Harry Potter and the Return to the Riddle House

Chapter Two

Extendable Ears

Hermione clapped her hand over her mouth. Harry could only stare, frozen with shock. Ron turned to him and whispered,

"Are those Snape's...Snape's kids?"

"Just the girl, I think..." Hermione muttered.

Rachel and Snape were still staring at each other from across the room. Apparently, she was as stunned as they were. Her arms appeared to be weakened, because the little boy was sliding down off her hip. She broke her gaze to catch him before he fell, and Snape seemed to come back to his senses. He looked at Lupin and asked sharply,

"What happened?"

Lupin opened his mouth to speak, but the door burst open once more and a man of about twenty, with wavy brown hair to his cheekbone, strode in urgently.

"Rachel! Ian!"

Rachel looked relieved.

"Chris!" she sighed, while the little boy yelled out and wriggled away, running towards him happily. The new man picked him up and hugged him, but did not look away from Rachel.

"Are they..."

He turned to Lupin.

"Are my parents...?"

Lupin did not move for several seconds, then shortly nodded once. Chris's face turned gray and Rachel looked even more like she was about to cry. Lupin started to speak again, but Mrs. Weasley interrupted him, saying softly,

"Wait, come into the kitchen, before you wake anything up..."

Chris put an arm around Rachel and followed Lupin to the door behind them. As the group moved foreword, Harry turned to Ron and said, under his breath,

"Do we have any Extendable Ears?"

"The door is Imperturbed, remember?"

"Oh yeah..."

"Come on," Hermione said. "Ginny showed me something. Get the Ears."

Ron looked confused, but nodded, and when the last person (Tonks) had entered the kitchen and closed the door, the three stood up and hurried awkwardly down the hall. Once they were safely in their room, Ron bolted silently to a dresser against the far wall, opened a drawer, and pulled out from under some of his robes three long, fleshy strings. He untangled them quickly and handed one to Harry and Hermione. Harry, on sudden inspiration, stuffed his pillow and some of his own robes underneath his bedsheets. After the others had copied him, they got back under the cloak and rushed out the door, not wanting to miss anything important. As they neared the open part of the hallway, Harry heard a gravelly voice and an odd clunking.

"Come on, something urgent's happened, guess they're in the kitchen..."

Harry saw the side of a heavily scarred face and a grizzled mane of hair, and behind him, a tattered hat and cloud of greenish smoke. Harry froze in horror. Moody could see straight through his Invisibility Cloak...

But Moody, thankfully, did not notice him; he was hurrying too fast towards the kitchen. Harry started breathing again and slowly moved after Hermione down the creaky stairs. They paused a few feet to the left of the door and hid behind a dingy, ancient couch. Ron stared at Hermione, but she muttered "Go!" at the string and stuck it in her ear. It wriggled quickly towards the wall. Harry was completely confused, but the when the string stopped, he saw it was at a small, ragged hole, about an inch long.

"Brilliant!" Ron breathed.

He and Harry followed Hermione's example and in a few seconds, Harry heard voices as clearly as if he was in the kitchen himself, first Lupin's.

"...so I brought her back here. I'm sure it's clear, they have no idea where we are."

Then Moody's-

"But where was she when they came? How did she get away?"

"I don't know...we'd like to get your side, Rachel... if it's alright."

There was a pause. Then somebody took a deep breath. Rachel started to speak, and Harry could hear an American accent. She sounded hesitant, and still scared.

"I- I don't know what happened. All I know is about six o'clock, Ian wanted to go to the park a few blocks away, and Mom was tired and Dad was working on some paperwork.... So they let me take him, and when it got too dark a few hours later, we came back and there was this... thing above the house, this green glowing shape... did you say that was the Dark Mark?.. And there was a crowd gathering... I started to run to see what happened, but M-Mr. Lupin stopped me and gave the code, and we took a Portkey back here.... And they're... they're...

There was more silence, then Rachel took another deep, shaky breath, it sounded again as though she was trying extremely hard not to cry. Lupin spoke once more, in a very slow, gentle voice.

"Somebody, ah... came to your house, must have been only a few minutes after you left, and when you weren't there, they... they thought the Connors were hiding you. You barely missed them both ways. Mrs. Connor sent us a message, but when they heard there where reinforcements coming, they... finished... and left... I'm so sorry."

There was another pause, and then Mrs. Weasley said softly,

"Would you like me to take Ian to a bedroom upstairs?"

Rachel sounded even shakier, and said in a small voice, "Alright. Can... can I go with him, if you don't need me anymore? He would want to stay with me..."

"Of course..."

Harry heard the scrape of chairs being pushed back, and a few seconds later, the door opened and Mrs. Weasley and Rachel, who had blotchy red eyes and was still carrying a sleepy and vaguely confused-looking Ian, walked past the couch and up the stairs. Harry heard Tonks speak right next to him and started, but then remembered he was still wearing the Ear.

"Poor kid... where will she stay after the summer's over? Will she go to Hogwarts?"

"I imagine so," said Lupin. "But I suppose it's up to you, Severus."

Another short pause, and then came Snape's soft voice. It was the first time he had spoken since he had seen his daughter, but he sounded as he always did.

"Of course she'll go to Hogwarts."

There was silence until Mrs. Weasley came down the stairs and through the door again.

"Said she wanted to be alone, poor dear...and I checked on the others, they're still asleep."

Harry was glad he had thought of the pillows. Chris spoke next.

"What about Ian? There's nobody for him to stay with, really... I have a flat, he could live with me, I suppose." He sounded a small bit happier.

"I guess he'll have to," said Lupin.

"Well, if that's everything," growled Moody, "Let's go before somebody hears us."

"Yeah, we should be going," replied Tonks, "I've got something I need to finish up."

There was a little murmuring and more scraping of chairs, and people started to file out the door. When Snape passed them, Harry tried to get a glimpse of his face, but he was in shadow. Once everything seemed clear, Harry looked at Ron and Hermione and jerked his head towards the stairs. They followed him silently down the hall, entered the bedroom, and pulled off the cloak.

"What was all that?" Ron whispered. "Who was she talking about?"

"She mentioned her dad," Harry said in a hushed voice. "But that'd be Snape, wouldn't it?"

"I thought she was talking about some sort of-- foster family, those boys seemed like her stepbrothers or something," replied Hermione. "But it sounded like Death Eaters..." She trailed off.

"Right," said Ron awkwardly. He gave a huge yawn, then said, more lightly, "We should get to bed.... we're too tired to think straight, we can figure this out in the morning. Let's go before Mum comes spying on us again."

Harry, very sleepy now, agreed and slipped into his bed, his brain still buzzing with what had just happened, but weariness overtaking his body. Before he drifted off into sleep, a last thought wandered across his mind, and tried to imagine what it must feel like to one minute be playing in the park with your little brother, the next, to have your family dead, be in a strange, creepy house and have nobody in the world except Snape...

Chapter Three

The Fall of Fudge

The next morning, Harry awoke rather late and hurried down to the kitchen for breakfast. Mrs. Weasley was talking seriously to Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, who looked grave. He walked in and heard, "...now remember, she just lost her parents, give her a bit of time..."

He sat down at the table and Mrs. Weasley glanced up.

"Oh, Harry, dear, how did you sleep?"

"Fine," he replied. "What happened?" he added, feigning curiosity.

"Well...somebody else is going to be staying with us this summer," Mrs. Weasley began, using her somber voice again. "Her name is Rachel Connor, and her parents were doing work for the Order in America, but... well, the Death Eaters, uh... caught them in the middle of it. So she's living with us for now, and she's sixteen, like all of you, so she'll be in your year at Hogwarts this September. There are also her brothers, but Chris is twenty-one and has his own place, and Ian is only three and a half, so he's much too small to know what's going on. Anyway, I was just saying, she only just lost her parents, so be kind to her, she'll probably be quite shut up for a while. Give her space."

And she bustled away to get eggs.

Harry started on a piece of toast. Hermione's theory about the Connors being a foster family made perfect sense, but he could not help but feel curious about this Rachel. He could tell by a half-glance at Ron and Hermione that he was not the only one. Mrs. Weasley came back into the kitchen, holding the eggs and two extra plates. She set them down and turned to Ginny.

"Ginny, dear, would you run upstairs and ask Rachel and Ian if they want to get some breakfast? They must be hungry; they haven't come down yet.... Tell her it's perfectly alright if she wants to be alone, of course."

Ginny looked uncomfortable.

"Um..."

"I'll do it, Mrs. Weasley," Harry said suddenly. Ginny looked grateful, Mrs. Weasley surprised, and Ron and Hermione slightly confused. Harry was not quite sure why he wanted to himself.

"Oh... alright then, Harry... she's in the bedroom directly across yours, then..."

Harry walked up the stairs, wondering why he had just volunteered. Maybe he wanted to actually see Snape's mysterious heir, maybe he just wanted to meet somebody who could truly understand what he was feeling right now.... He didn't know.

Harry stopped in front of the door across from his. He realized he didn't have a clue what to say, so he just knocked hesitantly on the thick, ancient door. A voice came faintly from inside the room.

"Come in."

Harry pushed the door open and stepped in the room. It was like the one he shared with Ron and Hermione, but smaller, and it had a window with a narrow seat underneath it, where Rachel was sitting with her arms around her knees. Ian was under it, scribbling with a tattered quill on a scrap of parchment. Rachel had been looking out at the sparse, dead grass and the overcast sky, but glanced up at Harry with somewhat empty eyes.

"Er," Harry said. "Mrs. Weasley says breakfast is ready, if you're hungry..."

"We're fine," she started to say softly, but a high-pitched voice from around her feet interrupted.

"Yes! Rachel, can I have jelly on my toast?" Ian chirped happily, scrambling to his feet. He looked at her expectantly, and she hesitated.

"Ah... Ian, um..."

"Come on, I'm hungry!"

The little boy grabbed her hand and started towards the door, grinning in a cheery sort of way.

"Um... okay..."

He pulled a reluctant Rachel towards the door. Harry led them down the creaky stairs, glancing at Rachel out of the corner of his eye, thinking vaguely about how little she looked like her father.

They reached the kitchen door and Harry pushed it open. The Weasleys and Hermione all paused and looked up. Rachel shied and glanced down, but Ian strode to the table and pulled at a chair, which was taller than he was. She went to help him before he broke a toe, and when he was settled in the chair, he glanced at the faces around the table and smiled.

"Hi!" he said, suddenly and happily, into the silence.

A small buzz of noise started, the boys grinned, the girls laughed and cooed and Rachel perched on the edge of a chair. But by the time everybody had been supplied with eggs and bacon, an uncomfortable silence had settled over the table again. Rachel was avoiding everybody's gaze and halfheartedly nibbling at some toast. Hermione looked up and said,

"So, er, Ginny... um... how's that essay going?"

"Oh, good... I figured out about the incantation for that Tea Straining spell, its columsorbe, not conflosorbe; that would have set my tea leaves on fire..."

"Oh... that's good..."

The thick, still silence descended once more, but before anybody could think of something to remark on, there came a shrill screech from the covered window. Mrs. Weasley hurried to open it and a large tawny owl fluttered onto the table, neatly set down its four letters between the marmalade and salt, and whooshed out again on one glide.

Ron, who was nearest, picked them up.

"There's one for you, Harry... Hermione... Rachel... and me," he said, tossing their letters to them. "Just the start of term notice and booklists, I think..."

"You're coming to Hogwarts, then?" Harry asked Rachel, pretending again to be oblivious. She nodded shyly and opened her envelope. Harry slit his and pulled out the letter inside. It read--

Dear Mr. Potter,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into six N.E.W.T. preparation classes for your sixth and seventh year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed the booklist for said classes, and be aware that you may already possess some of the books. As always, term begins September first.

Yours sincerely,

Minervera McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

Eager to see his classes, Harry took the second piece of parchment, and read--

N.E.W.T. Prep. Charms-

The Advanced Book of Spells by Miranda Goshawk

N.E.W.T. Prep. Herbology-

The Complete Revised Encyclopedia of Magical Plants by K. Teraseed

N.E.W.T. Prep. Defense Against the Dark Arts-

Curses and Countercurses by Professor Vindictus Viridian

N.E.W.T. Prep. Transfiguration-

Complex Transfiguration-- Advanced Student Level by Emeric Switch

N.E.W.T. Prep. Care of Magical Creatures-

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander

N.E.W.T. Prep. Potions-

Higher Student Potions by Corbett Drake

Harry looked up.

"What classes did you get in?" he asked Ron.

"Um-- Care of Magical Creatures, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Charms, and Herbology," he read. "You?"

"Same, but with Potions," Harry said. "Don't know how I managed that one, I didn't get an 'Outstanding' O.W.L., like McGonagall said I needed... what about you, Hermione?"

"All of those, plus Ancient Runes, History of Magic, and Astronomy," Hermione answered.

"So, everything," Ron interrupted. "What did we expect?"

"Why don't we get all your books and things later this month, we can go to Diagon Alley and make a nice pleasant trip out of it," Mrs. Weasley said. "Just get out of the house a bit..."

And Harry realized he would be quite looking forward to it.

* * *

After breakfast, Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked around the house, looking for anything that needed 'a bit of touching up since last summer', as Mrs. Weasley put it, with a large bottle of Mrs. Skower's Magical Mess Remover and a few pest-killers. As they passed a large tapestry in the drawing room off the kitchen, Harry, who had said he would be fine, felt a lump in his throat and suggested they do the front room first. So they walked back through the kitchen and into the entryway, checking the floorboards and the grimy walls. As they neared a group of unpleasant elf-head plaques, a sudden thought struck Harry.

"Where's Kreacher?" he said.

"Oh," Hermione replied. "Well-- they don't exactly know. Everybody's pretty sure he's, um...with..."

"Yeah?"

"Well... with Bellatrix Lestrange... as she's, er... th-the last of the family..."

Harry silently bent down to check a mouse hole. It was probably lucky the house-elf wasn't here; he didn't know what he would do if he saw him. Harry cursed himself for thinking about it, now that he had, the memories of last term were rising, as they so often did now, and his throat was burning. He tried to settle himself, and when the mouse hole growled alarmingly, he stood up and said,

"I think I should, uh-- work on some of my homework, actually. I mean, if you've got this..."

"What homework?" Ron asked, and instantly winced. "I mean--"

"Ron, shut up! Of course, Harry, we're fine ourselves," said Hermione quickly, looking horrified. "Please, go on..."

Harry strode off, biting his lip again. For probably the first time in his life, he rather wished he were at the Dursley's.

* * *

The next day, Harry came down to breakfast to find Rachel already there, cutting Ian's sausage and talking a little to Mrs. Weasley. She still seemed reserved, but she was speaking in a steady enough voice. Harry felt rather sorry for her, and hoped she was thinking about it less. Of course, he wished he would think of Sirius less, too...

"Morning, Mrs. Weasley," he said, and nodded to Rachel, smiling slightly, unsure of what exactly to do. She gave him a tiny smile back. He felt vaguely cheered.

Just then, there was a shuffling noise from the stairs behind him and Hermione burst into the kitchen, holding the Daily Prophet and looking somewhat flushed. Ron followed her.

"Mrs. Weasley, everybody... look..."

Harry took the paper from her outstretched hand and read the front page, which featured a large picture he recognized from last year of Cornelius Fudge, making a speech. The others gathered curiously around him.

MINISTER OF MAGIC IMPEACHED!!

In a slightly surprising but not completely unforeseen development last night, Cornelius Oswald Fudge was formally dismissed from office by a unanimous Wizengamot rule.

The now ex-Minister's popularity had dropped sharply following the announcement of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's return to power, and steadily fell as the weeks passed. Many crowds of angry witches and wizards gathered in the Ministry, waving newspapers with headlines like Azkaban Emptied After Dementors Desert, Death Eaters Loose Again, Muggles Noticing More and More and Why We Weren't Told Sooner-- Fudge's Reasons Behind the Lies. The outstanding number of protesters and angry citizens caused the Wizengamot to vote much earlier than expected, and, barely over two months after the announcement, Fudge has cleared his desk.

"Well, that was quick," said one elegantly speaking witch, smiling cheerfully.

Mr. Fudge himself was unavailable for comment when he was spotted hurrying away from the Ministry under a thick hood, his red face pointed to the ground. He did, however, shout to following reporters to 'clear off' or he would 'blow up their bloody cameras.' (This is why a current picture of Mr. Fudge was also unavailable.)

Many witches and wizards are again cheering for Albus Dumbledore to take the position, but he has declined, as he did years ago, preferring to remain full-time Headmaster of Hogwarts. With Dumbledore out of the running, nominees will be presented on the 15^th of July, with all Heads of Departments and politically active citizens eligible. Until a new Minister is elected, the newly promoted Senior Assistant to the Minister Percy Weasley will be filling the post. (For stories on the Minister's history in office, turn to page two. To find the stories related to the mentioned headlines, turn to page five.)

"Wow, Perce really is going to become the next Minister of Magic..." Ron said under his breath.

"And Fudge is gone?" Harry said. "Just like that?"

"Well, you haven't been reading the papers, have you?" said Hermione. "People hate him now, ever since they found out about why he kept quiet about Voldemort. He'd been doing a very poor job in office, he's basically panicking, and it's only just started..."

* * *

Harry spent most of his time at Grimmauld Place reading, or wandering the corridors. He felt like there was some sort of infection in him, a mold like that on the baseboards, that was steadily growing and spreading, and claiming more and more of him. He found himself constantly thinking of Sirius. He couldn't think of anywhere to go to escape it, especially in Sirius' old house, so he sustained himself by thinking about going back to Hogwarts and by roaming. A few days after getting his school letter, his meanderings led him to the topmost floor, where he hadn't been very many times. He had dim intentions of visiting Buckbeak the hippogriff in Mrs. Black's old bedroom, but when he walked in the room, somebody was already there. Rachel turned around and Harry hesitated.

"Sorry, I didn't know anybody was here..."

"No, it's all right. You can come in if you want."

So Harry crossed the room, bowed to the hippogriff, and sat opposite of Rachel on a couch under a window, stroking Beaky's beak. He tried to think of something to say.

"So, were you surprised when you walked into the room and saw a giant eagle-horse?"

Rachel laughed softly. Harry was pleasantly surprised; he couldn't usually think of anything smart to say to somebody besides Ron and Hermione, especially other girls. Then he was aware that she was saying something, and still smiling.

"No, Mrs. Weasley asked if I would like to take him some food, and I just kind of ended up staying with him. He's a really impressive hippogriff, I've never seen one so nice... Care of Magical Creatures was one of my favorite subjects, and we did hippogriffs for a solid month at my old school... they're amazing."

"Yeah, have you ever ridden one?" Harry said, grinning a bit himself.

Rachel winced a little, but still smiled. "Yeah, but I fell off..."

Harry laughed, and Rachel glanced sideways at him. He noticed her gaze flicker predictably to his forehead, but she looked away almost instantly.

"I'm sorry... you must be sick of people staring at you all the time...."

"That's all right," Harry said, surprised and gratified she apologized, most people just goggled at him. They were quite for a few moments, stroking a very pleased Buckbeak. Harry watched her out of the corner of his eye, there were so many things he wanted to ask her... but before he realized it, he was murmuring,

"Are... are you... okay?"

She continued gazing out the window, and slowly started nodding.

"Yeah...."

She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye.

"You... can't be that great either... I mean, I heard some... things..."

She flushed slightly and there was a very long pause. Harry looked out the window. He opened his mouth uncertainly, and they both heard clomping on the stairs outside. Ron opened the door and stuck his head inside the frame.

"Harry, are you in here? Mum says... oh... are you two coming to dinner?"

"Yeah," Harry said quickly, and he followed Rachel into the hallway. Ron raised his eyebrows at him.

"What?" Harry said.

"You... nothing."