One To Battle, Two To Conquer

Chapter 3

"School," Dumbledore stated at the breakfast table to Mindy and Sirius. It had been less than a week since she arrived. "Mindy, you are going to get a decent education," Dumbledore continued. "I have already spoken to the trusted professors at Hogwarts, and I think it would be a good experience if you attended Hogwarts the next year. It will be your first year in the sixth year. That obviously raised some objections from the teachers, but I think you can do it; of course it comes with a price. Before you even think about going to school, you'll have to work for it, and I assure you that it will be hard. Are you willing to take that responsibility?" Mindy nodded. "Well, okay. I have all the school books and study supplies you'll need for your studies. This folder..." Dumbledore brought up a large, two-inch thick, folder full of papers and pieces of parchment onto the table. "...contains all of the assignments you will need to complete to show your teachers that you are able to participate in the classes. Of course, you will have to take extra classes to catch up. Before the summer is finished, you will have to take your Ordinary Wizarding Levels, which is a big test. Harry and his year are taking it now just before their fifth year ends. Sirius, in fact, has volunteered to be your official tutor and teacher. Anything that you need help with,[Author ID1: at Fri Jul 7 15:43:00 2006 ] he'll help you with."

Mindy finished her breakfast with Professor Dumbledore and Sirius. Dumbledore of course had to leave shortly after to get back to wherever he had to go to. Mindy was glad for her time with Sirius. The first full day she spent with him, she had to ask him to change into his Animagus form as a black dog. She thought it was so cool and made a goal of one day becoming an Animagus too. There had hardly been anyone around at headquarters, and she had gotten close with her godfather. She respected him. He had been her parental figure since she got there, and it was the first time she had ever had a sort of friendship between her and an adult.

At the same time, she had no idea that Sirius felt the same about her. Mindy was like the daughter he had never had, and he felt very responsible. He was honored with her being around. She could still be back with her family. He was happy to have someone around that wasn't Kreacher, the rancid house elf.

"Sirius, where is Professor Dumbledore going?" Mindy asked him, as he sat on the floor with a rag and a bottle of who-knows-what and attempted to clean out this very old wardrobe which was in the living room. As for Mindy, she had been reading through an essay paper she was expected to complete on something that she would laugh at herself if she tried to pronounce it.

"I don't have a clue. Nobody knows. All I know is he's not here nor at Hogwarts," Sirius answered. He sprayed some of the who-knows-what and swatted something with the rag as it made a loud screeching noise.

"What happened?"

"You know how the Ministry of magic thinks Dumbledore is trying to take over?"

"Yeah."

"Well, he's been on thin lines with them since they assigned Dolores Umbridge to take over the seat as Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor. Everyone knew that she was a spy feeding the Ministry information on Dumbledore. Umbridge is a real hag and everyone hates her. She insists on teaching the students from the books. She is strictly against any hands on teaching, and the students really aren't learning anything. Harry, Ron, and Hermione came up with this great idea to start up the D.A., which is a hands-on Defense Against the Dark Arts class. I think that was a great idea. I heard all this from Mundungus, who was sitting up at the Hog's Head Pub when they put this whole thing together."

"Anyway, Harry was teaching this class to some select classmates and, unfortunately, one snitch of a student ran to her parents, who worked for the Ministry, and told them what was happening. The Ministry got involved. Fudge thought it was a perfect time to make sure Dumbledore wasn't pulling anything, so they all went into Dumbledore's office and had a row. Dumbledore lied and said he was the one behind it all, and that there was a select group meeting later that night. Along with the Ministry officials, including Percy Weasley, was Kingsley. They had no knowledge of him being an Order member that could link him to Dumbledore. Professor McGonagall was also there with a witness. Fudge started a fight, and Dumbledore finished it, leaving his office in ruins, and he left. He wouldn't say a thing to anyone about where he was going or anything," Sirius finished as he stood up with the rag. The wardrobe was now spotless and shiny as new. That was some solution in that spray bottle.

"Wow," Mindy said, scribbling something down on a piece of parchment. Even writing had become complicated. She had to use a quill and ink.

*

Later that day, Mrs. Weasley came over to help Sirius with the house. She had noticed that Mindy was doing a paper on Love potions and helped her out quite a lot.

"I made a Love potion a time or two. That was before they were banned. You used to be able to make them as many times as you wanted. Well, you weren't supposed to. It was against the rules, but we were kids,[Author ID1: at Fri Jul 7 16:26:00 2006 ]" she explained. "My friends and I used to slip them to boys. We really didn't understand the dangerous aspects of them until they were outlawed and we were more schooled on them."

By the time they had had dinner and were now relaxing, it was really late. Lupin was down in the kitchen tending to some work for the Order. Sirius was with Mindy upstairs, and they were working on brewing a Sleeping Draft. It was hard. Mindy never believed that a potion was so hard to get right; it was just that everything had to be perfect and there were twenty pages of instructions. They were just about to throw in some aconite when Lupin ran up the stairs.

"Harry's in the fire. He said everything's fine, but he wants to talk to you." Lupin breathed quickly trying to catch his breath.

"Stay here," Sirius told her firmly before following Lupin out the door.

Mindy glanced at the potion. It could wait. She really wanted to see what was going on. Slowly and quietly, she snuck out through the door and towards the stairs. She started to walk in the direction where Sirius had turned the corner and waited, listening.

They were talking quietly. "I'm fifteen!" shouted a teenaged boy's voice. It must've been Harry's, her brother's. She listened more intently.

"Look, Harry," Sirius's voice came from downstairs, "James and Snape hated each other from the moment they set eyes on each other, it was just one of those things, you can understand that, can't you? I think James was everything that Snape wanted to be - he was popular, he was good at Quidditch, good at pretty much everything. And Snape was just this little oddball who was up to his eyes in the Dark Arts and James--whatever else he may have appeared to you, Harry, - always hated the Dark Arts."

"Yeah," Harry's voice came again, "but he just attacked Snape for no good reason, just because--well, just because you said you were bored," he finished with a slight apologetic note in his voice.

"I'm not proud of it," said Sirius.

Mindy thought she had heard enough because, as she tried to listen harder, it just got more difficult to hear. She went back into the room. She had no idea what all that all about. James and Sirius obviously attacked Snape when they were fifteen. Mindy knew that James and Sirius were the most popular and troublesome students in the school. She and Sirius had grown closer, and in doing so, she had heard lots of stories about his and her father's old days back at Hogwarts. She had heard a lot of their trouble making and the jokes they had played. She also heard about her mother, Lily. She didn't know much about her except from what Sirius told about her, but her father was a different matter. She knew more about him. It wasn't surprising, since he and Sirius had been best friends. From what she heard, she was a lot like her father. She always wanted to be in the middle of things and be the best and could honestly admit that she was the best at about everything. Mindy wished she had gotten to know her parents before they were killed. But thinking about that now was no use since it would be next to impossible.

Mindy turned back to her potion and glanced at the book. Great. She had no idea what she was supposed to do next.

Stir twice to the side and then flip...

"How the hell do you flip a potion?" she said aloud to herself.

"I'll show you," came a voice from behind her. She turned around, red for talking to herself. It was Sirius. He had a big smile on his face. Lupin followed him in and took a seat on a chair next to the wall. Sirius kneeled beside her, in front of the potion. "That was your brother, you know," he told her.

"Really?" Mindy asked, pretending she didn't know anything.

"Yes, he needed to talk to someone about your father," Sirius said.

"Why?" She sat up, paying attention to how Sirius was flipping the potion.

"He got into Snape's worst memory, which was stored into a Pensive," Sirius explained. "I guess it showed Pettigrew, Remus, James and me at school when we were fifteen or so, picking on Snape. Harry just wanted some reassurance on James. He got the impression that he was cruel."

"Well, it... Snape - I mean... what did you tell him?" Mindy asked curiously.

"I just explained to him that we're not proud of what we did, and that he shouldn't judge James just for what he saw there. We were immature, and James liked to show off in front of your mother," Sirius replied.

"Oh." Mindy knew how that was. Sirius had mentioned once or twice that James always liked Lily and wanted to impress her, even when she didn't want to have anything to do with him. "Um... what did Snape do? Or did he find out?"

"Oh, yes. He found out," Lupin said crossly.

"I still wanted to have a word with him," Sirius scuffed at Lupin.

"You know we can't afford that," Lupin said calmly. He turned back toward Mindy. "Snape kicked Harry out of Occulumency lessons." Sirius snorted.

"Occleemancee - what?" Mindy asked again, watching Sirius flip the potion by simply turning it over with a big swoosh.

"Occlumency," Lupin corrected.

"Bless you."

"It is the technique to prevent one's thoughts from being read through Legilimency, which is obviously mind reading."

"So, it was important because of the Voldemort thing?" she asked.

"Very," Sirius said. "Without Harry mastering Occlumency, Voldemort can read his thoughts, or even worse, take over his mind like he did the night when a giant snake creature attacked Mr. Weasley. That's when it all started to come together, and we realized that Voldemort's intention was to possess Harry."

Mindy stared down at the potion. "This might be a stupid question, but why? What is the point?"

"That's actually a quite fair question," Sirius replied. "Remember when I told you that the night the prophecy was told to Dumbledore, and the spy had only got a piece of it? Well, Voldemort, of course, found out there was more to it the night that Harry got his scar. Even worse, he knows we know it and have it hidden...can you hand me the grated hellebore, Mindy?"

Mindy passed him a cup full of crushed,[Author ID1: at Fri Jul 7 23:43:00 2006 ] green leaves that was grated into a slimy liquid. "Is this it?"

Sirius nodded. "I need the asphodel... yeah, that. Can you tell me two properties of each, the asphodel and hellebore?" Sirius slowly stirred the potion.

"I'm sorry, Sirius, but I have to take off. I have to find some documents for the meeting in a few days. There hidden in the mountains," Lupin apologized all at once as if he just remembered.

"Oh, yes that's right," Sirius muttered. "Well, have fun." [Author ID1: at Fri Jul 7 23:44:00 2006 ]

Mindy raised her eyebrows. Why would they be in the mountains, if, in fact, that's where they really were?

"I will," Lupin said sarcastically. He didn't seem amused at all in going looking for those documents. "Bye, Mindy."

"Bye," she said as Lupin departed. A few moments later, there was a door slam and Sirius and Mindy were left there alone again.

"Okay, asphodel. Um..." She tried to think back to what she had read on Sleeping Potions and their ingredients. "Well, in Greek mythology, it's a lily and the flower of the underworld, and the dead, if that counts."

"Good," Sirius said. He rose to his feet and took Lupin's vacant chair. "just stir it slowly, clockwise and counterclockwise."

"And...um... it was planted near tombs long ago, because it was thought to be the favorite food of the dead," Mindy continued.

"Good enough for me," Sirius commented.

"Now, wormwood is easier. Wormwood is bitter, I guess, and in the bible it said that wherever the snake passed through, wormwood would grow after it was banished from the garden. Also, it was used to kill stomach worms, which was good, but on the other hand, it was used to make liquor, absinthe, and was outlawed in many countries... Is this stupid thing done yet?" Mindy asked. She was fed up with stirring it.

"What do you think?" Mindy grunted and flipped open the nearby potion book; she quickly read through a couple of the bottom paragraphs and got her answer. "Yes."

*

It had been days since they last heard from Lupin. He was supposed to be coming back today. Mindy had been swamped with homework and Sirius' test. Mindy had forgotten that Sirius had inherited a house-elf. Kreacher was the first house-elf she had ever met, and she didn't like him one bit. For one, his appearance was less than inviting. Kreacher was obviously old, and old meant old. It looked like the elf's skin was ten times the size as his bones. The only thing he wore was a filthy, old rag tied around its mid section like a loincloth. The elf had the normal bat like ears, but there were giant tuffs of hair growing out of each one. It was bad enough when it looked at you because it had the biggest, blood-shot, watery eyes she'd ever seen. Mindy tried to feel sorry for it because it was just another creature, but she couldn't find the heart to even pretend to.

Mindy was sitting in the kitchen talking with Tonks and Kingsley about Aurors when the thing made its way in and out the door of the kitchen. It had frightened her. Sirius came in after it, yelling about where it had gotten off too. Kingsley had to explain to her what it was.

"The elf came with the house," he had told her. "A nasty surprise, really, but there wasn't anything that we could do about it; it worries me when it goes missing. It knows everything. It could be very dangerous, but like I said, there is nothing to be done about it."

About that time, Lupin had walked in with Alastor Moody. They both sat at the meeting table. "Where's Sirius?" Lupin asked.

"Can someone help me?" Sirius' voice called from upstairs. Lupin jumped up to help Sirius. Mindy wondered what was wrong. Moments later, Lupin appeared in the doorway.

"Can we get some more assistance? Buckbeak has been injured." At this, the remaining members at the table jumped up and followed Lupin upstairs. Mindy followed them.

"Buckbeak? The hippogriff?" Mindy asked. She didn't know Buckbeak was here. That was impossible. She hadn't even seen him or heard of him.

"Yeah." Tonks turned slipping the answer to her question. Mindy helped her up. "Didn't you know about Buckbeak?"

"No," Nobody had said anything about him, but then, Sirius would disappear for a while from time to time. Once Mindy saw him with a bag full of - well, she didn't know exactly what they were- but it must certainly was some kind of food.

Upstairs, the door was open and Mindy could see through the people and spot a gray hippogriff, part eagle, part horse. It was cute, except for the fact that its horse leg was cut open and bleeding profusely. The hippogriff was lying on its side, and Sirius was stroking him and speaking gently while Lupin wrapped a towel around its leg and gave pressure.

Kingsley came from behind Mindy and squeezed through the rest of the people, handing Sirius a vile of pink liquid. Lupin removed the cloth as Sirius poured it over the wound. It bubbled and sizzled. Buckbeak gave a squeal, but Sirius soothed him.

Tonks fetched a new towel, and Mad-eye pulled some magical tape from his pocket to cover the wound. The room slowly emptied until it was just Sirius and Mindy.

"Will he be okay?"

"Yeah, he'll be fine. That accursed house-elf had something to do with this." Sirius shook his head and stood up.

Downstairs, there was quite a discussion taking place. They were talking about Kreacher. It had been a good half an hour spent tending to him, and when Mindy looked outside, from where she was standing at the staircase, she was surprised to see it was already dark.

At that moment, a man busted in the door. It was none other than Severus Snape.