CHAPTER 13 –DUNG BOMBS AND DEATH EATERS
Severus made his way to his mom and dad's living area. He knew that's where they would be, otherwise his dad would have told the kids to ask him to meet him in the office. Mom demanded that their living-quarters be considered the normal meeting area, and if you needed to meet someone elsewhere then you said so.
It was just one of Minerva's quirks, one of her ways to keep "family" together. If she left it to the boys, they would never all be in the same room together. Not because they didn't love each other but because each would get absorbed in one project or another and just forget.
He knocked on his parent's door and Albus yelled quickly to "Come in". Severus could tell that something had happened but since his dad was not in his office, it was probably not something that they could do anything about.
"How did it go with Harry?" asked Albus.
Severus looked at him a moment then said, "You know, not as bad as I thought it would be. We still have a long way to go but when we finished our talk he seemed to be OK with the situation. I think it will work out as long as we remember we are both new at this stuff. I am sure there will be some rough times here and there."
Albus was sure there was a lot more to the story but Severus would share later when he was more comfortable about it all.
"So what do you need from me dad?"
Albus put down his book and said "Since you are Harry's guardian then you should be the one to tell him the news. His aunt and uncle were killed by the death eaters this evening. The Mark is over their house but they couldn't find Dudley anywhere. Either they took him or he was staying with someone, we just don't know. Perhaps you can find out from Harry if there are other relatives that he might be visiting for the summer or camps he might attend?"
"I really don't think there will be any great grieving going on" said Severus. "As far as I am concerned it saved us the time and energy of trying to get them convicted by the courts. I'm just glad we got the kids out of there before they were hit."
Albus looked like he was deep in thought then said, "There seems to be a pattern or a reason for these attacks but I just can't put my finger on it. Has your scar given you any indication of the Dark Lord's presence yet?"
"None, it's been very still and no pain what so ever" replied Severus. "Also, Harry hasn't mentioned any bad reactions from his scar, like he did when Quirrell was here last year."
Minerva came in about that time and gave her son a hug. "How is the family man doing?" she asked with a smirk on her face.
Severus looked at her and said, "Mother, sometimes you can be very evil, do you know that?"
She laughed at him and said "I love you too. You do realize that you have really changed your actions and attitudes toward Harry over the past couple weeks?"
Severus smiled, "Yes, I am not really sure how it came about. One day I woke up and had more questions about the lad than I had assumptions. I still find myself checking out everything he says, but I am gaining a lot of respect for him. He is made of sterner stuff than I thought, than any of us thought."
Severus continued, "I do believe that we are pampering him a bit too much. There are things we can be teaching him that will help him in the future yet he probably would consider doing them as fun right now. The dueling professor was a great idea dad!"
"Mom what do you think about slowly working with him on being an Animagi?"
Minerva thought over her tea for a moment then replied, "I don't know, he is quite young but we could try. Why don't I use the potion with all the kids in class to see if they have a tendency toward that power or not. This would not put a lot of pressure on Harry and we could find out if we should proceed or not."
"That sounds like a great and it would be even better if we schedule it for part of their 'play' time after lunch. They are getting board and I suspect that they will start planning trouble to get into very soon if we don't redirect them" said Albus.
"You're probably right" said Severus. "It's something for which they would willingly give up free time. I imagine it would also mean less time that we would have to spend supervising them when they are going in all directions."
When Harry, Ginny and Neville arrived at their common room they were met with eager faces and a multitude of questions.
"What happened Harry? Asked Hermonie.
Ron added, "Why is the greasy Git, spending so much time with you?"
"Harry they are not going to send you back to the Dursley's are they?", asked Ginny.
Harry finally asked everyone to sit down as it would be easier to share the news one time rather than twenty times.
First he reminded Ron to quit calling him names. Draco was moving into the dorm with them and Professor Snape was his Godfather. "How would you like us calling your father or Godfather names in front of you Ron?"
Ron hung his head and said he was sorry. Harry sat next to him and put his arm around his shoulder. "That's OK, it will take me a while to get used to some of the changes in my life, and if the truth be known I think I called him worse earlier today."
He told them about Snape being his guardian now, and why it wasn't the Weasleys, and why it had to be a strong person, and that they had talked down by the lake.
He even tried to insinuate that perhaps it wouldn't be as bad as it sounds, but nobody was buying that one yet although they didn't say so. Harry just smiled, thinking to himself that it was really neat to have people who wanted to look out for him.
It was late and everyone in the castle decided to try and get some sleep except for two people.
Alice asked a House Elf to watch over a sleeping Cassy, and she went to visit Severus. They had not been able to see much of each other, with all the drama going on.
Severus answered his door grumbling, but the grumble quickly turned to a smile when he saw who it was. "Come in, would you like some wine?"
"I would love some wine, some peace and quiet, and some adult conversation that didn't include purple dragons, are you up for it?" she asked.
"Absolutely" he answered as he shut the door.
Everyone seemed to be moving a bit slower at breakfast. It could have been because so many of them went to bed late. Everyone except Cassy, and everyone knew when she hit the Great Hall.
"HARRRRRRRYYYYY" she yelled as she broke loose from Alice and ran over to him. Then to the whole world she announced, "My dagon is named after Harry, we lived in the same closet". All the while she is hugging Harry's neck, letting him know that he was special to her now.
Harry just blushed and hugged her back.
Alice smiled. Cassy was finally coming out of herself and getting comfortable with the people around her. It was becoming apparent that 'normal' for Cassy was going to be heartburn for Alice. Cassy was a very gregarious, outgoing and didn't seem to have a slow speed. She was definitely going to need a firm hand, not just in later years when the boys started knocking at her door, but now.
Everyone at the breakfast table seemed to draw energy from her, and her presence created smiles and positive conversation.
At the end of the meal Severus turned to Harry and said, "Harry I have some news I need to share with you, let's take a walk."
Harry couldn't think of anything he'd done since last night, so it must have something to do with the meeting Severus had with Dumbledore. When they arrived outside on the front steps, Severus took a seat and motioned for Harry to do the same. Harry sat down and waited.
"Harry, your Aunt and Uncle were killed last night by Death Eaters. The Dark Mark was above the house but we couldn't find Dudley. Is there some relative he might be visiting?"
Harry sat there for a moment in shock, then said, "He's probably at his Aunt Marge's, Vernon's sister. Did they go quickly?"
"It appears so Harry, it looks like the Killing Curse was used on both of them. But I'm sure there had to be some torture as they tried to get information about you."
Then Harry got quiet and didn't say anything, just stared at the lake and the grounds.
"Harry, are you OK" asked Severus.
"I think so, it's just that I really don't feel anything. Aren't you supposed to grieve when you lose your family?"
"Harry, we call it family, and we set up laws so that we inherit through family and we talk about how wonderful family is. What we don't say is that family is far more than a blood connection."
"I really feel we should call most families that, 'our blood connections or relatives' and leave the term family for that deeper, emotional tie that develops with people who DEEPLY care about each other."
"In short Harry, no, we don't always have to grieve deeply the loss of family, especially if they didn't act like family. It is best that you feel something though, so try and feel sorry for them, for all that they missed out on by being so hateful. That will give you the honest release that you need."
"Is there anything I can do for you right now Harry?" asked Severus.
"No, really I think I am just fine and a bit relieved that we don't have to go to court, I can just let it all go," replied Harry.
"OK" said Severus, "But if you feel in the future you want to talk about it, just let me know". And with that they headed inside.
Harry went up to the Dorm to retrieve a book he wanted to read and spotted his 'invisibility cloak' folded neatly and lying on the bed. He picked it up and looked at it wondering who brought it back to him. He did not remember seeing it after being picked up from his Uncles' house that day. He just smiled, locked it up in his trunk and went down to meet everyone in the common room.
Harry was amazed at how much they were learning in class. Of course there were fewer students, so you could get personalized help. They were almost a quarter of the way through some of their second year books.
Even better was the fact that you didn't have to just study theory, you got to practice with your wand. There were very few incidents and what did occur, Madame Pomfrey could easily handle.
Of course there was the noble pastime of getting in trouble. Harry and Ron were caught fooling around once and ended up cleaning toilets. Draco and Hermonie got into a couple of verbal 'spitting' matches and received detention with Hagrid, cleaning out Thestral stalls, which for them was a worse punishment than a spanking, or at least as bad. Otherwise classes were going well and they were learning much more than they thought they would.
Harry found a neat book in the library on wand-less magic and decided to read it and try working on it himself. He never thought much about wand-less magic but he guessed that it's what happens when you did accidental magic so it was worth looking into. Down deep inside, he just thought it would be a neat thing to be able to do. He didn't tell anyone, he just gradually plugged away at the book and practiced what it taught.
In a couple of weeks he could 'Accio' a book but not very far. To be able to accomplish that much gave him a boost of self esteem. He wasn't sure why he didn't want anyone to know yet, it was just special to him and he wanted it to be private for awhile.
Saturday was a beautiful day, and everyone would eventually go outside to enjoy the sun. It was a normal day except for two off-beat happenings;
First, Draco was in the common room reading one of the books he had swiped from his fathers library. When he turned the page, a piece of paper fell out. He picked it up and found notes concerning people that were listed to be killed for the Dark Lord.
At that same time Albus was standing inside Minerva's classroom door letting her know that there was to be an Order meeting tonight at the new location. What he didn't know was that right around the corner, two young men who looked identical, were listening.
Harry, Draco, and the twins all hit the common room at the same time with news to share.
Everyone just happened to be there so Harry let them know about the Dursley's.
All, except Percy thought it was deserved, and Percy just thought that the Ministry should have taken care of them and not Death Eaters.
Draco argued, "This way was free and our tax money wasn't wasted on that trash". Percy didn't have anything else to say about it.
As everyone began to go their own way Draco and the Twins all said at once, "Wait, we have more".
Draco went next sharing with them the note he found:
Kill off the friends, then the Boy Who Lived will die from within.
Dark Lord will use the Boy Who Lived, to gain life.
Kill off the friends, one at a time;
Ron Weasley
Hermonie Granger
Kill off the question mark;
Neville Longbottom
Kill off the breeders, before more Blood Traitor spawn appear
Ginny Weasley
Reign in the son, before he turns the head of other snakes
Reign in the son, or kill the son.
Draco Malfoy
Do not kill the Boy Who Lived
He belongs to the Dark Lord
The Boy Who Lived, will pay the ultimate price,
Only at the Hand of the Dark Lord.
It was hard to see their names written about in such a way. There was always talk about danger and such, but this type of thing just seemed to bring it home. It opened Harry's eyes and helped him to understand that it was not just about him, that others were in danger for other reasons.
"Wow", said Harry, "We need to show this to Professor Dumbledore! This might be the key they need to figure out who is behind all these killings."
"Wait", said the twins.
"We overheard them...planning a meeting for tonight...in their NEW location. We think...we need to follow them...then use our new extendable ears...to hear what they are up to."
This was said alternating between the twins as they often do. They never speak over the top of the other, they just finished each others sentences. It is very disconcerting to others unless you are used to it.
"If they are really taking this seriously then we can give them the information tomorrow and if they are not serious, then we can figure out how to use it ourselves" Neville added with Ron nodding.
Everyone kind of looked at each other in shock. "Well there have been a lot of deaths lately" said Harry.
"Yes, and the order doesn't seem to be doing much about it" added Neville.
"It's for sure the ministry won't do anything. They don't believe that Voldemort will come back" added Percy. "He would have to walk in and hit Fudge between the eyes for him to admit Dumbledore is right and even then he might hesitate".
Everyone was shocked and just stood there staring at a Percy who would speak ill of the Ministry. "Well" said Percy, "That was before they tried to kill off my family at the Burrow and I'm sure they won't quit trying."
"Well", said the twins, "the first thing we have to do is to set off a dung bomb in Dumbledore's office so that they can't change their mind and meet up there. We can't possibly get the ears up there, we have tried."
"Luna and I can probably get the dung bomb up to Dumbledore's office" said Ginny. He might suspect any of the rest of you but probably not sweet, innocent Luna and Ginny."
"That's great" said the Twins, "We have a new one that is timed, so if you can just drop it off it will explode later and you won't be suspected of doing it."
"Oh boy", said Ron, "I don't think they are prepared for you next year Ginny! They think the Twins are bad!"
"Well Harry" said Draco, "you have the cloak, so you and I can follow them tonight and find the room. We are about the same height, short, whereas Ron has decided to grow a few feet this summer", laughed Draco. "When we find the room, one of us can stay there, while the other goes back to lead the group down."
Neville interjected, "We will need chalk to mark the path so we can get out again. Some of those corridors are really confusing. I know I was down there looking for fungus last year with Professor Sprout and I wouldn't have been able to find my way back out if she didn't already know the route."
"The rest of us need to be checking doorways on the way to find one or two that are open. If they start coming out of the room we need a place to hide. If we can get a room real close then we can just stay in the room and send the ears under the door."
"Sounds like a plan to me" said Harry, "Let's just hope we don't get caught. You know they make the meeting at nine o'clock for a reason, and that reason is that we are supposed to be locked up safe and sound in our dorms."
"It's not like we are going to do anything Harry, we are just going to make sure that they plan on doing something" said Ron.
"Yeh, if they talk about taking action then we can give them the information that Draco found and all will be OK," said the Twins.
By the time they all went to dinner they're keyed-up but each knew not to say a word. That didn't mean that one Potion Professor didn't notice that something was in the air and it made him uncomfortable. In fact he asked Hagrid to keep a watch on the grounds that night because he had a hunch they might be thinking of sneaking out. Little did he know they were thinking of sneaking 'IN'.