Sixth Year Part One
A/N: Hey guys, before I start this one I want to point out that the first two chapters of HBP happened without Harry present. He did not know about them, neither did Hermione so she won't be talking about them. This means that the ceremony at Spinner's End and the meeting of the ministers won't be discussed. I will be addressing certain events mentioned in the chapters but those are public occurrences so it's not hard to imagine the others knowing.
Hermione and Sirius drew apart, the time traveller picked up the next folder from her dresser. "Let's go," Hermione said quietly. Sirius nodded and followed her back to the living room. The professors came back in a few minutes. Hermione sat in her place, stretching her neck until she felt something tapping at her knee. Harry had crawled over to her and she smiled while picking him up. Settling the baby on her lap, she opened her next folder. "So there is only one year more left to cover after this and I need everyone to really listen in for the last one so after this we're done." Everyone nodded in agreement. "Alright before we begin, we have to go over what has happening in the larger wizarding world while Harry was at the Dursleys. First and foremost, Voldemort is now out in the open which is really double-edged sword for us. On the one hand, people actually believed he is back and could take steps to protect themselves and fight against him but on the other, the Dark side no longer had to operate quietly so they seriously ramped up their attacks against wizards and muggles. Just to give you an idea, they collapsed a bridge sending dozens of muggles in the water."
"My god," McGonagall covered her mouth.
"A giant was also let loose resulting in even more deaths," Hermione shook her head dismally. "Dementors were roaming freely and breeding. Amelia Bones and Emmeline Vance were also murdered in their homes under what the muggles called suspicious circumstances."
"Damn they don't hold back," Remus said in shocked voice. "All that in less than a month!"
"On a slightly bittersweet note, those death eaters from the Hall of Prophecies were carted to Azkaban and Fudge had been sacked and replaced with the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement Rufus Scrimgeour."
"It doesn't matter who the minister is at this point," James lifted his glasses to rub his eye. "The death eaters have had too much time to put roots down everywhere. They probably have a hand in everything."
"Beyond that, Harry now was being called the Chosen One, the only one with the ability to defeat the Dark Lord." Hermione sighed. "No one really knew what happened in the Hall of Prophecies but everyone just assumed that that was what it was about. Then Dumbledore wrote to say he was coming to get him from the Dursleys himself. Harry – um – didn't mention this to his aunt and uncle so they got a rather nasty shock late one night. The discussed Sirius's will, Harry had been left everything including Grimmauld Place and by extension Kreacher. Harry had to give him an order to prove ownership and it worked so he instructed the elf to work at Hogwarts. Dumbledore also had a few words for the Dursleys about their treatment of Harry but requested that he return one more time before he comes of age and Lily's charm breaks."
"His best defence," James sighed.
"Then Dumbledore took Harry to a village to Horace Slughorn and ask him to come out of retirement to teach at Hogwarts."
"Hang on," Sirius jumped in. "Slughorn is a Potions professor not a Defence one."
"Harry didn't know that and Dumbledore didn't explain it. On the way, they discussed Voldemort who probably now applying Occulums against Harry because of the intense pain he experienced during the possession at the ministry. Also Dumbledore gravely injured his hand, it looked rather burnt but wouldn't tell why. They found Slughorn in hiding and stubborn about staying that way but Harry was able to convince Slughorn to come back to Hogwarts. Much faster than expected too."
"Of course," Lily snorted. "The chance to teach the Chosen One, THE Harry Potter. Harry will be first in line for the Slug Club, I'm positive of it."
"They left Slughorn and went to the Burrow. Before he left, they talked about how Harry was coping with all that had happened and Dumbledore told Harry that he'd be taking private lessons with him this year."
"Wow. Those should be interesting," Remus raised his eyebrows.
"Inside the Burrow, Molly was up with Tonks who was rather depressed these days."
"Why? What was wrong?" Sirius frowned, his cousin was normally so bubbly.
"I can't really say now but I can tell you it gets better for her by the end of the year." Tonks and Remus were probably only highlight to look forward to after Dumbledore dies. Hermione sighed, "Tonks left rather quickly after Harry came but Molly conjured him some soup and bread and they talked for a bit. A little about Slughorn and what he was like at Hogwarts in her time Arthur had been promoted at the Ministry. Under Scrimgeour, there had been a lot of new departments set up including the Department of the Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Magical Objects with Arthur as head. Basically it was to combat all those fake protection stuff that was coming out but he even got a box of cursed sneakoscopes."
Lily nodded approvingly, "That still plays into Arthur's expertise. Good heads, good departments, actually taking some action. Now this minister I like."
For how long, Hermione thought dubiously. "Harry got to stay in Fred and George's old room now that they were living in Diagon Alley. On that note, the joke shop was a resounding success. They were easily the most popular shop there, only rivaled by Quality Quidditch Supplies."
"Nothing beats Quidditch," James waved a hand.
"The next morning, Ron and I woke him up or Ron did more like. Then Fleur, the part-veela from fourth year, came up with his breakfast. She had started working at Gringotts to improve her English and became close to Molly's eldest son Bill and now they were engaged."
"Married to a veela?" Sirius said in a hushed awed voice. "Can a bloke get any luckier?"
"Um," Lily frowned. "We are taking about women that can turn into fireball-throwing monsters when they're pissed right?"
"Believe it or not Lils it was actually an old pureblood custom," Sirius laughed. "Veela were prized for the beauty so many pureblood men married them, like a show of superiority. Apparently they had issues with their sons and daughters marrying non-magical humans but veelas were more than welcome."
"Ah purebloods, hypocrisy's favourite friend," James and Sirius bumped fists like a toast.
"We talked about it a bit and Harry filled us in on what happened with Slughorn and his lessons with Dumbledore. He also told us about the prophecy and what it foretold for him and Voldemort."
"I still can't believe," Lily breathed heavily. "My boy has to kill the greatest dark wizard of all time. Wait a second, when we start changing things will the prophecy change as well?"
"It's possible," Hermione supposed. "Depends on how much you change by the time the prophecy is made which we're not sure is when. I'd assume sometime before the school year. Professor Dumbledore have you heard from Sybil Trelawney?"
"Not yet but I am prepared for it," Dumbledore responded. "Our current Divination teacher Professor Cosmosis hasn't come to any decisions about retirement but I think we know what his answer will be."
"And we didn't even needed a seer," James cracked.
"Nope just a girl from seventeen years in the future," Remus smirked.
"To each their own," Hermione smiled. "I wish I could have had a seer that same morning. Harry told us that Dumbledore said our OWL results would be arriving some time that day and sure enough three owls arrived."
"How did you do?" Remus asked.
"Eleven O's and one E in Defence," Hermione shrugged like it was nothing.
Sirius leant forward, "Be honest with me Mya, were you disappointed by those marks?"
For once Hermione had no problem dodging the question completely, "As for Harry, he failed Divination and History of Magic, that last one was because he passed out during the exam, but he did top Defence."
"That's not so bad," Lily hugged her baby. "Divination I'm pretty sure you're happy to be out of and History of Magic couldn't be helped. Plus you got top marks in Defence, you'll make a wonderful auror."
"Only one problem with that Lily," Hermione sighed. "Professor Snape refused to take anyone with less than an O in their OWL as his NEWT students so Harry thought his dream of being an auror was over."
"But old Slughorn takes E's," Sirius objected. "I was one of them."
Remus rubbed his forehead, "I was just glad to pass with an A, I never wanted to see the Potions rooms ever again."
"You know in muggle schools, A is considered the highest mark," Hermione pointed out.
"Well they go in alphabetical order don't they?" Sirius half-shrugged. "I took muggle studies too," he added at her questioning glance.
"Wow I'm learning quite a bit about you lot, pity I won't remember any of this," Hermione frowned. Just something else for her to think about, abandoning all her memories.
"Don't worry," Sirius waved a hand. "When you and Harry become friends, we'll just tell you again and then some."
Hermione giggled, "I'm sure my future self will get an earful. Now back to story. It was Harry's sixteenth birthday when we got more news of what was happening on the outside. Karkaroff was killed, found in a shack up north. Florean Fortescue had disappeared and Mr. Ollivander was kidnapped."
"What happened to them?" Lily bit her lip, slightly fearful of the answer.
"We'll hear more about Ollivander in the next year but Fortescue was killed by death eaters, no one is completely sure why." Hermione frowned. "And on that dreary note, we had to go to Diagon Alley to do our shopping. The whole place was so different, scarier than anything we'd heard. It was like all the life and energy had been drained from the place. To go faster, we decided to split up and meet again at Fred and George's shop. We found Narcissa and Draco in Madam Malkin's and Harry nearly duelled with them then and there."
Sirius rubbed his neck wearily, "Never a boring day with you lot is there?"
"Of course not," Hermione pretended to look offended. "Who on earth wants a boring day? Besides we were going to visit the new joke shop, how could a day involving Weasley Wizard Wheezes be boring? The shop was maginificient, easily the most vibrant and fun shop in the alley, they did not stop halfway when designing the place. Once you were inside, it was impossible to know there was a war going on outside. But they too, were doing their bit for the cause. It all started when they designed these shield hats that deflect hexes and jinxes. The ministry ended up ordering five hundred!"
"The ministry is getting supplied by a joke shop for protection…" Lily lightly covered her face. "No words…just…no words."
"I think its hilarious," James smirked.
"You would," Lily rolled her eyes.
"Fred and George had an entire backroom filled with Defence stuff and a whole range of 'Wonder-Witch' products including love potions."
"That only spells trouble with more letters," Remus shuddered. He mumbled something that sounded like 'mousey wousey my arse'.
"But then we saw something that really caught our attention. Draco had clearly given his mother the slip and was skulking down Knockturn Alley. Of course we had to follow him." Hermione grimaced.
"Great, that's precisely what we need, Harry going into practically death eater territory with a full blown war going on," Sirius huffed.
Hermione shrugged, "By this point, nothing is out of the question. Draco went to Borgin and Burkes and, using those old trusty Extendable Ears again, we overheard him and Borgin discussing something that Malfoy wanted repaired. The conversation was rather non-descriptive so all we surmised was that there were two of these objects, one of which Borgin was meant to keep safe while Draco attempted to repair the other. He threatened Borgin with something that we couldn't see but it was enough the Borgin readily agreed. Draco said that Fenrir Greyback, an old family friend, would be dropping in to see that Borgin was doing as told."
"Wow he's laying some serious threats," Sirius's eyebrows shot up. "Even for a Malfoy, that's a lot of weight to be throwing around without anything to back it up. Especially that rubbish about Greyback, he's not friends with anybody nor would he be up to doing favours for anyone. What would make Borgin buy that?"
"The only person I've ever seen Greyback take orders from is Voldemort or a death eater," Lily shrugged but perked up quickly. "Wait…you don't think?"
"If he is, then he is playing with fire," James warned. "Failure for a death eater means death or torture or both."
"He could have replaced Lucius," Sirius allowed. "Reg became one at sixteen too. But how did Narcissa allow that? Cissy may be a lot of things but she's fiercely protective of her family. She'd never allow her only child to become a death eater, Bellatrix hell yes, but not her."
"Maybe it wasn't a choice," Remus reasoned. "Like you said, Lucius is gone but not only that he also failed to bring Voldemort the prophecy. What a more Voldemort-like punishment than having to give up your son to the service in retribution. Plus think about, child death eaters planted at Hogwarts. Why wouldn't Voldemort want that?"
"That is sick," Lily wretched a little. "At least the idea hasn't occurred to him in this time."
If you think that is sickening wait till you hear the rest, Hermione thought ominously. "Harry thought the same thing, the Draco was a death eater, but Ron and I didn't believe. It didn't occur to why the Dark Lord would want to enlist an underage student who was returning to school for the rest of the year. Nonetheless, Harry confided to Mr. Weasley about his suspicions and Arthur promised to look into it."
"At least he's opening up a bit more," Lily noted.
"Let's hope he remembers to keep doing that," James replied.
"On the train, Harry got more attention than ever from the students. But it wasn't just him, myself, Ron, Neville, and Luna were all treated like celebrities but we really didn't care. Harry was indifferent to most of it, after all only a year before these same people thought he was capable of murder and madness."
"Was Cho still around?" asked Remus.
"Yeah but she and Harry could barely look each other in the eye anymore. It's safe to say she won't be around much this year."
"Shame," Sirius frowned. "Harry needs a bit of normalcy, be like any other sixteen year old, have a girlfriend and all that. Something that doesn't involve the dark arts.
"Too true," Lily sighed. "Aside from Quidditch and you lot, he doesn't have much else. No clubs – OH NO!"
"What? What is it? What did I miss?" James asked wildly.
Lily groaned, "It's the train ride, that means Harry probably got an invite to lunch from Slughorn. And so the Slug Club begins again."
"I'm surprised you're so unenthusiastic Lily," Hermione commented. "Slughorn always said you were one of his favourites. He had a picture of you and all."
"That's not it," Lily shook her head. "Under normal circumstances it would be fine but consider Slughorn the ultimate fangirl, he's going to be another nuisance on Harry's head. Slughorn would probably hold a ceremony if Harry gets inducted."
"I suppose…" Hermione thought over. "Slughorn wasn't really all that bad but he did invite Harry and Neville over to his compartment. Along with Blaise Zabini, Cormac McLaggen, Marcus Belby, and Ginny Weasley. Apparently Ginny got invited because of her near-killer Bat Bogey Hex that shot at a student who wouldn't shut up about what happened at the Ministry."
"He prides himself on finding talent," Lily explained.
"After several hours, he finally let the kids but Harry chose to tail Blaise back to the Slytherin compartment to spy on Draco. He somehow managed to hide himself on the luggage rack without being caught."
"Seriously?" Sirius asked incredulously. "HOW – completely – utterly – totally – stupid are they?"
"Come to mention it, I think George said the exact same thing when Harry told him," Hermione remembered. "It really was ridiculous in hindsight. But anyway Draco was bragging about doing something for him although we wouldn't out and out say Voldemort. When the train finally stopped Draco let the others go ahead, apparently out of a compartment full of Slytherins only he noticed Harry was up there. He petrified Harry and broke his nose, leaving him on the train."
"Little git," James growled.
"Well Harry WAS eavesdropping," Sirius's tone and face showing how much he hated to admit it. "Think of what we would've done to someone who did that to us."
"You seriously think we would've broken the bloke's nose and left him petrified in a compartment to be taken back to London?" Remus's eyebrows knitted together.
"Well maybe we wouldn't have done exactly that," Sirius scratched his head.
"So how did Harry get out of that?" James looked and sounded entirely too used this from his son.
"Tonks. She was in charge of overseeing the train and noticing Malfoy leaving much later than the others and one of the windows was closed so she took a chance. She escorted him back to the gates and then sent a patronus to Hagrid to come get him from there however Snape intercepted the message instead. He stopped to taunt Tonks about her new patronus then took off with Harry. He deducted points for everything along the way and then made Harry go into the Great Hall with the blood from his nose on his face, wearing muggles clothes."
"Now that's low," Sirius declared. "At least let the kid clean himself up and get changed."
"Why was he taunting Tonks about her patronus?" Remus mouth turned down.
Hermione didn't know whether to giggle or sigh, of all the people to ask that question… "Tonks had recently…an emotional upheaval that upset her and caused her patronus to change shape and reflect what upset her in the first place." She pressed her lips together as she remembered what Tonks' portrait said to tell him, You, you big lupine lug, you're the reason I was so miserable. For their sacrifice, many of the Order members were given portraits in Ministry's Hall of Heroes. Remus was hanging next to Tonks and glared, I heard that! You were meant to! They still loved each other a lot and Harry planned on taking Teddy to see them when he's old enough. "And speaking of upheavals, Dumbledore announced that Snape was to be our Defence Against the Dart Arts teacher while Slughorn took up his post as Potions Master. Harry did not like that one bit and wasn't afraid to show it, to be honest not many liked either, only the Slytherins really cheered for him."
"The man did make himself unpopular by choice," Sirius said indifferently. "Being cruel, showing favouritism, it's hard to be happy for a bloke who appears to go out of his way to be an arse."
"That pretty much sums up the popular opinion," Hermione agreed. "More than that, we worried about another Professor of ours, or used to be ours, Hagrid. None of us were returning to Care of Magical Creatures for NEWTs. But we didn't have the time to visit him and really explain with our new schedules."
"Poor Hagrid," Lily pouted. "He'll be heartbroken."
"We planned to go see him after Quidditch trials, Harry was made Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team!" The baby in her lap looked up at her with a toothless grin. Hermione mussed his hair fondly, "Our first DADA lessons was quite interesting, Snape introduced non-verbal spells and assigned us to work on casting shield charms and jinxes without saying a word. I managed to do it but he ignored that. Then he tried cursing Harry, but Harry disregarded the whole silent part and produced a shield powerful enough to send him backwards. Then he cheeked him and earned himself a detention."
"Good grief Harry," Lily sagged. "You sound more and more like your father with every sentence."
"You say that like it's a bad thing," James exclaimed but Lily didn't answer.
"He didn't even serve the detention on time because Dumbledore planned on giving him his first lesson at the same time."
"That'll tick off Snape," Remus snorted.
"McGonagall cleared Harry and Ron for potions but they hadn't bought any supplies or the books so they had to use the store cupboard and borrow a couple books that the classroom had. Slughorn had us make the Draught of Living Death with a prize to the best one; Felix Felicius. Harry's potion book was heavily written on, with the previous owner making different notes and annotations on different ways the steps could be completed. Harry decided to follow these anonymous instructions and ended up with the best potion out of the whole class. We kind of argued about it because I thought it sounded dodgy and Ginny immediately thought of Riddle's diary but I checked it and it was completely normal textbook. The only clue we had to the previous owner was the nickname Half-Blood Prince." Hermione enunciated the name carefully and waited for it to strike a chord, particularly with Lily. But if the redhead recognized the name she gave nothing away, interesting how was that possible? Slightly confusedly Hermione moved, "Time for Dumbledore's first lesson." The room's attention perked up predictably. "These lessons turned out to be not your ordinary wizarding lessons but Dumbledore intended to take Harry into Voldemort's past and learn about how the Dark Lord came to be who he was. He intended to do this by showing a collection of memories pertaining to Voldemort; the very first one being from Bob Ogden. Ogden used to work for the ministry and was called to the Gaunt home to investigate an attack on a muggle. The Gaunts consists of Marvolo the father and his son and daughter, Morfin and Merope. They lived in poverty but Marvolo in particular had an amazing arrogance simply because he was a pureblood descended from Salazar Slytherin. He loved his son but clearly held no affection for his daughter. His son Morfin was the one who attacked the muggle Tom Riddle because his sister had admired him. When Marvolo found out he became very aggressive and attempted to beat his daughter. Ogden saved her but a fight ensued so Ogden was forced to return to the ministry to bring in reinforcements."
"That is awful, how can someone abuse their child," Lily crossed her arms, looking almost queasy just thinking about it.
"Pureblood families," Sirius said bitterly. "Conform or pay, that's the capital rule. You don't want to know the hell Andromeda went through when her family found out about Ted. Did Merope survive?"
Hermione nodded, "Ogden returned with more officials within an hour. Father and son were sent to prison and Merope decided to was time to leave her family for good. No one is sure how but within a few months, Tom Riddle and Merope eloped and had run away from the village."
"I get it," Remus snapped. "TOM – MARVOLO – RIDDLE! They were Voldemort's parents."
"Correct," Hermione beamed at him. "However Voldemort didn't exactly have a stable family home, in fact he was raised in an orphanage. Some months following their elopement, Tom Riddle came back without his wife claiming to be hoodwinked or tricked. Best guess was that she had used a love potion on him and probably decided to stop when she became pregnant. He left and never inquired about them until his death." But he found out anyway, Hermione tacked on silently.
"That's cold," James winced. "Fine you don't love the mother, but it's your child too. What did the infant do to you? What happened to Voldemort's mum?"
"We'll talk more about her during the next lesson but she too died. Remember in second year Riddle was trying to stay at Hogwarts during the summer? It was because he grew up in an orphanage."
"Never thought I'd see the day where I felt bad for Voldemort," Remus said hollowly.
"I don't know," Sirius made a face. "My sympathy is limited. I came from a less than stellar home too but do you see me attempting to take over the world?"
"Yeah but you had us mate," James pointed out before he realised he was defending Voldemort. "Talk about messing with your perspective."
"There is no excuse for what Voldemort did in his later years," Hermione said firmly. "But to defeat him, you must understand him, right from the very beginning. Happening on the outside, Stan Shunpike, the conductor of the Knight Bus was arrested as a suspected death eater. He was apparently caught discussing top secret death eater plans in a pub. Stan was a bit older then us, the last time we heard from him was at the World Cup when he was trying to chat up some Veela by saying he was going to be the next Minister for Magic."
"If he is a death eater, then Draco has to be one. They are really scraping the barrel now," Sirius kidded.
"Good supporters ARE hard to come by," Hermione countered dryly. "Anyway the Gryffindor tryouts were held with a whole load of candidates. It was insane how many people wanted to sign up, mainly because of Harry I was sure. Katie Bell came back to the team, as did Ginny. Ron was a different story. There was one competitor for the position of keeper in particular by the name of Cormac McLaggen who really got on a few of my nerves. Very arrogant, he expected Harry to give him special treatment because they were both called to Slughorn's lunch on the train. Then when they were queuing for the trials, I overheard him talking about Ginny and Ron, it was so reminiscent of Malfoy I wanted to gag at the thought of him being a Gryffindor. So he flew to take his turn at the hoops and he saved four out of five, then Ron went and he saved five out five so he got to stay on as keeper. There was only one problem, I may have interfered with McLaggen's trial."
"MYA!" Lily gasped admonishingly. "Why would you do such a thing?! No matter how foul he is, that's cheating. Just because he's arrogant doesn't mean he shouldn't be on the team."
Maybe I should tell her about Harry's cracked skull now, Hermione mentally snorted. Sirius caught the amused look on her face. "I'm taking from your lack of – AHEM – remorse that this was not actually a bad thing?"
"I felt bad about interfering with trials purely for moral reasons, McLaggen got his chance and didn't exactly," Hermione coughed into her hand, "hit his mark."
"Well that ought to be interesting," James smirked.
"Quite. After trials, we went to see Hagrid who wasn't precisely pleased to see us. He was a little annoyed that we didn't take his class but most of his ire came from the fact that Aragog the spider was dying."
"Well he's certainly an old friend…in Hagrid's book," Remus added. "He didn't require any…um…help did he?"
"Thank gods no, we tried to comfort him as best we could. Harry managed to dodge Slughorn's first dinner because of his detention with Snape and that won't be the last he does it either."
"I don't blame him," Sirius made a face. "I went to one once, I thought they were boring."
"I thought they were nice enough. The food was good and he always tried to bring someone interesting for us to meet. The Quidditch fans went crazy when he got Gwenog Jones, captain of the Holyhead Harpies."
"Mya you might want to move on before we lose Jamesie," Sirius snickered at James's faraway face, Lily looked at him but said nothing.
"What did I say?"
"You mentioned his sirens," Remus grinned.
"His muses," Sirius bit down on his lip to keep from laughing.
"My fair maidens," James said dreamily. The other two pointed at him as if to say 'see what we mean'. "An all-girl Quidditch team," he sighed. "Have you ever heard of something more wonderful, more absolutely perfect?"
"Yeah, my husband sleeping on the couch for the next week if he doesn't shut up," Lily grumbled and James came to back earth rather quickly while the rest of room hid their amusement.
"The next morning Harry was up reading his annotated potions book because beyond potions instructions, the writer also left spells and such written in the margins. This particular one had Ron hanging by his ankle in midair."
"Classic that one," James and Sirius high-fived.
"I didn't it was safe for Harry to be using those spells but he wouldn't listen to me. Then he got words he was to have another lesson with Dumbledore but first there was the Hogsmeade weekend. The day started with Slughorn cornering Harry about missing his dinner and Harry catching Mungdungus stealing from Grimmauld Place. It was on the way back that things got scary, our friend Katie Bell was having an argument with her friend Leanne when the parcel she was holding ripping and she touched the item inside cursing her."
"Did she live?" Lily asked astonished.
"Yes but just barely. According to her friend, Katie had gone to the bathroom and came back acting all strange saying she had to deliver that package to someone at Hogwarts. It was a cursed necklace that Harry had seen on display at Borgin and Burke. He immediately suspected Malfoy but Professor McGonagall told him that Draco had been in detention with and not in Hogsmeade and there was no real evidence to suspect him. Even Ron and I didn't believe it, even if he had an accomplice there was simply no way that Draco could have brought that necklace into the castle. Katie was rushed to St. Mungo's for emergency treatment and had to stay there for a long while. Harry ended replacing her with Dean Thomas who was second best trials and happened to be Ginny's boyfriend at the time. At the beginning of his next lesson Harry and Dumbledore discussed Draco and Dung. He wouldn't say much about Draco but Dumbledore did promise to stop Dung from taking anything else – remember that was all Harry's now too. Harry wanted to say more on the subject of Draco but the headmaster returned their attention to matter at hand. You asked about Merope earlier well after Tom left her she was pretty much homeless and destitute. She sold her priceless family heirloom, the locket of Salazar Slytherin, but the shop owner only gave her ten galleons. Surprise, surprise that it was Burke from the same shop we keep discussing. He even openly admitted that he saw she was poor and pregnant."
"Disgusting," McGonagall huffed indignantly. "There are some real monster masquerading as human beings out there. And to think they call the muggles filth."
"Too true Professor. So this time they went into one Dumbledore's own memories, the first time he had ever met Tom Riddle." Dumbledore nodded but said nothing on the matter. He listened closely to what the girl was saying. "The orphanage's manager told Dumbledore about a number of nasty incidents that had happened with the other children none which could be explained – at least not by muggles."
"Do we want to know the definition of these 'nasty incidents'?" Lily asked, her eyes moving between Mya and Dumbledore.
Hermione weighed her words, "Suffice it to say that were worthy of being the childhood misdeeds of our future psychopath in chief. Although I do have to talk about one in which Tom convinced two other children to go exploring with him on a day trip to a little village by the sea. They don't know what happened, but the two others were never quite the same again." She hadn't meant for it to sound so frightening but then again it was hard to talk about Voldemort without getting the chills. "So with that in minds, lets meet the boy Voldemort. His powers were clearly developed and he had already begun forming his prejudiced beliefs, he didn't think his mother was witch because she had died."
"In a strange way that explains a lot," Sirius bobbed his head slowly.
"Dumbledore told him all about Hogwarts and everything. Tom declined any help with the shopping and such, he preferred to operate alone, he didn't have or want friends. He also hates his name, he doesn't like being ordinary or common. But the main point was that he had a habit of stealing things like trophies I would assume. Dumbledore discovered his cache of pilfered items and made Tom give them back. It seemed that Dumbledore was the first person not to back down."
"So that's why he always feared you," McGonagall murmured quietly.
"Harry talked about it with us the next day in Herbology but we still had no idea what to make of the lessons. We also discussed the Slughorn's upcoming Christmas party, Harry wouldn't be able to get out of it because Slughorn had actually asked me to check which evenings Harry had available. Ron was a bit upset because he didn't get as much attention from the man as we did and then he and I got into an argument about it. I WAS going to invite Ron to come with me but because of some comments he made, I decided against it."
"Oh boy," James said ominously. "By the pricking of my thumbs, teenage romance this way comes."
"Quite right," Hermione giggled. "Let's see if you can keep up. Remember Dean, Ginny's boyfriend, had taken over in Katie's absence? Well on the back after practice, Harry and Ron caught the two of them snogging in an empty corridor."
"Not good," Lily wrinkled her nose. "Your sibling is probably the last person you want to see in a situation like that."
"Well Ron lost his temper a bit and they fought while Harry was dealing with his own problem…an attack from the green-eyed monster."
Lily gasped, breaking into a wide grin while James became concerned. He looked at his wife, "Why are you so cheerful?"
"Sweetheart, the green-eyed monster is a muggle phrase for jealously. Harry was jealous of Dean and Ginny," Lily looked ready to bounce in her seat. Suddenly she stopped, "Please tell me Dean didn't have pansies covering his robes for a week."
Hermione laughed, "Oh come on Lily, Harry wouldn't do that. But there is more trouble to come because Ginny told Ron that he was too uptight about kissing and he should try and get out a bit. This made Ron's mood worse, even cold-shouldering me because Ginny had pointed that I had kissed Viktor. What's more was that it carried on into his Quidditch skills and he played horribly. The match was coming up and Harry came up with a plan to give Ron a confidence boost. He pretended to slip Ron the lucky potion into his drink and it worked. Ron performed perfectly but he and I were worse off because I thought Harry HAD given him the potion and because of something I said he was angry at me. Then at the celebration party, Ron could be seen kissing Lavender Brown so I got mad and left to go to an abandoned classroom. Harry followed and was trying to comfort only to have Ron show up with his new girl. I left but not before setting a flock of canaries to attack him."
"Remind me never to get you mad Mya," Sirius said edging away from her even though she was across the room.
"Was there ever any question about that Sirius?" Hermione asked lightly raising an eyebrow. Sirius gulped and attempted to hide behind Remus. "But it doesn't even there. On top of trying to stay friends with the both of us, Harry also now had a gaggle of fan girls trying to slip him a love potion particularly one named Romilda Vane, who gave a him box of chocolate cauldrons claiming they had firewhiskey inside, but there were at least a dozen others."
"RUN HARRY!" the marauders shouted in unison.
"That is quite frightening Mya," Lily went wide-eyed.
"And yet… there is more," Hermione chuckled at the stunned looks on their faces. "To matters easier on himself, and hopefully avoid a dozen love potions, Harry invited Luna to the party as a friend. Then to get back at Ron, I invited McLaggen to come with me."
Lily held up her hands to stop the conversation for a moment. "Let me see if I got this right. Ron likes you but because you kissed a guy two years prior he is now with that girl Lavender and you like Ron but because he's being a prat you've decided to get revenge by going out with his rival McLaggen. Harry can no longer face Cho, likes Ginny but she is dating Dean, and has Romilda trying to slip him a love potion along with a whole bunch of others. Wow," Lily said with a mildly impressed look, "hell of a year."
"That pretty much sums it up," Hermione agreed.
"Oh you kids and your emotional entanglements," Sirius attempted to sound like an older man. "In my day, boy liked girl and girl liked boy, plain and simple."
"So explain him," Hermione jerked her head towards James.
"OI!" Remus and Lily cracked up while Sirius maintained his straight face.
"Sometimes weird things just happen Mya." James made a disgruntled noise.
The room laughed even Harry gurgled, kicking his tiny feet in Hermione's lap. Hermione tickled his side and adjusted him more comfortably, "Just one more thing to go over before we break, Slughorn's Christmas party. It was actually pretty fun, Slughorn had an old friend in and he brought his vampire associate."
"Good thing Remus wasn't there, vampires and werewolves are mortal enemies," Sirius hammed up a spooky, slightly Transylvanian voice for the ending.
Remus rolled eyes, "Why do we let him watch muggle television again?"
"It's the only thing that shuts him up," James replied without missing a beat.
"Things were going smoothly so to speak. I mean Harry had a run with Trelawney and McLaggen got a little too touchy under the mistletoe bu-"
"He what?!" Sirius growled, no really, a full blown, is-he-about-to-turn-into-a-dog, growl. Even Remus and James seemed startled although they too looked quite upset.
Hermione waved a hand dismissively, "It was nothing Sirius, he was just more enthusiastic than what was necessary." Sirius glowered but said nothing, the other two frowned but didn't comment either.
Hermione could feel Sirius glaring holes into her skin and scrambled to get back on track, "Like I was saying, everything was alright until Filch came in dragging Draco with him. Malfoy claimed that he was going to gatecrash the party and Slughorn intervened allowing him to stay before Filch could haul him off. Snape jumped in and took Draco outside to speak with him and obviously Harry followed. He overheard them to discussing some sort of plan Draco was working for his master and Snape was offering to help him. Snape told him that he had made the Unbreakable Vow to Draco's mother to protect him and help wherever possible."
"Whoa THE Unbreakable Vow," James whistled lowly. "That is a serious promise to make to anyone. I wonder what the three promises were and why he did it."
Sirius chewed the inside of his cheek, "I'm more focused on what would cause Narcissa to do something so extreme? I think we can all agree that his master could really only be one person – Voldemort. But what was he asked to do that was so bad that Cissy felt the need to seek help from Snape and make him vow to help Draco?"
"The mission doesn't necessarily have to be that big of a deal," Remus said conversationally. "I'd wager any mission for the snake, even if it was to get milk, would have to be done well. Maybe Narcissa felt that because Draco was so young that he would require assistance in his task. Remember with that lot failure of any calibre is met with severe punishment, sometimes death."
"Still Remus," Sirius's face crumpled, as if he just didn't understand. "The Unbreakable Vow? Snape is putting his life on the line for Malfoy. I'm telling you that mission must be important, it has to be carried out, why else would Snape risk death?"
"On the flipside to that, perhaps the mission is so simple Snape thinks that it doesn't really require much from him or Draco, he made the vow because he thought it was a sure thing." James added reasonably. Lily remained silent throughout the entire discussion, she was trying to wrap her mind around the fact that her best friend had pledged his life to helping this boy. While that sounded good on paper, there were still so many things that could go wrong. Still she hoped that this was a sign that her best friend lived on inside this mean, cold man Hermione described. Hermione's voice invaded her thoughts and pulled her back to reality.
"Draco wasn't making the job easy on Snape. He refused to come see the Professor in his office when summoned to do so, he ignored him in class and so on. Malfoy refused point blank to allow Snape to aid him in any way and stormed off." Hermione closed her folder, "And now we need a break."