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CHAPTER NINETEEN:Attack on Hogwarts

Harry pushed open the door to the office without knocking and pointed his wand at the occupant. "Don't try anything, Professor Havelock."

Melinda looked at him from behind her desk, her face a picture of innocence. "Of course not, Mr. Potter. May I ask what this is about?"

"You were very good, Professor,"Harry answered. "Full magical qualification certificates, references. I imagine you used the odd Confundus Charm to stop people looking too closely. But if you follow the paper trail far enough, you'll see there are things missing. The fact that no-one remembers you being at Hogwarts, that you're not mentioned in any of the yearbooks, that there's no employment record for you until you started here. Which leads me to one conclusion: There's no such person as Melinda Havelock. So who are you?" He let the question hang in the air for a moment before casting the spell. "Revealo."

As Harry watched, Melinda changed. Her features stretched and rearranged themselves as the spell cancelled out the polyjuice potion. When they had finished, a slightly older woman, her dark hair streaked with grey, was sitting there, scowling at him.

Harry nodded at the confirmation. "Pansy Parkinson."

She gave him a strained smile. "Potter."

"So, who was Melinda Havelock, then? I mean, the person whose form you used."

Pansy opened up a drawer. Harry gestured pointedly with the wand but all she removed was a plastic bag full of dark hairs. "I found out something about Muggles. They can't use magic to change their hair so they cut it. I found a woman who looked right for the Melinda disguise and all it took was a simple charm to convince her to hire me as her personal hairdresser. She gave me a ready supply of her hair. Even let me come back every few months to take some more." She took out a second bag full of blonde hairs. "I chose a second form for me to move about where appearing as Melinda would be suspicious."

"James saw you change back into your real form,"Harry recalled. "But he'd never seen the real you, so he didn't know who you were. Until today, when he found your picture in an old yearbook. Throw in the fact that you visited Draco Malfoy in Azkaban more than anyone and it wasn't hard to realise who you were."

Pansy gave a mocking smile. "Well done."

"I get that you wanted Draco out of Azkaban and his family probably insisted you free the rest of them as well. But why come to Hogwarts, why pose as Professor Havelock?"

"Draco wanted me to keep an eye on Scorpius. I made a mistake at first, tried to keep that Weasley girl away from him. Didn't think Scorpius would confront the girl I was posing as, nearly gave myself away."

"And I take it you disguised yourself as Parvati and Neville as well?"

"Wanted to see if I could pull it off. Of course, it was fun giving that Mudblood Grainger or Weasley – or is she calling herself Potter now? – what she deserved."

"It's still Weasley,"Harry answered. "And what do you mean, what she deserved?"

"It's her fault Draco was in Azkaban in the first place,"Pansy answered.

It took Harry a second to follow the line of reasoning. "He was in Azkaban because he used the Cruciatus Curse on Hermione while trying to stop me saving James,"he pointed out carefully.

Pansy nodded, apparently not detecting his sarcasm. "That's right."

Before Harry could answer, Hermione and Luna came rushing in. "Harry, the Malfoys!"Hermione gasped. "They're coming here, they're going to attack Hogwarts!"

"What?" Harry was astonished. "Why?"

"I think they're after the slashkilter that Professor Slughorn keeps in the dungeon in case of emergencies,"Luna opined sincerely.

"Did you not hear what I said?"Pansy asked. "Draco sent me here to keep an eye on Scorpius. Do you think he'd leave without him?"

Harry's eyes widened in shock. "Watch her,"he told the two women and hurried out.

Ron, Neville, Ernie, Seamus and Hagrid stood in the courtyard. Ron could see three figures approaching on broomsticks. Although they were too far away to make out, every now and then one of them would fire off a Blasting Charm that caused part of the stonework to explode.

"This place stood up against Voldemort's army once,"Ron complained.

"They kind of caught us by surprise,"Neville admitted. "Didn't have time to put any protective wards up."

"Like old times this, eh, Ronald?"Hagrid remarked. "Standing shoulder to shoulder." He waved his umbrella wand about: Even though Kingsley had long ago used his wrongful expulsion as a special circumstance to grant him permission to carry a wand, he still preferred the incognito one.

Before Ron could answer, James, Albus, Martin and Emily entered the courtyard, wands drawn. "What are you doing here?"Ernie demanded. "Professor Slughorn ordered all students confined to their common rooms."

"We want to help,"James insisted.

"Where's Rose?"Ron asked.

"We couldn't find Scorpius,"Emily explained. "She went to look for him."

"I'm surprised you didn't bring Lily and Hugo with you,"Seamus commented.

"They wanted to come,"Albus answered. "We made them stay behind."

"Look, you can't stay here,"Neville protested. "You're too young."

"You were mine and James' age when you fought the Death Eaters at the Ministry,"Martin pointed out. "And Mum was Albus and Emily's age."

"Yeah. And that went really well."

"Too late to send them away now,"Seamus remarked, looking up, as the others heard a whooshing noise overhead. "Here they come."

Scorpius and Rose held onto each other's hand as they ran through the corridors, the sounds of battle echoing towards them. "Do you think we should help?"Scorpius asked.

Rose shook her head. "We need to get you somewhere safe."

"Scorpius!"a voice called and Draco stepped out of the shadows. "It's time to go."

"Dad?"Scorpius asked in astonishment.

"Mr. Malfoy?"Rose echoed. "How did you get in here?"

"It's not just your family who know the secret ways into Hogwarts,"Draco answered. He pointed his wand at Rose. "Sorry about this."

"No!" Scorpius stepped between them. "Don't hurt her." Draco hesitated for a moment then lowered his wand. Scorpius turned back to Rose and took her hands. "Rose, just run. I'll be all right."

Rose wanted to argue but something in Scorpius' expression told her she shouldn't. She ran. She looked back over her shoulder and saw Draco put an arm around Scorpius' shoulder and lead him away. She ran on, tears stinging her eyes, until she ran straight into someone. She gave a gasp of shock, then she realised who it was. Harry.

"Uncle Harry,"she gasped. "Scorpius' dad, he's taking him away!"

Harry nodded. "All right. Find your dad and Professor Longbottom and tell them what's going on." He ran in the direction she had come from, while Rose ran on.

Ron and the others were exchanging spells with the three figures swooping above them: Lucius, Narcissa and Romilda. Ron was confused by the identity of the attackers. He could understand Rookwood, Yaxley and Flint not wanting to be part of whatever the Malfoys were doing but where was Draco?

"Disarming spells only,"he said quietly. He didn't want to risk a Stunning Spell on an airborne opponent, when he couldn't guarantee being able to levitate them to the ground afterwards. It was a tactic he was sure Harry would approve of… even though he wasn't entirely sure why that mattered to him.

"Expelliarmus! Expelliarmus!"Albus declared, firing off spells that served largely as a ward.

"Levicorpus!"Emily snapped as Romilda swooped too near her, managing to adjust her target's course slightly.

And then, suddenly, the three Death Eaters banked away from the battle, flying off into the sky. "What a rush!"Martin gasped.

"Why did they leave?"Neville wondered.

And that was when Rose came rushing into the courtyard. "Dad! Dad!"

Harry dashed down the corridor until he caught sight of Draco and Scorpius. He considered firing off a spell but he didn't want to risk hitting Scorpius, not even with a spell that wouldn't cause permanent damage. "Malfoy!"he shouted and Draco turned at the shout, his wand up, just as Harry's was. "Draco, let Scorpius go,"Harry insisted, trying to sound calm and reassuring.

"He belongs with me!"Draco snapped.

"You're going to have every Auror in the country after you,"Harry replied. "That's no life for him."

"Well, what's the alternative? Let you bring him up?"

"He belongs with his mother,"Harry insisted. "She'll bring him up in that closed pureblood world you're so fond of."

Harry could see his words weren't getting through. "I'm taking him with me and you can't stop me!" Draco insisted.

For a moment, Harry thought he'd have to use a spell after all. Then it hit him, just how familiar this was. "Dumbledore gave you a choice!"he shouted. "He said you didn't have to be part of that world, that we'd look after you. Don't you just wish you'd taken him up on it?"

Draco's resolve seemed to fade at that. He turned to Scorpius. "Go."

Scorpius ran to Harry. Harry didn't take his eyes off Draco, even though he addressed the boy. "Scorpius, go to the courtyard. Rose's dad is there, he'll look after you."

Scorpius ran off. And then it was just the two of them.

Draco licked his lips nervously, realising what was going to happen now. "I didn't have anything to do with what happened to Ginny, Harry. I hadn't even joined up with them then."

"I know,"Harry agreed. "You're no killer, Draco. But last time we met, you tortured Hermione. And you enjoyed it. So if you think I'm just going to…"

"Sectumsempra!"

Draco fired off the curse before Harry had even finished talking and he only just managed to block it. "Stupefy!"he returned.

"Crucio!"

"Impedimenta!"

Harry and Draco danced about the corridor, casting, dodging and blocking spells, neither of them able to find an opening. Harry wondered if either of them would ever hit a target…

"Incarcerous!"

Harry hadn't even known there was anyone else in the corridor until the spell hit him in the back. Suddenly, he was securely bound, causing him to overbalance and crash to the floor. He looked round…and saw Pansy standing there. He gazed at her in astonishment and then remembered where he'd left her. "Hermione and Luna…"

Pansy sneered at him. "Don't worry, Potter. I didn't damage anything you might need later. Just hit them both with a Stunning Spell. I had my wand hidden under my desk." She stepped over Harry, went over to Draco and kissed him lightly on the lips. For a split second, Harry thought he saw a look of distaste in Draco's expression. "Where's Scorpius?"she asked.

"He's staying here,"Draco answered, taking her hand before she could argue. "Let's get out of here."

Harry struggled against his bonds but it was no use. All he could do was watch them go.