"Hey Potter!"
Harry stopped walking toward the Transfiguration classroom with Hermione and Ron and turned to face Draco Malfoy. This was not what he wanted to deal with right now. Voldemort was an impending threat. Ron had pressured them at breakfast to tell him what was going on and they refused, so Ron was in a bad mood and it was putting further strain on Harry and Hermione who were already feeling more stress than either ever had before. Harry had just found out that he was going to be a father way too young. He and Hermione had not even had a chance to get used to being married and they were looking at parenthood while in school. He no longer trusted Dumbledore. He had blown up items left and right the night before and this had pleased the Headmaster which made it annoying to Harry. Most students were watching him in awe and giving him his space, but not Draco. Malfoy was either very brave, which few suspected, or very stupid to instigate a challenge right now.
"What?" Harry snapped. He inhaled deeply to keep from hexing the blond nuisance.
"So, what did the old bastard do to piss you off?" Malfoy asked with a grin. Crabbe and Goyle took their usual positions, standing behind him, trying to look menacing which was not as easy for them to accomplish now that Harry and anyone he had trained in the D.A were quite capable of reducing the lap-dogs to unconscious tentacle covered blobs.
Harry considered his answer. He could fake interest in abandoning Dumbledore's side of light if he wanted to do so. But it was probably too soon for even Draco to fall for that. "That is none of your concern," Harry replied and turned to walk away.
"Then, tell me. Is it true what they wrote in the Prophet?" Malfoy nodded toward Hermione. "Are you really going to marry the Mudblood because your Muggle uncle nearly killed you?" He looked to his companions for their expected guffaws.
"Let it go," Hermione whispered, tugging on Harry's arm. She was too tired and distressed to referee her husband and his nemesis.
Some third year Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs on their way to the greenhouses had stopped to watch the confrontation. The Potter/Malfoy battles were infamous on campus.
"You must be desperate," Malfoy continued. "Even you could do better than a Mudblood," he goaded. "Girl Weasel isn't much to look at, but at least she's pure blood."
"You shut up about my sister," Ron growled, taking out his wand. He was angry with his two best friends and would gladly use an insult toward Ginny to take his hostility out on someone.
Harry pushed Ron's wand to the side and exhaled while Malfoy insulted his wife and his family. He gave Dumbledore credit for training him well. A few months ago he would hexed the other boy after one utterance of the word Mudblood. Now, not only was he not responding the way the Slytherin wanted him to do, he was actually able to think further than himself and keep Ron from getting in trouble as well.
"Maybe that uncle of yours left you with brain damage and you're too retarded now to know better." Draco added, making his companions chuckle and contort their faces into what they thought were mocking poses.
"Do you have a point?" Harry asked. "Or are you trying to provoke me into blowing you up? I have a history of doing that, you know."
"Harry," Hermione called. "Don't." She was grateful that he had stopped Ron from making a mistake and hoped he could continue to control himself. She was very proud of him for making it this far without using magic or his fists against the other boy.
"Not even joined to the ball and chain and she's already ordering you around. I feel sorry for you, Potter. You'll never get any satisfaction fucking her every night."
Crabbe and Goyle laughed heartily at this. There was a collective gasp from the third years. Hermione's mouth dropped open at the insult. Ron raised his wand again, but seemed too stunned to think of a good hex to use.
"While I appreciate your concern, I'm sure Hermione and I will be much happier together than you and your right hand," Harry answered dryly, but his eyes flashed with anger.
Malfoy's face turned a bright shade of red and students within earshot of the confrontation began to laugh.
"You'll pay for that, Potter," he seethed.
"Oh, by all means, go running off to Azkaban to tell your Daddy. I'm sure the Dementors are getting a little bored with your father and all the other Death Eaters. They'd probably like a fresh soul to feed upon, assuming you have one. Maybe Crabbe and Goyle would like to join you. You can make a regular father-son picnic of the affair. Give my regards to Lucius, would you?"
"He'll get out," Malfoy said defiantly, grabbing Harry by his collar.
"I don't doubt that," Harry told him. He looked Malfoy straight in the eye and added, "And he'll go back. If he survives."
Harry turned to his wife, "Let's go, Doll. We'll be late for class." He took her hand and led her away, certain that if she were not shocked by what Draco had said about her that she would have hexed him and it would be he, Harry, who was breaking up a fight rather than the other way around. "You too, Ron," Harry called when he and Hermione had gone a few steps without their ginger haired companion.
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The rest of that day had not been among Harry's or Hermione's best. Both were more than little scattered in their classes. Instead of transfiguring a turtle into a chair, Hermione had transfigured it into a crib, and turned bright red, panicking that everyone would know she was pregnant. She suspected that McGonagall knew their secret because she immediately told Hermione that her wand-waving had been off a bit for a chair, but congratulated her on producing such a beautiful crib. The professor had then instructed the rest of the class to try the wave Hermione had used and the room was filled with cribs within an hour. The crib making did not register as anything unusual with the class since Hermione's work had almost always been the best and most advanced in the class. Now that Harry could conjure things, transfiguration was a breeze for him. Afterall, he did not need the matter of whatever object was being used to create a different form.
Ron asked, begged, whined, and demanded to know what had made Harry so angry the day before every time he got a chance to speak to them. Ginny had joined her big brother in this reminding them that they were all family and deserved to know what was going on. Ginny revealed that Hermione had not come to the dorm the night before and Ron added that Harry had not either, so the siblings were even more suspicious together than they had been apart.
"We can not tell you right now so shut it!" Harry finally yelled over dinner, his patience completely gone. Everyone around them had turned to stare at the group and the way almost everyone pushed their goblets to the center of the table or set them down if they were drinking indicated that many of them thought they might explode at any second. Some of the students had even shielded their faces with their hands, expecting an explosion.
Harry rolled his eyes and told them he was going to the Room of Requirement to prepare for the first D. A. meeting of the year.
"I'm going with you," Hermione huffed, leaving most of her food untouched.
"Well that was rude," they heard Ron say as the left the Great Hall.
"There are still two hours until the meeting," Hermione reminded him.
Harry put his arm around her shoulders as they walked ahead. "Hmmm... two hours all alone in the Room of Requirement?"
Hermione smiled at his implication, "As inviting as that sounds, we still need to talk to Dobby and the house elves," she reminded him.
"You're no fun," he pouted. "But you're right." It was growing closer and closer to October 1 with every passing moment and they had to secure the loyalty of the house elves. The two made their way to the portrait of fruit, tickled the pear, and entered the kitchen.
"Mister Harry Potter, Sir!" a squeaky voice exclaimed. In seconds, Harry was being tightly embraced by Dobby. "I was so worried about Sir! That awful human hurt Sir badly!"
"I'm okay, Dobby!" Harry told him, peeling the elf off of himself. "It's great to see you, Dobby. We missed you over the summer." Harry easily conjured a lime green jacket to give to the elf. "This is for you."
The other elves backed away suspiciously, but Dobby squealed with delight. "Thank you! Thank you, Sir! Harry Potter is so kind to Dobby."
"Don't worry," Hermione told them. "We're not going to give clothes to anyone who doesn't want them." It took a great deal for her to reach the conclusion that she would not force freedom on anyone. "I'm sorry about all the hats and little knit things I made last year."
"She was only trying to help," Harry added. "She wanted to make you happy."
Many of the elves accepted this and began to approach the pair again, offering cakes, cookies, stew, tea, chicken, sandwiches and an assortment of vegetables. They seemed to be bowing more than they usually did and putting even more effort into pleasing their guests than they ever had before-and that was something of note.
"Thank you very much," Hermione said, taking a sandwich. She was hungry since she had not eaten very much that day. She looked around for Winky, but did not see her anywhere. It was likely that she was cleaning some part of the castle.
"Yeah, thanks," Harry said as he helped himself to some chicken and vegetables. "We're starving."
"Thank you for coming to visit us, Sir and Miss," Dobby told them. "We've been expecting you since Professor Dumbledore came to see us this morning."
"Oh, really?" Harry asked, keeping the hostility he felt toward the man out of his voice. "Did he tell you we were going to come by tonight?" Harry wondered how the man had accomplished planning his and Hermione's lives down to when they would visit the kitchens.
"Yes, Sir." Dobby answered. "He said we house elves is to look to Harry Potter now as our Master. We are to listen to him and Miss Granger no matter what changes happen at Hogwarts. Even though Dobby is free, he is happy to serve Harry Potter as a free elf too."
Harry was a bit confused by this. "He said that? But why?" He looked to Hermione, wondering if she had any ideas.
She shrugged her shoulders.
"Did he say what would change?" Harry asked Dobby.
"No, Sir. He only said that we were to listen to Harry Potter and Miss Granger no matter what." Dobby was proudly inspecting his new jacket. "I did not know that Sir could conjure so well."
The other elves nodded in agreement. It was an advanced skill that a beginning sixth year student should not have.
"I've had to learn a lot," Harry told them, knowing he had peaked their interest. He had purposely not bought anything for Dobby so that he could show off his skills and open the door to talk to the elves about the threat they were all under. "Now that You-Know-Who is back, we have to be prepared." He avoided using Voldemort's name in front of the already timid elves.
There was a nervous buzz about the room. "We all have to stick together in this," Harry told them. "It's the only way we'll survive."
"Mr. Harry Potter Sir," an elf who had never spoken to him before approached Harry.
"Yes?" Harry asked. "I don't think we've met before. What is your name?"
The elf smiled and answered, "Toby."
"It's nice to meet you Toby. This is Hermione." Both offered their hands for him to shake.
"Sir and Miss," Toby began. "Toby will support Harry Potter always. Toby will help anyway he can."
Many of the elves echoed this.
"Things was very bad for house elves before Harry Potter defeated He Who Must Not Be Named," Toby told them.
"What was it like then?" Hermione asked, genuinely interested.
"We can not speak of it," Dobby told her. "Too horrible to talk about." He effectively shut that subject since neither teen wanted to cause the elves any added distress.
"Dobby, Toby, everyone," Harry told them. "I'm really afraid that You Know Who is going to attack Hogwarts."
There were gasps and the sounds of dishes and food hitting the floor.
"I wouldn't want to alarm any of you unnecessarily, but I have a very strong feeling about this and I thought you all deserved to know that."
"But there's something else you should all remember," Hermione told them. "You are all very powerful creatures in your own right. Any one of you has the power to fight just like a wizard or to even fight a wizard if you need to."
"Fight a wizard?" Dobby repeated. "We must not."
"If you need to, you can," Harry told them. "In fact, I'm telling you to do so if the time comes. We have to prepare ourselves in any way possible against You Know Who and the Death Eaters. Are you willing to help us if they do attack Hogwarts?"
"Yes. Yes. We will do anything Harry Potter tells us to do." Toby told them.
"Don't fight just because I'm telling you it's all right. Fight because you deserve to defend yourselves against anyone who wants to hurt you. If working makes you all happy, then that's great. Do what makes you happy. But none of you here at Hogwarts and none of your kind deserve to be treated as poorly as some of you have been in the past," he looked kindly toward Dobby. "I want you all to believe in yourselves and your right to protect yourselves and your happiness."
The elves seemed to reluctantly accept this message. Harry hoped that it would have time to really sink in with them before Voldemort came.
"We House Elves will be by Harry Potter's side whenever he calls us," Dobby told him.
"That's great, Dobby, because I might have to call on you at some point."
Harry and Hermione finished their meals and said their goodbyes, telling the elves that it was nice to see them all. They exited to many bows and curtsies with cookies shoved into their hands and offers of more food than they could eat in a week. Hermione stuck the cookies into her pocket and they rushed back to the Room of Requirement for the meeting.
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The meeting was fully approved by the staff and a few new students had joined in from each house other than Slytherin.
Cho had not returned. She had gone out of her way to avoid Harry since the third day of school when the Daily Prophet had printed an article on her titled, "The One Who Let Harry Potter Get Away." In another Rita Skeeter "exclusive" (which meant she had been eavesdropping again), Cho had been quoted saying, "Even when we were together it was always Hermione this. Hermione that. Hermione is perfect. Hermione is brilliant. What Hermione wants, Hermione gets." She had come across as very catty and jealous and had been teased quite a bit since the article came out. Harry and Hermione had both told people to leave her alone because the article probably was not even true, but, Hermione would admit to Harry that, deep down, she had gotten a thrill from it.
They spent the first meeting reviewing what they had gone over the previous year since many of the students were a little rusty with their defense strategies. Harry wondered if he would spend the rest of his life teaching defense since he could not afford to go through auror training and take care of a baby.
"What's wrong?" Dean Thomas asked. "You're a bit out in space today, Harry." He did not mention that Harry had not returned to the dorm the night before.
"I've got a lot on my mind," Harry answered, helping Dean refresh his patronus charm.
"Are you and Hermione really getting married?" Hannah Abbott asked when Harry stopped to help her remember a shielding charm.
"Yes," Harry answered. He gave no details and quickly left her to help Colin Creevey with the same charm.
After an hours worth of review, Harry stopped everyone's practice. They gathered around to listen to his instructions, thinking he would simply tell them when the next meeting would be. Instead, he pulled out his coin that Hermione had charmed the year before.
"Do you all still have these?"
Most nodded or spoke in the affirmative. Some of the new students had never had a coin, so Hermione passed around a sheet for those who needed coins to sign.
"If at any time I send the code 383838 through these galleons, it is your cue to evacuate Hogwarts immediately and get your house mates out as well." Harry told them. "I have a suspicion that Voldemort is planning an attack on the school." Everyone else but Hermione winced at his use of the name.
"What do you mean evacuate?" Ernie MacMillon asked. "We're supposed to be training to fight, not to flee."
His sentiment was echoed throughout the members. "Yeah, what's the point of training if you expect us to leave when trouble shows up?" someone asked from the back of the group.
"Ask Luna, Ginny, and Neville what it's like to fight a Death Eater hand to hand, wand to wand." Harry told them. "You're being trained so you can protect yourselves if you need to, not to risk your lives unnecessarily."
"That's your job alone?" Terry Boot asked sarcastically.
"Don't be stupid and don't be reckless," Harry told them. "Voldemort has been trying to kill me for 15 years. I don't have a choice. He won't quit until one of us is dead."
"Then it sounds like you need us to back you up," Luna told him, her voice sounding as dreamy as it usually did. One would never know she was discussing life threatening situation. "You needed us last year."
"It's not about need, Luna. But you know first hand they don't discriminate. They're not going to take it easy on any of you because your kids."
"With everything you taught us last year and with Professor Lupin's return, we're better prepared than most of the graduates of Hogwarts from the past 5 years," Neville told Harry. "I won't abandon you in a fight against You Know Who. Besides half the Death Eaters are in Azkaban now."
"For now, accomplishing exactly what you just demonstrated: giving some of us a false sense of security."
Neville looked as if someone had slapped him with a hard dose of reality. "What about the Dementors?"
"They could turn on the Ministry at any given time." Hermione answered for Harry.
"You can't trust a Dementor," Ron added, getting his nerve up since Hermione had entered the conversation.
"I heard that Fudge is not likely to be Minister of Magic for very long," Lavendar Brown added. "I bet if someone new comes in, the Dementors will be even more likely to leave Azkaban. He let them get away with things that no one else would have." Everyone knew she was referring to their being stationed at Hogwarts. The Daily Prophet had been reporting for several days that Fudge was likely to exit his position due to public demand. Now that everyone knew for sure that Voldemort was back, the public was in a state of crisis. Dumbledore was the general public's first choice to replace Fudge, but he had gone on record as saying he was perfectly happy with his job as Headmaster of Hogwarts. This did not stop the flood of letters and editorials proclaiming that Dumbledore should fill the position.
"No matter who is in office," Harry told them. "If the Death Eaters escape and if they attack our school, it's going to be chaos. By the time the Ministry could get someone here to help, they could slaughter us."
"And how are the Death Eaters going to get into Hogwarts?" Seamus asked skeptically. "No one can apparate in or out. We're safe here. I think you're just paranoid, Harry."
"Maybe I am,." Harry answered. "I really hope so."
Before Harry could continue, a knock echoed through the room. Without waiting for an invitation, Professors Lupin, Tonks, and Dumbledore came into the room.
"Harry," Lupin called. His face was ashen.
"What is it?" Harry asked, leaving his position at the head of the class to meet the teachers. He refused to even look at Dumbledore.
"They've escaped," Lupin told him. "The Death Eaters have escaped from Azkaban. The Dementors have left the prison and the Death Eaters have escaped."
A panic swept across the room. It was one thing to say they would stand up to the Death Eaters when the students knew they were behind bars. It was a different perspective when the Death Eaters were free. Most of the murmuring halted as soon as it began as the students hung onto every word coming from their teachers.
Harry's breath caught and Hermione joined him by his side. She grabbed his hand protectively. The possibility of loosing him was looming entirely too closely now.
"But there's more," Tonks added. "They've attacked again, a Muggle neighborhood."
Hermione gasp, thinking immediately of her own family. The panic grew among the D.A., especially among the Muggle-born and half-bloods.
Harry squeezed his wife's hand, also suspecting the Grangers had been attacked. "Where?"
"Privet Drive," Dumbledore answered.
This was meaningless to most of the students who looked from one to another repeating the words.
Harry was shocked, too shocked to grasp the feelings that were flowing through him. "And?" he asked, searching for the rest of the story.
"Your aunt, uncle, and cousin were all murdered," Lupin told him, hoping to deliver the blow as softly as he could. Despite the way the Dursleys had mistreated Harry for years, they were his only living blood relatives.
Harry felt a bit light headed and sank into a chair that had not been there until he needed it. "Anyone else?" he asked, remembering that Tonks said they had attacked the neighborhood, not just his house.
"Many," she answered. "There was an explosion. It was centered at your house. The time of evening, most of the residents were home, having dinner or gathered around their telephones." No one corrected her, though the Muggle-raised knew she meant televisions.
"Mrs. Figg?" Harry asked, remembering the one person in the neighborhood who had shown him kindness.
"She's gone," Dumbledore answered. "About 40 people were killed."
"How?" Hermione asked. "How did they do it?"
"A gas truck," Lupin answered. "They positioned a gas truck in front of the Dursleys and it exploded."
"Muggle authorities think it was an accident, at least that's what the initial reports from the Ministry are saying. " Tonks told them.
"How do you know it wasn't?" Neville asked, one of many who were hoping that this massacre was not really related to Voldemort.
"The Dark Mark," Dumbledore replied. "It was centered, glowing brightly above the Dursley residence. Every wizard at the scene could see it clearly."
"Why?" Harry asked. "Why would Death Eaters go after the Dursleys?" It did not make sense to Harry. The Dursleys and the Death Eaters had one thing in common: all of them hated Harry.
"To hurt you," Hermione answered for them. "To take away the only thing left of your family." She was too stunned by the news to even feel her anger at the headmaster for the time being.
"They didn't deserve that," Harry replied. "No one deserves that. All the neighbors were innocent, completely innocent."
"That's what it was like twenty years ago," Lupin replied sadly. "They hate Muggles. They kill Muggles for sport."
"What are we going to do?" Padma Patil asked, tears streaming down her face. "What do we do?"
"We stay here," Dumbledore told them. "For now, we stay here. However, I believe you all have gotten some specific instructions from Mr. Potter on evacuation," he reminded them. "Follow them." Before a riot of questions and hysteria could erupt from the D.A., Dumbledore told them all to go to their dorms. He assured them that no other student's family had been attacked so far. So far was not encouraging to any of them.
Harry, Hermione,.Ron, and Ginny lingered behind.
"Harry, are you okay?" Lupin asked.
He did not answer. He did not know how to answer. He realized that somewhere inside he loved his Aunt Petunia. She was his mother's sister and she hated magic. Petunia had had good reason to hate magic. Once again, being close to Harry, even begrudgingly so, had cost innocent people their lives.
"You all should return to your dorms as well," Dumbledore told them, realizing that Harry was not in a position to discuss how this was affecting him. "There's much to deal with tomorrow and that is when we will deal with it. If you need anything tonight, don't hesitate to ask Professor McGonagall."
The Gryffindors returned to their dormitory in silence. No one knew what to say. This was it. The war was upon them.