Chapter 25
You Two Are Evil
"So that's what happened. I've ruined everything!"
A deeply depressed Cho Chang hung her head in shame after explaining to her former schoolmates the events which unexpectedly resulted in her presence in the Gryffindor common room. The Order decided that she could stay at Hogwarts at least for a day or two until more permanent arrangements could be settled. Instead of shutting her up in a room alone, they saw no reason why she could not join Harry and the others, where at least she would have some company. Of course the members of the Order would not be aware of the interpersonal complexities this would create.
Harry listened silently, but Cho could not help but sense how perturbed he felt at her presence. In fact, Harry could think of few people that would perturb him more in the same circumstances. Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson perhaps. Though he did not dislike Cho, she represented a part of his past that he preferred to forget.
Hermione's irritation doubled Harry's. Cho and Hermione intensely disliked each other, and neither of them would have cared if they never saw the other for one hundred years. Never friends, they became enemies when Cho's friend, Marietta Edgecomb, betrayed Dumbledore's Army in Hermione's fifth year at Hogwarts. Cho never forgave Hermione for the unduly punitive hex (in her opinion) that marred Marietta's face with severe acne, which even now, nearly two years later, still left the skin on her face rough.
Ginny and Ron did not know Cho well, though they certainly had heard enough and participated in Dumbledore's Army with her. Ron considered her pretty enough, but too petite and fragile for his more robust tastes. Ginny knew enough of Cho's history with Harry to dislike her on that basis alone. Cho never felt so awkward in her life. Always she had been a popular girl, well-liked and admired. Here she felt persona non grata.
"Well, what's done is done," Harry opined, not wanting to comfort her but not wanting to rub it in either. "It may be a little uncomfortable here for you, but just make the best of it."
Cho nodded and added, "I don't have any of my things. Nothing. Only what's in my purse. The Order can't go to my house to collect them because the house is being watched."
"You can borrow some of our clothes," Ginny offered grudgingly, "though they may not fit you. You can always transfigure them." Cho smiled at the first demonstration of kindness.
Harry called for Dobby, both to inform him that they were ready for dinner and to ask that an extra bed be prepared in the girl's room.
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Several ancient books lay open on a large table, their tiny antiquated handwriting difficult to decipher. Nevertheless, Lord Voldemort found the information he required after several hours of searching, and now he poured over his own notes of findings he discovered decades ago from his many magical experiments. His notes contained information not contained in any book, even those containing the darkest of dark magic. Gradually he determined how to overcome the wards at Hogwarts.
In the early evening, Peter Pettigrew edged quietly into the room, fearful that the dark lord would not appreciate the interruption. Nevertheless, this news could not be kept from him. Voldemort continued to be absorbed in his studies.
"Master," Peter spoke quietly, "I have important news." He hoped that this would peak the dark lord's interest and prevent a tongue-lashing. It worked. Voldemort looked up, mildly irritated, but indicated that Peter should continue.
"Harry Potter has been seen at Knockturn Alley today. He purchased a large quantity of gillyweed at Jamison & Simmons. Apparently he made no attempt to disguise himself."
Rarely had Peter seen the dark lord shocked, but he knew from the way in which Voldemort jerked his head away from his notes that the news completely took him by surprise. Peter briefly described the story that filtered its way though the back streets of Knockturn Alley. Apparently, in addition to making no effort to disguise himself, the boy even announced his presence.
"Leave me," Voldemort ordered sharply, "I must think." Peter silently bowed and backed away.
Gillyweed. It can mean only one thing. He knows of the cup at the bottom of the lake. But he does not know its exact location. I must arrive there first. If he knows of the cup, does he know of the trophy? How could he have discovered them?
Voldemort fumed alone for an hour, late at night. Harry Potter had to die, he decided, and the sooner the better. Tomorrow he would breach Hogwarts' wards and rescue Hufflepuff's cup. After that, he would deal with Harry Potter once and for all.
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"We're not making any progress!" complained Evan Harrington's "partner," Veronica Singh, "This shouldn't be so hard." She expressed her frustration by pulling on her long, black hair just enough to cause a hint of pain.
"William Oglesby is a bright man, very knowledgeable," Evan countered calmly, "Clearly he used the Fidelius Charm, so we can't obtain the location merely by asking Prophet employees. Most of the employees are staying at the new site, wherever it is, so it must be a large building. Probably an old castle or mansion of some sort. Tracking the few reporters who dare come to the Ministry is impossible because they apparate to three or four locations before making their way back to their temporary headquarters." Evan's calm demeanor only served to irritate Veronica further, but he concluded, "The owls have been dispersed throughout the country. They've done an excellent job of covering their tracks."
Evan's lack of urgency unsettled Veronica, not as secure in her position as an auror. With a resume full of successes, a failure or two would not derail Evan's career, but Veronica's career held few outstanding moments (and a few serious setbacks), and succeeding at this mission would enhance her future tremendously.
She would have been truly upset if she knew that Evan already had determined the location of the Daily Prophet's temporary headquarters. He managed to follow a Prophet employee to the Ministry apparation site. He noted the exact time of his apparation and then checked for other apparations around the country at that time. The reported did in fact apparate three times, but with a bit of elbow grease, Evan was able to piece together the puzzle. He noted four possibilities, checked each one of them, and on the third try, after a little footwork, he found the large manor where Oglesby and company currently resided. A bit of luck perhaps, but not especially difficult.
Of course he told Veronica that each lead he followed resulted in a dead end. Having dealt with her for a day or two now, Evan soon determined that Veronica could not track a mountain troll in a zoo enclosure. He figured that the newspaper would change locations soon, at which time he would "discover" the previous site, showing that they were making progress.
What Singh lacked in talent she compensated in hard work, and she kept Evan busy all day. Unable to spare time to travel to Hogwarts without raising too many questions, he spoke briefly with Harry by means of their mirrors, agreeing that he would meet with Harry and friends the next morning.
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The arrival of Cho Chang to the Gryffindor common room created an uncomfortable evening for all five occupants. The four friends could not discuss anything about horcruxes or their activities on Knockturn Alley, and they had little inclination to make small talk with her. Cho decided that she had less history with Ginny than any of the others, so much to the red head witch's displeasure, they conversed much of the evening. Hermione and Cho barely exchanged a word. Throughout the evening, Cho threw confused glances at Harry, as if trying to solve a difficult equation. Eventually, the two wizards decided to retire to their room once ten o'clock arrived, so the witches decided to turn in as well.
They found a t-shirt and baggy grey shorts for Cho to use as pajamas, which she altered slightly with her wand, and soon the three witches slipped into their beds.
"I'm sorry about all of this," Cho apologized again, "I know you're probably not happy that I'm here. It shouldn't be for more than a day or two."
"Don't worry about it," Hermione answered cooly but without anger, "We'll all survive."
The three girls accommodated themselves for a few moments, and Hermione and Ginny displayed no desire to commence a lengthy bedtime conversation with the intruder. Cho, however, had to ask.
"What's happened to Harry? He's really different. I know I haven't spent much time with him lately, but he's weird now. And what about those eyes? They're incredibly green now; even more than before. One time, I swear that I saw them glow for a few seconds. Maybe I'm just seeing things."
Ginny grudgingly turned towards Cho and mumbled, "You saw it all right. It happens to him now and again, but we can't explain why."
"So they really do glow?" Cho gasped, "That's scary!"
"There's something you should know about that, Cho," Hermione mentioned quietly. She paused and then reconsidered, "Well, maybe it's better not to tell you."
"Tell me what?" Cho responded anxiously, "You can't not tell me now. What is it?"
Hermione bit her bottom lip, apparently deep in thought as to whether she should continue or not.
"OK, I suppose you should know," she finally decided, "It's about Harry's eyes. When they glow like that, he sees things differently. He . . . can see through things."
"What things?"
"Well, when his eyes are glowing, Harry can see through invisibility cloaks. And clothes." Cho's mouth opened and she stared blankly at Hermione, who briefly glanced at Ginny.
"Through clothes?" Cho finally responded, "You mean he can see us . . ." Hermione and Ginny both nodded.
"In all of our glory. It started on his seventeenth birthday. Something happened to him," Ginny explained, happily joining in on Hermione's plan, "Something to do with what happened to him back when he was a baby with You Know Who. He can't help it."
After a nervous pause, Cho sought clarification, "When you say he can see through clothes, do you mean just our outer clothes, or . . . everything?"
Hermione delayed her answer a few moments to increase its dramatic effect.
"Everything."
Cho stared wide-eyed at the two younger witches, wondering if it could be true. She had heard about powerful wizards who could see through invisibility cloaks, so the idea of seeing through clothing could not be discounted out of hand. Even more so for a person like Harry, a unique wizard if ever one existed. She looked appraisingly at them.
"You don't seem too upset about it," she commented warily, "Can't you do anything about it?"
"Well, we're not happy about it, if that's what you mean," Hermione explained from her bed, "In fact, we were pretty upset when we finally forced him to tell us a few days ago. But after a couple of days, we realized that it's not that big a deal. Harry can't help it, and he doesn't make a big show about it. It doesn't happen that often, so we just try not to think about it."
"Doesn't he look away when it happens?" Cho asked, completely astonished.
"He's a seventeen year-old boy, Cho," Ginny replied caustically, "What do you think?" Cho stared at her for a few moments.
"Good point."
"Look, just don't worry about it. There's nothing you can do," Ginny advised, "If you're lucky, maybe it won't happen before you leave." They all remained silent for an extended time until finally Ginny added, "Good night. Nox." The lamp above her bed went dark, and soon Hermione followed suit. Cho waited a few more seconds before extinguishing her lamp.
In the dark, she could not see the broad smiles on Hermione and Ginny's faces.
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Up a couple flights of stairs, Ron and Harry lay awake in their beds, laughing over Harry's ruse of the morning. Harry found that he felt most like his old self when alone in the dormitory with Ron. For a change, he felt like a normal teenager.
"Just think if it was true," Ron declared, "It would be amazing. I could think of a few witches that I wouldn't mind my eyes glowing at." The two teenagers laughed, before Harry added a note of caution.
"Sure, but you have to think about the other side of it too. Do you want to see McGonagall? Or Umbridge? What about your mother? It would be a two-edged sword."
Ron groaned, "Come on, Harry, why'd you have to say that? I was looking forward to my dreams tonight, and now you've ruined it." The girls could hear Ron and Harry's laughter all the way to their room.
Finally they lay down more seriously, allowing sleep to approach, and they entered that stage in which people let down their guard and say things they may not at other times of the day.
"What are you going to do about Hermione?" Harry asked out of the blue while on his back, hands behind his head.
Ron rolled on his side, his eyes scrunched, and responded, "What do you mean?"
"I mean, are you going to start something with her or not?" Ron still had not adapted to the new, more direct Harry Potter.
A long silence followed. In truth, of course, Ron had considered that very question every day of an excruciatingly long summer. What DID he plan to do?
"I don't know, mate. I'm not sure what I feel about her, and what she feels for me. Sometimes I want to; sometimes I don't. It's hard to think of her that way, if you know what I mean. And then everything started happening a few days ago. Even if I decided what to do, there's been no opportunity."
"Hmmm," Harry hummed. They lay silently for a minute.
"What about Ginny and you? You know, she cried all night after we left your hotel room the other day."
Harry stared at the vaulted ceiling. He did not know that. Being with Ginny for the past few days, he realized with certainty that he had passed that phase of his life, though he also realized that she had not.
"We're done," he informed Ron simply, "A lot has happened to me since last term, a lot of water under the bridge. I'm not the same person I was then." The image of Melissa Montgomery flashed before him. He turned his head towards his friend. "I hope you're not upset about that. I know Ginny probably is having a hard time with it."
"No worries, mate," Ron assured his friend with a wave of his hand, "Ginny will get over it. She always bounces back."
Sleep crept up on them, and Harry flicked his wand silently to extinguish the lamp above his bed, with Ron following suit a few seconds later to the spell, "Nox."
Before sleep completely claimed them a couple of minutes later, Ron quietly asked one final question, "Why did you ask me about Hermione, mate?"
Harry did not answer, feigning that he had already fallen asleep.
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Narcissa Malfoy bowed deeply before Lord Voldemort. Unexpectedly, a death eater woke her early in the morning, told her to dress, and then transported her to face the dark lord. While preparing herself, she managed to write a short note which she stuffed into a pocket.
"You are looking well, My Lord," she greeted him subserviently, noting his improved appearance, "How can I serve you?"
"That will become apparent in due time, Narcissa," Voldemort replied curtly, "We shall be leaving soon. You have not eaten breakfast; you have time for a brief meal." With that, Voldemort left her presence, and Peter Pettigrew led her to the kitchen where the cook placed a plate of food before her.
She did not feel hungry at all, as her stomach had already turned itself into knots. Lord Voldemort did not bring her here to chat, she knew all too well. She also knew that Draco had disappeared, presumably defecting. With Lucius killed by the orders of the Minister of Magic, the dark lord no longer had any use for her. Picking up a fork, she forced herself to eat, not wishing to provide any reason for anyone to become upset with her.
Finally, half an hour later, Peter led her into a separate room, where for a few minutes she sat alone, grasping one hand with the other to control their shaking. Her thoughts rested on her only child, Draco, whom she now knew she would never see again. Voldemort entered the room, Peter trailing behind, and briefly nodded at her.
"Today you will serve me, Narcissa," Voldemort informed her, "We are ready to leave."
Peter carried a large sack over his shoulder, and approached the witch. He carefully averted his eyes and placed his hand on her shoulder. They both disappeared, Lord Voldemort following seconds later. The three of them reappeared in the Forbidden Forest where Voldemort and Peter had spent much of the previous day.
"Set up the cauldron, Wormtail. We have much to do."
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After finishing their breakfast in the Gryffindor common room, Harry and the others awaited the arrival of Evan Harrington, who promised to arrive on the grounds within an hour. He would contact Harry again through their mirrors, and then Harry, Ron and Hermione would meet him by the lake. Cho, of course, needed to remain out of sight in the common room.
Given everything that had happened to Cho over the past twenty-four hours, she slept poorly, and Harry vaguely noticed that she seemed rather nervous. Not that he especially cared. She stood up at one point and walked in front of Harry, when to her extreme distress, she saw his eyes start to glow again.
Cho gasped and froze for a moment. Harry noticed her reaction and stared right at her, and the glowing continued for an extended time. The petite witch remained nailed to the floor for a few seconds when she realized what Harry must be seeing at the very moment. An eyeful. Her first instinct was to run up to the dormitory, but she did not want Harry to know that she had been made aware of his special ability. She noted that Hermione and Ginny did not react, so she tried to act equally as nonchalant. In the end, she could not. Cho abruptly turned sideways to Harry, figuring that at least he would have less of a view that way. She moved her arm over her chest, unsuccessfully trying to do so in a natural matter. Harry certainly noted her strange reaction.
After fifteen seconds or so, his eyes returned to normal, and Cho finally breathed again. From the corner of his eyes, Harry noted a smirk on Hermione's face, and he turned to look at her while Cho walked in the other direction. Hermione covered her mouth with her hand, but Harry could see the laughter in her eyes. Glancing at Ginny, he noted the same reaction. After a few seconds, he deduced what must have occurred. He smiled at Hermione and shook his head back and forth disbelievingly.
Hermione nodded her head and then put a finger to her mouth, asking Harry not to reveal the truth to Cho.
"OK," mouthed Harry silently, and then looked back at Cho. He could not resist the opportunity.
"Have you been on a diet, Cho?" he asked, "Just now, I thought that you looked thinner than in the past."
Cho's face turned a deep red, given the natural darkness of her skin, and her eyes opened wide with shock. Harry stared at her as if nothing at all unusual had occurred. Ginny and Hermione again covered their mouths, exerting all of their concentration to keep from laughing. Ron gradually caught on and also suppressed a smirk.
"No, I'm the same weight as before," Cho answered, speaking more rapidly than normal, "Excuse me for a minute." She shot out of the common room, up the stairs, and into the dormitory room where the girls slept. At last Hermione and Ginny could release their laughter, though they tried not to make too much noise so that Cho could not hear them.
"You two are evil," Harry accused them with a smile. At first, the girls could not respond through their giggles.
"We learned everything we know from you," Ginny joked, and all four wore broad smiles. Just then, Harry felt the mirror in his pocket vibrate.
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Minister of Magic Scrimgeour's face reddened with rage after reading the letter from Hogwarts Headmistress Minerva McGonagall. She point-blank refused to allow his aurors onto the castle grounds at this time, citing Hogwarts' traditional autonomy from the Ministry of Magic. She agreed to lead a delegation of Ministry officials, non-aurors only, through the grounds to explain the wards protecting the castle. Clearly she did not trust the presence of aurors at Hogwarts for any reason, and Scrimgeour knew that word of his plans to occupy the castle must have reached her.
His subordinates continued with their plans to house approximately three thousand witches and wizards at Hogwarts castle, but they desperately needed on-site information about current conditions. They discovered to their horror that the latest maps and diagrams of the castle in their possession dated from half a century before, and they knew with certainty that many modifications to the castle occurred during the Dumbledore years.
"We'll just have to storm it, then," the Minister muttered to the three aides surrounding them, "Put a force together, twenty or thirty should be enough. We'll have to keep it quiet, at least for a day or two. Then we can announce our plans. I want something in place in two or three days. We'll have to detain McGonagall and anyone else in the castle for a couple of days. Then we can make our final plans before announcing the mandatory evacuation of all wizarding residences." The three aides stood impassively, not moving a muscle. "Understand!"
The final word finally snapped them to attention, and the three nodded vigorously and left the office to inform the others. The redness of the Minister's face decreased a few shades, but inside the anger still churned.
"You've made your choice, Minerva. Now we'll do it the hard way."
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"Casting spells while under the effects of gillyweed is possible but difficult," Evan Harrington explained to Harry while the others (minus Cho) looked on, "It takes a bit of practice, but you'll catch on." As agreed, Harry and Evan wore swimming trunks because the two of them would enter the lake. Evan refused to allow the others to follow, though he lacked any real authority to prevent it.
Harry, however, informed them of his agreement with a tone of voice and facial expression that clearly indicated that no dissent would be accepted. In the past, they may have argued anyway, but not with this Harry. This would primarily be a training run, with Evan showing Harry how to cast spells and deal with the hazards of the underwater magical world. Of course, Harry would keep his senses on alert in case he felt or saw something familiar, but now that he stood on the lakeshore, just a few feet from the water, the slate-blue lake appeared as large as an ocean. It could take weeks, he thought.
"Even though we often don't realize it, when we cast unspoken spells, many times we slightly hum with our vocal cords. That's fine on land, but with gillyweed, you temporarily lose your vocal cords, so an unspoken spell truly must be an unspoken spell. Do you understand, Harry?"
"Sure," he replied, completely confident in his ability, "Let's get started."
Evan removed two small pouches from a duffle bag and handed one to Harry.
"Put some extra gillyweed in here. If we start to transform, get to the surface as quickly as you can. You'll need to wait a minute until you have completely regained your normal form. If you can speak normally, then it's safe to eat some more." Harry nodded at the auror's instructions and placed a handful of the rubbery plant into the pouch and then tied it to the strings of his Gryffindor red swimming trunks. After Evan did the same, the two waded a few feet into the frigid water.
"WOW!" Harry yelled, but he controlled himself before any expletives left his mouth. Glancing at his swimming partner, he saw Evan already stuffing a handful of gillyweed into his mouth, wincing at the acrid taste.
Harry turned to his friends and told them with a raised voice, "We'll be back in an hour or two. We'll see how it goes." They waved and watched as Harry shoved his handful of the plant into his mouth. After a few seconds, he felt the gills begin to form on his neck and the webs between his fingers and toes, and the irresistible urge to enter the water caused him to dive in. In his normal human form, Harry never learned to swim well, but under the influence of gillyweed, swimming seemed as natural as walking. Quickly he slid through the water to catch up with Evan.
From time to time, Evan pointed out landmarks on the lake floor to assist them with their return journey, but otherwise they simply swam out to the center of the lake, remaining fifteen or twenty feet above the rocky bottom to avoid the various creatures that lurked below. Always they kept an eye out for the giant squid.
Finally Evan decided to commence a lesson. Diving down to an open area on the lake floor, he pointed at a small log. Taking his wand, he pointed it, and a moment later the log lifted off of the gravelly bottom and moved towards him. Harry understood that Evan used the "accio" spell and wanted Harry to try it too. The auror returned the log to the bottom and nodded at Harry.
He remembered Evan's instruction to avoid any use of vocal cords, of which he temporarily had none, so he concentrated on "saying" the spell with his stomach. On his first few attempts, the log lifted off the ground a few inches, but Harry found it difficult to sustain the accio spell. Evan merely nodded his encouragement and pointed to his abdomen, slightly higher on his torso than the area in which Harry had utilized. On his next attempt, Harry shifted his concentration on a spot about six inches above his stomach, and instantly the log shot off of the lake bottom, flying through the water as if it were air. Harry tried to smile, but given the transformations from the gillyweed, he could not change expressions.
Evan led Harry through a series of exercises, based on those learned by him during auror training. Every auror needed to demonstrate proficiency in underwater magic, and mastery of the use of gillyweed constituted an important element. After half an hour of work, Harry could cast spells underwater without difficulty, at a level which most aurors could not reach, if at all, until after three or four days of training. Harry's quick study did not surprise Evan at all. He expected it.
After an hour, they started to lose their gills and regain their lungs, and Harry felt a moment of panic, since they swam some seventy or eighty feet below the surface in the center of the deep lake. Evan however calmed him with his hand and steadily led him to the surface. Harry realized that he could still "breathe" enough in the water to make it to the surface safely. By the time his head broke through to the air, however, he gasped the cool oxygen above the cool waters.
"Remember, Harry," Evan instructed, "Don't panic. The transformation takes a good two minutes or so to complete, and you can still survive in the water well enough to reach the surface." Harry nodded and then smiled. This was great fun.
After resting on the surface for a few minutes, they consumed their second ration of gillyweed, and the two men concentrated on covering as much territory as they could on the odd chance that Harry may stumble upon Hufflepuff's cup. Given the expanse of the lake, however, they only covered a small fraction of the total territory, and they stayed well above the lake bottom to avoid the dangers there. They both knew that in the future, more risks may be required.
Exhausted from their second hour under the effects of gillyweed, they slowly made their way back to the shore near the castle. By the time the gillyweed wore off, they swam in relatively shallow water, and Harry surfaced within a matter of seconds. They swam the final hundred yards to the coarse sand of the shore, and Harry dragged himself onto a nearby boulder, breathing heavily.
"It's tiring," Evan agreed, also inhaling deeply, "but like any exercise, you'll gain endurance the more you do it. That's all for today, but tomorrow we'll do more. I have to get back now. That blasted woman is probably trying to track me down." Harry grinned, enjoying Evan's frustrations with Veronica Singh.
Harry put on his glasses and looked around, but initially he saw nobody; then off in the distance, perhaps a quarter of a mile away, he saw Ron and Hermione seated together, apparently talking, though at this distance he could not be sure. Suddenly a fire burned in his stomach. What exactly had Ron and Hermione been doing while he swam in the lake?
A couple of miles away, on the other side of the lake, Lord Voldemort busily worked on preparing a complicated potion. To his right, Narcissa Malfoy lay on the hard forest floor, bound and gagged.