Plots & Thoughts
Chapter 34
Plots & Thoughts
Harry sat at his desk his fingers steepled as he listened to reports from the Aurors, Unspeakables and MLES. As his mind processed the information he was receiving, he couldn't help but think back to what Snape had said to him in his dream.
"Thank you," he told the group. "Give me a chance to work this out a bit. We can reconvene on Wednesday to go over our next move. Will the same time work for everyone? Good," he replied at their affirmative nods.
After the officers had returned to their departments, Harry called Ron in. Once Ron had entered, Harry put the strongest silencing charm around his desk. He relayed his dreamed conversation with Snape to his friend.
"Hermione thinks its rubbish, but I don't know," Harry said. "He could be trying to tell us something."
"He could be trying to set you up, you mean. That would be more like the Snape we knew."
"I don't know. I mean, the man is dead. Why would he continue that when it doesn't matter anymore?"
"Because," shouted Ron. "He is Snape. He was a greasy git who got off on things like that. Hell, he lived for it…"
"That's just it," replied Harry. "He's dead. Do you think the dream was real?"
"I'm inclined to believe so," said Ron. "I mean look at your dreams in the past. How many times did something you dreamed and believed to be real, wind up happening? If you think it was real, then I'm with you, mate."
"Let's see what Tonks this of all this. Call her in, would you?"
Ron went to fetch Tonks while Harry canceled his charm. He'd need to cast a larger one to cover three people.
"You wanted to see me, boss?" said Tonks entering the office with Ron.
"Yeah, we need to talk about something. It could be important," replied Harry.
Under a security bubble, Harry and Ron brought Tonks up to speed on the dream, its possible ramifications and validity. Tonks stared back at them with wide eyes. Harry relayed the information from the reports he'd heard. "It all fits," said Harry. "I don't want to think about it, but we may have another war on our hands if we don't."
"But, it's Snape!" whined Ron. "Why would that git help us? He's dead."
"Did he really say that Malfoy was dying?" asked Tonks. "I've been keeping tabs on him. He's looking as fit as usual. I can't wait until sentencing comes down. It's taking way too long."
"I can't know details, but is there a problem there? Just answer yes or no, please," said Harry.
"No," said Tonks. "Nothing has been reported that you need to worry about."
Harry signaled his understanding. "Do we have any kind of timeframe for this to be over?"
Tonks shook her head. "They are being overly cautious, if you ask me. The raid was clean, the evidence overwhelming. They are trying to prevent what happened to Sirius."
"What happened to Sirius is that he never got a bloody trial!" stormed Harry.
"We know that, mate. We just have to be a bit more patient," stated Ron.
Harry smiled at his friend. "Well that makes my whole year," he joked. "I'm getting reminded to be patient by none other than Ron Weasley. We have entered a new plane of existence…"
"Shut it, you prat," Ron smiled.
"That's Boss Prat to you, Ronniekins," corrected Tonks.
Harry groaned. "Let's just get back to business here. What do we do?"
"Let me get the written reports and see what correlations are there..." offered Tonks
"I'll see what I can come up with regarding Ferret-Face, and then I can work with Tonks to see if there is anything brewing," continued Ron
"Get a crew posted at that graveyard. It has high significance to them. Make sure the team is small, yet highly conspicuous. Preventing a gathering is much easier than raiding one in progress," instructed Harry.
"Got it," said Ron. The meeting adjourned and Harry was left alone to ponder what to do. He looked over his transcriptions of both meetings.
Harry arrived at St Mungo's shortly before his allotted time to meet Hermione.
"Harry!" called Healer Strankford. "What are you doing here? No problems, I hope."
"No, none…" Harry replied. "I'm just taking my beautiful fiancée to lunch. Have you seen her?"
"She should be down in a mo. How are things going for you, Mr. Potter?"
"Very well, thanks," Harry replied. "A bit shaky at first, I still stumble a bit, but I'm very glad to be walking. Thank you for everything you did for me."
"No thanks are necessary," the Healer replied. "It's my job. Besides, with your success and the …er…brackles, your friends developed for you, I should make the best magi-medical journals, don't you think? That certainly comes in handy come review time," The Healer slung an arm around Harry's shoulders. "I do believe my wife and I will be thanking you for many years to come, and that has nothing to do with the Defeat. However, I would like to hear the entire story from you whenever you are ready to tell it."
"Hermione is always preaching to me to 'talk about things" so I might just take you up on that…someday," responded Harry.
"I don't preach," reprimanded Hermione. "As your Healer, I offer suggestions to help improve your well-being."
"In a bossy, 'you'll do as I say or else' tone," added Harry.
Healer Strankford laughed. "I know how she is. Are you sure you want to marry this one?" Hermione scowled, yet knew they were teasing her.
"I love it when she gets all domineering," stated Harry with an exaggerated shiver, which caused Healer Strankford to laugh even harder.
"You are certainly in a good mood today," Hermione observed.
"I'm going home to my lovely house to eat lunch with my beautiful fiancée. I'll worry about the rest of it afterward," Harry explained. "There's some stuff I need to work out at the office and it can wait."
"You just want to a bit of snogging more than stimulating conversation," Hermione guessed.
"I'll settle for stimulating snogging…." replied Harry with a smirk.
Healer Strankford backed up saying, "Before this conversation goes any farther into the 'I don't want to hear this about a colleague' category, I must be off."
They said their goodbyes, and then headed home. Winky had made sandwiches and fruit, which the couple took up to Harry's balcony. After the sandwiches were eaten they began playing a messy game of mouth target, aiming fruit chunks at the other person's open mouth. The score was even until Harry decided the neck of Hermione's shirt made a better target.
"Harry!" she shrieked. "You're going to get me all sticky!"
"That, love, is my intention," he replied with a waggle of his eyebrows.
"We don't have time for that or a shower," she stated.
"You're no fun," Harry said with a playful pout. "How about tonight? We can request more fruit after dinner. I've some ideas for a new game…"
"You, sir, are insatiable," Hermione stated.
"Just the way you like me…" replied Harry.
"True," she agreed, "but your timing is way off."
Harry arrived back at his office after lunch, with some thoughts about the possible upcoming Death Eater event. He had a theory, but wanted to run it by his resident strategy expert first.
"Ron, can I see you in my office a minute?" he asked.
"Be right there…" stated Ron as he finished up the report he was working on. He joined Harry in the office and placed his report in the basket on Harry's desk.
"What's that?" Harry asked.
"That's just some thoughts about the git's dream that I wanted to write up before I forgot."
"That's why I asked you here," stated Harry. "I wanted to run some ideas by you like we did in school. What have you got?"
"First…" explained Ron. "I went through possible scenarios in the case that this was only a dream. You know, what is your subconscious trying to tell you. Then, I covered the angle of if Snape were trying to warn you and what are the reasons; possibilities; and ramifications, both ways."
"Excellent work, mate. Let's see them. I've got a hunch of my own. I wanted to see what you thought of it."
"What are you thinking, mate?" Ron asked.
"First I want to see if my hunch is on your list. That would give it merit in my opinion. I may be way off base," replied Harry.
The two men went thoroughly through Ron's report. To Harry's amazement, his idea was near the top of Ron's thoughts regarding if the dream was real.
"So you think it has to do with Malfoy, too," asked Ron.
"That's my best guess," Harry responded. "Snape has always had a soft spot for Malfoy. It would make sense that he'd want to protect him, even from beyond. He said it in such a way that would provoke me to get involved in preventing whatever is slated to kill him."
"But what?" asked Ron. "What could they have planned for that loser that would kill him?"
"It's far fetched enough that we'd dismiss it, yet it is close enough to the truth to cause concern. Do you think it merits bringing it to the department yet…" Harry queried, "…or bring only Tonks in, or keep it between the two of us? We are operating under a microscope here."
"A what?" asked Ron.
"It's a muggle device to look at things very close up, like you look through it at a drop of blood and see all of the cells in it."
"Sounds a bit dodgy to me," Ron declared. "So what does it mean that we're under a misocrope thing?"
"It just means that we are being watched carefully to make sure we can handle the job," Harry explained.
"Mate," Ron started, "they've already watched you do the impossible more than once. What more evidence could they want that you are a good as they say?"
"Thanks for the vote of confidence; but we still need to watch our step. Any ideas on who to bring in on this?" Harry asked.
"I'd say just Tonks, for now," offered Ron. "We can trust her, plus she can help watch for action from the reports. She may be able to spot something we miss, but it's really your call, mate. It'll be your head that rolls if this is a waste of time."
"I've thought of that. However, it'll be worse, much worse if we ignore it and it was true," replied Harry.
Ron stepped to the door and called for Tonks. Tonks came in immediately as Harry replaced the silencing charm. They quickly filled Tonks in on their discussion and how they've reached their conclusions. Tonks listened carefully to their wild idea before commenting.
"I agree that there's something happening out there," she commented. "There's a buzz of activity, nothing enough to draw attention, mind, but a steady increase in activity has been noted. I'm not sure that Draco Malfoy could possibly be involved. I mean, he's in Ministry custody…"
"So was Bellatrix at one time…" interrupted Harry. "Ministry security isn't fool proof, Hell, even Sirius escaped from Azkaban. If the three of us can decide that this is the right course of action, it'll stay between the three of us. All we need to do, for now, is keep to the plan and station a small crew at the graveyard and equip them with the means to call for help should this meeting come about. In the meantime, until that call comes in, we can plan what we should do about it. Snape suggested that I show up and toss a few spells around, flex a little magical muscle and, according to him, their plans will dissipate. We need to figure out what they are planning in regards to Malfoy and keep a strong eye on him, because if what Snape hinted at is true then he is a major player in the entire scheme and he doesn't even know it. He'd be on the next portkey to China if he knew!"
"Wasn't he at the Final Battle?" asked Ron.
Harry couldn't control his laughter. "He was there alright, however briefly... He ran like a scared puffskein once he laid eyes on Voldemort," Harry told his colleagues the entire story of the Final Battle. It got easier to tell now that he'd told a couple of people and so far no one had thought badly of how he had ended it.
"So all of that was happening in the Forbidden Forest, while you had Hermione and I evacuating the school?" Ron asked incredulously.
"Yep," answered Harry. "I was trying to keep you safe. I knew Voldemort was onto the curse Hermione found and I knew he wanted all three of us dead. If I were to lose, you still had each other."
"Well, mate, even though she was my girlfriend at the time, she was fit to burst when we figured out you'd gone. She was in a right state until we got word that you'd arrived at St Mungo's and were going to be alright."
"You two broke up soon after…That wasn't because of me, was it?" Harry asked. He'd always been curious as to what happened to their relationship; however he'd never asked before.
"No," Ron answered, "Not really. I mean it probably was a part of it somewhere, but she and I just didn't work as a couple. I found that having a crush on her much more enjoyable than the actual dating. We just decided we were wrong for each other."
"Which leads us back to the conversation in question," redirected Tonks. "Now, how do we prove whether or not it is real, boss?"
"We keep our eyes and ears open, first off," replied Harry. "Then we keep an eye on both the graveyard and Malfoy. There has to be a reason why he hasn't been sentenced yet. We need to figure out the mastermind behind it all. There is no way to convince me that Malfoy is anything other than a figurehead. His father was a high ranking Death Eater. Maybe that is enough to offer up Malfoy, perhaps not. "
"We also need to have a look at those that claimed 'Imperious' this time round. That should steer us in the right direction, then talk to those in custody and see what they know. Sure, they are singing like a phoenix, but they can't be telling the whole story," offered Ron.
"I can have a chat with Shacklebolt about that," said Tonks. "I won't divulge why, but I can hint at something being planned. He'll take it from there. I can have him assign a team to the graveyard as well."
"Excellent," Harry praised his team. "Make sure they are outfitted with the scramblers. We don't want to alert them that we may be onto them in advance."
"Boss, you aren't planning to show up in the field, if something happens, are you?"
"I'll have to, won't I?" responded Harry. "I'll be an irresistible target."
"Harry, NO!!" objected Ron. "You can't do this. You know the risks, besides Hermione will never let you…"
"I don't tell her what potions to give her patients and she doesn't tell me how to do my job either. Besides, when have I ever run from a challenge based on risk?" Harry retorted with a snort.
"Boss," Tonks said in a pleading tone, "you can't be serious. There has to be another way!"
"Let's just cross that bridge when we get to it. For now, we'll just figure out what they are planning and finish it once and for all."