"Where was Professor Snape at the time?"
Harry had only just recounted the story in its entirety. Though it was getting annoying to repeat it as many times as he had, the investigators were reasonably patient with him when he said as much, and if he was being honest with himself, the fact that he had to repeat it reinforced it; the practice took a blur of memory and turned it into a coherent series of events. He blanked on some questions, but the anxiety faded as they waxed more and more ridiculous.
"I didn't see him after he left Umbridge's office," he said. "How am I-"
"Sorry; I don't think I said this, but it's a procedural question," Robards said. His partner was just writing something. In another room, he presumed that Tonks was interviewing Hermione, and it crossed his mind that they might have done it like that because they were both witches. Did they think that it would be harder for her to hide things or something like that?
"Oh, sorry," he said. "I don't really want to get irritable, but there are some things that I just don't know and I can't see why you asked based on how I answered questions so far. It's like you're trying to catch me in a lie." He had a thought that he was bordering on being disrespectful. "I know if you ever interview someone who's lying, it's- er, important to find out, but..."
"There are more explanations for inconsistencies than dishonesty," Robards said after a moment. "Victims of the False Memory Charm rarely have perfectly clear accounts and we can usually find out if someone's memory has been modified just by asking a few questions. Apart from that, it's happened before that people just misunderstand things. It's not too strange for us when we interview two persons of interest separately and find slight differences in their accounts."
"That's interesting," he said after a second. "I was thinking of maybe becoming an Auror after Hogwarts... but, why are you here? Do you normally look into these kinds of things?"
"No, you have the right of it. This happens to be an exceptional scenario. I insisted on taking this case because I was interested in it, and others went along with me. The Minister happened to insist that there was nothing more germane the Corps could be doing at the moment."
Harry wanted to object that Voldemort had just been seen at the Department of Mysteries, but technically the vision could have been completely false. He could have had that suggested to him just to make him think that Sirius was in more danger, or maybe if he was the one creating the vision, he had to be in it somewhere. There was no need for him to set the trap himself, so even if the Order had run into someone, it might have been just a handful of low-ranking Death Eaters, someone the enemy would have believed to be enough to overcome Harry, but no one else. Already, he was thinking that they probably ran as soon as the wrong target appeared; they had nothing more they could gain from the venture.
"Do you have any other questions you want to ask?"
"If he objects to questions that we don't think he would know, then there probably isn't any point in asking them; we'll only antagonize him," the younger Auror said as though he was not in the room. "Do you know where Albus Dumbledore might have gone? Did he say anything about it to you?"
"No. I didn't even know he could get out of the school like that."
"He alleged that he arranged for you to organize a banned study group and teach the other students."
"I know what he said, but I'm not in contact with him," he said after thinking for a second. He wanted to respond quickly, to make it seem natural, but at the same time he had to be careful not to contradict something that had been said before, nor to say anything that was explicitly false. For the second time that year he was at risk of expulsion or worse and he was positive that if he ever said anything that could be proven false or would be contradicted by someone else's testimony, they would not need much more to get rid of him, and then Voldemort would win without even trying.
"Do you know if any of the other teachers are in contact with him?"
"I don't. If they are, they haven't said anything about it, not to me."
"What did you do in this study group?"
"It's exactly what it sounds like," he said. "There were a few spells that my friends and I knew, or we'd looked them up once before, preparing me for the Triwizard Tournament, and we decided it would be a good idea to share what we knew with the others."
"At the suggestion of the then-Headmaster?"
"You heard it from him," he said. "I don't see why we just have to go over the same thing as before."
"There's something else, then. Some might say it was awfully convenient that the centaurs came to your rescue in the Forbidden Forest."
"If they hadn't shown up, it would have been the Arcomantulae or the hags or the grindylows. The Forest is a dangerous place, and Umbridge didn't recognize that, and when she was confronted with danger, she attacked rather than retreating, disregarding our safety. The centaurs could have decided to kill us too-"
"It sounds like you rehearsed that."
"I've been telling people the same story for over twelve hours now; I don't see why that makes me a liar." He looked at Robards. "Does your partner know how to recognize the truth when he hears it or does he do this to everyone?"
All at once he felt a strange, and yet familiar sensation and he knew from the blank stare of concentration that the younger Auror was using Legilimency. Without his wand in his hand, he fell back on the material he had only just read that morning and used some of the theory for a basic shield charm and all of a sudden, the wizard was rebuffed, putting a hand on his brow. Harry tried to hide his look of confusion. There was no way it was always that easy. Was Snape just a better mind reader than most?
Robards seemed to look back and forth between him and his partner as if trying to determine what had happened. Was the use of Legilimency even allowed? He had been preparing for it the whole term, but he had not been certain.
"Sir, is the use of Legilimency allowed in interviews?"
"Not on a minor, not on one who is cooperating, no, there would be no precedent for it."
"You'll understand my confusion; Headmistress Umbridge was about to use the Cruciatus on me before Hermione interrupted her. She started the incantation. She also admitted to having set a pair of dementors on me."
"There will probably not be a record of that on her wand, but if several witnesses saw this-"
"Crabbe and Goyle will probably just say it outright if you make it seem like she's going to get an after-death Order of Merlin for it," he said.
"We can't take that kind of suggestion into account," Robards said, sighing slightly. "We do intend to interview the rest of the witnesses to corroborate your story about the first series of events, in which you contend you were frog-marched out of the castle, but we can't trick one witness into confirming the testimony of another. Even if we were to hear the witnesses say that the deceased threatened to use an Unforgivable Curse, that would not be worth anything in court."
"It would mean that they were lying if they went back on it," he said. He tried to think about how to proceed. "Sir, I think that you want to know about what's out there. I've maintained, uninterrupted, that Voldemort is back. The Slytherins were helping Umbridge just because she was saying he isn't back, and their parents are all working for him. Over a year ago we had a verifiable attack by Death Eaters at the World Cup, it doesn't even bear... suggesting that they don't still exist. They used a dark curse that they probably invented themselves to claim credit for the attack."
"The problem with that attack is that no motive was ever identified."
"The wizards were all dressing up in muggle clothing," he guessed. "I'm not sure why there any muggles there, but we were all technically under the Reasonable Rest- I mean, the Statute of Secrecy, even though some people really weren't going along with that. The Death Eaters... they couldn't stand that. The people they tortured were all muggles. They hate everyone who can't do magic, and they hate having to hide magic from them."
"That's a theory," Robards said. "It's one we've heard proposed before, more or less, but I suppose it bears investigating. If there is anyone from that attack that we can identify, then-"
"Voldemort used their names in the graveyard. I saw them with their masks, and-"
"Yes, the graveyard. It seems that this interview has reached the end of relevant matters. Let's not keep Mr. Potter away from the remainder of his studies, shall we?"
Harry almost immediately knew it was wise to let them go. At the same time, he had one more thing to say. He stood up as they were on their way out.
"Don't think this is over," he said. "The truth is coming out already."
He walked past them, back out into the corridor, and headed to class to keep from raising suspicion, finding Hermione already there. He sat down and stared at the words in the book about Occlumency, but he was not truly reading. Though he boasted no surpassing insight on the inner workings of the Ministry, the Aurors almost certainly knew something, whatever it was, had gone on in the Department, and as dark wizard catchers, they would have known who was involved.
"I haven't heard from the others," his friend whispered.
"That fits. We'll wait it out."
He was hardly listening as she told him in bits and pieces how her interview with Tonks had gone; he had every reason to expect that the Order siply could not tell them anything, and as an Auror she probably still had to report back with an account from the other witness, so most of the questions would have been the same. In the end, did her presence accomplish anything more than reassuring him? What did that even mean, though, that he would not be Apparated straight to Azkaban with her there? Would he have been able to do anything differently had he not been at ease? Perhaps strangely, he felt less at ease after the interview than during, though there was a reason for that. He was still trying to figure out how stupid it was that he might have revealed that he knew something about the attack on the Department of Mysteries.
When the class was out, he waved to Ron in the corridor, grateful that at least someone could look relieved. It was probably because he had not really been listening to her, but Hermione had a look of concern. This time, in McGonagall's class, he was determined to read ahead in the book, and he had reason enough to hope she would overlook it. His hopes, however, were not fulfilled. Either his Transfiguration teacher was a stickler for the rules even in life or death situations, or she thought it better to maintain his cover.
The class let out and the DA basically met for lunch, with everyone there except Marietta Edgecombe. Cho was discussing what had happened to her in hushed tones with Susan. However she felt about it, though, it seemed the rest of the group was on board, some going so far as to propose penalties more dire than before.
"She sold us out," Ginny said. "We could have all gone to Azkaban."
"The shock of being betrayed has passed," Cho said after a moment. "All that's left is that she was my friend first."
"Oh, so you're taking her side?"
"It's just a bunch of acne on her face or whatever," Terry Boot said. "If the worst that happens to her is that everyone knows she's a traitor for the rest of her life, is that so terrible? Is it so much worse than she deserves?"
"You don't get it," Susan said. "It's not the same for a wizard."
"I had thought it would be," Hermione said. Everyone looked at her. "I genuinely only considered the shame as a punishment. There's nothing so ugly as a traitor, after all." She sighed. "There was also the fact that someone might turn on us without our hearing of it, and I would think we would want to know how we could stop it before it got any worse."
She was right. If the cursed parchment had, for example, killed the traitor instantly, there would be no one to stand trial as a witness against them, but the situation would not be redeemable. If for some reason the enemy decided to send her back and any of them saw her, there would be a chance of taking care of the problem still. It was also possible that she could just slip up and accidentally tell a friend more than she should have.
"Then we're not going to do anything about it?" Cho asked.
"We're not going to make it any worse," Harry said after a moment. "If we want to reassemble, though, we're going to have to have something else. The secret is already out."
"Aren't we allowed to form study groups now?" Terry asked.
"We are, but that doesn't mean the Minister won't send someone else next year," Ron said. "There might be a place we could use if we're careful, but we can't discuss it here-"
"What's the point of trying to keep it secret?" Ginny asked. "If people see us disappearing, all they have to do is follow us. We can't pull the same trick on the whole castle twice."
"Doesn't need to be the whole castle," Harry muttered. "No one's going to look too closely. Most people don't even want to get involved. The Slytherins are going to be a problem, though."
"This may sound mad," Hermione prefaced. "At the same time, I can't help but think we would be better served identifying a few of the decent ones-"
"How do we identify them?" he asked, cutting off the inevitable argument. He had not really noticed it before, but the group really did respect him. "If there are any, how do we know they're decent?"
"We'll ask them if they want to learn Defense Against the Dark Arts," she said. "We're not going to take any of Malfoy's gang, no one who would have any reason to be disloyal- and we'll subject them to the same treatment. We'll have another cursed document."
"The curse had better put everyone who goes against it in the ground," Ron insisted. It was his turn to have all the attention on him. "There's no hope of salvaging the situation this time, because it won't really be secret."
"How is that different from the Dark Mark?" she asked. "How is demanding that everyone who joins us remain loyal on pain of death-"
"Hermione, Voldemort is back and we are at war with him," Harry said. "Ron's right. I don't want to kill anyone either, but this time, if someone betrays us, it won't be about getting expelled; we'll get tortured for more information or killed. If this were any other war and someone said something to the enemy, I'd have killed him without asking what it was. People don't get to not know what they're fighting for and back out later. They don't get a trial period."
"Whether the public realizes he's back or not, things will escalate more," Ron said. "The Death Eaters are going to start killing people outright. It's not about trying to get the Ministry to contain a band of dark wizards anymore; we have to fight them ourselves. If we're lucky and we don't, fine, but that's better than not preparing to kill them."
"What makes us different," Harry started after thinking about it for a moment. "-is the fact we didn't start this and the fact that we're not trying to take over the country and kill everyone who doesn't fit in our picture of a perfect world or something. Taking measures against getting our secrets leaked is what we're going to need to do even if we didn't let the Slytherins in; we didn't have any reason to think Marietta would turn on us-"
"Her parents were pressuring her," Cho volunteered. "Her mother works at the Ministry. I'm not trying to frame this as an excuse, but it was not out of nowhere-"
"Well, she didn't tell us about that, so what difference does it make?" Ron asked. "Our first plan didn't work. We tried to bring together everyone who wanted to learn, and whether or not she wanted to learn, it wasn't good enough. Now, we're bringing everyone who's willing to risk death going up against a band of murder-happy dark wizards."
It was obvious that taking such measures was going to leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth. Harry had only a cursory understanding of normal history, but he could be reasonably certain that there had never been an armed resistance force that had kept its units in line by asking nicely. It was clear that Hermione was going to have words with him later, but she was going to keep her peace for the moment because he had sided with her against the witch that was technically supposed to be his girlfriend.
"It will take time to come up with this document," she said after a moment. "I want everyone here to take a day or two to think about how much you're willing to risk. I suppose it bears mentioning that if it comes to a duel between us and the enemy, then you will have to risk death at their hand, even though we'll take as many measures as we can to protect everyone, and we still don't want it to come to that. While I do not agree with everything that has been said, I think we can all agree that this is no longer a simple exercise in rule-breaking. That said, nothing we have said here is evidence of anything."
He was not sure she was correct, but it seemed that everyone around the table believed her. No one said a word but to get up and leave. It was not as if there were no more classes.
"Harry," she said to him right as they were getting up themselves. It looked like Ron was lost in thought. "I know that we didn't start it and I know that we're not trying to take over the country, or the world, whichever it is now. I just think we need more than that."
"This whole time I've just been in a battle for survival," he said. "I thought no one would ever have a problem with it." He took a deep breath. "That was just my survival, though. I was a kid, so... people only expected me to protect myself. A few times, I was lucky, or things worked out better than expected, and we managed to protect someone else, but..."
"I know you probably didn't want me to tell you that no one wants to-"
"I don't want them to die for me," he said. "I don't even want them to do much of anything for me. Last year I couldn't think of asking Justin Finch-Fletchley for help in Charms and the DA- well, I thought of that as an opportunity that I was offering, not some kind of duty-"
"It is a duty," Ron said after a moment. "This is the right thing to do. The Order doesn't have enough bodies by itself, and they can't depend on us. We have to either change that, or form our own unit."
He was at a loss as to how to respond to that for a moment, and it seemed the same was true for Hermione. He could expect a lot from his friend just because they were friends; he knew that from five years of experience, but did he really think that was the only reason that he had gone so far? Had he not thought that the same logic he might use on anyone else would apply to his personal friends as well?
"I think... I think the three of us were going to fight no matter what," he said after a moment. "It sounds kind of... I don't know, weird to say this, but it never really crossed my mind that either of you might turn on me. Even before people started showing up wanting to learn defensive magic, the three of us were always going to stick together."
"Yeah," Ron said. A note in his voice suggested he wanted to know where it was all going.
"Well, is it really that unfair to expect the same out of other people?" he asked rhetorically. "You two might have been the only people who helped me practice spells for the Triwizard Tournament, but you didn't owe me anything."
"Harry, we owe you our lives several times over," Hermione said.
"Doesn't the whole school? I didn't really think that they'd owe me when I killed the basilisk or whatever. I genuinely never expected anything."
Any two people who did not know him as well might have thought he was bragging, if strangely. Ron and Hermione almost immediately recognized that it was perfectly in character. A moment passed before anyone spoke.
"Harry, when you heard that there was a prophecy saying you had to defeat Voldemort, I had a moment of disbelief. I genuinely could not believe that something so terrible would happen to one of my closest friends. I suppose it's kind of like how you always think a natural disaster will happen to someone else. When you heard, though, you didn't seem surprised in the slightest."
"Yeah, mate. You're a regular hero type. There's no denying it, no playing it down. You might think everyone's like that, but they're not. You might think it was just you trying to survive, but anyone else would have taken credit, and quite a few people wouldn't have even survived. They'd have run, even when the only way out was through. That time you faced down Quirrell with some black flames behind you? Plenty of people would have taken their chances with the fire, and no one would have said anything at the funeral. Me an' Hermione, we're just..."
"We're just doing the best we can," she finished. "I think I see your point more than I did before. Outside of us, there's no one you can trust with your life, and that's exactly what's at stake."