Hey guys!
Finally, finally I was able to post this Chapter. I saw Deathly Hollows yesterday and really, it's awesome, the best Potter movie I've ever seen. And then after it, I remembered that I had to post this chapter.^^
I really apologize for the long wait, but I have so much to do in school at the moment... I'm drowning in work.
As always a great thanks to my beta Kyae. Didn't she do a great job?
By the way, a friend of mine made two trailers for this story and posted it on youtube.
You can find them here: (remove the spaces): http: / . com/watch?v=pEJj1QHCxro
And this one: .com/watch?v=hMYmXUIMvqU
Enjoy!
Chapter 31
"Hey Potter, wake up!" a deep looming voice resounded through the room, silent sniggers following it.
Harry groaned when the curtains of his bed were roughly drawn back and a stray beam of sunlight struck his face cruelly, causing him to flinch at the brightness of it. He blinked and looked up into the face of Blaise Zabini.
"G'way…," he mumbled and covered his eyes with one hand, trying to recreate the darkness. He winced when his muscles screamed painfully and grimaced. Harry stayed like that for a while and then finally peering through his fingers saw, that Blaise was still standing in front of his bed with a frown on his face.
"You alright, Potter?" the dark-haired ex-Slytherin asked and took a closer look at him. "You look like you've been run over by a horde of hippogriffs."
"Feel like it too," he moaned groggily and Blaise shook his head.
"Then have fun," he replied and Harry raised a questioning eyebrow. Blaise smirked slightly before elaborating. "We have Quidditch training in five minutes. The others are already down on the pitch. You better hurry up, or else Padma's going to skin you alive."
Harry mumbled something incoherent and then awkwardly sat up. He once again winced when he stretched his arms and sighed. Blaise was watching him and then shook his head and went over to the door.
"I tell Padma you need a while."
Blaise disappeared and Harry had to withstand the temptation to simply sink back into his comfortable bed and get a little bit more sleep. Slowly he rose to his feet and stumbled over to his wardrobe to get his clothes. He tripped over his own feet and clutched the cupboard before giving an exasperated sigh.
"Merlin… I haven't felt that sore for over a year!" he mumbled and changed his clothes.
After needlessly combing through his hair he looked at his watch and his eyes widened. What normally took him five minutes at max had taken him fifteen! With another shake of his head he took his Firebolt out from under his bed and shuffled down the stairs and out of the Common Room. Outside he waited for the door to disappear and then started pacing in front of the wall to enter their training room.
Inside he went over to the potions-section and looked through the shelves. "There you are!" he exclaimed satisfied when he caught sight of ten small vials with blue potion.
He took one of the vials and gulped down its content. It was a simple Pain-Reliever, just like Snape had given him yesterday. He didn't like to drink them, but Harry doubted that he would be able to stay on his broom longer than a minute otherwise. He looked at his watch and sighed, while reluctantly going down to the pitch.
…HPHPHP…
"Finally!"
Harry was jerked out of his thoughts when he entered the changing-rooms and smiled sheepishly at the oncoming storm, aka Padma. The girl was standing on the other side of the room, at the door leading to the pitch and tapped her broom against the floor. He sighed while Fred and George started sniggering softly in the background when Padma started glaring the "glare of death" that she had become famed for.
"I'm sorry…" he whimpered, widening his eyes and praying that she'd forgive him.
"I swear, Potter, if we had enough members in the House of Phoenix I would really consider getting a new seeker!" she snapped and continued to glare at him with full force, causing all others in the changing rooms to take a step back too. "You're over half-an-hour late!"
He drove a hand trough through his hair and sighed quietly. "I know, I know. And I'm sorry okay? I'm not in the best of conditions at the moment."
Padma blinked and then looked at him more closely. Then she frowned and shook her head, while taking a step forward. Harry simply looked at her when she put a hand on his cheek and then on his temples. Fred and George sniggered once more and Harry didn't even need to guess what was happening in the omake theatre in their minds.
"You're right," said Padma then rather reluctantly. "Your temperature's slightly off and…" " she looked at him more closely and then seemed to sniff a little bit, "have you taken a Pain-Reliever? What in the name of Merlin have you been doing?"
"How'd you know about the Pain-Reliever?" Harry asked slightly baffled and she scoffed.
"I may be in Hermione's group learning about wards, but that doesn't mean I don't learn something about potions as well. Our group's sitting in the library next to the potions-lab where Draco's teaching the others after all." She smiled cheekily and eerily reminded Harry of the Twins sitting in the corner. "You learn to digest some smells then. So, what have you been doing?"
He held his hands up in defeat. "Training."
All of the team members raised their eyebrows telling him clearly to elaborate. But he simply shook his head. "I'm sorry; I can't tell you more than that."
"That must be one hell of a training!" Ernie, who was sitting next to Daphne, exclaimed and the others nodded.
Padma suddenly grimaced and then glared slightly at him, while Daphne stood up and nudged the Indian girl's side. "Be that as it may… we can't let him play like that Padma. What if he falls off his broom?"
Harry's eyes lit up and he send Daphne a grateful look. Then he looked at Padma with puppy-dog eyes. "Does this mean I don't have to play today?"
"Just go!" she replied a bit miffed and turned around. "But I expect you to be up to hundred-fifty percent next training! Understood?"
Harry saluted with a smirk. "Yes, Captain!"
He turned around with a relieved smile on his face, but suddenly a hand landed on his shoulder and he turned around once more. Padma was looking at him with a sweet smile on her face.
He rolled his eyes. "Yes?"
"You can help Ernie with Rose and Euan. As much as I hate to admit it right now," Harry smirked when she rolled her eyes at him, "you're one of the best flyers I've ever seen and can teach them some tricks."
Harry closed his eyes and exhaled, before nodding slowly and pushing Padma's hand away. "Will do."
Padma clapped her hands and Harry merely sighed when she ushered the others out of the changing rooms. Grumbling to himself he made his way up to the Common Room, glad he could at least sit down while helping Ernie to teach the two first-years, now where it was clear that he wouldn't get anymore sleep.
…HPHPHP…
Before Harry had even really noticed, time seemed to pass by at such a speed that before he knew it the snow had vanished, making room for the soft grass and the flowers that came had in hand with the spring to sprout up.
"It's rather late this year, spring – isn't it?" had Hermione had pointed out when they had been enjoying a warm breeze on the grounds, as they lazed about near the trees.
The H.A. had progressed wonderfully so far. Harry was the first to introduce his group to some simple dark curses they could cast and after that had talked to each of them separately. He had started with the same curse he himself had started with. The Blood-boiling curse. At first they all had been a little reluctant to admit, that they had felt pleasure while casting the curse on the mouse they had practiced on, but after Harry had told him about his own feelings and that it was totally normal, they had been a lot more open, with each other especially.
But he had still been surprised at their insight. It had been Ginny who had pointed out to all of them that they didn't need to be afraid of the curses thrown at them, but of those they themselves were using against their opponents. "Of course a little fear when standing in front of a dark wizard is a wise thing." Theo had remarked. "You don't want to get overconfident, after all."
The other groups had made great progress as well. Hermione's group was already able to draw several wards and break as much – even a simple blood-barrier as she had told him. Draco's group who was learning potions could without a doubt brew anything that was demanded of them – if they had a book with instructions (although Draco refused to let them work on the Wolfsbane and the Draught of Living Death) and each of the students in Neville's group - in Harry's opinion - could hold his own against a Death Eater long enough to get help.
The only group who hadn't made that much of a progress was Ron's and Harry could totally understand that. The redhead had often complained about Lavender's and Collin's inability to focus on the important things and so, after often trying in vain to make them understand, he had taken on to train them physically for now as well.
With all that going on, Harry was proud to say that he hadn't landed in the hospital wing so far. Sure, he was tired and a tingling sensation constantly lingered in his body, but otherwise he was fine. Snape seemed to be satisfied with the progress he made as well and even tried to talk Draco – who had a very strong reaction to basilisk-blood – into building up a resistance as well. The blond however refused. "Basilisk-blood is much too rare for me to worry about it." That was the reason he always presented when asked.
…HPHPHP…
On a warm Monday morning, a week before the Easter holidays, Harry was sitting on the Phoenix table at breakfast, talking to Rose and Euan. Even though they were in his house, he had only occasionally talked to them in the evenings and when they had questions about the castle and magic. The two first years always seemed to be disappearing in the castle and on the grounds.
"And? How d'you like Hogwarts?" he asked and as he buttered his toast. "I've never asked you that before. And before you start wondering why I only ask it now: You simply need a lot of time to get to know the castle."
Euan beamed at him. "It's so huge! My parents didn't believe me when I told them that I got lost at least once a week in the beginning! Heck, I still do!"
"Yeah!" injected Rose. "And mine were totally baffled when I told them 'bout the house-ghosts. I didn't even believe it myself at first, so imagine what their reaction was!" She blushed slightly and Harry smiled at her enthusiasm.
"I can see that you like it here. And believe me; I know that it takes a lot of time to see the whole castle." He bit into his toast and chewed, while looking at the two first years, lost in his thoughts. Then he smiled. "In fact, I only started to really roam around here in my third year."
"Really?" asked Euan slightly disbelieving, and Fred and George, who were sitting next to Harry grinned at him and then turned to Rose and Euan.
"Believe us-"
"… ickle firsties. Hogwarts-"
"… is a really big place-"
"… with lots of things to discover."
"They're absolutely right." Harry nodded when the two first-years' eyes lit up and he didn't need to use Legillimency to know that they were planning on going on a little exploring-trip. He lowered his voice: "But please, I don't tell you that this to spoil your fun and I don't tell you that this as a prefect. I tell you this as a friend: There are places in Hogwarts you don't want to discover."
"W-what do you mean?" asked Euan wide-eyed and Rose bit her lip with a frown.
He shook his head and turned back to his toast. Ending the conversation between them when Fred and George took over and told them about the commonly used secret passage-ways.
Harry finished eating and let his mind wander through the Great Hall and brought the goblet with pumpkin-juice to his lips. He knew that scanning other students minds wasn't necessary legal – only in case of an emergency – but it was really entertaining most of the time. Dean, for example was thinking about a way to ask Ginny out and Theodore – over at the Slytherin table was wondering where he had put his second sock.
Harry chuckled and brought his goblet to safety when the post-owls arrived with various packages and letters. He froze and the goblet slipped out of his hand when a very familiar black barn-owl landed in front of him, carrying a thick envelope. He stared blankly at the animal, who seemed to glare at him.
His housemates looked at the spilled pumpkin-juice and then back at him and at their inquisitive looks his mind started working again and he smiled weakly at them.
"Sorry, I was just surprised to get a letter from my friend in… Romania." He said and hoped they would buy it.
"Hey!" exclaimed Rose suddenly and drew the attention away from him. He shortly looked at her. "Look! I got a letter too! I've never got a letter delivered by an owl!"
"Wicked!" answered Euan and Harry smiled slightly despite the thick envelope the black owl meanwhile had spit onto his empty plate. "Open it!"
The black bird flew away with a screech and whacked Harry over the head with one of his wings. "Blasted bird!" he muttered and stared after it with a glare. "As moody as its master…"
His eyes turned to the envelope on his plate and then on then on his name that was written in an elegant script as if somebody had taken hours to write those two words. He shook his head, the writing alone told him, that the envelope was from none other than his favorite nemesis. He felt the eyes of his friends on him, thought back to the last letter and grit his teeth, while grabbing the next best tissue in case of the letter being a portkey.
'Now everything falls into place!'
His head snapped over to the staff table at the pleased sound of the high-pitched voice he had just caught while unconsciously scanning the crowds minds - a habit he had picked up over time when his mind was desperately searching for answers. And answers were something that lacked a lot at the moment.
His eyes fell on the pink monstrosity named by her unfortunate parents Dolores Jane Umbridge, who that was sitting there, merely looking hungrily around the Great Hall, with that trademark sick smile plastered across her face ('The one that makes her look like a pink toad', thought Harry and then frowned ‚… no, wait, that's insulting the poor toads… sorry Trevor…'). He stared at her and carefully placed the envelope inside of his robes without directly touching it. He had no intentions of reading theat letter in the open.
'He must've been so pleased! I wonder who it was…?'
Harry took a chocked gasp when he saw some of the pictures flashing through her mind and jumped to his feet. Under the startled looks of all the Hall's occupants he was right next to Umbridge, behind the staff table. He noticed cracks of something like black electricity around him and realized slightly baffled that he had just flashed in his human form.
"YOU! WHO GAVE YOU THE RIGHT?" he bellowed, not paying any more thought to the fact that he had just flashed and grabbed Umbridge by the collar of her robes. "HOW DARE YOU!"
"MR. POTTER! What's the meaning of this?" snapped McGonagall who – like all the other teachers – had been startled into jumping to her feet while excited whispers broke out through the Great Hall.
However he paid them no mind as Umbridge struggled to break free, while her pink-painted nails scratched the skin of his hands, leaving small cuts that honestly didn't hurt.
"They're human beings!" he snarled, and his voice was trembling with anger. "How could you sell them out to him like simple garbage?"
"DETENTION!" screeched Umbridge and he stared at her.
Everything seemed to stop while the words rung into his ears and even the students held their breath and waited for his reaction – it was of course an open secret that he didn't like, no, loathed Umbridge. The toad grinned at him and he cocked his head to the side.
Then he started to laugh – a cold and dark laugh - and shook his head. "D'you think I care much about that?" He shoved her back with a disgusted look on his face and she fell off of her chair with a squawk and landed on the floor.
"Harry, please ca-" Dumbledore began, but said boy just tuned the wizard out.
He flicked his wrist and his wand appeared in his hand. Umbridge struggled to her feet and shakily brought out her own, pointing it at his heart. Everything grew still once again. Suddenly a high-pitched scream disrupted the eerie silence of the Great Hall.
"NO! NO!"
His head whipped around for the source of the scream and saw that it had been Rose. She was clutching the letter the owl had delivered her to her chest and was trembling like a leaf in the wind, her eyes wide and staring into nothingness.
Harry narrowed his and took a deep breath. "Are you happy?" he hissed at Umbridge. "Are you happy that you ruined the life of an innocent girl?"
"I have no clue what you're talking about," Umbridge snapped back at him and then her shocked look turned into the familiar grimace of a smile. "You will get expelled for your insolence you dirty good-for-nothing nuisance!"
"SHUT UP!" he yelled and needed to stop his hand from trembling. "You sold them out!"
"Professor," he suddenly heard Draco's voice and saw out of the corner of his eyes, that he was standing in front of Dumbledore. "You may want to get the students out of here."
Dumbledore seemed to have grasped the seriousness of the situation and nodded. "Very well. Batsheba, Septima, Aurora, please escort the students out of the Great Hall."
The professors Babbling, Vector and Sinistra nodded and started to shoo the reluctant and grumbling students out of the Hall. It took some time until all of them were outside because each of them kept looking back at them to see what they were doing. Harry just stood still, predatory eyes fixed upon the pink blob whose creator dared to give a middle name nearly sounding the same as Hermione's.
"Mr. Potter," said Umbridge pompously began once the giant doors of the Hall had slammed shut. "I'm afraid I will have to write the Minister to tell him, that he should arrange an extended stay at St. Mungo's for you. I fear that you've entirely lost the little bit of intelligence you may once have had."
At the insult, Harry growled menacingly and took a step forward.
"Would somebody mind explaining what's going on here?" asked McGonagall indignantly while her eyes were snapping from Umbridge to Harry and then to Dumbledore in hope of an explanation.
Dumbledore sighed and shook his head, pointing to Umbridge. "I'm afraid that she is the responsible one for young Rose Zeller's situation."
"I don't understand?" said McGonagall and suddenly. Snape, who hadn't said a word until now gasped and his emotionless mask slipped away for a short moment.
"You work for him!" he stated.
Ron, who had been standing next to Draco, took a step forwards and glared at her. "You… you're one of Voldemort's bootlickers?"
Draco also took a step forwards and shook his fist at the Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic "Wasn't it already enough that you tortured Harry with a blood-quill and cast a pathetic excuse for a Cruciatus on him? Did you have to give the location of Rose's family to the Nutter as well?"
"Unforgivables on students?" squeaked Flitwick and the way he lost his hat while jumping reminded Harry slightly of Deddalus Diggle. "You're a teacher!" the little wizard puffed out his cheeks in anger and then glared at her. "Even though you're a Death Eater you first of all are a teacher!" He exclaimed, as if the teacher's code would be more important than political and magical alliences.
"I don't care what she's done to me," growled Harry, "Rose's nothing to do with her dislike of me and she," he spat on the floor, "ensured that her family was killed."
Umbridge opened her mouth to protest, but Harry didn't even let her take a breath, because then he had his wand at her throat. "The reason… was it only that because they were muggles?"
"I demand you to release me!" she screeched, her face turning an ugly shade of purple – causing Dumbledore to stare at her thoughtfully for a moment, wondering where he had seen that before, before shaking his head not altogether that sadly..
It was Dumbledore who shook his head. "That's impossible, Dolores. Under the current circumstances you normally should be chained down. I refuse to have you teach at my school any longer. I'll have a talk with Cornelius right away."
She At the news the pink toad gave an angry scream and her whole body seemed to pump itself up when her face took on an ugly red color. developed to the next extreme shade of colour. "You have no evidence for those lies!"
"How could you?" shouted Hermione from afar, nearly in tears while tightly hugging the crying Rose to her chest. She was sitting at the Phoenix table. Harry guessed that she immediately had gathered the small girl into her arms when she had grasped what was going on. He gave Umbridge a sneer which turned quickly into a blank expression when she started to chuckle like mad.
"THEY WERE FILTH! THEY DESERVED IT! MUGGLES LIKE THEM WHO CREATE SUCH ABNORMALITIES LIKE THAT GIRL ARE TAINTING THE WIZARDING WORLD!" she screamed suddenly and before anybody else could move, Umbridge was sent flying.
With a sickening sound and a high-pitched scream that nearly destroyed all of their eardrums she crashed against the wall and toppled over on the floor where she stayed still. Harry leaped around Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick, who both seemed to be too stunned to move a muscle and dark green sparks shot out of his wand.
"Neville, come on, help me!" he heard Ron call out.
He suddenly felt two strong arms wrap around his shoulders – holding him back. He struggled against them like a wild animal trying to break out of his its cage. He felt rage and hate rushing through his veins like poison and the green sparks increased whilste he continued to struggle.
He threw Ron and Neville who were holding him back, each an angry look, but they refused to back down and even tightened their grips. He narrowed his eyes, but then saw that both seemingly were barely containing the urge to rip Umbridge to pieces as well.
"Harry…" implored Dumbledore. "You don't want to do this. You could kill her."
"Damn straight!" he snapped. "That's exactly my intention!"
The headmaster stepped in front of him and Harry felt his body trembling when the hand he was holding the wand with, was pushed down with a gentle but firm movement of the headmaster's own.
Dumbledore looked at him over his half-moon spectacles and his hand lingered on his arm while Harry was having a hard time not to simply curse the headmaster to get past him to Umbridge.
He then settled on sneering at him when the headmaster gave him a slight nod and turned around. Harry glared at Umbridge who was a whimpering picture of misery huddled into the corner of the Great Hall where he had blasted her to.
"Miss Granger, please escort Miss Zeller to my office and make her some tea," said Dumbledore and even his voice was slightly trembling with anger. "The password is 'Ice-mice'. We'll be up later."
He felt Ron and Neville grab his arms tighter to hold him back and glared at the heap of sniveling pink, when Hermione led Rose out of the Great Hall. The small girl was clinging to her like she was a life-line and thick tears were running down her face, while Hermione soothingly rubbed her back, murmuring encouraging words to her.
Dumbledore looked at Harry for a short moment and suddenly when the eyes that currently lacked the familiar twinkle met his own, Harry knew once more why Dumbledore was said to be the strongest wizard of the age. He took a deep breath and looked down at the floor when he felt the magic radiating off of the headmaster.
When he looked back up Dumbledore gave him a nod and turned to Snape. "Severus, I'd like you to escort Umbridge back to her quarters. Please seal off her rooms with magic, so that she isn't able to escape and do more harm."
"Of course," answered Snape silkily and Harry could swear he saw a slight smile of satisfaction playing around the potion-master's mouth.
With a rough movement of his wand, Umbridge was jerked back to her feet and her hands bound together, so that she couldn't reach her wand. Snape strode forward and Harry saw that he was looking the toad directly into the eyes when coldly saying: "You follow me without protest, is that clear? Should you even attempt to disobey me at the moment, I'll finish what Mr. Potter wanted to do. Understood?"
Umbridge nodded frantically, not making a single noise, while her eyes filled with both hate and anger - at the same time darted around the room. Snape smirked and then brought his wand to the base of her neck while urging her forwards.
"If it wasn't for Dumbledore, you'd be dead!" Harry hissed at her when she passed him, followed by Snape, while Ron and Neville were still holding him back.
When she was out of sight, the two released him reluctantly; as if afraid he would run after her. But Harry didn't even think of something like that at the moment. He looked at Dumbledore and frowned, because the headmaster seemed to be deep in thought.
"Incredible! That vile woman!" revolted McGonagall just as the doors of the Great Hall burst open to reveal Nicolas and his wife Perenelle.
"What in the name of Merlin's going on here?" demanded Nicolas to know while Perenelle eyed each of them worriedly. "Albus, why is Severus sealing off Umbridge's quarters?"
Nicolas crossed the distance between them with long strides and positioned himself in front of Dumbledore and Harry. Perenelle had followed him at a much lesser pace and now looked at Harry with an expression, which – even though he knew she had no clue what was going on – made him feel ashamed of his actions.
"She's a Death Eater," he stated and looked down at the floor. "Umbridge is a Death Eater and… she sold out Rose's family to Voldemort!"
"Rose's… you mean Rose Zeller?" asked Nick and his voice trembled while his eyes darkened with furry.
Perenelle gasped and Harry saw her motherly side taking over. "The poor thing!" she immediately turned to her husband. "I know that you're her head of House Nicolas, but I'll go and see what I can do to calm that poor thing!" She turned to Dumbledore. "Where is she?"
"Miss Granger is currently escorting her to my office."
With that Perenelle flew out of the room and Nick frowned and stepped in front of Harry. He also looked at Neville, Ron and Draco. "Did you know this? Did you know that she is a Death Eater."
Neville shook his head. "No, sir… we… we knew she was evil, but we didn't suspect that."
Harry looked at him, careful to get his anger under control when he said: "I should've come to you,you or to the headmaster… right after she attempted to use the Cruciatus on me… I'm sorry, but I wanted to ensure that if she lands in Azkaban, she's going to rot there her whole life!"
"Harry," Ssighed Nicolas and laid a hand on his shoulder. "That was a very foolish thing to do. Wouldn't fifteen years have been enough?"
"She deserves to rot there her whole miserable life!" interjected Ron angrily and didn't acknowledge the warning look Harry gave him. "When Harry told us about the Cruciatus, we all agreed that we'd wait until she'd do one more thing to ensure her stay in prison."
"But not this..." Harry whispered to himself.
"I suggest we continue this in my office," said Dumbledore, still looking at Harry, who was clenching and unclenching his fists. "We not only have to discuss how to proceed, but also the content of the letter you have gotten, Harry."
Harry laid a hand on his pocked, where he had put the letter the black barn-owl had delivered and nodded. Dumbledore nodded back and started to lead the way to his office. Harry turned around and noticed,noticed that Nicolas wasn't following them. He was crouched down, looking at something in the corner where Harry had blasted Umbridge to.
"Nick?"´
"Just go without me. I don't really know what exactly happened anyway." Harry's eyes narrowed slightly when he saw Nicolas pocketing something and nodded slowly. Nicolas smiled at him. "I'll be in my lab, doing some research. Please tell Perenelle."
Harry titled his head as a sign that he had understood and ignored the looks Ron, Neville and Draco were giving him. They had waited for him at the doors and he hurriedly caught up to them.
"Where's Dumbledore?" he asked slightly baffled when he saw that the headmaster was nowhere to be seen.
"He said something about contacting Fudge," said Ron, who was fidgeting with the wand in his hand.
Harry sighed and continued walking while Draco scowled. "As if that'll do anything!"
"B-but they have to look into Rose's parents' deaths, don't they?" Neville said. "And the letter… you know, the one Rose got… it must've been from the Department of Family Affairs. They always handle it when someone dies or…"
"How d'you know that the letter was from them?" asked Harry while they climbed the stairs leading to the corridor Dumbledore's office lay.
Neville seemed to grow slightly uncomfortable. "We… my Gran and I got some letters from them… my parents are not able to attend any legal matters and… well… they are declared c-clin-clinically d-dead by the Ministry and-"
"WHAT?" Harry had whirled around and stared at Neville with disbelief written all over his face. Slowly but surely he was beginning to think he was going to lose his mind today. "But they aren't clinically dead! They simply aren't able to respond."
Neville looked down at the floor and nodded. "I know. But… they're only still staying in St. Mungo's because of my Gran's donations every month. Otherwise they would long ha-have been b-buried."
Harry felt his hands clench into fists once more and took a deep breath to get his anger under control. "Ice-mice!" he snapped at the gargoyle guarding the entrance to the headmaster's office and sprung up the stairs even before they even started to move upwards.
Not bothering to knock at the door he entered the office and found Perenelle and Hermione sitting on the small sofa next to the big fireplace. Rose was sitting between them and had her head buried in Perenelle's shoulder while the woman soothingly rubbed her back and slightly rocked her back and forth. Hermione was simply looking at the girl, occasionally stroking the smaller hand that was intertwined within her own. When she saw Harry and the others standing in the doorway she perked up and held a finger in front of her mouth.
"She's sleeping," she whispered and carefully pried her hand away from the girl. "Perenelle gave her a soft calming-draught. It was impossible to calm her down enough otherwise."
Harry nodded stiffly and Hermione sighed and rose to her feet. She went over to him and slung her arms around his torso, holding him close. She gave him a small kiss on the cheek and then simply buried her head in the base of his neck. "How could he?"
Harry didn't answer and felt his robes slip under Hermione's movements. His eyes widened and then he suddenly jerked away from her, stumbling against one of Dumbledore's desks and startled all of them.
"What's wrong?" asked Hermione frantically while Perenelle was ready to jump up if she had to. "Harry, what happened?"
"Sorry," he mumbled apologetically and carefully used his wand to levitate the letter he had gotten out of his pocket. "I didn't want you to touch this letter in case it's a portkey. I didn't have the chance to check it."
Draco was quicker than he was and started to murmur some incantations under his breath while pointing his wand at the envelope. Suddenly the blond raised his eyebrows and lowered his wand. "Well… this letter is perfectly safve… it's no portkey and there are no traces of dark magic as far as my knowledge goes."
"Are you sure Draco?" asked Perenelle quietly while continuing to stroke Rose's back soothingly. The blond nodded.
"Isn't that a little bit strange?" asked Ron who was standing in front of the pictures of Everad and Dylis, the two ex-headmasters who had helped to discover Mr. Weasley after the snake-attack. He looked at the sleeping forms of the two and shook his head. "I mean… why wouldn't he try to capture you?"
Hermione had taken to simply lay a hand on his arm while he unfolded the letter shook her head. "Not really… I mean, Voldemort isn't stupid. He knows that Harry would never fall for the same trick twice."
Neville, who carefully had been looking at all the instruments scattered on various desks in the office frowned and eyed the letter Rose had been clutching in her hand. It was lying on Dumbledore's desk now and had an official looking seal on the envelope that was next to it. He then turned around. "And? What does Tom have to say this time?"
Harry, despite the serious situation, had to grin at the casual use of Voldemort's real name and scanned the letter shortly with his eyes, before taking a deep breath and reading aloud:
…HP…
My dearest Harry,
Once more I'm happy to give you a present. I'm sure you will have heard of the magnificent news by now and I'm proud to take all the credit.
It was such a pleasure, those whiting bodies, those delightful screams of pain… they begged for mercy!
And the mother… a feisty redhead she was - begged me to leave her, maybe five year old, son and kill her instead… the torturous pleasure I had while killing her… it reminded me of a night long ago…
Yes, you remember this night as well, don't you? But this time the child died as well.
And… that surely wasn't the last family begging for mercy… oh, there are so much more to kill…
Be sure, that this isn't the last time you receive a letter like that. You will be receiving more until you finally beg for death at my hands.
Lord Voldemort
…HP…
His hands were shaking after he had finished reading the letter aloud and his eyes lingered on the second passage. "Damn him…" he whispered and a wave of guilt crashed down on him like a giant acromantula. Harry shook his head and threw the letter onto Dumbledore's desk. He then buried it into his hands. "It's my fault. I've waited too long… I could've saved them."
"What're you talking about?" asked Ron perplexed. "It's Umbridge's fault! You couldn't have done anything!"
"I could have!" he argued back. "I could've spared Rose from that agony; if I'd gone directly to the Minister two weeks ago after that bitch cast the Cruciatus on me this never would have happened!"
Draco sighed. "We all should've done that, but we didn't. We all agreed with you, that we want her to rot in Azkaban until the end of her life. And well… that's what she'll get now."
Harry glared at him. "And for what price? Rose's an orphan now! He even killed her little brother!"
"Harry…" said Hermione hesitantly and squeezed his hand. "We're all at fault, because we all didn't know that Umbridge was's a Death Eater. We all were too careless to assume that there's more behind her using the Cruciatus-curse on you than stupidity."
"Yes, but-"
The fireplace flared and Harry didn't bother to continue arguing when the red flames turned green and Dumbledore stepped out of the fire, looking worn out, his purple and yellow striped robe limply hanging to his tall frame .
Well, that was it! I hope you liked the Chapter and give me a Review for it!
Dark Phoenix of Slytherin