Chapter 35- Skull and Phoenix
Harry had been happily dreaming about actually playing in the Quidditch World Cup when the cheers as he caught the snitch in his dream were replaced by screaming. For a moment he wondered if his dream might have somehow been turned into another nightmare. Then he felt himself being shaken awake and knew the screaming was real.
"Wake up, son. We have to move fast and get you kids out of here."
Harry followed his dad and Sirius outside and gasped at the confusion. There were more fires burning than there should have been, and once his eyes adjusted he could see that there were actually some tents on fire. People were screaming and fleeing in every direction and only one group seemed to be organized at all. They were marching, holding their wands in the air. He could see that they were levitating a family of muggles, the campsite manager's family. He tried to see who the group of wizards were, but he could only see that they had their hoods up. When the strangers walked closer to one of the fires he saw that they were wearing masks.
"Death Eaters!" Harry said in a way that was somehow a whisper and a shout at the same time.
In his nightmare Harry had heard Voldemort say he was waiting until after the Quidditch World Cup. So why were his followers doing this now?
Harry tried to stay with his dad and Sirius, Hermione and Ron running along with him, but between people running in all direction, stopping to try to put out the fires and trying to find their loved ones, it was hard to tell who was where. Someone aimed a spell at the muggles to get them down, but everything else was still so confusing and they soon ended up separated from the adults.
"Where to now?" Ron asked.
Harry looked around.
"Into the woods," he decided. From there they'd be able to get some idea of what was going on. Harry reached for his wand so they could have a light, but it wasn't in his pocket.
"Oh no! Did anyone see me drop my wand anywhere?"
"What? You dropped your wand? Do you think you might have left it in your tent?" Ron asked.
"No idea. I don't think so."
They tried to look for it, but it was useless. They continued on when they bumped into the last person anyone wanted to see.
"You're actually letting yourself be seen with the mud blood? I'd get her out of here if I were you. Not that I don't want to see the show when they find her."
"Shut your bloody mouth Malfoy!" Ron yelled.
"Don't you dare say one word against Hermione!" Harry added.
"Not very friendly, eh Potter? Maybe you're still upset that your dad got fired?"
Harry glared and was tempted to just punch him.
"He didn't get fired. And my family is doing just fine."
Malfoy gave a cruel laugh.
"You call that a family?"
"Yeah, I do. Where's your family, wearing masks?"
Before Malfoy could answer, another voice was heard.
"MORSMORDRE!"
Harry felt himself go cold as the green skull and snake appeared in the sky. He'd never seen the Dark Mark, but after Sirius' trial Harry had asked about what it was since it had been brought up and Remus had explained it to him and told him what it looked like. And Harry knew what it meant when it appeared in the sky. Remus had wanted Harry to not have to think about things like that too much and try to live a normal life, but Harry had read about it in one of his dad's books. When the Dark Mark as in the sky, it normally meant someone had been killed. Was it his dad, Sirius, or one of the Weasleys?
Malfoy had run off like a coward, and Harry could guess why. He remembered Ron telling him Lucius had pretended he'd been under the Imperius curse and claimed to have come out of it after Voldemort's downfall. Voldemort wouldn't be too happy with the Malfoys or the other Death Eaters who had escaped going to Azkaban. But right now Harry wasn't too worried about Malfoy. He was more concerned about who had conjured the dark Mark and why. Was his family all right?
Thankfully he didn't have to wait long to find that answer to that. Although it wasn't exactly the way he'd hoped. Somebody started to shout a stunning spell aimed at them when he heard his Uncle Arthur yell "Those are our kids!"
Arthur, Sirius, and Remus hurried to them and started checking them over.
"Are you kids OK?"
"We're all fine, Dad," Harry said "What about everyone else though? We saw the Dark Mark."
"Nobody's hurt, at least not badly."
Before anyone could say anything else, a crowd started to gather.
"I thought you claimed not to be a Death Eater, Black!" Crouch shouted, running up. "Then how do you explain the fact that you conjured the Dark Mark?"
They weren't going to falsely accuse him again, were they?
"How long is it going to take to get it through you people's thick heads that I've never been a Death Eater or any kind of dark wizard?" Sirius asked angrily. "You act like you think catching one more Death Eater will bring back your old popularity. Maybe if you'd stopped going after innocent people and spent more time in your own home things would have gone differently for you."
The others there looked nervously at each other knowing perfectly well what Sirius was referring to. Remus stepped in between them as if he was worried the two would start dueling right then and there.
"Sirius shouldn't have to be blamed for every piece of dark magic that happens around him," Remus said. "I made the mistake of not trusting him once. Never again. I know he wouldn't have anything to do with dark magic."
"Than who did conjure it?"
Just then Amos Diggoy came out of the trees saying "You're not going to like the answer to that, Barty."
"What? Who? Who did you catch?"
Diggory was carrying Winky the house elf.
'We sent our stunners into the woods. This is what they hit."
Sirius gave Crouch a very intense glare.
"No! There has to be someone else!" Crouch dashed off in the direction Diggory had come from.
"There isn't anyone else, Barty." But Crouch was still searching desperately through the bushes. Finally he came back, almost pleading when he spoke again.
"But- but she'd have needed a wand," he stammered.
"And she had one," Diggory said, holding up a wand Harry instantly recognized.
"Hey that's mine!"
Crouch looked relieved.
"So you're the one who did it?"
Now everyone was looking at Crouch with disapproval.
"Now you're accusing children? And of all the children to accuse, you're accusing Harry? Don't be a fool, Crouch."
"He can't help it," Sirius said. "Being a fool is habit to him."
Crouch glared at him, and then revived Winky.
"Elf, you were found beneath the Dark Mark. We'd like an explanation."
Hermione immediately started to defend Winky.
"Winky couldn't have done it. It wasn't even her voice we heard when the Dark Mark was conjured."
Everyone was suddenly looking at the children.
"Did any of you recognize the voice you heard?" Arthur asked. The children all shook their heads. Then Crouch turned to Winky.
"I'm afraid this means clothes for you."
Winky started to cry and protest that she had only found the wand, but Crouch wasn't listening.
"You're punishing her for something she didn't do? Can't you see she was terrified?"
"It wouldn't be the first time he's had someone punished for something they didn't do," Sirius said coldly. "You aren't being reasonable at all about this, crouch. Don't do this to Winky."
As much as Sirius disliked Kreacher, he was never cruel to house elves in general.
"Are you so obsessed with your reputation that you'd treat her like that?" Remus said. "From what I've seen she's always been a good servant to you. You even had her save you a seat in the top box when she's afraid of heights and then never bothered to show up."
Crouch chose not to tell why he hadn't been there and only said "She ran from the tent when I told her not to."
"Would you have had her stay and be trampled?" Hermione snapped. Again, Crouch didn't listen, and forced the sobbing elf to take the clothes. There wasn't much any of them could do. Remus and Sirius silently looked at each other and silently agreed, each knowing what the other was thinking.
"Winky, how would you like to come work for us?' Sirius asked. He'd never liked the idea of having a servant and didn't want to have one more elf. He would have freed Kreacher if he hadn't needed to be sure he wouldn't tell anyone about the werewolf school. But at least if he took Winky in she wouldn't be mistreated by anyone else. Winky started baling even louder, but finally accepted since she had nowhere else to go for the time being. The group headed back to their campsite t meet up with everyone else, all of them very angry at Crouch and wishing they knew how Death Eaters had managed to cause havoc there.
Between speculation over how the Death Eaters had managed to cause so much trouble, finishing preparations at Phoenix House, and Harry and his friends all needing new school supplies (Including dress robes, as much as Harry and Ron hated it), the remainder of the summer was going fast. The Prophet was filled with stories about lax security, dark wizards running amok, and even insinuations that Sirius may have been behind it and that it wasn't safe to let him be around Harry. Sirius had taken to throwing the paper in the fire every morning and threatening to hex Rita Skeeter into oblivion if he ever met her.
The new residents of Phoenix House arrived two weeks before Harry would have to leave for Hogwarts. Harry had to admit it was a little unnerving meeting the five adult werewolves. He had expected them to be like his dad, but he could see they were less trusting, harsher, and didn't have the same gentleness his dad did. They rarely spoke, and when they did it was always to one of the other werewolves. They seemed like they were trying to avoid anyone else.
It was even sadder meeting the children. Shy and almost fearful, they acted almost like they were huddling together for protection. One little girl seemed the shyest of all. She would watch everybody intently but rarely spoke until one day she found Remus alone and went up to him and tugged on his robes.
"Hello there," Remus said kindly. "You're Mila aren't you?" He knew the little girl had been left at Phoenix House several days before, too young for school but without any family who were willing to raise a werewolf.
The little girl nodded and then asked "Mr. Lupin, how long before I turn into a wolf?"
Remus looked at her sadly. "You're worried about that aren't you? Will this be your first full moon?"
"Yes," she said in a small voice. She looked down, then said in a rush "I know I shouldn't have gone out after dark, but that night, I thought I heard barking outside my window. I didn't know it was a werewolf, Mr. Lupin. I thought it was a dog and then-"
"Shhh, it's OK," Remus tried to be comforting. "And it's still a few weeks before the next full moon."
He could imagine all too well what happened next after she went after what she thought was a dog. He'd be willing to bet only Greyback would let himself get that close to a child on the night of a full moon too, but of course there was no proof.
"Before I came here, people told me I'm not human anymore," Mila said after being quiet for a long time.
"You've met the other werewolves here, most of them children like you. Do you think they're not human?" Remus asked gently.
Mila shook her head.
"Well, there's your answer. You're just as human as anyone else."
The little girl had another question though.
"You're different from the other grown up werewolves. That's why I thought you'd be the best one to ask. After I transform the first time, will I be like you or like them?"
Remus sighed, wondering how to explain this. He knew the werewolves who'd come here were all basically good people, but he could imagine the ones who had spent their lives on the fringes of society just trying to survive could seem frightening to a child at first.
"The other grown up werewolves who came here are ones I've known for a long time, ones I know I can trust. They're just worried about a lot of things and they've had hard lives, but they aren't bad people. And you can be whatever kind of person you want to be." Remus thought again how lucky he was to have had the chances and friends he did.
He spent a long time talking with little Mila, who was obviously very intelligent for her age, and she seemed more relaxed from then on. Harry did all he could to help the children too, playing Quidditch with the ones that were old enough too play the sport and reading to the younger ones. They all enjoyed it, but it was more the fact that someone who wasn't a werewolf was actually willing to spend time with them and treat them like they were anyone else that did the most good. Especially when the person was the famous boy- who- lived.
Harry had always hated the way people treated him like a hero. After all, the only reason he was even alive was because his first parents had died for him. It was his mother's sacrifice that had defeated Voldemort the first time, and the other times he'd faced Voldemort or done anything that seemed heroic it was mostly luck, at least as far as he thought. But if he could use his fame for a good cause and show the werewolves not everyone was against them, he'd be glad to.
Sirius did all he could to help keep the children happy too. The fact that he could turn into a dog delighted them, and they were thrilled to learn that during the full moon he would still be able to play with them as a dog. Tonks had enthusiastically agreed to teaching them transfiguration in her spare time, and joined Sirius in keeping them entertained, using her own way of transforming. Remus found himself watching her during those times, thinking how good she was with them.
As the first day of the school year came closer, everyone could see that with so many people who weren't werewolves making an effort to be kind to them, they were all learning to trust little by little. The whole atmosphere of the place was so different from when Harry had first seen it and everything seemed to be going so well that Harry couldn't help feeling sad that he'd have to be leaving for Hogwarts.
"You'll have a good time once you find out what's going on this year," Remus told him as they waited at King's Cross for the train to arrive.
'Why? What's happening at Hogwarts?"
"You'll find out before long," Sirius said, grinning. "Wouldn't want to spoil the surprise. We're not allowed to, anyway."
"Since when has something not being allowed ever stopped you?"
They all had a good laugh at that, but Harry saw their expressions become worried. He wished now he had never told them his nightmare. He gave his dad and godfather each a hug, then turned and hugged Mr. and Mrs. Weasley before getting on the train with Ron, Neville, and Hermione. Harry had heard how Mad Eye Moody was taking over the Defense position, and they all sat talking about what kind of teacher he would be. Harry was sure he wouldn't be as good as Remus had been, but from what he'd seen of him he would still probably be good. And Moody was an Auror, after all. Between Moody and Dumbledore, Voldemort wouldn't have much of a chance to get to him at Hogwarts, Harry thought. So why was he still so worried?
AN: Thank you to everyone who reviewed. You have no idea how much your reviews make my day
gibby 101: It's OK:) Don't feel silly. And I'll be happy to answer your questions if you really want, but I can't respond to you unless you're signed in before reviewing. Anyway, I hope you keep reading.