บท 24: Chapter 24
The Easter holidays were very peaceful inside the School, though it was marred by bad news that came constantly from outside.
The warding of all the muggleborn and half – blood students' homes had been completed and now the Order had been going to as many wizarding homes as they could each day and were warding it against death eaters.
Draco, Arran and the others were constantly away on raids. Snape had been summoned to Voldemort's side the day School ended and was told to stay there. Every day there were attacks where muggles and wizards were killed randomly.
Voldemort had told Snape to send one message only, saying that Snape would return the day before School resumed after the Easter break. Snape had sent a secret message inside of that message by blood magic and when Voldemort had demanded the parchment to check he had not found anything, though he had smelt blood, but had not taken notice as Snape had told him unless he checked the blood and found it to be Snape's, Dumbledore would not believe it was from him.
Dumbledore had been dismayed by Snape's letter that had told him Voldemort was planning to attack almost everyday. Snape had asked him to patrol but this time without the names of the places it was far more difficult for the Order and the aurors to fight back.
Voldemort after the failure with the dementors had become even more paranoid. He refused to let Snape out of his side, making him work hard making potions under his eye. Each death eater was told where to attack and was sent away. No one knew where the other death eaters would attack.
They tried their best though, Dumbledore and the Order and the aurors but most of the times even their best was not enough.
Snape had his earring activated all the time and he listened as Arran and the others told McGonagall everyday what was happening and the places they were ordered to attack for the day which was not much.
McGonagall would then suggest five places including the place Arran was with the other death eaters. Arthur would suggest another five with one that Draco would tell him he was scheduled to attack and Bill would cover yet another area that had a village Pansy, Blaise and a few others were given and so on.
But this time the Order and those on Harry's side were not as successful as the previous time as the time between the time Arran and the Slytherins knew and they spoke to McGonagall and the Weasleys were very little for one. The other thing was if Draco or any of the Slytherins were with a senior death eater as was most often the case then they would not even know where they would be attacking. They would simply take the portkey offered and start the torture. It was during the rare times they knew. Then they told the others.
Even if they knew, McGonagall and the others could also not directly apparate to the village she knew Arran had gone to as it be suspicious and so they sometimes met and fought the other death eaters and sometimes they were too late.
The times they did meet McGonagall, Arthur and the others in Harry's side inflicted great loss to the death eaters. Arthur and indeed all the others had another wand they had procured from Knockturn Alley and they used killing curses or dark curses that would surely kill or at least maim them badly so that they would be out of commission for some time at least.
One of the many death eaters who were injured gravely were Nott who was hit by a dark curse by Bill Weasley and Pansy who was hit when she met Moody in a random attack and many of the seventh year Slytherins were hurt when they came face to face with the Order or the aurors.
But no one was captured, though McGonagall had managed to kill three of the death eaters who were new recruits and Arthur had cast the cutting curse that severed the head from the body of a boy who was not more than twenty.
In all it was a very frightening Easter for the muggles and a terrifying one for the Wizarding World.
Nott had been very seriously injured and it was more than a month after School started that he was declared fit to come back. He had become very pale and was still very weak.
Pansy would miss the rest of the School year and in fact came only two days before the sixth year exams. It had been a very close thing that she survived, a fact that worried Harry and the others no end until she had pulled through. She would not be taking her exams in all subjects this year but would divide her exams between now and during Yule when she would finally complete her sixth year ahead of the NEWTS.
Though none of the senior death eaters had got hurt or were killed, all the Slytherins in the sixth and the seventh year now had a full grasp of what it was to be a death eater and almost all of them were terrified as they contemplated the job that they would have to do on a continuous basis until they died.
Nott moved like a shadow once he came to School and after that spring break most of the Slytherins and a few Ravenclaws were very quiet. The School as a result was a lot more harmonious and Harry and 'The Gang' were left more or less to their devices as Dumbledore was often called away either by the Ministry or the Order because Voldemort had stepped up the attacks.
Snape was not informed of the attacks and Voldemort had quite bluntly told him he would not be called until the holidays so that Dumbledore would not expect any information from him.
He did rush to tell Dumbledore whenever Arran came with information of places that Bellatrix or his father or any other death eater from whom he had over heard the schedule for attack but they were very few. Snape had already told Dumbledore about a death eater whom he had on the imperious and he, Snape had asked him to tell him anything the Dark Lord would tell him. Dumbledore was impressed by that; but information was very little and very rare.
He never told Dumbledore where Arran was to go alone because it would put Arran and Ria in danger and anyway Arran would never kill or hurt, only arrange memories of the attacks in his mind and conjure stone and wood and transfigure them into tortured men and women who would last the night in case any death eater would come to check and leave it at that before apparating to another place and try to find out about the other attacks.
The next two months went along like this with the war truly under way and for now the homes of the muggleborns and the half – bloods were safe. That was one thing the Order had done well. They had not only warded the homes of the students but also as many homes as possible by placing them under the Fidelus or blood wards that would keep them safe from the attacks.
Muggles were not so fortunate though and they were the ones who suffered the most in the next two months. Arran when sent alone would apparate ceaselessly until he found the other places of attack and then did his best to kill as many death eaters as possible.
Voldemort lost a few of his death eaters that way at the hands of Arran and Ria. But those times too, were very few and far in between as no one knew who was going to attack where and it was on rare occasions that Arran could overhear something worth the while or stumble in on another attack.
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Pansy came back to a big welcome in Slytherin. She had lost half her weight and three of her fingers in her left hand. She had artificial fingers in them that looked pretty real. Nott saw her and shuddered especially when he saw the false fingers that had been seamlessly stitched to her hand.
Nott had returned to the School a very disturbed boy. He was also a Slytherin and a very ambitious boy as well. There was hardly a Slytherin who wasn't. He and all of them had joined the Dark Lord to ensure their blood would be pure without infiltration and to keep their world completely secret from the muggles.
Dumbledore was against that because he felt that there would be no harm in telling muggles about their world and already the muggle Prime Minister and almost all the immediate family of the muggleborns were having way too much information about their world. That was dangerous and only one muggleborn had to take it into his or her head to bring the muggles in and then there would be only chaos.
But the way of the Dark Lord to tackle the issue was just not on. Mad killing and fighting and uncaring of the people he lost was so stupid and Nott shivered simply to think of the Dark Lord as stupid. But he morbidly thought on as if his thoughts would simply not leave him to himself.
When he had been on the hunts before he had become injured Nott had been shocked by the sheer number of muggles. When he had been injured and out of the madness for a while at least he thought bitterly, when he had been recuperating, he had taken the pains to find out the wizard/muggle ratio and had almost fainted in shock. There were more than fifty million muggles in Britain alone and over six billion muggles all the world over.
There were hardly about a hundred thousand magical folk and the way those who were not in the service of the Dark Lord were being targeted there would hardly be any left. Then where would the pure bloods be wondered Nott, if they did not have enough pureblood witches and wizards to marry. They would have to resort to marrying muggles and then what would happen of the Dark Lord's claim to do away with the muggles he snorted to himself.
With the population that the muggles had, to kill them off one by one would not be feasible and killing off the witches and wizards would only end in reducing the already small population that was there.
Nott had brooded and thought until he felt a mounting resentment for the Dark Lord. His father had been in the Outer Circle of the Dark Lord's ranks and he, Nott had been second only to Malfoy in the political rankings at Slytherin. His father had been killed in what Nott was now beginning to think a wholly stupid exercise just because the Dark Lord was angry of all things.
At that time though Nott had grieved but had proudly taken his father's place as Head of the Nott family of which he was the only son and also the mark to serve his Lord. He had foolishly tried to get into the inner ranks straightaway by killing Potter at The Three Broomsticks.
Nott shuddered; what a fool he had been. Potter had thankfully survived and Snape had told him that Potter was the special kill of the Dark Lord and had he known how close Nott had come to killing the boy his Lord had failed to time and again, Nott would have been tortured and then only killed.
Potter! Nott mused, the boy had from fifteen months onwards had taken upon him the task of defeating the Dark Lord time and again. Nott scowled angrily as he thought of his father and now his grieving mother. He unlike so many in Slytherin had a very loving upbringing and his father had taken the mark not to get ahead in the Wizarding World but because he had firmly believed in the theories of the Dark Lord.
The Nott family was almost as rich as the Malfoys though they did not boast of their wealth as the Malfoys did. They also were one of the prominent families who contributed to the finance of the Dark Lord and the death eaters.
The dementors! Nott thought with a scowl. The six death eaters were a joke. They never guided the dementors but tried their best to stun Potter and take him to the Dark Lord so that they would be favored, showed once again the lack of respect for life, even of their own. They had not minded that Slytherin House would be there in full force and had Potter not warned them, Nott knew there would be much causality that day.
The Dark Lord used them, their money, the money of the Notts, Parkinsons, Zabinis, Malfoys, Lestranges and Bulstrodes not to mention the Crabbes and Goyles and he did not even acknowledge the loss of life of his father or of Rabastan Lestrange but went on attacking and putting more and more pureblood families into despair by ordering their deaths because that is what the death eaters were doing every time they went to attack.
They were in turn attacked by the aurors or the Order and apart from the Inner Circle no one really escaped unscathed. Even in the Inner Circle, Rabastan and Amyctus had been killed. And even they were not recognized for their contribution.
Nott had been brooding ever since he had returned to the School, very gladly for the first time because it would save him from the Dark Lord for the next three months. Hogwarts now was his sanctuary. He had looked around his class mates and the others in Slytherin whom he knew to be death eaters. He saw the haunted looks on their faces and Pansy returning with three of her fingers missing was the last straw.
He decided to act and if he were killed for it, well he decided grimly it would be a better death than dying for the bloody maniac.
He carefully went deep into the dungeons and warded a room with many, many spells. Then he chose carefully and sent invitations, formal ones to discuss certain issues to Draco, Pansy, Blaise, Crabbe, Goyle, Bulstrode, Gavin, Thomasin, Bornis the last three of them seventh years who he had known to have been injured badly and had also seen the terror when Nott had been injured (he had been with them that day) and he had noticed they had come back to School as relieved as him, Boot from Ravenclaw who had lost his father the same day he, Nott had lost his and Tracey Davies and Daphne Greengrass.
Draco and the others received the invite in the Great Hall in the morning and were very shocked. Draco looked at the neat note and then looked up at Nott in confusion as Nott looked blankly at him and nodded once. Draco looked at the note and read it once more.
Draco,
I wish to discuss something of great importance with you and a few others. Please assemble in the common room at midnight and I will take you to a room I have specially prepared for this meeting.
Yours sincerely,
Theodore Nott
Draco, Pansy and Blaise looked around to see who else had got the note he found that all of sixth year and a few of seventh year had received it.
Draco let his eyes roam the Hall casually and found Boot with a note that looked like his but no one else. Well Draco thought this was interesting. He would have some information he hoped to give to Snape tonight about Voldemort and if he was very lucky even the next attacks could be known.
Pansy and Blaise were thinking the same thing and all of them did not react at all and went about doing their thing. Exams were over and they had no classes until three days later when they would leave for their home.
All of them were anxious about what Dumbledore would do regards Harry's living arrangements. Dumbledore had not said a word on the subject. Harry could stay until he was seventeen in that house 'safely' but after that even as per Dumbledore's great wisdom he would have to leave.
Harry himself was sure Dumbledore would ask him to go either to The Burrow or to Grimmauld Place and Harry did not want to go to either place. The Burrow was now very uncomfortable for him not only on account of Ron and Ginny but also because he did not want to face the other Weasleys in their home. He still felt guilty whenever he remembered Arthur crying and although he felt strong that the Weasleys were on his side, Harry felt bad for them as well.
Draco with the invite firmly in his hands informed the others about the note he and almost everyone who was a death eater had received. Snape was the first to tell him to be cautious.
"You will not tell them anything Draco, Blaise and Pansy and all of you will have your earrings activated at all times."
Draco and the others who were sitting on his bed in his own room that he had because his father was a death eater in the Inner Circle rolled their eyes, "And don't take me lightly and roll your eyes; even though I am not there I know you are rolling your eyes." Snape told them highly irritated, making them snicker.
Snape's eyes softened. These children had suffered as much as Harry. For their brilliance they deserved so much more. But he would take it if they would just survive the war and got along with their lives.
That night Draco and the others waited in their common room for Nott to arrive and he came at a quarter to twelve and found all of them already there and he silently led the way outside and went to the potions classroom where Boot was standing near the door.
Then Nott turned around and led the others deep into the dungeons and led them to the door of the room he had prepared earlier and opening it he allowed the others to enter. All of them silently entered now feeling slightly scared rather than curious.
Nott flicked his wand at the door turning back on the others and he very quickly flicked his wand on his hand and put a few drops of blood on the door and sealed it.
He turned back and walked to the other corner of the room and went to a small table at knee length and sat on it and looked around at everyone in silence. There were thick carpets and cushions on the floor and soon everyone made themselves comfortable and then looked expectantly at Nott.
Harry, Hermione, Snape and McGonagall not to mention Arran and Ria and all the Weasleys were listening as well. Snape had his wand at the ready and was in fact outside the door of the room where the others had gone in and was listening intently ready to gate crash at the slightest indication of any violence.
"Thank you every one of you who have come here today." Nott began looking very nervous and scared. He was actually terrified about what he was planning to suggest but the alternative of continuing to work for the Dark Lord was even more terrifying.
"What I am going to tell you here is not only very important but very secret as well. I will ask for an oath on your magic if you do agree with me and your permission now to oblivate you if you do not. I would not tell you about oblivating you but I wanted to be very honest and forth coming about everything and I wanted you to know the seriousness of what I will be speaking here."
He stopped there and looked at all of them who were looking very puzzled and confused. Gavin the seventh year scowled. "This had better be good Nott. If I find you are wasting our time you will pay for it and why did you not call the other death eaters here and also Snape who is in the Inner ranks here?"
"Because I am about to turn traitor and the other death eaters in the seventh year are those who are still mesmerized by the Dark Lord, oh what the hell, Voldemort."
All of them collectively shuddered except Draco, Pansy and Blaise gaped collectively at him wondering if he had gone mad. Draco, Blaise and Pansy were looking very shocked and then were speculatively looking at Nott.
Out side Snape's jaw hit the floor when he Nott's voice through the earring, as did the jaws of almost everyone who was listening there. They were listening thinking they were going to hear something else and Nott had totally stunned them.
"What the hell are you saying man?" asked another seventh year Bornis who was looking as if he would wet his pants at the mention of the Dark Lord's name.
"Do you know how many muggles are there Bornis? Six billion all around the world." At the gasps that ran around the room Nott continued his eyes flashing angrily, "There are over fifty million in the U.K alone. We are a hundred thousand and twenty five percent of us are muggleborns and fifty percent are half bloods and the rest are pure bloods.
"Among the pure bloods so many families that have joined with the Dark Lord are now died out thanks to him. The Crouches, the Blacks, the Lestranges are surely going to be killed or kissed, the Malfoys, Notts I am the only one left and I will surely die in the service of Voldemort, Flint is dead and his father died too and that is the end of that pure blood family, the Zabinis, the Parkinsons; Pansy's one brother is dead and if the other will die then that family is also finished, do I have to say more?
"All of us are fighting to keep our blood pure and our world secret. Both are not accomplished because Dumbledore is determined to make our world known to the muggles and the Dark Lord is killing us every day by planning raids on fifty million muggles in the U.K. What if a muggleborn like Granger takes it into her head and brings the muggles at one point to help them against Voldemort?" all of them squeaked in fear at that thought.
"Where will we be on all that? What will happen to us and more importantly the values for which we have taken the mark and have lost so much, family, money, and slowly the pure blood status as well for that is what all this will come to? Voldemort is hell bent on only one thing. Kill Potter and kill muggles, kill muggleborns, kill half bloods, kill, kill, kill. Then what? Well he bloody does not have a clue."
Nott was trembling now, shaking in the enormity of what he was revealing to his fellow death eaters, but having started he could not stop. He just ranted on.
"Mark my words, there will be no one left to rule or impose his decisions upon in a little while from now. And my dear Slytherins Voldemort cannot bloody touch Potter. That much we know. Potter has something behind him that keeps him from falling into the maniac's hands every time.
"The shame of it all is that Potter was willing to give us information that actually saved us against the dementors. the bloody Weasel; I want to kill him," Nott scowled angrily, "he and his sister fought with Potter saying that the Slytherins could get their souls sucked and it would be a blessing but Potter gave us the information we must have got from our people.
"Our families must have told us to be safe, to be prepared but Voldemort did not allow anyone with the information to leave his side and even Snape was not able to warn us. If it weren't for Potter so many of us would have had our soul sucked out that day. All of you know that.
"Bloody hell; Voldemort as our Master and our Lord does not recognize our life is worthy, while Potter who is our enemy and the one Draco has taunted so much in the past, the one against whom I cast the seeping curse that would have almost killed him, saved us.
"There is something so very wrong there and I for one think that Potter is a better man than our Lord. What a shame! Then take the random attacks against the muggles in the last few months where only Pansy and I survived by the skin of our teeth and all of you are lucky you are living. When we will fall like the others is anybody's guess.
"To die for a cause is fine but to die trying to kill fifty million muggles is suicide and I don't want to kill myself."
The silence that was terrifying and understanding and so palpable could have been cut with a knife as all of them sat there and stared at Nott.
In the silence Draco spoke first very hesitantly.
"I think Nott is right. Potter actually thanked me and Bulstrode saying that if we and Theo who was in the infirmary at the time did not help them all of them would have died. My father could have sent a message by simply going to the bathroom; but," very bitterly, "He did not think his only son to be worthy of saving."
"Potter actually fought with the Weasel and I agree with Theo that both he and his sister must be killed really. He had the balls to say, 'Harry they are Slytherins after all. So what if they have their souls sucked? It would be a good thing'." Bulstrode added viciously.
The other Slytherins started talking about Ron and Ginny and for a while Draco let them be for some time cursing the brother and sister because he knew that to be a cover for the more important things they were thinking inside and then he clapped his hands asking for attention.
"What Theo says is right. I was there the other day and Potter told the Weasel that he wanted to save everyone and he had noticed that most of us had gone to the stands already and warned us and also gave the incantation for the Patronus charm to use them against the dementors.
"But taking into account what Theo says is one thing. What are we going to do about it is another. To even think about going against the Dark Lord is one thing but to whom can we go. The moment they see our marks the Ministry will kill us. Dumbledore will never trust us and will never even look at us as worthy of being saved from the Dark Lord. He hates Slytherin.
"Yes he does and it is because of him that Slytherin House has such a bad name." Gavin said angrily.
No one had said Nott was mad or that he should be killed for saying he wanted out. Draco took heart from that.
The other Slytherins had been terrified and Nott had chosen well. He had seen all of them in combat with the Order like him, and he had noticed the look of terror on their faces. He had also seen the relief of the Slytherins and the quiet was they conducted themselves after they came back to School. There were a few others as well and Nott had avoided them when he had heard them boast of all the filthy muggles who had been killed so far.
"How can we fight more than fifty million muggles? That is near impossible. What is the Dark Lord thinking?" Boot asked shakily.
"Who knows what he is thinking? I think he is totally mad though." Nott replied bitterly.
"Well talking is all very well. Even if I do agree who will save us?" asked Gavin desperately as the room fell silent at the question.
"Potter!" Pansy said in the silence.
"He will never believe us." Boot told her.
"He will if you give him an oath on your magic. That cannot be false and if I know anything of Potter he would die rather than betray our trust. And if he can save us he will die to do that. He is made that way and the proof is in the way he fought his best friend to save us and he thanked Nott who almost killed him for fighting along side with him, when he knew it was Voldemort who sent the dementors and the death eaters to Hogwarts." Pansy spoke into the silence.
"Let us meet him. All of us and ask him just where he is and will he be able to help us later if we help him in the war. If not anything that offer will make him think." Draco continued after Pansy spoke and all of them were silent for a long time.
"We will be going against our parents?" Gavin asked a little nervously. The others nodded too. Family obedience was a way of life for most of them in the Wizarding World and to go against it would mean going against all they believed and lived for until now.
"Yes and I am glad Theo brought this up. I will be going against my father who is in the Inner Circle. I too have been thinking about what has been happening since the dementors came and I for one am very glad I am being given an opportunity to fight for the right cause and not for a cause that will not only bring my end but the end of my family, our world and of magic." Draco told everyone firmly and Pansy was the first followed by Blaise to side with Draco and Nott.
It was the comment about his father in the Inner Circle that had swayed most of them Draco knew. If Draco whose father was in the Inner Circle thought it was not worthwhile to be a death eater then what chance did the rest of them have?
Slowly all of them simply raised their hands for a minute before letting it fall and then slightly trembling Tracy Davies asked Draco. "Draco how will we be able to escape the Dark Lord and our families? They will kill us for being traitors."
"Only if they know Tracy." Pansy told her. "What if they do not know?"
"But how can we do that?" Bornis asked.
"I really do not know. Let us call Potter and Granger here tomorrow and speak to them. Call Longbottom as well. Potter will surely come then rather than if we call him alone as he would think that to be a trap. Longbottom has come a long way from where he was before. He cast so many Patronuses when the dementors came that time and was so confident. He is a pure blood and if Potter and Granger do not understand something, he will and he will explain it to them."
"Yeah! No Weasels." Bulstrode said sneering.
"Hear, hear." Everyone said and as it was getting very late, almost dawn, all of them simply raised their wands and said, "I will not betray anyone here to the Dark Lord, his death eaters or Dumbledore and the Ministry." And they waited for Nott to open the door and went out feeling very scared and just a bit relieved that they had a chance now, a very small chance that they would be saved and need not go about endlessly killing and torturing others.
While the power to lord over others was nice, all these Slytherins gathered here preferred to do it in a sly and cunning manner and indulge in political warfare and fight for political power. To go about behaving like executioners brought up the bile and it was terrifying for all of them to be killing helpless people who had no clue why they were being attacked was no fun.
"Hey! Who will call those three here?" Gavin asked.
"I will, if Nott does not mind as this is his show." Draco told everyone.
Nott was very relieved. "This is our show Draco and no I do not mind."
"Okay unless I say otherwise we will meet here at midnight tomorrow. Is that fine?" Draco asked all of them smiling for the first time.
They left and Draco went to his room and secured it tightly and then yelled happily into his activated earring.
"Yes! Yes, yes, yes, yes, YES!" he shouted pumping his hand in the air and making everyone shout in joy as well. Harry screamed along with him in sheer joy and it was a good thing there were such things called silencing charms in the Wizarding World, otherwise they would have surely been found out. Hermione and Pansy along with Arran and Ria and Blaise laughed aloud as the congratulations were passed around from all of them to Draco and the other two.
"You were great guys." Harry told them his happiness bubbling along the link. "But did you have to make me the scapegoat? Potter will die for us. Really Draco."
Draco laughed. "What can I say Golden Boy! That is your trademark it seems. We came to you thinking exactly like they did today and," here Draco turned serious, "you have never let us down have you?"
Harry blushed and he tried to sneer at them and then gave it up as the others simply laughed and all of them toasted him and Draco loudly. Snape and McGonagall and Arthur felt incredibly proud of the boys at that moment.
All of them went to sleep and woke up in time for lunch only. Harry woke up all disoriented and feeling a sense of excitement for which he did not know the reason until he remembered that night.
He got up and rushed to wash and then went down to fill his rumbling stomach that had missed breakfast. They had not planned anything deciding to deal with everything as it came and Harry went to the Great Hall when a hand pulled him aside.
It was Draco, Nott and Gavin the seventh year. Harry struggled and was about to hit them with his hands when Draco spoke in a calm tone. "Potter we are not here to fight. We are here to ask you if you are interested to speak to a few of us."
"Why?" Harry asked angrily glaring at Nott and then at Draco. "So that you can take me to that thing you call Lord and Master?"
"All three of us swear Potter on our life that we will not harm you. We just want to speak something seriously with you. You don't need to come alone. Bring the mud," at Harry's stare Draco coughed, "Granger and Longbottom, but no Weasley."
Harry started at them for a long moment. "Where? When?"
Draco blinked as Harry accepted. So did the other two. "Tonight at a quarter to midnight. Come to the potions room and we will take you from there."
"You will not harm Hermione and Neville and you will not call her a mudblood and him a squib. Alright?"
They nodded looking bemused at Harry's words. He did not ask them anything more and then he slipped away from them and went into the Great Hall and sat down to eat like a pig.
As he was finishing Neville ran into the room and stopped finding Harry there. "Hey! Where were you?" Harry smiled at him and then grinned at Ron and Hermione who had walked in.
"Harry!" Ron exclaimed. "Mate you slept like the world was coming to an end."
Harry grinned at him. "Yeah! After the exams I feel so tired all the time. Really. And this is only out sixth year Ron. Next year is our NEWTS and I shudder to think about them and the work that will be involved."
Ron grinned back at him and sat down to eat along with Hermione, who was already beginning to study for her NEWTS. She had a book on Charms in front of her and was deeply studying.
Ron and Ginny had been very puzzled all these months that their four imperious spells had not worked on Harry. Dumbledore had even asked Harry to come to his office on the pretext of enquiring after him and he had carefully checked his aura and magic. But he could not find anything wrong there and he had no other option except to believe that Harry had thrown it off as he did with the false Moody in his fourth year.
Dumbledore was relieved in a way because if anyone came to know of this Ron and Ginny would be sent to Azkaban. And he was more relieved that Harry had fought the curse and thrown it off without realizing what it was that made him long for Ginny and why he felt it as silly as he had never felt that way about her.
While Ron and Ginny being sent to Azkaban by itself would not affect Dumbledore deeply, he would have no one near Harry who would report to him so faithfully for money.
So Dumbledore had let it be and had warned Ron and Ginny not to cast any more imperious or give any potion that could be traced to them and try and win his affections in the normal way.
That was proving to be impossible though Dumbledore's plans for the holidays could change all that. Well he would hope anyway.
Now Harry and 'The Gang' finished their lunch and walked out to the lake and were there the whole day laughing and playing. As they were going to dinner Harry had flicked his hand at Ron and Ginny making them feel extra tired.
They had a sumptuous dinner and then went up to their common room and Ron and Ginny could barely keep their eyes open. Ginny got up yawning. "It is all that fresh air and exercise I think. I am so tired. Good night Harry. Goodnight guys." And she went with Hermione who also told everyone she was tired too and she would join Ginny and go to sleep.
Ron was yawning and Harry laughed as he dragged him upstairs and pushed him on his bed and flicked his hand once more. Ron was dead to the world. Harry flicked his hand once more for good measure and loudly told Ron and Neville he too was crashing and signaling Neville to come close Harry drew the curtains around his bed.
Checking his curtains for the spells he had placed on them he smiled at Neville and told him all that had happened the night before. Neville listened with his eyes almost popping out of his head and when Harry finished, he grinned and agreed to come at once.
They went to their beds and waited for a quarter to midnight. Dean and Seamus came at about eleven and ten minutes later there was only silence. Harry got up at a half past eleven and went to Neville's bed and found him reading a book on Herbology. He put a finger on his lips and dragged him out and went to Dean's and Seamus's beds and flicked his hand at them.
Another flick at Ron and Harry was ready. He cast the invisible charm as well as a repellent charm and a notice me not charm on Neville and him and went down. He cast a privacy spell and spoke to Hermione who was using her wand to place sleeping spells on her dorm mates and her third sleeping spell on Ginny who was in the fifth year dorm.
She came down her bag with her and Harry cast the same charms on her and all three of them opened the doors of their common room and Harry also cast the aura concealing charm so that even Dumbledore would not be able to detect them and went to the potions classroom.
Today like yesterday all the Weasleys, Snape, McGonagall, Arran and Ria were listening and all of them wished Harry all the best. Harry thanked them and waited for Draco who came a moment later with Nott and Gavin the seventh year.
They silently walked leading the way and Harry, Hermione and Neville were soon at the room where Nott had met the Slytherins yesterday.
Nott opened the door and Harry, Hermione and Neville went in and saw the faces of the Slytherins who were their enemies until now.
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