Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter and am making no money from this.
Hermione
For all the discussing and what-if games we went through about this new Pennington character we never were able to come up with any solid theories at all. A lot of vague guesses, that's it. It's frustrating. Even sleep didn't help, the frustration just followed me into my dreams; amorphous fitful things with one undefined problem I couldn't solve after another. I went to bed frustrated and I wake up frustrated and grumpy.
Pansy and I wait for Ron and Harry to come down from their rooms before all going down to breakfast. Pansy and I sit at the Ravenclaw table with Cho and Fleur, which isn't the most popular thing with Ron and Harry, but it's better than when we didn't even wait for them yesterday.
We exchange pleasantries and get down to eating like normal. Like every day, The Daily Prophet arrives. The headline is impossible to miss.
DEATH EATERS ON THE LEASH
Following his defeat of You-Know-Who, famous explorer and recent savior of all things good in Wizarding Britain, Chadwick Pennington promised to remain in Britain to help hunt down the remaining terrorist threats to our way of life. True to his word, today, with the blessing of the Minister of Magic, he has begun to hunt down the Order of the Phoenix.
While Death Eaters are well known to the general public and Ministry Aurors, the Order of the Phoenix is far newer and less well known and understood. To address this, Pennington has enlisted those who are likely to best know the Order of the Phoenix: their former enemies, the Death Eaters. With so many in captivity, some are being used in the field with Auror squads, much like dogs are used by some specialized units.
These Death Eaters are closely watched and prohibited wands or magical items of any sort. They are there only to consult and analyze events in the field in real time, allowing for far more efficient hunting of the remaining miscreants threatening our nation. While this is most decidedly unconventional, Pennington assured The Prophet and our readers that he has seen and used this same tactic in Africa and the results were exceptional.
"We'll use these Death Eaters like dogs and hunt this Order of the Phoenix down, whatever holes they may hide in. It's only a matter of time until every last one rots in Azkaban. The people of Britain will know peace again, and soon."
"Huh, so my father's out of prison and working for a living. Bet he never thought he could sink lower than jail," Pansy comments.
"It's worse than that," I add. "Death Eaters can escape, to say nothing of potentially coming here."
"My father sinking low and suffering is a good thing, not a bad one," Pansy corrects me. "Does it say where he'll be? Maybe we could go and throw things. You know, rotten tomatoes, rocks, that sort of thing."
"I think you two are focusing on different aspects of this," Cho points out.
"Or one takes it seriously and the other doesn't," Fleur adds.
"This absolutely is serious business," I insist. "Do you have any idea how bad this could go, who could simply be declared part of the Order and jailed? To say nothing of the Death Eaters escaping. It could be a catastrophe."
"What worst case are you imagining this time?" Pansy asks me.
"There's so many ways this can go bad. You must know who's in the Order, at least generally. Imagine if some or all of them were arrested? Ron and Ginny's parents? Gone. Harry's family, well, Sirius at least, gone. To say nothing of what if they come here. Most of the teachers would be suspects. Just how many Death Eaters do you think that idiot will bring with him if he comes here? You want them crawling all over the castle?"
"No faith in the Aurors?" Fleur asks.
"Last year the Ministry was afraid of the DA, thought it was a serious army that was a threat to them. If that's all the faith they have in their own Aurors, why should I have any more?"
"Good point," Cho agrees. "Though I still have difficulty in believing the DA could seriously threaten Aurors."
"I doubt any of them could match that strange magic you do," Fleur replies to her girlfriend.
"Fair point, though I've hardly mastered that magic, and can't maintain the effect particularly long."
"Would you need to to win against a squad of Aurors?"
"Perhaps not, but I'd hardly be in combat worthy condition after such an encounter. To say nothing of the fact there's only one of me."
"Hmm, that's a shame," Fleur comments thoughtfully. "I can think of a few ways we could have fun if you had a twin."
Pansy looks ready to agree and add her own impure sentiment, but I cut her off before she can. "I think we're getting off on a tangent here. There are nothing but bad outcomes from this stupid program with the Death Eaters."
"And just what can we do about it?" Pansy looks at me, possibly upset about her being denied the chance for inappropriate commentary. "I mean if the weasels get thrown in Azkaban, what do you propose we do? I can't think of much unless you're going to suggest we put the girl weasel up for the summer back at Parkinson Manor. I guess if Death Eaters show up here we can make ourselves scarce, though there really isn't any reason to. We're heroes and all, not targets of this crap. But really, it's not like we can do much else besides that no matter what happens, unless you're seriously going to say we should fight the Aurors and Death Eaters."
"No, I don't want to take on the entire Ministry."
"Then that's basically it then."
Pansy has a point; there isn't much we can do. After all, we are just school girls. Still, I have been able to influence the Minister before; to accomplish something that should have been almost impossible. I need to try again. I have a letter to write.
Ron
The big news around the castle has been all about Voldermort, that Africa explorer guy and now Death Eaters used to hunt the Order. It's all anyone can talk about, not classes, not exams, not Quidditch, not even all the chick on chick stuff (a few Slytherin insults about Harry turning girls gay aside.) And yeah, I can't blame them. The um, regular people, not the snakes. Those jerks can rot, them and their insults too. No, the stuff in the news, it's big. Like, really big. Thing is, it doesn't feel right.
I know when the news that Voldermort was killed came out Parkinson didn't buy it, and Hermione and Cho didn't really either, which kind of ticked me off. Sure, the details didn't add up 100%, but come on, right away Parkinson went off with her cynical stuff and the girls had her back. The news could have been true, there's a chance, and besides, couldn't they have let Harry have at least a little time to think he's free, let all of us think we might actually be able to grow up normal, have regular lives and all that, not be having to try our best not to die at the hands of some dark wizard. Heck, last year Bellatrix Lestrange threatened to skin Gin, Luna and I alive, use our flesh to make leather for a coat. That's not normal. In fact that's seriously messed up. People should be glad to be away from that, even if it's only a chance. But no.
Of course all that was just with the first piece of news, Voldermort being killed. Then came more, that explorer guy that's older than Dumbledore somehow, now the stuff with Death Eaters, like they're tracking hounds or something. And of course all this hunting is for the Order, not other Death Eaters, people who've terrorized everyone since before I was born.
If it was just one thing, sure, I could ignore it; it'd be easy. Weird things happen all the time in my life after all. Problem is, it's not just one weird thing, it's a lot of weird things, and all coming really fast too. I hope I'm wrong, but after that thing with my grades in Defense Against the Dark Arts class last year I'm not really into just blindly accepting when supposedly good things happen, not on that scale. Well, hunting the order isn't good, but Voldermort dead sure is. But even that I'm having trouble buying now.
Maybe I'm just being paranoid, jumping at shadows and all that, but this nagging voice that sounds annoyingly like Hermione keeps telling me I'm not. Not that I've talked to her about it; ever since Hermione and Parkinson started eating meals at the Ravenclaw table Harry and I don't talk nearly as much with them.
Actually, I haven't talked with Harry about my doubts either. I don't know if he believes this stuff or not, but if he does I don't want to be the one to burst his bubble. He deserves to feel like things are going well, like maybe he can have a normal life, even if it's just for a little while. Still, I don't think I can wait forever. If there really is something bad going on we just can't go in blind. Since of course, bad things having to do with Voldermort seem to always come for Harry sooner or later.
It's breakfast the day after that weird Death Eater announcement when I finally decide to talk to Harry. It's just us at the Gryffindor table of course, the girls are at the Ravenclaw table. That's ok, I can do without Parkinson's evil nonsense for this.
"Hey mate," I start. "All that stuff in the news, Voldermort and the explorer and the Death Eaters, what do you make of it all?"
"What do I make of it?"
"Yeah, what do you think. Like, in general?" Bloody hell I'm bad at this.
"I don't know. It all sounds good, well, it did before yesterday at least. But it's all so good there's this part of me that's worried it's too good to be true."
"Yeah, I'm kind of worried about that too. But if it is all some sort of con or something I can't figure out how it works, and how it'll go bad. You?"
"No." No doubt Harry's unhappy to have to give that answer.
I kind of figured this conversation would wind up like this. That's the other reason I avoided it. Harry and I aren't usually alone trying to figure this stuff out; we have Hermione. Of course now she and Parkinson are sitting with Cho and Fleur at every meal, so we don't get a chance to talk to her nearly as much as we used to. Kind of a problem for us. Kind of a big problem for us.
"You think we should talk to the girls about it?" I ask.
"The girls?"
"Yeah, Hermione and Cho and Fleur and Parkinson. Hermione usually helps us figure this stuff out, after all. Seems like maybe we could use the help. And I'm not her biggest fan, but Cho's way smart too. She and Hermione figured out that circle magic stuff last year. You'd think Fleur's good at this stuff too, she was a Triwizard champion and all."
"And there's Parkinson," Harry adds.
"And there's Parkinson," I agree. "Hate to say it but she probably can help. I mean, you know anyone better at evil schemes?"
"No. And I'm very glad for that fact. But what do you want to do, try and get them to sit back at the Gryffindor table?"
"No." Actually yes I do, just I don't think it's going to really happen. Not easily at least. "I think we need to sit at the Ravenclaw table; humble up and show we're serious about getting past stuff and talking."
"Oh. Yeah, guess that is the best way if we want to talk to them all." I'm thinking Cho's not high on the list of people Harry really wants to talk to, but she might be able to help here, so he's not actually saying so. Still, maybe it'll be better if I do a lot of the talking instead of him.
"So how about we try at dinner? I know lunch is our next chance, but I don't think that's the right time."
"How come?"
"Lunch can be a rush, between classes and all that. Dinner you're not on the clock, and everyone's relaxed since classes are over for the day."
"All right, sounds good," Harry agrees with my plan.
Dinner time rolls around, but Harry and I wait a bit, so we're sure all the girls will be there before we head down. Sure enough, all four of them are there, sitting together at the Ravenclaw table. Harry and I walk over.
"Um, mind if we join you?" I ask them.
"I'm fine with it, but it isn't my table, so not my decision," Hermione replies, looking to the other girls. Parkinson just rolls her eyes at Hermione.
Fleur looks at Cho, who the others are obviously letting decide this. "Any particular reason?" she finally asks me, but is looking right at Harry when she does.
She obviously wants Harry to answer, but no way I'm letting him do that; relationship rehash is not what we're here for at all. "We wanted to talk to you about all the stuff in the news, see what you thought was going on and all."
Cho stares at us both, sizing us up for a while. She's actually pretty good at it, it's awkward and uncomfortable. But eventually she speaks up. "Fine. We can talk and see how it goes. Today."
Guess this is why exes don't hang out together. Anyway, it's as good an invitation as we're going to get, so Harry and I sit down.
"So you wanted to know what we think of what's in the news? Voldermort, his supposed killer and now the hunt for the Order?" Hermione breaks the awkward moment.
"Yeah. I'd like to believe he's dead, but it just sounds too good to be true. And that guy that supposedly did it seems weird too," Harry responds.
"Now he realizes something happening to him might be too good to be true," Cho mutters.
"You do know how to carry a grudge, dear," Fleur looks at Cho.
"Everyone says I'm an overly emotional girl, remember."
"I think we're getting off the topic at hand," Hermione interrupts Fleur and Cho.
"Fine. We can rehash our theories for these two," Cho agrees.
"Even though an emotional rant would be more fun, no?" Fleur smiles at Cho.
"Always. But this first I suppose," Cho agrees. "None of us feels it's likely that Voldermort is dead. The circumstances simply leave too many questions: the oddity of Voldermort being at a battle in a place of so little apparent importance, the lack of a body, and essentially everything having to do with his supposed killer. His story is uniquely impossible to corroborate due to his extremely advanced age and lack of any witnesses who could corroborate or disprove his whereabouts for the past century plus."
Ah, I'd almost forgotten how Cho could sound like she ate a textbook sometimes. "He's old, but it's possible to be that old, right?" I ask.
"Nicholas Flamel was older; he used a philosopher's stone," Harry offers.
"And that weird circle stuff from last year, Voldermort was trying to be immortal with all that, right?"
"Yes, but how common is either?" Hermione answers. "What's the likelihood that this person would have access to either means to extend his life?"
"If he could kill Voldermort he could have done it, couldn't he?"
"In theory, yes, if he had the skill to do one, he could certainly have the skill to do the other. But Harry, think about the number of unlikely events that would have to be true for this. He would have had to somehow survived his expedition after everyone else died, found some means of immortality or something approaching it in Africa, a place he did not know and that had unfamiliar magic, he would have had to somehow have heard of Voldermort's return and then actually killed him. It's simply too many unlikely coincidences. And yes, before you ask, it is possible, but the odds are so astronomical that none of us can believe it."
"So if the story in the paper isn't true then what actually is going on?" I ask
"That's difficult to say. We have various ideas and theories, but it's difficult to point to one and say for sure that's what's really going on."
"It's easy to make theories that will fit only a few facts," Cho starts explaining. "It's difficult to narrow it to a single theory. The more facts you have, the more you can come to a solid conclusion. Unfortunately we have few actual facts, as a result we're left with many theories that all happen to fit those facts, none of which we can definitively say is the correct one,"
"So you have no idea," Harry sums up.
"Actually I said we have too many ideas."
"What are some of the ideas?" I ask, trying to head off a fight between Harry and Cho.
"There's broad agreement on Voldermort's death being false," Hermione explains. "The matter of his supposed killer is where the theories diverge. It's possible that Pennington's return to Britain is legitimate and Voldermort simply took advantage of it to fit his plans, or it's possible that the entire story of his return is fake; that Voldermort made it all up for some reason. It's impossible to say which. And then there's the matter of motive, which is possibly the largest unknown of all."
"Motive?"
"It means why someone does something," Parkinson answers, making it obvious she's talking down to me.
"I know what it means. Why's it so big a deal here though?"
"Why is it a big deal we know why the Dark Lord faked his own death? Gee, I don't know, maybe if we knew why we could guess what he'll do next, or figure out how the other pieces fit, dumbass."
"And then there is the hunt on for the Order," Fleur mentioned the latest piece of news we've all been sort of ignoring.
"You think that might have been Voldermort's goal?" Harry offers.
"Maybe. But that's not really my point. Goal or not, it's happening. Think of all the people that could be arrested."
"My family," I mutter. Mum, dad, the twins, they all could get nabbed and wind up in Azkaban. Yeah, my brothers are probably not as obvious, and far as I know all they're doing is collecting info, stuff they overhear, so that's not big, but Mum and Dad, they've been in the Order for ages. There's got to be loads of stuff that could get pinned on them.
"To say nothing of this place."
"Yeah, they come here and they can basically lock up half the teachers, the old man included," Parkinson agrees with Fleur.
"Is there anything we can do about it?" Harry looks at Hermione.
"Limited, I'm afraid. When it comes to people like Ron's family there's not a thing we can do; they're on their own. They read the paper, the same as we do, so I hope they're taking reasonable precautions. As for here, our options are poor as well. There are Death Eaters in these groups, yes, but there are also Ministry Aurors, and unless we're willing to fight them I don't know what we can do more than possibly stall them should they appear, and even that if it's too overt could be taken as a crime, assisting the Order and obstructing investigations and whatnot; we'd be in trouble then too."
"Going to be time to decide if you're going to grow a pair or not. I don't know, Potter, how much does the old man mean to you?" Parkinson taunts.
I hate to say it, but it's a good question. What if they do come to arrest Dumbledore, McGonagall and most of the other teachers, what then? Do we fight and become terrorists on the run or something? Or do we let the teachers all get arrested and what, Snape's the only one left, in charge by default? That doesn't sound good. But being a criminal sounds even worse. I'm not sure what we'll do. I hope it doesn't happen, that the Ministry doesn't come here, but I don't think my luck's good enough for that.
Hermione
I wrote the interim Minister of Magic and received a reply in the mail this morning. Rather than open it at breakfast, I've waited until after classes to read it. Of course, like every time I seem to deal with correspondence like this, Ginny has found me. She must watch me open my mail and if I put a piece away rather than reading it she stalks me until she finds out what it is. Unlike other times, however, Pansy is with me as well. Hardly a problem, this letter isn't secret.
"So, finally going to open it?" Ginny asks as she plops down on the couch next to me.
"How do you even know she had a letter to open still?" Pansy asks.
"I saw her put it away at breakfast."
"I thought as much," I comment, my suspicion confirmed.
"You watch Hermione open her mail?" Pansy gives Ginny a suspicious look.
"Sure," Ginny replies. "Not like it's the first time."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"All the Parkinson Manor stuff."
Pansy turns her gaze to me, and I answer before she can ask the obvious question. "There was a fair bit of correspondence with the interim Minister I went through to make the return of Parkinson Manor happen. And before you ask the next question, I kept it secret because it was a long shot, and I didn't want you to get your hopes up for something that wasn't likely to happen."
"Ah. All right then," Pansy accepts my answer.
"So what's this letter?" Ginny interrupts, probably worried Pansy and I were going to have a moment here.
I open it and start reading it aloud.
Dear Miss Granger,
I can't claim to be entirely surprised by your letter, given your past advocacy. I am, however, a bit disappointed that you seem so confused as to why I would approve the Death Eater Conditional Release Consulting Program. For the record, I do not like the program and personally do not approve of it, but as you well know, politics is often a business where one must do things they do not approve of. You are wrong, however to blame me. If you wish to place blame, you need only look to yourself.
In the matter of Parkinson Manor I told you in advance that the cost would be steep, and not known until later, and that you were virtually certain to regret going forward with that matter. You chose to ignore my warning and brush off my concerns seemingly without a single thought. Now you know the price for Parkinson Manor. I was forced to promise favors, very large ones to many people, and now those favors have been called in.
This program happened because of those favors. Without them it would never have happened. I feel it is a fundamentally flawed, dangerous idea, but I had no choice but to approve it. I'm sorry if you are unhappy, but I gave you fair warning. Now we will both have to live with the consequences of our past actions.
"Gee, bitter much?" Pansy mutters.
"Yeah, I think you made him mad," Ginny agrees.
"He's blaming me for this? Trying to make any Order members who get caught my fault? You've got to be kidding me," I start ranting.
"Well he kind of does have a point," Ginny cuts me off.
"I always wondered how you got Parkinson Manor back," Pansy piles on.
"When did you two start agreeing so much?" I look between Ginny and Pansy.
"When it started being fun," Ginny answers.
"You're the one that wanted us to get along, remember," Pansy agrees with her apparent partner in crime.
"I'm glad you two are so amused," I start, "But this is serious business. Your parents could both find themselves in Azkaban, Ginny, and almost every teacher here, short of Snape. Can you imagine what this place will be like if he's in charge and picks all new faculty? And apparently the interim minister won't do a thing about it."
"He wasn't a terrible head of my House,"
"Until you became a target and he did nothing," I point out.
"All right fine, that was bullshit. So maybe it could suck."
"Yeah, it's a bad deal, but it doesn't sound like there's anything we can do about it," Ginny interrupts.
"You know what my recommendation is," Pansy shrugs, rather dismissive.
"What's that? Your recommendation I mean."
"That Hermione should just take over the government."
"What? Are you serious? Hermione's not going to take over the government."
"We'll see. It might not be over this, but I think sooner or later she'll run out of patience with those idiots and do it. Just a question of what gets her off her ass."
"Hey," I interject. I am most certainly not sitting on my ass here.
"Why would she do that?" Ginny completely ignores me.
"What do you mean why? She's got a dark side. You goody-goody Gryffindors don't want to see it, but it's there. What, you thought I fell for some saint? No, she definitely has evil in her."
"Oh please." Ginny finally looks at me. "That girl is dreaming. Tell her, Hermione. Seriously, if she thinks you're evil this is going to be a short relationship."
"Ginny, no one is one dimensional, we all have many sides to our personalities. And yes, I have a dark side; of course I do, everyone does. I don't know that I'll take over the government like Pansy says, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't think I could do a better job of it than most of the people in power now."
"Yes, but everyone gets frustrated with things sometimes. That's not exactly evil, not like Parkinson there means."
"Ginny, you remember when I told you about the time Malfoy and his goons tried to kill Pansy and I? They had herded us into a dead end hallway. Pansy and I barricaded ourselves in a classroom. It was high up, there was no way out the window or anything. We'd barricaded the door with furniture and magic, but we knew it wouldn't hold; Malfoy was going to get through. This wasn't his usual pranks or bullying; he was serious, he meant to kill us. I knew we couldn't stop him, but I was going to make him earn it; I was going to use the killing curse. When someone is pushed far enough, you might be surprised at how they'll respond, and somehow afterwards your outlook just isn't quite the same."
"Wow Hermione, that got dark fast."
"I'm sorry Ginny, didn't mean to depress you."
"No, it's fine, it's just, I don't know, I don't really think of you like that, you know?"
"Hmm, you were right Hermione, she isn't ready," Pansy comments.
"Huh? Who isn't ready for what?" Ginny demands.
"At the DA last year, I was looking to teach people some more serious magic than the joke crap Potter was having everyone do. Hermione said it was a bad idea, most of those idiots couldn't handle it. And yeah, she's right, but I thought a few could. Thought Cho could, maybe you. But Hermione said if Cho wanted to learn stuff like the killing curse she could do it just fine on her own, and that you were too young. I wasn't sure, but I played nice, went along with what she said. Looks like Hermione was right after all though."
"Not knowing the killing curse isn't a bad thing. Besides, you make it sound like I'm some kid, just because I didn't want to fight like that."
"Told you," I comment with just a hint of smugness.
"Yeah, yeah," Pansy mutters. "Still say it was damned lucky no one got killed at the Ministry."
"Yes, it is. Most of the DA was just school children with no business in a serious fight or even a war. Very few people are cut out for that."
"Just sheep I guess. Almost everyone,"
"Yes, that's what will make my eventual conquest of Wizarding Britain so easy," I give Pansy a smirk, the sort I've come to so love seeing on her face.
Author's Notes:
Another chapter down. Thanks to everyone who reads and especially who takes the time to review.
To people who have doubts about the current situation with Voldermort and the new character who allegedly killed him, I'd just ask you to stick with me. I'm hopeful that you'll like how it actually is when everything is revealed at the end. Thanks for reading and sticking with this story, despite the extremely long time it's taken me to finish it.