Snowfall in Early Summer

by welfycat

Book 7. As the war escalates and Rachel's mental connection to the Dark Lord continues to evolve, Rachel and Severus search for the path to prevent the Dark Lord from taking over magical Britain.

2. Messages

"I have a few people in mind for you to apply to do your Mastery with," Severus said.

Rachel didn't look away from her cauldron. This was the last batch of Dreamless Sleep they were brewing and she wanted it to come out right, particularly because this was her recipe. Two of the modifications had produced viable potions that they had bottled to be sent to the guild for testing. One had become a strange sludgy substance and after another review of the recipe Severus said that the flitterbys and lavender had interacted when they hadn't expected them to. The fourth recipe - the one where she'd tried to counteract the sleepiness within the potion itself - had begun burning through the copper cauldron for reasons she and Severus still hadn't figured out. She felt bad about ruining a cauldron, but Severus told her she could expect to do so multiple times during her Mastery and that copper cauldrons were cheap.

"Oh?" she asked after she added the powdered sage.

"My top pick would be Mistress Emlyn Clough. She's an inventor of a number of healing potions and she is very genial. I think she would be a good fit for you in temperament. She doesn't often take apprentices, but I know her through the guild and I think with my recommendation and the judges' recommendations from the Championship, along with these recipes showing that you are already making advances in the field, she should be willing to consider you," Severus said.

She pressed her lips together. Sooner or later Severus was going to have to get used to the idea that she couldn't do a Mastery during the war. Her cauldron had begun to bubble so she began counting out seventeen strokes counterclockwise. The mixture was slowly turning a pale blue, which was an interesting and unexpected development.

"Another person you can apply with is Master Gregg McDonald. He originally specialized in healing potions, but he's branched out a good deal since then. He generally takes an apprentice every five years and it should be coming time for him to take another one. He's been a prominent figure in the guild for the past twenty years and is very well thought of," he continued.

Rachel added the fluxweed and turned down the heat. "How do they feel about being murdered in their beds for apprenticing the Girl-Who-Lived?" she asked, keeping her eyes on her cauldron as it simmered.

"While that is certainly hyperbolic, I understand your concern. We would have to take certain precautions with anyone who you apprenticed with and they would need to be willing to take those precautions."

"I can't in good conscience let anyone else get close to me until the war is over. I won't paint targets for people to be killed," she said as firmly as she dared. "Besides, hopefully the war will be over in about a year."

"Is that the timeline Albus has given you?"

She glanced at him and found him looking unsettled. She quickly turned her attention back to her cauldron. "It's the best case scenario timeline, I think. I don't see why it should need to be longer than that. We find the cup, destroy all the horcruxes we've gathered, figure out a way to deal with that snake, and then lure the Dark Lord somewhere." And then she died and Professor Dumbledore killed the Dark Lord. Severus wasn't ready to hear that last part yet. She wasn't sure he ever would be.

"I won't have you facing him before you're ready," he said, his tone also firm.

Rachel stirred again, thirteen strokes clockwise this time. Then she added two scoops of flobberworm mucus and the shavings of ginger root. She frowned down at the potion. It was slowly turning green, which was also not what she had anticipated. If this was Dreamless Sleep, it should have been moving from dark blue to purple. She saw no signs that it was frothing, getting ready to boil over, or beginning to eat through the cauldron, so she decided to keep going. She checked her watch, noting the time so she could let it sit for seven minutes while the flobberworm mucus became loose enough to interact with the potion.

"I think I'll be ready. This training shouldn't take more than a year, I think," she finally said, looking at him again. He looked worried.

"I'm not sure this training will get you ready to face the Dark Lord."

"Is there anything that would get me ready to face the Dark Lord?" It seemed a bit rude to ask it that way, but she felt she had a point. No one except Professor Dumbledore faced the Dark Lord one on one and lived to tell about it, and she definitely wasn't Professor Dumbledore.

Severus now looked pained.

Rachel decided to stop pushing. She didn't want to have this fight with him. "It's okay. Professor Dumbledore will know what to do."

"I'm afraid I don't quite have the same faith in him that you do."

"You said you trusted him with the war," she pointed out.

"I do trust him with the war. I trust that he will do anything it takes to win this war. I don't trust him with your life," he said bluntly.

She considered that for a long moment. "His plan doesn't seem to be for me to die?" She was certain Severus would have done something about it by now if that was the plan.

"No, I don't believe he is intending for you to die. Check your cauldron," Severus said.

Her cauldron was beginning to froth and Rachel paused before turning down the heat further. She didn't dare stir yet; according to her watch she still had two minutes before she stirred. "If he's not planning for me to die, then what is the problem?"

"He has yet to give me a satisfactory answer as to how we're going to control this confrontation and I will not be allowing him to use you as a lure for the Dark Lord until he does."

Rachel wanted to ask him why he thought he was the one who got to make that choice. It was her life they were talking about. But she also didn't want to start an argument. "Maybe he needs more information before he knows that. And doesn't that information change all the time? Like, it's going to change based on whether or not he has the Death Eaters with him. And the snake of course. He's not going to show up if he thinks he'll be outnumbered."

"You're correct. This confrontation is currently too far away for us to have more than the barebones of a plan right now. It will depend on who is alive then, where the confrontation is, what has become of the snake, and a number of other things. But the bottom line is that you are the one who has to strike the killing blow and we need to determine how to do that. I intend to teach you the Killing Curse this summer, because I think that has the best chance of success. Albus will not be pleased, but he has never had to fight as a Death Eater. For the most part, Albus was not on the front lines of the war."

Rachel glanced at him, seeing that his expression was set, and then turned back to her cauldron and began to stir, counting the strokes in her head. Slowly the potion turned what she would describe as sea green. She turned up the heat, intending for it to boil before she added the Sopophorous bean juice. "Isn't casting the Killing Curse illegal?"

Severus sighed. "Our Defense curriculum is utterly a sham. Casting any of the three Unforgivable Curses on another being - that is someone who is a being as the Ministry classifies them, such as humans, goblins, vampires, House Elves, and veela - is illegal, with certain exceptions, such as the aurors currently being authorized to cast the Killing Curse in combat against a Death Eater. Casting the curses themselves is not illegal."

"If our Defense curriculum is so bad, which I'm not saying it wasn't bad for most of my Hogwarts education, then how do people pass the Defense OWL and NEWT?" Rachel asked.

"Many of them don't. Your year has had the highest Defense pass rate and highest number of Defense NEWT students in over a decade. Also, the Defense OWL has been watered down over the past thirty years, it used to be more difficult. The last revisions were twenty years ago and they were trying to revise all of the curriculum and the exams before the war put just about everything on hold at the Ministry."

"Do you think it was the DA that helped people pass?" she asked, looking away from her cauldron for a moment.

"I think you're in a better position to know that than I am. Did the students in the DA continue onto the NEWT class?" he asked.

"Everyone our year did, plus Padma. Padma joined the DA this year. We had a lot of seventh years in the DA in my fifth year, but a number of them weren't taking the NEWT class, they were just there for the defense practice," she said. She knew several of them had dropped the NEWT class because they weren't willing to sit through class periods with Umbridge.

"Then I think you can say that your club successfully prepared people for their OWL exam."

Which had been the point, but Rachel wanted it to be more than that. She wanted people to really be able to defend themselves, and they certainly hadn't accomplished that. She turned down the heat and added the Sopophorous bean juice. The potion stayed green as she stirred, simply turning a dark green. "Why is it green?"

"For most potions we can pinpoint the interaction of why something turns a certain color, but as far as I can tell there isn't really a reason behind it. The colors are mostly used as indicators in potions recipes to tell you if you're brewing correctly or when to add or stir," he said.

"I guess. I just don't know that this is Dreamless Sleep. How can they possibly test unknown potions on someone when they might kill them?"

"They review the recipe and the potion first, doing various tests on it to ensure it's not lethal or permanently disfiguring. Then they test the potion on conjured mice, not for effects but for lethality. Then on magical mice, for longer term effects. Then on a limited trial of volunteers," he explained. "If all of that goes through, then it is tested on a larger trial of volunteers to see if the potion does what it is supposed to do. Some potions are much more difficult to test than others, because they are treating a very specific ailment and they need people with that ailment to test it on. For those they work with St. Mungo's."

That did not make Rachel feel better at all. "Who would volunteer to do that?"

"For people who are ill, they usually volunteer because the treatment they are using is not effective. For the limited trial volunteers, they pay people. Some people prefer that to working as it pays somewhat decently."

"Maybe I had better not go into healing or ingested potions. I'm not sure if I can do this," she said, staring at her cauldron. "What if my potion kills someone?"

"I can think of only one time someone has died in testing during my time at the guild. It was because the man was taking other potions, illegal potions, and did not disclose that to the guild. That person knew in advance that they were supposed to disclose everything that they had taken in the past two weeks. It was not the inventor's fault. Check your cauldron."

Rachel refocused. It was now a dark sea green and the froth had cleared off. She turned off the heat entirely and pulled out a ladle full of it to examine it closer. It smelled like boiled eggs, which was also intriguing and unexpected. "I actually have no idea what this potion will do."

"If I had to guess, I would say it would put someone to sleep and cause them not to remember they were dreaming for eight hours."

"Even though it looks nothing like Dreamless Sleep and only has two of the same ingredients?"

Severus took the ladle from her and carefully turned it to examine the viscosity of the potion. "There are many potions with the same reactionary ingredient that have very similar functions. Likely you just invented an alternative recipe for Dreamless Sleep. Not necessarily what you were trying to do, but an important step in your career."

"Do you think any of them will not force someone to fall asleep?" She really did not want to have done all this just to wind up with the same potion.

"I don't know. We will have to have them tested. I promise that none of these are lethal brews and that the guild will make sure of that before they do any testing. Do you still want to send them in?"

This was not a decision she was expecting to have to make. "Do you think that it's ethical?"

"I think it's more ethical than letting people suffer from conditions we might be able to treat. None of the potions that we use regularly would have come about without them being tested. Many of our oldest potions were just people testing their inventions on patients and seeing what worked. We've come a long way in the past five hundred years. It wasn't until St. Mungo's was founded in the sixteen hundreds that we began really putting together the idea of treatment regimens that could be followed for identified diseases, and another two hundred years after that for the guild to start regulating how potions could be tested. Maybe what we have now is not the perfect solution, but it's better than we were before. Hopefully, at some point, someone will come up with an even better solution," he explained.

"Is it possible to conjure humans?" she asked, wondering if that would be better than testing on real people.

"It is, but that's both illegal, classified as dark arts, and ineffective for most healing testing because the humans that are conjured are not magical and do not remain for long."

"Can someone vanish a person the way that we vanish, well, basically anything? We vanish conjured animals," she asked, since they were on weird magical questions.

"Theoretically, yes, but it's supposed to be very difficult for reasons that we obviously can't test. That is also illegal, mostly just because it should be illegal, but most people don't have the ability to do it anyway."

She supposed vanishing the Dark Lord was out of the question then. "Do you think anyone will be harmed by my potions being tested?"

"No, but the possibility is a risk you take by having them tested. Just like with the invention of spells, sometimes the invention of potions goes wrong and people get hurt. In both, at all stages, we do our best to mitigate and reduce harm. That is part of the task of being a potioneer or a spell crafter. Testing them is a small risk, but it is a risk nonetheless. I happen to believe it's worth the risk to continue to advance what is possible to do with potions, so that ailments we can't treat now can be treated, and so that people have better lives with less pain than they might otherwise have. That process includes where you're at right now, which is learning to modify and invent potions," he said patiently.

Quidditch as a career seemed to have far fewer ethical dilemmas than potions did, though she did worry when she sent her team out on the pitch. They were her responsibility. She supposed this was a little like that. They took risks, and everyone on the team knew the risk they were taking by entering the game. The people in the Potions Guild and the people who signed up to be test subjects supposedly knew what they were risking when they agreed to test potions. She didn't not play Quidditch because one of her team members might be hurt in a game or a practice, though she knew she'd feel guilty if they were hurt.

Severus was right. The current way they were doing things wasn't perfect. But it was the way they had for the moment until someone came up with something better. "Okay. I think I do want to send them in for testing."

"Alright. We can bottle this when it cools. The others have been labeled. You'll want three clean copies of your recipes with the same labels as your vials. I want to look over the fourth recipe again and see if I can figure out why it became so corrosive. Is it alright if I have another brewer look at it?" he asked.

"That's fine," Rachel said. She also wanted to know why her seemingly innocuous changes went badly wrong so that she didn't do it again. "When will we find out if any of the potions work?"

"Two to three months. These are simple potions and they don't require a specialized subject pool. Remember to put your name as the inventor on all the recipes."

Rachel nodded and began to clean up the brewing area. At least this was one project she could maybe mark off her list for now. Next she could focus on her spell for Arithmancy.

---

"I'll come get you at seven. Send your Patronus if you want to come home sooner than that," Severus said.

It was three o'clock on Tuesday afternoon and Rachel thought four hours was enough time for what she needed to do. "Alright. I'll be fine."

"Make sure you eat dinner," he said, ducking his head down slightly to meet her eyes.

"I will, I promise." That was going to get old quickly. "I'm fine. I can be at Headquarters by myself for four hours. I'm not even by myself. Sirius, Remus, Theo, and Draco are all here."

That did not seem to reassure Severus, judging by his expression.

"Go. Do something that you want to do. Please. I do not need a babysitter." She resisted pointing out that she was very nearly seventeen and was reaching the point beyond him telling her what she could do.

"Alright. You know how to reach me if you need me. Send your Patronus to me immediately if the Order is responding to an attack, I don't want you here during that," he finally said.

"I will."

Severus nodded and went out the front door. Finally.

Rachel sighed. Sooner or later Severus was going to have to come to terms with the idea that she wasn't eleven years old and in need of a constant protector. Hell, she hadn't needed a constant protector even at eleven. She went into the kitchen, intent on saying hello to Sirius and Remus and came to a stop when she found Auror Shacklebolt sitting at the kitchen table instead. "Oh, I'm sorry. I was looking for Sirius." She relentlessly squashed the urge to wish for Severus. She was certainly capable of speaking to an adult she didn't know very well by herself and obviously Professor Dumbledore trusted him if he was in the Order.

"Miss Snow, I wasn't expecting to see you here today," Shacklebolt said, peering at her. "Please come in."

Rachel came a little closer so they weren't speaking across the room, dropped her right hand down so that she could easily grab her wand from her pocket if she needed to, and kept the table between them. "Just Rachel is fine."

"You can call me Kingsley, as long as it's not in front of my bosses," he said. "Are you well?"

"Well enough," she hedged. "And yourself?"

"Well enough sounds about right, all things considered," Kingsley said with a nod.

"Do you know where Sirius or Remus are?"

"Remus is out getting groceries for the house. Apparently they're currently housing quite a number of families up in that attic of theirs while the Order figures out a safe place to put them. Sirius just got called out to a sighting, he's on the reserve roster today. Probably just someone spooked by someone lurking in a cloak, but we go check when it's one of the houses we're monitoring. I'm monitoring the floo and Headquarters before I pull a nightshift. They want the more experienced aurors on call in the evenings and nights right now since that's when most of the attacks are happening."

Rachel nodded, figuring she would go upstairs and see if she could find Draco and Theo.

"How are you doing with all of this?" Kingsley asked.

"With the war?" she asked, wanting to be certain of the question she was answering.

"With the war, with all of it. There's not many people who can go through what you did and come out the other side. I was there that night, last June, outside the Malfoy Manor."

Rachel forced herself not to look away. "I was left with a tremor in my hands, but otherwise I'm better."

"Physical recovery is only part of it. I lost my arm in the first war. Fortunately they caught it before the curse spread, cut off the rest of my arm, and regrew it." Kingsley lifted his right arm and opened and closed his hand. "According to the Healers, I shouldn't be able to tell it's not my original arm, it shouldn't hurt at all. I can still tell and sometimes it even still hurts."

"I'm sorry. That sounds…difficult," she said, not sure what she was supposed to say to something like that.

"What I'm trying to say is this. Don't expect yourself to be fine or to come out the other side of all of this the same person that you went in. I know I don't know everything, but I know enough to know that they're putting too much of this war on you. Don't let them convince you to do things that you don't want to do. You're an adult now. You get to decide what you're willing to do for this war and what you're not." Kingsley's gaze was intense.

"Thanks." She wished it was that simple. If it wouldn't be condemning a lot of people to die, she'd run far away from Britain and the war and never look back. "I need to go find Draco and Theo. If you see Sirius or Remus, will you let them know I'm here?"

"Will do. Last I saw Theo and Draco they were heading upstairs after lunch. You should probably try the library on the second floor. Take good care of yourself."

"Thank you. You too." Rachel quickly retreated from the kitchen. That was why she didn't talk with people she didn't know well. Things got weird very fast. She hurried upstairs, deciding she'd check the library, and then send a Patronus to Draco rather than search the house on her own.

She found both Theo and Draco in the library. Theo was at a desk and had numerous pieces of glass of varying thickness set around him, as well as several open books and his wand set on one of the books. He was busily making marks on a parchment. Draco was writing in a book with his feet up on a desk. She made conspicuous footsteps so that she wouldn't startle either of them.

They both turned to look.

"Rachel! I wasn't expecting to see you until Sunday," Theo said, setting aside his quill.

Draco quickly closed the book he'd been writing in. "Not that we're complaining, but why are you here?"

"I convinced Severus to let me come by for a few hours. I can stay for dinner. I wanted to say hello. Also, I needed to talk with you, and I will talk with both of you, but I need to speak with Draco privately for a moment first," she said, wishing she was better at communicating when she needed to speak with people.

Draco went paler than he usually was. "What happened?"

"Nothing bad."

Draco clearly did not believe her.

"Can we just talk for a moment, in private, and then I will tell you. And then I will come back and tell you Theo, and the rest of the group at a later time when we have a moment alone."

Theo and Draco looked at each other. "You really just can't tell both of us here now?" Draco asked.

"No, I can't, because there is a part that is private that only you should know, but I will tell both of you the larger picture," she tried to explain. She wanted to tell him to stop making this harder than it needed to be, but she knew that wasn't the right way of going about it.

"About Pansy? About my parents? What?" Draco pressed.

"About your parents and the Dark Lord."

Draco, if possible, looked even more pale and sat back in his chair.

Theo moved toward the exit. "Let me know when you want me to come back, take your time."

"Thanks," Rachel said. She took a seat near Draco, but not too near.

"Are they dead?" Draco asked once they were alone.

"As far as I know, no, they're still alive." The Dark Lord's message was a whole new level of fucked up if Draco's parents were dead.

"What then?" he asked.

"This requires a little explanation, so just stick with me for a moment, alright?"

Draco stared at her. "Well?"

"So you remember how I told you that I sometimes have visions of what the Dark Lord is doing?" she asked, figuring it was easiest to start there.

"Yes, vividly."

"And how I can feel what the Dark Lord is feeling if I concentrate?"

"Yes. For Merlin's sake, Rachel, just tell me!"

"Well, now I can converse with him in my head while I'm asleep."

Draco stared at her. "How certain are you that it's real and not some horrific nightmare?"

"Very certain. I was hearing whispering, while I couldn't dream. And now that I'm dreaming again, I actually show up in my mental architecture while he's there," she explained.

"You realize this makes you sound absolutely crazy, right?" he asked bluntly.

"I'm aware, but we know for certain the visions are of things that are really happening, and that I am feeling what he is feeling. I was feeling anticipation the whole week before the Ministry attack. I'm certain this is real too."

"Alright. Let's say it's real. What does this have to do with my parents?"

"The Dark Lord asked about you. I told him you were in a house under the Fidelius charm. He told me to give you a message, but I think it's going to be painful for you to hear, so I want you to have the option of not hearing it if you don't want to."

Draco rubbed his hand over his mouth, his eyes wide. "I suppose I pretty much have to hear the message. Alright. What is it?"

Rachel pressed her lips together and wished that he'd told her he didn't want to know. She knew that she'd choose the same as he had, if she were in his position. "He said the message was from your father. He said 'Draco is welcome to return to his family and he will be received with open arms.'"

"That's it?" Draco asked.

"That's the whole message."

"Well that's a load of shit," he said, his mouth twisting.

"Well, Severus says that if you went back you would be punished and tightly controlled," Rachel said, not wanting him to go back to his family.

"What he means is I would be tortured and then put under the Imperius curse. You don't have to worry, Rachel. I'm not going back. I think it's absurd that they thought that message would bring me back. How about an apology for nearly killing me?" Draco said, scowling now.

"I'm not even certain that it is a message from your father. It could just as easily be a message from the Dark Lord trying to manipulate you."

Draco shook his head. "The only reason the Dark Lord has to want me back is to kill me. My parents might actually want me back. Or at least, I thought they would."

Rachel remembered Severus' assertion that Draco's parents loved him. "I'm sure they do want you back, but I don't think it's safe for you to go."

"No fucking kidding," Draco said. "So you think the Dark Lord is going to have another conversation with you in your head?"

"Seems likely. He didn't last night, so it doesn't seem like it's going to be an every night thing, thankfully." She was even relieved when she woke in the middle of the night from her usual nightmares. "You haven't been using the two-way books."

"I don't know what to write in them."

"Just a note every few days saying you're alright would be fine. Write down something interesting you read, or comment on what someone else writes. We want you here, Draco. We wouldn't have given you the book if we didn't want you with us."

Draco shrugged. "I'll try."

"That's all I ask. Are we ready for Theo again or do you want to talk?" she asked, wanting to give him enough space.

"Theo is fine. I don't really have anything to say about all that. And, if the Dark Lord does give you more messages from my parents…"

Rachel tipped her head as Draco trailed off.

"If there are more messages, for now I want to hear them, but that might change if they all stay this stupid. And you can tell the Dark Lord that too."

She didn't think she'd tell the Dark Lord that. "Alright. I'll let you know if he says anything else about you or has messages for you." She got up and walked out into the hall and found Theo leaning against the wall. "Do you want to come back in?"

"Sure. Everything alright?" Theo asked.

"Alright enough for now," she said, leading the way back into the library.

They all sat and this time Rachel faced Theo. "So I'm having conversations with the Dark Lord in my mind while I'm asleep."

Theo blinked at her a few times.

"And I will tell the rest of the group, I just don't want it written down in our books because there's always the possibility that someone outside of our group will read them."

"That's fine. I mean, about the books. Rachel. I mean, is it just conversations or is he reading your mind somehow?" Theo asked, looking worried.

"As far as I can tell, we're inside the connection in my mental architecture and he can't get out into the rest of my mind. And neither can I while I'm in there. Severus says the Dark Lord can't use legilimency on me while we're in my mind," she explained.

Theo pressed his hand to his temple. "Is it painful while this is happening?"

"No, but the Dark Lord has threatened to kill people if I don't answer questions to his satisfaction. Severus says it's definitely going to happen at some point. Possibly more than once."

"Merlin," Draco muttered.

"And there's no way of stopping these…I don't know what to call them. They're not exactly dreams. These, whatevers, from happening?" Theo asked.

"Not that we know of. I think the only thing that would stop it is somehow removing or blocking the connection, but no one seems to know how to do that." She frowned, deciding that the next time she did this it was going to be with all of the group so that she only had to do it once.

Theo shook his head. "So you just get interrogated by the Dark Lord whenever he feels like it."

"Well, he can't actually do anything to me within the dream. We can't touch each other or cast spells at each other. And I can lie to him, but he believes I can't. So, as long as I tell believable lies, this should work."

"I still say this is nuts," Draco said.

"It is, a little," Theo agreed. "I don't know how you prepare for that. It's not like you know what questions he'll ask beforehand."

"So far it's only happened once. Hopefully it won't happen very often. And maybe with time he'll become predictable enough that we can anticipate what sort of questions he'll ask. Maybe I'll even be able to get some information from him, or at least misdirect him," she suggested.

"That's a dangerous game," Theo said, his mouth set in a thin line.

"It is. But I don't have a lot of choice but to play. He's going to show up there in my mind whether or not I want him to, so I might as well get something from it. And the Order would never act on this sort of information without other verification. Professor Dumbledore is always aware that my visions might be a trap." She would have to be careful. It was likely any information she got from the Dark Lord would be a lure to see what she'd do with it.

"We should do something. I have exploding snap cards in my trunk or gobstones. Chess, maybe. I don't want to spend the day sitting here talking about the war," Draco said as he got to his feet.

"We can do that." She didn't particularly want to spend the rest of the day talking about the war either.

"I'll be right back," Draco said, leaving while carrying the book he'd been writing in.

"Are you alright?" Theo asked when they were alone.

"Yeah. I'm a little bit worried about what the next step is after having conversations with the Dark Lord in my mind, but I'm alright," she said.

"I'm worried about that too, but I guess we'll deal with that when it comes," Theo said. He seemed to be trying to look reassuring, but Rachel could see the worry in his eyes.

"We will," Rachel said, trying to project back more confidence than she had.

---

Rachel finished the book she was reading and stared down at the index. What she was proposing to do with her Arithmancy project was more complicated than she'd expected and only barely fell into the category of inventing a new spell. She would have to modify the charms to work with a chisel, to accept the strokes of runes, and to work intermittently with the way a chisel was forced across a surface rather than the smooth strokes of a quill. This was closer to artifacting than it was spell crafting.

"Can I ask you a question?" Rachel asked, glancing at her watch. It was nearly time for bed and she didn't want to go.

"Of course," Severus said, placing his hand on his book to mark his place.

"Our summer assignment for Arithmancy is to invent a new spell," she began.

"Yes, I recall. I had the same assignment in the summer before my seventh year. I made a modification to a shield charm to allow it to be set in place for a short period of time, sort of a proto-ward."

"Does it work?" She could see how that would be very useful.

"It works in theory, but in practice the shield is very weak and won't hold up for more than a single hit with the Stunning spell," he explained. "Most of a Shield charm is being sustained by your own magic, take that away and it fades quickly just relying on the magic in the air."

Rachel nodded. "What I want to do is charm my chisel so I can use it even though my hands shake; the steady charm isn't much use on it because of the intermittent movements used for carving. However, after reading how they do it to quills, I'm basically going to have to teach the chisel the strokes that make up runes, so the only real spell crafting I'm doing is modifying the charms to work for those strokes and to work for something that is moving in small bursts instead of smooth strokes like a quill. Do you think that counts for my homework?"

"Yes, modification of existing charms counts as invention in this context, particularly because you are giving it a new purpose and making direct modifications. I would suggest that you modify two spells. The first, modifying the charms to teach the chisel the strokes. The second, to modify the steady charm to hold it in between movements. You might need a non-shaking pair of hands to teach the chisel the strokes you want to use and I'm happy to do that for you," he said.

She hadn't considered that. "Thanks. I suppose my next step is examining the runes and determining what strokes I need."

"You may want to pick a dozen or so of the most common strokes to start with and then add to it later. In fact, I would pick just one, such as a straight line, and test it on your chisel. Then start adding strokes that aren't in our alphabet."

"Makes sense." It was a good thing Professor Babbling had taught them to conjure the wood, metal, and stone plates they needed to practice. She thought she'd be going through a lot of them. "Can I ask you something else?"

"Yes. You can always ask," he reminded her.

"Is Professor McGonagall still willing to mentor us on the animagus transformation this year?"

"As far as I know, yes, but I will check with her the next time I see her," he said. "I suspect she will only take the seventh years in your group though. Luna and Ginny will have to wait another year."

"That's alright, we kind of expected that. I've been practicing the meditations every night again. I sort of let myself lapse a bit last year. I think I'm pretty much ready though. There's a potion we have to brew," she said, her mind bouncing from topic to topic.

"I am willing to supervise the brewing of the potion if Minerva will supervise the rest. Do you have the recipe?"

"Yes, it's in my books but I'll have to find it again." She thought she knew which two-way book Theo had written out the recipe in. It should be her fourth year book, towards the beginning, from when they first started the meditations.

"If you get me the recipe I will ensure we have everything needed for the five of you to brew the potion. I want you to promise me that you will listen to Minerva in this. The animagus process is not without significant risks. I don't want you or your friends to experiment on your own or to do anything regarding this that Minerva hasn't approved," he said, his tone firm.

"We will. We're aware of how risky this is. We think the potential advantages outweigh the risks though. And we'll listen to Professor McGonagall, we promise. What do you think my form will be?" she asked. She still didn't have any theories.

"I have no idea. Supposedly your form will reflect both some of your physical and personal characteristics. If I had to guess, I would say something small and quick. Maybe a bird," he suggested.

"I wouldn't mind being a bird. That would make escape very easy, I think."

"Hopefully you will not be placed in a situation where that is necessary, but I think you're right to press any possible advantage at this point. Would you be willing to do some training with me tomorrow?"

"Sure, what sort of training?" she asked.

"Combat apparition. It's really only useful for one-on-one combat, because it makes it very easy to accidentally attack or be attacked by your allies. But it should help your confidence with apparition in general and give you some practice with identifying targets quickly," he explained.

"That sounds good. I had wanted more practice with apparition before my exam anyway. I am taking the apparition exam, right?"

"Yes, on your birthday. I've made the appointment already and we will have an auror with us. I'll request Tonks again. I want you to be able to legally apparate as soon as possible."

"I think that's a good idea. Just in case." It wouldn't do to get into trouble with the Ministry when she was fleeing from Death Eaters. "I'm going to go upstairs. Goodnight."

"Goodnight. Wake me if you need something," he said.

"I will," she said, though she didn't intend to unless there was a situation with the Dark Lord. She gathered her things and went upstairs. Her first task was to find and write out the animagus potion recipe for Severus. Then she could start on her list of rune strokes until she was ready to try to sleep.

---

Rachel made her way up the attic staircase, checking her watch as she went. She was very nearly late. Sirius had told her that he'd been directing everyone to the upstairs practice room and that Tonks and Kingsley had gone up a little while ago. Apparently some of the Order was meeting directly after their practice session today.

It was a little weird to think that next summer she would be allowed in Order meetings. She knew they weren't going to have her responding to attacks. She was too high priority of a target and would actually increase the danger to the people around her if she went out. There had to be other ways that she could help, but other than brewing potions and helping out at Headquarters, she wasn't sure what that would be.

She caught a glimpse of someone she didn't recognize in the hall, but they quickly hurried into their flat. Theo had told her there were currently a number of families up here, along with the Weasley twins, but that the number of families fluctuated as they helped get people safely out of Britain. Draco had said that Remus had said that more people were starting to become willing to leave after the attack on the Ministry. Rachel didn't know why they waited so long. Maybe most of the attacks hadn't been big like the Ministry, but people had been steadily being murdered for over a year now.

Rachel let herself into the practice room and checked her watch again. It was just barely one o'clock. "Sorry," she told Tonks and Kingsley, hurrying across the room to join her friends.

Kingsley nodded at her. "To start with, I want you to take a good look around the room."

The large room, which had been empty last Sunday, now had a number of large pieces of furniture spaced out in it with no apparent organization. Rachel supposed that even with thirty flats up here, Sirius couldn't find a place for all of it.

"Obviously you're probably not going to be fighting in a place like this. Often we're outside, sometimes we're in houses. If you fight anywhere in the next year, it's probably going to be within Hogwarts or on the school grounds. However, this does give you some places to seek cover. Cover has advantages and disadvantages. One of the biggest advantages is that while a Shield charm won't stop a Killing Curse, a solid object will. You-Know-Who and the Death Eaters are not shy about throwing the Killing Curse around. However, some of the disadvantages are pretty important too. If they know you're hiding behind something, they will blow it up. You also have to peek out in order to see what you're aiming at and to cast back. That will put you at a disadvantage, especially if you are outnumbered or are being driven into a smaller space. Always be aware of where you are retreating to," Kingsley said, looking over all of them.

"The Death Eaters will put up the Dark Mark when they're attacking. It's a spell that includes an anti-apparition ward that will extend quite a distance depending on how powerful the person cast it. We've seen them anywhere from encompassing a house to encompassing a small neighborhood. The Marked Death Eaters can apparate under it, which gives them a huge advantage. Just because a Death Eater apparates away, do not assume they are out of the fight. You are not safe until you've moved to a warded location," Tonks added.

"We're not going to simulate that here, but it's something to be aware of," Kingsley said. "Today we're just looking at using cover to our advantage. Your task is to cross the room and be hit as few times as possible. Tonks, Rachel, and I will be attacking. Tonks and I are fair game for return fire, but Rachel is off limits," Kingsley said.

"Why Rachel?" Ron asked, giving Rachel a confused look.

"She's under Healer's orders not to exert herself. When she's well, she'll be joining you. Rachel will stay on the outskirts so all you have to do is not aim at anyone who is on the edges of the room. Tonks and I will be in the fray. You can use the Shield charm and the training spell we taught you last time. Non-verbal casting only. Questions?" Kingsley asked.

Rachel frowned. She thought she would do fine with being involved and she didn't like being singled out like this.

"Alright, let's begin, everyone to the south end of the room. You'll get five seconds before we follow you in," Kingsley said.

This wasn't unlike the exercises they did with the DA, though they generally had more balanced attackers to defenders ratios and they didn't use spells that hurt.

"Girls, tie your hair back so it isn't in your face," Tonks said. "Nothing worse than not being able to see your enemy. If we were in auror training I'd be telling you not to wear skirts or dresses, but for this you should wear what you'd normally wear so you're used to fighting in it. Same with shoes, something sensible that you can run in, but that doesn't seem to be a problem for most of you."

Rachel was wearing her trainers and she saw that most of her friends were as well, though Theo and Draco were in shoes closer to their school shoes. Hermione and Ginny were pulling their hair back and Luna was quickly putting hers into a plait. Rachel was in jeans and a jumper, mostly because she wanted to keep her scars covered and she hadn't yet asked Severus how she could get some appropriate clothes for summer that would keep her covered. The other girls were in more summery outfits, though Millie, Theo, and Draco were all still in robes.

"Alright, make it to the north wall in the next fifteen minutes. And go," Tonks said.

Kingsley and Tonks waited a bare five seconds before following the rest of the group in, already casting spells. Millie gave a small yelp as she was hit and Ron went running by.

Rachel moved along the outer edges by the windows, keeping her eyes peeled for her friends and sending spells to roust them out of their hiding spots. She quickly saw the pattern that if she forced someone from their hiding spot they immediately fell to spell fire from Tonks or Kingsley. It was all done almost eerily silently, the only sounds footsteps and the occasional exclamations or yelps of surprise.

Luna was first to reach the north wall, looking wide eyed and with her hair coming out of her plait. Theo followed, turning to fire and then dodging a return spell before he shielded himself and touched the wall with his free hand. Ginny and Ron were next, Ron a bright red and Ginny casting the training spell in quick succession to ward off return fire. Draco made it shortly after that, putting up a shield before he backed away from his hiding place and up to the wall. Rachel found Millie hiding and motioned at her to run, which she did, narrowly avoiding spells from Tonks.

That just left Hermione. Rachel walked along the edges of the room, trying to spot her. She could see Tonks and Kingsley prowling among the furniture, their wands held out ready to cast. The sound of quick footsteps told Rachel that Hermione was making a break for it and she turned just in time to see Hermione being fired on by both Tonks and Kingsley. Hermione stumbled and Theo stepped forward and caught her before she hit the floor.

"Good, let's talk. Everyone gather back at the south wall," Kingsley called.

"Thanks," Hermione said, dusting herself off.

"No problem," Theo said, letting go once Hermione was steady on her feet.

"Observations, Rachel, let's start with you," Kingsley said once they were all gathered.

"When I hit people, they tended to run directly into where you were firing on them," she said.

Kingsley nodded. "Your impulse when you're retreating is to get away from the person who is firing on you. That's not a bad impulse, but you can't give into the urge to run blindly. Don't assume that all of your enemies are in the same place. Try to take cover and then assess where you're going to next. Good, what else?"

"Being last was not a good thing. I knew I couldn't move without one of you seeing me," Hermione said.

"Being outnumbered is never a good thing, especially in a place where you can't apparate," Tonks agreed.

"What do you think you could have done differently?" Kingsley asked.

"Well, I couldn't just stay put, because of the time limit, and in real life you would have been casting a revealing spell to see where I was. I suppose my next option was to try to see where all of you were and try to slowly make myself around you, but again, in real life, you would have placed someone at the escape point," Hermione said.

"In real life, there's almost always more than one way to escape. If one escape route looks bad, start looking for another one. Don't be afraid to backtrack and go around if you have to. Also, don't assume the Death Eaters are smarter than you. Some of them are, some of them aren't. You've got to assess that as the situation develops. What will work in one situation won't work in another. I've never seen a Death Eater use a revealing spell to find someone, but that doesn't mean they won't. In combat, people tend to revert to the spells they're most comfortable with. In that way, we're doing you a bit of a disservice, but I won't have you practicing anything potentially life threatening unless it's at a dummy. Do you want to know what I noticed?" Kingsley asked.

"Yes, please," Theo said.

"Most of you are hesitating to fire back. You're good kids, you don't want to hurt anyone, that's understandable. But you've got to be willing to fire back. You've got to be sure of your aim. You can use your spells to drive Tonks and I back instead of just shielding yourself. Alright, everyone against the wall. Let's change up and try again," Kingsley said. He lifted his wand and once all of them were back the furniture began floating and moving around.

Rachel wondered how he did that. She'd seen Severus and Professor Dumbledore do similar things where they had a number of objects being moved at a time, but she hadn't seen anything in their school books that suggested how it was done. It wasn't an urgent problem, or something she thought would be super useful in her life, she just wanted to know how it was possible.

"Let's go again. You've got five seconds, make use of it. Go."

They did the exercise three more times before Kingsley looked at his pocket watch and said they were dismissed for the day. He reminded them that if they needed to use the floo, now was the time to do it because the Order would be meeting in the kitchen in a few minutes, but everyone indicated they could stay for a while.

"Whew," Millie said when Tonks and Kingsley were gone. "That was a little rough."

"It was, but we were doing a little bit better by the end," Theo said, dusting off his robes.

"A little bit, but it was seven of us against two," Ginny said.

"Three, Rachel counts," Luna said, glancing at Rachel.

"Rachel wasn't causing us all that much damage," Millie said. "Thanks for that."

Rachel shrugged. She didn't particularly like casting the training spell at her friends.

"Ron, we have time for a chess match before the meeting is over," Draco said.

Ron looked surprised, but he nodded. "Sure, if you want a game."

"There's a set in the sitting room," Draco said. "I can't get Theo and Rachel to play me most of the time."

"I'll play you," Ron said. "It's a little easier to do tactics on the chessboard than it is in here."

Draco shrugged. "Chess is chess. War is war. Are you all coming?"

"We'll be there in a minute," Rachel said.

"How many games do you think it's going to take Draco before he realizes he can't beat Ron?" Ginny asked once they'd left the room.

"Knowing Draco, it will be a while," Theo said.

"At least they're playing a game and not hexing each other. I'll call it a win," Hermione said with a nod.

"While we have a moment, there's something I should tell all of you that I'd like to keep just between us. Draco already knows," Rachel said, deciding she might as well do it now.

"Somehow it's never good news when this happens," Millie said.

"What happened?" Ginny asked.

"Uh, to be blunt, I can now have conversations with the Dark Lord within my mental architecture while I'm asleep," Rachel summarized.

"That's a worrying trend," Hermione said.

"I know." She could only hope the war was over before the mental connection found some new way to manifest.

"What's he like?" Luna asked.

"The Dark Lord? Kind of arrogant and demanding, but that's not really a surprise."

"Did he say what he wanted?" Ginny asked.

"Again, about what you'd expect. He wanted to know where I was and where Draco was, and I told him that we're both under the Fidelius charm. He thinks I can't lie to him, but I can. He can't access the rest of my mind, so that's a good thing and he can't use legilimency on me there either," she explained.

"Is it painful like the visions are painful?" Millie asked, her expression all sympathy.

"No, just cold. For whatever reason whenever my mental connection is involved it's cold." She still didn't know what that was about and she didn't have anyone else's experiences to compare it with.

"Has it happened again?" Theo asked.

"Just once, less than a week ago. I assume he'll be back eventually, but who knows."

Hermione shook her head. "I suppose for now you just manage the best you can. He can't hurt you there?"

"No, we can't touch each other or cast spells. He's threatened to kill people if I don't answer his questions though." Rachel still didn't know what she was going to do about that. She wasn't sure there was anything she could do to stop it from happening.

"Professor Snape and Professor Dumbledore know? They're helping you?" Luna asked.

"Severus knows, I'm assuming he told Professor Dumbledore by now. Severus says I should practice lying," Rachel said.

"Maybe that's what we should do then," Hermione said. "Have you ever heard of the game two truths and a lie?"

Rachel shook her head and saw that her friends were as well.

"It's pretty simple, everyone goes around in a circle and says two things that are true about themselves and one thing that's a lie, and the rest of the group decides which one is the lie. If they pick wrong, you win," Hermione explained.

"That's going to be tough, we know each other pretty well now," Theo said.

"Well, we can try it with other things than just facts about ourselves too. I think Rachel is more likely going to have to lie about things that other people are doing. Do we want to give this a try?" Hermione asked.

"Sure, I want to try," Millie said.

"Let's go to the library on the second floor, no one else should be there right now," Theo suggested.

Rachel left the room with them, feeling a bit relieved. She'd been a little nervous about their response, but they had found a way to help her, even if it wasn't stopping the dreams themselves. "Ginny, wait just a second."

Ginny fell back. "What's up?"

"I wanted to offer something to you, but I don't want to put pressure on you. So, it's just an offer and whatever you decide is fine." Rachel hoped she was doing the right thing by asking.

"Okay. What is it?" Ginny asked.

"I saw…A few weeks ago, I saw the attack on the Ministry, including what happened in the Minister's office. If you want to hear about it, I can tell you." She knew Ginny would understand what she wasn't saying - that she had witnessed Percy's death.

Ginny came to a stop and closed her eyes. "I don't know. I'm not sure I want to know that. Can I think about it?"

"Yes, of course. Take your time. Just let me know anytime," Rachel said.

"Thanks. I just…I'm not ready. Do you think…I don't know. Maybe my mom and dad would want to hear that. I'm not sure. Would you be willing to talk with them if they wanted to know?" Ginny asked.

That would be more uncomfortable than telling Ginny, but if it would help, she would do it. "Yes, if that's what they want."

"Alright. I might tell them. I don't know. I just need some time first."

"That's fine. Whatever you need," Rachel said, putting her hand on Ginny's shoulder.

Ginny exhaled heavily. "Let's catch up with the others. I don't want to think about this right now."

"Sure, we can do that," Rachel said, willing to let the subject drop if that's what Ginny needed.

They went down the attic stairs and caught up with the rest of the group on the third floor. Rachel decided to be glad and thankful that she was able to spend more time with her friends this summer. She needed the distraction and she wanted these memories with them.

---

Severus climbed the stairs from the cellar. He'd used the excuse that he needed to check the state of the potions lab to avoid spending an hour sitting around with the Order members who had already gathered. Someone had been brewing, considering the potions cabinet was full of what they needed, along with a few questionable potions that Severus suspected that either the Weasley twins or Draco had brewed. He'd gone through the ingredient stores and made a list of what was depleted. He'd have to do that shopping himself because he didn't trust anyone else in the Order to recognize ingredients that were out of date or substandard.

He found the kitchen busy when he arrived. Minerva and Poppy were there, which was unusual. Molly, Arthur, Bill, and the twins were sitting together at the table. Black and Lupin were watching the floo. Emmaline, Cedric, Heidi, and Roland were sitting at the other end of the table. Moody stood near the back of the kitchen. That meant they were just waiting for Tonks, Shacklebolt, and Albus.

Severus stood against the wall, content not to join any of the ongoing conversations. Arthur typically joined him here, but Severus could see that he currently didn't want to move from his wife's side. He'd found himself having a strange reaction to the Weasleys' loss. He empathized with them deeply. He was terrified of losing Rachel and he could only imagine the grief they must currently be going through. That was the sort of loss that stayed with a person forever. He also found that he didn't know what to say to them, other than to offer to do whatever he could to assist them. It almost felt like getting too close would be risking his own loss, however irrational that was.

Tonks and Shacklebolt entered the room. Severus watched them for a minute and decided he would ask Rachel later today what she felt about the training and what they were doing. He'd gotten a general idea of what their curriculum was from Tonks, but he wanted to hear first hand from Rachel what she was learning. He disliked the idea that Rachel and her friends were being given auror training, but he understood the necessity. It had been proven time and again that the protections around Rachel were simply not enough to keep her safe. She had to be prepared to defend herself.

Albus entered a moment later, his expression one of tight worry before he smoothed it into something closer to neutral. The conversation in the room died off as Albus took his place next to the fireplace. "Thank you all for joining me, we have a few items we need to discuss. First, I regret to inform you that Elphias was killed last night in the attack on Wizengamot member Casper Dixon's family. Elphias, as many of you know, joined the Order in 1976, just as we were beginning to strike back against Voldemort and the Death Eaters. He was dedicated to the movement and held firm convictions. He will be missed. A moment of silence for Elphias Doge."

Severus bowed his head. He had never gotten along well with Elphias. Elphias had been a somewhat proud and abrasive man who had made it clear he didn't trust Severus. Nevertheless, Elphias had fought for the cause and his loss was their loss. That made three dead Order members that Severus knew of and they'd only been fighting for a year, not to mention the aurors who had been killed at the Ministry and a number of the MLE patrol as well. The Dark Lord was recruiting faster than they were and even though the Dark Lord was much more willing to sacrifice his Death Eaters, they were still painfully outnumbered.

"Thank you," Albus said. "Unfortunately the attack on Casper Dixon's home was successful. Casper and his wife were killed. This morning, Head Auror Robards informed me that simultaneous attacks took place on Casper's extended family. His sister and her husband were killed. His two children, their spouses, and their children were also killed."

There was a small murmur through the group at that.

"He's looking to scare the Wizengamot," Moody said. "His message is that not only are you not safe, we'll kill your entire family if you don't do what we want. Scrimgeour may have around the clock auror protection, but we don't have the resources to guard every Wizengamot member, let alone their families, and they know it."

"Right now the Wizengamot stands at fifty eight members. The Malfoy seat is currently held in abeyance while the Malfoys are wanted by the MLE. Casper's seat won't be filled until the elections next summer. We know that Selwyn, Rowle, Baddock, and Gifford are all active Death Eaters and Turner, Yaxley, and Macnair are known to have Death Eater allegiances. Another ten to sixteen seats will vote with them under most circumstances, but we do not have any proof yet that they have Death Eater connections. Of the independents, we have fifteen seats that are flexible with their voting, we can expect Voldemort to attempt to recruit rather than kill directly among those. Everyone else is vulnerable," Shacklebolt summarized.

"Everyone in that group should have solid wards already, but I can go to any of their homes to check, especially among the extended families that may not be as well guarded," Bill offered.

"We are intending to offer both ward inspections and upgrades to any among that group who will listen to us, we'll also be reaching out to the moderates. We need their allegiance and the best way to earn that is to provide them protection," Albus said, nodding. "Another option will be to place Wizengamot member homes under the Fidelius charm, for those who will let us. We could also find another building that we can use to shelter people once Headquarters is full, though we would have to convince people to leave their homes, which will be more difficult."

Severus listened as they began to make plans as to what exactly they could offer the Wizengamot and who they suspected would be targeted first. Amelia Bones was a high priority target, but she was also under heavy protection due to her position in the MLE. The Longbottoms and Macmillans would also be high priority targets, but he knew the Longbottoms' wards were strong and the Macmillans' wards would be as well, though their family was more spread out. They'd need to go to Dolph Jenkins again and offer assistance to Linette Thompson. It was a large task, considering they were still trying to protect muggleborns and their families as well.

An hour later the meeting was dismissed and Severus made his way over to Minerva. "Do you have a moment?"

"Of course," she said, looking somber. "I was classmates with Casper Dixon. He was in my year at Hogwarts, prefect for the Ravenclaws."

"I'm sorry," Severus said, not knowing what else to say.

Minerva shook her head slightly. "It is what it is. I only wish we could do more. I've begun meeting with our incoming muggleborn students. Half of their families don't believe me about the war, the other half are terrified. Several of them have declined to send their children to Hogwarts and I've been directing them to other magic schools and recommending they leave Britain, but they won't listen to that either."

"We can only do what we can do," he said, grateful that it was not his responsibility to go convince muggleborn families that their children were both magical and in grave danger. "Rachel would like to know if you are still willing to mentor her and her friends in the animagus transformation this year."

"I am willing to mentor her and the seventh years, I won't teach this to someone who is not of age or who hasn't done the lessons on animate transfigurations and conjuring. This will also be with the understanding that they will register with the Ministry after the war," she said.

"That's fine, I'll make certain they understand the conditions. Rachel indicates to me that they've mastered the meditations and that they should be ready to begin in September."

"I can take them once a week, on the weekend. That should be enough time for them to achieve their forms by the end of the school term. May they brew the potion under your supervision?"

"Yes, Rachel has already given me the recipe and I will supervise them for that portion when you say that they are ready," he agreed.

Minerva nodded. "I must go, I'm supposed to pick up my grand niece in about ten minutes. I hope you and Rachel are having a restful summer."

"Hardly. Rachel doesn't seem to know how to hold still. She's already done all of her homework, has invented a potion, and is working on a large Arithmancy project."

The corners of Minerva's mouth tilted up. "It's good to see that she's at least somewhat back to her usual self. I was concerned last year."

"I was as well." He was still concerned, but she did seem better than she had a few months ago.

"I'm certain I'll see you soon. Keep yourself safe," she said.

"And you," he said, turning to find Albus approaching, holding two small books.

"May I speak with you for a moment?" Albus asked.

"Yes, of course." He waited while Albus cast a privacy ward around them. Albus then handed him the books.

"Two-way books. Have Rachel write down any observations she has on Voldemort. Emotions she senses from him, visions, dreams, or whatever else she notices from her connection. I'd like you to teach her to recall conversations and to notice the nuances," Albus said. "I have the third connected book, but as always, contact me directly if it is something urgent."

Severus hadn't wanted to do that, but he nodded. "I will teach her what I can in the limited time we have. I do not want to put more pressure on her."

"I understand. We must be cautious with this. We have an opportunity, but we also must watch Rachel closely as Voldemort will attempt to use her. All information from this is considered suspect," Albus said. "Is there anything I should know currently?"

"Not at this time," Severus said.

"I will keep in touch," Albus said, dismissing the privacy ward and stepping away.

Severus considered the books and decided these were the best way to get information to Albus. Now he just had to prepare Rachel for conversing with the Dark Lord.

---

Rachel opened her eyes and found herself in the dark misty space that seemed to be the spot in her mental architecture that housed her connection to the Dark Lord. She took a quick glance around, but everything seemed to be the same as the last time she was here - her manifestation outlined in the circle of light to the far left side, and the Dark Lord rapidly approaching in front of her.

She and Severus had talked about strategies yesterday, and he had given her a two-way book that connected both to him and Professor Dumbledore. That told her that Professor Dumbledore expected this to happen a lot.

Standing as straight as she could, Rachel smoothed her robes and ignored the weight of her wand in her pocket. That would not be useful here. The only thing she had here as protection was her mind. She had to be smarter than him. Or, if she couldn't do that, she had to play on the biases that Severus had told her about.

The Dark Lord came to a stop a few feet away and looked down at her. "Well?"

Rachel prevented herself from pointing out that he was the one who had brought her here and that if he wanted answers he could damn well be more specific. "Pardon?" she settled for asking.

"Did you deliver the message or not?"

"I did. Draco is not interested in returning to his parents," she said, tilting her head back slightly so that she could meet his gaze and both seem trustworthy and read his reaction.

The Dark Lord seemed entirely impassive to that news. "What is your relationship with Draco? Ignatius is convinced you're fucking his son, but Lucius seems similarly convinced about Draco."

Rachel's jaw dropped and she was certain her expression reflected the horror she felt. "I'm not doing that with anyone," she sputtered.

"I didn't think so either. What the muggles did to you completely ruined you for anything like that," he said, looking her up and down. "It's a surprise you're as functional as you are."

She looked away, a storm of emotions raging inside. Ruined her? Was that what was wrong with her?

"Then again, from what I hear, you're only functional in very specific ways. Let's elaborate on that, shall we."

This was not at all what she'd been prepared for. She had been preparing for questions about the war and the Order and Severus and Professor Dumbledore.

"Look at me when I'm speaking to you." His tone was now sharp. "Did your elders teach you no manners? I would have thought Severus would have taken care of that by now."

Rachel looked at him, trying not to show how off-guard she was.

"I'm told that you used to not speak. Why?"

"Why does it matter?" she asked, feeling the flutterings of panic inside. She did not want to do this.

"Because I have made the fundamental mistake of not knowing my enemy and I am rectifying that now. Why did you used to not speak?"

"You had Death Eaters interrogate my relatives, you already know that," she pointed out, wondering if she could actually be sick in her own mind.

The Dark Lord paused for a moment, his brow briefly furrowing as he seemed to think. "Perhaps the people who I sent to question your relatives were not as thorough as they should have been. That will be rectified."

"My relatives can't tell you anything they didn't already tell you," she said quickly, not wanting the Dark Lord to return to her relatives because he most certainly would kill them this time.

"But you can tell me, or do you need to be reminded of the consequences of not answering my questions. I assure you, if you don't believe I will do it, a demonstration can be arranged."

Rachel shook her head. "I believe you. I stopped talking after my aunt forced me to drink cleaning fluid. It hurt my throat and I couldn't talk and I just never started talking again."

"And how did you begin to speak again?" he asked, seeming unmoved by what he was being told.

"Severus took me to see a Healer and they taught me how to talk again. How does any of this help you?" she asked, wanting to push the conversation as far away from her childhood as possible.

"I should have been able to kill you easily. You're a slip of a girl with hardly any power or training. The fact that you are alive means that something is protecting you. Since other avenues have provided me only with limited information, I have decided to take care of the problem myself."

"Severus and Professor Dumbledore are the only things protecting me. Well, and wards, but they were the ones who cast the wards. There's no secret."

"There is or you would have died in your crib. And then, after that, the graveyard. There is no evading the Killing Curse and yet you have done it twice and I will understand why." The Dark Lord fell silent as he considered her. "There's a prophecy about you and I."

"Yes, I know," she said, when he seemed to be waiting for a response.

"It tells us directly that you have a power. Dumbledore has to be looking for it, just as I am. He will see it as the key to winning the war. What sort of things has he done to discover your power? Tests? Experiments?"

Rachel shook her head. "If he's done anything, he hasn't told me about it. He seems more interested in my connection to you."

"And what has he done about that?"

"He's looked at it, inside my mental architecture. He did something, just by reaching his hand out, I don't know what. He's supposedly talked with other people he knows who specialize in mind magic, but they didn't have any answers either," she listed, not seeing the harm in telling him that.

"And you report to him, every time you see me."

"Yes," she said, though it wasn't a question.

"Then tell him this for me. I am watching him. I have eyes on him that he would never suspect," the Dark Lord said, nodding slightly.

"I will," she said, committing the words to memory so that she could tell Professor Dumbledore the exact message.

"And while you're at it. Tell Severus something for me as well. I want to know his reaction. Tell Severus that I will reach him when he least expects it and he will pay a very exacting penance."

"I will," she said, reminding herself that the Dark Lord was trying to scare them and make them uncertain who they could trust.

"That is all the time I have for tonight. I will see you again soon and you will be more forthcoming with your answers. I'm certain I don't have to remind you of the consequences," he said, turning away.

Rachel watched him leave and then woke with a start.

Unsurprisingly, she was freezing. She checked her watch and found that it was nearly three o'clock in the morning. After turning on her lamp, she found the two-way book and the quill she'd left nearby in anticipation of these dreams, and quickly wrote down the exact wording of the messages to Severus and Professor Dumbledore.

Then she began trying to reconstruct the rest of the conversation, skipping over some of the details about what had happened when she was a child. Severus and Professor Dumbledore already knew that and she didn't particularly want to write it out. She also left out the part about her being 'ruined'. She didn't know what to make about that, the word evoked both a frightened panic and a sense of understanding in her, but she did not want to discuss it with Severus or Professor Dumbledore.

She left the book open for the ink to dry, found her wand and performed a warming charm on her blankets, and then settled back in after turning off her light. She needed to get used to this routine and she needed to spend some time thinking about how to lie about her childhood. She was not going to relive it for the Dark Lord's curiosity.

---

Rachel woke early the next morning and dressed herself, combed her fingers through her curls before tying them back, and then checked her two-way books.

No one had written anything about her conversation with the Dark Lord, so she assumed they either hadn't read it yet or they had nothing to say about it. She did find a message in the two-way book she kept with her friends.

'I don't want anyone to panic, my parents and I are safe. Death Eaters came to our house last night, but the Order showed up before the Death Eaters could get through the wards. For right now we're at Sirius' house. My parents are pretty shaken. They're not ready to leave Britain or their practice, but I don't think it's a good idea to return home right now either. Sirius said we could stay here for the duration of the war, if we want, and someone will apparate my parents to and from their work every day,' was written in Hermione's handwriting.

Rachel closed her eyes and reminded herself that this was evidence that Hermione and her parents were alright. They were alive and they were safe and that was what mattered. She couldn't help but wonder how aware the Dark Lord was of her friendship with Hermione, or if Hermione had been targeted just because she was a muggleborn.

'I'm glad you're safe. I'll try to come see you soon,' Rachel wrote, hoping she could convince Severus to apparate her to Headquarters.

She went downstairs and found Severus in the kitchen. He had the Daily Prophet open and a cup of tea.

"Have you checked your two-way book this morning?" she asked.

"No, I haven't," he said, looking up at her. "You had a conversation with the Dark Lord last night?"

"Yes. And Hermione's family was attacked last night, but the Order made it in time. They're at Headquarters for the time being. Can I go see her?"

"After breakfast. You had a vision as well as a conversation?"

"No, just a conversation. Hermione wrote about the attack this morning in our two-way book. And the Dark Lord has a message for you. I wrote it down, but I'm supposed to tell him your reaction," she said.

Severus frowned. "I will retrieve my book and then we can discuss what my reaction is. What do you want for breakfast?"

Rachel knew that the answer couldn't be nothing, which was what she wanted to say. "I'll make myself some toast, and we have some orange juice."

"Something more than that," he said.

"And an egg," she said, moving toward the refrigerator.

"Your potion is on the table, I'll be back in a moment."

Rachel sighed to herself as she began to prepare her food. Severus had taught her to cook with her wand, which meant cooking an egg was as simple as cracking the egg into the pan and using a low strength cooking spell. She used the charmed toaster for her toast - her toast always wound up burnt when she tried to do it with her wand, and then poured herself a glass of juice. She'd just made it back to the table when Severus came back.

"I'm going to put a charm on this book so it notifies me when something has been written in it," he said as he sat back down. "As for the Dark Lord's message, you can tell him that I am unconcerned and that I know the strength of the protections surrounding me. You may also remind him that I am not foolhardy or easily threatened."

"You think it's a bluff? The message to Professor Dumbledore too?" she asked.

"Yes. He's trying to scare you. Nothing more. Our wards here and at Headquarters are secure and we're taking every possible precaution. We are slowly going through the castle and ensuring that every possible entry point and magical artifact is being checked and secured. As long as we stay within the wards, I don't see how the Dark Lord could reach us. Albus is somewhat more vulnerable, as he is frequently at the Ministry, but he is also the greatest wizard of our age and I would be shocked if he could be overcome by the Death Eaters and the Dark Lord won't attack him directly," Severus listed. "We should talk about what he wants from you. Clearly our assumption that he wanted information about Albus and the Order was mistaken."

Rachel sighed again. "I don't see why he wants to talk about my childhood. He already knows everything."

"Take your potion. It seems he knows less than we thought he did if he did not put together why you were mute. You did a good job at being non-specific and telling him you simply saw a Healer."

"I was a little afraid if I said Mind Healer he was going to start torturing and killing every Mind Healer in Britain," she said, taking the cork out of the Stomach Soothing potion and drinking it.

"You were right to be cautious. The longer we can keep that information from him, the better. For now, especially in regards to your childhood or to what people may be able to observe at Hogwarts, assume the Dark Lord knows more than he's telling you. He may be trying to get a reaction out of you, or to make you feel unsafe in your own mind," Severus said, his frown creasing his skin.

"You think he's lying about the whole 'know your enemy' stuff?"

"No, I don't, but I don't think that's his only purpose either. You did a good job at communicating that none of us know what your power is. He'll believe that because he believes that if he does not know it, then it is unknowable. Same thing with your connection to the Dark Lord. Pretending like we have discovered very little information was a good decision."

"It's the truth though, we really don't know much," she pointed out.

"But we do know more than you're telling him. There's something I want to keep an eye on, next time you have a vision of events that are currently happening. Watch him after that, see if he seems to know you had a vision. If he thinks you did, he will be trying to get you to talk about what you saw," he said.

"Should I pretend like I didn't have vision or see anything?"

Severus looked thoughtful. "My inclination is to say that you should pretend you didn't, but let me talk with Albus. It will partially depend on the Dark Lord's response. If he is certain that you had a vision, you will want to admit to it. But if he is just testing you, or if he ignores it completely, then we'd want to pretend that you didn't. Same with your connection to his emotions. As far as he is concerned, you can't do that."

Rachel nodded. She could see keeping those things from him, especially if him knowing she had a vision led to him sending visions more often.

"I am sorry this is happening," he said, holding her gaze.

"It is what it is," she said. Just like the visions and the connection itself, there wasn't anything anyone could do to stop it.

"Still. I know that your childhood is a difficult subject for you and that this is a painful way for it to be brought up."

She shrugged and looked down at her breakfast. "It wouldn't be my first choice, but I can't think of a way to stop him. I don't understand why he cares."

"He doesn't care. Like I said, I think this is primarily happening as a way to torment you."

Rachel was less sure of that, but she really didn't see anything useful the Dark Lord could get out of learning about her childhood. She began to eat, her stomach still feeling tight, but she knew she could eat without getting sick. "Anything in the paper?"

"Memorials for the Dixon family. Given the way these are written, I have to assume there's a Death Eater sympathizer in the Daily Prophet offices. These were written with the intent to cause fear," Severus said, frowning down at the paper.

"Maybe that will encourage the people who can't fight to leave," she said.

"Some of them will, but we need some people to stay, otherwise we'll end up ceding the whole country to the Dark Lord. If he kills, coerces, or causes enough members of the Wizengamot to flee, they will have to call early elections, and then the Dark Lord will take control of the Wizengamot. From there it's a short step to him taking control of the Ministry and replacing Scrimgeour with a vote of no confidence for the Minister," he explained.

"What would have to happen to cause them to call an early election?" she asked, wishing she knew more about the Wizengamot and their government.

"If the active sitting Wizengamot falls beneath forty five members, they have to call an emergency election to replace the absent members. Right now the regularly scheduled elections are in a year's time. You'll be able to take your seat in August of next year."

Rachel expected she'd be dead by that point. "Somehow killing fourteen more people doesn't seem like a very difficult thing for the Dark Lord to do."

"Fourteen highly protected people. For the most part, the Dark Lord won't want to kill them, with a few exceptions. He wants their money and their votes. He will attempt to coerce them and tempt them first and in the Dark Lord's mind, he has plenty of time," Severus said.

She supposed that was better than killing them outright. "Why kill Dixon and his family then?"

"Last week Dixon gave an interview on the Wizarding Wireless calling the Dark Lord a megalomaniac with delusions and gave his assurances to the people that the Ministry and the Wizengamot had everything under control."

"Why would he do something like that?"

Severus shook his head. "Merlin only knows. Some people have no common sense."

Rachel hadn't thought that anyone needed the lesson 'don't taunt the homicidal Dark Lord', but apparently they did. She finished her breakfast and got up to clean the dishes.

"Can I go check on Hermione now?" she asked once everything was put away.

"Yes. Do you want to stay at Headquarters for a few hours?" he asked.

"I do." She might as well see everyone while she was there.

"In that case I will spend some of today helping at Hogwarts. Go get ready."

Rachel went back upstairs, packed her bag with a few things, washed her face and smoothed her hair again, and checked that she had her portkey, her phoenix pendant, and her message bracelet.

A few minutes later they arrived at Headquarters. "Send your Patronus to me when you're ready to come home," he said once they were in the hallway.

"I will. I'll be fine. Be careful with the artifacts and stuff," she said.

"I will." He went back out the front door.

Rachel peeked in the kitchen and found that Sirius, Remus, Theo, Draco, Hermione, and Hermione's parents were all gathered around the kitchen table.

Hermione stood up and came over to Rachel. "I didn't expect to see you so soon."

"I wanted to see if you were okay." Rachel hugged Hermione, glad to see for herself that she seemed to be in one piece.

Hermione hugged her back. "It was scary, but we're alright. I just about jumped out of my skin when the wards went off. I didn't expect them to sound like that. I sent my Patronus to Sirius and the Order showed up a few minutes later and scared off the Death Eaters. They never got through the wards."

"I'm glad. Did any of the Death Eaters get close enough to say anything? Was the Dark Lord there?" she asked, releasing Hermione.

"No, they didn't say anything. There were only four of them, and they seemed focused on bringing down the wards. I'm surprised we didn't wake our neighbors. You-Know-Who definitely wasn't there. Come sit down, have tea with us. We've been having tea all morning," Hermione said.

"We hate to impose upon you," Mr. Granger was saying to Sirius and Remus when Rachel and Hermione returned to the table.

"It's not an imposition, this is what we're here for," Remus said. "Protecting muggleborns and their families is one of the primary purposes of our organization. We'd like to put up wards around your work as well, but otherwise we have no problem with you staying here and returning to work as usual."

"Are we putting our patients in danger though?" Mrs. Granger asked, looking at her husband.

"In general, attacks in broad daylight are unlikely. You-Know-Who and the Death Eaters like to attack under the cover of darkness. They still have a vested interest in not violating the Statute of Secrecy. The ICW doesn't care what You-Know-Who does as long as he stays in Britain and there isn't a threat to the larger magical world. That's not to say it couldn't happen, but it's unlikely," Sirius assured them.

"Why doesn't the International Confederation of Wizards care? They should. You-Know-Who isn't going to be satisfied with just Britain," Hermione asked.

"To be certain, they are monitoring the situation. No one wants another Grindelwald," Remus began.

"Grindelwald?" Mr. Granger asked.

"Another dark wizard in the 1940s. The second world war was also magical," Hermione explained, looking nervous as she watched her parents.

"Just how often do these dark wizards happen?" Mrs. Granger asked.

Remus and Sirius glanced at each other. "Globally there's usually at least one dark witch or wizard gaining power somewhere. Usually it stays at a terrorism level before they are captured or killed. Grindelwald and You-Know-Who are somewhat special circumstances because of the level of support they had in the general population, which escalated to an all out war," Remus explained. "That being said, You-Know-Who will have a difficult time getting out of Britain. The rest of Europe remembers the war with Grindelwald well and they will not be eager to repeat it. If it becomes necessary, we will retreat from Britain and set up a government in exile and plead our case to the ICW, but no one expects it to come to that, at least not in the next year or two. We've got a strong wartime Minister now, they're increasing the recruitment for the MLE and the aurors, and several measures were recently passed to allow the MLE to do more to capture, kill, and interrogate Death Eaters."

Rachel remembered what Severus said about them possibly losing the Wizengamot under the right circumstances, and to her it seemed like they could very easily lose the Ministry within the next year or so. The next time she saw Professor Dumbledore she was going to ask about moving up the timeline for the final confrontation. Another year of this was too risky.

Mr. Granger ran his hand over his stubbled face. He looked exhausted. "Please don't take this the wrong way, but it sounds like you are losing this war."

Rachel looked to Theo and Draco, who were sitting across from her, and they both had the same reserved expression that they used when they were trying not to show that they were worried, Draco's haughtier than Theo's.

"I wouldn't say that we are losing the war," Sirius finally said. "Right now we're on the defensive because we can't protect the entire civilian population of Britain. We are protecting as many people as we can, urging those who are the most vulnerable to flee, while warding the key members of our government so the Ministry doesn't fall. All in all, we're doing better than we were during the last war. I know that Dumbledore has a plan for ending this war." Sirius' eyes darted briefly to Rachel.

Remus nodded. "We've been identifying Death Eaters and Death Eater sympathizers. The aurors have a lot more freedom now to bring people in for questioning. And we've been preventing attacks, just like the attack on your home. Our goal is to protect people who cannot protect themselves, while other members of our organization and the MLE work on the war front."

"I think our plan is to stay here for now. We'll need to talk more as a family about what our plans are in the long term. You're certain it's not an imposition?" Mrs. Granger asked.

"We have flats set up for this specifically. We can take you back to your house so you can get what you need from there. It's not an imposition at all, we have several more families staying with us right now. Your technology won't work very well in the house, it's gone through too many magical changes, but we'll make sure you have everything you need," Remus assured them.

"I suppose we should look at the flat then," Mr. Granger said. "I haven't lived in a flat since I was at university."

"We'll adjust," Mrs. Granger said, putting her hand on her husband's hand.

"We'll show you up," Remus said, getting to his feet, Sirius a second behind.

"I'll be back in a few minutes," Hermione said.

They waited for the room to empty before anyone spoke.

"Does anyone know how good the wards on Millie's house are? I think we can be certain that the wards on the Weasley's house are good because of Bill, and Neville's wards should be in good shape too. What about Luna?" Theo asked.

"Bill already did the wards on Luna's home," Rachel said, glad that she knew this. "I don't know about Millie's, but we can ask her. They should have had them done by now, her dad's a muggleborn."

"Do you think Hermione was targeted because she's friends with us?" Draco asked, briefly looking worried before he schooled his expression.

"Hard to say. I spoke with the Dark Lord last night, and you'd think he would have mentioned Hermione being attacked if he had intended this to be directed at me."

Theo only looked more worried. "What did the Dark Lord say?"

"He mostly just wanted to scare me, saying stuff like Severus would be attacked when he least expected it and Professor Dumbledore was being watched." She was not going to talk about the rest of that conversation with anyone.

"It makes sense that Professor Dumbledore is being watched. Probably someone in the Ministry," Draco said.

"I'm sure Professor Dumbledore knows he's being watched," Theo agreed. "As for Professor Snape, I don't think he ever lets his guard down, so there isn't really a least expecting it for him to be attacked at."

Rachel nodded. "Is Hermione alright?"

"She was shaken. We heard them arrive around five. Mrs. Granger was crying. I think Hermione is more worried about how her parents are handling this than herself at the moment," Theo said.

"I had tea with muggles," Draco said abruptly.

Rachel and Theo both looked at him.

"Well I did! We all sat down and had tea and it wasn't that weird. I mean, they don't know anything, but otherwise, you really couldn't tell," he said.

Rachel felt the corner of her mouth twitch. At least one good thing had come of this. "They're just people, just like anyone else. Try talking with them while they're here. I've met Hermione's parents a couple of times now and they seem like really nice people."

"If it makes you feel any better, this is my first time really talking with muggles too," Theo said. "I keep finding myself surprised at what they don't know."

"Imagine not knowing about Grindelwald," Draco said, shaking his head.

"Until six years ago, they had no idea that magic was real and they don't interact with it on a daily basis. A lot of this is new to them. I didn't know about Grindelwald, not until a year or two after I started at Hogwarts," Rachel pointed out.

"That's weird too. I forget, sometimes, that you were raised by muggles," Draco said.

Rachel wished she could forget that.

"They're probably in for a couple surprises then, living here," Theo said.

Rachel's eyes went wide. "Someone needs to warn them about Kreacher. That will be a shock."

"Why?" Draco asked.

"Let's just say that muggles are going to find sentient non-human creatures to be a big surprise. They might be okay seeing Goblins at Gringotts, but living with a House Elf is a whole different thing. We should warn them about moving and talking paintings too. And the charmed mirrors," Rachel said, trying to think of all the things that she had found a little unnerving upon entering the magical world. "They have to stay away from Kreacher's room because of the painting of Mrs. Black."

"We'll make a list," Theo said. "I'm going to volunteer to go with Hermione to her house to help them get the things that they want."

Rachel wished she could, but knew that she would potentially be drawing Death Eaters there if she went. "A list," she agreed, pulling out a quill and parchment from her bag. At least she could help a little, if only if it was helping with the culture shock the Grangers were bound to be experiencing.