Chapter Nine
Aftermath
The combination of disinfectant on the surfaces of the room and medicinal herbs bubbling away in a potion being prepared always made Harry's stomach turn. Unfortunately this is how the medical wing at Hogwarts always smelled like. It often reminded him of the time Aunt Petunia tried to dye some clothes for him so he could attend the local high school instead of going to Hogwarts.
"Out of my way," Madame Pomfrey exclaimed as she flew past him as she went to Ron's bedside. "That chamber is going to be the death of me. I hope after this Professor Dumbledore takes my offer to seal it up. A good pouring of muggle concrete will do the trick nicely."
"I'm fine." Ron protested as the school nurse pressed him back down on the bed.
"I'll be the judge of that." She protested as she took out her wand and began performing the necessary charms to determine what needed to be done. When she found nothing to be fixed, she turned back to Hermione. "You did an excellent job, Mrs. Potter."
Pomfrey turned back to the man on the cot and offered him the only thing she could. "You're very lucky that Mrs. Potter was down there. You could have been killed."
"Like always," Hermione winked at him.
"Yea, she's always saving your butt, Ron." Sarah Campbell said from the next cot. "It sounds like you guys had a great time down there. Too bad I wasn't able to come down."
"Sarah, you're crazy." Anthony offered.
"And you love me for it. Come on, admit it."
Anthony's ears turned pink from embarrassment. He said nothing, but the smile he had on his face said it all. He turned his head to look at Kamal. "Is the prisoner awake yet?"
"No and if he's smart he'll stay that way because there are quite a few things I would like to do the son of a…"
"That is where you're finished, Habib." Sergeant Duckhorn entered the room gracefully with Professor Dumbledore. She smiled fondly as all the former members of the Red Squadron now assembled together in the same room for the first time in two years. She took noticed the group looked relieved and it could only mean the end to the whole madness was near its end, "Report."
"The prisoners are secure, Sergeant. All of Red Squadron is here and accounted for. Minor injuries include Aurors Ronald Weasley and Sarah Campbell. Even though we have captured the prisoners, the team and I agree that we need to investigate Malfoy Manor in order to secure the MacNeal and Malfoy spell book to destroy both it and the Onyx Spell Book." Harry jumped into command mode.
Sergeant Duckhorn smiled. "Professor Potter, I appreciate your enthusiasm; however, I was hoping my team would be able to answer my questions."
"Sorry."
"It's alright." The Red Squadron leader chuckled. "Old habits are hard to break aren't they?"
"For some more so than others," Hermione offered as she sat down across the room from Sarah where Heather was reclining on the bed with her wand arm laying across her forehead. Hermione patted Heather's left arm.
"It's nice to see you again, Heather." Sergeant Duckhorn offered as she crossed the room to her bed. She smiled down at the former cadet as she pulled out some paperwork. She offered them to her and Heather took them. "They are your discharge papers. I wasn't able to give them to you the last time our paths met."
Heather solemnly went through the paperwork and noticed her signature was already signed. "How come it's…?"
"I hadn't officially given your paper work for your dismissal. No one actually gets discharged unless you have paperwork signed and dated. Technically, you could have been arrested for desertion. If it hadn't been for your brother's defense and your sister-in-law's craftiness with a wand, this would have been the case." Sergeant Duckhorn offered a wink, "Lucky for you."
Before Heather could respond, Professor Dumbledore interrupted. "Sergeant Duckhorn, I believe haste should be observed. Through out my years of knowing Harry, if he feels there is a significant threat is still in observance; we need to make haste to secure it. It would be advisable to listen to his suggestion and secure a warrant to search Malfoy Manor."
"You really think the spell book is at the manor?" Sergeant Duckhorn asked him once she looked away from Heather.
"I know it is. It was on neither him nor MacNeal when they were down in the Chamber of Secrets. It just feels right and that's all I really can tell you." Harry admitted as he limped over to the bed next to Heather's cot.
"Unfortunately, I don't think I can allow the three of you to go with the squad." Sergeant Paula Duckhorn sighed as they were about to protest, she held up her hand to stop them before they even again. "Harry, you know the procedure. You know I can't allow Hermione, Heather, and you to go to the raid at the manor with out extensive okays from several hundred people. It would take more time to even get the approval for you to go in then it would be for you to actually raid the place. It would be different if we were back in America, but British laws are much different."
"We understand, Sergeant." Hermione offered.
"Besides, I don't think I'm really feeling up to do a raid." Harry began rubbing his bad knee. Upon noticing his pain, Madame Pomfrey came over with a pain relieving potion and suggested he'd lay down to get his weight off his knee.
"You okay?" Hermione asked.
"I'll be fine." Harry reassured her as he lay down. Madame Pomfrey put a couple of pillows under his bad knee. It had become second nature to her after all; the injury had taken hold only two years prior. "It's not like I've never had my knee hurt before."
"Sarah, you okay enough to go with the team?" Sergeant Duckhorn turned to the Auror lying in the bed across from Heather.
"Yes, ma'am I am." Sarah flung the blanket and the sheets off the bed and stood up.
"Alright then, Kamal, Anthony, and you will search Malfoy Manor for the spell book…"
"What about me? I'm going too." Ron interrupted. "Bloody hell, if you think I'm staying here to lie around, you're mental."
Sergeant Duckhorn stifled a laugh and it came out into a snort. "Alright, Mister Weasley, if you feel up to it."
"Yes!" He exclaimed as he tore himself out of bed.
"Alright then, pair up and search floor by floor or room by room if you have to. Find that book. I want it destroyed before the night it over. If you find anything else that could be incriminating, by all means bring it back. These two irritated the crap out of me and I want them put away for as long as we can get."
Once the Red Squadron left to prepare for their raid, Madame Pomfrey came over with a bottle to give to Heather. "Is she going to be okay, Poppy?"
"She'll be fine. I'm more worried about you, though."
"Why are you worried about me? I'm not the one who got hurt."
"Stress like the kind you felt down there in the Chamber of Secrets is never good when you're pregnant."
"But, I'm not…" Hermione stopped once she realized what the nurse meant to tell her. She gasped, "Oh, my."
"When did you take another test?" Harry asked as he shot back up, trying to absorb the information.
"Right before we met back up with Ron, Heather, and the rest and after we were finished getting the Sword of Gryffindor from the headmaster's office. You know how I had to go to the loo? I came here instead." Hermione admitted. "I left before I knew the results."
"Merlin," Heather exclaimed from her bed, "congratulations!"
"Thanks." Hermione grinned.
"I'm going to be an auntie; I'm going to be an auntie." Heather chanted and then looked back over at Hermione. "I hope you realize that child is going to smell really bad. It's going to be so spoiled!"
Harry chuckled. "No really and I'm sure you are going to be the one doing the spoiling."
"What kind of aunt would I be if I didn't?" Heather offered as she sat up on her bed. "Spoil them, feed them sugar, and send them home. That's going to be my motto."
"Oy," Harry rolled his eyes, "Merlin help us."
*****
Once Sergeant Duckhorn received back the permission to raid Malfoy Manor, Ron separated the team into pairs. Anthony and Sarah were assigned to check the subterranean and the first level rooms. Kamal and he took the upper two floors. They started with Danielle's room which no incriminating evidence appeared. The only thing they did find was a couple of wizard photographs of her posing in sexy lingerie. "I think I finally see what Malfoy saw in her." Ron admitted aloud. "She must have taken these recently because why wouldn't they be in Malfoy's room.
"Don't let Heather hear you saying that." Kamal offered as he took the photos from Ron's hand and put them into his coat pocket. "I think I'll hang on to these."
"That's gross, man." Ron cringed, "and I think you're right about Heather. Not a word."
"I think we should be moving on to Malfoy's room." Kamal said as he stood up from the floor in front of her bureau. It was then they heard a scream coming from downstairs. The pair eyed each other before racing down the stairs. Kamal pointed to the stairs leading to the subterranean floor. "I think it came from the basement."
Ron nearly ripped the door off the hinges and race down into the maze of rooms. When they finally located Anthony and Sarah, Ron and Kamal were appalled of the evidence in the room.
*****
Clanging and clattering rang throughout the basement floor of the Malfoy manor. In addition to all the access noise, the occasional swear word escaped the lips of Sarah Campbell. "Man, you have the vocabulary of a sailor."
Sarah chuckled. "Did I mention my grandfather served in the Great War?"
"Which one, may I ask? The muggle one or is it the magical one?"
"Which do you think asinine?" Sarah rolled her eyes, making sure to emphasize the first syllable of the word as she scanned the nearest bookshelf. "My grandfather served in the United States Navy."
"Oh, so was he like a draftee?"
"No," she continued to chuckle as she took a book off the shelf. "You do know why I refer to him as Admiral, don't you?"
"You know, I have never really thought about it." Anthony admitted as he began searching through what looked like a promising pile of papers on a desk top. "I take it he was the admiral of a boat…" Anthony trailed as he picked up a note off the desk. "Get a load of this."
When Sarah came over to him, she read the note.
Danny,
Bella left the spells and the potions needed to turn the ashes back. Along with it instructions to do what you two want to do. I took the liberty and gave the two of you a hand and turned the bodies back. Unfortunately, since some of the ashes are missing they are not as whole as we all hoped. I placed their bodies in the next room. I figured it was out of sight enough for any typical investigation magical or otherwise. I don't know how this is going to affect your plans, however. As for me, I'm leaving the country and heading to warmer waters. The Bahamas are nice this time of year and perhaps I can find a nice cabaña boy to keep me company. After being 'shocked' about the 'tragedy' of my employers, I need a nice long vacation to take my mind off things and recollect myself. Take care, love, and I will see you later.
Aunt Louise
"Bodies of who?" Sarah wondered aloud.
"Well, there is only one way to find out." Anthony placed the letter inside of his cloak and looked for the entrance to the next room. When he found the book entitled Pure Blood Families of the Wizarding World by Hemo Feliah, he pulled on the tome to release the door to the next room. "It's a good thing I read Harry and Ron's report of the last time they were down here."
"Yes it was." Sarah said as they followed the corridor down to the room with the four colored doors. "You know, I always felt this was rather a stupid room."
"You and me both because who in the right mind would actually choose to do this besides someone who has a lot of time on their hands." Anthony offered as opened the green door. The duo hesitantly entered the room and once they entered the room Sarah screamed.
Lying before them on a table were a man with dark raven hair and brown eyes hidden behind a pair of bottle cap glasses and beside him lay a woman with strawberry blonde hair and emerald green eyes. Anthony mouth went agape with horror and upon inspection they were missing patches of skin. Sarah asked as she finally scraped up the nerve to approach the bodies. "Do you know who these people are?"
"Yea, they are Harry and Heather's parents." Anthony almost whispered. "I know they were cremated, so why are they're bodies here?"
"Remember the note from 'Louise'? She turned their ashes back into the bodies." Sarah gasped once she heard someone enter the room behind them. The two of them swerved to meet Ron and Kamal standing in the doorway. They must have seen the bodies because the look on Ron's face as they approached them looked like he was going to be sick.
"Oh, Merlin, those are the Potters' aren't they?" Kamal was the first to speak up since Ron was turning a rather bright shade of green.
"Yea," Ron confirmed, "that's Lily and James Potter."
"Did you guys find anything?" Anthony asked, and then nervously chuckled, "because boy we sure did."
"We found nothing." Kamal said as he went over to the cabinet in the room. As he thumbed through the contents, he came across a vial. He opened it and took a waft. "That's smells awful."
Ron grabbed the vial. "That is what I thought. It's polyjuice."
"Why would they need polyjuice?" Anthony asked.
"To get into the family vault, you see over here family vaults are almost sacred. In order to enter one, you must be blood related to someone in the vault. You can't go inside at all if you're not related. The reason the spells were set up like that is because pure blood families would raid muggle born tombs and vice versa during medieval times. The Minister of the time finally got tired of all the raids and how they would interrupt the magical world to the point even the muggles would noticed. You may notice things in their stories of King Arthur and the likes about the magical realm. That was about the time where these raids exploded." Ron explained and the rest of the group looked at him shocked. "What? I paid attention in History of Magic."
"Paid attention to Hermione's notes after you took a nap in History of Magic is more like it." Sarah chuckled as she opened a locked compartment inside the cabinet. Once inside of it, she found a book. When she opened it, she felt the rush of what she could only describe as pure evil. Just as quickly open, she shut it. "I believe I found the Malfoy-MacNeal spell book."
Ron took the book and opened the leather bound book for himself. After he received the same result Sarah and he conclude she did indeed find the spell book. "This has to be it; Sarah's right. We should get this back to Hogwarts."
"What about the Potters? We should probably bring them with us." Sarah asked allowing her gaze to turn back to where the parents of their former leader and his sister lay. "They deserve much better than this."
The rest of the group silently agreed. It was Anthony and Kamal who rose first and prepared the bodies to be transported back to Hogwarts. Sarah had picked up what she assumed was their urn, shrunk it down to fit in her pocket and placed it inside her cloak.
Before Kamal shrouded them with a cloth he had transfigured from a couple of candles, Ron went over to Lily and James. He whispered into the two of them. "You two would have really liked Harry and Heather. Take it from me, I know. They're doing okay. They miss you; you know."
Sarah laid a hand on his shoulder. "They know, Ron. I know they do."
Ron nodded as he watched Kamal placed the sheet over them. "Well, the least we can do for them is to get them back to Hogwarts. Dumbledore will know what needs to be done to put the bodies back to rest."
"Yes, all we need is a bunch of mad zombies running around here." Anthony chuckled. When no one laughed with him; his laughter quickly faded.
*****
As the sun set in the west, Harry was called up to the Headmaster's office to meet him and give him a debriefing about the past couple of days. He had often had conversations with the Dumbledore following the events of a major event. As he climbed the stairs to the headmaster's office, he became overwhelmed with closure. Something deep within his soul told him he could relax for the first time in nearly ten to fifteen years.
Once he opened the doors to the office, he was greeted with the headmaster sitting at his desk. His gaze didn't leave his paper work, but greeted him anyway. "Come in, Harry. Please take a seat. I'll be with you in a moment."
Harry took a seat in a wing-back arm chair next to the window where on a side table tea was being kept warm in a silver tea pot. There was two bone china tea cups sitting on either side of the table. He concluded this was where the headmaster wanted him to sit there.
A few minutes ticked away and the sounds of the snoring former headmaster paintings made Harry drowsy. Once Albus Dumbledore put down his quill, he made his way to the professor. "I apologize for the delay; those papers you saw me signing are reports from Sergeant Duckhorn."
"Did they find the spell book?"
"Yes they did and Professor Snape is in the process of making the potion required to destroy both of the books; however, the red squadron also found something quite disturbing in their search."
"What?"
"They found your parents."
"You mean their ashes."
"No, I mean them." The headmaster affirmed. "They found their bodies in the basement and a letter about their intent to make them into inferi. Red Squadron is on their way back with the bodies. This will require you and Heather to put the bodies to rest."
"Why us?"
"I am going to assume the two of you are going to want to secure them into the family vault. In order for this to be done both you and Heather need to be the ones to seal it in order to prevent someone from being able to get inside again with the polyjuice potion again. This is how Red Squadron assumes Mister Malfoy and Miss MacNeal gained entrance this way because they found a bottle of polyjuice potion in which was half used. When they died, the two of you were entirely way too young to do it and it requires a blood relation to perform the spell. As you can probably guess, we searched for someone related distantly to James rather than Lily. Considering your mother's heritage, it was all we could do at the time. Sirius, your Godfather, was the closest match and he sealed the vault." Albus poured his tea and then poured Harry's tea. "I had hoped this was all that it would require. Obviously, I was mistaken."
"There was no way you could have known they would have been devious enough to do that." Harry offered.
"This is true, but I still feel like I've could have done more to protect your parents, your sister and yourself." Dumbledore took a sip of his tea somberly. "I also wish I could have prepared you for your mage powers. Mage powers are a rare gift and not many manage to master the powers in such short of time."
"I guess you heard about that."
"Your wife and sister were very enthusiastic about it. I am with them when they said they were quite impressed with your ability to control it. I will ask you when this is all over to show me your abilities and perhaps I can show you some of the techniques you can apply to help to continue to control it."
"Thank you, Professor." Harry sighed. "Now all I have to worry about is finding Hermione and me a home."
"On the contrary, I believe the opposite is true." The headmaster pulled out a piece of legal parchment out of his robes. He handed it to Harry.
When he read the address, Harry chuckled. "I take it this is my parents' old home in Godric's Hollow."
"I know you said something about being near the school to be closer to work; however, the house already belongs to you since you are the legal heir." The Headmaster smiled. "The house is connected to the floo network, so your question as to getting here for school is already answered."
"I'll have to talk it over with Hermione before we make a decision."
"Of course, for now I believe we have at least several dozen parties to be getting to not to mention to prepare for the second burial of your parents." The Headmaster set down his cup and rose from his seat. Harry followed once his cup was empty.
"One thing still bothers me, Professor. Some of Voldermort's followers are still out there. Do you think we'll ever be able to capture them all?"
"Unfortunately, I don't think we'll ever be able rid the world of all the evil in the world. All we can do is to strive to promote diversity and understanding among the wizarding world." The headmaster offered as he and his former student exited the office. "After all, we are all human; muggles and wizards alike. There is bound to be some radical who wants to kill a certain group of people for one reason or another, unfortunately."
"I take it you aren't a fan of Utopian societies?" Hermione offered as they made their way down the stairs when she over heard their conversation.
"Alas, I'm stating the truth." The headmaster sighed. "If only a utopia could exist. For now, the Great Hall beckons with guests and we'll have as close as we can get to one for the time being."
"Agreed," Harry smiled at Hermione and placed his hand upon the spot where their child was growing. "Right now is the closest we'll ever have to a utopia."
*****
End of Chapter