started on the files i asked for."
She gave him a small nod of acknowledgement and left.
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09:48 pm 12th September, Hogwarts Headmaster's office.
Today they were holding the annual discussion for the child development, or good old gossip as Horace used to call them Dumbledore lamented, they had to skip past Saturday as it had been a short week and the dementors were displaying a worryingly odd behaviour, as such both the Scamanders were also present today with the teachers to discuss how to deal with the issue as a whole, so when everyone assembled he began, "I believe that as introductions have already taken place we can cut right to the heart of the matter."
Everyone in the room except for Tina and Snape became visibly uncomfortable as Dumbledore's voice while still as calming as always was also unusually grim, so as asked to Newt began, "well as you all know the standard routine for dementors, their Hive mind and their usual strengths and Weaknesses, this new odd behavior of theirs, while technically unheard of is still following the Hive mind schema as such I wouldn't worry too much about it, though as much as I would like them to be as far away as possible from children I'm afraid we have little choice in the ministry's decisions except to follow them, so yes follow the usual rules; go everywhere in pairs and practice up your patronus spells and you should be good to go, I will visit as often as I can for regular inspections."
The aforementioned odd behaviour was that the dementors were circling the Hogwarts ground in a set diameter, and nor were they straying in the circle nor out of it, just circling the borders of the school's famous wards, while this was a relief in the sense that meant no one would be hurt anytime soon, it was also frightening when you thought about how it broke their usual pattern of disregarding such behavior and following their instincts, their hunger, more importantly what in Merlin's name made them do it because it had to be something equally if not more frightening.
All the teachers nodded to Newt's instructions and even Snape gave a curt nod to the magizoologist, the Scamander couple were of the few people he respected, at least enough to be civil with them, and soon they started chatting up trivially, throwing in both the important things and tidbits that made this gossip, ...gossip, all the while Remus was quite silent, though Newt had wanted to have a personal statement from him about the issue with the dementors given he was the first person to notice and recognize it, he hadn't had any time to do so, and thus Dumbledore acted as a proxy for him and informed Newt about the incident on the train.
Taking note of this Minerva called out to him, "Remus is everything alright?"
Her voice managed to startle Remus out of his thoughts and he flushed as he realized that he had spaced out, and the others understood that immediately - except Hagrid who was now starting to look a little concerned about him - while most gave him a small smile of understanding as those who were attending the meeting for the first time were usually lost like him, the Potions master was about to say something - undoubtedly scathing - was interrupted by the DADA teacher, "well I wanted to have a small chat with Mr Scamander about something of a situation I encounteredrecently."
Newt blinked for a few moments and started to look around till he was elbowed by his wife who first pointed at Remus and then him, and still it took him a second to work out what she was saying, "oh you Meant me, I mean Remus - is it alright if I call you that? - please call me Newt or Newton as whenever someone calls me mr Scamander I feel as if they're referring to my brother, and did you want to discuss something about our little Dementor problem? Some little detail you noticed recently and wanted to inform me of?"
"Well no, its uhm , umm, it's …" he began lamely.
Suddenly Dumbeldore tried to help Remus out of the situation he had gotten himself into - probably thinking that his question was with regards to his affliction - or as Prongs was used to saying , "Meddle in it" something he found to be incredibly insulting towards the wizened man but for now couldn't help but echo the sentiment, "I believe that something like that can be discussed later ….."
And as he saw the others reach the same conclusion as Dumbledore - including the potions professor whose lips curled into a sneer - he ended up blurting, "noit'sjustthatwemayhavewitnessedaboggart'strueformandthenhaveitdestroyed." immediately following which he slapped his hand on his mouth, swearing internally, enough to make sailors blush.
Everyone paused at that and looked at him quite weirdly and Tine voiced the thought going on in everyone's mind, "What?"
Remus let out a small sigh and his shoulders sagged as he repeated what he said, this time slower, "it's just that we may have witnessed a boggart's true form and then have it destroyed."
"WHAT!" again Tina echoed the thoughts of everyone in the room, and appropriately loudly.
Turning towards Dumbledore and Newt he began, "well a boggart had snuck into the staff room's cupboard, and I thought it might be a good idea to have my third year class face it, so two days ago when I took them for it, I gave the class the introduction and summary of what they were doing after instructing them on the incantation and wand movements, I turned around from the class and towards the cupboard making it look as if I was preparing something and while in that position I asked the class about who would be the first to face the creature, I expected someone to step up instead it seemed everyone stepped back, well almost everyone, except two boys Neville Longbottom and Harry Potter - here Remus gave the Scamanders a look as if asking if they knew who the pair were, or more specifically the latter one to which they nodded - and they were the only ones i wanted to avoid having face the boggart because there was quite a possibility that it would turn into you-know-who"
At that almost everyone in the room except Newt, Tina, Snape, Dumbledore and Remus himself shuddered.
"So having to pick between the two I picked the one I hoped I was not making a mistake with, and called forth mr Potter, and the boggart suddenly started to rumble loudly in the cupboard, I thought it was getting excited sensing fear, so with some trepidation I set it free, instead of taking a solid form it shot out like a puddle of black goo, and for a few seconds I was confused as to why would someone be scared of something like that, and then that puddle shrieked and leapt away from the boy as if trying to escape and before I could do anything more than blink a spell was shot by mr Potter - the Riddikulus spell if my guess is anything to go by - and that blob of mass exploded like a balloon filled with water, and then as soon as I came to my senses I dismissed the class, and I'm still having trouble believing what I saw."
By the time he was done, everyone in the room was out right gaping, even Snape to some degree, and then the meeting was soon adjourned without another word being said.
00:22 am 1st September, Room of Requirements, Girl's Chamber.
As Harry entered the girl's chamber he was greeted by her sleeping form laid out on her bed, and was being patted lightly on the back by a gaunt man with dark long and shaggy hair.
The said man turned towards him and said, "Harry, you're insane."
A/n : That's it for today folks, I'll elaborate about the dementors and the boggart in the future chapters, and about Ginny's Egyptian mind healers in the 4th year. and I'm really sorry for the delay caught the flu over the weekend, so once again thanks for your patience and thanks for reading.
