Back At it again.
Chapter 44: The Light in the Darkness.
**********************Hogwarts, Gryffindor Tower*************************
Suddenly, the entire castle started to shake, as if it were a rat caught in a gigantic kneazle's maw. Lupin and Sirius looked at each other grimily, as screams from the already traumatized girls up in their dorm rang out. Dumbledore caught Ginny as she staggered on her feet; she had just come down from the girls' dorm, tears in her eyes. Then as suddenly as it started, the shaking was over.
"Are you all right, Ginny?" Dumbledore asked softly and at her nod, "Everyone all right?" He received nods from everyone in turn and regretfully he looked back down at the smallest Weasley, "Ginny please go back up and check on the people in the girls dorm." Ginny looked nauseated at the prospect, but she nodded and walked up the stairs, morosely. Dumbledore expanded his senses outward, and briefly touched the consciousness of the castle. With a shock, he sensed a part that the castle had not been able to sense, and therefore control previously. Instantly he knew what it was, and what that ability to detect the Chamber meant. "GINNY," He roared up the stairs, "BRING POPPY DOWN HERE," He looked to the air, and said softly, "Fawkes." In a fall of fire, the phoenix appeared and alighted on his shoulder. Sirius and Lupin looked at Dumbledore expectantly as Ginny ran downstairs trailed by Madame Pomfrey and McGonagall. Taking them in, he said quietly, "It's over. Poppy, I am afraid that I hope that I need your services. At this point I think the girls need safe companionship more than anything." Poppy scowled slightly but didn't disagree; there was very little this night that made her happy. "Sirius, Remus, I assume that you want to come also?" They both nodded vigorously, and as Dumbledore transferred Fawkes to his arm, to ease everyone reaching him, a soft alto interrupted him.
"I want to go too, Professor, she is my sister after all." Ginny snapped. Sirius regarded this development with a raised eyebrow, but said nothing; he hadn't exactly had time to catch up with everything.
"Very well Ginny" Dumbledore replied, as he noticed McGonagall glaring at him over the small teen's shoulder. Sorry, Minerva, but she is right, and since Ron is in the Infirmary right now, being pumped full of blood replenishing potions... "Everyone grab hold of a tail feather." As the last of them touched the Phoenix's tail feathers, they all vanished in a wave of fire, a single feather falling slowly to the ground in the Gryffindor common room to mark their passage. Behind them, Draco and the twins glanced up tiredly, raised shots from the firewhiskey that George had found, somewhere, and saluted. McGonagall glared briefly at them, then with a sigh summoned a glass and motioned for them to pour a shot for her.
*************************Chamber of Secrets, Hogwarts**********************
The flare of light marking their entrance briefly illuminated the shattered stone chamber before everything faded to black once again. The ever present red glow that had once infused the chamber was now gone and every torch had gone out with the explosion. "INCENDIO" Ginny muttered, waving her wand in a circle about her head, and the torches lining the walls relit. Dumbledore gave her a silent gesture of thanks, and without a word the group started looking about the chamber.
It didn't take long, "OVER HERE" Remus howled, and everyone came running to his call. He was kneeling next to Harry and Hermione, and with trembling fingers, he reached out to touch them. A slow, pulse beat in each body, and suddenly the weight of Atlas fell from his shoulders, "THEY'RE ALIVE!" He crowed and everyone in the room suddenly felt the same burden lift from their thoughts.
They were all so relived, that not everyone watched where they were running. Ginny had been at the other end of the Chamber. Her head up, not looking down, she tripped and tumbled over some soft, yielding mound in the way. Slowly picking herself up she glanced back, "EEEEK" Ginny screeched, and backed up quickly but just for a second. She was after all both a Gryffindor and a Weasley, and both of those associations had obligations. Drawing herself up to her full height of five feet one inch, she strode purposely to Voldemort's corpse, as the rest of the conscious spectators looked on curiously. In a rarity where spells were often in Latin or some other ancient language, the one Ginny spoke was in English and very, very carefully enunciated. Pointing her wand at the corpse, "The soul of this one, is broken, scattered to the winds, he is gone." A multicolored bolt of light snapped from her wand, and the body collapsed, as if all the bones had been banished from it. With a gasp, as if letting go of long held fears, Ginny fell to her knees and started crying. Dumbledore hurried over, now that he knew Harry and Hermione were alive, he could attend to this vital duty. He gently bent over and pulled Ginny up, gave her a quick hug and at her nod he released her. She turned, spat on Voldemort's collapsed body, and ran over to the rest of the pack.
Dumbledore looked down on the remains of his enemy for many years, and the student that long, long ago, he had had such high hopes for. With a great breath, his eyes lit up, their bright white light casting shadows in the dim room. He stretched out a hand, "INCEDIO." The word echoed off the walls of the dim chamber. In a flare of fire fit for a phoenix, the headless corpse erupted into flame, almost instantly going out as the body was consumed into ash in seconds. With a hard slashing motion, "ENVESCO" the ashes too vanished, as if they were never there. Over to one side Dumbledore spotted a tangle of wands, and with a flick of his hand he called James', Harry's and its twisted brother to his hand. Carefully Dumbledore pocketed the Potters' wands. He briskly walked over to the group clustered around Harry and Hermione, bent over, and delicately secured Hermione's wands as well. "Poppy"
"Yes, Albus" she snapped, somewhat harried as she tenderly examined Harry and Hermione.
"Can you wake them, please..." Dumbledore asked gently, though this wasn't a request, not really.
Pomfrey resisted anyway. "I most certainly will not, Albus, these two just sent that bastard to Hell, they deserve their rest." She growled at the Headmaster from the floor.
"Poppy, they have to see this, then you can let them rest again." Dumbledore said guiltily, but didn't back off. Poppy glared at him, but dove into her medical bag nonetheless. Briskly, she waved something under their noses.
Harry moaned, and cracked his eyes open, "Mione?" He croaked, pain and fear coloring his tone.
"Here" she whispered. His sigh of relief at that reply displaced the stale air in the chamber. Harry squinted, trying to look around, to find her, but the sticking charm on his glasses had failed, and they were lying at his feet shattered.
Dumbledore wasn't the greatest wizard of the age, or maybe one of the greatest, now, for nothing, he spotted the problem instantly. "OCCULUS REPARO" he muttered, picking up the repaired lenses, he gently placed them on Harry's face. "Don't move Harry" Dumbledore said quietly. "You need to see this, then you can sleep." Holding Voldemort's wand high so everyone could see, in one powerful move he snapped it between his palms. A tiny echo of the earlier explosion radiated outward, then it was done. The broken halves fell from his hands, the Phoenix feather floating silently downward, until Fawkes flitted in, captured the feather in his beak, and alighted once again on Dumbledore's shoulders. In a small flare of light, the feather ignited in Fawkes' beak, it was gone forever in an instant.
On the floor, Harry's hand weakly searched out Hermione's, to find it automatically seconds later. Harry nodded thanks to Dumbledore, and looked tiredly over at her, to watch as she smiled exhaustedly at him, then saw her fall back to sleep, her thoughts easing to slumber in their link. Harry looked back up as and he faded off himself, he saw a mop of black hair standing behind Lupin, "Sirius?" He whispered in an odd tone, and then passed out.
**************************Head's Rooms**************************
June 10, 2006
2:00 pm
McGonagall had transferred the still sleeping pair up to Harry's room soon after Poppy had gotten them sorted out. Harry had came away with four broken ribs, a cracked left tibia, a sprained wrist, a dislocated shoulder, a concussion and many, many cuts and scrapes, more than one of which would add to his collection of scars. Hermione on the other hand had gotten off 'lightly' she only had two broken ribs, a broken wrist from where she had taken the force of the killing spell on the sword, a broken leg, deep cuts on her forehead, right leg and back, a concussion to match Harry's and a faint skull fracture somewhere along the way as a capper. The concussions and Hermione's' ribs and leg, along with Harry's arm had come from the 'detonation' of Voldemort's body, Harry's broken ribs had come from the reductor curse from Voldemort. And on top of all that, they were both still experiencing the after effects of defeating Voldemort's initial spell on the pitch, almost an entire day ago, along with several inflicted Cruciatus curses and the Imperious attempt on Hermione along the way.
Madame Pomfrey had tried to separate them into separate beds when they had arrived in the infirmary. But after being tossed across the room by an involuntary magic response from the pair to that idea, she had stuck them in the "Harry Potter" bed together and treated them. McGonagall had mobilicorpus'ed the pair upstairs an hour later as Pomfrey vitally needed the space.
Harry and Hermione lay curled tightly together on Harry's bed; they were fully clothed still, though Poppy had taken off their boots, cloaks and wand and sword sheaths. After Minerva had gently levitated them into bed, she had pulled the blanket over them, and with an act she would deny to her dying day, she had bent over and kissed each on the forehead as if they were her grandchildren in truth as well as secretly in heart.
Now, McGonagall was gone, no matter what her feelings might be for the two of them, she had duties much more important and onerous to undertake. The Death Eaters and Voldemort had been stopped, but not without a terrible cost. Graduation was originally to be today, and no matter what, those who were to graduate would do so, but more than one would do so posthumously. Of the twenty five Harry, Hermione and Ron had led in the desperate defense of the entrance to the chamber, and when that failed, Ron's forlorn goalkeeping to guard Harry and Hermione's backs, to make sure that Riddle didn't get any help, ten would not ever walk down the Great Hall to receive diplomas. Of the remainder, several were injured gravely and might yet not make it.
Ron had lost a great deal of blood, so much so that Pomfrey had run out of blood replenishing potions, until extra was rushed over from the continent, St. Mungo's had also run out, treating the victims of the giant attacks. Diagon Alley was now more or less demolished, so much so that a story had been concocted for the muggles of a satellite crash to explain the devastation, that suddenly cropped up when the wards had failed.
Gryffindor and Ravenclaw houses had been hit particularly hard, as the four second years that had died in the Great Hall had been Gryffindors, Edgar Franks and his drinking buddy Greg Thomas, had died in the desperate running battle in the corridor, Franks had taken down two Death Eaters at once with a well timed reductor curse, until he was cut down from behind by an Avada Kedavra. Of the rest of the DA and student Order members, less than half were standing to tell the tale. For the Ravenclaws, mostly second and third years that had happened to be in the tower when it fell, at least it was quick. Ten members of that house had fallen along with the tower, along with those that had fallen on the pitch and in the battle of the corridor.
It was even worse from the standpoint of the Aurors and the Order. Of the Order, there were almost no non-student members left, Dodge had died in a brief wandfight on the way to the Great Hall, Kingsley had died on the pitch. Severus Snape had evidentially fought a heroic, yet ultimately futile defense of the young students that had been in Gryffindor Tower when the attack came, and of the rest, basically the only old members that had survived were the Hogwarts Professors and Mad-Eye, though he had somehow lost his magical eye in the attack, and had only recovered it when they found Spooky playing with it in the hallway later.
For the Aurors and the Ministry in general it was worse, much worse. The Auror corps for all intents and purposes was gone. Never in great numbers to begin with, many had died over the last three years of the second Voldemort war, and the events of tonight had almost ended them. At full strength, the Aurors were only about two hundred in number to cover all of Great Britain and its possessions abroad, along with the groups assigned as Unspeakables. Going into tonight, they had had only a hundred to their banner, and after tonight, it was more like twenty and most of them abroad. They had been cut back in the years of Fudge's regime and had never recovered. In the devastation once called Diagon Alley, the bodies of fifty Aurors, along with almost a hundred MLE officers lay. But even the numerical losses however great did not compare to the dual losses of the Head of Magical Law Enforcement at Diagon Alley, and Kingsley Shaklebolt at Hogwarts.
For that reason, the quintet that waited in the Head's common room for Harry and Hermione to wake resembled the punchline of a wizarding joke. The Minister of Magic, a grim, a werewolf and metamorph sat playing wizard poker. The main difference between the wizard game and the muggle one, was that on occasion the face cards would go visit each other, in either the deck or someone else's hand, making card counting somewhat problematic. Mad-Eye sat over on the couch, a copy of the Quibbler in his hand, glaring over at the others, they wouldn't let him play, something about looking at the cards.
After another half hour, they heard a soft moan, then, minutes later a bedraggled looking pair staggered into their common room. If it were possible, Harry's hair was even more unkempt than anyone had seen it. Large dark circles decorated the hollows under his eyes, which were utterly exhausted. Harry and Hermione had had changed out of the clothes that they had had on, and Hermione had immediately vanished the sheets and the clothes far, far away. Harry did a slight double take when he saw them there, and in a voice calculated to warn Hermione, "Ok why do I have a piss poor joke in my common room?" However Harry was still not quite awake, or tracking properly, he sat down on the couch, and as Hermione came out of his room, looking about like Harry. He instinctively glanced towards her, but on the way, his eyes again crossed the poker table. "SIRIUS" Harry screamed and stood bolt upright. Hermione's gaze instantly tracked towards Harry's target, and she let out a gasp of mixed shock and delight. She briskly crossed to Harry, and both of them stood stunned, staring at the apparition from the past.
"Such a way to greet your Godfather, Harry." Sirius chided gently. "C'mere you two" As if they were under the imperious, the pair walked slowly to him, and with a great sweep of his arms, Sirius drew them both in, together. "Gods it's good to see you two." He roared, and with a twinkle in his eye, "I see that you found that box Harry."
"Yeah, thanks" Harry replied, then slowly as if he didn't believe his own eyes, he didn't really, "How?"
"I don't know, Harry, and really I don't care, though I wish I had been a little faster, I just missed you two before you went into the chamber." Sirius muttered, then like a cloud passing the sun, his expression brightened, "So when's the wedding, am I invited?"
"I don't know..." Hermione replied impishly, a small grin lighting her face for first time in almost a day. "You are a such a bad influence on Harry..."
Sirius held his hand to his heart and staggered bout a bit, "you wound me dear girl. I..."
Hermione rolled her eyes as Harry wrapped his arms around her from behind, "oh alright, if you are going to cry...we would be honored if you would attend Sirius. However, we became quite busy last night and we haven't quite had time to set a date, we'll Owl you" Hermione finished, eyes alight. Behind her, Harry gave Sirius a wink, and an incremental nod.
Harry's expression grew serious for a moment, "we missed you Padfoot" Hermione nodded slowly as tears appeared in both of their eyes. Sirius misted over as well, and once again he swept them into a hug, one that they did not emerge from for several minutes, until they were interrupted.
"Uh hem," Arthur muttered softly and the trio emerged, wiping their faces. Arthur motioned towards the couch, and Harry led Hermione to it, he sat down and she plopped on his lap, Sirius sat down next to them, and Lupin and Tonks joined Mad-Eye on the couch opposite. After they were all seated and more or less attentive, "As much as I hate ruining this moment for my daughter and future son-in-law, and others..." Arthur said with a forced smile, though everyone knew he was happy for the pair and for the return of Sirius. "I, uhh"
"Wait Arthur," Harry interrupted as a shared thought flashed across his and his fiancée's minds. "What about everyone else?" Hermione unconsciously snuggled closer to Harry, as the others in the room gave each other long evaluating looks, Tonks slowly slipped her hand into Lupin's and Sirius looked, tired.
Arthur was the worst though; he looked haunted. "After you two and Ron reduced the odds, and you HAD to go after Voldemort, make no mistake, the fighting got desperate, and unfortunately that was far from the only place last night. After you left the pitch to head off Voldemort, the dragons destroyed Ravenclaw Tower."
The pair of them sat silently, stonily at the news, but with a hand flick, Harry motioned Arthur to go on. "Also as Voldemort was ambushing you, he sent fifty or so Death Eaters led by Malfoy to the Great Hall, they were stopped, mostly by Draco's actions if the tales I've already heard are true, something about walking up to Lucius, sticking his wand in his ear and stunning him. But anyway, they were repulsed but not before the Great Hall was collapsed, I am afraid that you lost some of your younger house mates there."
With his heart in his throat, Harry asked the question they were both afraid to hear, "And the ones we left in the hall, Ron...Gin, Luna, Neville, the others?" Harry could feel Hermione's nails digging into his palm, as they sat, terrified of the answer.
Arthur grimaced, but answered anyway, "Ron was touch and go there for a bit, but Poppy says he will be ok" The breath of relief they both let out was tremendous, with a shared look, they started to rise to go see Ron, but stopped as Arthur waved them to their seats again. "You can see him later, I just left from there an hour ago, Poppy has him resting, she had to replenish almost all of his blood. Hermione gulped and Harry pulled her in close as tears blossomed in her eyes. Another long, silent moment passed in which Harry sat not looking at Arthur, or the rest, only at the top of Hermione's head, the quiet broken only by soft sobs. Eventually they both looked up, and Harry nodded for him to continue. Arthur went on, determinately, "Ginny and the twins are fine, however I don't think that they will ever be same after what they found in Gryffindor Tower."
Hermione and Harry exchanged a terrified glance at what that could be, but Arthur had never stopped talking, it was almost if the knowledge was a demon that he had to drive out. "Ten of those that were in the hall stopping the Death Eaters died, and another five or so are in the infirmary, Charlie and Bill...we haven't heard from, but we think that Bill and Fleur were in Gringotts when the goblins locked it down, as of last report they hadn't released their defensive wards." At their inquisitive looks, "Tom followed through on this threat on Diagon Alley. He had ten giants, and at least some Death Eaters. Amelia Bones died in front of me, along with the majority of the remaining Aurors, before we finally stopped the Giants, but we didn't catch any of those Death Eaters. Diagon Alley is for all intents and purposes destroyed, except for Gringotts. The goblins had some protective charms that were, literally unreal. And I still have to go talk to Luna...the offices of the Quibbler were destroyed, we think Luna's father was inside." Stunned silence reigned as that announcement sunk in. Arthur took a deep breath, glanced over at Moody and back at the pair, "I have to ask you something in my capacity as Minister, that I wish could wait, but can't. However first...here." Arthur reached into a side pocket of his robes and tossed a pair of elaborately carved rosewood boxes at them, which they caught absentmindedly.
Harry continued looking absently at Arthur, not opening his, however as Hermione let out a soft gasp despite herself, he glanced down. Only to behold the crossed wand and sword overlaid on a field of gold, an owl sitting atop the junction of the sword and wand, the three symbols representing the three aspects for which this medal could be awarded, the Order of Merlin, first class, the three aspects being wisdom, bravery, or feats in magic. Wordlessly, Hermione handed hers to Harry, and he started to throw them back, "We can't..."
But Harry was stopped by Arthur's raised hand and a quiet "no" from Sirius.
"Harry, Hermione" Arthur said softly as he pulled his glassed off and started to polish them with the edge of his robe. In a stern, parental voice, he was after all Hermione's adoptive father now, "You will take those...this night has seen seven of those issued, along with quite a few second and third class ones as well. You will take them so as to not dishonor those other ones, the ones that Dumbledore and Ron received, and the... posthumous ones, Kingsley, Amelia and Severus received." Slightly grudgingly, Harry set the boxes on the end table, but neither of them could argue with that logic. In a whisper that Harry wasn't sure that he really heard, but that almost brought a twitch to his lips despite the situation anyway, Arthur murmured as he turned away to Moody for a second "it wasn't as if either you or any the others tonight paid for those, in gold that is."
"Now Harry, Hermione...here is the question that I need to ask you...are you two still interested in being Aurors? You two had given quite enough. You do not owe the Wizarding world a thing, in fact we owe you." He raised a hand to once again forestall their immediate response.
Well, Love? Harry asked silently, Arthur's right, you have given more than enough.
And you haven't? ... Hermione replied with a mental snort. You know that it isn't over; Arthur already said that the Death Eaters at Diagon Alley escaped, and you know many of them got away from here. And that doesn't count the ones he didn't bring. Over to one side, Sirius shared a knowing look with Lupin, as they shared twenty-year-old memories silently.
We do this then, Mione? We go to the academy and hunt the rest down?
I always wanted more schooling Hermione replied silently to his accompaniment of his mental laughter. Special Auror Potter does have a nice ring to it? She asked reflectively.
As long as it refers to you, Harry replied, then with a deep shared breath, they looked up at the person representing in the same body, the Minister of Magic, Hermione's adoptive father, the only father figure other than Sirius that Harry had known for the majority of his life, and their new boss. "We'll do it...sir" Harry said the last with a slight smirk; Tonks, Remus and Sirius broke up laughing.
"Such cheek, and you are just on the job." Arthur said beaming, and with his free hand he motioned to Mad-Eye, who flipped them a pair of closed leather wallets. Opening them, they received yet another shock, both of them received not cadet credentials, but full Lieutenants badges.
"Honestly...there has to be some mistake" Hermione replied for them both. "This would make us the same rank as Mad-Eye."
"Not any more lass" Alastor replied as he emitted a sound halfway between a grunt and a laugh.
Arthur immediately acted to alleviate their confusion, "As I said the Auror corps has been shattered, we have few forces left between the Wizarding and Muggle public and any dark wizards should they choose to take advantage of the situation. So I used my discretionary emergency powers and made some promotions to fill holes immediately, you are looking at the new head of Magical Law Enforcement," He pointed at Mad-Eye who scowled, "The new Chief Auror," at Remus, "the new head of Auror field operations," at Tonks, "and as to Sirius, since he had the temerity to come back to life...I hereby pardon him and hire him as a special investigator reporting to me." Arthur turned back to them, "you two along with Ron, if he accepts the job, will report to me, directly. If you look at those credentials closely, you are Unspeakables as well as Aurors; your job is to stop Voldemort's remnants, no matter how you can. By the way...since you accepted the jobs it reduces my paperwork. As those badges are backdated twenty-four hours, so you were technically Aurors when you killed Riddle and fully empowered to do so. All Death Eaters are wanted dead or alive. The Wizengamot ruled so this morning in emergency session." Arthur finally turned to Sirius to tie up one last loose end, "Sirius it occurs to me that you are penniless and homeless."
"That's no problem, Arthur, I'll just give Sirius back the..." Harry said instantly, but was interrupted by Arthur.
"You can't Harry" Arthur replied, "its another of those stupid ancient Wizarding laws, came about because of the Goblin rebellion, just like so many others. Didn't you learn it in class?" Arthur regarded them, then as even Hermione shook her head, a puzzled look on her face, "Never mind, Binns muttered it under his breath even when I was still in school, basically it was put into place to keep dark wizards from faking their deaths and transferring their wealth to someone, then 'convincing' that person to give it to another person, who was usually the dark wizard in disguise. No I looked at the records...Sirius you spent twelve years in Azkaban for a crime you did not commit, two years on the run, and then almost two years, in limbo, literally. I brought the matter to the attention of the Wizengamot this morning, and they ruled that the Ministry would make immediate restitution. A new vault will be available to you in the morning at Gringotts, containing the sum of that judgment against the Ministry, a sum of one million galleons. It won't give you back that lost time, my friend, but it will hopefully ease your years to come." Sirius was a little stunned as Arthur silently handed him the key to a vault.
A/N ok there's everyone that you might be concerned for...more or less. Next Chapter, house calls, and Hermione gets rushed. Stay tuned.