Chapter 8
The Worst Birthday of My Life
"We cannot allow You Know Who to prevent Hogwarts from opening this term," a dour Minerva McGonagall emphasized to Minister of Magic Scrimgeour, "The Board of Governors agrees, and we are placing numerous protections on the castle and grounds. While many of the wards created by Professor Dumbledore no longer exist, due to his unfortunate passing, we are quite confident that the new measures, many of which Dumbledore designed, will keep the castle as safe as anywhere else in Britain."
The Minister, flanked by four of his aides, sat at one end of a huge brightly polished conference table, while Headmistress McGonagall and several supportive members of the Board of Governors occupied the other. The meeting, which by chance had been scheduled for the day of Harry Potter's birthday, allowed the Ministry to keep tabs on the transition of Hogwarts from the leadership of Dumbledore to the new headmistress. It also allowed the Minister to evaluate McGonagall, whom he knew only in passing.
McGonagall did not like to chit chat, he discovered, and never once did she smile, not even upon shaking the Minister's hand. Her reputation for toughness preceded her, and he could certainly understand why. But he had earned the same reputation.
"Daily we receive owls from nervous parents, Headmistress, expressing deep concern for the safety of the castle and their children. While we respect the autonomy of Hogwarts, the Ministry also bears the obligation to ensure the public of its safety. Thus, our request to review the safety measures is quite reasonable. In the past, we trusted in the power and knowledge of Professor Dumbledore, but with his passing, the Ministry must assume a more active role."
McGonagall read between the lines of the Minister's seemingly reasonable words. The Ministry would move to assert greater authority over Hogwarts, a desire doggedly denied by Dumbledore over the years, with brief interruptions. The image of Dolores Umbridge appeared in the headmistress' mind, which provided more than enough incentive for her to resist. Yet she knew that she must act responsibly and with great skill. This no doubt would be the first of many skirmishes to come.
"Certainly we understand, Minister, and we will be more than willing to provide the Ministry with sufficient information. Of course, this serves our interests as well, as we need the support of the Ministry to encourage students to return. We expect a drop in enrolment, but we believe that with your cooperation, most students can be convinced to return."
The two leaders eyed each other with poorly-concealed concern, but neither pushed the matter for the moment. McGonagall and the Governors briefed the Minister and his aides on the measures they had taken. As the meeting neared its conclusion, Scrimgeour could not resist the urge to inquire about Hogwarts' most famous student.
"I've been informed that today is the birthday of Harry Potter. Have you heard from him, Headmistress? He is well, I trust."
McGonagall anticipated this thinly disguised probe for information, and had rehearsed her response.
"Mr. Potter is not among my intimate circle of friends, Minister. I trust that he is well, but I have not seen him since the end of term."
"Of course," Scrimgeour replied innocently, "Well, give him my kindest regards if you see him."
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Harry's trip back to southern Essex provided him with additional sources of irritation. As if crowded cars and maintenance delays did not irk him enough, he felt a slight nausea in his gut. Must be a reaction to his quickly-consumed pastrami sandwich at Tony's, he assumed, yet the nausea felt different from other instances in his life. Physically he did not feel ill, but he did not feel right either.
His mind wandered during the hours on the train, reflecting on obscure moments of his life. He remembered being picked on by Dudley and his gang at their primary school, and how powerless he felt. I wouldn't be so powerless now, he sneered. He thought of a few good hexes that would have put an end to that, and involuntarily his lips curled into a smile at the vision of his cousin doubled over in pain. The git would have deserved it!
When he realized how violent his thoughts had turned, Harry tried to refocus his mind on more appropriate topics. Inevitably, he mused on the women in his life, Ginny, Hermione and most recently Melissa Montgomery. Probably he would never again see the beautiful muggle, yet his brief encounter with her shook up his world more than he realized. Despite his break up with Ginny after Dumbledore's funeral, deep down Harry figured that he would return to her one day, if he survived. Now he did not know what to think. He never would have believed that he could fall for another girl so quickly, but now he could not deny it.
And what about Hermione? Having seen her again after a few weeks, he realized how close he felt to her. True, they had their differences during sixth year, but Dumbledore's death shocked all of them, and Ron, Hermione and he came together once again. During his weeks on the run, Harry found himself thinking more about Hermione than Ginny, realizing that he needed her advice and assistance. He had rarely felt happier than when he whipped off his invisibility cloak at her parents' dental office.
As the train finally approached his destination, Harry simply wanted to escape from all of these people and return to the calm of his room where he could open Dumbledore's envelope with Hermione.
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Evan Harrington spied Hermione from outside the glass door of her backyard. She moved into and out of his view, sometimes stepping into the kitchen, other times up the stairs, but she did not leave the house all that day. A book occupied her for a couple of hours, allowing Evan to observe her curled up on the sofa in the sitting room. The auror's stomach growled at times as he skipped lunch and dinner, and he chastised himself of the lack of foresight in not bringing some snacks. Evan hoped that something would happen before long. An auror's life consisted of hours of boredom punctuated by moments of terror.
Her parents arrived home from work, and he watched the three Grangers enjoy their evening meal together, conversing animatedly, laughing often. Evan could not help but think back to his childhood when he enjoyed such meals with his family. Never having married, and unlikely to at this point in his life, he felt a pang of regret that he missed out on so much of what makes life worth living. All so that he could crouch under an invisibility cloak on a hot day, observing a young witch who would hopefully lead him to a young wizard whom Evan would attempt to arrest for no discernable reason. An auror should never ask why, he learned during auror training, but he could not help himself.
Hermione would be going out in the evening, he determined, by her change of clothes prior to supper. Occasionally she passed close to the window, and he had a good look at her. Quite a pretty girl, in his opinion, not a magazine model perhaps, but attractive in her blue jeans and sleeveless white blouse. At seventeen years of age, she was developing nicely and certainly was now a young woman rather than a girl. Once she fixed her bushy hair, it lay down to her shoulders quite nicely and tended to bounce harmoniously with her head. Probably would named be Head Girl, too. This girl had everything going for her.
Evan observed Hermione speaking casually with her mother, a taller woman with darker, straighter hair. The girl apparently took after her father. Shortly thereafter, at about 7:30 in the evening, Hermione emerged from the stairwell with her purse over her shoulder and a garment of some kind over her left arm. A moment later Evan uttered an oath as he recognized the silky sheen of an invisibility cloak.
Quickly but carefully he stood and moved towards the side door where he figured she would leave. Evan needed to position himself into a clear view of her to place the spell that would allow him to track her even under the cloak. The spell could not be cast through the glass, and he needed to act quickly to be able to perform it as soon as she put on the cloak.
The auror knew that the success of the day's endeavor depended on his ability to cast the spell successfully without the girl seeing him. Hopefully she would wait to put on the cloak until she stepped into the side yard because the spell had to hit the cloak while on her, meaning that he needed to cast the spell as soon as she put it on; otherwise, he would not know where she stood. He grasped his wand tightly, and all of the senses of his body tensed.
Hermione in fact opened the side door, looking behind her to be sure her parents did not see her. Most probably, she told her parents that she was going to visit some friends and did not want them to see the shimmering cloak. Closing the door, she readjusted the purse on her shoulder, but then paused. Evan knew that she sensed him, as he crouched only twenty feet away, and he froze in place. She looked around suspiciously but saw nothing. Finally she turned away from Evan, opening up the cloak and in one graceful motion swished it around her shoulders and over her head.
Instantly, Evan lifted his cloak just enough to allow his wand to emerge into the open while facing Hermione's back. Aparentum ropus, he thought silently, and a thin, barely visible white line left his wand and lightly struck the invisibility cloak. Hermione felt nothing and had no idea that the spell allowed the caster to see a shadowy image of the person under the cloak, like a faded ghost. Evan retracted his wand immediately, and felt sure that Hermione knew nothing. The young witch arranged the cloak over her and strode forward towards the street, where she assumed that her Ministry escort would be watching for her. Her real escort, however, followed her from behind, allowing Hermione to walk ahead one hundred feet or so. He could see her well enough to track her at that distance, and did not wish for her to sense him again.
In the past, Hermione had worn the invisibility cloak on a few occasions at Hogwarts, but she discovered the difficulty in maneuvering in an urban area while invisible. At all times, she needed to have an "out" where she could step to avoid other pedestrians without having to jump into the street. For an experienced auror such as Evan Harrington, this became second nature, but Hermione found the process nerve-wracking.
Fifteen minutes later, he rushed to close the gap between them as Hermione approached a small hotel, not unlike the hotel in Liverpool, Evan noted. This time he would not have the luxury to inspect the building before acting. He planned to strike immediately, when the two friends greeted each other and would have their guards down.
The hotel consisted of one long two-story building, with rooms on both sides, some facing the avenue, the others facing the opposite direction. Potter's room apparently faced away from the street, as Hermione walked around the end of the building, stepping aside from time to time to allow unsuspecting muggles to pass by.
Hermione glanced from side to side, trying to determine if anyone had followed her, but she did not appear to sense Evan at all. His nerves began to flare.
Hermione walked past five rooms, stopping at the sixth. Through the cloak, she softly rapped on the door, waiting for Harry to answer. Evan rushed into the parking lot to find a spot on the other side where he would have a clean shot at Harry when he opened the door. Two quick stupefies should do the job, and he would clean up later. Quickly checking, he spotted no muggles anywhere. Perfect.
Except that nobody opened the door. Hermione knocked again, slightly harder, but again no answer. Apparently Potter had not yet returned. Evan muttered under his breath. Now what should he do?
The shadowy figure under the invisibility cloak looked left and right and then briefly opened her purse, removing what appeared to be a key. Potter must have asked for two keys, the auror figured, giving the extra to his friend. Should he stun her as soon as she opened the door? Then he could rapidly move her inside and wait for Potter there. However, he knew that such an action would upset Potter tremendously, and he desired to avoid that if possible. By the time he finished his consideration of the situation, Hermione had already stepped through the door, closing it behind her. Evan decided to move to the other side of the parking lot, next to the back wall, to await the arrival of Harry Potter.
The auror had just situated himself when he noted a young man walking quickly around the other end of the building, as if late for an appointment. A hat pulled over his forehead prevented the auror from seeing the scar, but by now Evan recognized the gait of Harry Potter perfectly.
Harry knew that he was arriving much later than expected, due to the unforeseen delays on the train, and that Hermione probably had already arrived. His abnormal irritation continued during the fifteen minute walk from the depot, but the thought of greeting his friend again and finally reading Dumbledore's letter buoyed his spirits. He strode determinedly towards his room when from the corner of his eye he noted movement on the other side of the parking lot.
He turned to look and saw a shadowy figure crouched down by the back wall, just to the right of a parked car. Never had Harry seen such a sight. At first he believed it to be a ghost, but it seemed more substantial than that. The figure froze at Harry's gaze. He stared even harder, and recognized the outline of a man under something. Fire ignited in his stomach.
Evan realized to his shock that Harry must have sensed him, even though he thought that he positioned himself far enough away to prevent such an occurrence. He immediately tensed. Nothing with Potter ever seemed to go as planned, and Evan's mind worked furiously, attempting to develop a new plan.
The auror did not realize, however, that Harry could see him. As Harry approached, he slowly understood what must be happening. The man, whom he could not see clearly, had to be under an invisibility cloak, and for some unknown reason, Harry could see him, or at least the shadowy outline. With the realization came uncontrolled fury.
Harry yanked his wand from his pocket and yelled, "STUPEFY." The shocked auror automatically thought protego and dove behind the front end of the car, just avoiding the spell. A cloud of dust arose from the spot when the spell hit the thin slice of dirt between the asphalt and the wall.
"WHO ARE YOU?" Harry yelled, beside himself with rage, not caring if one hundred muggles heard him, "TAKE THAT CLOAK OFF! STUPEFY." Evan's shock remained, but he instinctively maintained his crouch and shuffled further away from Harry, still blocked by the car.
Barely maintaining control of his emotions, Harry charged around the car while yelling, "YOU'VE GONE TOO FAR. THIS IS GOING TO STOP!"
Hermione heard Harry's voice and rushed out of the room, wand outstretched. Harry did not notice her, and she remained mute for a moment, thinking her friend had lost his mind. Why was he yelling? And at whom?
Evan considered apparating away, but he did not like backing down from a fight, and one way or the other, he intended to end the chase today. If he fled, Potter no doubt would hit the road again, and Evan would return to square one. He scooted further along the side of the car, but he could hear Harry's footsteps charging around the back of the car. Once again he placed a shield charm over himself.
The shield blocked another stunner cast by Harry, but the force of the spell knocked him off his feet. Rarely had Evan felt a spell of such power, but he had no time to dwell on the fact. He rolled to his left, away from the car, confused as to how the boy could see him. The confusion caused his feet to protrude for a moment from under the cloak so that Hermione could see them. She rushed towards the two combatants.
Harry threw another spell, which Evan avoided. Finally on his feet, he turned to return fire on Harry, casting a silent petrificus totalus in an attempt to freeze Harry so that Evan could talk to him. Instinctively sensing the spell, Harry flicked his wand to the thought of protego, and the shield blocked the spell easily.
Never had Harry cast an unspoken spell so easily, but he took no time to congratulate himself. The auror jumped over the hood of another car, avoiding the enraged young wizard's next spell, and crouched on the other side.
"WAIT HARRY!" he finally yelled, "LET'S TALK. ALL I WANTED TO DO WAS TALK." Harry recognized the voice of Evan Harrington.
"People who want to talk don't hide under invisibility cloaks," Harry growled, his wand pointed at the car. He considered blasting it aside with a reducto spell.
Two muggles opened the doors to their rooms to view the ruckus, and Hermione immediately understood the danger of allowing so many muggles to observe the spell casting. She quickly cast confundus charms to cause the two onlookers to turn serenely back to their rooms, no longer noticing the activities in the parking lot.
"I waited under the cloak because I didn't think you'd be too happy to see me. But you attacked me. I didn't attack you," Evan countered, trying to maintain his calm. "Let's go in your room and discuss this. I want to hear you out."
"You have a job and you have a wand," Harry retorted with a sneer, "You're just going to wait for your chance to stun me. Well, now is your chance. Come out and duel like a man!" His green eyes blazed and his arm twitched with excitement, and he desired nothing more than to have it out with the auror. The fact that Evan Harrington possessed years of auror training and experience did not bother Harry a bit.
"Be careful, Harry!" Hermione yelled, recognizing the danger that her friend did not, "Get behind a car. Take cover."
But Harry would not listen to such sound advice, remaining unprotected in the open parking lot, just as he observed Dumbledore act when dueling Voldemort at the Ministry atrium. He barely heard Hermione's words, his anger preventing rational thought.
"Get out from behind that car or I'm going to blast it out of here," he threatened coldly, and Evan knew that he meant it.
"Wait! Listen to me," the auror demanded, "I don't want to fight. Look, if I throw my wand out will you talk to me?" Evan shook his head as he realized what he had just offered.
The offer surprised Harry just as much and shook him out of his angry trance. Would an auror actually do that? Abandon his wand?
"Throw it out and then stand up slowly. No cloak. Come here, Hermione."
The witch approached Harry with her wand stretched towards the car behind which Evan hid. The auror still wondered why he made the offer, but somehow he knew these two teenagers would not harm him if he no longer presented a threat. And he felt determined to learn Potter's story.
"OK, here it comes." Evan flipped the wand over the car, and it bounced a few feet to Harry's left.
Hermione immediately muttered, "Accio wand," and Evan's wand flew into her hand. Harry nodded his appreciation but did not take his eyes off the car. Evan grabbed the cloak, which had already fallen off of him and held it in the air. Slowly he stood, his body gradually emerging from behind the car. Both Harry and Hermione trained their wands at him. Evan held his arms outstretched, showing that he had nothing in his hands but the cloak.
Nobody made a sound, and the man stepped carefully around the car and into the open. Harry tilted his head towards his room, and Evan quickened his pace. Harry and Hermione followed behind.
She noticed another muggle who apparently had been watching, and she quickly pointed her wand at him to the word, "Obliviate." The muggle turned away not remembering why he had come around to this side of the hotel.
The two wizards and witch entered Harry's room, and he closed the door behind him. Evan flipped the invisibility cloak onto the bed and turned around to face his captors.
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Also on Harry's birthday, Lord Voldemort side-along apparated Peter Pettigrew to a rocky ledge one hundred feet above the crashing waves of the sea. Clouds hung low over the rugged coastline, merging with the grey water such that Peter could not determine where the ocean stopped and the clouds began. His master provided him with no explanation as to why they came to this remote, dangerous place.
Instead, Voldemort withdrew his wand and calmly tapped the jagged rock wall in an intricate pattern, much as Hagrid did when he opened the wall to Diagon Alley for Harry years earlier. Similarly, the apparently solid rock suddenly opened, revealing a narrow alternate entrance to the cave that Dumbledore and Harry visited little over a month before. Peter helped his master shuffle inside, after which the rock reappeared, cloaking them in pitch darkness.
"Lumos," Voldemort muttered, pointing the light from his wand into the water before him. After a few moments he found a specific spot. "Wormtail, throw some gravel here."
Shivering from the damp cold and the eeriness of the dark cave, Peter lit his own wand and dug his silver hand into the coarse sand along the edge of the perfectly still body of water. He then underhanded the gravel along the portion of water illuminated by Voldemort's wand. As soon as it made contact with the water, a solid wooden walkway appeared out of nowhere, leading into the center of the lake.
"Lead me." Peter helped Voldemort step up to the pier, and supported his elbow as they slowly walked the hundred yards to the small island that Harry knew so well. From the light of the two wands, Peter caught glimpses of objects in the water, and though he refused to look into the water more closely, he had a good idea what those objects might be. He recalled his master's former fascination with inferi.
Upon reaching the island, Peter again assisted the frail Voldemort onto the uneven rocks. Several yards to their right and slightly above them stood the vessel from which Dumbledore drank the green potion only weeks before.
"Wormtail, go there. You must drink the potion, all of it. It is the only way to gain access to the item which the potion hides and which I must reacquire. An ingenious spell of my own invention, but even I cannot undo it. You must drink all of it, though you will not want to. Rest assured that I will reward you for your loyalty." Voldemort's voice almost contained an ounce of pity. He waved his wand briefly and conjured a silver mug, which he gave to Pettigrew.
Peter shook with fear, for he understood all too well what his master meant by the words, "You will not want to." A most unpleasant experience awaited him, yet he had no means by which to avoid the task, and no death eater would ever express unwillingness to serve the dark lord. Peter climbed up towards the vessel.
"It's empty, Master," he called back to him, the slightly raised voice echoing in the chamber. His voice could not hide his relief.
"What?" cried Voldemort, clearly surprised. Despite his physical disability, he clambered up the rocks until Peter stepped down to grab his arm. Voldemort inspected the empty container for himself. No potion. No horcrux.
"Dumbledore!" he hissed with more hatred than he had ever felt in a life filled with it. Even in death, the old fool continued to haunt him. After a few moments of thought, Voldemort understood what must have happened. How Dumbledore found the cave, he could not be sure, but his death eaters who witnessed Dumbledore's death at the hand of Snape reported that the old man seemed in great pain, sickly, and slightly confused. Dumbledore drank the potion and took the horcrux, Slytherin's locket. But how could he have escaped the cave and the inferi, given the effects of the potion? Even Dumbledore would have suffered them.
He had help. Potter. The boy managed to help Dumbledore out. Which led to one inescapable conclusion. Potter had the horcrux.
What about the others?