Chapter Fifty Three
Harry stood outside Dumbledore's office, several days later, flanked on all sides by his friends. Daphne's leg was still bruised but now out of its bandages, the others barely had a scratch on them. Harry's face still stung when he smiled or moved his mouth to quickly but he didn't care, he needed that pain because once that bruise had faded he would have nothing solid left to remember that Severus was gone.
He'd told no one that Severus wasn't Dumbledore's killer. Everyone believed so easily that he was. Danica hurt so badly it made perfect sense that Severus would go straight to brutal revenge; his perfect, brilliant daughter ruined.
The letter to Draco hadn't contained much of use, just that Narcissa loved him, she still loved Lucius and to ignore anything he heard saying otherwise. That she would do everything in her power to get back to him. That he was to keep himself safe, not go back to Hogwarts until everything was over and that she really did love him.
Harry had held Draco's hand as the letter burned in the common room one evening. Draco had begged to keep it, pointing out that it might be the last words he ever got from his mother, but did throw it into the fire without causing a scene, or hating Harry for life.
Now they stood at the gargoyle; Harry, Hermione, Daphne, Pansy, Draco and Neville staring at the ugly stone.
"Are we sure this is going to work?" Hermione asked.
Harry shrugged, "No. But its not let anyone else in and they're sending people from the Ministry tomorrow to make sure it gets reset for whoever they send next year, so we have to try."
Harry took several steps forwards and placed a hand on the gargoyle's beak, "It's me. We need to get in."
The gargoyle jumped aside, as Harry had thought it would, and let them past. The six of them stepped up onto the moving stairs and arrived in Dumbledore's office.
The castle had already put a picture of Dumbledore up, snoozing on the wall with the other headteachers.
"Don't say anything you don't want repeated." Harry said coldly, "They only pretend to be asleep."
None of the portraits moved. Harry considered burning Dumbledore's picture to prove his point but quickly decided against it.
Fawkes was nowhere to be seen, his perch sitting empty with a thin layer of dust. Harry didn't know how but knew that they wouldn't see Fawkes again. It was a strange sense of loss; he'd gotten the core for his wand from that phoenix, he's saved his life in the Chamber of Secrets and now he was gone, another one lost to the war.
"Harry?" Draco said softly, "You zoned out."
He'd been doing that a lot lately, "Sorry. Let's get this over and done with."
They made sure all of the drawers were open on Dumbledore's desk and cupboards before stepping tightly together in the middle of the room.
Harry raised his wand and took a deep breath, "Accio Horcrux information."
It worked this time, several books and a large leather bound notebook came flying into their arms.
"You were right, Hermione." Pansy said, looking over the stack, "Whatever spells were keeping stuff hidden are gone now."
"I wonder who will be the next head teacher?" Neville said, looking round, "Do you think McGonagall will be asked to take over permanently?"
"I don't think so." Harry said glumly, "Come on, I have some stuff to tell you."
It was the first day they'd been allowed out of the hospital wing and they got stopped nearly every time they passed someone in the halls, to congratulate them on surviving or say how terrible it was that they'd lost Dumbledore.
Harry gritted his teeth and took several deep breaths, thanking them and pushing on. It wasn't long before they reached the Come and Go room, already opened.
Cho and William were already in there, a tray of tea and biscuits between them. Harry and the others joined them, sitting in the comfortable chairs in the calming room.
"How are you?" Cho asked, giving Harry a hug. The feel of her arms around him, the smell of her hair made him want to melt into her embrace and cry.
He pulled away, forcing a smile, "I'll be OK."
They all looked around, seemingly all worried to break the silence between them. Harry placed the information on Horcruxes on the middle of the table and sat back.
"We need to talk about next year." Harry said finally, "I'm not coming back to school. Dumbledore… he was training me to hunt the Horcruxes, so when it comes to facing Voldemort I'll stand a chance."
"We're coming with you." Hermione said forcefully, "You won't need to do this alone."
Harry smiled at her, "Thanks, but it's not quite so simple. I… I found out that Hogwarts will be made compulsory next year, anyone of schooling age who doesn't attend will be breaking the law and they'll be hunting people down for it as well."
Neville and Daphne looked panicked.
"But Harry…" Neville said softly, "Matthew and Thomas are both still at school, so is Astoria."
"We can't just leave them." Daphne added, "I have no trouble putting myself in danger but-"
Harry raised his hand to stop them, "Exactly, and I would never ask you to. Not before Danica was hurt and absolutely not now. Which is why you two have to stay here."
"Harry I-" Daphne started.
Harry shook his head, "No, I mean it. Not just so that your siblings will have an extra layer of protection but so we can get information in and out of here. Voldemort was always obsessed with Hogwarts and he's going to want to control it, but it's way to early for him to be out in the open like that, it'll be more subtle, more Slytherin. You guys need to be our eyes and ears in here. I'm going to leave you the invisibility cloak and the Marauders' Map, it should help."
"You think we're really going to be in the middle of it all, don't you?" Neville said quietly.
Harry nodded sadly, "I can't know for sure of course, but I bet you anything that when the final battle comes, it'll be fought at Hogwarts."
"We'll be ready." Daphne promised him.
"How are you going to be getting information in and out?" William asked, "I agree that you need to but how? You can't be slipping in and out of the castle whenever you feel like it, they'll be looking for you for sure. And they'll certainly be searching the mail."
"Well, that's where part two of my plan comes in." Harry said, turning to face Pansy, Cho and William, "I need you guys to camp on the other side of the forest. There are ways through, just take one of the Thestrals and fly low but with you guys there, you can get the information out."
"They'll find us Harry, even just the magic from the tents will be enough for them to track for how long we'll need to be there for." Cho pointed out, feeling awful. Harry looked worn out, they shouldn't be having dealing with this yet.
"That's the tough bit." Harry said, giving them a small smile, "You're going to have to muggle camp. Mum has loads of books to help you… look, anyone not happy with the plans speak now. We can either work around it or… or you don't have to help. I don't want to put any of you in danger…"
Cho wrapped him in another hug, running her fingers through his hair, "You're not putting us in danger, we are in danger and you're just trying to keep us safe."
Harry took several deep breaths and nodded, "Sorry… it's been a long week."
"Well it seems like a good plan to me." Pansy said, quickly pulling the focus from Harry, "Muggle camping all seems very romantic, like ye tales of old!"
"Just make sure that you are safe." Harry warned, "You're still going to be close to the firing zone."
"We promise." Cho said with a soft smile.
"I guess that means we're going with you?" Draco said, pointing to Hermione.
Harry nodded, "If you're up to it."
They both nodded furiously.
"It's not going to be fun; we're going to have to move about loads and I'm not even sure where to look for some of these, I'm hoping there is something in some of the notes from Dumbledore but…" Harry shrugged.
Cho reached for his hand, Hermione reaching for the other. They all sat, holding hands just for a moment. They let go, all feeling far more refreshed and ready to face the world than they had before.
"We've never had a year apart for six years." Daphne said, wiping her eyes quickly.
Harry nodded, "Yeah… it's going to be tough, but we made it this far."
"And we'll be together again. This time next year at the latest." Neville said firmly, "Promise."
"Promise." They all said.
Notices for Dumbledore's funeral were posted around the school that day. Every corridor, every staircase and every notice board were covered with at least three.
Harry ripped the one down from the Slytherin board before he thought, earning him several stares from the students that were there.
Harry tried to smooth it out and stuck it back up, still crumpled and missing a large corner torn completely off. He couldn't help it, Danica was still stuck in the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey had suggested she could be moved to St Mungo's if needed but Danica had burst into tears at the thought of it.
As far as she was concerned, people who went into St Mungo's didn't come out very often.
Madam Pomfrey seemed to like having her about though, she was something to take her mind off the loss of the school's headmaster.
Kreacher had stopped all missions away from the house. He was either with Danica at the school, or packing for them at Grimmauld Place. They would be going straight to Malfoy Manor once school ended.
Harry had to fight the urge to laugh when he's read the article in Witch Weekly at the Slytherin table while munching on breakfast. The article detailed his mother's sordid affair with Lucius Malfoy. The questions everyone had apparently always asked about if Severus was the true father of Danica.
Because her jet black hair wasn't enough to suggest that she wasn't a Malfoy.
Everyone seemed to have believed it though; it explained why Narcissa and Severus had run off together after Severus had killed Dumbledore, which was the other main story going around every trashy, gossip filled magazine and newspaper.
Harry rubbed his head, picking at his meal. The lies, the half truths were making his head hurt, he would need to start writing things down in order to keep everything straight at this rate.
Lily wandered over to the Slytherin table, flopping down in the empty seat next to Harry. She looked tired.
"Hey Mum." Harry said, giving her a gentle nudge.
"I just came from Mrs Weasley telling me that she could understand that I was unhappy with Severus, he was always so bitter and had such awful hair, but that's no excuse for cheating and it does rather look like gold digging…" Lily rubbed her forehead, "I guess I should get used to this. We always said it would have to be strictly need to know, even within the Order."
"Well mum, this is what happens when you run off with your rich boyfriend, breaking our family up." Harry grinned, sarcasm dripping from his voice.
Lily glared at him, "Grounded, for one hundred years."
Harry smirked, before the events of the last week crashed down upon him again and the smile fell from his face.
"When are you going home?" He asked, hoping that his mother wouldn't notice his change in mood.
Lily did notice, of course, but she also knew that he wouldn't want to have attention drawn to it right now, "After the funeral."
"You're going?" Harry said, trying to keep the bitterness from his voice.
Lily smiled sadly at him, "Yes… I have to, we all do."
"Mum…" Harry said, shaking his head in disbelief.
Lily leaned closer, so there was no chance of them being over heard, "Harry, I know you're angry, so am I but Dumbledore is dead, Fenrir is dead. One day, one day we will be able to tell everyone the truth but for now we have a much better chance of winning this war with a martyr."
"Dumbledore new that!" Harry pointed out, "That's what he wanted, you said that yourself."
Lily took a deep breath, burying her head in her hands, "I know… I'm not going to make you go if you really can't face it but I'll be there, so will Danica."
Harry opened his mouth to say something but Lily wrapped him in a hug before he got the chance.
"I love you mum." Harry mumbled into her hair.
Lily pulled away slightly, and kissed his forehead, "I love you too, Harry."