Chapter 6
-September 12th 11:38 AM Hogwarts-
Holly is in charms class sitting with her fellow first years that she made friends with from the giant attack. Jack, a Gryffindor muggleborn, and Noah, a Ravenclaw pure blood.
The class is currently practicing the Lumos charm in class, as Professor Flitwick observed in the class.
"So what do you think of DADA Professor," Jack asked in a hushed tone.
"As a teacher, Professor Umbridge is subpar at best," Noah replied. "Too much theory, not enough practical in her teaching."
"Maybe she's waiting for us to understand theory before she moves on to the practical," Holly adding her two knuts.
"You may not remember but she basically stated she was solely focusing on theory in our first class with her," Noah reminded them. "The pure blood in me says to be loyal to a fellow pure blood, but my inner Ravenclaw says that she is here to keep an eye on Professor Dumbledore, and his loyal followers, for the ministry."
"Dumbledore may be…eccentric, but him leading a coup against the ministry?" Holly said in a doubtful tone.
Her two friends agreed with her.
-New York Black Estate-
"Filthy squib, dirtin' mistresses summer House," Kreacher complained as he begrudging cleaned the house on Sirius's orders.
Karen relaxed on his couch, in her business attire, as she ignored the aged house elf, but was watching Sirius moan and groan on his dining table, with an ice pack covering one eye.
"Why are you here Karen," Sirius managed to moan out. "Don't you have a business to run?"
"I can afford to be late," Karen stated.
"You like seeing me in pain."
"I pretty much raised you."
"You have it backwards," Sirius said, pointing at her, while not really looking at her. "I raised you!"
"And yet I'm the more mature one," Karen with a snark. "How did you wind up like this in the first place?"
"I was drunk," Sirius started.
"When are you not," Karen jokingly asked.
"I'm telling the story, not you," Sirius said with a pout. "But it does involve a goblin, a dozen blades and somehow an angry Pomeranian."
"You didn't take advantage of the Pomeranian, did you," Karen asked with a raised eyebrow.
Sirius' response was to throw the ice pack at Karen, but she effortlessly caught it.
Kreacher magically added another ice pack to his eye as Karen asked, "Was it worth it?"
"Merlin's balls it did," Sirius replied.
"Horcruxes."
"Horcruxes?"
"Horcruxes."
"Horcruxes?"
"Isn't that what I just said," Sirius retorted, "as in more than one."
"Riiiiiight," Karen responded with a deadpan expression. "And what are they, exactly?"
"And they call you a witch?"
"Squib actually, no magic and no magical education remember," Karen said as she straightened her skirt. "And my parents abandoned me for their precious Boy-Who-Lived."
"Right, and I'm the Queen of England," Sirius retorted.
"Your majesty," Karen replied with a mock bow.
Sirius rolled his eyes before continuing, "They're soul anchors, that prevents one's soul from moving from this life to the next. Can only be created when one literally fractures one's soul with the foulest of deeds, along with the darkest of magic known to the wizarding kind."
"Wizards have a kind?" Karen asked half jokingly.
"I walked right into that one," Sirius moaned out, from his injury or from the pun, Karen couldn't tell.
Just then Karen's Justice League communicator went off, "Sorry I have to take this."
"Go and save the world," Sirius said as he let out a moan of pain. "It's not like I'm dying here."
After changing into her outfit, Karen remarked, "You do remember that you have a job."
"I already placed an order for a hangover potion," Sirius replied before he turning into a dog.
"And he's supposed to be my godfather," Karen said in a flabbergasted tone before disappearing in super speed.
-Hogwarts Gryffindor Common Room 5:03 PM-
"How can you get detention in the second week of DADA class," Hermione asked in a scandalous tone to her 'boyfriend.' She knew he was using her to up his grades. Not like she could get upset as she used his family's reputation to get the pureblood bigots off of her back until she can establish herself in the wizarding world.
"Umbridge was calling me a liar about Voldemort being back," Charles replied.
Hermione let out a huff as she crossed her arms over her breasts in frustration, "I was there! But why did you have to provoke her?"
Charles just gave her a blank look.
"Right you're you," Hermione said as she rubbed the top of her head in frustration. "All you are doing is giving her ammunition to use against you."
"And I care why," Charles asked in a deadpan tone.
"She could use you as an excuse to go after your sister," Hermione replied.
"Again, why should I care," Charles asked. "We aren't exactly close, you know."
"And that's the attitude of why y'all aren't close," Hermione responded.
"What's going on here," Ron said as he walked up to them.
"I'm trying to scold Charles for getting detention with Umbridge," Hermione replied.
"So," came Ron's simple response.
"Did I mention that it takes place during Gryffindors first practice session of the year," added Hermione with a grin.
"Charles, how dare you get detention with the toad lady," Ron shouted angrily at Charles.
Hermione rolled her eyes as Charles gave her a look of betrayal.
"Don't look at me, you are the one with dentition," Hermione stated like it was the most normal thing in the world.
"How dare you get detention," Ron shouted again.
"Why are you shouting? I'm right here," Charles said. "She kept on insisting that I'm a glory seeking liar about You-Know-Who being back and the giant attack was a freak one time thing."
"You are a glory seeker," Holly says as she walks past them, munching on an apple.
Charles stuck his tongue out at her and she responded in kind.
"Real mature of you Charles," Hermione stated.
Holly stuck her tongue out back at him before she went up into the girls dormitories.
Charles blew a raspberry at her as she went up the stairs.
-?-
"I have good news and bad news My Lord," Lucias said as he bowed to Voldemort.
"What is the bad news," Voldemort said with anger in his voice.
"The eldest Potter daughter still eludes our men in the Colonies," Malfoy replied in a calm tone.
"For your sake I hope your good news outweighs the bad," Voldemort stated harshly.
"Recently I acquired another individual who heard the entire prophecy that night, all those years ago," Lucias said with a half grin as he gestured as a couple of Death Eaters magically dragged in a scruffy looking man, trying to resist. "Mundungus Fletcher, Dumbledore's eyes and ears in the criminal underworld. As I mentioned earlier, he was there the night the prophecy was made."
"Your generous gift will grant you a reprieve from your incompetence from getting the eldest Potter child," Voldemort stated. "Now leave as I have questions that need answers!"
With that the Death Eaters bowed as they left a whimpering Fletcher with the Dark Lord and as the doors closed behind them, cries of pain could be heard coming from the room they just vacated.
-Hogwarts Potions Room 12:01 A.M.-
"Why hasn't Mundagus responded to my orders to meet me," Dumbledore asked Snape.
"He has always been an unreliable dunderhead, even when he attended school here," Snape replied as he took stock of his potions ingredients.
"He has valuable information that I need," Dumbledore stated.
"Knowing that dunderheaded Buffon, he probably ran afoul with the Aurors loyal to Madam Bones or the Minister of Magic," Snape replied in his snide tone.
With a sigh, Dumbledore pinched the bridge of his nose before saying, "I will sort this out with Madam Bones in the morning. Now what news do you have of Riddle's current activities."
"He is very interested in the rest of the prophecy that led to downfall all those years ago," Snape replied. "He is currently using his followers to try to get it as he doesn't want to expose himself yet."
"As it is expected," Dumbledore replied while stroking his beard.
"He also seems fixated on the forgotten Potter child for some reason," Snape added.
Dumbledore raised an eyebrow at this as Snape continued, "I am assuming he is leaving nothing to chance this time around."
"That is likely," Dumbledore admitted, "I assumed she died with her Aunt, Uncle, and cousin 11 years ago, across the pond. At least that's what the monitoring spell I placed on her told me."
"The Dark Lord insists that she is very much alive," Snape retorted.
"I will see what I can dig up," Dumbledore replied.
-September 14th, Gotham City 8:02 A.M-
"I know you don't like supers in your city, but why did you call me," Power Girl stated as she hovered by Batman by a random alleyway.
"I found someone from the organization asked me to look into," was his reply as led her into the alleyway.
He led her to a man in a Death Eater uniform laying against a wall and Batman removed his silver mask and revealed that his face had been Jokerized.
"Looks like Joker had his fun with him," she stated. "Any clue why this guy is in Gotham in the first place?"
"I'm having Nightwing look into it," Batman replied as he took a closer look at the body.
"When was his time of death?" Power Girl asked. "So I can find who is missing a wizard."
"Based on the body temperature and last night's temperature the estimated time of death was somewhere between 1:30-2:30 last night," came Batman's response as he carefully put a long green hair strand in an evidence bag.
"I'll see what I can do to ID him," Power Girl stated as she gave him a stare. "I'll keep you in the loop if you keep in the loop."
"Noted, but be careful with the Joker, he's a loose cannon," came his response.
"I never liked clowns in the first place."
"The clown your aunt hired for your cousin's sixth birthday tells another story," Batman responded stoutly.
"How did you…" she started before dragging her hand down her face, "Of course you are Batman."
Batman merely smirked as she flew away as the first cop cars arrived at the scene.
-The Alps-
Both Remus and Hagrid were tied to a log, by a vine, going down some rapids. As soon as they finished going through, Remus was looking in the direction they came and Hagrid looking downstream.
"This day can't get any worse," Remus said in an irritated tone.
Hagrid's eyes widened for a second and said, "Uh-oh."
"Let me guess, we are about to go over a huge waterfall," Lupin started in a deadpan tone.
"Yep."
"Sharp rocks at the bottom?"
"Mos' likely."
"Bring it on."
As they went over the waterfall Lupin laughed madly, "Bwahahaha!"
-Hogwarts-
"I wish Hagrid was back from the mission Dumbledore gave him," Charles sighed as he sat through a boring lesson from Professor Grubbly-Plank as she refused to bring in any magical creatures larger than a niffler.
"He and Remus are on an important mission for Dumbledore," Hermione whispered to him as she sat on his right while Ron slept on his left.
"I know but her lessons are boring," Charles whispered back.
"Potter wake up Weasley as this will be on the test next week," Grubbly-Plank said.
This caused Charles to swat Ron and he groggley said, "I'm up, I'm up."
-September 15th, Ministry of Magic 9:18 A.M.-
"How did one of the most wanted get killed by a mere muggle," Minister Fudge nearly shouted at Amelia Bones.
"Alecto Carrows' murderer has more murders to his name than You-Know-You did during his reign," Amelia responded as she pointed at the muggle pictures on Fudge's desk, showing the deceased's body at the crime scene.
"I want to know if he is a threat to us," Fudge ordered.
"I have my Auror's working with our MACUSA counterparts to compile a full report on this 'Joker'," Amelia responded. "I also have them to keep alert if he decides to enter our borders."
"MACUSA must be covering up for one of their 'upstanding' citizens," Delores said.
Amelia could hear the air quotes around upstanding in Umbridge's statement. "All evidence points to this man, Madam Umbridge. Unless you have information that I do not."
One look from Amelia caused Delores to back down. "If there is nothing else on the agenda, I will take my leave." With that Amelia Bones left Fudge's office.
To Be Continued…