The Apprentice Piece
by Jardyn39
Part One of "The Apprentice Piece"
Chapter 15: Harbinger's Secret
Professor McGonagall waited for everyone else to leave the classroom before speaking to Harry, who had looked angrier than she had seen him for ages.
"I'm not going," said Harry as soon as the door closed.
"Yes, you are. Please, Potter. You must see how it would look if you didn't attend."
"Why wasn't I told?"
"I would have thought that was obvious. Look how upset you are now. I'm sorry we didn't say something sooner, though. Who told you, by the way?"
Harry just glared at Professor McGonagall.
"You didn't do anything to them did you?"
"No!" Harry almost shouted in indignation. He sighed. "Hermione was afraid if I heard Malfoy making a snide remark then I'd do something stupid."
"Well, anyway. There are going to be a number of visiting dignitaries and …"
Harry felt his anger flair up again. "If you think I'll just be there for you to show me off …"
"Don't be ridiculous. You won't even be required to speak to them. But if you're not there it would look like we're afraid. Please be there. You might even enjoy yourself."
Harry felt himself calming down.
"I didn't even notice we didn't have a Halloween feast last year," he admitted.
"We couldn't," she said gently. "It would have looked like we didn't really believe he was back."
"I know."
*
Harbinger and Harry stood just inside the lobby of the Auror tent waiting for the rain to subside before heading back up to the castle after practise.
"Professor Harbinger, how did you come to know my mother?" asked Harry.
"That's a long story," said Harbinger looking out into the rain. Harry expected him not to continue, but Harbinger conjured two seats for them.
When they were seated, Harbinger began. "The first time I got expelled it was because a boy, a Seventh Year, had taunted me about something had happened years before. I was in my Sixth year then and I would have killed him if the house elves hadn't intervened. I hurt some of them in my rage. Anyway, I apologised for hurting the house elves but refused to apologise for hurting the boy until he apologised for what he said to me.
"Flitwick tried to help me but I was in no mood to listen to sense. I had left Hogwarts before the Aurors arrived to break my wand. They caught up with me about two months later. I put up a fight but they overpowered me eventually. I was expecting to be put in Azkaban but instead Moody offered me a job. I suspect Dumbledore and Flitwick had something to do with it.
"I was just doing paperwork and rubbish but it kept be out of trouble for a while. Eventually Moody started to train me in Defence Against the Dark Arts and two years later he offered me a place on the Auror training programme on condition I went back to school first.
"I really wasn't that keen on coming back but Flitwick turned up and made me go with him to visit the boy I'd hurt. As soon as I saw him I knew I had been wrong. I apologised to him and lifted the curse so his injuries could heal. Flitwick then persuaded the Headmaster to accept me back to do my NEWTs.
"I camped out in the grounds for a couple of weeks before term began. I was so optimistic. This time it would be different. Unfortunately I soon realised it wouldn't be. Several students remembered me from before or had heard rumours.
"Moody's training did help a lot and I think being that bit older, I was a little less hot headed. My retaliations didn't result in any serious injury and I really did try to keep my head down and work. I really wanted to get onto the Auror programme, after all.
"Even so, it's not easy to lead a solitary life here, especially when there were so many determined to go out of their way to cause problems."
Harry nodded, remembering his own experiences.
"One evening I came back to my tent to collect some books when I found a group trashing everything. It took them a while to realise I was there. I bound them up and looked through the damage deciding how they should be punished. I was just looking at the tattered remains of some spell books Moody had given me. I was getting angrier and angrier.
"That was when your mother appeared out of no-where. She started shouting and yelling at me. She distracted me long enough for Flitwick to arrive. When she eventually stopped, Flitwick had taken the intruders back up the castle.
"Harry, your mother was the loudest twelve year old I've ever heard. When my ears eventually stopped ringing, I asked her why she had shouted at me. She just looked embarrassed and said she couldn't think of anything else. She introduced herself and started to clear things up.
"From then on, I sort of became a project of hers. Don't get me wrong, it was nice having someone to talk to occasionally who wasn't afraid of me. It's just she was so bossy. She even appealed to the house elves to let me back in the castle for meals. She had quite a thing about the house elves. I'm sure they only agreed to get her off their backs about the other stuff.
"Anyway, Lily continued to keep me out of serious trouble. She had a real talent for charms, and set up all sorts of wards to keep people away from my camp. Lily would write constantly during the holidays and would send the loudest howlers if ever I failed to write back immediately.
"We would practise Defence together whenever we could. It soon became clear that Lily was becoming a very powerful witch and she used her skills to good effect. Lily couldn't stand injustice or mistreatment of anyone or anything. She was never afraid to intervene. You know I once saw her take on almost the entire Slytherin Fourth year single handed. I was up in the Astronomy Tower when a scuffle broke out down below. They were picking on a group of first years when things escalated. Lily forced her way into the centre and took on the ringleaders. By the time she'd finished no-one was in any doubt about her abilities."
"Didn't anyone else help?" asked Harry.
"There were a lot of people just standing by and looking. By the time I got down from the tower it was all over. Lily was still pretty angry. I pulled her away from starting against some people she thought should have helped sooner.
"Lily, being Lily, had opinions on most things. She would generally dedicate at least one evening a week when she would do her homework and help me with mine. She would happily chatter constantly. I seem to recall you father got a mention several times."
"My Dad? I got the impression she didn't like him much, early on, I mean."
"Well, what really annoyed her was that he never tried very hard. He just appeared to get top marks without putting any effort into it, whereas Lily spent hours doing homework and revising. To make things worse, of course, she was sure he didn't even care what marks he got!"
"She was incredibly annoying," Harbinger said with a smile on his face, "but she did manage to keep me out of trouble until the last year of the NEWTs."
Harbinger went silent and his face grew serious as he continued.
"It happened on the same night that I got expelled before. That particular date has always been a bad one for me, it was an anniversary of something terrible that had happened years before. Lily found out about it and came looking for me. She must have cried for three hours solid before she told me she knew about the family plot and what had happened.
"Eventually Lily fell asleep and I left her in my tent while I made my way up to the graveyard through the storm. I only went once a year, but on the anniversary I could never stay away.
"I got about halfway there when Lily caught up with me. She was in a terrible state, pleading with me not to go there tonight. That was when I guessed she knew something had happened in the graveyard. I eventually got there to find the headstones had been vandalised. I approached and found some empty and smashed bottles of fire whiskey. Someone had been having a party and had been dancing on their graves. Someone had dropped a cloak. I held it up and we both recognised it.
"I will never forget the look on Lily's face just then. For the first time she looked truly afraid, afraid of what I was about to do. As soon as I dropped the cloak she ran to get help.
"I cornered them up in one of the towers. They had decided to do some more vandalism. The tower was deserted so I sealed us all in and proceeded to vent my anger. I pulled chunks of stone from the walls and hurled them up at them. They were quickly overpowered, being drunk, but I didn't stop. Eventually the tower was undermined and it began to topple.
"I only came to my senses when I realised house elves were appearing around me. Some of them got the others out and many more tried to shore up the tower. I knew it was hopeless. I looked up and could see the storm above me. The roof of the tower was gone completely and above I could see large stones flying high into the storm.
"I ordered the elves out but four of them stayed behind. I dismantled the tower and threw the stones out into the grounds. It almost worked but the last remaining curved wall at the base collapsed on top of us. At the last moment two of the elves pushed me into a hollow.
"That was the last thing I remember from that night," Harbinger said and he wiped a tear from his face. "I found out afterwards that three of the elves died instantly and the fourth died of his injuries a week later."
They sat in silence for a while.
"So now you know, Harry. I disappeared for a while until Moody found me again. He brought me back and insisted I join the Auror programme. That was blocked by the minister but they gave me a different job, one more suited to my talents.
"After that night I never spoke to your mother again. She continued to write to me, even though I never replied.
"I'm afraid I never read any of her letters until after she died. I was too ashamed. The extraordinary thing is that even after her death, she still managed to reach out to me.
"As soon as I heard what happened to Lily, I shut myself away for a week and read her letters. They were incredibly long and detailed. She told me everything she was doing and was feeling. Towards the end, she wrote very often. Her last letter was full of her fears and hopes. I got the impression there was a lot she wasn't telling me about. Anyway, she finished with a plea to me. I have no idea if she knew what I was doing for the Ministry, but she clearly thought it wasn't anything good. She wrote that she knew I hadn't read her letters yet.
"Well, I resigned from the Ministry before I got another assignment. Moody got them to accept it during all the fuss of the Death Eater trials. Since then I've tried to live up to Lily's expectations."
Harry had two questions he was burning to ask.
"Do you still have the letters?"
Harbinger looked at him for a long moment and said, "Yes, Harry. I've made arrangements for you to have the letters. You can't have them immediately because they are in a secure location. Flitwick has agreed to help make copies for me to keep. I didn't think there was anything in the letters that would cause a problem if they got out but Dumbledore doesn't want to take any chances. Lily was very clever and she might have put something in code."
"Why might she have done that?" Harry asked.
"She intended for you to have the letters when you were ready. There's a very good chance she knew what might happen. They didn't find anything in the house but I can't believe Lily wouldn't have written anything to you. That's why you will get the originals."
"What job did you do for the Ministry, if you weren't an Auror?"
"Well, I was an Auror, I just didn't work for Moody. I hunted down and killed Dark Wizards. We were never as subtle as the real Aurors. Moody was livid when he found out what the Ministry had started behind his back. Moody always gathered evidence and then arrested suspects for trial. We had orders to kill first and then look for the evidence."
Harry just looked at him in shock.
"I'm not trying to justify myself, but in all the operations I took part in, only twice did we never find strong evidence of dark power. I queried those two cases and was suspended before anything happened. I went to Moody and he intervened. One of the suspects had been killed but we rescued the other one.
"We then found out there were many other innocent victims. So I then spent some time tracking down my former colleagues alongside Moody. We never did find out the true origin of the orders."
"Do you mind my asking what caused you to loose your temper?"
"When I was in my first year at Hogwarts, I received a message that my mother had been taken ill. She had been unwell for some time but I think me and my brothers and sisters were kept in the dark about how ill she was. Anyway, I was summoned home. I went by flue from Hogsmeade."
"I arrived in the kitchen to find the house ablaze. It had been burning for some time. I tried to put it out but it was hopeless. Never did find out what caused it. A neighbour saw movement and came in to drag me outside. I lost my entire family in that fire. I was the eldest of six children," said Harbinger, now holding his head in his hands.
"I don't ever remember getting angry before that night. After I was never anything else but angry until your mother came along."
"Those children," Harry began with dawning realisation, "in the Great Hall-"
"- Were my memories of my bothers and sisters," Harbinger finished sadly.
*
"Myrtle, are you in here?"
"Harry?"
"Myrtle, I was wondering if I could ask a favour? I don't know if you know but there's a ball on Halloween evening. I was wondering if I could take you?"
Moments later, Harry stood outside the bathroom door. He was wet through and still not entirely sure why.
A simple, "No thanks," would have sufficed, he thought.
He still wasn't entirely sure why he had asked her, either.