Chapter Sixty Three
The last day of term was bright and clear. Harry finished writing his letter home over breakfast.
'Hi Mum and Danica.
I'm fine… ish. Yeah it's me. I can't actually remember what I had for tea last night but I was wondering if you could ask Kreacher could not make treacle tart for my first night home. Every time I think about it I just think of Sirius. Get him to make trifle or something that Danica likes, do pancakes count as pudding?
Anyway, got a few lessons this morning before having the afternoon off to pack.
See you tomorrow.
Lots of Love
Harry.
He folded it and wax sealed it shut before giving it to Hedwig. It felt normal sitting around the table, munching on toast and bacon, looking forward to waffles and pancakes for breakfast tomorrow. Hermione and Neville had come over to sit with them, now that Umbridge was gone all the school rules seemed to have been relaxed, even the ones from before she had arrived.
Pansy was still limping a little, she'd refused the crutches Madam Pomfrey had suggested; she just couldn't face the idea of having to use them again and the pain wasn't so bad. It had been a nasty break and moved out of place slightly, any magic had its limits so it would take a week or so.
"Any more news?" Draco asked.
Harry shook his head, "Mum said they'd tell us when anything changed and I guess nothing has changed."
Daphne smiled softly, "You're going to see him tomorrow?"
Harry nodded, "Yeah, we're going straight from the train. I don't know how Danica is going to manage seeing him."
"They're taking her?" Hermione asked, a little shocked.
Harry shrugged, "I guess. I mean she's seven now, she's not a little kid any more… I guess."
"I'd forgotten she was getting so old." Neville smiled, "She's so small for her age."
Harry smirked, "Thanks. You're right though. She's always been small, Severus said he was the same and just had a big growth spurt when he was, like, thirteen or fourteen."
The bell rang loudly, summoning them all to class. Harry dragged behind, it seemed weird going to classes at the moment. He was glad the exams were passed as he passed every day in a sort of daze, like he wasn't really there.
"You!" a voice hissed behind him.
It took Harry a moment to realise that they were probably talking to him.
"Gemini?" Harry said, feeling his heart sink.
"How could you!?" Gemini hissed. She'd never looked more like her mother, her black hair tangled around her face and a mad glint in her eye.
"How could I what?" Harry asked, really not in the mood to deal with her right now.
"We have to live with the Malfoys!" Gemini hissed, "You're all going off to see your families tomorrow and we're not even allowed to write!"
"That's not my fault." Harry said, shrugging his shoulders.
"I… I…" Gemini croaked.
Rodolphus was standing behind her looking equally angry at Harry, his fist clenched at his sides. Corvus was ignoring them, sitting quietly at the table, his head buried in his book.
"Look, they never fucking cared about you." Harry yelled, several people turning to look at the commotion, "if they had thought for one second about you they wouldn't of run off to the Ministry to get themselves arrested."
"Harry that's enough." Severus said, walking quickly over and guiding Harry away.
"This is not the end of the matter!" Gemini yelled at him back.
Severus turned around and glared at her, "That is enough!"
Severus guided Harry from the room and gave him a tight hug, "It's all right, just ignore them."
"It's not my fault!" Harry said, "That they have to go and stay with Draco, I mean I don't think he's over the moon with it either!"
Severus held him tightly again "Shh, it's OK. Just try and stay calm. It makes sense that they are lashing out at someone, I'm sorry it has to be you."
Harry nodded, "Thanks. I… I should get to class."
Severus shook his head, "Go and have a nap and do some packing. I don't think you're up to lessons today, and you wont miss much."
Harry was grateful to his father and walked, slowly, to the Slytherin common room. It was so quiet inside, everyone was of course at their lessons and Harry quietly crept up to his room and buried himself in his sheets.
It was always just warm enough, not to hot or cold with the gentle noise of the waves outside his window he fell quickly asleep.
"Harry?" Draco said, shaking him away.
Harry pulled himself from the world of sleep and sat up, shoving his glasses on his nose "Draco? What time is it?"
Draco smiled and sat on his own bed and pulled out a change of clothes, stripping off his school robes, "Just about lunch time. Daphne and Pansy are going to grab us some lunch and meet us outside with Hermione and Neville. It's a lovely day out there."
Harry stretched, "Sounds good. Thanks for waking me."
Draco shrugged, "No problem. Did you sleep well?"
Harry nodded, he seemed to have slept suspiciously well since the Battle of the Ministry, as it was being called. He had normal nightmares of course, but they had the slightly surreal quality of normal nightmares, he wondered how often Voldemort had been invading his dreams, knowingly or not.
Draco was right, the day was lovely. There was a gentle, cooling breeze, taking the edge of the heat from the sun which must have been heading for thirty degrees.
Daphne and Pansy were already sitting with Neville and Hermione, sprawled on a pretty picnic blanket with a mountain of food, by the lake.
"I didn't think you'd be sitting here again any time soon." Harry smirked, looking at the squid which was hovering nearby.
"You've not seen then?" Hermione said, handing Harry the front page from the Daily Prophet.
Harry settled himself on the grass and read over the page, it was one towards the back with a palm sized picture of a crying and sobbing Dolores Umbridge in chains.
Arrests from inside the Ministry Staff!
Minister of Magic Mr Cornelius Fudge announced today the arrest of Dolores Umbridge, Under-secretary to the Minister himself.
Umbridge was made Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry at the beginning of this school year. This was closely followed by her appointment to the position of Hogwarts High Inquisitor and then Headmistress of the afore mentioned school. All approved by Minister Fudge.
This was done to try and improve the worrying grades and over all performance of Hogwarts. Unfortunately Dolores Umbridge seemed to become worryingly extreme in her views and the way she enforced her views and practices on students.
Her punishments included giving detentions which consisted of pupils being forced to use prohibited blood quills. (The use of such quills are only permitted for the signing of certain contracts)
While teaching at Hogwarts, Dolores Umbridge came in contact with a vanishing cabinet which left her rather confused and she made a rather shocking confection of her ill behaviours to Mr Kingsley Shacklebolt, Auror, who was guarding her before her removal from the school.
These confections included setting two Ministry controlled Dementors on Mr Harry Potter during the summer last year and using the unforgivable Imperious Curse on the resident Giant Squid that lives in the lake at the Hogwarts grounds. She instructed the Squid to attack several students to cause a large distraction so that she could conduct an illegal search of several students rooms.
"So she was in our rooms!" Harry huffed, "And she was the one who set the Dementors on us? And the poor Squid! He must of felt awful."
Daphne nodded, "Keep reading, you've not gotten to the best bit yet."
Harry smirked and turned back to the article.
Dolores Umbridge is also accused of cutting off communication between several students and their families without the proper authority or paperwork in place.
Several well known families including, the Longbottoms, Parkinsons, Malfoys, Greengrasses, and Snapes made several, public petitions to get Dolores Umbridge brought to justice which the Minister for Magic had no choice but listen to after the level of public outcry.
When asked for a statement Minister Fudge has this to say;
'The Ministry has always held its staff to the highest possibly standard. The news of Madam Umbridge's indiscretions is terrible and I will personally guaranty that none of her illegal activities were permitted or ordered by the Ministry… of course if I had had any knowledge of what was going on at Hogwarts, and that she was behind the attack on Mr Potter and Miss Snape during the summer I would have stopped it at once and reported her to the proper authorities.'
Dolores Umbridge however made several comments stating that Minister Fudge knew exactly what was going on and had ordered her to use 'any means necessary' to bring Hogwarts 'into line'.
A full investigate is expected to take place.
"I almost feel sorry for Umbridge." Draco smirked, "She's going to love Azkaban."
"Do you think she'll actually end up there?" Daphne asked.
Draco nodded, "I know that Mother and Father are furious. I think that between all of our folks, Umbridge will be lucky to see day light again."
Harry couldn't disagree there, he was surprised that Lily hadn't thumped Fudge one when he'd come to see them in the hospital wing.
Harry moved over so they were all squished against one another, their feet dangling in the water as they tossed bits of sandwiches and cake to the giant squid.
He was afraid to come too close. All of the merpeople were buzzing with the news that the nasty pink witch had been taken away but he'd still hurt the students and couldn't quite forgive himself for it.
He slowly reached out a tentacle to grab the food they were throwing him and moved slowly closer. They didn't flinch, Harry watched him with a heavy heart. He felt so sorry and imagined how awful people forced to kill or harm other during the war must of felt.
The squid moved slowly closer and took an apple softly from Harry's hand. The squid swam around them for a while, taking the scraps of food and slowly forgiving himself for what happened.
As they were ready to go they said goodbye to the squid, it slowly swam over and wrapped a tentacle around each of their ankles in turn, the best way he could think of to show he wasn't a threat.
Daphne laughed and reached down and gave the squid a stroke before standing up and walking back to the castle to pack.
The warm weather had turned to dreary rain by the morning. It was still warm, leaving them all annoyed, wet and sticky by the time they had squished themselves into the train compartment. Harry had made sure to take extra pastries from breakfast for lunch and a light meal just before arriving at Kings Cross.
They were going straight to the hospital once they'd arrived. It was a long journey and Harry didn't much feel like talking.
He'd been putting off thinking about seeing Sirius, not on purpose, simply because there were too many emotions attached for him to be able to think at all clearly. The butterflies building in his stomach until he felt as though he was going to be sick by the time they arrived at the platform.
Narcissa and Lucius were standing smartly dressed in matching dark emerald robes, Lucius drumming his fingers on the head of his walking stick. There were three, burly looking Aurors behind them, and Narcissa looked a little uncomfortable with the arrangement.
"HARRY!" Danica called, pushing her way to the front of the platform and throwing open the carriage door the second the train had pulled to a stop.
"Hi Kitten!" Harry grinned pulling her into a hug.
He felt a lump form in his throat, when did she get old enough to pretend she was OK when she wasn't? Her eyes were rimmed with red, she'd been crying recently and she was just pretending everything was all right.
Harry ignored it, she was being brave and he wouldn't make her embarrass herself in front of everyone, "How have you been?"
Danica shrugged, "I'm kinda nervous." she whispered.
Harry held her tightly and kissed her smooth black hair.
"Not to interrupt this moment, but shift your arse, Potter." Neville laughed.
Harry laughed and held Danica's hand tightly as they moved out of the way of the door so that the others could leave as well.
Draco hurried over to his parents and hugged them tightly, "I'm so very glad to see you."
Narcissa kissed his forehead and nodded, "Us too. We should go and collect the others."
"We'll go ma'am." one of the Aurors said.
"No need." Lucius said coolly, "We are quite capable of greeting the children from the train."
"Lord Malfoy, we are here…"
"You are hear in case anything goes wrong." Narcissa hissed, "Against our wishes. Not to frighten children."
Gemini and Rodolphus were standing stoically at the end of the platform, glaring at Narcissa and Lucius.
Narcissa took a deep breath and began to walk towards them with a smile.
"Where's Corvus?" Gemini asked Rodolphus, barely moving her lips.
Rodolphus shrugged and picked at a slightly grubby finger nail, "How should I know?"
"You were sitting next to him." Gemini hissed.
"Well I don't know." Rodolphus sulked, "I shouldn't have to worry about such things."
Gemini tried to talk a calming breath that failed miserably, "Once again I am responsible for everything then. You are a waste of space!"
She brushed passed Narcissa who was one her way to greet them and darted to the train carriage they'd been sitting in. Corvus was still sitting there, book closed on his lap and picking at his nails.
"What do you think you're doing?" Gemini snapped, digging her sharp nails into his arm, "Stop picking. You're being pathetic!"
"Oww." Corvus said, trying to pull her hand away, "Stop it!"
"Why are you still in here?" Gemini asked.
"I didn't want to stand on the platform with everyone staring at me." Corvus mumbled, wiping his nose on his sleeve.
"Ignore them. You are a Lestrange, a pathetic excuse of a Lestrange but a Lestrange none the less and you need to start acting like it, now more than ever."
"I want to go home." Corvus said, trying not to cry.
"Stop it!" Gemini yelled, more loudly than she'd meant to. She ran a hand through her tangled hair and tried to think through the noise in her head, "We all want to go home but we can't, now get up and get yourself together. NOW!"
Corvus nodded and got to his feet, stuffing his book into his bag and following her out of the carriage. Narcissa was standing with Rodolphus, who was looking less than impressed. Gemini walked over to Narcissa, her head held high.
"Good to see you, Lady Malfoy." Gemini said, giving a quick, tight smile, "Thank you for taking us in."
"You can call me Narcissa, Gemini and we're happy to help you through your… difficult time." Narcissa said, trying not to snap at Gemini, "Corvus do you have everything?"
"Yes. He does." Gemini answered for him, "Shall we get going?"
Narcissa nodded, "Please, follow me."
Harry watched at they walked silently passed the students and away from the platform, the three security Aurors following closely behind.
"I'm going to live at your house over the holidays." Draco said to Harry with a smirk, "Get my room ready, I'll be round a lot and I do not do fold aways!"
Harry grinned, "You're always welcome."
Draco hugged him goodbye and walked away from them with Lucius. The platform was emptying now and Harry felt the need to get moving.
"We should go." Harry said softly.
Lily and Severus nodded.
"Yes, let's go." Lily smiled, trying to be much braver than she felt right now.
Harry took Danica's hand and they walked slowly towards the exit.