Harry Potter and the House Divided

Chapter Eighteen Aftermath and Ashes

Harry didn't sleep well and so was the first up the next morning. It was a school day, so he put his robes on and a selection of books into his book bag. He couldn't know what his schedule would hold for certain, but with the way things were going, he had a funny feeling that potions might be his first class of the new year.

By the time he'd finished packing, everyone else in the dorm was up, though Ron seemed unusually grumpy. It didn't take Harry long to remember that Ron probably hadn't got up before ten this summer. Harry supposed that he would have felt the same way had this been the first time that he had to get up so early but as it was, he would have been getting up later than normal if he'd been able to sleep well the night before.

Hermione met Harry and Ron in the Common Room, obviously excited to begin the new year.

"Aren't you excited to get N.E.W.T. classes going so quickly after getting back?" she asked Harry as they walked toward the Great Hall.

"Not particularly," Harry said with a sigh, "since I've been doing fourteen hour days from my birthday to the day before yesterday."

"Really?" Hermione asked, curiously.

"Yep," Harry said. "They had me doing quite a bit of stuff that they say should help if something happens this year."

"Like what," she asked, seemingly caught between curiosity and outright envy.

"I'm not supposed to talk about a lot of it..."

"Whadaya mean you're not supposed to talk about it," Ron demanded, angrily.

"I mean," Harry said, "that I'm not supposed to talk about it in the middle of the Entrance Hall. Too many people around to hear."

"Right," Ron said, glancing around at the crowds of students who were rushing to get to breakfast. "How about the common room, later?"

"Can't," Harry said, his insides clenching in preparation for the explosion that he fully expected from Ron.

"Why not?" Ron asked, surprisingly calmly.

"Your brothers have been way too successful for our own good," Harry said with a laugh. "We're going to have to find a place that's really secure to talk about stuff. Too many chances that there will be, well, ears that might pick up on stuff that they shouldn't."

Ron glanced at Harry, face caught between anger at his refusal to talk and pleasure at the backhanded compliment aimed at his brothers' success.

"That's probably true," Hermione said with a sigh. "I really wish that they didn't sell some of those things."

Sitting down at the table and dishing toast, bacon, sausages and eggs took up much of their attention for a few minutes, temporarily delaying continued discussion of how Harry had spent his summer and any places that they might find that would be safe enough to talk during the school year.

They had barely had time to start eating before Professor Dumbledore rose from his chair, face as serious as most of the students had ever seen it. Harry had seen him this focused only twice and both times had been far from happy for him.

"I must ask a few moments of your time this morning before the arrival of the Daily Prophet and the rest of this morning's mail", Professor Dumbledore said, his voice drawing the attention of every student in the room.

"When it arrives, you will get news of events that occurred yesterday and last night that confirm without question the state of war that now exists in the wizarding world."

Harry couldn't resist feeling a jolt of anger at the students' response to their Headmaster's use of Voldemort's name. He barely noticed that Ron and Hermione didn't react nearly as strongly as they had the year before.

"In very brief, Lord Voldemort attacked more than thirty muggleborn witches, wizards and their families. No student here was harmed though a few were attacked. The Death Eaters' failure was due to protection by the Auror Corps or the training that they received from Mr. Potter last year.

After these attacks left the Auror Corps divided and distracted, Lord Voldemort attacked Azkaban and opened the prison there. He was able to free nearly fifty prisoners including all of those captured at the Ministry of Magic last June. Whether the entire cohort will join his forces or only those who were already servants to Lord Voldemort is not clear at this time."

Harry felt the blood rush to his face. He couldn't remember being angrier. Sirius had died and now, many of the people who shared responsibility for his death were free and able to cause even more death and pain. Life, he thought bitterly, was certainly far from fair.

His anger only grew as he listened to the last pieces of news from the headmaster.

"Finally, a group of Death Eaters attacked the home of Mrs. Andromeda Tonks, killing her husband and seriously injuring her. We do not know why the attack was launched at this time..."

Harry's head swung toward Professor Dumbledore, concern for Tonks focusing his attention on the headmaster's words even more tightly than it had been.

"...We believe that the attack was mounted in order to try to divide pureblood witches and wizards from those who have chosen to either marry muggles or muggleborns just as Lord Voldemort's attacks were meant to break the link between the wizarding world and those who were born in muggle families with the gift of magic. I am here to state that any such attempts to follow this philosophy in this school will be met with the strongest possible measures. This behaviour is neither civilized nor respectful of the traditions that this school, and the people that it has educated for more than a thousand years, have followed."

"I wish no student in this school to leave it before his or her time is truly over. However, if you can not live under these rules, I must ask you to leave if you feel that you can not keep discussions over these important questions to the level of civilized debate. Curses and hexes will hurt a wizard but the use of words can damage the soul in ways that are far harder to repair."

"I must therefore insist that you resist the temptation to use inappropriate descriptions of your fellow students no matter what their ancestry may be.

If you can do this, all will be safe here. Lord Voldemort did not attack Hogwarts in his last campaign and his actions now show that he is not ready to now. He will not do so if you, yes you, do not let him into your hearts and minds. However, He can attack us here if you do."

"Therefore, it is up to you whether our community stands or falls. In many ways, it will be up to you to determine whether wizarding culture as a whole continues or is destroyed by the fear of change, and those who are its agents, that Lord Voldemort and his supporters are trying to foster."

With these words the Headmaster sat in his chair, silver beard and hair somehow less radiant than they usually were.

"Did you know?" Hermione asked, looking askance at Harry.

"Know what?" Harry asked, hoping to divert her from asking the questions that he was afraid she would.

"Did you know about the attacks on muggleborns and their families?"

"Uh, well..."

"You did!" Hermione hissed angrily. "You did and you didn't tell me."

"I didn't tell you because Dumbledore told me not to."

"And when, Harry Potter, have you ever kept secrets from us?" Hermione asked, eyes moving to include Ron.

"Do you really want to know that, Hermione?" Harry asked harshly, the prophecy and its implications ringing in his mind.

"You have kept secrets?" she asked, voice barely above a whisper.

"Of course I've kept secrets. Even lied to you a few times," Harry said, suddenly aware of just how tired he truly was of Hermione's meddling, no matter how well intentioned it might be.

"Like what?" Ron demanded, now entering the conversation.

"You remember that egg from the second task?"

"Yeah," Ron said, eyes narrowing.

"Well, I didn't figure it out until Cedric told me what to do with it."

"But you said that you had made progress on it," Hermione moaned, hands covering her face.

"Of course I said that I'd made progress on it," Harry said, disgusted. "I hadn't done very much with it and didn't want you lecturing me because I waited to try to work it out."

"I don't lecture," Hermione said, suddenly angry.

"Oh yes you do," Ron laughed, apparently unaware of how hurt Hermione really was.

"Well..." Hermione said, grabbing her bag from the floor. "Maybe I should just leave, if I lecture so much that Harry feels that he has to lie to get out of them and you have to laugh at me about it."

"Oh give it a rest, Hermione," Ron snapped, temper getting the better of him. "You lecture and you know you do. Sometimes you really can be too much, even when you're right."

"I've already said that I'm happy to reduce the number of lectures that both of you get to zero," Hermione blubbered, tears pouring down her face. "There's nothing more that I can do than that Ron Weasley."

"What you can do," Harry said quietly, rising to his feet so that she couldn't escape "is to tell us what you think once and then let things be for a while. You are usually right but sometimes it's better to push a little than try to force things. I've always listened to you, even if I didn't follow your advice, and after what happened last June I'll try to be better about hearing what you say."

"Oh, Harry!" Hermione said, flinging herself at him and making him extremely nervous by doing it. "I'm so sorry about Sirius, and everything. I'm sorry that I push and I'm sorry that I don't know how else to show you two that I care about you."

Harry really didn't know how to deal with Hermione when she was like this, particularly when they were standing in the middle of the Great Hall. No matter what might happen, the rumours of a relationship between the two of them would be back in full force. With everything else that was going on, he would really rather not have to deal with this too but there was no way that he was going to let Hermione feel that he didn't care about her after having said what he had. It might have needed saying and even been an essential part of what he knew all of them would have to build if they were to survive the war with as few regrets as possible but still...

Maybe it was time for Ron to take over as watering place for human hosepipes.

Just as he was getting ready to ask him to, Professor McGonagall' s voice sounded somewhere near by.

"Fifth year schedules' Miss Weasley."

"Thanks, Professor."

Harry hastily let go of Hermione who frantically began to wipe the tears from her face and straighten out her robes. Just as they were sitting down, Professor Dumbledore caught Harry's eye and gave him the smallest of smiles. Harry couldn't understand why the headmaster had smiled at him like that until he saw that no-one was looking at them at all. It was as if no-one had witnessed the emotional scene amongst the three friends that Harry was sure must have stood out like a sore thumb.

He realized that however Professor Dumbledore had done it, everyone else in the Great Hall had not known about the drama occurring in their midst. He could only nod his head slightly and flash the headmaster a small smile of thanks before Professor McGonagall turned to Ron, a pile of schedules in her hands.

"Sixth Year schedules, Weasley."

"Thanks, Professor," Ron said, taking them from her.

The next few minutes were taken up with eating and the horrified realization that Harry did indeed have N.E.W.T. Potions every Monday morning and Friday afternoon. The thought of it was almost enough to make him wish that he'd not eaten so much already.

"What's up?" Ron asked, grinning in a way that Harry suspected meant that his best mate knew what Harry had seen.

"Potions first and last thing in the week," Harry groaned, disgusted.

"That is too bad," Ron said, grinning. "While you're doing that I'll be doing half of Muggle Studies and Herbology."

"Oh, shut up," Harry said, not sure that the O that Professor Dumbledore said that he'd received on his Potions O.W.L. was really worth the trouble.

"It does get better, though," Hermione said from next to him.

"I hope so," Harry snorted before giving the rest of his schedule a closer look. "N.E.W.T. Defence late monday afternoon and early Wednesday morning, Charms late Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, Magical Law early wednesday and Friday afternoons and Transfiguration early Tuesday and Thursday mornings. At least I'll have a lot of time around lunch to get homework done and maybe fly a bit while the weather's nice.

"What about you, Ron?" Hermione asked, taking the redhead's schedule.

"No Snape of course," Ron said, airily. "I've got Charms, Transfiguration, Defence and Government with you, Herbology late Wednesday mornings and early Friday mornings and Creatures late Monday and Friday mornings.

"What about you, Hermione?" Harry asked, curious to see what classes she'd finally decided to take.

"Potions, Charms, Transfiguration, Defence and Magical Law with you, Harry. I've got Arithmancy Monday through Thursday in a short afternoon section and Runes late Tuesday and Thursday mornings. That means that we should be able to work on Potions and talk about spells that you want me to research for the D.A. on Friday mornings."

"I won't be able to do it then," Harry sighed. "Dumbledore wants me to take Remedial Potions with him on Friday mornings."

"Remedial Potions?" Ron asked, aghast. "Are you going to have to take that with Snape again?"

"No," Harry said, grinning a little. "Dumbledore this time and maybe Fleur too, from what he told me."

"Cool," Ron said, obviously envious that Harry would get to spend time with Fleur.

"She's actually really good," Harry said. "Not as strong as Dumbledore of course but she was able to help a lot this summer while I couldn't see him much."

"So you've improved then?" Hermione asked, eyes locked on Harry's.

"A bit," Harry sighed, "but not enough from what I can tell. It's still really hard to control things and they've not done much about the night problems yet. I suppose that'll happen now that I had trouble night before last, though."

"Trouble the night before last?" Ron asked, sharply.

"Yeah," Harry said, glancing around them. "But I think I'd better wait to tell you about that since the mail's coming and there's probably going to be lots of people coming to talk about the D.A. after whatever they put in there about what happened yesterday."

Ron shoved his plate across the table and then ran around the far end so that he could see the stories while he ate.

Though they had been prepared, the silence that greeted the news on the front page of Hermione's copy of the Daily Prophet after it had been delivered was profound. The top headline,

'Death Eaters Escape'

was followed by a lurid account of the attack on Azkaban by Voldemort and his supporters. It was clear that many prisoners were dead and there was a great deal of speculation about why the prisoners who hadn't escaped, thirty-seven in all, had been killed rather than simply being left behind.

Hermione greeted this with a sneer of disgust.

"Well of course he was going to kill them," she said, eyes full of tears. "After all, it means that the next time he opens a prison, the inmates will know that they either have to join him or die."

"I'd die first," Ron said.

"Me too," Hermione agreed quickly. "But still, for most people in a prison, choosing between death and hurting other people might be less troublesome since many have already been put there because they hurt others."

"Hagrid and Snuffles weren't put there because they hurt other people," Harry said, angrily.

"No," Hermione said quietly. "They were put there because Barty Crouch Sr. and Minister Fudge cared about image, not justice. So we've got to be sure that the innocent aren't put in prison, as doing that could be a near Death Sentence until Dumbledore finds a way to kill Voldemort."

"Right," Ron said, not noticing the pinched look on Harry's face in response to Hermione's last comment. Harry thought that Hermione did see but as she didn't try to make him say anything at the table he wasn't sure.

The next article headlined:

'Aurors and Muggle Borns Dead!!!'

detailed the Auror's and Order's efforts to protect the muggleborn children who weren't yet old enough to go to Hogwarts.

...Every muggle born child from Heather Atkins (age six months) to Jerod Welshford (age 11 and ready to go to Hogwarts later that morning) died along with their families. In all, fifty-four children and five Aurors were killed in a rapid series of attacks that culminated in the assault against Azkaban fortress...(page 1 left).

The Ministry of Magic has had no comment on the killings. Speaking on condition of anonymity, an unidentified Ministry official said that there are very few places where information on young muggle born children is kept. "Investigations have been ordered in all of them to determine how information about the homes and families of the next generation of muggleborn witches and wizards could have been released."

"So that's why this year's class seemed a little small," Ron said, artlessly.

"Yes," Hermione said, furious. "The witches and wizards who should have been safe here in Hogwarts and all those who should have been able to get an education here are dead. A very good reason for the class to be... 'a bit small' as you put it."

Before Harry could read the small article on the bottom of the front page that told about the attack on Tonks' home, Hermione jammed the paper in her bag and stormed off, crying for the second time that morning.

"What did I say?" Ron asked, nonplussed.

"Hermione's muggleborn," Ginny reminded him angrily. "She probably thinks that her parents or other people that she knows are in danger now."

"I forgot," Ron said, head hanging low.

"How could you forget something like that?" Ginny asked, amazed.

"She knows so much about everything that I forget sometimes," Ron said, miserably.

"So do I," said Harry. "I'm muggle raised and I don't know half the stuff she does. Still, you could have found a better time to forget."

"I know," Ron muttered. "I'll make it up to her somehow."

"Well," Ginny said, still angry. "You'll have to wait until after classes. If Harry doesn't get off now, he'll never get to Potions in time."

"Right," Harry sighed, wishing that he was going anywhere but to Professor Snape's dungeon.

"Oh, Harry...," Ginny said, sounding disturbingly like Hermione for a moment, "it won't be that bad."

"That's what you think," Ron said, taking up for his best mate. "I know he's hard on your class but he hates us and, well, I'm not sure that there's a word for what he thinks about Harry."

"It's not love, I'll tell you that," Harry said, grinning.

"Nope," Ron agreed, sharing Harry's smile, "and you should be glad of that. The only person worse than Snape for that would be Malfoy."

"Please," Harry said, groaning as they moved through the doors of the Great Hall. "I just ate and have to go into Snape's classroom. The last thing I need is to be feeling off because I had that disgusting image in my head."

"Sorry, mate," Ron said with a cheeky grin. "But you know I had to say something."

"Yeah," Harry said, continuing to walk down the stairs. "Only because you want to divert attention from the fact that he's been showing far too much interest in you lately."

Ron laughed and waved as he disappeared up the stairs, doubtless planning on a bit more time in bed before having to meet Harry at Hagrid's for Care of Magical Creatures.