CHAPTER FIFTEEN
OPENING OLD WOUNDS
O
Easter approached very slowly; it might have been because of all the work that the first years had received. It was as if all the teachers had organized a secret meeting and planned all of their assignments to be due on the same day.
But Easter, despite its apparent reluctance to arrive, finally came. Albus got together everything he needed to do and stepped on the Hogwarts Express to head home. He decided to get started on the train, since Easter was a big family get-together and he wanted to be able to spend as much time as possible with his cousins.
As he was describing in close detail his ideal Hirsuhedrora trim, he looked over to see Eftan showing Jonah another movie. He was going to turn back to his paper and ignore it, but something suddenly caught his eye on the screen.
He whipped his head back and stared at the phone. "What was that?"
"What was what?" asked Eftan.
Albus pointed at the screen. "This is a Moouggle phone!"
"So?" asked Jonah, frowning.
"So they just recorded a dragon!" gasped Albus as another dragon flew over the head of one of the main characters in whatever movie they were watching. "I thought Moouggles weren't supposed to know about dragons—how did they record one for this movie? That doesn't make sense, the Obliviators should have—"
"It's animated," said Eftan.
"What?"
"Animated," repeated Eftan. "See, it's really complicated to explain to someone who grew up in a Wizarding household, but… Moouggles can do weird things with what they record; they can—it's kind of like drawing things into the movie, and they have machines that can do it really well for them, and…" He squeezed one eye shut and tilted his head. "Am I making any sense to you?"
"Not really," admitted Albus. "But… let me get this straight… Moouggles can make it look exactly like there's a dragon there, when there actually isn't?"
"Pretty much," said Eftan. He looked relieved that Albus understood; he was having a hard time expressing the mechanics of "animation" in a clear way.
"But…" Albus was starting to see a gaping hole in his grandfather's argument. "But then… Moouggles would never be able to tell what's real, and what's fake!"
"What do you mean?" asked Eftan.
"I mean…" Albus ran his hands through his hair. "Remember at the debates, when my Grandpa Weasley took a picture of the dragon and showed everyone in the audience? If he had done that… I mean, anyone could have just, er, animated it in. So how would anybody be able to tell what's real and what's fake?"
The compartment fell silent.
"That's a really good point," said Eftan quietly.
"I didn't think of that," said Jonah.
"I was thinking it a little bit," said Sylvester.
Aidan glanced over at Albus. "Aren't you going to see your grandpa this week?"
"Yeah," said Albus. "I could ask him."
"Do ask him," said Alec. "I wanna know what he says."
"I'll relay the question," said Albus. "I gotta finish this now, though." He turned back to his assignment.
But he found that it was extremely hard to concentrate now. How could he think of the best possible mustache for a plant when he had just thought of something that had not even been considered by a room full of adults debating the topic?
His mind was whirring with these thoughts all the way to King's Cross, and he found that his essay was no longer when he arrived than when he had brought up the question.
O
His parents picked him up at the station and brought him straight to the Burrow, where the Easter holidays were typically spent. Albus ran up to his usual room to finish up his work before the rest of the Weasleys arrived. Once the familiar shouts sounded from the fireplace, though, it was hard to resist the temptation to run down and say hi to his cousins; eventually he gave in and decided he could do his homework during the nights.
"Albus!" cried his grandma as he reached the bottom of the stairs. She gathered him up in a big hug and kissed the side of his head several times before releasing him to his cousins. "You ran right upstairs, I didn't even get to say hello!"
"Sorry," grinned Albus.
He then turned to run and tackle Teddy, who had just arrived. Teddy laughed as Albus put him in a headlock, and turned his skin blue as the cousins loved him to do, shouting, "Help! I can't breathe!"
He then turned and got above Albus, pretending to pummel Albus with his fists and laughing. Albus couldn't help notice that his breath smelled like the same gum that Victoire always loved to chew.
The rest of the cousins arrived in droves, nearly colliding continuously as they tumbled through the fireplace. The room was filled with a dozen different conversations.
"How's Auror Training, Teddy, I hear they're thrilled to have a Metamorphmagus of your caliber—"
"Yes, we got the idea for the Knee-Knockers from Charlie; it's how they take care of the dragons, you see, you can take down anything if you get its legs—"
"I was certain this particular pyramid's curse would take a few more days to crack at least, I'm very glad we finished before Easter and the full moon tomorrow, you know how I get the headaches—"
"Albus is doing phenomenal; we got him a Sheerer 720 for Christmas as a present for doing so well—"
"—dreadfully exhausting, really, everything I'm doing, all the meetings and reading all the advisor reports, it's all crammed so tight that I feel like I'm losing time if I blink during the day—"
The family slowly spread out across the house, meeting again for dinner. Uncle Percy had to leave before dinner, but Molly and Lucy and Aunt Audrey stayed; Percy promised to be back for Easter dinner. Nobody blamed him for leaving, of course—being the Minister was a tough job, to say the least—but when Harry had to go, Albus distinctly saw his mother's eye twitch as she worked her jaw from side to side.
There was a great game of Quidditch with the Weasley cousins and Teddy. Victoire refereed, not being a fan of Quidditch herself, as Teddy, Dominique, Louis, James, Albus, and Lily took on Molly, Lucy, Freddie, Roxanne, Rose, and Hugo. Roxanne and Freddie carried their team, as Freddie constantly screwed around with the other team by diving at them full-speed, and Roxanne had no reservations about knocking her cousins off their brooms. She was probably set to become a great Beater for Gryffindor soon; she was on the reserve squad, so she'd probably only get on the team after the master beaters Sally Songhorn and Kieran Dougan were out of school; they were in their sixth year now.
"I'm happy with that ending score," said James, jumping down from his broom when they called it quits; it was starting to get dark.
"You're happy that you lost?" asked Lucy, jumping down next to him.
"What? The final score was two hundred and forty for us to two hundred and ten from you guys."
"Like hell! We won, two hundred and thirty to two hundred, I was counting diligently!"
"Most certainly not! I at least remember that we were up by thirty!"
"I don't trust a Seeker to keep score when he's playing Chaser!"
"That's total rubbish, we have to make absolute sure we know the score so we don't catch the Snitch if we're down by more than—"
"Ladies, please!" called Victoire. "Don't needle your knarls. You were tied at two hundred and twenty."
James and Lucy ignored the referee and continued arguing about the score all the way up to the house, culminating in James throwing a garden gnome at Lucy, and her retaliating by shoving him into the Rancidendron bushes. They were pretty flowers, but they let out a horrible scent if they were uprooted. James smelled terrible for the rest of the day, and he swore unending vengeance upon his cousin.
O
All through Saturday night and Sunday morning, James would appear out of nowhere and pull some sort of prank on Lucy; every time he did so, he'd shout "UNENDING VENGEANCE!" and dart away before she could follow him. It was some of the best entertainment Albus had gotten in a while, and he and most of his cousins took to hanging around wherever Lucy was idling, just in case there was another James moment.
All in all, the mood was very cheerful and pleasant when the family gathered for dinner. Ginny was happy because Harry was able to stay the entire Easter Sunday, and Aunt Audrey was happy because Percy was able to come for dinner. It seemed, at least within their family, like the world was finally calm and contented.
Albus hadn't forgotten the idea he'd entertained on the train. He was just wondering whether he should wait until after dinner to bring it up, when Grandpa Weasley offered him the perfect segue into the topic.
"So, Albus!" he said jovially, peering down the table. "I hear that you and your class got to see me talk at the Ministry debates!"
Percy twitched. Several of the adults noticed, and they tensed.
"Yes, we did," said Albus. "I thought it was really, er… boring. I mean, I know it was important, but…"
"Yes, I suppose it was! Boring but ultra-important. You're going to have a story to tell your grandkids, aren't you? You sat in on one of the most important international debates of the past couple centuries!"
"Yeah," said Albus, trying to ease the transition into his question. "Some of it was really interesting, I mean—it was really cool learning about the Moouggle tech—the Muggle technology, I mean—" His face heated up.
Grandpa Weasley roared with laughter; so did some of the other adults. "Did you just say Moouggle, Albus?" he managed to say through the hilarity.
Albus shrunk back into a seat, hoping he'd grow a turtle shell in which he could hide.
"You liked Mbato's accent, did you, then? Yes—the term for 'Muggle' in Swahili is 'Muogo,' which is why he has a hard time with the similar pronunciation of the English term… I believe 'Muogo' is derived loosely from the word for 'small…' no offense, Audrey, dear…"
"That's perfectly all right," said Audrey, smiling.
"I was wondering something," said Albus, deciding to go for it before they wandered too far in the conversation, or it would be awkward to return to the topic. "About the Muggle technology you were talking about?"
"Yes?" Grandpa Weasley looked very happy at the chance to share his extensive knowledge on Muggles.
"Well… Do you know what… er… what animation is?"
Grandpa Weasley nodded, and he had a look in his eye like he knew where this was going.
"Well… wouldn't animation make it impossible for Moo—for Muggles to determine whether or not a picture of a dragon is real or fake?"
All eyes turned to Grandpa Weasley; the adults had stopped their conversation, too.
"That's an excellent point," he responded. "I believe that was brought up in the technical advisement meetings. And the answer to that question is that it is impossible for anything to be proven as an actual photograph. But it's not so simple as a question of whether Muggles believe the picture alone—what if hundreds of eyewitnesses can confirm the event, and can pick out the real picture from hundreds of fakes? Then, if no one else, the Muggle government at least is investigating the—"
"We take measures to prevent any investigations," said Percy gruffly.
Grandpa Weasley's eyes narrowed.
The temperature in the room seemed to drop as swiftly as if a Dementor had arrived. Everyone in the room tensed—even all of the kids could tell that the mood had swung like a pendulum.
"You assume your measures are complete and perfect," said Grandpa Weasley.
"You assume we are entirely incompetent," growled Percy.
Grandpa Weasley's hands curled into fists. "I assume that a single oversight is possible, and that a single oversight would be enough to cause enough damage that a large group of people will suffer if that mistake is made!"
"All right, I think that's enough, dear," said Grandma Weasley.
"We are doing everything we can to protect the Muggles, including protecting them from the knowledge of our world which will unfortunately be timed with a very serious threat to the Wizarding world—and then what will Muggles think of us, when they discover that this hidden magical world is about to wage war on itself!"
"What will they think of us if we let Muggles die by our hands and continue to deprive them of an explanation?" said Grandpa Weasley, his voice rising as he leaned over the table further.
Percy grew louder in response. "You think I don't care about Muggles? You think I don't care about Audrey's family—that I'm doing nothing to protect her friends, her nieces, her nephews? When we are already doing everything we possibly can, I see a severe flaw in any plan which asks us to do more!"
"Helio Wilcox agrees with me!" argued Grandpa Weasley. "Great wizards all across the world—the best of us know! Harry, you know Helio, tell him!"
Harry squirmed slightly in his seat awkwardly; Albus knew him to be on Percy's side, but evidently, his father did not want to mention that. "Er…" said Harry, scratching his sideburns. "Er…"
"I've talked with Helio Wilcox many times," said Percy, trying to calm himself back down. "I'm certain he's got his heart in the right place, but he just does not quite understand the implications, I'm sorry to say—"
"Are you saying we're idiots?" thundered Grandpa Weasley. "Are you insulting me?"
"WHAT?"
Any chance of Percy calming himself down was lost with this accusation. He seemed on the verge of standing up as he snarled, "What do you mean, am I insulting you? No one said—"
"Something horrible is about to happen in this world!" shouted Grandpa Weasley; the adults at the table all grimaced and threw glances at the kids, as if they hadn't wanted their children to hear that. "I would know! I've lived through it twice! Something terrible is going to happen, and it is going to affect the Muggles, as it has every time in the past! And if we don't tell them what's going on, then one of two things is going to happen: they're going to find out, or they're going to blame their own governments! Mistrust and mayhem and anarchism and war ensues in the Muggle world, because wizards are too selfish to do what—"
"SELFISH?"
Percy rose from his seat.
"Perce, please," whimpered Aunt Audrey, tugging at his arm, her eyes watering.
Percy ignored her. "SELFISH?" he roared. "WE DECIDE NOT TO INFORM THE MUGGLE WORLD, AND SUBSEQUENTLY, WE DO NOT HAVE TO DIRECT RESOURCES AND MANPOWER INTO CALMING THEM DOWN AND HELPING THEM LEARN ABOUT US—INSTEAD, WE ARE USING THESE RESOURCES TO TRY AND PREVENT THESE TERRIBLE EVENTS FROM HAPPENING—THIS IS SELFISH TO YOU?"
"AND WHAT IF YOU CAN'T DO IT?" bellowed Grandpa Weasley, who had also stood up. "WHAT IF YOU CAN'T STOP THE STORM FROM COMING? THEN YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR WHATEVER HAPPENS TO THE MUGGLES! YOU CAN'T TAKE THE CHANCE NOT TO TELL THEM IF THERE ARE LIVES AT STAKE HERE, IF LIVES CAN BE SAVED—"
Now they were both shouting over each other, and it was nearly impossible to hear either of them.
The row continued for about thirty seconds before finally, someone else became fed up with the fight and got involved; Grandma Weasley stood up next and slammed a fist onto the table very violently, clearly expressing how she felt about this dinner etiquette; all of the plates jumped into the air on the slam, and a glass that was too close to the edge tilted off and shattered on the floor.
As if that were a signal, both men stopped talking, and they stared each other down, glaring with intense loathing.
Suddenly, without a word, they both turned from the table and with two loud cracks, they both Disapparated from the room; their chairs had caught fire.
Aunt Audrey was sitting very still and rigid, but tears were streaming down her face. Grandma Weasley was the only one left standing, and she looked utterly shocked. Aunt Fleur had a hand over her mouth, and Uncle George looked sick and angry. Albus's mother and father had both squeezed their eyes shut.
"Well," said Uncle Charlie, stabbing his fork through his ham and leaving it there, leaning back in his chair and sighing. "What a lovely family dinner."
Albus glanced around at all the solemn faces staring at their plates, and thought this was probably good practice for attending a funeral. Nobody spoke, nobody looked at each other, nobody touched their plates, and nobody got up from the table.
Grandma Weasley slowly sank down into her chair again, and her face became scrunched up. Abruptly the tears broke through, and she started to sob. Uncle Bill was closest to her, and he started rubbing her back with one hand, holding her hand with his other. She leaned into his shoulder and silently continued, and the only sounds in the room for the next full minute were Grandma Weasley's sniffles; shuddering, heaving breaths; and the slow scratch of Bill's hand on the back of her sweater. The fire slowly consumed the two empty chairs, and no one did anything about the smoke slowly filling the room.
Two loud cracks, one immediately after the other, made everyone at the table jump. Albus craned his neck around in his seat, and saw both Uncle Percy and Grandpa Weasley standing there, next to each other, and his heart leapt, but then it dropped even further when he saw their ominous expressions.
Both men's faces were white as sheets. They slowly staggered back to their chairs, extinguishing them, and sat down, taking themselves off of their shaky legs.
The silence continued. Grandma Weasley was staring at Percy, and he was staring back at her, looking like he would have been upset at the mood he left her in, except that there was something about which he was even more worried.
"What is it?" said Audrey, finally.
Neither man answered.
"What happened?" said Harry sternly.
"Five thousand," whispered Percy.
"What?" said Ginny.
"Five thousand and three hundred," he said, whitening even further as he said it. "Five thousand, three hundred… an estimate."
"An estimate of what?" said Grandma Weasley, her face paling, too.
Albus couldn't understand to what they were referring, but he had a feeling that he shouldn't want to know.
Five thousand and three hundred what? An estimate of what?
"I'm sorry," said Percy, staring at Grandpa Weasley. "I… I never thought…"
"I didn't think it would go this far, this soon," he responded.
Uncle Charlie stared down Grandpa Weasley, and then Uncle Percy. "Tell us what happened," he said shortly.
"Five thousand," repeated Percy in a quavering voice. "And three hundred."
"Five thousand and three hundred what?"
Percy squeezed his eyes shut and squeezed his wife's hand.
"Muggles."
It felt like a blow directly to the stomach. The room was unbearably quiet, the silence pressing in on them, heads seeming to spin. Albus's throat went dry as he realized what the implications were from that one word.
Muggles?
Muggle… lives?
"Five thousand and three hundred," said Percy again. "An estimate."
The news with which they had returned created an even more dismal mood than had been cast by their departure. As if to commemorate the dead, the entire family remained in their seats for so long that it was impossible to keep track. When they finally rose from the table, it was time to go to bed, which was just as well, because it would have been hard to find something enjoyable to do after the news that had been broken.
Albus headed up the stairs with his cousins once the table was cleared, hearing several clicks as the Weasley family clock turned nearly all of its hands to "bed." He heard strange, deep breathing as he passed the room where Victoire and Teddy were staying; he peeked in through the cracked door to see the two of them entwined on the bed, kissing through pouring tears, and rolled his eyes. James, coming up after Albus, wasn't even in enough of his usual pestering mood to bother the pair; he didn't even look through the door.
They all silently climbed into their beds in the upper floor rooms and fell asleep with difficulty. Screaming Muggle parents and crying Muggle children tormented the backs of Albus's eyelids, and he had to wipe his eyes several times on his pillowcase before the painful visions finally transitioned into miserable dreams.
O
Albus learned more details about the incident on the following day, although he did not want to hear them.
There had been silent attacks on Muggles for several years now. It was usually nothing that was difficult to rectify without inciting a panic in the Muggle community. But yesterday, a group of wizards stole dragons from a sanctuary in the mountains of England, and set them loose on Muggle towns while they themselves swept through and obliterated houses. Twenty-nine witches and wizards alone had claimed over five thousand Muggle lives. And every single one had managed to avoid capture.
Now the pictures and videos were circulating through the Muggle creation that Albus had heard about before, the "Internet," and it was having a disastrous effect. People were able to watch the destruction, and it was hard to pass this off as animation: the videos were complete with accounts of certain people who died, along with all of their wounds, and exact damage to buildings explained. Harry was called to work as an Obliviator, because they were incredibly short in that department. He left directly after Easter dinner, along with Percy, to try to improve the dire situation.
"They've forced our hand," Percy had kept muttering to anyone who was nearby. "I can't believe they'd do something like this. We may have to do it… We may have to do it after all."
It looked as though the Wizarding World wasn't going to be a secret from the Muggles for much longer.
O
There was very little fun in the entire rest of the weekend; with a catastrophe like that hanging overhead, it was hard to focus on anything else. Albus began to notice that none of his holidays so far had ended on a happy note, and he wished with all his heart that the terrible things which had happened so far were not destined to escalate.
Percy was meeting with the Prime Minister on the day that Albus returned to King's Cross to board the train. Apparently, they were discussing whether the global revelation was going to happen—and if so, when. Percy predicted, if things kept going the way they were, that the announcement to the Muggle world would be delivered by the beginning of summer. He also said that all hell would probably break loose, but that the other option was potentially worse.
Both Albus's mother and father escorted him to the Hogwarts Express, and when he boarded, they looked as though they were reluctant to let him go.
"Not as if I'm worried about your safety at Hogwarts," said Harry when James brought this up to him as they were departing. "There's probably no safer place; Helio Wilcox's watchful gaze makes me as comfortable as Albus Dumbledore's once did. It's just… In times like this, you want to have your family close."
"Then you should come to Hogwarts with us!" said James.
Harry laughed. "I'm sorry, but I've got to get back to the Ministry right after this. They need everyone they can get over there."
The train whistled, and Harry pushed his kids through the door.
"We'll see you soon," called Ginny. "Less than three months."
The train started to move.
"We love you, so much," said Harry. He waved and turned to comfort Lily, who was devastated again that she wasn't going to Hogwarts until the year after next.
Albus returned to his usual compartment, filled with his usual group of friends. He sat down and noticed immediately that the mood in here was not much cheerier than the mood at the Burrow.
"Did you hear?" asked Eftan as Albus sat down.
Albus nodded gravely.
"My dad's friend had a cousin who was killed," said Sylvester. "He says the friend is really angry and he thinks it's the government's fault, that they were doing something that they shouldn't have done."
At that moment, several second year Slytherins walked by the door, talking and laughing loudly. One of them was making a monster-like face and pretending to attack one of his friends, who was squealing like a girl while the rest of them were almost doubled over with hilarity. It didn't take a genius to figure out what it was at which they were poking fun.
Sylvester rose from his seat furiously and made for the door. Before he got outside, Eftan reached out and pulled him back.
"Not worth it," muttered Eftan into Sylvester's ear.
Sylvester sat back down, but he took out his wand and tapped it on his thigh; the wand was emitting a low growl.
"They're bloody idiots," said Eftan. "We all know that, and that's enough. No need to get yourself into trouble."
"I'd rather go out with a message than live silent," said Sylvester.
The compartment grew as silent as the Weasley family dinner table.
"You guys don't hang around much with the other Slytherins, do you?" whispered Albus to Eftan when conversations began again.
"No," said Eftan. "Neither of us really hang around with the Slytherin group much… They're not awful to us, just generally unpleasant to everybody else. If we were good friends with any of them, we'd probably have to pretend to despise you guys."
"Thanks for not despising us," said Albus, smiling.
"There are some exceptions," said Eftan. "Scorpius hangs out with the Greengrass triplets, because they're his cousins. I think most of the animosity is directed towards Gryffindor. Old rivalry. It's like we inherit it as soon as we're Sorted."
"And Slytherin thinks that Hufflepuff is composed entirely of ninnies," said Alec, who had tuned in a little while ago.
"That's one way to put it," said Eftan. "Oh, and did I mention that even though Sylvester likes our group of friends here, he can't stand Aidan?"
Albus started.
"What? Why? Aidan's fun to have around."
"He doesn't even know why, but he gets really annoyed when Aidan's around," laughed Eftan. "I thought it was maybe because Aidan's kind of a know-it-all, but Sylvester says Rose is the same way but he's fine with her company."
"Weird," said Albus. "Well, as long as he doesn't outwardly express his aversion to Aidan's company, I guess it's not a problem."
"He said the same thing, he likes everybody else," said Eftan.
"Weird," echoed Alec.
"Don't tell Aidan I said that."
"I won't," said Albus.
The train rolled slowly forward.
"Hey, Eftan," said Alec, after they had changed into their school robes, being very close now to Hogwarts. "You grew up with a Muggle family and all Muggle friends, didn't you?"
"Yeah?"
"From a Muggle perspective… what do you think would happen if there was a global revelation? If they all found out about us?"
Eftan stared at the window, like he was looking back on the world which he was leaving as he returned to school.
"I think all hell would break loose," he said quietly.
The train pulled back into Hogsmeade Station for the final countdown to summer.