"This was clearly the work of the Death Eaters," Minister Umbridge said. "I can state unequivocally that nothing is more important to this administration than the safety of our children... even children of a...lesser status."
"It's a load of bollocks," Tonks muttered to Moody.
"Could be true," Moody said quietly. They were working as security for the event, even though nobody really thought the Death eaters wanted Umbridge out of office. She was too useful for them.
"In fact," Minister Umbridge said, "I am proposing new legislation for the protection of the poor muggleborn children. After the unfortunate incident, seven muggleborn parents chose to withdraw their children. In each case, the children and their families were found murdered."
The reporters gasped, even though it shouldn't be news at all. The story about the muggleborn murders before school had begun had broken, and no one had seemed to care that much. It wasn't their children after all.
This, though... people didn't particularly care about the muggleborn children, but once the dementors had finished with them, it seemed likely that they'd have gone on to murder pureblood children. That was something that had everyone up in arms, and was threatening to overturn the government.
"The muggles would like to protect their children, but against Wizards they are helpless, and so I am sponsoring legislation to make it a law that muggleborn children be fostered by Wizarding families."
"And if their parents don't agree?" Rita Skeeter asked.
"It's for their own protection, and that of their children," Umbridge said sweetly. "How could anyone argue with that? Still, muggles can sometimes be stubborn, and so means will be taken to minimize problems."
"Raise them like Wizards, kill off their own culture," Moody muttered. "Time they're out of school they won't even remember what the muggle world's like."
"Dumbledore will stop it, won't he?"
"He's busy these days," Moody muttered. "I'm not sure what. He keeps it hush hush... but he seems to think its important."
"But this..."
"She might be right," Moody said. "They've been murdering them off, and it's possible that summer will end up being a blood bath. I don't have to like it."
"What about the Hero of Hogwarts?" the editor of the Quibbler asked.
Umbridge sniffed disdainfully. "She's a disturbed young girl with a history of violent behavior. The fact that it came in useful this once does not make her a hero."
The Quibbler had shown pictures of the fight over the last several days, each more dramatic than the last. Their readership had exploded since the Daily Prophet had censored all references to the event.
Enough children had written about it that people were intensely interested.
Rita Skeeter had looked like she was going to burst a blood vessel when she'd discovered that she wouldn't be allowed to report on the story. Tonks had seen her in the Ministry protesting loudly.
"I think you might need to go back to school," Moody said. "The kids there have been a target more than once, and the Ministry has ordered us to put more aurors on the case."
Tonks nodded.
She was a newly minted auror, one of a very small class, but her metamorphmagus abilities had put her in high demand.
"Why me, though?" she asked. "It's not like I can pretend to be one of the kids, and as an auror, I'm just another face in the crowd."
"You just graduated," Moody said. "Which means that you know most of the kids, including her."
"Taylor?" Tonks asked. "I wasn't ever close with her; she was in another house and a firsty when I was a seventh year. Most of what I knew about her was rumors and speculation, and that one time I saw her walking in from the forest with a broken arm after fighting a troll."
"That's more than most aurors know," Moody said. "Most of them tend to either underestimate her because she's a child, or they listen to the rumors and assume that she's some kind of a demon in kid's clothing. You should be able to be a little more objective."
"And you think that she'll trust me more because I was a student she might recognize?" Tonks asked. "She seemed pretty suspicious last year."
"I've heard that she's relaxed some over the summer," Moody said. "She hasn't killed anyone this school year, at least not as far as I've heard. She did try to brain a few dementors, so she might just be getting started. I'd like for you to find out if that is true and if there's anybody on staff who's working for the Death Eaters."
"I can do that," Tonks said.
They both stopped whispering and listened to Umbridge finishing her speech.
"If we all work together we can create a better world," Umbridge said. "One where our weakest and lowest members are just as protected as their betters."
She smiled genially, even though the response from the crowd was tepid.
"Where's she going to get Wizarding families willing to sponsor the muggleborn?" Moody asked. "Everybody knows they are being targeted, and most Wizards are terrified their family will be next. Hosting muggleborns would be putting a target on your back and on those of your children."
"She'll have to open orphanages," Tonks said. "And then there will be a lot of muggleborn dying due to mistakes..."
"And she'll claim she did everything she could to stop it, but that maybe it's for the best, since the Death Eaters won't be targeting the school anymore. There's people who will privately feel relieved."
"Are we sure she's not a Death Eater?" Tonks asked.
Moody shook his head. "Even the Death Eaters don't like her, not really. But with the Wizangamot deadlocked, she was the only candidate everyone agreed that the other side would hate."
Tonks looked over the crowd.
"It doesn't look like anybody's convinced."
"The Prophet will spin it the way the Ministry wants, and that's all that's important. Most wizards believe whatever claptrap the paper gives them, and that's enough."
Tonks shook her head.
"I'll go, but I'm not sure how much good I'll do."
"Watch and learn," Moody said. "But don't do anything in the castle that you don't want the girl knowing about... I'm not sure she's a seer, but she seems to know everything close up to her. It makes her a lot more dangerous than she ought to be."
"Also she's good at stabbing and hitting things," Tonks said. She stared speculatively at the dispersing crowd. "I wonder if we should be teaching our aurors that."
"You get that close to something that's trying to kill you, you've already lost," Moody said. "Muggle soldiers get taught to fight close up, but not that much, because they do most of their fightin with their firelegs. The girl fights like that because she doesn't have anything better."
Tonks frowned but didn't argue with him.
After all, she'd find out for herself soon enough.
"Why are we doing this again?" Ron Weasley wheezed as they ran around the castle.
"Taylor says that learning how to run away is the first step in learning to beat the Death eaters," Harry said. He was much less winded than Ron, and much more cheerful, which Ron resented.
"It's always Taylor this, Taylor that," Ron grumbled. "If it wasn't for Quidditch, you wouldn't talk about anything else."
"She says we can use Quidditch to learn how to kill people on brooms," Harry said.
Ron stopped running.
"And that doesn't make you think she's barmy? She's actually killed people... a lot of people."
"She did it to save my life," Harry said, stopping beside him. "They were coming to kill me, and she could have just stepped aside and let it happen."
"You think she hasn't killed people before?" Ron asked. "You don't get that good with a knife without stabbing a few people."
"She said she came from a bad neighborhood," Harry said. A disturbed look came over his face.
Ron stared at his friend. He'd been keeping secrets again; he knew it.
"What?"
"She showed me some... pictures... of what it was like once," Harry said. "It was bad...really bad."
"It'd have to be to make somebody be like her," Ron said. "Even if she did save your life, I'm not sure she's all there, you know. Have you seen how she moves? It's like she's a spider wearing a human's skin."
He shuddered. He hated spiders.
He didn't hate Hebert, although he was jealous of the times that Harry up and vanished. He knew he was spending time with her; Harry hadn't said anything, but he often came back limping and looking as though he'd been beaten with sticks.
Ron remembered what that had been like when he'd been part of the dueling club. It hadn't been fun, but he had to admit that he'd gotten a lot better at fighting. After his performance in the dueling trials last year, most of the Slytherins had stopped hasseling him; all of the except Malfoy.
He'd been walking taller too, which he had to thank Hebert for.
Still, as a teacher she made Snape look lazy. She was ruthless and treated every session as though she was teaching them how to not die.
Given the events at the end of the year maybe she'd been right.
Still, he had no idea why he'd been left behind.
"I didn't show how I felt about it because I don't think she'd like pity," Harry said. "I don't think any of us knew what to say."
"Any of you?" Ron asked.
"Me and Hermione and Neville..." Harry trailed off.
"You've all been hanging out without me?" Ron asked, offended. "With my brothers?"
"No," Harry said. "It's not like that."
"Did I do something wrong?" Ron asked. "I didn't think she cared that I thought she was crazy. She kept you alive, and that was enough for me to consider her kind of like a friend."
"It's your Dad," Harry admired.
"What?"
"She's pretty sure that the Ministry set the dementors on the mughgleborn. Your Dad is pretty high up in the Ministry..."
"There's no way my Dad would do anything like that!" Ron protested. "You've got to tell her!"
"I've tried," Harry said. "But she's paranoid about people spying for Umbridge. She thinks that Umbridge wants us all dead so the Death Eaters will leave Hogwarts alone."
"That's even more barmy than usual for her. Umbridge is the Minister for Magic! They don't do things like that!"
"I'm not so sure," Harry admitted. "I've see some things, and you know how much she knows."
"She's not Merlin," Ron said. "And she doesn't know everything. She can make mistakes just like anybody else."
"I know," Harry said. "But talking to her... it's like she's not even a kid really. You remember the aurors that were at school last year?"
Ron nodded.
"Remember the old one that we talked to a few times? He'd fought Grindlewald and then the Death Eaters in the last war. There was a look in his eye that she's got."
"She's twelve," Ron said skeptically. "What, you think she was out fighting monsters when she was eight? She didn't have any magic!"
"I know," Harry said. "But I just have this feeling."
"Well, she's mental all right," Ron admitted, "But that doesn't mean she knows any more about the Wizarding world than you do."
Harry shrugged.
"As long as she shows me how to kill Death Eaters, I don't care what she does."
Ron gaped at his friend. It shocked him hearing Harry say it out loud, even though he'd seen signs that he'd been obsessing ever since the incident on the train. It had bothered him that he'd been sent away, but Neville and Hermione had been allowed to go with Harry.
"You're twelve," Ron said finally. "You shouldn't be thinking about killing anybody."
"You weren't there!" Harry said. His hands were trembling. "They were coming, six of them, and they were going to murder me, and there wasn't anybody who was able or willing to stop them except her. I had to sit and hide and do nothing other than listen to their screams as she did Merlin knows what to them, and if she'd screwed up just once, they'd have been coming to that cave to finish us off."
Harry hadn't talked about this before; he hadn't wanted to even when Ron had asked.
"I thought I was going to die!" Harry said. "Me and Hermione and Neville. You wonder why she still hangs out with us? It's because every one of us owes her."
"The whole Muggleborn class owes her," Ron muttered.
Harry stared at him then paled.
"The whole school does," he said after a moment. "You think they'd have stopped when they killed the muggleborn? Some of them were already running for their lives. The Dementors would have followed them, and then they'd have been in the middle of the rest of us."
"There were only three of them," Ron said. "The professors would have stopped them."
"And when every student in the entire school was terrified, you think that all that emotion wouldn't have pulled the rest of them in?"
"Rowle stopped them, not Hebert," Ron said. "He'd have gotten there after a few kids were killed and he'd have stopped it."
"And that's why we're in trouble," Harry said.
"What?" Ron asked, bewildered.
"As long as it's only a few kids and not me, it's all right," Harry said. "That's what the adults are thinking too...hide in the middle of the crowd and hope the Death Eaters take someone else. Well, I don't have that choice. I killed their leader when I was a baby, and they want me dead for that. I've got to fight, and I can't hide, not for long."
"They haven't really tried to kill you, except that once," Ron pointed out weakly.
"And how many times did the aurors or Taylor stop it that they didn't even bother telling us about?" Harry asked. "I lay in bed at night wondering about that."
Harry had been having nightmares since coming back to school. Ron had suspected it was about the train, especially when he'd heard some of the things Harry muttered in his sleep. He'd respected his friend's need for privacy. Maybe he'd been wrong.
"You want to talk about it, you can come to me," Ron said. "You don't have to go to her just because she was there or whatever."
"Oh, I don't go to her," Harry said. He laughed bitterly. "Do you know what it's like trying to live up to her expectations?"
"I was in the group last year," Ron said quietly. "She made my mum look like the sweetest, kindest lady ever."
"Your mum IS the sweetest lady ever,' Harry said.
"She's nice to YOU," Ron said sourly. "But get her alone with us and it's all barking orders and telling us what to do. You only think she's nice because anybody would look nice compared to your aunt."
"She's nice compared to my Aunt Marge," Harry said. "I think the Dark Lord is probably nicer than her."
"None of us want to look weak in from of Taylor. Me, Hermione, Neville...nobody," Harry said. "So we put on a stiff upper lip and pretend that we're tough like she is."
"You're kids, mate," Ron said. "She's some kind of she-ogre. Why would you want to be like her?"
"Because she always survives," Harry said. "No matter what happens. I want to learn to be able to do that too."
"Anybody would be upset if they went through what you did. That doesn't mean that you can't talk to people about it. I'm not going to judge you , even if you want to get all weepy and start crying."
Harry stared at him suspiciously. "That sounds a little judgmental."
Ron shrugged. "I might make fun of you a little bit if you start acting like a ponce, but I won't mean it."
"That makes it a lot better," Harry said.
"Hey, at least I'm not some demon in a little girl suit that has you planning out ways to murder people."
"Important life lessons," Harry said. "Knowing how to murder people doesn't mean you're going to do it, just that you could if you wanted to."
"I could bash you in the head with this rock," Ron said. "Would that make me any better?"
"If I was a polyjuiced Death Eater, then yeah," Harry said. "Knowing how to use your surroundings will help keep you alive."
"You got that from her," Ron said sourly.
"Maybe," Harry said. "But it's good advice. I don't agree with her about everything; I think she's a little too fast to hurt people, and I think she enjoys it more than I'm comfortable with. But I believe that she means well, and that she wants to protect me and everybody at this school. If she didn't, she wouldn't have thrown herself in front of three dementors and risked her soul."
"I just worry that she's going to have you getting into fights you aren't ready for," Ron said.
"That's why running away is the first lesson," Harry said. "And it looks like we've rested enough. Let's get back to it."
Ron groaned, but he followed Harry as they began their course around the castle.
In the distance they could see the dementors surrounding the castle, like an unholy cloud.