Year V

Chapter Two

A Gathering of Players

Sibyll Trelawney didn't sleep well that night. Then again, according to some of her students, it could be argued that she never slept well on account of constantly seeing omens every minute of her life. Sometimes she'd see them when she was awake, sometimes when she was asleep...though some observers were completely convinced that Sibyll Trelawney was never fully awake and stuck in a permanent state of sleep walking.

Tonight's dream was one of the more interesting visions in her life. This time, she found herself floating in the sky above Hogwarts, looking down on it all. She could feel a gentle breeze blowing across her face. Then the sun began to dim and clouds gathered about her. The breeze had suddenly become a whirlwind and lightning flashed around her. Then she heard it...at first she thought it was thunder, but it sounded like a loud roar. Then a dragon suddenly appeared out of the darkness, it's mouth open and spewing flame. Sibyll screamed as the flames engulfed her...and she fell. But the fall wasn't as bad as she thought it would it be. In fact, it was as if she had only fallen a few feet and landed on a hardwood floor. She pushed herself up, then suddenly realized she was back in her bedroom. She had fallen out of bed.

Harry Potter, the boy who lived, was having a weird dream as well. Over the last year or two, he had been having some interesting dreams about Cho Chang. Most of them were nice dreams, some were sad dreams, and others were...well...just weird. He found himself in what appeared to be some sort of crowded arena. He heard a bell then realized that he was sitting in front of a boxing ring.

Ginny Weasley and Cho Chang were cautiously circling eachother, each studying the other's movements, waiting for one of them to make a mistake. Ginny took the first swing, but Cho deftly ducked to the side and Ginny's glove sailed by her head.

"Too slow, Weasley," Cho smirked as she threw a quick jab at Ginny.

Ginny easily blocked the blow. "Too weak...but that's what I'd expect from a Ravenclaw."

The two of them traded a few blows and the crowd roared its approval.

"What the hell?"

"Pretty cool, huh, Harry?" Harry turned and saw Ron Weasley sipping a butterbeer before returning his attention to the match. "Beat her to a pulp, Ginny!"

Harry shook his head in disbelief. "This can't be happening? What's going on?"

"What do think is happening, Potter?" drawled a familiar voice. Harry turned again and found Draco Malfoy sitting on the other side, with a quill in one hand and a scroll in the other. "Two of your favorite girlfriends are fighting it out."

"They're not my girlfriends!"

"Maybe not, but you wish, right? Besides, we wanted the fight to be fought in a pool full of pudding, but we're not old enough for that. So I guess we'll settle watching them beat eachother to a pulp." Draco smiled then leaned forward a little to talk to Ron. "Hey, Weasley, still the same bet?"

"Yeah, ten sickles that the Ravenclaw gets smeared in the fourth round."

Draco nodded and marked it down on the scroll. "Okay, Weasel's got ten on his sister. Any one else?"

"Ten Galleons on Cho Chang," came another voice. Percy Weasley sat down behind Harry. "Hello, Harry."

Harry was in shock. "Percy! She's your sister!"

"Well, yes, but she's a little too impulsive for her own good. Besides, Cho is a friend of Penelope's."

Harry had enough. "Okay, I've got to stop this." He jumped out of his seat and entered the ring where he was greeted by a loud chorus of boos from the crowd. He stuck his arms between both girls and tried to break Cho and Ginny apart. "Knock it off, you two!"

"Hey," Cho snapped. "Stay out of this!"

"Yeah!" Ginny snarled in agreement.

The next thing Harry saw was a gold boxing glove and a blue boxing glove slam into his face and blackness.

"Whoa! I didn't see that one coming," Draco said as he watched Harry reel back and fall backwards to the mat. "Taken out by both girls...ouch. Bet no one expected that."

"Actually, I did."

"Oh yeah, Cedric, you did. But you're dead...what do you need money for?"

"Shut up and pay up, Malfoy."

Harry suddenly woke up as his own arms hit him in the face. He was trying to block the punches thrown by Ginny and Cho. That was when he realized that he wasn't in the arena, but lying on the floor of Ron's room. He could hear Ron snoring from his bed across the room. Hedwig was in her cage staring at him with a curious look in her eyes. She gave a soft hoot and Harry shook his head. "It's okay, Hedwig, I'm fine...it was just a dream."

He leaned back on the floor and pulled the blankets back up over his head. But if it was a dream, how come his jaw hurt?

* * * * * * * * * * * *

The first thing that registered on Jesse's senses was Pink Floyd's "Learning to Fly" playing in his ears followed by a furry paw batting him softly on the face. That was when he felt the weight of his cat sitting on his chest. He opened his eyes and saw Joscoe sitting there and looking at him.

"Go away, Jos," he mumbled as he closed his eyes again. "I'm sleeping."

He felt the paw bat him on the side of the head, knocking the headphones out of his ears. This time, he shoved Joscoe off him. "Hey, knock it off, I'm trying to get back to sleep here."

"Time to get up, Mr. McCade" he heard someone say.

"Just five more minutes, mom," Jesse said, hoping he could get back to that dream of snowboarding in Austria. Then he suddenly opened his eyes when he realized that someone else was in the room. He saw a middle aged wizard with thinning red hair and wearing a green cloak standing at the end of the bed. Now fully awake, Jesse bolted up, just in time to smash his head into the wall-mounted shelf hanging over his bed. "OW!"

The wizard winced and shook his head. "Ow indeed, Mr. McCade."

Jesse rubbed his head as he got up off the bed and studied his visitor. "Hey, I know you, you were at the ministry when I was forced into this."

The Wizard nodded and extended his hand. "Arthur Weasley at your service, Mr. McCade."

Though he tended to distrust anyone from the Ministry of Magic, there was something about the man that seemed different from most of the Ministry officials Jesse had run into in the past. He seemed almost...friendly.

Jesse shook the man's hand. "Call me Jesse. 'Mr. McCade' makes it sound like I'm a criminal or something."

Arthur Weasley grinned. "Well, technically speaking Jesse, you are a criminal, but I'm not going to give you a hard time. I'm only here to make sure you are on that train when it leaves on the first of September."

Jesse looked at his watch and yawned. "Yeah, well...that's still a month down the road."

"Yes, but we were beginning to wonder if you would actually show up."

Jesse fixed him with a cold stare. "I gave my word, is that good enough for you?"

"To be honest, no. In fact, I'm willing to wager that you're trying to figure a way out of your predicament."

"Well, you're right about that...but to quote Clarissa Ridgeton: You will remain at Hogwarts, and you will graduate...even if it kills you...kills you...kills you." As he was speaking, Jesse struck an exaggerated pose and mimicked Clarissa Ridgeton's voice.

"Would you have preferred the alternative? Being exiled from the wizarding world forever?"

"Yeah, except for the fact that you'd be dissecting my cat right now if I didn't take Dumbledore's deal."

"Dissect your cat?" gasped Arthur Weasley. "We would never do such a thing."

Jesse gave him a sly grin and shook his head. "No, I don't think you would, but I think there are some idiots in your line of work who might."

"Really now, I think you're jumping to conclusions."

Jesse shrugged. "Whatever...the point is, I'm here, I'll be going to Hogwarts, end of story. But that still doesn't tell me why you're here talking to me. You Ministry guys would have known by now that I arrived."

Arthur Weasley was about to say something when there was a pounding on the door. "Hey! Dad...can we go ahead and take off now?"

"No Fred," Arthur called back, glancing over his shoulder at the closed door. "Tell everyone to stay put, we'll be down in a few minutes."

Then he returned his attention to Jesse. "I'm going to level with you, Jesse McCade. There are some things going on and I feel it would be in your best interest if I filled you in on some details."

Jesse rolled his eyes. "Finally!"

"As you know, You-Know-Who has returned, despite what the Minister of Magic claims. Dumbledore fears that a young and powerful student like yourself is at risk of being recruited by him."

"Yeah," Jesse said, "I got that part when I talked to the old man back at the Ministry. But what are you holding out on me?"

It was obvious that the older wizard was mentally struggling with how much information he should give Jesse. After a few seconds, Arthur Weasley nodded. "Right, to the point then. You're going to meet some people, Jesse. They're all students from Hogwarts like yourself. I've informed them that you're an exchange student from America."

Jesse shook his head in disbelief and laughed. "You're joking, right? An American exchange student? What kind of lameass idea is that?"

"The only one we could think of," Mr. Weasley snapped. Then his voice softened somewhat. "Look, Jesse. It is important that you go along with that story...besides, it's not too far from the truth. After all, you are American and you did transfer from another school."

"Yeah, only because I was blackmailed into coming." Jesse opened his trunk and grabbed a clean shirt.

"Ah, I see. We're still all about that, are we?"

"Yes we are," Jesse said as he changed his shirt. "But I don't have much of a choice in this, do I?"

Mr. Weasley smiled as he shook his head. "No, you don't."

Jesse sighed in resignation and grabbed his jacket. "Figures...okay, let's get this over with."

* * * * * * * * * * * *

"An American exchange student," Ron said. "Since when did we start collecting trash from overseas?"

"Ron, that's not fair." Hermione shook her head disapprovingly. "We haven't even met this person and you're already passing judgment."

"Hey, everyone knows that American wizards are a joke. Well, the native shamans aren't that bad, but the Yanks...even Neville could take them on and win."

Harry kept quiet as Hermione and Ron argued, which seemed to be a regular occurrence. He looked over at Fred and George who were coming back downstairs. "Well?"

"Dad says they'll be down in a minute," said Fred. "But it's kind of strange, you know? Dad didn't say anything to us about this until this morning."

"Well, he had been kind of busy with Fudge bouncing him around the Ministry," George offered. "It also made sense that mum had us clean up Percy's old room this last week, but wouldn't let any of us move in."

Harry didn't bother to hide the look of disgust on his face at the mention of Fudge's name. The Minister of Magic hadn't won many friends in the wizarding world, especially after making a public denial about the return of Voldemort. "All of this doesn't surprise me, seeing as how your dad's been having to clean up Fudge's mistakes."

Ginny, who was sitting and drinking a butterbeer, looked over at him. "That's kind of a harsh statement coming from you, Harry."

Harry shrugged. "Sorry, Ginny. Been having a bad week. I came this close to using a Jelly-Legs curse on my uncle when you came for me." He decided not to mention the weird dream he had about her and Cho from the night before.

Fred and George both winced. "Not a good idea, Harry," Fred said.

"Yeah," George added. "Not only would you get in trouble for violating the rules of underage wizardry, the shockwave of your uncle hitting the ground would probably knock the planet out of alignment."

"TIMBER!" both twins cried out. This got a laugh out of everyone, including Ron.

"Maybe Fudge figures it's better to get Dad out of the way by having him baby-sit this American," Ron muttered. "This guy is probably years behind us."

"Ouch," said a voice from the top of the stairs. "I'll try not to be too much of a burden on you."

They all looked up to see a boy with long dark hair wearing jeans and a leather jacket come down the stairs. Mr. Weasley followed closely behind him and cleared his throat as he shot Ron a disapproving glare. "Everyone," he said, "this is-"

"Jesse McCade!" Fred and George suddenly shouted. They got up out of their chairs and shook hands with the newcomer as if they were welcoming an old friend. "Dad, why didn't you tell us?" George asked.

The new boy, Jesse, seemed a little startled by the reception. "Uh, don't take this the wrong way...but do I know you two?"

Fred shook his head. "No, but we know you from your picture in the Daily Prophet. There was an article on you in June talking about how you single-handedly disrupted the floo network from Liverpool to Boston...brilliant!"

"How'd you do it?"

"What kind of spells were involved?"

"Did you actually try using floo powder to sneak into rock concerts?"

"Can you do it again?"

"Fred, George, that's enough," snapped Mr. Weasley. Then his expression softened a little bit. "Jesse's here to finish his education at Hogwarts, right Jesse?" He laid a hand on Jesse's shoulder and tightened his grip a little.

"Yeah, that's right," Jesse said in agreement, although there was something in his eyes that told Harry that something wasn't right. "Yep, I've come back to England to get finished off."

Harry saw Mr. Weasley tighten his grip on Jesse's shoulder. "Now, now...Jesse," Mr. Weasley laughed, "enough with the joking."

"Um, Dad?"

"Yes, Fred."

"Don't you think you should let go of his shoulder before you rip his arm off?"

"Oh...right," Mr. Weasley said as he released his grip on Jesse's shoulder. "Jesse, these two are Fred and George, two of my sons."

"Glad to have you with us," said Fred.

"Yeah, welcome to our little band." George guided Jesse along the table as he introduced him to the rest of the group. "This is Ginny, our sister."

Jesse nodded at the redheaded girl who smiled at him and waved.

"This angry guy here is our younger brother Ron."

Jesse offered his hand to Ron who shook it, but seemed to have a look of disgust in his eyes. "How's it going?" Jesse asked.

"Fine," Ron grunted.

Jesse turned to George. "What's eating him?"

Fred patted Jesse on the shoulder. "Don't worry, he just doesn't trust Americans that much."

Jesse smiled. "Can you blame him? We're as crude as they come I guess."

This got some laughter from the twins and even from Ginny and the other girl sitting at the table.

"You're okay, Jesse," George said as finished introducing Jesse to the others. "And over here we have Hermione Granger and Harry Potter."

Jesse shook hands with Hermione and Harry. "Harry Potter," he said with a laugh, "there's some other kid with the same name who's famous. You even have the same scar."

Harry returned the grin. "Completely different person."

"So what's it like being a reluctant celebrity?"

Harry shrugged. "It gets annoying sometimes. So you're an exchange student?"

There was an hint of amusement in Jesse's eyes. "Yep, that's the current story. Although to be honest, I'm actually a transfer student."

"From where?" asked Hermione. "Salem?"

Jesse shook his head. "No, I got kicked out after my third year. I did my fourth year at Marneons in Liverpool."

"Did you get kicked out of there too?" asked Ron.

Everyone at the table fell silent and Mr. Weasley looked like he was about to choke to death. After a couple moments of more awkward silence, Jesse answered. "Yeah, I got booted...they tend to do that when you mess with the floo network."

Mr. Weasley's face was now changing colors. It was obvious that he didn't want the others to know the truth. Jesse only smiled and kept talking. "However, Albus Dumbledore contacted my parents and offered to let me finish my education at Hogwarts and here I am. Mr. Weasley was kind enough to offer me a place to stay before heading off to Hogwarts." He gave Mr. Weasley a quick wink. "Sorry, Mr. Weasley, but I figured they should at least know the truth."

Mr. Weasley looked relieved as he sat down in his chair. "That's okay, Jesse. Perhaps it is for the best." Then he clasped his hands together. "So, who wants breakfast?"

They ordered breakfast and spent the next hour eating a delicious meal of eggs, bacon, pancakes, fruit, and orange juice. They were joined later by a plump middle aged woman who sat down next to Mr. Weasley.

"Jesse, this our mum. Mum, this is Jesse McCade, a future stockholder in Weasley Wizarding Wheezes."

"That's not funny, Fred." Mrs. Weasley said as she poured herself some juice. "The last thing that young man needs is you two being a bad influence on him."

"Too late for that," grumbled Ron. Hermione elbowed him in the ribs. "Ow!"

"What was that, Ron?"

"Nothing, mum."

A few minutes later, the table was cleared and they got up to leave. Mr. Weasley was about to say something when a large man entered the room. Jesse had to blink twice when he saw the man, just to make sure he wasn't seeing things, but he could have sworn he was looking at a walking mountain. The other kids seemed to recognize him right away.

"Hagrid!" they almost all said in unison.

"Mornin' everyone," the giant said. He shook a couple hands and got hug from Ginny and Hermione. "Arthur, we be needin' to talk."

Warning bells went off in the back of Jesse's head and he saw Mr. Weasley's eyes show a flash of concern. "Ah, we can talk in back. Molly, would you mind taking them out and getting them started? I'll be out shortly."

Mrs. Weasley nodded and Jesse could see something was up. He was curious, but stopped himself from saying anything. After all, it wasn't his business, was it? He followed the others outside where Mrs. Weasley tapped the brick wall that opened up to reveal the entrance to Diagon Alley. This didn't concern him...

Rubeus Hagrid sat down and the look on his normally jovial face told Arthur Weasley that the news wasn't good. "Arthur, I did as yeh asked an' examined the body of tha' Death Eater yeh showed me."

"And what did you find?"

Hagrid shook his head. "Tha's jus' it, Arthur, I found nothin'."

"What do you mean? It was obviously some kind of animal."

"There's no animal I know of tha' leaves marks like that. Sure, there's teeth an' claw marks, but tha's it. No animal skin or fragments...nothin'. No spittle 'round the wounds...it's like a ghost did this...but even ghostly creatures leave identifyin' marks on their kill."

Arthur rubbed his forehead and thought about what he was hearing. "This isn't good."

"You alerted the public, yet?"

"No, we were planning on releasing a warning but the Minister wants to keep this quiet."

Hagrid cursed under his breath. "Fudge again? How many mistakes is he goin' to make before someone gets wise and removes him?"

"Believe me, Hagrid, I don't like this either. But these are Fudge's orders."

"Yeah," grumbled the giant. "Fudge's orders...between him and You-Know-Who comin' back, it's hard to tell what's worse."

Arthur nodded in agreement. Hagrid was right...the Minister was proving to be incompetent at his post. But what could he do about it? It was a question that had been going through his mind and he feared that he would have to have an answer sooner than later.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Nicholas St. John-Dupuis smiled as he entered his hotel room. He hadn't been in London for a day, and he had already killed two feared Death Eaters and collected a souvenir. He tossed his coat on the bed and went to the bathroom, singing "Another One Bites The Dust" as he relieved himself. He came out a minute later then suddenly stopped when he saw someone sitting on the bed, examining the wand he had taken off one of the Death Eaters.

Nicholas was not one to show fear, but the presence of this individual sent chills down his spine. "Mr. DeBoer. What brings you here?"

The other man appeared to be in his early forties and was dressed in a brown business suit. He had a slightly receding hairline and had the look of a used-car salesman. But the smiling exterior hid a dark soul. Nicholas could see it in the man's eyes...a blackness that threatened to consume anything. Benjamin DeBoer was not a man to cross. Those that did cross him seemed to die in a series of unexplained accidents.

DeBoer shrugged. "I was in my office, practicing my golf swing when I get a call from one of my underlings telling me that my right hand is off randomly killing Death Eaters for sport." He looked Nicholas over with a curious look. "Now I do believe my orders were to simply observe Jesse McCade and follow him and that little flea bag he refers to as a pet. I don't believe my orders said anything about you burning a Death Eater to a crisp and turning his buddy into kibble and bits."

"It couldn't be helped, they just apparated right there. They would have picked me up eventually."

DeBoer frowned as he shook his head. "Ah, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky...you need to learn that despite your formidable abilities, you need to listen and be able to follow directions."

Before Nicholas could react, shadowy tendrils appeared out of nowhere, wrapping around his throat and arms. Benjamin DeBoer did not move from his position, instead he calmly sat there and inspected the wand as the tendrils tried to choke the life out of Nicholas. "That's the problem with your generation today, Nicky. You don't have boundaries, a guiding hand...no wonder this world is going to heck."

He got up off the bed and held up the wand which began to glow as he altered it. Then he returned his attention to Nicholas who had dropped to his knees, gasping for air. "Ah, I think you've had enough." He snapped his fingers and the tendrils vanished.

"And while your little deviation displeased me, I sense an opportunity for us to exploit." He smiled coldly as he gave the wand back to Nicholas. "Tell me, did you happen to catch why the Death Eaters were even there?"

Nicholas rubbed his throat. "Yeah," he rasped, "they said something about observing some Potter kid."

DeBoer's eyes lit up. "Potter? As in Harry Potter, the boy who lived?"

"Yeah, that sounds about right."

The older man laughed and shook his head. "Well, isn't this an interesting turn of events? But it would explain the presence of two Death Eaters."

"So what's the big deal?"

"What's the big deal, my boy? You obviously haven't studied your recent magical history...oh, that's right, the Guildmasters were very strict with your upbringing, weren't they?"

Nicholas bristled at the mention of the Guilds, but DeBoer ignored the discomfort his remark caused. "Long story short, Nicholas. Harry Potter was responsible for Voldemort's downfall fourteen years ago. I'm not too sure how it happened...but Voldemort was vanquished and his followers were either killed, captured, or claimed they were under mind control and allowed to rejoin society. However a loyal core of followers were secretly trying to bring him back to power and they succeeded a few months ago. The Ministry of Magic has been playing the threat down, dismissing it as a rumor."

"But wouldn't Voldemort's return disrupt our plans?"

"Yes, but like I said...your little act has opened up a window of opportunity for us. I took the liberty of stripping down that little souvenir of yours. It won't do much...but it will allow you to leave the Death Eaters' calling card."

"The Dark Mark?" asked Nicholas, wondering what exactly his employer had in mind. "I don't follow you."

DeBoer walked over to the small wetbar that was located on one side of the room and poured himself a glass of wine. "Let me bounce a scenario off you, Nicholas. Most of the wizarding world is currently living in fear of the rumor that Lord Voldemort has returned. Many know the rumor is true even though the Ministry is lying to them. However, Voldemort has been oddly quiet since his return. Perhaps is it time for some really ugly things to happen."

An evil gleam flashed in Nicholas' eyes as he figured out what his employer was leading up to. "And if the Dark Mark was discovered, everyone will believe that he was behind it."

DeBoer nodded and took a sip of wine. "Yes, and if the act was terrible enough, it would cause widespread panic and force the Ministry to do something about it. And while the Minister of Magic is nothing more than an underworked bureaucrat, he will declare a state of emergency and the Ministry will start cracking down, making things difficult for Voldemort. After all, it will be hard to plot and plan when he's being accused of doing something really ugly and the Ministry is actually gunning for him."

Already, several ideas were going through Nicholas' mind. "How ugly of an incident do you want?"

"I want it in a public place that people would never expect...a place that will shock the wizarding world to its core."

Nicholas' mouth twisted into an evil grin. "I believe I have an idea. How soon do you want it to happen?"

"The sooner the better. Exactly what do you have in mind?"

Nicholas' grin got even bigger. "Let's just say that you might not want to be in Diagon Alley tomorrow."