The Butterfly Effect

The Butterfly Effect, by James Bow

Chapter Three: Preparations

Days later, in Hogwarts' Great Hall, Harry Potter stepped to the podium usually reserved for Dumbledore and the other professors. The crowd of students at all four tables was smaller now, but Harry looked like a drop isolated from a sea of humanity. He felt all eyes on him, and he swallowed hard. Silence lengthened in the room.

"I don't know what I'm doing here," he said at last. "I never asked to be a wizard, or the Boy Who Lived. I am just trying to do the best I can, and I'm just as frightened as each and every one of you."

The crowd shifted uncomfortably.

"All I ever wanted was a normal life," Harry continued. "To grow up with friends. To learn spells and maybe teach at Hogwarts someday. I've had some of that thanks to you." He nodded quickly at Hermione and Ron, who gave him encouraging smiles. "But these past seven years have been far from normal, for any of us. Over these years we've lost Cedric Diggory, Professor Flitwick, even Argus Filch. The world just shakes under our feet from forces much bigger than we are."

Wesley looked at the floor sadly.

Then Harry drew himself up. "But a few days ago, when I saw Ginny Weasley lying in a coma at St. Mungo's, I realized I wanted more than a normal life. I wanted the ability to choose a normal life. I wanted to be free. Voldemort--"

A gasp shook the crowd. Harry glared.

"Voldemort--" he started again.

The gasp shook the crowd again.

"Voldemort is just an name!" Harry shouted, thumping the podium so hard that everyone jumped. Silence echoed through the Great Hall.

Harry took a deep breath. "Voldemort is just a wizard. A powerful wizard, but one who has given me a simple choice: either to stand up and fight, risking freedom or death, or cower before him and live in fear under his thumb. He would tell you that there is only one choice: to cower; that death is not an option. He's wrong. I know my choice, and if it's death, let me die fighting. I'm staying at Hogwarts to face the Dark Lord. Are you with me?"

"Yes!" said a handful of students, including Ron, Hermione and Wesley immediately. The word carried through the crowd like ripples on a pond.

"Are you with me!" Harry thundered.

"YES!"

***

Wesley took another sip from his glass; he'd switched to water by now, while Ginny nursed her first glass of scotch.

He took a deep breath. "The war was, of course, completely different from the alternate future I'd come from. In my timeline, Ron and Hermione were years older when the war started. Voldemort had a twisted Harry Potter as his lieutenant. There had been no gradual build-up of Death Eater activity. It had taken us by surprise.

"But here, the surprise was the same. Even though Voldemort was at the back of our minds all the time, and even though we'd seen his forces building, we were in shock. War? How could it happen to us? I guess war always comes as a surprise. Harry mobilized us. Fudge was smart enough to play Harry's speech on WWN. Recruitment doubled overnight. If the Boy Who Lived was fighting, then so would they."

"Then Dumbledore and Fudge set up the defence forces," said Ginny.

"Yeah. Many wizard families were evacuated to the safe havens, especially Muggle parents. But Hogwarts wasn't one of those havens. The year was cancelled, and all the students sent back to their families. A large force of Aurors arrived, and began stockpiling weapons. The seventh years were given the option of returning home, or volunteering for this special force. Given Harry's speech, three quarters of the students remained, and most of their parents didn't complain, much. The Houses were suspended, although various duties were dominated by various houses, and the dormatories divided between boys and girls. Battlements went up the next day; I didn't see them rising. Hogwarts was to be used not as a safe haven, but a fortress, to face the brunt of Voldemort's attack..."

"Even the Dursleys?" asked Harry in disbelief. He, Dumbledore and Wesley were walking down one of the corridors of Hogwarts towards the Great Hall.

Dumbledore nodded. "Vernon, Petunia and Dudley arrived in the Cornwall encampment today."

Harry shook his head. "I never thought I'd say this, but poor Uncle Vernon, surrounded by all those wizarding parents. But why them? Surely Voldemort wouldn't go after them."

"They may be poor guardians, but they're still your guardians. Muggle guardians, no less. That makes them a tempting target."

"What if we got word to Voldemort how badly they treated me? That might keep the Death Eaters from their door."

"Pass that message along, and you'll let Voldemort know how much you really care for this family, and they'll be certain to attack. This way is best. Although I agree: poor Uncle Vernon."

They turned a corner and entered the Great Hall. It had been transformed, with most of the tables removed. Crates were stacked in the spaces that had been opened up, and some were still being delivered. Hermione, Draco and McGonagall supervised the delivery.

Hermione turned and headed over to Dumbledore, while Professor McGonagall and Draco Malfoy remained to sign the paperwork.

"Has everything arrived, Miss Granger?" asked Dumbledore.

"Most everything," said Hermione. "Two hundred quivers and ten thousand arrows. Each arrow is made with a shaft of rowan, and has a silver-coated iron tip."

Wesley picked up one of the arrows, and whistled. "There's not a charm that can stop these. It will certainly give the Death Eaters heartburn."

"Professor McGonagall is handling a large delivery of potions. She's concerned, though, about handling them without Professor Snape around. She wants your help, Wesley."

"I'm on it." Wesley departed the group.

"We also have most of the ingredients for anti-charm boiling oil," Hermione continued. "The rest will be delivered tonight, I hope."

Harry grimaced. "We're cutting things fine. Voldemort could attack any day now, and we don't have all the weapons we need."

"By tonight, we'll have enough to hold off an army of a thousand Death Eaters," said Hermione.

"That's good," said Dumbledore. "Let's hope that's enough."

"How's the evacuation going?" asked Hermione.

"Everybody up to and including the sixth years have just left on the Hogwarts Express," said Harry. "There were two Auror guards to every coach. It was eerie how quiet the platform was."

"So, how many are left in Hogwarts?" asked Hermione.

"Including seventh years, professors and Aurors, two hundred and fifty," Dumbledore replied. "We may gain a few more Aurors if Cornelius can spare them. We may lose a few more seventh years if they want to be sensible and go home." Here, he looked pointedly at Hermione.

Hermione stared back.

"Are you sure you want to stay, Miss Granger?" he asked.

"I'm eighteen! I can make my own choices!"

"I know that. But you haven't answered my question."

The door to the Great Hall opened and Ron entered, supervising the delivery of another crate of rowan-wood arrows. The hardness of Hermione's expression vanished entirely as she watched him. She turned back to Dumbledore and squared her shoulders. "Yes. I'm sure. Everybody here is sure."

Dumbledore smiled sadly. "Carry on, Miss Granger."

The Great Hall buzzed with activity as Dumbledore and Harry toured the room, checking crates of potions and wands.

Then a wind blew through the Great Hall.

Everyone recognized the signature of a spell and stopped what they were doing. They looked around nervously for the source of the disturbance. They found it in the centre of the Great Hall.

A globe of shimmering light flickered into existence, and back out again. It struggled to form, hissing with energy.

Dumbledore stepped forward, and the students and some Aurors gathered close behind him.

"Somebody's trying to come through," said Harry.

"You can't Apparate onto Hogwarts grounds!" Hermione exclaimed.

"It's not a matter of 'you can't'," said Dumbledore. "It's a matter of 'you shouldn't try'."

The globe of light flared brightly, and three figures fell out of the shimmering air and lay on the floor in a daze. Wesley ran forward. "It's Colin! Ernie and Justin!"

"They've been missing for a month!" Ron knelt by Colin, checking beneath both eyelids for injury. "I thought they'd been taken by You Know Who!"

"I think they were." Wesley looked up at the shimmering air. "And I think that's Snape!"

"He's going to splinch!"

McGonagall ran forward raising her wand and trying to stabilize the dying field with charms. "Help me," she muttered, and Hermione raised her wand and muttered a stabilizing spell.

Draco shouldered his way through the crowd, his wand ready. He added his spell to the lot, but it was too little, too late.

The field broke. Snape fell out of it. Harry stared in horror. Hermione gave a gasp. Ron and Wesley both winced and looked away.

Dumbledore shouted to the room. "Summon Madame Pomfrey, immediately!"

Snape raised a gnarled hand, gasping for air.

"Easy, Severus" said McGonagall, kneeling by him. "Save your strength."

"Had to get them free," Snape gasped. "They were to be executed tomorrow. Had to warn you--"

"Not now!"

"Minerva, please--"

"Tell us in the Infirmary!" McGonagall snapped. She touched his forehead and Snape faded out of consciousness.

***

Harry leaned against the wall outside the Infirmary where he and others had been banned. He shivered at the memory of Snape's broken form.

"I can't believe it," said Ron. "Snape, escaping from You Know Who and fighting Hogwarts own charms in order to rescue three students? I know he was a double agent, but I didn't think he was such a hero."

"There will be a lot of unexpected heroes made before this month is out," muttered Wesley.

"Why did he risk so much?" asked Hermione.

"He said Voldemort was going to execute his prisoners," said Harry, "including Colin, Ernie and Justin. If so, he had no choice but to blow his cover. I thought he hated me--"

"He does," said Draco, passing them in the hall.

"--But he's taken incredible risks for me before," Harry finished. "And if he can do that for me, then why not three students with no family history?"

"It might be bigger than that," said Wesley. "He can probably free prisoners from Voldemort without blowing his cover. Unless he couldn't stay, or unless there was no longer any advantage to his staying, I can't see him Apparating to Hogwarts."

Hermione looked up. "Meaning there was no more intelligence to gather?"

Ron shuddered. "Whatever You Know Who has planned, it's ready."

They perked up as Dumbledore emerged from the Infirmary.

"Is Professor Snape going to be all right, sir?" asked Harry.

Dumbledore paused, then nodded. "With a lot of attention, yes."

Wesley stared at him. "You don't look happy, sir."

"I am happy, for him," said Dumbledore. "But he did not give me good news, if that's what you're asking."

"What did he say?" asked Ron.

"According to Severus' report, Voldemort has four thousand Death Eaters massing to the north of us."

Hermione blanched. "They outnumber us sixteen to one."

"And," said Dumbledore, "they're going to attack in the morning."

He walked down the corridor, leaving the others staring.