Storytime with Rachel F Hundred

21^st December 2010

“I should thank you,” Sue said, a smile softening the stern lines of her face.

Harry thought that Sue looked more and more like her Aunt Amelia every year. There were worse people to resemble; Amelia was a beautiful witch who continued to preside over the Department of Magical Law Enforcement with an iron hand. He knew a part of Amelia was disappointed that Susan had left the department to teach at Hogwarts instead of remaining a career Auror.

“Thank me?” asked Harry, pulling his attention back to his meeting with his Professor of Defence of the Dark Arts.

“Neville asked me out for dinner,” Sue explained. “He said you give him a push.”

“He didn’t need much of one,” Harry shrugged off the praise and took the cup of coffee Sue offered him.

They’d met up in Sue’s office, a large sprawling room at the back of the classroom which had been Harry’s for years. Sue had made it her own. There was a shelf of her awards and certificates on the right wall; safety posters from various DMLE campaigns on the left. Her bookshelves were packed to the brim with books ranging from ‘How to stop a vampire’ to ‘Shields: Everything you need to know.’ His eyes widened at the sight of the latest book on magical curses sat on her desk. He’d only just received his own copy.

“Luna may have given me a push too,” Sue admitted. “I adore Neville, but there is a lot of baggage.”

“Old baggage,” Harry said gently.

Sue wrapped her hands around her coffee mug. “Right, and I refuse to let Hannah’s betrayal steal anything else from me.” Her expression grew thoughtful. “She did her time and she’s moved on. It’s probably past time that those she hurt do the same.”

“I know it’s easier said than done,” Harry murmured. He still hated Peter Pettigrew although the rat had died years before in Azkaban. He’d never forgive Peter for betraying his family and leading Voldemort to their door and he doubted Sirius would either.

“But we should make the effort,” Sue said firmly.

Harry lifted his own mug in a silent toast of acknowledgement.

“So, what brings you to my office this morning?” asked Sue, clearly changing the subject. She arched an eyebrow in a way that reminded Harry even more of Amelia. “Is this about Luna coming back?”

“Partly,” Harry admitted. “We’re all together now or we will be once Hermione gets home.”

Sue nodded solemnly. “Something’s coming.”

“Whatever is coming, Luna said it will begin in the new year,” Harry said.

“Do you know what it is?” asked Sue pointedly.

Harry sighed and rubbed his chin. “I saw the end of it. When I…when I died protecting everyone from Crouch’s bomb, for a moment I was stood on a battlefield with our king, a sword in his hand, facing an indescribable evil.”

“’The Once and Future King,’” Sue quoted, blinking back her shock. “The prophecy says that he will come when England needs him the most.”

“He’ll need protection until he’s ready to meet his Fate,” Harry stated.

Sue’s gaze met his directly. “Then he’ll have protection here at Hogwarts under her wings with her protectors sworn to protect him.” She tilted her head. “The family magic…”

“Will protect him too,” Harry said. His magic stirred beneath his skin. “That is Merlin’s legacy.”

Sue shivered as the magical truth of his words echoed through her own family magic. “If you call upon the whole of it again, you will die.”

“Every magical act has a price,” Harry agreed. “I only survived last time because of the accidental tether I’d created between Sirius and me, and Albus was willing to give his own life in place of mine.” He shrugged. “I don’t truly know if I’ll need to call upon the family magic the same way I did to contain Crouch’s bomb. It may not be necessary.”

“Let’s hope not,” Sue said fervently. “None of us want to lose you.” She tapped her fingers against her mug. “That’s not the only power you have to use.”

“No, but I can use the Hallows,” Harry agreed, “or at least I can use them the way I used them in the battle the last time, in concert, but I cannot use them to call on Death’s power. Even as his Champion the price I would pay would be too high.”

And it would not be his to pay truly.

When Harry’s ancestor Ignotus had called Death’s power, he had condemned Harry to be Death’s Champion, to face Voldemort, to know loss and grief before he was a grown man. It had only been the intervention of the Grim, of Padfoot, which had mitigated Death’s judgement giving Harry knowledge of love and his own protector.

“Don’t forget you still have the Potter alliance,” Sue said briskly. “Our wands are still sworn to you.”

Harry nodded, remembering his dream. “I’m going to have to take more of a role in the Wizengamot.”

“Rather you than me,” Sue rejoined immediately. “Dad keeps trying to get me more involved as his heir but I’m just as glad to leave it to him for a few more years yet.”

“Lucky you,” Harry sighed. “Anyway, I just wanted to loop you into the whole…” he gestured vaguely.

“Oncoming storm of evil that we’re once again fated to fight?” Sue raised her mug at him. “Thank you for that.”

He grinned at her dry sarcasm and raised his own mug in silent acknowledgement.

“I guess the others already know?” Sue murmured, taking a sip of her coffee.

“I still need to meet with Draco,” Harry said. His Professor of Charms had been avoiding him since the reveal of his and Ginny’s relationship.

“I’m surprised Ron’s taking the big reveal so well,” Sue said. “I thought Draco would have been a dead wizard for sure when the Weasleys found out.”

Harry’s gaze narrowed on her. “Did you know they were dating?”

Sue smirked. “You didn’t?”

Harry groaned dramatically. “How did I not guess?”

“Never change, Harry,” Sue said with a grin. “Never change.”

o-O-o

Harry rarely spoke to the picture of Albus that hung in the Headmaster’s office. He knew Minerva had appreciated the old wizard’s advice even if she had remonstrated with Albus for his old manipulations. Harry loved Albus like a child loved a favoured grandparent and he’d forgiven him long ago for the hurts Albus’ decisions had caused in his own life. Yet…

Yet Harry could barely bring himself to talk to the wizarding portrait of the former Headmaster.

It was rarer still to meet Albus in his dreams but Harry found himself stood beside Albus at the shores of the Black lake looking out at the still water, Hogwarts behind them.

“Headmaster,” Harry greeted Albus with a respectful nod.

Albus smiled warmly back at him. “Headmaster Potter.”

Harry snorted at the title.

“You wanted to talk with me, Harry,” Albus said.

“Did I?” Harry didn’t think he’d wanted to talk with Albus.

“Didn’t you? You are the Master of the Deathly Hallows. You are the one to call us into your dreams, dear boy.”

Harry grimaced but he couldn’t argue with the logic.

“Well, we might as well, get comfortable,” Albus conjured a comfortable squishy chair as gaudy as the robes he wore and sat down in it.

Harry took out his wand and conjured a chair for himself – a more modest leather armchair similar to the one he favoured in his quarters.

“Now, what did you want to talk with me about?” Albus asked, his blue eyes twinkling.

He almost reiterated that he hadn’t wanted to talk with him, but the sudden thought that the Headmaster had been on his mind since the discussion with Sue arrested him. He’d been thinking about Albus’ sacrifice, thinking about how it had been Albus’ redemption in many ways after his actions had seen Harry suffer a childhood with the Dursleys and had condemned Sirius to Azkaban.

He had wondered…

“How do I stop myself from your mistakes?” Harry blinked as the words he’d uttered aloud hung in the air between them.

Albus breathed in sharply. “Ah, dear boy.” For a long moment the old wizard looked saddened. “Your father gave me a test once. He was kind to give me a Dreadful. In hindsight, I rather deserved a Troll.”

Harry stayed silent as Albus grew contemplative, a line appearing across his brow.

“Looking back, I grew arrogant about my position in the wizarding world and knowing what was right,” Albus confessed sheepishly. “I was the most powerful of my generation, I apprenticed with Nicholas, and I defeated Grindelwald. While I outwardly refused some positions of power, I enjoyed the status and the respect of those I did accept. People looked to me for answers and I revelled in their belief of my wisdom. I began to believe that only I knew the way forward and so I began to truly trust no-one but myself. Only I knew what was right. In the end, I believed that to be true beyond all else.”

Harry could see it in his mind’s eyes. Albus’ decline into arrogance had been slow and steady, action by action. He remembered the awe and the reverence which had surrounded him in the wake of Voldemort’s defeat…he had handled it through dedicated stubbornness at pretending he was normal, by leaning into his friends and family who simply loved him as Harry. Sirius had faced the same hero-worship and had pretty much done the same as Harry, Harry mused. It had probably helped that he’d gradually stepped away from being the face of the Potter alliance too and had settled into his artist role at the school.

“I don’t believe you’ll make the same mistakes I made,” Albus concluded. “I think you’ll make all new ones of your own.”

“Well, that’s a slightly horrifying thought,” Harry said.

Albus huffed a laugh. “You will make mistakes, Harry, we all do. The trick is to hope that when you go wrong, you can make right in the end.”

Harry took a deep breath and let the words settle into his soul. It was good advice.

“Thank you, Headmaster,” he said solemnly.

Albus began to fade, chair and all, but his eyes still twinkled as he delivered his farewell. “Good luck, Headmaster Potter.”

o-O-o

22^nd December 2010

Harry woke abruptly with the certain knowledge in his magic that something was very wrong with Draco and that something evil had entered the wards.

He dragged on his dressing gown as he hurried from his rooms.

He met Sirius who was in his Padfoot form at the end of the corridor.

“Draco?” Harry checked.

There was a brief nod of the head before Padfoot bounded away,

Harry shifted into his lion form and followed after him swiftly. He ignored the faint cries of horror from the portraits. Some of the older portraits still believed that the grim was a portent of death and some of them were simply alarmed by the sight of an adult lion roaming the corridors of Hogwarts.

They both reached Draco’s door at the same time as a bedraggled Regina. The usually immaculately put together fifteen years old girl looked more like her messy cousin Dora given her flannel tartan pyjamas and her open dressing robe – the only difference was that Regina’s unusually messy hair was blonde. She had chosen to stay at Hogwarts with her brother rather than return to the home she shared with her mother since Narcissa had business abroad and would only return on Christmas Eve.

Harry was grateful that Sirius immediately shifted back to comfort Regina even as Harry shifted himself to address the portrait of a snake which guarded the door.

“As Headmaster of Hogwarts I command that you give me entry,” Harry hissed in parseltongue.

“Your wish is my command, Headmaster,” the snake hissed back.

The door opened.

Harry charged in and headed straight for Draco’s bedroom.

Draco was lying prone on the bed struggling fiercely against several black lines of foreign magic which were tangled all around him trying to bind him. Harry could see the glint of a shield around Draco’s body. Sweat gleamed on Draco’s pale brow, his eyes were squeezed tightly shut as he fought against the attack.

“Familius magicus protectus,” called Harry urgently pointing his wand at Draco.

The Black silver snake slid out of the wand and shot across to the bed winding around Draco and driving the black lines away and into a writhing ball in the middle of the room.

Draco shot up as they left him, panic written in his frantic wide eyes. “NO! It’s a blood curse…”

Harry whirled around and ran as the black lines barrelled out of the door seeking another Malfoy…

“Familius magicus protectus!” Sirius stood in front of Regina, his wand pointed up to the ceiling. The silver hue of the Black magic rained down and surrounded the pair in a protective dome. The black lines flinched back but continued to probe trying to find a weakness.

“The counter is sanguinem delere!” Draco informed him as he staggered over to stand beside Harry.

The black lines turned again heading their way.

Harry pointed his wand firmly as they raced toward them. “Sanguinem delere!”

A gold line shot forward from the tip of his wand and headed unerringly for the black lines. It impacted them with a bang and there was a shower of sparks which had both Harry and Draco turning away with alacrity.

When Harry lowered his arm, the lines were gone.

Sirius lowered the dome.

Regina darted around Sirius and across the room to hug her brother. Sirius followed her and pulled Harry into a short hug of their own.

“Are you alright?” asked Sirius quietly.

Harry nodded. “I’m fine,” he assured his father quietly. A movement by the door caught his attention; Minerva stood by the entryway. “I’d better check on the wards and the rest of the school.”

Sirius grimaced but let him go. “I’ll stay here. Malfoy might try again.”

Harry frowned. Lucius Malfoy had been quiet for years, living in exile in South America. “You really think it was him?”

“Blood curse,” Sirius reiterated, “it could only be him or Narcissa so…”

It was very unlikely to be Narcissa who adored her children.

She had swiftly divorced Lucius in the wake of Voldemort’s defeat. She held the Malfoy proxy on Draco’s behalf, Lucius having ostensibly retired from his war injuries. His leg had been severely injured and he’d been informed that he’d always walk with a limp and need the aide of a cane. Lucius had lived in exile quietly for the past fifteen years so why had he decided to attack his children?

Harry pushed his thoughts of Lucius Malfoy aside and turned back to his duties as Headmaster. First on the agenda was calling the aurors and reporting the attack then seeing to the students who had remained at the school…

It was over two hours later when he made his way to Sirius’ quarters. He wasn’t surprised to see Draco dressed in fresh pyjamas and a silken green robe sat by the fire sharing a whiskey with Sirius who was attired in his own variant.

Harry sat down on the sofa next to his father.

Dobby popped in. The house elf handed Harry a hot chocolate with a loud tut and popped away again.

“Everything alright with the rest of the school?” asked Draco studiously looking at his drink.

“All the other students who are here for Christmas slept through it. Only Minerva realised out of the Professors and us, probably because of her past connection to the wards. Hogwarts has reset the wards,” Harry said briskly. “He won’t get the opportunity to try that curse again while you’re within the walls here.”

“I’ll have to get the wards redone at the Manor,” Draco said with a grimace. “He’s too knowledgeable about the current configuration and I won’t risk Regina that way.”

“How is she?” asked Harry.

“Asleep in your old room,” Sirius said. “Pomfrey agreed that it was best for her to stay with family for the rest of the night. Draco’s going to sleep here too.”

“I don’t think I can sleep in those quarters again,” Draco confessed, deep lines bracketing his mouth at the admission.

“We’ll get you resettled,” Harry promised. “Snape’s old quarters are still available or there is a set closer to the common room.”

Draco hummed. “Maybe Snape’s. They have a private lab, don’t they?”

Harry nodded. “How did it go with Auror Sapworthy?”

Young Connor Sapworthy had grown-up into a fine young man. He was Sue’s former partner and a rising star at the DMLE.  

Draco let out a slow breath and closed his eyes briefly. “I told Connor the spell my former parent used is an old Malfoy curse. It is meant to drain a blood relative of their magic and enhance the power of the castor. Lucius once claimed my great-grandfather had used it on his siblings. It leaves the victim nothing more than a squib at best, and dead at worst.”

“There’s a similar spell in the Black arsenal,” Sirius muttered lowly.

Draco lifted his empty glass. “Regina says he sent her a letter on her last birthday. He asked to meet her. She declined. He’s sent her two more letters since; she’s ignored both of them.”

Harry felt a tremor of terror at the idea of Regina meeting Lucius alone.

“She didn’t tell us because she didn’t want to worry us,” Draco recited. His silver eyes were flint hard. “I think we all know that if he had gotten her alone, he would have killed her.”

“Lucius is not at the estate in Peru any longer,” Sirius said crisply. “Moody called the Peruvian authorities and they checked out the place. It’s abandoned.”

“So, Lucius is in the wind,” Harry murmured.

“It looks like it,” Sirius sighed heavily.

“It doesn’t make any sense. Lucius has been quiet for years. Why now?” Harry asked.

“Why not now?” retorted Draco. “Things are in motion. You took up the Headship. Sue and Ron both returned to Hogwarts. Luna’s here. Whatever is coming is coming. Of course, my father would choose the other side. He’s always hated that I accepted the vow and bound myself to Hogwarts.”

Harry pushed a hand through his messy hair and nodded. “Unfortunately, that makes a lot of sense.”

The clock chimed.

“We should all try to get some more sleep,” Sirius said.  

Draco flinched. “I’m not sure…”

“I’ll guard you and Regina,” Sirius promised. “Head up and get comfortable.”

Draco sighed. He got up and set his glass down on the side table. “I’ll go in with Regina. I doubt she’s sleeping either.”

Harry watched as Draco made his way up the stairs. “He’s worried.”

“So am I,” Sirius said. “Lucius is a formidable wizard. If he’s found someone new to follow or someone has recruited him, or if he’s decided to make trouble himself…it’s not good news.”

“Could we call Judgement on him?” asked Harry bluntly.

“Maybe,” Sirius shrugged. “I’m not sure if magic would consider his service to us during the Voldemort confrontation a balance for his broken oath. He did risk his life even if he really didn’t want to do it.”

Harry grimaced. “Should we try? Not for back then but for now? For him trying to kill Draco and Regina?”

“Let’s sleep on it?” suggested Sirius. “Maybe confer with Remus and Bertie. They may have some knowledge about Judgement that will let us know the most likely outcome.”

It was a good suggestion. Harry glanced up the stairs. “Do you want me to stay down here? I can have Dobby make up the sofa?”

Sirius shook his head. “We’ll be fine. Go and get some rest, Headmaster.”

Harry offered him a lazy salute and headed out, down the corredor to his own rooms and his own bed. He took one look at it, remembered the black lines attacking Draco on his, and shifted into his wolf form. He curled up to sleep on the rug in front of the fire.

o-O-o

“Albus will be horrified that you are talking with me.”

“It was either you or Tom and I really don’t want to talk to him,” Harry said.

They stood in a classroom in Hogwarts.

Gellert Grindelwald laughed as he sat back against the teacher’s desk, hands in his trouser pockets. He looked young and charming. Harry could see why a young Albus would have fallen in love with him.

“You want to understand the mind of a dark wizard,” Grindelwald stated.

“Malfoy tried to kill his children,” Harry said. “Who does that?”

“A man who feels betrayed and abandoned by them,” Grindelwald said simply, a hint of his Germanic accent coming through his words.

Harry sighed.

“You should have killed him,” Grindelwald continued. “He bowed down to the House of Black. He played his part in helping you survive. His reward was to be divorced from his wife, physically badly injured, and estranged from his children, especially his son. You should have killed him rather than leave him alive to plot and plan his vengeance.”

Unfortunately, he wasn’t wrong.  

“He is also an idiot to reveal himself now,” Grindelwald said. “You know he is your enemy again and can plan accordingly.”

“He wasn’t an idiot back when he led his faction,” Harry pointed out. The most idiotic thing he’d done was trying to use Riddle’s diary.

“So why does an intelligent wizard allow himself to be revealed as an enemy?” Grindelwald prompted, a keenness in his expression that disturbed Harry.

“Because he’s feeling confident,” Harry thought out loud.

“We must ask ourselves why he feels confident?” Grindelwald said.

Harry grimaced. “He thinks he’s got the upper hand.”

“You and your father are still powerful and he was exiled and powerless,” Grindelwald pointed at him, “which means…”

“He’s found someone he thinks is more powerful than us who will help him,” Harry deduced. It was proving to be a week of horrifying thoughts and realisations. He made for the classroom door.

“Come talk to me again,” Grindelwald called out behind him. “I’ll be right here waiting for you, Master of the Hallows.”

Harry closed the classroom door on the grinning Dark Lord and swore not to call upon him or any Dark Lord again.

To be completed in part 4.

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