Companions of the White Warlock

Smoke Year VII - Companions of the White Warlock Chapter XVI Monday, September 8, 1997

Harry met with all his Council, plus Moody, McGonagall, and Arthur and Bill Weasley, after lunch. "First of all, Mister Weasley, Luna has a press release for you. The first three pages will be printed in tomorrow's Prophet, and those and the next five pages will be printed in the next issue of The Quibbler. The full twelve pages are for your eyes and the Minister's only." Arthur nodded. "Basically, just so you and a few others know now, all the known dementors which went over Voldemort have been destroyed."

Arthur, the twins, and Hagrid were totally stunned. Hermione and Tonks, who had only come back from their overseas trip that morning, were elated by the news. Harry went on. "In a joint mission some of my Paladins and the Order took out four of the nests. We arranged for other allies to destroy the others."

"Don't forget that you were the main reason why those four nests were destroyed," Remus pointed out.

Harry shrugged. "I was there, and so were others. We were all needed."

"Right," Arthur agreed, somewhat doubtfully. "Still, the dementor threat is over?"

Harry looked at Russell, who answered. "If our estimates, which were thirty percent higher from any we got from the Ministry, were correct, then we eliminated all the known dementors which went over to Voldemort and then bred for the past year. There could have, of course, been more. If so, then we could have more attacks, but nothing on the scale of the summer and autumn of '96."

"We also have to remember that while all the dementors our Ministry employed went over to Voldemort, that was not all the known dementors," Remus added. "They perhaps accounted for seventy percent of the world's known dementors. We have no idea what the so-called 'wild' dementors might do."

"The Prophet press release mentions that, and the Quibbler's goes into more detail," Russell put in.

"The rest of the meeting is for our ears, and those of the Minister's, alone, at least until we release it," Harry warned the group. Everyone nodded. Harry took their eyes in, and then turned to Luna.

As Luna took out a stack of parchment, Harry said, "As you all know, on the Second of August, a group of us went back to the Chamber of Secrets and we did a very thorough search. We found several hidden doors. Some led to rooms which had been cleaned out. One led to a passage under the lake and up into the mountain to the northwest of Hogwarts. We also found one room that was filled with parchment. Luna, aided by Professors Russell and Lupin and Hermione in their spare time, has gone through the material."

Luna was very matter-of-fact for her. "There is no way to tell for certain if Voldemort entered this room while he attended Hogwarts. As far as we could tell, however, his avatar did not enter this room. The tracking spells we used can only be certain back some forty years or so with certainty. Professor Russell and Mister Moody, however, judged it likely that the room had been closed for centuries, but they cannot be totally sure." Everyone nodded their understanding.

"There doesn't seem to be much in the archive that would directly relate to the war or to understanding or stopping Voldemort," Luna went on. "However, it did include Salazar Slytherin's personal memoirs and diary, as well as letters to him and copies of his responses and some later material. If there is a qualified person we can turn these over to, it would really be a major historical document. May I please give a brief summary?"

"Very brief," Ron muttered. Hermione gave him a dirty look, but said nothing.

"In short, Slytherin's House was supposed to be for the ambitious and the politically minded. That changed forty-eight years after the school was founded, but was still being built."

"Hogwarts: A History says that the castle was built over a forty year period," Hermione said.

"Slytherin's notes show that the first students were admitted before the castle was built. They had a series of wooden lodges for the students of each House and a large wooden meeting hall for eating and some classes," Luna said. "Slytherin was building and reinforcing the foundations for sixty years. In the forty-eighth year of the school, Slytherin's only granddaughter was raped by a group of Muggles. From the time frame, it could have been a late group of invading Scoti or possibly a group of Vikings. Whomever it was, they were able to overcome her because there was a Muggle-born wizard in the group, educated, it says, 'in foreign lands and foreign ways'. This was just two years after Gryffindor had proposed that Muggle-born wizards of non-British and non-Saxon ancestry should be sought out and offered admission."

"And that started the breech between Gryffindor and Slytherin?" Neville asked. "The fact that Slytherin wanted to blame an entire group for the crime of one person?"

Luna nodded. "It was made worse when the granddaughter died giving birth to a son. Slytherin was not kind to the child, and when the child entered Gryffindor's House, Slytherin broke with the other three and left Hogwarts. A great grandson of his, through his second son, also left notes. He was apparently the first direct male descendant to attend Hogwarts after Slytherin left, and he taught for a few years afterwards. When he was not made Headmaster in 1206, he left the school and helped in the early years of building up Durmstrang, and it seems as if it was he who hatched the basilisk, not Slytherin himself. He had a younger sister, who married the wizard who took over Slytherin House after John Slytherin left. His name was Sylvester Gaunt."

"Riddle's connection with Slytherin," Harry pointed out for those who were not as familiar with Riddle's ancestry.

"Exactly," Luna agreed.

"I know a scholar in Canada who can take on the editing and annotations," Russell said.

"Why Canada?" Hermione asked.

"Almost any North American would be harder for Voldemort to influence," Russell pointed out. "She would also harder to discredit by his supporters and Pure-Blood activists in general."

"Look into it," Harry said. "Anything else?" Luna shook her head. "Hermione?"

"We've tracked down all the orphans still alive who the Headmaster had failed to track down," Hermione said.

"Even the one you said you couldn't find anything about?" Ginny asked.

"Yes. I found her in Winnipeg, Canada. As we thought, she was too young when she was there to have any useful information. The same was pretty much true of all the others. Still," Hermione said with a small smile of satisfaction, "we did find one in Salt Lake City who at least knew and remembered Riddle as more than an aloof teen who went away to school most of the year. Better still, she was not on the list of those the Headmaster had looked for and interviewed."

"And?" Harry asked.

"Deborah Ann Johnson, Childs as she was then, is a little older than Riddle. She was born in 1917. Her father died in the Great War and her mother and other near relatives were killed in the Great Flu Epidemic of 1918-1919. She was placed in the orphanage in early 1919 and she stayed until 1933. She came back as a part-time cook in 1936 and she stayed until the orphanage was destroyed in 1945. Since she was only a part-time employee, she wasn't on the list the Headmaster had, and he didn't have her married name."

"Isn't eighty awfully old for a Muggle?" Ron asked.

"It can be," Hermione agreed. "She's pretty alert, and showed no sign of mental problems."

"So, she knew Riddle from the time he entered the place, and could have heard about how he acted both before and after he entered Hogwarts," Harry summed up.

"Exactly."

"When was Riddle there?" Neville asked.

"Riddle was born in 1927 and was at Hogwarts from 1938 through 1945. He left the Muggle orphanage during the summer of 1944. He and Deborah therefore overlapped from 1927 through 1933 as orphans, and then from 1936 and 1944. She worked part-time taking care of the younger orphans from 1930 through 1933 while she was still there as an orphan herself."

"So, what did she remember of Riddle?" McGonagall demanded.

"First of all, that he was very smart," Hermione admitted. "He learned to read by the age of four with just a little help from herself and one of the other workers. He was never popular with the other children. She said that most children formed cliques, while Riddle was a loner."

"She seemed to have mixed feelings for Riddle," Tonks mused.

"In what way?" Harry asked.

"Mrs. Johnson rather liked him, and said that she never had anything to complain about him. He was smart, polite, and he even gave her a small gift when he left the orphanage in 1944."

Those that knew about the Horcruxes looked stunned for a moment, but then saw Hermione shake her head slightly. "Not to draw out the suspense, it was a magical object in the form of a silver locket. It was enchanted to be something called a comitatus pledge."

"Well," Russell said, "that's an old-fashioned item."

"Fine," Ron said, "what's a commie-whatever do?"

"Warlocks used to give them to Muggles they found worthy," Russell explained. "A thousand years ago, in a few places, warlocks used to hunt Muggle peasants for sport, and weren't above going after the knights when they thought they could get away with it. Some gave these items to Muggles they wanted to keep safe, usually because they worked for the wizard. If you wear it long enough, say three years non-stop, you give off a faint magical signal for the rest of your life."

"She still does," Hermione agreed. "Her granddaughter wears it these days."

"I never heard of such a thing," Ron said. "I'm not surprised Riddle knew about these things, but is anyone besides me shocked that he actually made one?"

Everyone looked at Harry, who shrugged. "Did the woman know if Riddle made any others for anyone at the orphanage?"

"Not as far as she knew," Hermione answered. "I would say that she was the only one who ever went out of her way to be nice to Riddle at that orphanage, at least who wasn't weaker than he was."

"And being a natural bully, he no doubt just harassed them," Harry agreed, who knew about bullies.

"I take it that's why she had mixed feelings for Riddle," Remus said thoughtfully.

"Exactly," Tonks jumped in. "She never saw any evidence that Riddle picked on, let alone abused, anyone at the orphanage. She did know, however, that most of the children around his age and younger were afraid of him."

"What did she have to say about that?" Harry asked.

"That in that orphanage, you were either the biter or the bitten," Hermione said. "From what I could gather from all the people I met and the records my Mum dug up, this orphanage was not a good place to live, even as far as these places went, but that it wasn't the hell-hole some were at times. Riddle was a survivor, and as he gained some magical power, he used it to put himself at the top of the dirt pile."

"To go back to Ron's question," Harry said thoughtfully, "I guess we shouldn't be too terribly surprised he gave one of these out. It was more a gesture of the superior wizard than any sign of real compassion. By admitting there was one good Muggle, he probably just wrote off all the others. If there are any other worthwhile Muggles, then some other wizard should mark them as their property."

"That could be true," Russell said. "Unfortunately, that was the old attitude." He looked at Hermione. "So, we can ignore the orphans for any leads?"

"It looks like it," Hermione agreed. "I wish it hadn't taken so much time."

"It was a lead that just didn't work out," Harry said firmly, moving things forward to new business. "One of two things is going to happen once he finds out his dementors are gone. First, Voldemort lashes out. Second, he stays underground for a while. If the first, we're going to be very busy. If it's the second," he added to Hermione, who was still looking a bit down from her lack of success with the orphans and staff of the orphanage, "you, Luna, Remus, and the Prof are going to have to sift through tons of mostly useless information, looking for clues."

"Then let's hope we sift through tons of information, instead of dead bodies," Hermione said.

Tuesday, September 9, 1997

"This tells us next to nothing," Voldemort snarled, tossing The Daily Prophet to the floor in disgust. When Snape said nothing, Voldemort looked at him. "What do you believe you discovered?" Snape almost looked afraid. "Speak!"

"I know this information is likely inaccurate," Snape managed to say.

"But if it isn't? there is no clue about who destroyed my dementors!"

"Well, if it's accurate, we know who destroyed nearly a third of them."

"Potter!" Voldemort spat.

Snape nodded. "I know the Order. Unless there was some way to sneak past the natural wards generated by the hibernating dementors, Potter had to have broken them down. No one else in the Order could have broken through." It was a bitter pill for Snape to swallow, but logic suggested no other likely explanation to him.

Voldemort, however, thought of another. "Dumbledore could have broken through." He hadn't believed that possible, but he could not believe Potter could have done it, since he knew that he could not have done it at Potter's age.

Snape took a step back in fear. "Dumbledore is dead."

"I am certain Dumbledore, aided by you and others, could have fooled my idiotic followers!" Voldemort snarled. He raised his wand.

"Master!" Snape pleaded.

"It is time I made certain that I know all your deepest secrets, Severus Snape. Legilimens!"

Minister Scrimgeour glared at Harry, who, unrepentant, merely looked up at him. "And this is all you're going to tell me?" Scrimgeour demanded for the third time.

"Yes," Harry said. "If it makes you feel any better, only one person besides myself knows much more than you."

"It doesn't," the Minister snapped. "These people. . . ."

"The people who helped us aren't interested in helping any more than they did," Harry said firmly. "They were interested in having their shot at the dementors, and couldn't care less about Voldemort, one way or another. If there was any chance you could influence them, I would tell you how."

"And, like Dumbledore, I have to take your word?" Scrimgeour stood up, angry. "That is no way to run a government!"

"You know, Percy said something similar to me," Harry said mildly. "And I understand what you and he mean. It is not a good way to run a government." Harry stood and looked Scrimgeour in the eye. His expression hardened. "And you know what? I'm not the government, but I'm stuck running things because the governments of Europe have screwed up for at least the last hundred years. The governments had over thirty years to deal with Grindelwald and failed, leaving it to Dumbledore. Our Ministry had ten years to fight the first rise of Voldemort, and it totally screwed up every step along the way."

"The Minister at that time could not know. . . ."

"The Ministry failed!" Harry barked. "Dumbledore had to step in again and set up a para-military group with about one percent of the Ministry's resources at the most and fought Voldemort to a stand-still."

"Using Ministry personnel. . . ."

"Who cared more about fighting evil than paperwork," Harry agreed. "Then Voldemort was gone. Every Ministry in Europe knew he wasn't dead. Why wasn't he tracked down and captured or destroyed? When he started making his comeback, what did the Ministry do to stop him? Persecute Dumbledore and try to have me either killed or at least thrown out of the magical world. What the hell kind of government is that? Why should I subordinate myself to that?"

Scrimgeour flushed but said nothing.

"I would rather let you handle everything, but you can't really do it, can you?" Harry demanded. "No, what you want is for me to do all the dirty work but under your direction. Well screw that! We can either work together like we have been, or you can go to hell and I can do my job!"

"Maybe Weasley is right, and you are a glory hound," Scrimgeour accused.

"Nonsense," Harry said with contempt. "A hundred years from now, or at least two hundred years from now, considering how much longer we live than Muggles, you'll be the one getting most of the credit."

"And how do you figure that?" Scrimgeour demanded, doubtfully.

"There are two reasons," Harry answered, bringing out ideas that Hermione and the Prof had debated with others in the inner group on and off for a while. "First of all, most of what we do is in the shadows and most of what you and the Ministry is being reported. Secondly, while getting rid of Voldemort is the most important short-term goal, destroying the Muggle-hating part of the magical community who keep backing Dark Wizards against Muggles, the Muggle-born, mixed-bloods, and incidentally the power of the Ministries is more your job than mine, and it's the one thing that might prevent some new lunatic from coming along and stirring up this much trouble. If you and the other governments can get that done, as you are by stripping people like the Malfoys of their protection, in the long run the victory will be yours, not mine, and I won't mind that a bit."

Scrimgeour snorted in derision although, truth be told, Harry's arguments had had some impact on him.

A knock on the door interrupted Harry and the Minister. "What is it?" Harry demanded.

Alastor Moody and John Russell came into the room. "My lord, Minister?" Russell said, "you need to come with us."

"Why?" Scrimgeour demanded.

"Potter here was sent a present," Moody declared.

"What kind of nonsense is this?" Scrimgeour demanded.

"Who sent it?" Harry asked.

"Voldemort sent it," Moody said.

"But it wasn't an 'it'. . . ." Russell broke in.

"Well, it is now," Moody argued.

"I suppose you're right," Russell agreed.

"This 'it' was a . . . 'who'?" Scrimgeour demanded.

"It was," Russell agreed.

"I suppose," Moody nodded.

"Voldemort sent a body?" Harry asked, puzzled.

"Aye, he sent a body, but not a dead one," Moody answered.

"What. . . ?"

"It looks like long-term exposure to Legilimency and Cruciatus," Russell answered.

Moody nodded. "Several hours of both. Right now, at least, there's not much left except a breathing shell."

"Who was it?" Scrimgeour demanded.

"Severus Snape," Moody answered.