Chapter 9 : Trouble around the corner

I don't know if you've ever experienced this in your life but there's nothing worse than living in apprehension of a bad event that is about to happen. You feel cold sweats, your brain stops working properly because it's completely overwhelm with stress and you want to do a thousand things but just end up doing nothing. And all this while dreading the time that will inevitably lead you to experience one of the most difficult events in your life. Really, it's a nightmare.

Well, that was the state in which Akira was right now. After Deloney - the journalist who had decided to follow her around - had heard her compromising conversation with Rookwood at the Hog's Head Inn, it was only a matter of time before someone was informed of her betrayal and the sensitive information that she was giving about Dumbledore's plans to his worst enemy, namely Voldemort. Her end was near, and it was a shame after she had managed to join the Headmaster's group to help him fight the forces of evil. But the worst thing was thinking about the disappointment that she would cause to Dumbledore who had always treated her nicely. And also the anger that she would cause to Voldemort who had lost his prime source of information thanks to her negligence.

In short, talking with one or the other of these two powerful wizards would go very badly and Akira was dreading these meetings to the highest degree. Living her normal life as a schoolgirl had become unbearable for her. She had to go to class, listen, do her homework as if nothing had happened while something much more serious was happening behind her back, waiting for its time to fall hard on her head.

What did the wizarding world have in store for a traitor who hadn't reached the age of majority yet ? Because in Konoha, a betrayal was seen as a serious misconduct and was seriously punished even if the ninja was underage. Azkaban seemed too harsh but the expulsion from Hogwarts was appropriate, with the destruction of the magic wand as a bonus as Akira had already heard that it was a common punishment. And maybe when she turned seventeen, she would serve her sentence in the wizarding jail.

In this situation, there were so many unknowns that Akira was panicking only guessing about them. She was in a distraught state and for once, Arcturus wasn't concerned about it as he was having his own issues that were putting him on the edge of exhaustion.

Indeed, since Phineas Bourne - the famous Potioneer who wrote Moste Potente Potions - had forced him to take private lessons consisting in preparing high-level potions that the latter was judging afterwards, Arcturus no longer had a second to himself. Especially since Bourne was very demanding with him, making him brew the same potion a hundred times until he judged it "acceptable" while Arcturus wasn't seeing the difference between his first and last try. The latter was suspecting Bourne himself to not see any difference since it wasn't a secret that Bourne was disapproving Arcturus choice for a Muggle career as an electrician and wanted to turn him instead into a talented Potioneer.

In the end, Arcturus didn't even have time to spend on his other classes. It was brewing potions morning, noon and night at the risk of awakening Bourne's fury if he happened to fall behind on the overloaded schedule that he had put in place for him.

Akira and Arcturus were thus struggling in this fifth year, which didn't bode well with the approaching OWLs, their career choice that they still had to validate with Professor McGonagall and their daily tasks as Prefects that Eric - the Head Boy - was monitoring closely. Completely exhausting.

"Aw, I want to be in holidays." Arcturus grumbled during one of the rare evening dinners in which he could sit at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall instead of just grabbing all the food that he could put his hand on before returning to the Potions classroom. "I think Bourne wants to kill me from exhaustion. He asked me to give an other try to a Wolfsbane Potion, which is still only in the experimental stage because it's so complex to develop. He probably hopes to be the first to succeed in finding the final recipe but in the meantime, look at my hands !" He added while raising these in front of him as they were both covered in thick bandages. "I cut and burned myself so often that I can hardly feel them. And try to grab some glass vials when you can't even bend your fingers. Ninety-nine percent of the time, these vials will finish on the floor with a nice breaking-glass noise."

"What ?" Akira said as his complaints were finally pulling her from her daydream.

She then looked at her friend's injured hands and was immediately shocked by their awful state.

"How did you do this ?"

"Over the last few days. Didn't you notice that I couldn't hold my quill in class ?" He asked her with disbelief while having a lot of trouble to take back his fork to resume eating.

Akira wanted to answer "no" but she knew that it would only raise the suspicions that something was wrong with her. So she just replied "yes, obviously" before plunging her head back into her bowl of soup which she began to swallow quickly.

This dinner was one of the few moments that Akira and Arcturus had spent together after Deloney learning about Akira's secret and Bourne making poor Arcturus collapse under work. And it would probably be the last meal that they would share since Akira's worst fear occurred the next morning, during the break between two classes. Indeed, she soon discovered that Deloney had been looking for her in the entire school, which wasn't a good sign.

"Ah, finally you're here. Flitwick wasn't so specific when he told me where to find you after his class." Deloney advised her in an almost euphoric tone while Akira was fixing him with horror. "Come with me, the Headmaster wants to see you."

The Headmaster ? Really ? Then, she just had to go pack her things and leave Hogwarts immediately. But before overreacting, she wanted to know what Deloney had exactly said to Dumbledore about her betrayal.

Without feigning surprise about his out-of-the-blue request or rebelling against this meeting, Akira left the courtyard covered in end-of-February melting snow only to follow Deloney through the cold hallways of the school. The latter was happily humming a tune, visibly cheerful with what he had managed to do. Meanwhile, Akira felt her hatred towards this crooked journalist grow inside her. She would have liked to knock him out right away, leaving him for dead while she fled from the school. But she judged it preferable to not add another misbehaviour to her already long list. At least until she was sure of the charges that she was accused of.

Akira tried to remain in control of herself as her fear of what would happen next was making her feverish and with difficulty to walk as her legs were weak. Her mind itself could no longer think properly and she began to act by automation until she found herself in front of Dumbledore's office, the latter telling them to come in after Deloney knocked on the door.

Expecting to receive from the Headmaster a disapproval look or a burst of anger, she was more than disconcerted to see him display a big smile as soon as he saw her.

"Akira. I sent Mr. Deloney to go get you but I didn't think that he would find you so quickly."

"I have my sources." Deloney said with a certain pride while pulling on the front of his hat.

"Pff. If it wasn't for Flitwick, you'll still be looking for me around the whole school." Akira thought bitterly while raising her eyes towards the sky.

"Good. Now that we're all here, we can continue our conversation and I can tell you that I was aware of Miss Chitsute's implication in the transmission of sensitive information well before you came to reveal it."

"I beg your pardon ?" Deloney said as he was as stunned by this news as Akira.

"You heard me correctly, unless I've been babbling without realizing it. If Miss Chitsute disclosed information deemed sensitive to a notorious follower of Voldemort, it was with a full knowledge of the threat, and even according to my orders. I would have preferred that this matter wasn't discovered by anyone but it was a risk worth taking when I chose to entrust such a delicate task to a student rather than to one of my close acquaintances."

"Wait a second." Deloney intervened sharply. "Are you telling me that Miss Chitsute was just following your instructions ? Was it you who were always sending her to talk to Rookwood in that shabby inn ?"

"Indeed, even if I won't call the Hoag's Head Inn "shabby" but rather "rustic". Anyway, it wasn't the easiest mission that I gave to Miss Chitsute but I knew that she was capable of it without Rookwood suspecting her of anything since she was still an underage witch. He would trust her blindly and that was all that I needed to pass on the information that I deemed necessary to the opposing side."

"So, that means that I didn't find a scoop. Damn it !" Deloney complained with his arms hanging.

"Your instinct of journalist wasn't focused on the right person. And I would ask you, if you care about being on the side of good, to not tell anyone about this affair. You don't want to put Miss Chitsute at unnecessary risk when she's already taking so many."

"Of course not. I'm sorry, I didn't want any of this." Deloney added in a sheepish tone that was unfamiliar to him. "In that case, I'll just..."

"Go get more interesting scoops elsewhere ? That's a brilliant idea. And from now on, leave Miss Chitsute alone." Dumbledore pointed out joyfully.

"Yes. I'll do that."

And without adding anything else, Deloney left the room, lowering his hat over his eyes as he was visibly embarrassed to have made such a fuss that could have been prejudicial to Dumbledore and the whole community that the latter was defending.

However, as soon as Deloney was gone, Dumbledore cast a spell on the door so that it would lock itself and another one so that no one on the other side could hear them. It made it clear that he wasn't done with Akira who began to display a scared look. But Dumbledore was able to calm her down as he was himself serene.

"No one will come and disturb us with these spells in place, so you can talk freely. Now, do you have something to tell me about all these events ?"

Indeed, there was something that she wanted to say since she started working for Voldemort.

"I'm sorry for..." Akira tried to tell him but he interrupted her in the middle of her sentence.

"That's all I wanted to hear. I don't need any more details about what you did because I already know them." He announced to her while looking amused instead of angry.

"According to what Deloney told you ?"

"No. Deloney brought to me nothing new, contrary to what he was thinking. No, my main source of information was coming from the bartender of the Hog's Head Inn. It's sometimes useful to know someone who is spending all his days among people doing questionable business there."

"People like me." Akira muttered with sadness.

"No, don't say that. If you have to blame someone, it's me." Dumbledore advised her while losing slowly his smile. "I didn't protect you from Lord Voldemort when you were most likely to seek help from him. I wasn't able to foresee it and because of this, you put your life at risk to pass him the information that I wanted him to know about."

"That means, I didn't tell him anything confidential ? Nothing that could harm your organization, or anyone else ?" Akira assured herself while starting to breathe more easily at this good news.

"Indeed. I wanted Voldemort to know that I'm preparing plans to thwart him, just to slow him down in his rise if he realizes that we're getting ready to stop him. And I called on you to pass these information on, which I'm not really proud of. I was seeing your connection to him as an opportunity, but it must stop today. From now on, you must not speak to Rookwood again. I'll make sure that he believes that it's his choice for your meeting place that compromised your mission for him and not a mistake that you might have done. This will prevent Lord Voldemort from wanting to harm you at all costs, even if I have no doubt that he would now want to see you disappear for good. But don't worry. I'll do everything in my power to protect you from him."

"But…" Akira intervened before falling silent.

Because she wasn't very happy with this outcome. Indeed, Voldemort had promised her to bring Matsuo and Tatsuno back to life and all her efforts were just about to be rewarded. Except that now, everything was falling apart and seeing the twins again was nothing more than a sweet and unrealizable dream. This saddened her to the highest degree, making her brain vulnerable to the powers of Dumbledore who could then read it like an open book.

"Voldemort made there a promise that no one can keep, not even him. However, he's good at lying to recruit all his future followers. But no magic can bring the dead back to life. I'm sorry about this."

"I would have liked to see him try at least." Akira admitted as her disappointment was immense.

Wiping her eyes that had started to be full of tears, she finally raised her head as she had one last important request to make.

"Please, don't send Tolfius to protect me from all dangers. Because if I see that weasel around again, I'm going to lose it."

"I'll put more discreet measures in place, you won't even spot them." Dumbledore assured with a smile.

Hello dear readers,

So, the truth was finally revealed and it didn't exactly explode in Akira's face as she had thought in the first place. But it's not said that it won't in the future, especially when Voldemort will be aware of her failure. However, Dumbledore is on her side, and he'll be a precious ally against the dark wizard.

From now on, Akira's spying missions are cancelled, and she won't complain as they were nightmarish. But that doesn't mean that she totally got rid of Voldemort. The latter will just stay in the shadow until finding the perfect timing to bite like a vicious snake. We'll see if he'll prepare an attack in the next chapter that I'll publish at the end of the month.