The Prefects
Somewhere within Hogwarts, the prefects held a meeting about yesterday's events. The Gryffindor prefects were asked, why they didn't call their head of house?
"Huh? Should we have?" Donna asked.
"Well yeah? Who else is responsible for your house?" The Head Girl asked. "She did tell you to at the beginning of the year meeting just one week ago, didn't she?"
"No? She hands out schedules and that's that?"
The rest was totally stumped.
"So, you didn't know to call the Hospital Wing via the floo in your common room either?"
"No?"
"We can do that?"
All of the prefects and head students all stared at one another.
The Head Girl got up abruptly and said, "Come, Tyler, we need to go to the staff room." And the two were off.
The rest decided to wait and see what would happen now. Meanwhile, they tried to figure out, why that topic never had come up in former prefect meetings and came to the conclusion, that to some, it was such common knowledge, they expected everyone to just have, and the others had no idea, there was knowledge they were missing.
The Head Students
Elspeth Wilkins knocked on the staffroom door and hearing a call of 'enter' she opened the door.
"Are you telling me, all this money has been siphoned off for years?" Professor Sprout was exclaiming angrily. Elspeth had never seen her head of house like that.
"Uh, if it's a bad time, we can come back, later?" Tyler Stevens stammered.
All eyes turned to them, and Professor Filius said, "Nono, the head students are always welcome! What is it, Mr. Stevens, Miss Wilkins?"
Elspeth soldiered on, "There was an incident yesterday evening in the Gryffindor tower. One prefect punched another and broke his nose."
"What? Why didn't someone get me? My alarm didn't go off. Oh, it wasn't active!"
"No one knew they could get you and how. That's why we are here."
"What?"
"None of the Gryffindors even knew, they could call for medical assistance via the floo. They didn't even know they had a floo!"
Poppy Pomfrey looked absolutely appalled, "So in an emergency, no one would have known to get me?"
"No. They think they have to lug the one needing medical attention to the Hospital Wing. Alone." The last was said a little accusingly in Minerva McGonagall's direction.
It was too much. She had failed so badly! Minerva put her hands over her face and started crying, much to the shock of the two students.
Madam Pomfrey and Professor Sprout went to her, and Professor Flitwick cast a privacy charm on the women. He then said, "Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We are actually just working on making things better. Now, who was the prefect, who punched another?"
"Ronald Weasley."
"Now, why am I not surprised? Please give me your badge for a second, Mr. Stevens, I need to recall Mr. Weasley's."
He did so.
Elspeth said, "Are you aware, that the Gryffs have no 5th-year prefects anymore?"
"What? What about Miss Granger?"
"She resigned yesterday, not wanting to do the work for two."
"Understandable, but it should not have been necessary."
"We agree, she was very dedicated and a great addition to us prefects."
"Yes, I can imagine. Now, there are things moving here, within the staff. Can you handle your work without those two for a few days?"
"Sure. Weasley didn't do anything anyway and Granger will be missed but we can adjust our schedules. – May I ask something else?"
"Absolutely."
"What will happen with the Defense lessons now?"
"We Heads of Houses decided unanimously, to call on the goblins to find and destroy the curse on the Defense post. We will then look for a new teacher with credentials stating that the curse was broken."
"And until then?"
"Do you have an idea?"
"Couldn't we get Professor Lupin back? He was the best."
"We will check. Good idea!"
Saturday Evening
Dumbledore had scheduled an Order meeting for that evening a week ago, and therefore before the events this morning. He had just not been able to help himself. He had wanted to interrupt as much of the time Sirius spend with Harry back then. Now had other, more urgent tasks, but now he had to go through with this, some members could not be contacted at such short notice and maybe he could keep the news from spreading if he was present. They looked up to him and he was the Leader of the Order of the Phoenix, after all.
When they were all seated as they usually did and he had come quite on time, for once, not giving anyone time to chat, he started the meeting, "Severus? Do you have anything to report?" He asked kindly, eyes twinkling.
"You know perfectly well I have not been called since the last time we spoke. This morning."
"Yes, my boy. But one never knows the secret ways of Lord Voldemort." He said mysteriously.
Severus scowled, "There are no secret w-"
"Yes, yes, thank you, my boy. Kinsley anything new at the Ministry?"
"Well, we arrested Dolores Umbridge today. As you well know."
"Yes, yes. Anything else?"
But the question was downed by the barrage of others who wanted to know, what happened.
"Well, we found, that it was her, that sent the Dementors after Potter."
"What?"
"No way!"
Albus interjected, "Please remember, she is innocent until proven guilty!"
"We have plenty of proof, all right," Tonks scoffed. "She is guilty as hell."
"Really? What do you have on her?" Sirius asked, quite interested.
"Now, now, this is not the matter of discussion right now. Please stay on topic," Dumbledore interrupted.
"I thought the topic was the happenings at the Ministry?" Moody asked.
"But not Umbridge, anything else?"
"Well, the Headmaster of Hogwarts-"
"I meant at the Ministry!"
Shacklebolt huffed and said, "Well, everyone at the DMLE believes that You-know-who has returned, and that Sirius is innocent, now."
"What? When did that happen? And how?"
"Why do you look so angry, Albus? This is very good, right?! Now they can reinstate you as Chief Warlock again! Oh, what happy news!" Molly gushed.
Minerva scoffed, "As if. He is politically dead due to what-"
"Minerva! Don't spread rumors! You know better!" Albus really tried to keep the horse from leaving the barn. But it was out, and the barn had burned down to its foundations. No way around it.
"Rumors? Bah!" We all saw it at Hogwarts. You were shunned by three-quarters of the student body!" Minerva nearly yelled.
Pandemonium.
"Yep, politically dead," Sirius agreed after they all had settled down again. "How did that happen?"
"He – don't you dare interrupt me again, Albus! – he was rebuked by Bones, who said, it was not Albus' business if she wanted to talk to Heir Potter, as Albus was of the Minor House of Dumbledore and that they were mere vassals to House Potter, and Albus replied, that Hogwarts didn't adhere to the old, dark and evil traditions. That's when they shunned him."
"But why? Wasn't he right?" Molly put her foot in. "What?" She asked when most of the present stared at her.
"Molly, do you really think, three-quarters of our society are dark and evil? That Shack here is evil? Me? Elphias? Were the Potters evil? Moody?" Sirius asked with real interest.
"What? No! But you don't adhere to the old stuff, do you?"
"What 'old stuff' are you talking about?"
"Well, the whole manner thing, the bowing, Earl this, Baron that. This stuff."
"Oh, I do."
"What? But you always slouch around here!"
"In my own house. Yes. And we do the traditional things here as well. You just ignore them, which is all right. But is not evil!"
"This whole house is evil!" Molly got angry.
"You are not wrong. What my parents did to this place, was unfortunate. But that does not mean I am evil as well."
"Yes, you are!"
Sirius looked at Arthur and raised his eyebrow. But nothing came, so he turned back to Molly and said, "Margaret Weasley, nee-"
"Stop! Don't! You can't throw her out!" Albus got up and raised his wand. He would need to alter all of their minds! They left him no other choice. It was for the greater good!
But as soon as the memory spell – aimed at Sirius – left his wand, it was deflected to the ceiling, and beams of red smashed at him from every corner of said ceiling.
He dropped like a stone.
"What did you do?" Molly screeched, rounding on Sirius.
But he just sat there motionless looking back impassively, and Arthur answered, "Molly, Albus attacked a Lord in his own home. The wards reacted."
"But when Albus entered Sirius' mind before, to rearrange it, the house never reacted like this!"
"What?"
"What?"
"He did what?"
Pandemonium, again.
Only Sirius sat there quietly.
When it was quiet, Sirius just said, "You knew."
Molly huffed and Arthur looked at his wife as if she had grown horns.
"Sure, I knew! You needed to be kept down!"
Sirius raised an eyebrow and said, "Leave now. You are not welcome here anymore Margret Weasley nee Prewett."
"You can't make me!"
"You sound like one of your children. Come on, Arthur, you can't be that henpecked! Get her out. You know what the wards will do to her, soon."
Arthur nodded and pulled at his wife. He actually got her out of the house before she was ejected.
Sirius looked at Bill and asked, are we good?"
"Yes, we are. I do not share her beliefs. Nor do Charlie or Percy."
"Good. Now, as you heard, Albus here rearranged my mind in the past. He is a very accomplished Legilimens and even though I know Occlumency I only noticed because I was on high alert at that moment.
"He tried to pull my anger, my pain, and my irresponsibility to the forefront of my mind. So, I implore you, to check your minds for tampering or have them checked by a trusted mind healer. He might have done that to others, like Molly or Snape here. Even Moody's paranoia might be a forced upon him."
Snape scoffed; he was sure he was the master of his own mind! But was he the master of his feelings? Doubt crept into his mind, and he decided he would check. Better be safe than sorry.
Moody looked even more paranoid.
"But it is a really bad thing, that we are falling apart right now," Sirius went on "Voldemort is out there, and we need to stand united. I was willing to let things be bygone, but after today, that is not an option any longer. So, what do we do now?"
Shacklebolt said, "We keep going. I joined because I wanted to do more. But we only talk and guard the DoM halls and I don't even know, what for. I really want to share intel and act proactively!"
"Me, too!" Many voices said.
"Then you all may come here to meet. Just not Molly or Albus. And you will have to do a secrecy vow."
All but Snape nodded.
"What about the Fidelius?" Moody asked.
"I will transfer the secret keeper to someone else."
"Who?"
"Moody, this is the stupidest question you ever asked. It's a secret, man."
Moody grumbled but agreed.
They agreed to meet again on Friday in two weeks and all, except the still stunned Albus left. After Sirius assured them, that he just needed the man, to change secret keepers.
As soon as everyone was gone, Sirius said, "You can come down now, Harry," and a minute later he heard Harry skipping down the steps.
The boy entered, grinning widely, "Wow that was a trip!"
"Right? Who would have thought!"
"Umbridge gone, Dumbledore shunned, Mrs. Weasley brainwashed... Awesome and horrible!"
"Yes. Now, who should we make the secret keeper?"
"I have a possibly stupid question."
"Gon on, I love stupid questions!"
"Why can't it be yourself?"
"Hm. Actually, I don't know. Let's look it up. Kreacher? Could you watch Albus here?"
"Yes, master."
They went to the Library and Harry gushed about how amazing the listening spells, embedded in the house were. He had heard everything!
"With a camera, it would be perfect."
"A photo camera?"
"No, a film camera."
"Huh?"
"Come on! You have been to the movies!"
"Let's finish this talk later and let's look for the Fidelius now."
With the keyword register, they found it easily and read, that in earlier times, everyone had been their own Secret-Keeper and it had become too obvious, so it had become usus, to have someone else do it. But it was not necessary, at all.
"Damn, why didn't we look it up back then," Sirius said mournfully.
"Yeah," Harry agreed just as sadly.
"Well, it's decided. I am my own secret keeper, and we don't tell anyone, but act mysterious. Good that no one can read your mind anymore! Now let's go down."
"Wait, I have another question, can the secret keeper take the secret back? Like from Mrs. Weasley?"
"Good question and yes, I just read about it here," he held up the book in question.
As they went down Harry said, "I just read, when the secret keeper dies, all in the know become secret keepers as well. Can they take the knowledge back too?"
"Yes, but not from other secret keepers. Only from people who were told after the original secret keeper died. If too many know, the spell breaks anyway."
"Oh! That makes sense!"
As soon as Sirius was his own secret keeper, they had Kreacher take Albus to the gates of Hogwarts and Sirius sent a Patronus to Poppy, so she could collect him.
They then cleaned up the chaos in the kitchen and Sirius asked, "So how is it going? Did anyone comment on your non-existent scar?"
"Nope, funnily no one noticed yet, but I always keep my hair over my forehead. Except when flying with the team." Well, that wouldn't be a problem any longer.
"And still no visions while dreaming?"
"Nope. And no over-the-top anger as well. Just a clear head. – Learning is so much easier now!"
"Good! And your friends? They didn't notice either?"
"Oh no! Ron was too busy lazing about, and Hermione was busy with her prefect duties and making sure not to do Ron's part as well."
"She is managing that? Good for her! Minnie still clueless?"
"Oh no. She called Hermione and Ron yesterday to her office and scolded Hermione for not keeping Ron in line. It ended with Hermione giving back her badge and Ron keeping his."
"No!"
"Oh yes. Hermione went up to her dorm very soon, clearly distraught and when Ron came back a little later, he was oh so angry at her. Yelling and stuff. And when another prefect intervened, he got his nose broken by Ron."
"No!"
"Oh yes! Ron got stunned and bound and hexed and put on a couch and the prefect was taken to the Hospital Wing. Ron was still snoring on the couch when I left this morning.
"And where was your Head of House?"
"How should I know?"
"..."
"What?"
"Well, I need to talk to Minnie, normally she came by when something happened in the common room or the dorms."
"Hm, she came, when you slashed Ron's bed curtains."
"Well, good!" Sirius blushed a little, remembering his idiocy back then.
Harry grinned and then yawned.
"Off to bed with you!"
"It's just nine and Saturday!"
"And when did you get up?"
"Okay, okay, I'm going," Harry grumbled and went to bed.
Sirius finished the evening by taking the secret back from Molly, Arthur, Albus, and Dung. He felt a little sorry about Arthur, but knew, the man would be made to spy on them if he could still come to meetings. Maybe with the oath, he could come back.
When Kreacher had returned, the elf was tasked with packing all the stuff the Weasleys had left lying around and returning it. And see if Dung had taken anything from the house and return those possible items as well. Kreacher gleefully went to work.
Severus' mind was in turmoil. This day had been harrowing. First the shunning, then the discovery he had been duped by the 'Leader of the Light'. He scoffed. He had labored hard for years, brewing potions for the Hospital Wing. Well, not any longer!
Minerva had resigned from her post as deputy, she had been duped quite badly as well and they had discovered, that Albus actually had stolen funds from Hogwarts for years! Decades even! Who was that man?
And this evening had been quite eye-opening as well. The Ministry knew about the Dark Lord and Black. That alone changed things! And he was rather surprised, that he hadn't been called yet, because of this. The DMLE really managed to keep it under wraps, it seemed.
But what had really shocked him was the claim, that Albus did the most forbidden thing a Legilimens could do. He supposedly pulled emotions he wanted others to feel the most, to the front.
But why would Black claim it if it wasn't true? Few people even knew it was possible!
Severus went to the meditation mat he had in one of the corners of his rather spartan quarters and sat on it crossed-legged.
He hadn't meditated for a long time he now remembered. Never finding the time. Well, this stopped now, as well!
It took him quite a while to find his equilibrium and he looked around in his mindscape. What a mess. He had just chucked his memories into it for years! But that wasn't what he was here for. He went into another, much more private part of his mind to study his emotional layout and holly shit! Someone had messed it up to make it nearly unrecognizable. All emotions had been pushed behind a few very prominent and very negative ones.
What stood there tall and proud was hate for himself and the world, anger at everyone, and guilt, overwhelming guilt. And when he studied it in more detail, the hate and anger had the exception of Dumbledore and Lilly woven into them and for some people, the feelings had been even made stronger, than he thought possible. It was a wonder he could function as he did and not go around, snarling and growling at everyone.
Now, what to do? He could trigger a mental breakdown, if he wasn't careful, so he very, very slowly and meticulously began dismantling the 'tower of hate' (for lack of a better name) and when the other two unnatural and amorphous 'structures' started to become unstable, he dismantled parts of them as well. Ok, it seemed, that he had to dismantle them slowly and together. He had only managed to take down about a third when his exhaustion got the better of him and he went to bed. Unfortunately, the hard part was yet to come. First, in taking down the rest of the structures, which became thicker and denser at the bottom, and second, in finding his real emotions and strengthening them. He couldn't leave the place empty, after all, or he would become quite sociopathic.
