Chapter 11
Come Back to Hogwarts
There had been a time when Harry never wanted to see Grimmauld Place again, but by the end of August, the dank mansion became his refuge. Celebrity reared its ugly head. Since they now planned to return to Hogwarts, Harry, Ron and Hermione, along with guards from the Order, made the ritual shopping spree at Diagon Alley to purchase their books and supplies. A couple of days earlier, the Daily Prophet featured a small headline, HARRY POTTER TO RETURN TO HOGWARTS, including a photograph of him that must have been taken around the time of Dumbledore's funeral.
Upon apparating to Diagon Alley, in the designated apparation area near the Leaky Cauldron, Harry had not taken twenty steps before a middle-aged witch recognized him. Her squeal of delight turned many heads of otherwise wary shoppers. Given the events of June and the constant stream of alarming news in the Prophet, shopping at Diagon Alley had become an in-and-out affair, not the day-long outing of the past. Yet upon hearing the name of a celebrity, the shoppers forgot about danger so that they could boast that they saw Harry Potter, touched his clothes, or obtained his autograph. Harry had experienced the consequences of fame before, most recently at the Ministry a couple of weeks earlier, but nothing prepared him for the onslaught on this day.
Within a minute, cries of "It's Harry Potter" rang up and down the shopping center, and a crowd of young witches, and some not-so-young witches, surrounded him. Soon many wizards joined the throng. He recognized quite a few teenage girls from Hogwarts, though he could not recall many names. They yelled questions, shoved scraps of parchment and quills at him, grabbed at his robes, ran fingers through his hair. Hermione and Ron did their best to keep the crowd at bay only to be overwhelmed, and to a lesser extent subjected to the same treatment, being Harry Potter's friends and minor celebrities in their own right.
The two members of the Order serving as guards intended to remain under invisibility cloaks, but when the crowd did not disperse, they revealed themselves and waded into the mass of flesh to try to open a path for Harry, but this also failed.
Harry decided he needed to take matters into his own hands, and instead of his failed attempts to politely ask people to move out of the way, he yelled, "QUIET PLEASE, LET ME SAY SOMETHING."
He looked for something on which to stand to be above the crowd but found nothing. Hermione realized what he required and whipped out her wand to conjure a wooden box. Harry gave her a smile, reciprocated by Hermione, at which point a flash temporarily blinded them. The Daily Prophet had arrived, and Harry now knew what the next morning's edition would feature.
Stepping atop the box, Harry raised his hands, and the surrounding crowd, which had grown to more than one hundred, promptly grew quiet. Hermione recognized the similarity to the effect Dumbledore had when raising his hand in the Great Hall.
"THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR KIND WORDS," Harry half shouted.
The muggle in him caused him to forget that he could amplify his wand, so Ron moved closer and quietly suggested, "Use your wand."
"Oh yeah," muttered Harry, who removed his wand and putting it to his mouth quietly pronounced, "Sonorus." He had practiced this charm in class, but never when it mattered, and he hoped that it would work. He began again.
"Thank you all for your kind words," his voice rang across the street. Indeed many in the crown had given him words of encouragement and expressed their confidence that he would defeat You Know Who. "As many of you have read, I am returning to Hogwarts for my final year, as are my friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, who I am pleased to announce has been named as Head Girl." Harry could not resist the opportunity to show his pride in Hermione and to embarrass her. As he glanced down at her, her skin colored slightly, and a thin smile formed. Another photograph flashed. "I realize," continued Harry, "that many students may not be returning to Hogwarts, and I understand their fear. I would just like to say that I would encourage all entering and returning students to come back to Hogwarts."
The crowd quickly silenced itself, not expecting a pronouncement of this kind by Harry Potter. They knew that they were seeing "news."
Harry plodded on, "We must not allow our lives to be controlled by fear. I know that we must be cautious, and I am satisfied that Hogwarts has taken all appropriate measures to ensure the safety of the school as far as possible. No place is perfectly safe, especially your own homes, but I believe that Hogwarts will be as safe a place as any. If a large portion of the student body should refuse to return, then Lord Voldemort will have won a significant victory."
A shock wave ran through the assembly at the word "Voldemort," as few wizards or witches dared to say the name, and other than Dumbledore, none would say it in a public speech. Not only did Harry say the V word, he said it with such normality, without any effort at all.
"Now, my friends and I are here to buy our school supplies. We would very much appreciate your understanding in allowing us to do our shopping. Thank you again for your kind words."
Harry stepped off the box and made his way down the street, when after a few seconds delay a few hands started to applaud, which moments later turned into a full-scale ovation. After conceding a brief and embarrassed wave to the crowd, Harry and the others hurried away.
The speech worked to an extent. The crowd in fact did disperse and not trail after them, but that did not prevent many individuals from approaching Harry for one reason or another. The three students finally managed to withdraw money from Gringott's Bank and purchase their books and other supplies. Harry did his best to act politely, but by the end of the afternoon, he was ready to slap the petrificus totalus charm on anyone who approached him. Previously Harry planned to apparate back to the Burrow, but he desperately desired the refuge of his home.
Ron and Hermione had been harassed as well, and all three decided to make their way to the public floo to return to Grimmauld Place. Upon arriving in the sitting room, they dropped their packages to the side of the fireplace and threw themselves onto overstuffed chairs and sofas.
"That's exhausting," exclaimed Ron, who in fact had enjoyed the attention of the crowd for the first hour or so.
"People are so ridiculous," Hermione huffed, "They see a celebrity and lose all sense of propriety. I'll never understand it."
Dobby entered the room with cold pumpkin juice and cookies, which Ron and Hermione jumped for. Harry however had not noticed the entrance of his house elf and did not seem to have paid any attention to the complaints of his friends. He sat deep in thought, and from appearances, none too happy.
Ron and Hermione glanced at each other, and finally Ron dared to speak.
"What are you thinking about, Harry?" Upon hearing his name, Harry jumped and seemed to realize that Ron and Hermione were still there.
"Oh, well, I just realized that I can't go anywhere anymore. It was bad at the Ministry, but this was incredible. How am I supposed to do anything that we have to do if I'm going to be surrounded by a hundred people all the time?"
"You can always use the invisibility cloak," suggested Ron.
"Sure, but I can't always be under the cloak. Sometimes I may want to be seen, but not with a crowd of loonies behind me," Harry retorted bitterly.
"Well, you can always change your appearance, Harry. There are some spells. You know them; we studied them in Transfiguration last year," Hermione suggested, "Or you could use muggle methods, you know, dye your hair, make-up for your scar, things like that."
"I know, I was thinking about that." replied Harry thoughtfully. "Of course one of you can completely transfigure me into someone else, but my scar doesn't transfigure easily. You remember, right?" They nodded their heads. "With polyjuice potion, my scar doesn't show, but it's awfully hard to depend on that, since it only lasts an hour at a time, and it takes so long to brew. No, I like the muggle methods better, or maybe a combination of the two."
"Of course! You need makeup to cover your scar, because it's really hard and dangerous to try only to transfigure that area of your head, and even if we could, it would never exactly match the rest of your skin. But with makeup, we can just cover your whole face." Hermione was on a roll now. "We can change your hair color with no problem, that's an easy spell. And if we have enough time, you can let your beard grow; I've noticed it coming in a lot thicker now. In fact you look downright dangerous when you let it grow a couple of days, the dark two-day-old beard with your messy black hair. The girls love it." Hermione blushed slightly as she realized what she had just said without thinking.
Harry's beard indeed grew thicker than before, and he needed to shave every other day or so, although it would take him five days to grow the "two-day-old beard" that Hermione seemed to like so much. She had seen him in that condition on occasion, because at times he felt too lazy to shave. However, other than Ginny, no other girl to his knowledge had seen his stubble, so how Hermione knew that girls loved it remained a mystery.
"Well, we're going to have to do something like that; otherwise, I'll be stuck in this house forever."
At that moment, Dobby reentered the sitting room as excited as Harry had ever seen him.
"Stand still, Dobby, what's happened?" asked Harry.
Dobby gave the largest house elf smile possible (which is quite large) and took his left hand from behind his back, holding a long clear vial.
"Dobby has truth potion, Harry Potter."
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The three friends could only laugh along as Dobby described how he obtained the veritaserum with the help of his cousin, Corky. A whole chapter would need to be written to do the story justice, but suffice it to say that Dobby and Corky staged a burglary of the apothecary run by Mr. Livingstone, causing many vials of valuable potions to be broken, their contents destroyed. The losses included his entire store of veritaserum, except that Dobby had already poured out two large vials of the potion (the other vial was safely stored away, Dobby told them). Since only a few drops are necessary to force a wizard to tell the truth, they now had a supply to last years. Harry and his friends showered Dobby with so much praise that his face almost split in two from his smile.
Harry's spirits soared with the realization that they would now be able to proceed with their next plan - the questioning of Severus Snape. A tremendous amount of discussion had centered on Snape during the month of August while they waited for Dobby to obtain the truth serum. At times they became convinced that Snape remained loyal to Dumbledore, and that he must have been acting upon the headmaster's orders. Other times, that seemed to be terribly unlikely.
Yet, why did Snape not capture Harry when he could have, when the professor escaped across the Hogwarts grounds. The thought of those moments inevitably and instantaneously pushed Harry into a deep funk. I was useless, he castigated himself, Snape blocked every one of my spells like I was a first year. But Snape had revealed the problem himself: unspoken spells. Harry could not do them. He could barely make a feather float in class conditions; yet Snape could place a shield, a much more difficult spell, without breaking a sweat. Harry HAD to learn how to do it.
Throughout August, Harry practiced unspoken spells. When Hermione and Ron came over, they would help, which is to say that Hermione would teach them. She had become reasonably good at it, but even she could only accomplish relatively simple spells and charms, certainly nothing as difficult as a shield or hex. True, Harry improved due to the practice, but he still felt woefully inadequate. It took him too much effort and concentration, and too much time. Snape did it without even thinking, or so it seemed. Harry had intended to master unspoken spells, or at least basic proficiency in them, prior to setting their plan regarding Snape into motion. He fell far short of his goal, but only a week remained before his return to Hogwarts. The plan must be implemented right away.
With the veritaserum in hand, the mood at Grimmauld Place changed dramatically. Ron displayed his fear by constantly muttering to himself. He knew that Snape was an extremely accomplished wizard, and though much thought had been put into their plan, would it be enough? Hermione also felt extremely nervous, and sought release by endlessly reviewing every aspect of the plan, which required patience, precision, speed and accuracy. Harry felt not so much nervous as impatient, much the same as he felt before a quidditch match against Slytherin, only greatly intensified. He had much to discuss with Severus Snape. The conspirators memorized every detail of the plan and recited it to each other until each of them knew the exact timing of each element, the spells required, the backup plan, and even the escape plan if all went awry.
The first step required Harry to write the note to Snape. They had already parsed each word of the message, and finally agreed on this twelfth draft:
Professor Snape:
I need to arrange a meeting with you as soon as possible. Professor Dumbledore wrote me a letter prior to his death which assures me that you can be trusted, and in fact that I must trust you. His letter states that you are to be trusted no matter how it appears that you were involved with his death. I must admit that at first I had difficulty believing this, but now I believe I can see what happened. I believe that you are still with us, and with the Order.
A meeting between us is urgent. I am continuing Professor Dumbledore's plan, but I have reached a dead end, and I believe only you can help me. Professor Dumbledore wrote that I must trust you or else I will fail. Therefore I am trusting you.
I will be waiting at the telephone booth entrance to the Ministry at 2 am this morning. I will assure that nobody else is there. We will then apparate to another location. Obviously, you must come alone. Just you and I must meet.
You need send no reply.
Harry Potter
Hermione wanted to read the letter one more time, but Harry folded it and slid it into an envelope before she had the chance. No more wasted time. The next step of the plan was the most important: Would Fawkes cooperate? All their work would be in vain if Fawkes did not come when called. Phoenixes were not like house elves. A phoenix only comes if it chooses to come, though at least Harry knew that Fawkes would have no difficulty passing through Grimmauld Place's protective wards.
The time had arrived, and tension filled the air in the sitting room of Harry's home. Harry stood, why he did not know, and took a deep breath.
Speaking as clearly as he could, he loudly spoke, "FAWKES, I NEED YOUR HELP." The ticking of the ancient grandfather clock on the far wall of the sitting room echoed in the silence. Seconds passed by, then a full minute. Fawkes did not appear. Harry's heart sank. He would try once more.
"FAWKES, THIS IS HARRY POTTER. I NEED YOUR HELP. PROFESSOR DUMBLEDORE SAID I COULD SEEK OUT YOUR HELP. PLEASE COME SO THAT I CAN EXPLAIN. THANK YOU FAWKES."
Harry had no idea whether providing more detail would do any good, and perhaps he embellished the part about Dumbledore, but Harry felt desperate. Whatever the reason, Fawkes did in fact deign to come. The crackling of fire suddenly rent the nervous silence, flames appearing out of nowhere by the outside wall. The flame immediately transformed into the indescribably beautiful phoenix, which announced its arrival with a beautiful song. The three teenagers immediately felt their courage rise.
"Thank you for coming, Fawkes," Harry began, immense relief in his voice.
Though he had spoken to the phoenix from time to time, he had never truly conversed with it, not like Dumbledore did. While Harry felt confident that Fawkes would understand him, he also knew that phoenixes must be treated with respect. One does not order a phoenix to do anything; one can only request.
"We are trying to complete the work that Professor Dumbledore started. According to the professor, I need the help of Professor Snape. Even though Snape killed Professor Dumbledore, his letter to me said clearly that Professor Snape is not a follower of Lord Voldemort. He says I will need Professor Snape's help." Harry paused to see if the magical bird understood. Its eyes were focused on Harry, and he could only hope. "I have written a message to Professor Snape," Harry held up the envelope, "and I would sincerely appreciate you delivering it to him. Owls cannot find him or break the wards around him, but I know that you can. It's very important that you only give this to him when he is alone; otherwise, he could very well be killed by Voldemort or the death eaters. Will you help us, Fawkes?" Harry concluded in a beseeching voice.
Fawkes trilled a few thrilling notes which somehow the two wizards and witch knew were an affirmative answer.
"Thank you so much, Fawkes. I know that I can always rely on you. I will never forget what you did in the Chamber of Secrets." Harry carefully attached the envelope to the phoenix's leg, and then stood back. Fawkes leapt from the edge of the table which its talons had gripped, gave a mighty flap of its wings, and burst into flames. In an instant it was gone.
"What a beautiful bird," commented Hermione, as the three friends heaved a sigh of relief that their intensive planning had not been for naught. They checked the time, 8:30 pm, and could only wait until the appointed hour. Ron worried about his parents, as he had not informed them that he would not be home that evening. Now that he knew the plan could proceed, he quickly wrote a note to them and sent it with Hedwig. He could only imagine the tongue-lashing he would receive when (and if) he returned to the Burrow. Hermione had lied to her parents, something she hated to do, that she was staying overnight with Ginny at the Burrow, but she did not worry about that for the moment. Her mind kept reviewing every detail.
Harry sat quietly in his chair, thinking about Snape. He hated the man. Snape somehow represented all that was wrong with Harry's life, however unfair that may be. The fact of the matter, Harry mused, was that Snape had treated him with disdain and arrogance from the very first day in his potions dungeon. He would show no kindness to Severus Snape.
The minutes crept by. They grudgingly ate a late meal prepared by Dobby, more to pass the time than to satisfy their hunger (though Ron managed to eat his fair share). Finally the hour approached, and they changed into the same dark clothing they wore to the museum. At 1:00 am, they walked out the front door of Grimmauld Place, checking that no one watched. They crossed the street to a secluded area from which they could apparate. Harry would be the first to leave. He threw his invisibility cloak over his head, disappearing from view. A second later, Ron and Hermione heard a crack. Harry apparated to a designated spot about a block from the telephone booth by the Ministry. Earlier in the month, the three had carefully walked the area of muggle London around the Ministry entrance and determined that this would be the best location.
The plan called for Ron and Hermione to wait for two minutes exactly. During that time, Harry walked invisibly from the apparation site to the asphalt covered lot around the telephone booth, making sure that death eaters had not arrived in advance. If anything seemed amiss, Harry was to apparate back immediately and abort the plan. Carefully rounding the final corner, his wand at the ready, Harry observed that the lot was empty, as it should have been at 1:00 am in a commercial part of the city. He ducked behind a short retaining wall to the west of the telephone booth, still under the cloak, and waited. Two minutes later, he barely saw Ron and Hermione, both dressed in black, on the other side of the street. Ron veered to the right, crossed the street beyond the lot, and quickly walked along the abandoned building to the east of the booth, hiding behind a large rubbish bin. Hermione crouched in front of the wall where Harry crouched on the other side until she reached the spot where Harry was supposed to be.
"I'm here," whispered the invisible Harry. Hermione nodded and then continued along the wall until she reached the north end of the small lot, moving into a shadow where the dim street light half a block away could not reach. Now they waited.
Thinking like Severus Snape is a dodgy proposition. Would he arrive before the appointed time, or after? Would he arrive at all? Harry felt almost positive that Snape would come. If he in fact remained loyal to Dumbledore and the Order, he would want to make contact. If he in fact was a loyal death eater, Voldemort would want him to resume his role as a spy, and hopefully deliver Harry to him. All wands were at the ready.
Harry thought he heard a soft crack up the street at ten to two. It had to be an apparation, and there was only one crack, a good sign. A minute later, Harry barely sensed a shadow moving along the street next to the building, entering the lot opposite Harry. As the shadow moved closer, Harry recognized Snape's gait.
"Wait, Harry, wait," he reminded himself. Snape had proven himself an extremely gifted wizard, and three against one only counted as even odds if the initial strike failed. The older wizard slowly turned the same corner Ron passed by earlier, and stopped, looking for any movement, but Ron, Hermione and Harry remained motionless and out of sight. Obviously Snape suspected a trap set by the Ministry or the Order and probably would not dare to have come if the message had not been delivered by Fawkes.
The lot appeared completely vacant to Snape, so he edged along the wall of the abandoned building, now only twenty feet from Ron's position. Snape would have to edge in front of the bin, and then move only feet away from both Hermione and Ron, and only yards away from Harry. Hermione would begin the action, as the most proficient of the three at unspoken spells, and she had been practicing this one for most of the month of August, preparing for this moment. Moving slightly away from the wall when Snape had turned his back, she pointed her wand and thought with all her might, "Expelliarmus."
Snape's wand jumped out of his hand and for a split second he froze. Ron immediately shouted "Petrificus Totalus" while Harry shouted "Silencio" to prevent his former professor from speaking. Precise as clockwork, Snape fell paralyzed to the pavement. Harry jumped over the short wall whipping the cloak off himself and over his nemesis, covering all but his head. The look of shock on Snape's face was beautiful, Harry thought, but this was no time to gloat. Death eaters could be on the way.
Hermione pulled a cloth from a pocket and wrapped it around Snape's eyes. Ron and Harry lifted Snape off the asphalt by his stiff elbows. Harry covered Snape and himself with the cloak, grabbed the professor's arm, and then apparated the both of them back to where they started in front of Grimmauld Place. Ron grabbed Snape's wand, and then Hermione and he cracked back next to Harry. The street remained clear, and in a few moments, Professor Severus Snape became their prisoner inside of No. 17 Grimmauld Place.