Chapter 7

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

"Excuse me." Alastor muttered, as he stood up from the afternoon meeting and made his way to the door.

"Where are you…?" Dawlish began to ask churlishly, but Bones shushed him.

"Tell me if anybody needs cursed." The DMLE director ordered, before turning back to the patrol schedules at hand.

Moody made his way to his office (because seniority has perks), and found his new apprentice, a woman named Tonks, throwing a muggle bouncy ball against the wall, where it Bang. Bang. Bang. -ed and then returned to her hand.

Bang.

Oh no.

Bang.

It seemed she was so engrossed in the ball

Bang

She wasn't paying attention

Bang

To anything going on around her

Bang

BANG!

He let off a loud sound like a gunshot right next to the woman's ear. She screamed bloody murder

"WHAT HAVE I BLOODY TOLD YOU NYMPHADORA!"

The metamorphmagus, who was now red-skinned and white haired as she fell to her ass on the floor, stuttered.

"What the… who… how…"

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE TRAINEE! CONSTANT! NOT WHEN IT'S CONVENIENT FOR YOU! NOT ONLY WHEN MOODY'S LOOKING! CONSTANT MEANS BLOODY CONSTANT!"

"I, um, didn't, um, weren't you in a, um, meeting?" the girl stuttered between heaving breaths.

"OUT!"

With an order she could actually obey, Tonks promptly did so, scrambling out of the room.

Alastor put up a few more wards, just in case, before scanning the room for bugs and pulling out the mirror.

"Answer." He muttered, and the reflective surface turned wispy white.

"Hi Gramps!" a beaming face cheered, from the dorms, if Moody had to guess.

"Yes, yes, you're calling me during classes, which means something happened. Amelia wants to know who she's hexing."

Harry flinched instead of laughed, as Moody had expected. Damn it. Moody was really just hoping the classes were so boring Harry decided to play hooky.

"Well, two things. Dumbledore called me to his office today."

Moody grunted.

"He asked about how I was doing, blah blah blah. There were a lot of vague questions about where I grew up, what Auntie knows, blah blah blah. I answered just like you taught me, kept my shields up, and didn't look him in the eye."

That bit was important. Human brains didn't stop developing until the person was twenty or so, which made occlumency impossible to master at a young age. Shields could help, but it would never be perfect; something would get through. The best solution was to avoid eye contact all together.

"He also wanted to know about the Dursleys. Why I would leave, a bunch of that stuff. I think he wanted me to say I wanted to go back or something. I don't know. But I thought I should warn you it was going on."

"And the other thing?"

Harry grimaced.

"I didn't tell you, because I wasn't sure and didn't want to risk giving the game away, but on the first night, I looked to the head table and got a splitting headache, right over my scar. And you said curse scars could give warnings, but I wasn't sure if that's what it was? So I kept quiet, but I paid attention. I've had DADA three times now, including last class, and every time, I got a twinge. Not the splitting ache from the feast when we got here, but it's happened three times now."

Moody frowned. "It could just be the curse on the position, but we can't be sure. I'll talk to Bones. She wants to go after Dumbledore anyways, after our letters got tampered with." And wasn't Moody glad he'd warned Bones to have a cypher code with Susan. Both kid's letters were clearly censored in some way, but since Harry had the mirror, it was decided to save going nuts over the letters in case they needed an excuse to go to the school personally.

"I'll warn Bones. Expect us at dinner."

"Understood. And Gramps?" the brat had an impish smirk on his face. "I looooove youuuu"

"Yeah, yeah, love ya to brat." Alastor growled.

"Tell Uncle Remus I say hi!"

"Will do lad."

--

Damn that woman could storm into a room.

They showed up right in the middle of diner, one director, three aurors and one trainee, throwing the doors open like characters in a movie.

"Ah, Amelia, Alastor, Kingsley, Ruphus, Nymphadora…"

"Don't call me that!"

Mad-eye 'accidentally' stomped his trainee's toe with his staff.

Albus had continued as if he hadn't been interrupted.

"…what a pleasant surprise."

"Cut the crap Albus." Amelia began.

Someone at Gryffindor table shouted "Language!" before they were shushed by their neighbors-a Weasley, Moody guessed, but he couldn't be sure. Color didn't come through quite right when he was looking through the side of his own skull.

"We have a quick problem to deal with and then we'll be out of your…"

"Stupify! Stupify Stupify!" Moody shouted without warning, aiming for the turbaned fellow on the dais. Several children screamed (Harry, Mad-eye noted, ducked under a table). Several professors tried to shield their co-worker, but weren't quick enough. Tonks, however, was quick enough to shield Mad-eye from the stunners sent in reply.

"Madam Bones, we've got a possession on our hands!"

The teachers immediately froze. Flitwick let out an "EEP" and fell from his chair.

Albus just frowned down at the group of aurors from his pedestal. "Now, now, what is the meaning of…"

Shacklebolt, who knew his former mentor well enough to just go and poke at Quirrell, was casting diagnostics.

"He's right, ma'am. High-level spirit to. Physically linked and integrated with the host, which is why the stupefy stopped it escaping. How'd you find that Mad-eye?"

"Check the back of his head." Moody grunted. Kingsley removed the purple turban, and the sight underneath caused Madam Pomphrey, who had gone over to check over the victim, to faint straight out.

"Well, I can confirm this guy has a face growing out of the back of his skull."

Snape, who had been sitting next to Quirrell and observing all of this with a discerning eye, jumped back at the sight of the face and leveled his wand at it.

"Do you recognize this, Professor Snape?" Kingsley asked when he noted the reaction.

Snape visibly paled three shades and swallowed.

"Now, now, no need for that. Let us at least send the children away, they needn't see this…"

"Let me remind you, 'Professor' Snape," Bones gritted over the Headmaster, "The conditions of your release were incumbent upon you offering any evidence when asked. Who's face is that, or am I going to have to send you for a night with the dementors?"

"Now Amelia, I really think…"

"It's Madam Bones in official capacity, Headmaster. You would do well to remember the proper protocols." She turned back to Snape. "Professor Snape? Which will it be?"

The Death Eater seemed to consider for a moment.

"The Dark Lord, Madam Bones. I can… that is… it looks like him."

Several students screamed, and a few copied Harry and took cover. Scrimgeour stepped in.

"It is highly possible, then, whatever creature is possessing the professor is taking the bogart-like approach of becoming one's greatest fear."

Moody wasn't sure what Scrimgeour was playing at, but Bones seemed to get it.

"Yes, that would make sense. Around this many people, it took the fear collectively held by all of us…"

"You-Know-Who. So that's what he looked like…" Tonks, who had joined Shack, mused.

"Well." Bones gathered herself. "Auror Shacklebolt, you know the procedure. You four get Quirrell down to the DOM for treatment, while I start arranging interviews with the staff and students. Lady of Light only knows how many statements we'll need to take…"

The aurors buckled down and got to work.

--

It was two days and several inter-department wand measuring contests later when Moody and Bones managed to pull Susan and Harry in for a 'statement', with Pomona there as an advocate for Harry.

"Professor Sprout," Bones asked before they got down to business. "How is your occlumency?"

Sprout smiled genially. "All Heads of Houses must be accomplished in order to protect our student's privacy. Why do you ask?"

"We are going to ask you to keep a secret, Professor. While it is nothing that would put lives at risk or anything like that, we do want to ensure it stays quiet for as long as possible, just in case."

The herbologist nodded. "As long as no student is put at risk by this secret, I will keep it."

Harry, who had clearly been holding back, tucked against a wall, ran forward to hug his guardian.

"Hi Grandpa." He said, tilting his head into Mad-eye's chest so only with the magic eye could one see the cheeky smirk.

"Lad."

"Oh." Sprout sputtered. "Oh my. Oh.. Well. That makes… a good deal of sense."

Bones, who was at this point hugging her own ward, laughed. "Yes, that was about my reaction when I found out."

"But how… wait… so Lily wasn't actually a…"

"No biological relation." Harry and Moody both chorused.

"I took the lad in when he was six and the previous guardians proved… insufficient."

"Now." Bones gathered their attention. "There are a few things you should know. Professor Sprout, since we are the children's guardians, do you think you could leave the room for a few moments so we can tell them?" Sprout quickly assented and left. "These things won't be public, so you must keep them to yourselves, however, we feel it is important you should know. This is not to get out, understood?" The children, no strangers to secrets, nodded. "Good. Now, we examined the spirit possessing Quirrell, and confirmed that it is, in fact, You-Know-Who. We confirmed he is alive, and the Department of Mysteries confirmed how he did it. They are coordinating with the Goblins on how to make him mortal so we can kill the bastard for good. What you need to know; he's tucked away in a hole so deep, he'll never be getting out, with round the clock security. As long as we maintain that prison, he shouldn't be able to possess anyone else, or get up to any such shenanigans. Harry, because of how his magic is connected to you based some scans we ran, we may have to put you through a small procedure to make sure killing him doesn't affect you, and the connection doesn't keep us from being able to kill him. Otherwise, this wont affect anything. We're handling it, and if all goes well, You-Know-Who will be dead by this time next year."