The Inner Circle of Hogwarts

Caly felt really groggy. There were loads of hazy shapes hanging over her. She closed her eyes and struggled to get her memories in order. She'd got off the train with Al, Rose and Scorpius, then she had been trampled by the crowd on the platform. Then James had helped her up and they'd had a brief conversation. She'd missed the boats and carriages. They were nearly locked out of the grounds. They had walked up to the castle in the silence. Then she'd noticed the figure and James had pulled out the funny map. He'd knocked her over and she'd knocked her head. Then it started getting fuzzy. What had he wanted to do? What was it?

"JAMES!" She sat straight up on bed and her eyes flew open this time seeing clearly. She saw a rather large group around her bed. There was Rose, Al, Scorpius, Professor McGonagall, Hagrid, a man and women she didn't recognise and, she breathed a sigh of relief, James. The woman she didn't recognise bustled forward and started checking her over.

"Right you seem fine except for mild concussion. What's the last thing you remember?"

"The man jumped at me and he wanted something. He was…" She shuddered and Rose reached out and squeezed her hand tightly. "He was using his wand to hurt me." She could feel tears threatening. "Then he said he was going to kill me and James." A couple of tears spilled down her cheeks. Scorpius was rubbing her arm, now, and Al was squeezing her shoulder. James looked pale as he sat in his chair. "Then I'm not really sure, it all gets kind of fuzzy." She looked at James.

"You grabbed my foot." He said. "You hit the man on the head with it. You pulled me up and then something went crack, you stood on his wand we found the remains last night, and we ran inside. We went into the great hall. You had your sorting late. You're in Gryffindor with Rose, Al, Scorpius and me." He said Scorpius' name with slight distaste. "You sat down at the table and then you collapsed."

"Wait, so what time is it?"

"It's 2 o'clock on Sunday." Rose said.

"Now, I want you to stay here for the rest of the day and night and if, if you feel better you may go to your classes tomorrow."

"Who are you?" Caly posed this question in the politest way she could.

"I am the Madame Pomfrey II. I am the matron of the hospital wing."

"And you?" she asked the man.

"Professor Longbottom." He shook her free hand gently. "Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts and Head of Gryffindor." She nodded.

"So do you know who he was?"

"No he was long gone when we searched the grounds. Are best hope is to trace his wand."

"But I thought-" She trailed off when she saw James' almost non-existent head shake.

"You thought what, Miss Hautly?" McGonagall asked sharply.

"I thought James knew because the man said James could identify him, it was the main reason he wanted to kill us." She looked at James who looked horrified.

"You missed that part didn't you James." Professor Longbottom said kindly. He nodded numbly.

"What?"

"James, too, took a knock to the head. He was dazed immediately, he cannot recall all the conversation."

"Did you recognise him James?" She noted the drop of his surname.

"No, it's all so confused."

"Come, Neville, Hagrid. We will leave Miss Hautly to her rest, we have matters to discuss."

Professor McGonagall, Longbottom and Hagrid did not speak until they had reached the stone gargoyle that guarded the revolving spiral staircase to her office. 'Armando Dippet' she told it briskly. It jumped aside swiftly and they ascended the spiral staircase. Once they entered her office she took a seat behind the desk and faced the two other professors.

"Well?" The question hung between them. Then Neville asked

"Minerva, should we not bring Pomona, Horace and Filius into this. That way we only tell those with experience and we will cover most of her lessons." Minerva McGonagall thought about it silently whilst admiring the change in the man.

"You are right, it seems foolish to keep it among ourselves. Winky!" She called out and an elf appeared at once.

"Yes ma'am." Winky was a very old but trusty house elf. After the second war she had finally got over the fact she had been given clothes and dedicated herself to the school. Now she was getting on in years McGonagall made sure she wasn't doing anything too hard and always called on her if she needed a message delivered.

"Please bring Professors Flitwick, Sprout and Slughorn to my office immediately, please."

"Yes ma'am." With a second loud crack she disappeared. She looked between Neville and Hagrid. They were all thinking the same thing, should they bring Harry into this. He had already been informed his eldest son had been attacked and nearly killed but they weren't sure if he had got the message because he was, well they didn't know where he was.

"We ought ter bring him in, headmistress." Hagrid said gruffly. "It can't 'urt." Minerva McGonagall nodded and walked over to the fireplace. She took some floo powder and knelt down by the grate.

"Head Auror office, Ministry of Magic." She dropped the powder and stuck her head in the fire place. Her head spun and the flames tickled her neck. When it had stopped she was disorientated, Professor McGonagall had never actually done this before.

She looked up at the office was a mess of papers. There were memos scattered everywhere. A map on the wall had multi-coloured dots flashing and moving. Photos of dark wizards on the run were plastered on the walls. There were some newspaper cuttings detailing his and his wives successes. His desk had lots of moving photos. There was one of all the Potter-Weasley family (with Teddy Lupin and Dora Tonks). There were some from Hogwarts of Harry, Ron and Hermione, with the occasional appearance of Neville, Ginny and Luna. There was one of the original order of the phoenix, of his parents and the marauders at Hogwarts. And of course many of his children and his wife Ginny. At this desk sat a man with untidy black hair and green eyes. These eyes were framed by glasses and were scanning a note in horror. She recognised the note it was the one she had sent him last night, he must have only just got back.

"Harry." Harry Potter, the-boy-who-lived, defeater of Voldermort twice etc., jumped. He glanced wildly around the office and spotted his old Transfiguration Professor's head.

"Oh, Minerva! Phew, you frightened me."

"Good to see I haven't lost my touch." Harry chuckled and then went serious.

"Minerva, what-?"

"Come to my office, I have called the heads of house and Hagrid." she withdrew her head from the fire and straightened up. She was glad to see the other Heads of house. They all looked serious and business like. Harry appeared out of the fire looking tired, harassed and worried. They were all worried. Hogwarts had not been attacked in 19 years since the fateful battle that ended the war. All of them had been there and had fought. Professor McGonagall did not trust anyone more than the people she had gathered in the room.

"Well?" Harry said impatiently. They all looked between them and then Neville took the job as narrator.

"James was with a first year student named Caly Hautly, she's a muggle born. She missed the boats and James missed the carriages or something like that. They began walking up to Hogwarts together. Caly noticed there was someone walking in the shadows of the forest. They jumped onto Caly at the front steps. She was knocked into the stairs, on top of James. They both hit there heads, James doesn't really remember what happened next but Caly does. The man wanted something, she doesn't know what. He was torturing her."

"With the cruciartus curse?"

"No I don't think so, she just said he was using his wand to hurt her. Anyway he then said he was going to kill her and James. He said that although she didn't know who he was that James did. However James didn't recognise him. Caly hit the man on the head with James' foot. She pulled him up, stamped on the mans wand, we have it here, and ran into the castle. She was sorted into Gryffindor and then she collapsed when she sat at the table except she doesn't remember that yet."

Harry sat down in one of the chairs and held his head in his hands. Why his children? It was clear that they couldn't stay out of trouble. He hadn't minded James' pranks after all he was related to James Potter Sr, Fred I and II and George Weasley, someone was bound to end up pranking but this was different. Harry didn't want his children's years at Hogwarts to be like his. Then again it wasn't James' fault. He hadn't been the target of the attack.

"You found the wand."

"Yes it's here." Minerva pulled it out of a drawer in her desk. Harry had to admit that standing on the wand had been a smart thing to do. Even if the man had taken it with him Harry knew it would be very temperamental and dangerous, Harry had experienced that in his second year. Harry took the wand and held it. The phoenix tail feather was poking out of both ends, it was made of yew. Harry felt his blood run cold. The wand felt horribly familiar. He held it together and asked the room.

"How long is this?"

"13 and a half inches." Hagrid replied promptly. "Why?" Harry couldn't answer he was frozen from fear. He was holding a wand that had killed and tortured. A wand that had torn lives apart.

"Harry what is it?" Neville asked very concerned.

"What I am about to tell you may never leave this room. I am not going to tell my wife or Ron and Hermione and I would like you to do likewise. We must keep this amongst ourselves. We must be the very inner circle." Everyone nodded and held their breaths.

"This." said Harry, holding a piece in each hand. "is Voldermort's wand."

There was complete silence in the office. Nothing moved, nothing breathed. Then there was an explosion of noise.

"What!"

"Harry are you insane!"

"But he can't be back!"

"That's impossible!" Harry put up his hands to stop the flow of protests.

"I know it sounds insane but it's true. Obviously I will need to double check with Ollivander but he told me himself that Voldermort's wand was 13 and a half, yew and contained a phoenix tail feather. He also told me that no two wands are the same. This ,therefore, by default must be Voldermort's wand."

"But-"

"No listen to me. In his last year Voldermort was seeking a wand to conquer me. He sort out the most powerful wand of all, the elder wand. A wand presumed to be fictious, a children's tale. It is one of the Hallows. It's complicated but all the Hallows are real. I know, I have held them all at least once. Remember the final battle, remember what I said to Voldermort. The wand must be conquered. Voldermort wasn't the true owner because he never conquered any of the previous owners."

"So if he was carrying around and killing with the elder wand what did he do with the first one?"

"Exactly, one of his death eaters must have taken it. Maybe the man didn't know what the wand was, I don't know but trust me Voldermort is not back."

"So the person we are dealing with is a possible death eater."

"Possible."

"So what do we do now?"

"We need to find out how they got in. Hogwarts must be defended. He could very well come back for James and…er…Caly, that's it."

"Would you like to talk to them?"

"No I think Daffy would kill me. It seems her aunt passed down all the times her rules were broken because of me. I think it would be best to try and work out how they got in. It was obviously via the forest, it has happened before. I never found out how Barty Crouch Sr got in." He mused for a moment. "Hagrid how good are your relations with the talking creatures in forest; centaurs and the Acromantula."

"Good since the war."

"Okay can you ask them if they saw a human in the forest yesterday, I think it's best you did it, especially Aragog's people."

Just then a silvery frog came hopping to him. 'Another minor break out of Azkaban. Please set up immediate taskforce. No high security/death eater escapees.' Harry sighed. However horrible the Dementors were they had done a very good job of guarding Azkaban. The looks on the Professors' faces mirrored his thoughts.

"Well I must go. James will be alright, though?"

"He's fine, if a little shaken. He's been out of bed for an hour."

"Good tell him I'll owl him, oh and Neville can you congratulate Albus for becoming a Gryffindor and tell him there really wasn't anything to worry about." He walked to the fireplace pulled out a pinch of floo powder said Auror office and left in burst of bright green flames.