Note: First I was bored and thought of updating story faster then I have been. Second, I do not own any character! All belongs to Rowling. I am not doing it for money either, I do it for fun.
Special thanks goes to Mabel for being so helpful.
Chapter 9; Professor McGonagall's office
Harry woke up the following morning and felt better than he had all summer. He felt refreshed and deep down he felt happy, though he didn't know why. He guessed it was because he was back in school (even if he never wanted to go back), or because he was Head Boy (not that he cared much about that), or perhaps because he shared a common room with Hermione and Hermione alone (not that he would get any closer to her). He knew how impossoble it was, but no one could stop him from hoping.
After a shower, he felt the memories of the previous evening rushing back and settling on her. He recalled the private moments he had shared with Hermione, but he felt like he was cheating Ron even though he hadn't done anything wrong. He hadn't kissed Hermione, they had simply gotten close, yet the thought of kissing her made Harry feel like he was acting behind Ron's back.
Trying to forget those thoughts, he walked downstairs to find Hermione sitting on the window seat, reading a book. Harry smiled at the familiar sight; it was so like Hermione to read book that early in the morning. She didn't seem to hear his entrance so he took that opportunity to look around the room.
It wasn't a very big room, but it was comfortable. There was only one table with red couch and chairs around it and opposite the portrait hole, was fireplace. It was smaller than the one in the Gryffindor common room, but it was still nice. Desks were placed opposite one another at every corner of the room and across the staircases to dormitories was a huge window where Hermione was reading.
"Morning Harry," she said with a a smile and Harry felt his heart jump with joy.
"Morning 'Mione," he replied and Hermione raised an eyebrow. She wasn't used to the nickname yet but she made mo comment on it.
"Ready for breakfast?" she asked and jumped down from the window seat. Walking up to the table she put her book down. Seeing Harry nodding, she walked up to portrait hole and they both made their way up to the Great Hall where they joined Ron and Ginny.
"You seem happy," Ron remarked. "Sleep well?" he asked and both Hermione and Harry nodded. When Harry poured himself juice and Hermione coffee, the morning owls came. Harry was rather surprised to see Hedwig flying up to him and dropping a letter onto his lap.
"Who's it from?" Ron asked with a mouth full of potatoes.
"Dunno," Harry answered in reply and opened the letter. Stealing a quick glance, he saw Hermione reading the Daily Prophet. "Anything new?" he asked her before digging into his own letter from professor McGonagall.
Mr. Potter,,
Meet me in my office after breakfast.
Professor McGonagall.
Harry read it out loud. "What do you guys think she wants me for? Harry asked, looking at Ron and Hermione.
"No idea. Perhaps she wants to give you something that Professor Dumbledore left, or ask you something important," Hermione suggested.
"Yea, probably," Ron interrupted.
"So anything important in the news?" Harry asked Hermione, ignoring Ron.
"The usual," Hermione replied. "But there's good news today. Stan was freed from Azkaban and is to return to his old job on the Knight Bus," she said, flipping through pages.
"That's great, he was innocent," Harry answered. He was about to add something more, but was interrupted when they received their schedules.
After they finished their breakfast, the three of them set off to class. Half way to his lessons, Harry said goodbye to his friends and went to Professor McGonagall's office. Standing in front of the statue, he realized he didn't know the password. With Dumbledore, the password had always been easy to figure out because it was always some sweet, but with Professor McGonagall as headmistress, Harry was clueless.
He didn't have to wait long however. Professor McGonagall walked up to him. "Right this way Potter," she said sternly as she said the password quietly so that Harry wouldn't hear it. She opened the door to the office and put a hand on Harry's shoulder, knowing it was hard for him to enter Dumbledore's old office.
Feeling the grief of losing Dumbledore the previous year, Harry took a deep breath before he entered. The room hadn't changed much except that Fawkes was nowhere to be seen; it was the first thing he noticed. Perhaps it was because Fawkes symbolized Dumbledore himselfself. Fawkes had always been loyal to Dumbledore and Harry himself managed to call out Fawkes by staying loyal to his old headmaster. He felt the hot tears in the corner of his eyes, but wiped them away quickly and tried to stay cool.
Harry's attention was then captured by the pensieve that was still in the room. He wasn't sure was it Dumbledore's pensieve or McGonagall's and looking at the walls, he saw new and empty portrait. He already knew whose portrait it was. It was obvious the old headmasters and headmistresses resided in their portraits, but Dumbledore's was still empty. Harry wanted to ask Professor McGonagall how long it had been empty, but never had the chance because McGonagall started talking.
"You probably want to know why I asked you to come here," she began and to Harry's surprise, he found her behind the desk. The last thing he knew was that she had been right behind him. "Dumbledore died and left me most of his belongings, along with a note," she said as she held a note out to him. "I couldn't bring my self to touch anything in this office until a month after he died. It wasn't because of the grief I felt, but because of what he said in his letter. I was afraid to find the secrets that he kept to himself," she said and Harry was shocked. He never thought Professor McGonagall could be afraid of anything.
"As soon as I looked into his pensieve, I knew there was no turning back. I can't deny there were times when I wished I could turn back, but at the time I thought about Dumbledore and I'm grateful and honoured that he has given me the task of guiding you and helping you. I'm honoured that he trusts me that much," Professor McGonagall said and Harry saw how much she tried not to cry.
"So you know…" Harry started carefully and the headmistress nodded.
"I know everything. I know about the Horcruxes and I know about the prophecy," she said and gave Harry sympathetic look. Harry himself could only look down and nod slightly. "I asked you to come here so that you know that if you need anything, you can come to me and ask me. I wanted to let you know that I will help you with your upcoming mission. I do not want you to go after horcruxes alone," she said and Harry was about to say that Ron and Hermione would go with him when she continued. "I expect that Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley will go with you," she said and waited Harry's response.
"Yes, they're going with me."
"You have great friends, Harry," she said with slight nod and rose from her seat while Harry nodded. "Have you any plans yet? Any ideas?" she asked. "I've talked to Miss Granger, and she said there will be times when the three of you will need to leave the school. Though she didn't say why, I knew the answer," she said and Harry listened silently, watching how she walked up to the pensieve. "Come here," she directed and Harry did as told. "You probably know what this is, right?" she asked and Harry nodded. It seemed like he had lost his voice. "There are a few things that I need to show you but not today," she said to Harry's disappointment. "Today I wanted to talk to you about the locket. Yes I know about that too," she said amused by Harry's surprise.
"You know where it is?" Harry asked and Professor McGonagall shook her head.
"No, I know only about the locket. I know it wasn't the horcrux you were looking for and I know what it said," she said. "Here, why don't you sit down? Harry followed silently and sat down.
"There were the letters R.A.B. right?" she asked and Harry nodded again. "Do you know who he is?" she asked and Harry shook his head. "R.A.B. is Regulus Alphard Black. Regulus was Sirius' younger brother, and unlike Sirius, Regulus was favoured by his parents because he shared their pureblood prejudices. Soon after leaving Hogwarts, he joined the Death Eaters and died soon after that," McGonagall continued and Harry sat transfixed. He had heard things about Regulus, but not much and he was eager to learn as much as possible.
"Regulus got in a little too deep. He was attracted to You-Know-Who's power, but the reality of what it meant was too much for him to handle. He and Mrs. Black were great supporters of You-Know-Who. Regulus didn't know the dangers he had gotten himself into at that time that he joined him. When he realized that danger, it was too late for him to back away. That's the thing with Death Eaters; when you join, you won't get out of the circle alive. When You-Know-Who was gone, old Death Eaters tried to convince the Ministry that they were under the Imperious Curse and some of them actually were. Some people, including Severus Snape, managed to convince the Ministry of Magic that they had changed and that's why they weren't sent to Azkaban.
"I do not know what trick Severus Snape used, but he won Dumbledore's' trust. Dumbledore trusted Severus with his life and unfortunately for him, his old trusting heart was the reason behind his death. Dumbledore always believed in people and he believed that they weren't as bad as they were though to be. He believed there was something good within every person," she continued and Harry listened silently, letting her words sink in. When Harry looked at her, he knew that at least she believed in him; she believed that Severus Snape had indeed killed Professor Dumbledore.
"Regulus wanted to get out of You-Know-Who's inner circle but before that, he wanted to find the Horcrux and destroy it. He believed that there was only one Horcrux and he looked for it for more than one year. Having finally found it, he felt great triumph over You-Know-Who. He hid the real Horcrux and replaced it with the locket you found. He didn't destroy the Horcrux at once, though time was running out. Regulus couldn't destroy it, because he didn't know how. Two days after he hid the locket, a meeting was called. Unfortunately, it was his last meeting. Severus Snape turned him in and convinced You-Know-Who that Regulus was not loyal to their cause. Severus was one of the most loyal Death Eaters, and You-Know-Who believed him, killing Regulus. You-Know-Who never found out that Regulus had discovered his secret about the Horcrux and had replaced the locket that you and Dumbledore found."
"How…how do you know all of this?" Harry asked and the Professor looked at the pensieve. It was all Harry needed to know to answer his question. Dumbledore was dead and he couldn't have added anything else, unless- he looked at the portrait that was still empty. Could it be? McGonagall caught Harry looking at the portrait.
"Dumbledore doesn't show himself very often, but he's there," she assured him, reading Harry's thoughts. "Do you have anymore questions?" she asked and kept her eyes on Harry.
"Yes. I…where is Fawkes?" he asked.
"You don't know much about Phoenixes, do you?" she asked. Without waiting for Harry to reply, she continued. "Phoenixes choose their own masters and when they're master dies, they fly away to find a new one. It may take months, even years until they find one but sometimes it only takes few days or a few hours," she explained.
"So Fawkes…" Harry started.
"Yes, you may never see Fawkes again. He may have already found a new master or he's still searching one." Harry nodded understanding and was quite sad at the thought that he may never see Fawkes again. "Any other questions?"
"The Order of Phoenix. What happens to it now?" he asked.
"The Order of Phoenix has fallen apart, at least for now. The Ministry of Magic is dealing with You-Know-Who now. Don't worry, the Order will get together again once Fawkes chooses its leader," she explained. "And no, that does not mean that the leader will be the owner of the phoenix. Any other questions?"
"No Professor," Harry responded and stood up. "I better go now."
"Alright, Mr. Potter. I shall inform you when it is time to show you some of Dumbledore's memories," she said and with that, Harry left the room. Learning all of that, he didn't want to go to classes. Instead of going to Charms as he was supposed to, he walked up to Gryffindor Tower and entered the Head's common room.
Author's note:
Why professor McGonagall is set to help Harry in this fiction?
Beacause Harry is no hero. I don't think Rowling wants us to see him as hero. He's just a boy with cruel life and terrifiying future.
Has any of you read the Tolkien books Lord of the Rings? I know that fans and whoever has compared Lord of the Rings with Harry Potter and they have found so similiar things that some may even think that Rowling 'stole' ideas from there. I disagree. Yes, they are similar, but they are still so different.
Anyway, that's not the point. I pointed out Lord of the Rings beacause the hero, Frodo the Hobbit, backed away from destroying the ring. So that it was destroyed only by the help of Collom. It was an accident.
The point is that no matter what dangers frodo faced, he didn't managed to get so far without help and he was just a hobbit. Not a hero. Thats what Tolkien wanted. He didn't want people to think he's hero beacause he has determind to destroy the ring. It was just his bad luck.
And I think that's excactly what Rowling wants. I am sure that in the end something will help him to defeat Voldemort. Probably Pettegrew beacause it was already said that he owns Harry his life. So I think that all the dangers Harry faces are just beacause of his bad luck, not beacause he's some sort of hero. He has to face all of this, unlike Frodo in Lord of the Rings, beacause Voldemort marked him as equal, but that doesn't mean he's hero.
Harry's friends have helped him throughout the years. His godfather helped him and the order(in a way) and of course Dumbledore. But Dumbledore is dead, do you really think that Harry would make it alone? And that's why I made McGonagall help him.
McGonagall was debuty, surely the one Dumbledore trusted the most. McGonagall has had quite insignificat part throughout the books, but then again, she is very important. I think it's time to get her out of the shadows. She was the one who watched the Dursleys after Harry's parents were murdered. I think she plays bigger role than Rowling has showed us yet. That's why she helps Harry. So if you don't like my theory and how I've put it on paper, then sorry.