Disclaimer: Everything you recognize belongs to JKR, anything you don't is mine.
A/N: Thanks givetherabbitthefreakintrix, Tvetidee, Anonymous, and Duskfire1954 for the reviews!
Sorry that this took so long! School started up again Tuesday, and I've just been busy. It would've been later yet if I hadn't have stayed home from school sick today. But here it is now!
Chapter 4
Hogsmeade was silent as I sent my Patronus to Dumbledore, asking him to allow me in. It had stopped raining here. The stores were all still open – it was only six-ish, afterall – but nobody was there except for the workers in the shops. Everybody must have tried to hide once they had heard the news. I waited patiently by the gates to the grounds until I saw a lantern bobbing towards me in the distance.
"All righ', Nicole?"
"Hey, Hagrid!" I called back as he opened the gates with a single flick of his new wand (Dumbledore and I had worked tirelessly in the recent past to get his name cleared this time around as well.). I entered and then closed the gates behind me while he put the enchantments back up.
"What happened to yur face?"
"What? Oh." I rubbed my finger over the gash in my cheek. "It's nothing."
"All righ'," he said, obviously disbelieving me. "What're yeh doin' here a' this time o' nigh'?"
"It's only seven. And, well, I'm guessing you can guess why I'm here." He shook his head, and I frowned. "Well surely you've heard?" I asked, astounded, as we started up toward the castle.
"Heard what?" he asked, sounding both confused and curious. I looked up at him out of the corner of my eyes and frowned even more.
"You don't know?"
"Yur not helping me figure out what yur trying ter say," Hagrid said, now sounding extremely confused as he pulled open the doors to the castle.
"Hang on a moment, would you?" I asked, a little angry. I knew Dumbledore knew what was going on, but he wasn't telling Hagrid. And if he wasn't telling Hagrid, who else might he not be telling? Did those locked in the Room of Requirement know? Did the students who had relatives hurt, dead, or missing know? Did Remus, who taught Defense Against the Dark Arts despite the fact that the whole school knew that he was a werewolf, know? Did Professor McGonagall? Since Severus didn't know, I was tempted to say "no" to each question.
I could hear the chit-chatter of the students still at dinner as I pushed open the doors to the Great Hall roughly. Heads snapped toward me as I marched quickly up to the table at the head of the Hall, where Dumbledore, McGonagall, Remus, and the rest of the teachers (excluding Severus and Hagrid) sat, looking perplexed.
I saw Draco out of the corner of my eyes at the Slytherin table, but said nothing to him. The students knew that I was a frequent visitor to Hogwarts, so it wasn't such a surprise that I was there, but it was the fact that I looked pissed that caused the Hall to become silent as I reached the head table.
Instead of talking to Dumbledore, I turned to Remus.
"Remus," I said quickly, "do you know why I'm here? Why the others are here, as well?" I asked. I tried to keep quiet, but I knew that the whole Hall heard me.
Remus slowly shook his head. "No, but is your cheek okay?"
"It's fine. Does anybody know?" I asked the rest of the teachers. They either shook their heads or merely stared, perplexed at me. I heard Hagrid approach the table slowly behind me as I turned to Dumbledore.
"Dumbledore," I said angrily. "They have the right to know! Do the others even know?"
"I wanted to wait until we had news, which it seems obvious that you have – "
"It doesn't matter!" I snapped. "Even the students have a right to know!"
"Know what?" McGonagall asked. I rose my eyebrows at Dumbledore.
"Are you going to tell the teachers and students, or do I have to be the one to break it to them? Because some of them have relatives that are dead and they have no idea." Dumbledore sighed and said,
"Alright. I'll tell them." He stood up, and I moved over to the side while Hagrid went and sat down in his seat. "Silence," he called calmly, as there had been a loud murmur that spread throughout the Hall while we had been discussing. The students did as he said. "Now, I am extremely sorry to have to inform you all that as of about three o'clock this afternoon, twenty-three Death Eaters escaped from Azkaban."
A shocked silence followed his words, until Draco called out over the hall,
"Which ones?" Dumbledore turned to me and shook his head lightly – he didn't know which ones. I sighed and stepped forward – I remembered them from the list I had seen earlier – and read them off,
"Avery, Alecto Carrow, Amycus Carrow, Crabbe, Antonin Dolohov, Gibbon, Goyle, Jugson, Igor Karkaroff, Rabastan Lestrange, Rodolphus Lestrange, Walden Macnair, Lucius Malfoy, Mulciber, Nott, Peter Pettigrew, Agustus Rookwood, Evan Rosier, Thorfinn Rowle, Selwynn, Travers, Wilkes, and Yaxley."
The students who were related to any of them all had different reactions. Crabbe and Goyle exchanged bewildered glances. Theodore Nott looked green – I knew he was ashamed of what his father had done and, despite the fact that he was in Slytherin, he didn't believe in what his father had fought for. Draco paled considerably – he was even more ashamed of his father than Theodore.
"They've already attacked several places," I said. I saw nearly all eyes flicker over the gash on my cheek. "People have already been killed, injured, or are missing." I flicked my wand and made four extra copies of the lists and handed one to each Head of House (McGonagall, Sprout, and Flitwick) and gave the Slytherin one to Dumbledore. "Severus was hit with a nasty curse. He's in St. Mungo's and will be for a while. He should be fine, however."
"Students," Dumbledore called over the hall. "Please go to your Common Rooms, where your Heads of Houses will come in a while to inform those who have family members on this list."
"We need a potions teacher, then," Dumbledore said once all of the students were gone. I knew what that twinkling in his eyes meant...
"No," I said, shaking my head and waving my hands for emphasis. "No, no, no, no, no! I'm abysmal at potions, you know that. I just barely passed."
"You got an E in your potions NEWT."
"A," I corrected.
"Hardly. It was a very high A."
"Well, still. I would probably fail students who did good, and pass those who did bad." Dumbledore paused and then turned to Remus behind him.
"Remus," he said calmly. "You got an O in your potions NEWT, am I correct?"
"Er, yes sir,"
"Would you mind taking over the potions class for the time being so Nicole can teach Defense?"
"I have a job," I said quickly. "I can't just blow it off! Especially in a time like this! I need the money!"
"You were never in it for the money," Dumbledore said. Damn it, he knew me too well. "You just wanted to bring those who deserved it to justice. I know you, Nicole. And I'm sure you and I could work things out with Sirius. You could work at night, or something." I turned to leave.
"I'm going to go talk to those in the Room of Requirement, tell them what has happened," I said without ever giving Dumbledore a straight answer. "Or do any of them know?"
"Only Mad-Eye knows, I believe."
I didn't reply as I headed out the doors into the Entrance Hall and, from there, up the deserted marble staircase to the seventh floor. I walked past the blank wall opposite the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy three times thinking, I need to see those in hiding. I need to see those in hiding. I need to see those in hiding.
When I opened my eyes, the door was there and I pushed it open.
I didn't even get to see the room on the inside before tons of wands pointed at me. I put my hands up in surrender as they realized who I was.
"Nicki!"
Harry rushed forward to the front of the group and pulled me into a tight hug.
"What's going on?" he asked, holding me at arms length and noticing the gash on my cheek. I swallowed and looked around in the familiar faces. Lily, Scarlet, Mary, Charlie, Molly, Fred, George, Mad-Eye, Bill, Fleur, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, Johnny, and all the other kids. They were in a large room that looked quite a bit like the Gryffindor Common Room but with several fires and doors here and there that had names on them, like "Black" or "Potter".
"Does anybody know? Lily, Arthur, Mad-Eye, Mary?"
"No," Mad-Eye replied. "All I know is that I was attacked and when I got away, Sirius told me to come here." I ran my fingers through my hair and muttered,
"Great." I sighed and said louder, "There was a mass breakout from Azkaban, twenty-three Death Eaters escaped. They attacked several places since then – which explains Mad-Eye – but – " I took a deep breath, " – not everybody was as lucky as him." I handed the list to Lily, who unfolded it and read it silently. I heard several gasps as the parchment was passed around.
"Who's going to teach potions?" I shrugged.
"I don't know. Dumbledore tried to get me to. But I don't want to. I have another job. Plus, I suck at Potions. Then he tried to get Remus to teach potions and to get me to teach Defense, but still."
Just then, as if on cue, the door opened again and Dumbledore, Remus, Sirius, Regulus, James, Alice, Frank, Tonks, Gideon, Fabian, Arthur, and Kingsley entered, all spreading apart to go to their family members.
"Erin showed up finally," Regulus said as he approached me. "She didn't get the memo so she just came in when she was supposed to work. She was awful shocked when she found out what had happened and everything that she had missed. Everybody else is on duty now, we got off for a while."
"We still need a potions teacher," Dumbledore said in his usual calm voice once everybody had gotten reacquainted with their families.
"I'm not doing it – "
"That's not what I'm saying," Dumbledore said quickly. "If we could work everything out with Sirius, we could have you teach Defense Against the Dark Arts during the day and work at night or something like that, and Remus could be the temporary potions teacher."
"I don't want – " I started, but Sirius cut me off.
"Actually," he said quietly, "that's not a bad idea."
I stared, dumbfounded, at him, but said nothing as he continued.
"I'm not sending you out there to find the Death Eater's hideout alone, and since Snape is in St. Mungo's, he obviously can't go with you. You have nobody to go with you. So while he's stuck there, you can work here. Once he's back up and as good as new, you can come back and he can resume his position as potions master. But until then, I think it's best if you remain here."
"No, no, no. I'm not a teacher, I'm an Auror – "
"Just do it," Regulus said. "The Death Eaters are all going to be after you, you know it as well as any of us, and Hogwarts is the safest place for you to stay until Severus can go out with you to find their hideout."
"I don't want to be stuck up here," I said, now resorting to the last thing I could think of – whining. I figured it wouldn't work, but decided to try anyways. "I want to be out fighting those battles! It's obviously what I'm supposed to be doing, since I was the one who killed Voldemort in the first place, but do you guys think I'm capable of taking down Death Eaters? Noo – !"
"Stop whining, it's not going to get you your way," Regulus said. I pouted – I should've known that he would know what I was planning on pulling.
"I'm an adult – "
"Technically, you're not," Regulus pointed out.
"Regulus!" I exclaimed. "Do you want me to not get to work where I want to? Do you want me to have to take this stupid job?"
"No, I want you out of harms way and into safety." I huffed and crossed my arms.
"So it's settled then," Dumbledore said after a moment of silence. "Until Severus is better and up for working, Remus will take over position as potions master and Nicole will, therefore, take over position as Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."
"What about the kids?" Sirius asked, pulling Leah closer to him. "The young ones? And Scarlet, and everybody else?"
"We'll have to put protective enchantments on the houses," I said. "You saw what they did to Gideon and Fabian's and the McKinnon's. Or else have you all stay here, which is actually probably safer and the better choice. This room can provide anything needed. And everybody else can stay here when they're not at work."
"That's actually a good idea, Nicole," Dumbledore said slowly.
"Who knew?" I muttered. Only Regulus heard me, and he smirked as he continued to listen to Dumbledore.
"You all can stay here – in this very room – when you're not working, or if you don't work just hang out here. It looks like there's room for everybody here." He motioned toward the doors, where a few had been added when everybody else arrived.
"Sounds good to me," Kingsley said. "Although I'll probably be stuck at work almost the whole time."
"Nicole," Mary said suddenly. "Do you want me to heal that for you?"
"Heal what?"
"Your cheek, of course." I had completely forgotten about that gash, and I felt it to see if it was still bleeding. It had finally stopped.
"Please."
Mary ran the tip of her wand across my cheek. I felt it healing and the dried blood siphoning from my face as she did so.
"Thanks."
"Anytime."
"Well, I really must be leaving now. I'll inform the students about the changing of teachers in the morning, shall I?" Dumbledore said. He handed both Remus and I a piece of parchment. "Those are your schedules with the list of students in each class." He turned and left.
Soon enough, I was lying in bed beside Regulus, who was off duty for the night, in our own room off of the main one. It didn't take long for me to drift off to sleep...
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
The house was ruined. All of the windows had been smashed. The upper level and half of the lower level had been burnt to the ground in a fire that she had started.
The wind whipped the rain that came down in sheets all around. Thunder clapped in the distance. A jet of lightning struck a tree on the horizon, followed by yet another boom of thunder.
But she paid no mind to the ruined-ness of the house or the terrible weather as she made her way into the house. She only had one thing on her mind, and that was to get the mission she had assigned herself finished. She didn't even bother to push the dark, crazy black curls out of her face as the wind blew them all over.
The small part of the house that was not ruined, which consisted of the large connected kitchen and dining room, was where she headed. The rain came in through the windows and the places where the roof had caved in. She searched the ground quickly until she found it – a single strand of hair. She picked it up between two fingers and looked closely at it. It was long, wavy, and a light, strawberry-blonde color. She knew who it belonged to instantly.
And, right in the middle of it, was what she had been hoping was there; a small dot of red. Blood. If it hadn't been there, she would have been screwed, but she had gotten lucky – just the thing she needed was there. Good thing she had managed to cut Nicole Potter's cheek, or she wouldn't have been able to get her blood.
She smiled evilly as she stood back up fully. She lifted her head high, looking up toward the sky and letting the rain fall onto her body and drench her even more than she had been before, and laughed. She lifted the hand holding the strand of hair high in the air and yelled,
"The Dark Lord will rise again!"
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Hundreds of miles away, I woke with a start.