Chapter 12: Rerouting
[In which the First Ever Muggle Parent Howler arrives at Hogwarts, and Valentine's Day is ruined for everyone, especially Percy.]
Sunday, 10 January – Saturday, 13 February 1993 Hogwarts
The first month back to classes after the winter holiday passed quickly and quietly, with two rather startling and extreme exceptions: the Hufflepuff-Slytherin Quidditch match, held at the end of January, and a previously unthinkable horror – a Howler from Emma Granger.
The Howler arrived on the very first day of term. At the beginning of it, Mary and Hermione thought that the timing was intended to cause maximum embarrassment, with an audience of recently-returned students. Unfortunately, as the red letter wore on, it became clear that this was not the only intention. It was followed the next day by a much longer letter, which contained a full copy of the Howler as well as an explanation, "Because," in Emma's words, "I want you to be able to look back on my words and think about what you've done, and Miss Urquhart informs me that the Howler will burn when its job is done." Mary wasn't sure the follow-up letter was really necessary. She didn't think she was likely to forget any of Emma's major points, though she supposed she was grateful for the explanation of exactly how a muggle parent had managed to create a Howler in the first place.
According to the longer letter, Emma had taken tea with Catherine over the holiday, and the witch had inquired after Hermione. It had come up that the girl was still at Hogwarts, and "Imagine my surprise when Catherine says to me, 'Powers, if it were me, my parents would have had me out of there in a trice!' So of course I had to ask what she meant, as not one of you saw fit to inform me that students were under attack at your school. And then she said, in that coy, teasing little tone that says you've just lost face, 'You mean you didn't know? It's been all over the Prophet. My parents would have sent a Howler for sure if they'd learned it from anyone but me.'"
The second-years had heard Howlers before. They were the most common form of parental discipline at Hogwarts. The Gryffindor table received them at least once a month, most often from Mrs. Weasley, telling the twins off for their latest bit of mischief. Neville Longbottom had gotten one from his grandmother when he managed to lose a Remembrall in their first year, and one of the older Ravenclaws had been sent one at the end of the previous term, but she managed to capture it inside some kind of sound-proof bubble before it exploded, so no one knew what it had been about. Even Mary had been sent one, back when the Slytherins were tormenting her at the beginning of her first term.
Unlike most Howlers Mary had heard in the past year and a half, Emma's didn't shout. Yes, it was very loud, and clearly angry, but Emma wasn't the sort to yell. The voice captured in the letter was carefully controlled, deceptively calm, and worst of all, had a slow, American drawl to it to rival Professor Snape's most sinister tone. It began on a low note ("HERMIONE JEAN GRANGER, YOUR FATHER AND I ARE VERY DISAPPOINTED IN YOU! MARY ELIZABETH POTTER, WE ARE NOT PLEASED WITH YOUR DECISIONS THIS PAST TERM EITHER!"), and only got worse over the full five minutes of sound it contained, because not only were Hermione and Mary reprimanded for their failure to inform the Grangers of the goings-on at Hogwarts, but so were Professors McGonagall and Flitwick.
She accused them of either being entirely without honor for breaking their word to her, or else clearly believing muggles so inferior that they needn't be informed when their children were clearly endangered at school, despite their written assurances that, should anything untoward develop, she and Dan would be made aware. ("I FIND IT DIFFICULT TO COMPREHEND HOW TWO SUCH INTELLIGENT INDIVIDUALS AS YOURSELVES FAILED TO RECOGNIZE CIRCUMSTANCES SUCH AS THOSE WHEREIN YOU EXPRESSLY AGREED TO INFORM MY HUSBAND AND MYSELF ABOUT ANY DANGERS TO MY DAUGHTER AT YOUR SCHOOL! I MIGHT HAVE EXPECTED AS MUCH FROM YOUR IDIOT HEADMASTER – YES, I KNOW ABOUT THE OBSTACLE COURSE AND THE DUBIOUS HIRING DECISIONS WHICH HAVE BEEN MADE IN RECENT YEARS – BUT I EXPECTED BETTER FROM YOU!")
By that point, Hermione had laid her head on the Ravenclaw table in shame. Both professors and the headmaster in question looked furious. Professor Flitwick tried (presumably) to silence the letter, but Professor Snape, openly amused, set some kind of shield charm around the smoking envelope, protecting its tirade from any magical meddling, and the Charms professor's spell was simply absorbed.
Emma threatened to pull Hermione out and have her sent to France for the remainder of her schooling ("YOU HAVE ONE CHANCE, MISSY, TO CONVINCE ME THAT HOGWARTS DESERVES YOUR TUITION, OR WE'LL BE SENDING AN APPLICATION TO MADAME MAXIME AT BEAUXBATONS!") and made it clear that the girl would be punished for lying regardless. ("PRESUMABLY THIS IS THE TRUE REASON YOU REFUSED TO SPEND THE HOLIDAY AT HOME! REST ASSURED, DARLING, YOU WILL BE PUNISHED APPROPRIATELY FOR YOUR DUPLICITY REGARDLESS OF WHETHER YOU RETURN TO THAT SCHOOL IN THE FALL!")
By the end of it, the woman had even appealed to the students of Hogwarts to consider whether their professors had their best interests in mind. ("I AM RELIABLY INFORMED THAT THIS LETTER WILL BE HEARD BY THE VAST MAJORITY OF HOGWARTS STUDENTS. I ENTREAT YOU, CHILDREN, TO CONSIDER WHETHER THE AUTHORITIES AT YOUR SCHOOL HAVE YOUR HEALTH AND SAFETY IN MIND, ASKING YOU TO RETURN TO COMPLETE THE YEAR'S SCHOOLING DESPITE THE FACT THAT THEY HAVE DONE NOTHING TO STEM THE ATTACKS. DOUBTLESS YOUR PARENTS THINK YOU ARE SAFE – THAT THE PURITY OF YOUR BLOOD OR YOUR FAMILY'S HISTORY OF MAGICAL PROWESS WILL PROTECT YOU FROM THIS SO-CALLED MONSTER OF SLYTHERIN, BUT THINK FOR A MOMENT – HOW DOES THE MONSTER RECOGNIZE THIS HERITAGE? HOW CAN YOU BE CERTAIN THAT YOU ARE NOT IN DANGER OF AN ACCIDENTAL ENCOUNTER WITH IT, WHATEVER IT IS? TO SEND ANY CHILD BACK INTO SUCH AN ENVIRONMENT WAS FOOLHARDY IN THE EXTREME!")
Mary couldn't decide whether to die of embarrassment, like Hermione seemed to be doing, or to bow to the invisible presence of Emma Granger for her audacity in addressing all the students, and shaming the professors and especially the headmaster. When the letter finally burst into flames, she stood in the silent hall, cleared her throat to thank Professor Snape for allowing them all to hear something that clearly needed to be said, and then physically dragged a very red-faced Hermione to their first class with Lilian's assistance.
Hermione had, of course, answered the Howler. Thankfully she asked Mary and Lilian to read her response before she sent it. Her first draft was furious that her mother had embarrassed her in front of the entire school. The second one, which her friends actually allowed her to send, included a sincere (or at least sincere-sounding) apology, an explanation that Hermione had been afraid she wouldn't be allowed to learn magic if her parents were worried about her safety, and at least three pleas to be allowed to stay at Hogwarts with her friends.
Iris got quite a workout carrying the Grangers' furious written debate the length of the British island over the next two weeks. Emma and Dan eventually agreed to let Hermione finish out the year when the girls put forward the argument that there had only been two attacks on students over the course of five months and with a student-body of several hundred, it was very unlikely that any of them was personally and individually in any danger. Plus, it wasn't like anyone had died. The professors had announced that the petrifications could and would be reversed once a few rare potions ingredients could be acquired.
The reaction of the other students to the Howler was mixed. Some students were appalled that a muggle had managed to make a Howler, or dared to criticize the Great Albus Dumbledore. Some were impressed. The Slytherins in particular seemed to be torn between their horror at a muggle, any muggle, having any access to magic, and their admiration for the fact that Emma had publicly accused Professors McGonagall and Flitwick of being prejudiced against muggles (an accusation much more often leveled against their families).
No one knew what to make of the fact that Mary had also been reprimanded. On the whole, though, the predominantly negative attitude toward her within the castle shifted. Receiving a Howler was nothing if not a humanizing experience, especially when it came from your best friend's muggle parents. Surely the Heir of Slytherin could not be the same girl who sat stone-faced through such an ordeal, then immediately banded together with the (mudblood) girl who was the cause of her verbal punishment. She eventually – once the danger of the Grangers going to the Ministry to have Hermione removed from Hogwarts immediately had definitely passed – decided that the Howler was, on the balance, a good thing. At least people weren't wandering around obviously terrified of her anymore.
The Conspiracy took full advantage of the confusion and relative complacency of the returning students to question them as quickly as possible. The Slytherins attacked opportunistically, while the Ravenclaws and Gryffindors took a more structured approach, going after the oldest students in their respective houses first. It was soon established that none of the seventh-years (and probably none of the sixth-years either, though they still needed to catch the sixth-year Hufflepuff prefects) were responsible for the Monster.
On the last Saturday in January, which was also the morning of the Hufflepuff-Slytherin Quidditch match, Morgana, Perry, and Adrian managed to get Lockhart alone, and discovered that he was not behind the attacks. They also discovered, thanks to his drug-loosened tongue, that he didn't think he could petrify anyone if he wanted to. "I mean," he had said, "it's not as though I'm actually the wizard from my books." The questioning had been interrupted by one of the other professors before they could get him to admit anything which would result in his removal from the school. As Morgana assured Mary, however, if all else failed, they could slip him a bit of the truth serum at the leaving feast, and he would easily destroy his own reputation, effectively ruining his life after Hogwarts.
The game, easily the highlight of Mary's month, was much more fun without the threat of a rogue bludger, but bitterly cold. Even the warming enchantments on the pitch could not entirely negate the chill in the air. Hufflepuff and Slytherin were well matched in their chaser coordination, but Fetch was a much better keeper than Alina Tufts and the Slytherins had the advantage of an active Seeker, so the Snakes were up by nearly three hundred points when, after two hours in the air, the snitch appeared not fifteen meters from Cedric Diggory. He caught it, of course. Mary was all the way down the pitch, in the middle of the scrum, distracting and disorienting the Hufflepuff chasers. She was a bit put out over it, but Flint and the rest of the team (and later the house) didn't seem to mind too much, since they had still won by a margin of 130 points. She had done her part in their plays, and when and where the snitch appeared was always a matter of luck.
After the Quidditch match, the Hufflepuffs, sore losers all, began trying to avoid the Slytherins even more than they already had been. Fred and George took the lead in questioning students, informing the other Conspirators two weeks later that they had finished questioning their fifth-years, and were half-way through fourth with no real suspects. The Ravenclaws were not far behind, and had started a rumor that the Monster of Slytherin was a basilisk. Their housemates had taken to checking around the corners of more deserted corridors with hand mirrors, just in case it was lurking about, but after nearly a month back to school with no sign of another attack, many others hoped the danger had passed.
It hadn't, of course.
Sunday, 14 February 1993 Hogwarts
On Valentine's Day, Mary and Lilian entered the Great Hall at lunchtime to find that the walls had been covered in lurid pink flowers and there was heart-shaped confetti falling from the ceiling.
"You don't think this is the pick-me-up the 'professor' was hinting about all last week, do you?" Lilian asked sarcastically.
"You know, I'm not sure," Mary responded in a similar tone before adding more seriously as they joined their table, "There's like a one in three chance the Headmaster has taken to interior decorating."
The other second-years sniggered appreciatively at this.
It turned out that Lilian was right. Lockhart matched the décor, and every other occupant of the staff table looked irate. When most of the students had finished their meal, the blond idiot stood and shouted to the hall, "Happy Valentine's Day!" There were a few giggles and more than a few sniggers from the crowd. "And may I thank the sixty-seven people who have so far sent me cards! Yes, I have taken the liberty of arranging this little surprise for you all – and it doesn't end here!"
He clapped his hands, and a dozen surly-looking dwarves marched into the Hall. Mary wondered how much the celebrity had to pay them to wear those fake-looking golden wings and carry those useless little harps.
"My friendly, card-carrying cupids!" The idiot beamed, clearly oblivious to the fact that all of his 'cupids,' the staff, and half the students would appreciate it very much if he would just fall victim to the DADA Curse already. "They will be roving around the school today delivering your valentines! And the fun doesn't stop here! I'm sure my colleagues will want to enter into the spirit of the occasion! Why not ask Professor Snape to show you how to whip up a love potion!"
Professor Snape looked murderously at the students before turning his hate-filled gaze back to Lockhart.
"Or talk to Professor Flitwick about Entrancing Enchantments!"
Professor Flitwick, who had been in a noticeably poor mood since The Howler, cast a Silencing Charm at his nominal colleague, and left the Hall before anyone could say another word. Most of the students followed his lead before the gaping author could recover. Mary did note that none of the other professors seemed inclined to help Lockhart.
}{-}{-}{-}{-}{
"We should send a valentine to that third-year Hermione fancies," Lilian suggested as they made their way toward the library to meet with the Ravenclaw in question.
Mary was taken aback at this suggestion. "Who, Kirke?"
"Yeah, the Ravenclaw bloke."
"She'd be livid." Hermione hadn't mentioned the older Ravenclaw much since school started again. Mary wasn't even sure if she still liked him.
"So you think I should do it?" Lilian teased.
"No, send one to Gred and Forge from her instead."
"Ooh, you're right. That will be much funnier." With that, Lilian turned and ran back down the stairs to find the nearest dwarf.
Mary waited patiently for her friend to return, watching a painting of several dogs playing cards. The pug seemed to be winning.
"Okay, it's done! I told him he could say whatever he wanted, as long as it was from Hermione Granger to Gred and Forge Weasley. He said if he got to say whatever he wanted, he would even sing. I said yes if he would do it at dinner. This is going to be awesome!"
The Slytherins were still giggling when they reached the library. Their suspicious Ravenclaw friend immediately asked them what they had done, and was not at all reassured by their simultaneous "Nothing!"
}{-}{-}{-}{-}{
As the afternoon wore on, Mary grew less enthusiastic about their plan to prank the twins and Hermione. She had been accosted by no fewer than twelve valentine-carrying dwarves herself (all from virtual strangers), and after the first singing one, she had been kicked out of the library. She considered heading down to Slytherin, where at least the blasted things couldn't get to her, but decided to take a walk outside instead, because she didn't want to so obviously give in to the holiday-themed harassment. Hermione and Lilian opted to stay inside, where it was warm, so Mary was alone and slightly late as she returned to the castle for dinner.
She came in through her favorite side-entrance, the one at the bottom of North Tower, which led directly to a spiral stair that came out on the fourth floor behind a tapestry of an erumpet. She would, of course, have to make her way back down all the stairs to the Great Hall for dinner or to her common room, but the view from the window at the top of the hidden stair was worth it. She wasn't in a hurry, anyway.
She was making her way across the third floor to the Main Staircase when she heard it: a voice, sibilant and deep, speaking from somewhere out of sight. Rip…tear…kill, it hissed. Mary shuddered. She didn't know how she knew, but there was something about that voice that said the speaker was larger and more powerful than she. Hunt the scent…
It was moving away, down, somehow. Mary sprinted toward the stairs, desperate to warn whoever the snake was hunting – what if it was headed to the Great Hall? But she was trapped waiting for a moving staircase, and by the time she made it to the first floor, it was too late: she tripped over the frozen body of Percy Weasley, his glasses fogged and cracked, lying, unexpectedly, halfway out of an abandoned classroom, just off the Entry Hall.
Mary picked herself up off the floor, wiping her scuffed palms on her robes, and made her way to the Great Hall. She would be damned if she would be found standing over the body again. No. She would report it, before anyone else had a chance. No one would think she had done it if she were the one to draw attention to it, right? She hoped so, as she made her way along the Hufflepuff side of the Great Hall and slipped up behind Professor Snape's chair at the Head Table.
"Sir," she said, voice shaking only a little, "There's been another attack."
The potions master and the astronomy professor froze before turning to her. "Miss Potter," Professor Snape drawled, as quietly as he could, "Who and where?"
"Percy Weasley, sir. Just outside the Hall."
"Aurora?"
"I'll take care of it." Professor Sinistra excused herself from the table, and ghosted out of the hall nearly as unobtrusively as Professor Snape might have done.
"Go wait in the Annex off the Entry Hall, Miss Potter," the man ordered, before gliding down the table to talk to Professor McGonagall. Mary did as she was told, barely registering the laughter of the hall as a tone-deaf dwarf croaked out a ballad of love to the Weasley twins in Hermione's name. She looked back when she reached the doors to see a very white-faced Professor speaking intensely to the boys in question. They stood as one, each moving toward one of their younger siblings as she watched.
"This is not the Annex, Miss Potter," a dry, silky voice came from behind her.
She jumped. "Sorry, Professor!" She followed as he led the way to the room in question. Prefect Weasley's frozen form had been removed already – to the hospital wing, she presumed, by Professor Sinistra. They were joined moments later by Professor McGonagall and all four of the remaining Weasleys.
The Little Weasel was the first to speak. "What's she doing here?"
"Ron," "don't," the twins said, but before they could continue, Professor Snape cut them off.
"Miss Potter is the one who reported your brother's condition," he said smoothly. ("She probably did it!" the boy objected, but he was ignored.) "Minerva, shall we take this to your office? I imagine you will need to floo Mr. and Mrs. Weasley."
"Yes, yes, at once," the older witch said, clearly shaken.
She led the way, the Weasleys crowding close to one another for comfort, with Professor Snape and Mary trailing along behind. Little Ginny was crying openly, her twin brothers' arms wrapped around her shoulders. Ron kept shooting suspicious looks back at Mary.
She swallowed hard. It was clear she wasn't welcome. The Weasleys should be together as a family, now, she was sure, and she didn't want to intrude, anyway. She very much wanted to ask why she had been told to come along, but on second thought decided that it would probably be best to stay silent until she was asked to speak.
}{-}{-}{-}{-}{
Molly Weasley, Mary decided, was the most terrifying person she had ever met, including Professor Snape, Gryffindor-Mary's Uncle Vernon, and an angry Emma Granger. She was loud and emotional and in every conceivable way too much. She came through the floo in Professor McGonagall's office, and threw herself bodily on her sons and daughter, hugging them close and demanding repeatedly to know what had happened to her poor Percy without giving anyone time to explain.
Mary followed Professor Snape's lead, finding a convenient shadow in which to lurk. Both he and Mr. Weasley, a thin, jittery-looking man who trailed along behind his wife, gave her approving looks. It took some time, including an argument over a quick trip to the infirmary for all the Weasleys (which they didn't end up having), but eventually the family was settled on an enormous conjured sofa, and the professors called Mary forward to explain how she had found Percy's body.
She told them everything, from coming in through the side passage to hearing the snake to trying to warn everyone but getting stuck on the stairs, then tripping over the prefect's body and immediately informing Professor Snape. Ron was still angry with her, and the twins were giving her a terribly haggard look. Ginny stared at her hands in her lap, silent and clearly miserable. Mrs. Weasley questioned her story fiercely, but Mary was not responsible, and had nothing to hide. No detail changed, and after the third retelling, Professor Snape dismissed Mary to fetch Professor Dumbledore, and then return to the dungeons.
She did so at once, afterward recounting the story one more time to Lilian and the other Slytherins assembled in the common room. Chaos erupted as the purebloods and half-bloods who had thought themselves well and truly protected by their heritage or family names realized that, blood traitors though they might be, the Weasleys were as pure as anyone. The Conspirators met each other's eyes, silently affirming that would end this – find out who was attacking everyone, and put a stop to the madness.
Monday, 15 February – Sunday 11 April 1993 Hogwarts
Morale at Hogwarts hit an all-time low as news of the latest attack spread like wildfire. The Board of Governors removed Dumbledore from the school (and Draco was only too pleased that his father had been the one to organize that particular political maneuver). Hagrid was taken away to Azkaban, the wizard prison, because, as it turned out, he had been accused of opening the Chamber the first time, and the Ministry wanted to be seen to be doing something. Hermione told her parents about the latest attack, and reminded them that all her arguments for remaining at school were still valid.
Two days after Percy was petrified, Fred and George cornered the second-year Conspirators in the library, a haunted look on their identical faces, to reassure them that, although their brother's attack was a shock, they would still do their part for the Conspiracy. They would get to the bottom of this business – if anything, it was now an even higher priority, because the Heir had just made things personal. The girls nodded seriously and made quiet, reassuring, confirmatory sort of noises. It had never crossed their minds that the boys wouldn't follow through.
The fearful attitude of the wizard-raised Slytherins spread to the rest of the school within the week, and whispers arose that if even purebloods weren't safe, they would have to close the school. Students began to disappear from the Great Hall as the more protective parents called their children home. Mary wondered what had changed, to make them so suddenly wary, until she realized that they truly had thought their children safe, just because of their bloodlines. She hadn't realized until then exactly how little even the most progressive wizards cared about muggleborns. It was disgusting. She tried to talk to Professor McGonagall about what would be done, but the Deputy Head – Acting Head, in Dumbledore's absence, was far too busy to reassure her about the likely fate of the school. This was probably, as Lilian cynically pointed out, because the Professor didn't know herself.
The other houses began treating all Slytherins as absolute pariahs, much as they had done to Mary after the Creevey attack, and their coldness toward Mary herself, as their only reasonable "suspect," reached levels she hadn't seen since the week before the winter holiday. The Slytherins, who only knew that no one in their own house was guilty, and only knew that insofar as they trusted Professor Snape, became extraordinarily suspicious of everyone and anyone, and organized a buddy system to provide alibis for each other, should another attack occur. The Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors stopped going anywhere alone. Only the Ravenclaws seemed largely unaffected, spouting the same arguments Hermione had used about the probability of attack and going about their usual business, though even they had begun to pay slightly more attention to their surroundings.
The rumors of a basilisk spread, to the point that a Ministry investigator showed up a week into March to look into the claims. She found no sign of such a beast, though the students muttered darkly that of course she wouldn't – it obviously lived in the Chamber of Secrets, and no one knew where the damned thing was! Compact mirrors became ubiquitous among the students, who made a habit of checking around every corner any time outside of the normal passing periods between classes, when the corridors were filled by the entire student population.
Lockhart's classes became even more of a joke and a waste of time than usual, until Zacharias Smith cracked one day, and told the bloody idiot at the front of the classroom that if he wasn't going to teach them anything worthwhile, he ought to just shut up and let them read things that might be useful. Lockhart told him that he could shut up or get out, and the boy left, followed by every single student in the classroom. From that point on, the second-years went to the library during their DADA time slot, and practiced transfiguring roosters (which no one could quite manage) and mirrors, just in case. None of the real professors had the heart to force them back into Lockhart's classroom.
Outside of classes, the ten conspirators did the only thing they could: they buckled down and continued with their plan, hoping desperately that the school would stay open (on Mary and Hermione's parts), that the revival of the petrification victims would go smoothly (on the Weasleys' part), and that everything could soon go back to normal. Day after day passed, with no official word on closing the school. Classes were held as usual. Easter drew near, and there were no more attacks.