And here's the sixty seventh chapter of "A Year Too Soon"! Enjoy!
* Review Response:
Secundum, Luiz4200, griffin blackwood, Yaw6113, DarkRavie, Vampireking40, thank you for your reviews, folks!
BMS, maybe? Though that issue can be controlled by patrol schedules. Just never let them patrol together. Meanwhile, it is also possible that another girl was chosen because you can't make both twins prefects. And having dealt with the Weasley twins, the Professors were afraid that Flora and Hestia would start swapping the badge whenever it is convenient to them.
Brockster550, I don't plan on Sirius being able to physically approach Harry and/or his friends right now. Maybe later during one of the Hogsmeade visits... And Azkaban wasn't exactly kind to his mind, so he won't exactly be open-minded. Not from the start, at least.
magitech, I don't think the original seven books ever mentioned anyone stepping down from their Prefect's position. The closest we have, I think, is Harry resigning as a Quidditch captain, but that certainly had nothing to do with the issues you highlight.
* AN: This chapter has not been beta-read.
Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Harry Potter" franchise. No profit is being made. Same goes for any books, video games, anime or manga I may or may not use for ideas.
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A Year Too Soon
Chapter LXVII: August Happenings
Being a personal invitee of the Minister for Magic to the Quidditch World Cup Finals came with more perks than just having the best seats in the stadium. It also meant you could arrive just shortly before the match and depart as soon as it ended - no need to stay in the tent city like some plebeian. That was exactly what Lucius Malfoy did. And in doing so, he unknowingly avoided being in the center of a very big mess.
"Those brainless simpletons, Merlin damn them." The Malfoy patriarch cursed as soon as he saw the headlines of the 'Daily Prophet' the next morning.
"What's wrong, dear husband?" Narcissa asked from across the table. Draco, who was sitting next to her, also stopped munching on his breakfast and started paying attention to the conversation, curious about what in the newspaper got his father so upset.
Instead of responding verbally, Lucius merely showed them the front page of the 'Daily Prophet' to them. There was a large Magical photo of four men in dark cloaks and white masks using their wands to toy with a helpless - and, presumably, Muggle - man, while burning tents and fleeing people formed an apocalyptic backdrop. Above this photo was the headline: 'Death Eater wannabes attack Quidditch World Cup camp'.
"Oh my!.." Narcissa breathed out. While not active in politics by any means, she still was a daughter of the House of Black, and she knew just what sort of a fallout a stunt like this would cause. It definitely won't be pretty. And the Malfoys wouldn't be spared from the blame - not only they were really close to Minister Fudge, under whose rule it happened, but everyone knew that Lucius owned a similar set of robes himself - even if they had absolutely nothing to do with this mess. This time.
"Why are you so upset, father, mother?" Draco, completely unaware of his parents' thoughts and worries, asked. "Isn't this great news? It's about time someone reminded the blood-traitors and mixed-blood trash of their pla-…" His father's fierce glare made him shut up and gulp nervously.
"There is time and place to forcefully instill of fear and respect towards the wizards of pure blood, and yesterday was neither." Lucius finally said, his voice harsh and forceful. "All this 'prank' has managed to achieve is thousands of Galleons of property damage and destruction of respect Wizarding Britain had been commanding abroad." Knowing better than to argue with his father when he got like this, Draco remained silent. There was a pause before the Malfoy patriarch spoke again: "I guess I'll have to cancel my plans for today. Minister will probably need my help dealing with the fallout of this …mess. I don't know how long it will take, but…" He paused for a brief second while focusing his attention solely on his heir. "When I'm back, I'll give you an extended lesson on politics and public relations, Draco."
"Yes, father." Draco replied, clearly not looking forward to that lecture.
~/ *** \~
Lord Malfoy wasn't the only one to learn about the Death Eaters' attack on the Quidditch World Cup camp from the morning newspaper. Harry did as well. And his immediate reaction was to send owls to his friends who went there to see the match, asking them if they were alright. But before his letter could ever reach them, their own ones arrived to dispel his worries.
Daphne's was the first one to arrive. According to her, the Greengrasses were camping on the opposite side of the grounds from where the attack had taken place, so the panicking crowd was the worst they had to deal with. Tracey and her family were with them, so they too were alright, if scared a bit.
A response from Blaise arrived a little later. He too was mostly fine, even though he and his mother had been camping a lot closer to where the 'Death Eaters' attacked. The panic there was much worse and they got thrown around by the fleeing crowd a little. At least, the fires were stopped before they could reach their tent, so nothing they owned had been destroyed. Only trampled over a bit.
The dark-skinned wizard then completely switched tracks and started gushing over the Quidditch World Cup Finals, starting with the team mascots - Bulgarians had brought a flock of veela as their cheerleaders while Irish team had leprechauns rain fake gold over the stands - and all the way to the actual conclusion of the game: Ireland won despite Victor Krum catching the snitch for Bulgaria.
Seeing his friend talk about the game reassured Harry that, despite everything that had happened the previous night, he was indeed alright.
~/ *** \~
Cornelius Fudge, the Minister for Magic of Great Britain, was decidedly not alright this morning. And not just because he had been woken up at three in the morning by an emergency floo call from Madam Bones. Granted, an attack on the camping grounds around the Quidditch World Cup stadium was a good enough reason for the DMLE Director to wake him up in the middle of the night. Even if the perpetrators were just a group of hooligans who thought that dressing up as Death Eaters and juggling a pair of Muggles with their wands was funny.
Of course, Madam Bones actually operating under the assumption that those ruffians were actual Death Eaters wasn't helping Fudge much.
But the primary cause of his headache was the aftermath of this incident. For one, since apparently the whole thing was the Ministry's fault, the Ministry was supposed to cover all of the damages those 'Death Eaters' had caused. And while the property damage reports were still coming, Cornelius was already looking at the sum exceeding a hundred and fifty thousand Galleons. And after all the gold invested into the Quidditch World Cup and the upcoming Triwizard Tournament, the Ministry's vaults weren't exactly overflowing with money.
And then there were people. Cornelius Fudge liked the crowds when they were cheering for him and proclaiming him a great Minister for Magic but right now that was decidedly not the case. Instead, he was being blamed for his incident, just because he was the Minister. And it wasn't just his subjects. People abroad were blaming him for letting this attack happen as well. And they made it sound like every Brit was an incompetent moron - with him, Cornelius Fudge, being the worst. It was a nightmare!
He had already received a floo call from France demanding he made sure nothing like this would happen during the Triwizard Tournament. Or, they said, there will be consequences. How dare they threaten him, those cheese-eating barbarians!
At least they hadn't withdrawn Beauxbaton from the Tournament, or demanded that it was hosted by a different school instead. That would've been a complete and utter humiliation of Magical Britain and him as the Minister in charge of it.
He needed to find a way out of this mess, and one that wouldn't leave Great Britain an international laughing stock. Alas, he didn't have any ideas how to accomplish this. Where was Lucius, when he needed him? Hell, even Dumbledore's help would be welcome right now! Thankfully, Cornelius was spared from the need to contact the Hogwarts Headmaster when the door of his office opened, admitting Lord Malfoy in.
"Ah, Lucius! Nice to see you." Fudge greeted the man. While he would usually get up and shake his biggest supporter's hand, right now he was too busy to do anything more than look up from the parchment with the latest damage report the DMLE had compiled for him. "I'm afraid we can't have our usual morning tea conversation today."
"That is quite understandable, Cornelius." Lucius replied smoothly. "I've seen the news and came here as soon as I could in case you wanted my advice." The Minister's face instantly lit up.
"Your advice would be much appreciated, Lucius." He said.
~/ *** \~
With no further sightings of Death Eaters anywhere over the next few days, the Clique finally got their chance to do their shopping for the upcoming academic year. They started from Scribbulus Writing Instruments where they restocked on inks, quills and parchments. Their next stop was Slug & Jiggers Apothecary for the potions ingredients and some extra phials. After that they dropped by Flourish and Blotts to get the textbooks.
It was nearly two past noon at that point, so the Clique - along with Mrs. Greengrass, who was keeping an eye on them - returned to the Leaky Cauldron to get some lunch.
And after they had had their midday meal, the group made their way to Madam Malkin's in order to get the final item on their list: the dress robes. Well, little Astoria, being only a second year wasn't told she needed one, and was pouting quite a bit because of that - it was so unfair that whatever event that required the dress robes was restricted to the older students.
Once inside the shop, the gang split into groups. The Greengrass ladies and Tracey formed one while Blase, who chose to stay by the entrance by himself, was another. Harry, Flora and Hestia were the third. And without wasting any more time, the twins went looking for the dresses they'd like to wear to whatever event Hogwarts would be hosting. Harry wasn't as enthusiastic about all this dress robes shopping - he did have a perfectly-fine set that he had bought just a few months ago - but he too idly browsed the clothes on display.
"Looking for dress robes for Hogwarts, dears?" Madam Malkin asked, stepping out of a storeroom. Flora and Hestia nodded. "And you, Mr. Potter?" The witch asked next.
"Perhaps." He replied. "That depends on what ladies choose. It wouldn't do for my dress robes to clash horribly with theirs during whatever event we need them for." The shop owner nodded.
"I see…" She said, before turning on her heels and walking away, probably to see if any of her other customers needed her help. Meanwhile, the Carrow twins continued browsing through the various robes on display.
And after going through several of those, they finally settled on identical wine, or perhaps sangria, colored robes of a design that was actually closer to Muggle evening gowns than to traditional robes worn in the wizarding world. And while that might raise a few eyebrows among the more …conservative members of the student body, Harry was sure that most would simply be awed by his girlfriends' beauty instead: Flora and Hestia did look fantastic in these robes, after all.
With their choice made, it was now his turn to act. Having already found dress robes that were mostly similar, in material and color, to the one he had bought the previous winter, Harry quickly changed into them and joined the twins in front of the mirror - which, while enchanted, thankfully wasn't a talking one. Those were nothing but trouble.
Anyway, standing between Flora and Hestia, the green-eyed teen studied their reflection in the mirror. And as far as he could tell, none of their garments were clashing with each other. It wasn't a perfect match, of course, but…
"You three look great." Tracey commented as she appeared behind them. Then she stage-whispered to Harry: "But I'm sure you'd rather see your lil' ladies in white, veils and all, eh, lover boy?" She teased. And much to her delight, he couldn't come up with any coherent response while his mad blush made it quite clear that this exact scenario was now at the forefront of his mind. Flora and Hestia were blushing almost as badly, clearly imagining themselves as Harry's brides, ready to go down the aisle. And they evidently liked the thought too.
"Tracey!" Daphne called, coming to the trio's rescue. "Stop trying to break our friends. We might still need them in the future."
"Oh, c'mon, Daph, let a girl have her fun." The Greengrass heiress responded with an unamused glare. After a few seconds, Tracey surrendered. "Fine, fine." With that she turned around and started walking away, only to stop after a few steps. "But you've totally imagined that, didn't you?" Daphne gave her friend another glare, finally making her leave.
And then Madam Malkin came back.
"Do you like these robes, dears?" She asked Flora and Hestia, snapping them out of their thoughts. "Will you be taking them?"
"Yes, please." Hestia said while her sister simply nodded.
"Alright." The shop owner nodded. "And you, Mr. Potter?"
"I'm good." The young wizard replied. "The set I bought last winter should work fine here." Madam Malkin nods silently and walks away to the counter, leaving the three teens to change out of the dress robes they were trying out and into their normal clothes.
~/ *** \~
Albus Dumbledore let out a tired sigh as he listened to the patently insane idea that the Minister was proposing. Oh, he definitely agreed that improving Hogwarts' security to ensure safety of all students and guests during the Triwizard Tournament was a good thing. It's just… Cornelius Fudge had an absolutely, terribly wrong idea on what to do to achieve that.
"No." The aged warlock said firmly. "There will be no dementors stationed around Hogwarts. I will not have those foul monsters anywhere close to my students. This is not negotiable."
"B-But…" The Minister tried to protest.
"No. The dementors will be too much of a risk for the students." The Hogwarts Headmaster said. "I understand the need for improved security in light of the recent events - I've already been contacted by my colleagues from Beauxbaton and Durmstrang about this - but dementors will stay where they all are now, at Azkaban. I'm open to other ideas, though."
"What about a few teams of Aurors?" Fudge tried.
"As long as they don't disrupt the education process and cause no unnecessary problems for students or teachers, I will allow that." Dumbledore said after thinking about it for a moment.
"I'll inform Amelia of this then." The Minister said.
"Of course." Albus said with a nod, deciding not to comment on the fact that this was definitely not the way things were supposed to be done. He was just a headmaster of a school now, not the Chief Warlock of Wizengamot anymore. The running of the Ministry was no longer his problem.
There was a brief, rather awkward pause, before Fudge spoke:
"I… I should be going. I have business to attend to." He said rather lamely. "I'll keep you posted on the Auror teams." Dumbledore nodded. And with that Cornelius excused himself and used the headmaster's private fireplace to floo back to the Ministry. He needed to talk to Madam Bones as soon as possible…
Once the man was gone, Albus let out another sigh. He wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea of Aurors being stationed within Hogwarts or on its grounds: the Tournament and all of the guests from the other school attending it will be distracting enough for his students. Having Aurors around would only make it worse. Still, if they could prevent an attack like the one at the Quidditch World Cup…
Letting out another sigh, he wrote down a quick note, reminding himself to notify the rest of the staff about this possibility during their next meeting in a couple of days. Then he turned his attention back to a large stack of parchmentwork that he needed to fill in and with yet another sigh went back to work.
~/ *** \~
A week after their shopping trip, the Clique had once again met together and had another party at the Greengrass manor. And with Astoria mostly recovered by now, the teens were able to do more than sit in the garden house and have some tea with snacks. Oh, they did that as well, but they also went down to the creek on the edge of the Greengrass estate and played some active games there.
It was great fun and a rare chance for everyone to enjoy themselves together freely.
Of course, the twins wouldn't have minded getting a bit of private 'fun' with their Harry as well - and he certainly wasn't opposed to that either - but the games the Clique was playing were so involved and engaging that a good opportunity to disappear for a bit just never presented itself. But that wasn't a big issue as they were still having a lot of fun playing games with everyone else.
Nevertheless, later in the afternoon, while they were walking back to the Greengrass manor, Harry promised Flora and Hestia to visit them in the next couple of days. To catch up a little on what they missed today.
He certainly kept his promise. And all three of them were rather thankful later that the overgrown garden around the Carrow manor offered them such nice, secluded spots.
A week before the start of his fifth year at Hogwarts, Harry dropped by the Potter estate to see how much progress has been made on the construction of the manor since his last visit. And he was pleasantly surprised to see that the exterior works were done for the most part by this point.
At least, it was so for the main house, which looked like it only needed to have the windows installed.
The gallery leading to the pond and the gazebo in the gardens, on the other hand, still needed more work: at the moment they lacked the roofs and thus were little more than the wooden pillars with some decking and rafters.
On the inside, the manor appeared like the works had barely started, but that was an illusion created by the piles of construction garbage all over the place. In reality, the only big job that the Finewoods haven't finished yet was laying the flooring. That said, it was an arduous job that would take quite a long time even with Magic. And, indeed, the builders have been working on this for over a week and yet still had about half of the rooms left to go.
Nevertheless, when asked by Harry, the Finewoods were quite confident that they could finish everything within three weeks. Four at most. Unfortunately, that would be September either way, and the young Potter might have some trouble leaving the Hogwarts' grounds to sign off the newly-finished manor.
But it was a known 'risk' and they had a couple of plans to work around that issue. Hopefully those won't be needed and the school would let him leave for a few hours without too much trouble but if not - they were ready for that too.
Harry then talked to the Finewoods a little more, asking the builders about the best places in Magical Britain to buy furniture, tableware and hundreds of other things a house needed in order to be, well, a house and not an empty, inhospitable building. Apparently, not everything on that long list was commonly sold in the shops in Diagon Alley - or anywhere else in wizarding Britain, for that matter - and, thus, had to be custom-ordered from masters. Harry was given a few contacts for these masters, but no guarantees that they will accept his commissions or would be able to finish them quickly.
As he took a portkey back to Diagon Alley, Harry decided that maybe it would be a good idea to venture into non-Magical London and get a couple furniture catalogs from the specialized shops. With these he could plan furnishing the manor while at Hogwarts and his friends could help him as well.
Flora and Hestia almost definitely needed to have input in this as the new Potter manor would be their home in the future.
~/ *** \~
The room was small, dirty and dark, with its tiny window boarded up. A little bit of light still managed to get inside, revealing a decade worth of dust everywhere. The walls were plain wood that has turned gray with age, and were covered with claw marks. The only piece of furniture in there was a small bed with remnants of a bedsheet that had since rotted away.
"So… This is what the infamous Shrieking Shack looks like on the inside." Barty Crouch Jr. observed. "Can't say I had expected more from the place that old fool Dumbledore used to hide his pet wolf during the full moons." He paused for a few moments before continuing: "Definitely not an ideal base for our operation, but it will do. No one will see us there, and it has a secret passage that goes straight to the Hogwarts grounds. Right, Wormtail?" The said rat animagus nodded.
"Y-Yes, Barty." He said. "If the tunnel hasn't c-collapsed, the other end should be right u-under the Whomping Willow."
"Then go and check it out." Crouch Jr. ordered. "What are you waiting for?" Giving the man a fearful nod, Peter hurried out of the room, quickly disappearing into darkness. He returned almost an hour later.
"The passage is clear." He reported. "And I don't think I had triggered the castle's wards. No one came looking when I peeked out from the other end."
"I hope you were at least smart enough to do it as a rat?" Barty asked.
"O-Of course." The animagus replied.
"Good. Maybe you aren't as dumb as you look." Crouch said. He then made a short pause before continuing: "I guess, we can take some rest now. But you gotta start working real hard tomorrow, Wormtail - we have a lot to do to prepare for our Master's glorious return." Peter nodded although he wasn't looking forward to all of the digging he will be doing in the foreseeable future.
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