Chapter 10:  A Patronus Story

 

Back to Hogwarts, Harry resumed his life as an Invisible student. He read a lot. He dissected and went through all Dumbledore’s books, and now he concentrated on the book about snakes.  Harry was of the opinion that we could achieve everything we wanted, if we had willingness enough, as well as determination and concentration of the spirit.

During his fifth year he had frequent flashes of Voldemort’s fits of mood. He had seen Mr Weasley attacked by Nagini through Nagini’s eyes. According to Dumbleore, there was a connection between Harry and Voldemort through the scar that Voldemort had left on Harry’s forehead.  And if Harry could enter Voldemort’s mind, Voldemort as well could enter Harry’s mind. That was why Harry had to learn Occlumency during his fifth year, to close his mind to Voldemort’s intrusion. It was in this way, that Voldemort had been able to show to Harry the scene of Sirius’s torture in order to incite him to come to the Ministry and fall in his ambush. It was his fault if Sirius was dead. It was painful to think of that again, but he should plunge himself into it now, to analyse the question and find out how he could now enter Nagini’s head without stirring up Voldemort’s suspicion.

Since the death of Sirius, Harry had had no such flashes of Voldemort’s fits of temper. Dumbledore explained that perhaps Voldemort realized that it would be dangerous for him to let Harry enter his mind, and that now Voldemort was using Occlumency against Harry.  That was already a good thing.

Every evening, Harry tried hard, with the image of Helga’s cup, imagining he was in Nagini undulated body, but with no result. He again did the exercise again and again.

He dissected Dumbledore’s book on snakes, how to approach them and how to kill them.  In one of the chapters of the book they mentioned the utilisation of hypnotism; it was what the snake charmers used, the music they played was only to attract the spectators, but it was the eye contact that should not be discontinued.

“Quite interesting !”, Harry thought.

 

“Evening Harry !” greeted Hermione, entering the class, then as she saw the book on the desk, she added : “How would you do to get into Nagini’s head  ? Have you thought of it ?”

“Perhaps you should learn Legilimency ?” suggested Ron who had arrived behind Hermione.

“Yes, in a certain way. Legilimency is a mean to read in others’ mind, but it can only be done when you are face to face with the person”, replied Harry.

“Then, how could you do ?” asked Ron, both worried and disappointed.

“In my case, I’ve a connection with Voldemort through my scar, but … yes, it’s kind of Legilimency from afar, let’s call it ‘remote’ Legilimency. Well, by concentration and determination of the spirit, I can’t see any other way”, said Harry in a firm tone. “Before, I’ve had flashes of Voldemort’s fits, because in those moments Voldemort fiercely thought of me with rage ! I should think about Nagini in the same way. But I don’t hate Nagini, it’s only a disgusting snake, that’s all ! It’s difficult to think about Nagini as I think about Voldemort, that’s why it’s still difficult.

“I admire you”, said Hermione. “You outstrip all of us, and by far, and I’m sure that you will succeed it.”

“Yesterday I had a dream: I was in an unknown and miserable district that, I’m sure, I’ve never been in before in my true life !”

“Perhaps it’s a clue ! In London ?  And if it’s in London, there are many miserable districts, we should have other indications”, Hermione pointed out.

“Yes, of course ! But if we start off with London ! I should have a detailed map of London, I’ll order one.”

“This weekend, there will be a trip to Hogsmeade village.  We could go out with the other students, and then we’ll go to The Burrow. My parents have sent me complete sets of what we need to take blood sample. We can send Bill’s and Lupin’s blood samples to the Laboratory.  Lupin hasn’t transformed at the last full moon. Lupin and Tonks feel very hopeful, but Lupin said that he has always the feeling that he is sitting upon a time bomb and he fears very much a relapse. Tonks also, of course.”

“I understand them. Yes, that’s a good idea !” Harry approved.

 

It was a beautiful but very cold day. The snow of the last days covered all the countryside and became blazing under the sun.

“I’m freezing”, said Harry under his Invisibility Cloak.

The three friends met up at the foot of the Entrance Hall.  They brought up the rear of the students who went to Hogsmeade village, but remained a little behind to be out of earshot.

“It’s normal, it is only February !” replied Ron.

“Where’s Ginny ?” asked Harry, surprised not to see her among the students.

“She is ill”, Hermione replied, “she’s got a stomach ache, poor little girl ! Missing such a wonderful day !”

“Who is it that I see there ? The journalist ?” burst out Harry, who at the moment forgot her name.

“She has desperately been hunting for news about you for many months. As it’s a trip of the students to the village, Rita Skeeter must think that she’ll have chances of catching you or having some news about you !” replied Hermione who, as usual, had an answer for everything.

“Deception !” Harry said in a singsong and ironic voice, glad to have an occasion to play a trick on Rita. “At the turning, we’ll leave the others move away, and we’ll Disapparate”, Harry proposed.

Suddenly, far away in the blue sky, he saw a dark mass flowing at a surprisingly quick rate towards them.

“Dementors ! An army of them !” Harry cried out, “We must get close to the others to protect them, and please, hide me, I must take out my wand !”

They ran towards the other students.

“Dementors !” Hermione cried out to the other students.

There was panic, but among the students, many voices were heard casting the formula “Expecto Patronum” and about thirty Patronus of various forms materialized on the middle of the road ready to stand up against those shapeless black monsters coming from darkness, which rushed towards them. Then suddenly, a silvery white stag, as enormous as a mammoth and as bright as the snow covering the meadows around them, appeared from nowhere, walking stately among the other animals. With great majesty, it raised its head which wore ramified antlers several yards wide. The Dementors monsters were as if sucked up by the stag, the way nails could be by a magnet, but they broke into pieces when they touched the pointed tips of the antlers and melted away into thin air. All this happened in a total silence, as all the persons present were wonder struck, they stood stock-still looking at the scene, speechless and out of breath.  Suddenly a very familiar voice was heard:

“She’s not there !”

“Malfoy ?”, Harry blurted out in astonishment, but as he succeeded in locating where came Draco’s voice, Snape behind him, grasped hold of Draco’s arm and Disapparated with him after blowing a whistle.

“They must not have been alone.  Other Death Eaters were with them ! And they were surely looking for Ginny ! Voldemort is always after Ginny ! As they could not get into the school, they waited for us on the road to the village.  They must have sent the Dementors to create a diversion, while the Death Eaters would be busy kidnapping Ginny”, Harry said with rage.

“Your Patronus was wonderful !” Hermione burst out.

Rita Skeeter started asking whether someone knew whom the giant stag belonged to.

“Let’s go”, Harry proposed, and the three friends returned to the turning of the road, and safely Disapparated away from prying eyes.

 

“Dad, we’ve just been attacked by the Dementors, hundreds of them”, Ron said breathless, when they arrived at The Burrow and entered the kitchen like a rush of wind. “And you should have seen Harry’s Patronus !  It was wonderful and enormous, as big as a house ! Without his Patronus, we would all have been dead. Fortunately Ginny wasn’t there !”.

“Well, calm down, Ron, because I can’t understand a word”, Mr Weasley replied. “‘You’ve been attacked by the Dementors, where’s that ? And why do you say ‘fortunately Ginny wasn’t there’, where was she ?”

“We’ve been attacked by an army of Dementors, right out of the castles, on the way to Hogsmeade village,” Harry answered. “Ginny was not with the students, she was not well, and had preferred staying behind in the school. After the Dementors had been eliminated, we saw Draco Malfoy and Snape. When Malfoy cried out “She’s not there”, Snape grasped Malfoy’s arm and Disapparated with him after blowing a whistle. Surely they were with other Death Eaters; we haven’t had time to see the others. But it proves that Voldemort is always after Ginny ! I think we should ask Fred and George whether they could find an Invisibility Cloak for Ginny”.

“We must report it to the Order. Alastor has an Invisibility Cloak, he might lend it to me. And how are you with Ron and Hermione, Harry ?” asked Mr Weasley, surprised.

“Ron and Hermione told me to meet them before the school, to come here so as to take Bill’s and Lupin’s blood samples, I wanted to have news from you all.”

“And how were the Dementors eliminated ?” asked Mr Weasley.

“They’ve been eliminated, destroyed by Harry’s Patronus” replied Ron, happy he could resume his narration, “like that”, he added snapping his fingers.

“Destroyed « like that »”, repeated Mr Weasley, imitating Ron’s snapping of fingers … (while wondering about what his son was speaking  of  ?)

“Yes, like that”, said Ron snapping again his fingers.

“And what did they say at St Mungo’s Hospital about Lupins’s recovery ?”, asked Harry, desirous to change the subject of the conversation.

“They said that your idea that Bill’s blood may contain an antidote is a very interesting one and they would wish to have a sample of Bill’s blood”.

“I’ll do it.’ Hermione hastened to reply. “My parents said they’ve sent me here all that we need to take blood samples. You’ve received it ?”

“Yes, we’ve received a big parcel, but we haven’t opened it yet”, answered Mrs Weasley who was just entering the kitchen.

The parcel contained everything Hermione needed: four complete sets of sterilized tubes, syringes, absorbent compresses, a bottle of antiseptic to clean the skin, adhesive labels to use for various routine exams, and even a rubber strap… Hermione had only to add the patient’s name.

“I’ve got a first-aid certificate. Don’t be worried, Bill”, said Hermione, happy to show her knowledge. “What a pity that Mr Lupin isn’t there, we would have been able to send the two blood samples to the laboratory at the same time.”

“Yes, he won’t be long; he’ll be there any moment. He really wants to know more about that question of antidote, he wants to know whether he’s really cured and whether we’ll have a weapon against the werewolves”, Mr Weasley replied.

“I’m not worried, Hermione”, said Bill from the other end of the table.  “We simply are not used to being ‘pricked’’ added Bill laughing, and  stretching out his arm towards Hermione while rolling up his leaves.

Hermione displayed an almost professional know-how with order and method.  She was filling the labels in the name of Bill when Lupin arrived.

“That’s perfect”, let out Mr Weasley.

“I’ll take your blood sample too, Professor !” said Hermione.

When everything was ready, she placed the tubes separately in two boxes, one containing  Bill’s samples and the other Lupin’s ones, and wrapped both boxes together. She added some words to her parents and send the whole thing through Hedwig which was at that moment at the Burrow.

“We’ll have the results by the day after tomorrow. My parents will send them here”, said Hermione. “Now we must return to the school, at the same time as the other students, otherwise, the gate will be closed, Ron !”, she added turning to Ron.

“Me too, I must go !”’ Harry hastened to say.

Hermione gave the parcel of syringes she hasn’t used to Mrs Weasley.

“Please, keep it for another time… Good bye, we are in a hurry.”

“Good bye, Ron and Harry said at the same time, and the three friends went out into the garden and Disapparated.

 

Indeed, the gate was already closed. The students, after the attack of the Dementors, had no longer felt like going to the village and had all returned to the school shortly after.  Ron sent his Patronus to Hagrid, and he arrived with an expression of relief.

‘We were wondering where you and Hermione had gone. The students have been back for a long time ago. But McGonagall didn’t seem very worried, otherwise we would have alerted your parents, Ron ! Tell me how the attack  went along !’

“Surely the other students told you in detail. We were all there. And there were Draco Malfoy and Snape !” said Hermione.

“Really ? And what did Malfoy do ?”

“He cried : ‘She’s not there’. Then they Disapparated all.  Surely they were looking for Ginny, but Ginny wasn’t there.”

“We must inform McGonagall; that Draco and Snape were there”, said Hagrid.

“Yes, we’ll bear it in mind”, Hermione hastened to reply.

 

“Don’t go away at once,” said Harry when they arrived before Harry’s room. “Come in, We have something to discuss about. We must find out where Draco and Snape are. They are wanted by the Ministry, so, they can’t be at home, they must be with Voldemort, at Voldemort’s Head Quarters, or perhaps they have a den, the den of the Death Eaters concealed somewhere.  At the next meeting of the Order, we should talk about it, what do you think of it ?”

“But where ?” asked Ron, who had never neither reply nor imagination.

“I don’t know”, replied Harry. “We could station ourselves behind the Malfoys’ manor to watch out. Draco must surely return to his house from time to time to fetch a few things. Last year, he went away in panic, all of a sudden.  We could make a round there, next weekend.  His manor is in Gloucester, on the Seven, your Dad told me so.”

“Yes, Hermione and Ron replied at the same time, and they parted for the Great Hall after biding Harry “Good meal”.

 

The evening edition of the Daily Prophet related all details about the Dementors’ attack. They thought that over a hundred of them were in it. The article related how they had been destroyed by the enormous stag that nobody knew who had conjured. According to the Prophet many people knew that Harry Potter’s Patronus was a stag, but none of the students who had been interviewed confirmed it, they all said they had not seen Harry all year long.

The article was accompanied by a photo of the stag stately walking among the other Patronus and that of the Dementors which burst out into pieces when they touched the sharp pointes of the stag’s antlers, like rubber balloons on cactus thorns.

All the students were unharmed.  They stood still, wonder struck, gazing at the scene, so grandiose, they had never seen.

Rita Skeeter had got some answers to her questions, mainly that the Otter was the Patronus conjured by Hermione Granger, the Jack Russell by Ronald Weasley, the Penguin by Neville Longbottom and the Hare by Luna Lovegood, all of them, close friends of Harry Potter, who had been with him at the Ministry some two years ago. According to the article, an examiner from the Ministry who had questioned Harry at his O.W.L. (Ordinary Wizarding Level examinations) confirmed that Harry Potter’s Patronus was a stag but assured that it was a stag of normal size.

The article referred to the Dementors’ attack in Norfolk at late Christmas, when about some thirty Aurors which had been dispatched to the place, were not able to do better than to chase them after one hours’ fighting; and this with a comparatively heavy toll. The article emphasized the fact that the stag had lately destroyed the Dementors must denote an extraordinary magic power.

The article also stated that all the wizarding community received the news with great joy and that according to them, perhaps all the Dementor army that You-Know-Who possessed might have been destroyed.  Indeed the Ministry confirmed that the number of Dementors who were in service in Azkaban was nearly two hundred.

 

A Hufflepuff A.D. member brought Harry a copy of the Daily Prophet at the training session that followed the attack:

“We all knew that it was your Patronus, because it was the exact image of yours, but when you showed it to us during the training sessions, it was really of normal size”, she said.

“Yes !” Harry replied. “Let’s us say that I can conjure my Patronus at will, as I want, Harry added pointing his wand towards the door and the enormous stag appeared from thin air, touching the basilica ceiling of the class with its antlers.

“How can we conjure a Patronus in that way ?” asked many voices at the same time.

“I think that for this question I can’t give you much help. It’s a strictly individual and personal work.  When Professor Lupin taught me how to conjure a Patronus, my stag was of a normal size. When I was attacked by the Dementors, there were two of them, and when I passed my O.W.L. my stag was of a normal size too.  But since Dumbledore’s death, I’ve woken up; I said to myself that my Patronus should be of greater weight and size to exterminate an army of Dementors if ever Voldemort sent me one. Well, that’s my Patronus’ story. Think about it and perhaps you’ll find a solution. The main thing is concentration and determination of the spirit … It’s very important, in every curse, in all curses, and the whole power resides in it.”

 

“We’ve received the results from the Laboratory,” said Hermione at the end of the training session when all the D.A. members had left.

“Then ?”.

“The results are very good. I didn’t know very well what exams I should asked for, so I’ve just asked for the blood group, and the current and viral diseases, and mother said that it was good. Bill’s blood group is O+”

“Good, universal donor, that’s already a good thing”, said Harry.

“All the researches for various current diseases are negative. Lupin’s also is exempt from germs, but of AB+ group, universal recipient, Hermione said.

“Wonderful !” replied Harry. “Then perhaps we could give to St Mungos a sample ?  I have an idea; we’ll spend our next weekend at Grimmauld Place. We’ll ask Hagrid to let us out and when we return, Ron’ll send him his Patronus so that he opens the gate for us.  I would like to be a little more free,  so as to make a tour in London.  I have perhaps a new clue,  I saw a black tower, a horrible black tower !”

“A horrible black tower ?” repeated Hermione, knitting her brows as she was thoughtful. “Where could it be ?”

And the three friends plunged their heads upon the London’s map that Harry had ordered, but they found nothing which might be a “horrible black tower”. The map only showed historic and tourist sites.

 

***

 

Chapter 11:  Spinner’s End

 

The healers at St Mungo’s thought that Lupin had most probably swallowed Bill’s blood through the mouth, for Lupin had been brought to St Mungo’s hospital that day bathed in blood. There was blood everywhere, in his nostrils and in his mouth. He must have unconsciously swallowed Bill’s blood in his mouth to clear off his respiratory track, by reflex, as his nose was blocked. They said that as Lupin had lost much blood, his blood flowed outward and didn’t return to the heart.

‘It’s quite sensible as an explanation’, Harry thought.

 

When Lupin brought the sample of Bill’s blood to the hospital, it was still daytime … A child who had been bitten by a werewolf on the previous month was there. His parents were afraid of keeping him at home during the full moon night, they had entrusted him to the hospital. In order not to waste an occasion for testing Bill’s blood effect, the healers have thought of a quick solution which simply consisted in mixing up just a little bit of Bill’s blood in a large goblet of solution that contained mead, Blood-Replenishing potion and a herbal sedative syrup, while waiting other more advanced medical researches. As it was to be administered by oral way and entirely harmless, the boy’s parents accepted the experiment.  Everybody waited with beating heart for the moonrise in the hallway in front of the boy’s special chamber: Harry, Hermione, Ron, Lupin, the healers, and the boy’s parents. The boy manifested a beginning of transformation, some contortions of the body, but didn’t completely transform. Then falling asleep, he dropped on the floor and slept till the morning. Everybody was very hopeful. Before returning home, the boy was given a second cup of the potion that Hermione had kept in the cool box that Lupin had used to transport Bill’s blood sample.  The boy’s family was asked to keep the discovery secret, and to bring the boy to the hospital on the next full moon.

Mr Weasley remembered that when he had been attacked by Nagini, there was a patient in his chamber at St Mungo’s Hospital who had been bitten by a werewolf.  The healers found his file in their archives and sent him a letter asking him whether he would volunteer to test a new anti-werewolf treatment still in phase of experimentation.  But the patient in question didn’t reply to the St Mungo’s letter.

 

That night the three friends Apparated to Gloucester. They took up position in a bush, keeping an eye on the back of Malfoy’s manor. Till three o’clock in the morning nothing happened, and they decided to return to the Head Quarters to spend the rest of the night. Before leaving to go to bed, Harry confided to his friends:

“When we were behind Malfoy’s manor, at a moment, I had the impression that I heard foot steps, or more likely that I felt foot steps, far away, I didn’t know where.  On the moment, I thought that it were the strokes of my heart beating. But now, I think that it was real footsteps, underneath us, from under the ground. Perhaps there are underground passages, some tunnels. Haven’t you noticed or felt the same thing ?”

“If you said so”, replied Hermione, “I also had the same feeling.  We should return to make sure.  If there are underground passages, there must be some air vents, or ventilation shafts, don’t you think so ?”

“Certainly !”

 

The next days, the three friends, Harry, Ron and Hermione, spent the whole day visiting London. They made a complete sightseeing tour in the way of tourists by the London bus to visit all the nooks and crannies of London but could not find any “dark and horrible” tower.  They also stopped at various kiosks to look at the post cards. Their London trip did not turn fruitful but they were happy of the anti-werewolf potion and very hopeful.  If it was as simple as that, the war against the werewolves was already won.

 

Back to Hogwarts, Harry resumed his life as an ‘Invisible’. He read a lot and realized that reading was becoming easier everyday for him. Everything he read was assimilated without difficulty, the curses and spells, even the most difficult ones, Harry could master them at once without having to train, just by reading.  He no longer attended the Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons, he found them boring, a real loss of time, but he still attended the lessons of Potions, Transfiguration, Charms, and Herbology, for he intended to present himself at the end of term examinations, the N.E.W.T. (Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests). He read during the off hours in the day and when he waited for the arrival of his friends in the evening. Sometimes he helped Ron master some curses that Ron hadn’t yet succeeded in class.

 

“I got other elements in my dreams about the dark tower, well, if we could call them ‘dreams’, said Harry when Hermione and Ron arrived in his room. “There was a river, a black and dirty river. I was there, in my dream of course, in a tunnel, a kind of big and really disgusting sewer. And when I woke up a name lingered in my thoughts, the name of a place or a street, that I could not remember, it was like a name that I had known for a very long time, it wasn’t new to me, in my dream, and so I didn’t pay attention to it.

“A black river ? … Perhaps a canal ?” Hermione suggested and the three friends bended their heads on the map of London to examine the course of the Thames which went through London. But it flew through the capital from one end to the other and there was no tower mentioned on its course on the map.

“We must make another sightseeing tour in London”, Harry proposed. “Perhaps in my dreams, as in every dreams however, the light is dim, nearly ‘lunar’ light if one could say, and the tower looked threatening and horrible in darkness, but under the daylight, it may look differently and have another effect ? Surely last time we didn’t pay any attention, and we looked only for a dreadful, threatening tower !”

 

By a dark Saturday of mid-March, the three friends took again the London bus to make a tourist tour through the capital.  They stayed on the bus, each one looked on one side, traversing the whole London, from luxurious districts to less luxurious ones, then poor districts and poverty stricken ones.

“Here !” burst out Harry. “We’ll get down at the next stop, it’s the tower, or rather the chimney, under the same angle as I saw it in my dream !”

“We’ll make a tour in the area”, proposed Harry when they all had got down from the bus.

It was a very sad district with rows of nearly identical and dilapidated whitewash brick houses. Planks were missing on certain windows, others were condemned by cross-fixed boards on it. The cobbled labyrinthine streets were dirty, desert … Empty beer cans and cigarette butts … were scattered all over the place. The towering chimney, a relic of a disused mill, reared up shadowy and ominous under the gray clouded sky seemed to hover like a giant admonitory finger.

“Spinner’s End !” burst out Harry seeing the plaque on the corner of a street. “It’s the name that erupted into my head in my dream.  We are in the right area. Let’s make a tour on the river side.”

The river was separated from the house rows by a narrow cobbled street and a line of old railings. They squeezed through a gap in the rusty railings to reach the riverbank.

It was not a river but rather a canal to receive sewage from the area and from the mill. The water was black, low, and emitted a putrid smell. The bank was overgrown by vegetation and was becoming a gigantic dump strewn with all sorts of garbage: nappies, broken chairs, cans, bottles and shopping bags and what else …!. A scrawny fox was hopefully looking for some remaining food in the cans, it ran off with the tail between its legs as the three friends approached.

The sewer’s mouth was joining the canal high above the level of the water that stagnated in its bed.

“We’ll go down and try to get into the sewer”, Harry proposed.

“But it’s disgusting !”, Ron let out, looking desperate.

               “Come on”, Harry said and stepped down the bank to the sewer’s mouth. “It’s passable, come on, be careful not to slip”, Harry added to encourage his friends.

---

 

 

Spinner's End - 2nd part

***

 

The sewer was large enough for a man to enter it, standing.  Harry rolled up the hem of his trousers and stepped inside. The water was up to the sole of his shoes, dirty, black and the air was unbreathable. He lighted his wand and turned it around in every direction so as to light every corner of the sewer.  The three friends were moving forward deep into the sewer when Harry heard hissings and at the same time he saw what it was.

“Get out, you both, quickly ! It’s a snake’s nest, in a recess on the ceiling. Adders, plenty of them ! Get out quickly, jump to the bank where we came from, I’ll try to shove them away”, said Harry; then in Parseltongue:

“Calm down !” said Harry while backing quickly towards the sewer mouth, and then he jumped onto the bank in front of his friends, clearing completely the passage. He then threw a fire ball with a movement of his wand, as far as possible into the sewer, then he picked up the back of a broken chair and protected his feet with it tapping it on the ground whenever a snake came close to him. Hundreds of black dotted yellow adders with triangular heads slithered out. Harry went on speaking in Parseltongue: “Calm down ! Go !  Go the other way !”

“How did you manage so that they come out of the sewer, all of them like that ?”  asked Ron.

“I threw a fireball far inside the sewer, so they all come in this way. Snakes don’t like fire, neither light nor smoke, according to Dumbledore’s book”, Harry explained.

When there were no more adders coming out of the sewer, Harry threw again a fireball into the sewer to light every corner of it and stepped in, followed closely by Hermione and Ron.  There were no more snakes. At the bottom of the recess on the ceiling was a small tarnished brass casket.

“Look !” Harry burst out. “There’s a small casket in the recess ! Voldemort must have thought that the hundreds of those adders would be sufficient to keep away whoever wanted to take the casket ! Wait a minute; I’ll put on my gloves.  There might still be some more adders hidden behind the casket, I will not climb up there”, added Harry putting on his gloves, then with a wave of the wand he made the casket fly down to him and caught it in mid air.  But in fact the casket was hiding another cavity and again hundreds of adders were swarming about in the recess.

“Get out ! Quick !” The three friends ran towards the mouth of the sewer.  Harry threw another fireball between themselves and the mass of adders to repel them. When they came to the bank, he threw three smoke balls in a row into the sewer, then he grasped Hermione’s arm and climbed up the bank, running behind Ron.

“It was a narrow escape !” said Ron, while running.

“Yes, as you said”, replied Harry, panting ... “Ouch !”

An adder that was concealed in the grass just bit him on his naked calf.

“I’ve been bitten on the ankle !” Harry cried out, casting a quick look at his feet, just in time to see the adder disappear in the grass, but he continued running and dragging Hermione along with him, up to the border of the street.

“Sit down here !” said Hermione. “Lean against the tree and relax. Show me your ankle !”

“There !” said Harry pointing a finger at the place that burned him on the calf, a little above his ankle. There were two close tiny traces that were hardly visible. Then Harry rolled up the trouser above his knee.

With her teeth Hermione tore off a strip of tissue at the bottom of her shirt and made a tourniquet above the wound. “Give me your bag, have you got a knife in it ?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“It’s doesn’t matter !” Then Hermione pointed her wand on the wound, where now a small bump started to form and where the skin colour turned into violet.  She made a small, deep cross incision on the bump, then she pressed her hands around the wound to force blood leaking out.

Ron remained silent, watching carefully the grass around.

But Harry’s whole leg was already insensitive.  He felt that his breath was failing him. ‘Oh ! If only Fawkes was there, how could I fulfil my mission if I am to die now’, he thought miserably, then aloud: ‘Fawkes, if you hear me !, he cried out, with his eyes shut; but his voice was hardy audible. He dropped his arms along his body as if he had no more strength to keep them on his knees.

Hermione stopped to look up at Harry with a worried expression.

A phoenix song was suddenly heard from somewhere. Ron looked up and searched around. Harry felt something warm on his knee. He opened his eyes and saw the flaming red head of the phoenix leaning against it. The bird dropped its tears on the wound that Hermione had opened.

“Oh ! Fawkes ! Thank you for answering my call !”

Many minutes went by, the incision made by Hermione started to heal, and the skin became normal again. Harry knew that Fawkes was going to leave.

“Thank you, Fawkes. And if you ever meet your master, tell him ‘thanks’ on my behalf; tell him that I miss him very much”, Harry said  holding out his hand to stroke the bird's head, but his hand touched nothing but air, Fawkes had disappeared.

Hermione and Ron, stupefied, looked at Harry in silence.

Harry bent down to look at his wound. But there was no more wound, the colour of the skin had become normal, he just felt some tingling sensation in his leg.

“How do you feel ?”

“Fine ! You saved me, Hermione ! If you had not made the incision on my wound, Fawkes’s tears wouldn’t have had much effect.”

“But, there was no Fawkes ! You gave us such a fear when you became delirious ! You spoke to Fawkes !” said Ron.

“I haven’t been delirious ! Fawkes was there. I heard its song, you too, you’ve heard it and you looked around searching it. And I saw it and felt the comforting warmth of its head against my knee !”

“It seemed to me that I heard the phoenix song, yes, but Fawkes himself wasn’t there”, said Hermione while examining Harry’s ankle.

“How could we explain that ? Because my wound and the incision you’ve made are healed  ! No more trace of the icision !”

“Yes, it’s strange” replied Hermione after a moment’s silence.

“Or perhaps the last times when Fawkes had cured me, it left in my blood, for ever, the healing power of its tears, and effectively, just now, I had hallucinations ?”

Hermione and Ron didn’t say anything.

But Harry, within himself, thought that Fawkes had well and truly been there. That idea comforted him a lot, for it proved that somehow he always had a close contact with Dumbledore, though unreal and mystical. He undid the tourniquet, put it in his bag, and tested his leg making some movements, then he got up.

“Quite fortunate, your having got a first-aid certificate. You saved me !” said Harry taking Hermione’s hand and kissing it.

“We have the casket ! Does it contain Helga’s golden cup ?” Harry wondered aloud after a moment’s silence, but he didn’t expect any answer, for the three friends went on each one following his own thoughts.

They walked for a long time before they came to a bus stop.  They were no longer in the same area as Spinner’s End, for the houses here were different, but it was still a poor area, the houses were not more luxurious than in Spinner’s End.

“An orphanage !” Harry exclaimed pointing at the sign of an old house on the other side of the street. “Surely Voldemort was here in that orphanage  !”

“I understand now why he chose this place to hide his things. It’s here that he grew up”, said Hermione, breaking out her silence. “Broouuh ! Those swarming snakes give me a terrific gooseflesh !” she added shivering.

The three friends returned to Grimmauld Place by the London bus.

 

They settled down in their living room on the second floor to examine the casket. The handle was in the form of a snake, roughly wrought. Its neck had been welded onto the lid, but the head was raised up as well as the pointed end of its tail.

“Fortunately I’ve put on my thick glove; otherwise I could have been wounded ! And if the point of its tail was poisonous !” Then in Parseltongue, he said:

“Open up !”

And the casket opened out as if by magic.

“Woouuawh ! Wait, don’t touch anything, put on your gloves !”, Harry suggested.

Inside the casket, there was a little box and  a yo-yo.

“What ! I thought that Dumbledore had ordered him to return these objects that he had stolen, to their owners: the yo-yo, the silver thimble and the mouth organ ! He had dared disobey Dumbledore … and … he was already very good at Occlumency … when he was only eleven years old !” Harry added, then with his gloved hand he picked up the box and opened it. There, in its silken wrappings was a small golden cup with two artistically wrought handles. He examined it closely and handed it to Hermione who took it with her gloved hand too.

“Yes, it’s Helga’s cup with the finely engraved badger that we saw in the Pensieve” said Hermione.

“How can we destroy it  ?” inquired Ron.

“Well, as we did it last time, I suppose. Let’s try ! Come here, place yourself  behind me.”

Harry put the cup before him, on the table, then got up and stood right in front of it. With a smooth wave of his wand he cast the ‘Reducto’ curse by snapping the wand tip straight on the cup which broke into two neat parts releasing a wisp of dark smoke on which Harry pointed his wand crying:

“Avada Kedavra !” A dazzling green flash darted out from the wand tip, and the smoke broke into pieces and melted away into thin air.

“Ouff ”, Ron let out with relief.

“I think that you’ve just destroyed the fourth Horcrux” said Hermione.

“I hope so !” Harry sighed … waving his wand to mend the cup. As for the fifth Horcrux, I don’t yet know how I could find it. Up until now, I used to think hard of Helga’s cup while trying to enter Nagini’s head, but we don’t know what the fifth Horcrux looks like, we know nothing about it !” added Harry, looking thoughtful.

“And what should we do with the yo-yo ?” Ron wondered aloud. “Do you think it’s also a Horcrux ?”

“No, I don’t think so. I think Voldemort kept it as a symbol of his disobedience towards Dumbledore. Dumbledore had ordered him to return these objects to their owners, saying “I shall know…” I saw it in the Pensieve, in the scene when Dumbledore came to the Orphanage to offer him a place at Hogwarts. Dumbledore found the mouth organ along with Gaunt’s ring too !”

Harry pointed his wand on the yo-yo which at once broke into two pieces, but no smoke slipped out from it.

“You see ! When he was eleven years old, Voldemort was already a superb Occlumens.  It was in his nature to lie, and be secretive ! At the age of sixteen, when he opened the Chamber of Secrets, Dumbledore didn’t know that Voldemort was the one who had done it. Dumbledore was too ‘emotionally’ good, to be on top at Legilimency.”

 

***

 

‘Look !’ Harry whispered, nudging Ron’s side.  The three friends were again crouched in a bush in Gloucester’s forest, behind the Malfoys’ manor.

A frail flickering light could be guessed through the splits of the closed windows of the manor. The light moved from one room to the other, then died away. The three friends stayed for quite a long time to keep watching, but nothing more happened.

Again, from time to time, they felt muffled thuds underneath them, they laid down on their stomach with their ears against the ground to listen, and they all agreed that it were sounds of foot steps, many foot steps.

Up to midnight nothing more happened, and they decided to return to the Head Quarters to spend the remaining of the night.

But Harry could not sleep. He stayed awake, thinking about the fifth Horcrux, which was very vague in his mind. What was it ? And where could he find it. It was an enigma that only HE, Harry, could solve. Why Dumbledore had left him so early when he needed him so badly ?  And when Harry let himself finally go into drowsiness, the first morning gleams were already breaking through the splits of his windows.

 

Hermione and Ron were already in the kitchen where Dobby was preparing the breakfast, when Harry entered:

“What shall we do today ?” Ron inquired.

“I would like to go to Gloucester to see whether we could find ventilation shafts. I think that in broad daylight they won’t dare show themselves. Just to make sure whether there are underground passages or not. I’m sure there are.”

“You don’t look very well”, said Hermione … “I’m sure you haven’t slept properly !” Hermione said gently, looking worried.

“Bof ! It’s alright”, replied Harry shrugging, and sitting down before the dish of scrambled eggs Dobby had  just slid in front of him, “Just a short stroll, after lunch, to be clear in our mind, before returning to Hogwarts”, added Harry.

 

They decided to Apparate to Gloucester from a park near Grimmauld Place, behind a large hydrangea bush.

The Malfoys’ manor was mid-way on a hill, quite far from the village, and behind the manor was a fairly dense  forest.

“If there are ventilation shafts, they must be hidden in the bushes.  We should try every bush. I shall order a detailed map of the region”, Harry said.

But there were so many bushes.  When they had come deep into the forest, Harry heard a sound. At once, he covered his friends under his Invisibility Cloak and they stayed quietly behind a small bush. Some one came from the dense forest, wearing a black hooded cloak, he turned his head left then right, hid himself behind a bush then Disapparated. The three friends dared not venture any further, and as the sun was going down, they decided to Apparate from their hiding spot straight to Hogwarts.

Their weekend was fruitful, and they decided to talk to the Order about what they had found in the forest behind the Malfoys’ manor.

 

***

 

 

Chapter 12:  The Precious Antidote

 

 

“We’ll go out this week-end”, said Hermione as she entered Harry’s room. “At St Mungo’s Hospital they found the trace of the patient who had been bitten by a werewolf and who was in the same room with Mr Weasley.  He agreed to test the potion. As the full moon is getting near, the healers would like to give the patient his potion a bit before so as to give it time to work out its effects.”

“Quite logical !” replied Harry.

“You’ve some clues for the fifth Horcrux ?”

“No !” replied Harry, looking thoughtful. ‘As I have no idea how it looks like, I saw again Gaunt’s house yesterday, but that concerned the ring.  I also saw the cave where I was with Dumbledore, so those are Horcruxes that we have already destroyed. I don’t know whether I could simply ask Nagini ‘aloud’ in my dream where the fifth Horcrux is, it’s a bit risky. Until now, I think that Nagini doesn’t know that I broke into its head. Well, I had rather proceed slowly, undetected.”

“We can’t do anything to help you, we are very sorry, Harry”, said Hermione, looking sad.

 

The A.D.’s members began to come.

“Good evening, Harry ! They spoke of Inferi in the Daily Prophet today. What are they exactly ?”  asked a Hufflepuff member.

“Well”, said Harry, remembering the images he had seen in the cave and Dumbledore’s words. ‘They are corpses, dead bodies, that the wizard revives by a Dark Magic curse so that they do the work the wizard asked for.

“Since they are already dead, how can we kill them ? How can we defeat them ?” asked another D.A. member.

“Well”, Harry replied, and Dumbledore’s voice was echoing in his mind. “Like all creatures who live in the dark, and the cold, they fear light and heat : the fire’, Harry repeated automatically without knowing it.

“You explain better than Snape last year” said Neville. “He didn’t tell us how to fight them.”

“Normal !” burst out Ron. “He wouldn’t teach us how to defeat his master’s army ! He always calls him and refers to him as the Dark Lord !” added Ron in a mocking tone.

“Talking of Snape”, said Harry, “I’ll show you a curse he said he had invented himself. Well, we can pay him back in his own coin. It’s a curse that is meant for enemies. It’s a very powerful curse. But facing opponents who don’t hesitate at casting you the killing curse, they deserve that we use curses that could eliminate them from the combat. You should cast it and pronounce the formula in a clear and determined voice: ‘SEC-tum-SEM-pra’. I wounded Greyback with this curse.  He was already half way on his incantation of “Avada Kedavra”.

“He deserved a thousand times the killing curse” many voices said.

“And…”, Harry resumed, “it also has the advantage of the short incantations. ‘Sectusempra’ has only four syllables to pronounce, while ‘Avada Kedavra’ has six. Well, the wave of the hand must always be fluid, smooth. The suppleness is the relaxation of the body; it frees the spirit, allowing you to concentrate on the effect of the curse you want to reach. Aim well and end the curse with a snap. Now, place youselves facing the wall, and cast the curse ‘SEC tum SEM pra’. Remember that’s a curse for Death Eaters only”.

All the members placed themselves facing the wall and shouted the incantation.  Harry passed behind them to watch their way of pronouncing the formula and the movement of the wands and arms.  Neville concentrated hard, his face was red, but he aimed in the bad way.

“No ! Neville, you must aim straight, facing your opponent, and end up the curse with a snap.

Neville cast the curse again, and this time he did it well.

“Very well, Neville” Harry encouraged him.

“We learn better with you than in class”, said Neville looking happy.

“In class, it’s the syllabus. You must follow the syllabus if you want to pass your N.E.W.T.”

“You’ll sit for the N.E.W.T. exams ?” asked Neville.

“I … don’t think so”, replied Harry. “I have others priorities. And then, apart from D.A.D.A., there are also Herbology, Charms, Transfigurations and Potions and so on… I regret nothing… I’ve made my choice” added Harry, smiling.

“Harry, you see the time ?” Hermione reminded him.

“You won’t go in for the exams ?” asked Hermione, looking worried, when all the D.A. members had left.

“It was the only way to cut short all embarrassing questions. It worries me to tell lies to friends, but nobody will now put any question concerning me.”

 

***

 

“We got very good news through the Owl Post this morning”, said Hermione.

The three friends were going for a walk by the lake near the White Tomb.

“Yes ?” said Harry, “it was the full moon, yesterday, wasn’t it  ?

“Yes, the boy didn’t transform yesterday at St Mungo’s, nor the adult patient”, replied Hermione. It seemed that the boy’s parents have promised a substantial donation to St Mungo’s Hospital, a very substantial one.  Lupin hopes hard. He said that since the death of Greyback, the underground community had somehow calmed a lot. Only about four or five of them were still virulent and aggressive.  These werewolves are not only inclined to side with Voldemort but are true Allies for him.  These are somewhat the leaders of the underground community; they replaced Greyback.

“How many of them are there in the whole ?”

“Lupin said they are about a dozen.  Lupin intends to bring one five-litre cask of anti-werewolf mead potion to the underground, for, let’s say, to celebrate his engagement … sometime next week”, Hermione related.

“Five litres ? How much blood will you need, you’ll not drain Bill off all his blood !” burst out Harry, panic stricken.

“Shh ! Don’t shout ! Only some fifty cc (cubic centimetre) will do, no need of any more,’ replied Hermione. ‘In each litre of potion, the healers add only ten cc. I know, I’ve noted down the exact proportions of all the ingredients. Mead remains the largest part, eight hundred cc per litre, alcohol makes it easier for the transport of the potion’s elements to spread them throughout the body. I’ve looked at the healers while they prepared the potion. The question will be discussed tomorrow at the meeting whether we’ll ask the Hospital to prepare it for us or we’ll do it ourselves discreetly. All we have to do is to ask them to supply us with their herbal syrup, because it’s a magisterial preparation, we won’t find it in Diagon Alley, and also the Blood-Replenishing potion. At least the hospital owes us that, don’t you think so ?”

“Since there are only about a dozen of the werewolves, I wonder why the Ministry can’t exterminate them all ? Moreover, they all gather in the underground. It would be quite easy, no ?” asked Ron.

"We don’t care for what the Ministry does or does not !” Hermione snaped back. Moreover, I don’t think that the Ministry knows where the werewolves congregate. And the policy of the Order is not to exterminate them, but, up till now, is to persuade them, to convert them to a new way of living, and to try to minimize and prevent the damages they may cause when they transform. Lupin said they have shunned normal society and live on the margin, stealing – and sometimes killing – to eat ! Now that we’ve found an antidote, it’s brilliant !  But Voldemort should not know that we’ve got it.”

“Yes, I understand better now” said Ron. “Poor Lupin, what a cheerful engagement party in prospect !”

“Lupin goes there alone, let’s us say … between mates, and then, as it’s not the full moon, they won’t transform !”

“I received a letter from Percy” said Harry, changing the subject, “yesterday, brought by his owl Hermes, which entered my room through the window.

“What ?”  cried Ron. “What did he say ?”

“He wanted to see me. Of course, he doesn’t know where I am, but he trusted his owl to find me out, and it found me indeed. He wants to meet me at the Leaky Cauldron, next Saturday.”

“We’ll come with you”, Hermione proposed.

“We’ll go out this weekend, but I’ll go to the Leaky Cauldron alone. The tension between Percy and his family is such that the presence of Ron might prevent him from speaking freely. It would be better this way, I think”, Harry suggested.

“He hasn’t said anything else ?” asked Ron.

“He said he wished to help the Ministry ! Nothing else”, said Harry.

“Do you progress in the research for the fifth Horcrux, Harry ?” asked Hermione, after a moment of silence, as each one of them followed his own thoughts.

“I stagnate …. I’ve made many dreams. Apart from the cave and Gaunt’s house, Lucius Malfoy, the sewer, which are dreams that were related to the Horcruxes we have already destroyed. I have another dream that I can’t yet make out the significance of it. I dreamed of Voldemort. I saw him in an underground room, or something like that, the light was dim. He roared with laughter triumphantly, but it was a young Voldemort, the Voldemort of the Dairy.  I didn’t see him exactly, I saw only his reflection in a kind of mirror, or a glass door. As for him, I only saw his back”

The three friends came to the White Tomb.

“A young Voldemort roaring with laughter triumphantly !” repeated Hermione slowly in emphasizing each syllable as if to visualize the scene better.  What can it mean ! Perhaps, it’s a clue. Perhaps Voldemort created that Horcrux when he was young, still at Hogwarts ?”

“Yes ! We know that when he killed his father and grandparents, he was still at Hogwarts. He has killed three persons, but he only made two horcruxes to our knowledge, the ring and the diary. He still had one bit of soul free ! He must have created that third horcrux with that bit of  ‘muck soul’ while he was still at Hogwarts !”, Ron suggested.

“Yes, you must persevere and work on this clue,”  Hermione added.

“Yes, of course”, replied Harry sadly, putting a hand on the white marble of the tomb as he often did each time he came here. And again, Harry felt a flow spreading from the cold marble through all his body, and again he heard the familiar phoenix song from somewhere, unreal… as if it came from his own heart. He thought : ‘You said that help would be given to anyone who asked for it …’ Then suddenly he heard echoing in his mind Dumbledore’s soft voice : ‘So … back again, Harry ?’ Then he felt a warm stream of blood slowly flowing through his heart and a comforting sensation flooded his mind.

“Who spoke ?” asked Harry after a moment of silence.

“No, Nobody did”, replied Hermione.  “We saw that you were meditating, so we kept silent. Why ?” added Hermione.

“Nothing” replied Harry. But, apart himself, he wondered at which moment, and on what occasion Dumbledore had asked him that question.

 

***

 

“Lupin’s evening among the werewolves was a real success”, said Hermione.

The three friends were in their living room at Wulfric.

“They all had drunk the anti werewolf potion, without any suspicion, for Lupin drank with them too.  They asked Lupin to bring more next time”, added Hermione.

“All we have to do now is to wait for the results. All the merit is for you, Hermione, it was you who prepared the potion”, said Harry.

“Yes”, Hermione replied. “The healers always showed themselves very indulgent towards me. They looked upon me as an inquisitive innocent girl and they explained every thing to me. I told them that I would like to become a healer myself later on and they all were very pleased with me and they didn’t hide anything from me … Lupin has the conviction that the werewolves were planning to station themselves on the next full moon in front of the orphanage in Liverpool.  Members of the Order will be there to intervene if need be.

“Brilliant !” said Ron. “Since the boy and the other patient were cured, there’s no reason now why the werewolves would not be cured too.  We’ll be able to claim victory !”

“Yes,” said Harry, then he added, turning to Hermione, changing the subject, “Could you get me the books ‘History of Hogwarts’ and ‘A revised history of Hogwarts’ ?”

“Why ?” Hermione asked looking startled.

“I would like to make sure of something, whether there are any objects that belonged to the Hogwarts founders are mentioned in those books.”

“You’ve got  new clues ?”

“I don’t know, I’m not very sure. When I was on the White Tomb the other day, one of Dumbledore’s sentence suddenly came back to my mind: “So - back again, Harry ?” And since I searched in my memory to know on which occasion he had asked me that. During the first year, I’ve discovered the Mirror of Erised. I was in front of the mirror, it was the third time, the previous times I had been with Ron.  I saw my parents and I was very glad to see their visages, and to see them together full of life and love. And then Dumbledore asked me “So - back again, Harry ?”, I didn’t know he was there, behind me. And then he explained to me that the mirror showed us neither knowledge, nor truth, but only the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts, and that we should not dwell in dreams and forget to live.”

“But, of course !” Hermione burst out, particularly happy, after a moment’s silence. “Everything is clear ! Voldemort in front of the mirror should have seen himself as the greatest wizard, venerated by everybody, immortal, indestructible. That was why he roared with laughter triumphantly.  He must have been very glad and turned the mirror into one of his Horcruxes. And what was the better place to hide a Horcrux ? At Hogwarts, the second place, after Gringotts, the most secure in the world, out of reach of possible thieves and under Dumbledore’s very nose .  Who could think it were a Horcrux ? It’s brilliant. You’ve solved the mystery  !”

“Yes,’ Ron said, “a Chinese old proverb says “if you want to hide something from your enemy, hide it in his own house !”

“We still have to verify whether it’s a Horcrux !” replied Harry.

“How can you verify ? The only way to verify is to destroy it and see whether there is a bit of  ‘dung smoke’ escaping from it !

“OK ! But how could we know whether the mirror belonged to Ravenclaw of Gryffindor ?”

“I don’t remember having seen the mirror mentioned in the books of Hogwarts”, said Hermione. “We can always read them again and control. But Dumbledore might have been wrong when he thought that the fifth Horcrux should be something that had belonged to Ravenclaw or Gryffindor.  In my opinion, it’s your dream, which is important. You have no reason to see Voldemort roaring with laughter in front of the mirror. And if you saw it, it means that Voldemort’s soul in Nagini showed it to you while you were looking for the Horcrux. I see things that way.”

“But if Voldemort made it a Horcrux, why Dumbledore didn’t know, why he didn’t feel the magic mark which Voldemort left on it when he hid the philosopher’s stone in it ?”

“That’s a very good question”, replied Hermione.  “But I’m convinced that the mirror is one of Voldemort’s Horcruxes, because you had no raison to see Voldemort roaring with laughter in front of it. It’s the bit of Voldemort’s soul in Nagini that showed you the scene. Don’t you think so ?”

“Yes ! Your argument is quite sensible, but I’m not entirely convinced. In the cave when we went to fetch the locket, Dumbledore showed he had a very ‘good nose’, to detect the faintest trace of magic.”

“Yes ! But perhaps, because the mirror was in itself a piece of high magic, Dumbledore couldn’t detect the faint magic trace that Voldemort might have left on it when he hid the philosopher’s stone in the mirror. We could explain it that way ?” said Hermione.

“Yes, what you say is quite sensible,” Harry admitted.

“You are right, Hermione, you are always our brain !” Ron said.

“If you like; I’ll read the book for you. That’s the least we could do to help you.”

“Thank you” said Harry, feeling relieved of a great weight.

 

***

The Precious Antidote - 2nd part

***

  

When he arrived at the Leaky Cauldron, Harry felt relieved as he saw Percy’s back at a table; he would not have to wait for him then.

“Morning ! Percy” said Harry,  holding out his hand.

Percy got up, somehow formal, and loosely took Harry’s hand:

“Good morning, Harry. How are you ? A coffee ?” asked Percy, then gestured to the barman to bring a coffee for Harry.

Still under the unpleasant sensation of Percy’s loose handshake, Harry shrugged:

“Bof  ! You’ve been waiting for me for a long time ?”

“Yes, for some while, but I was in advance, replied Percy showing his haft empty cup of coffee. I wanted to have a bit of free moment to think over”.

“Well, I’m all ears !” said Harry who wanted to finish with it the quickest possible way.

“About the attack of the Dementors on the other day, at Hogsmeade, everybody at the Ministry knew that it was your Patronus which had destroyed them. Professor Tofty who had questioned you at your O.W.L. maintained that it was your Patronus.

Harry listened in silence. Percy waited for a confirmation from Harry which did not come, then he went on:

“The Ministry stated to the Daily Prophet that the number of Dementors which were in service at Azkaban was nearly two hundred, but in reality, they were far much more than that…

As Harry still remained silent, Percy continued:

“I wonder if you would like to help the Ministry get rid of these monsters, and give hope to people … I know that you are good hearted …”

“I see that the Ministry is still lying as usual. It’s getting embroiled in its own quagmire of lies. You’ve come on the Minister’s behalf  ?” asked Harry.

“No, on my own initiative”,  Percy hastened to reply.

“You’ve made excuses to you father ?” asked Harry.

“I’ve tried. I’ve sent Bill a present on his wedding”, replied Percy.

“I understand that for certain persons, it’s easier to forgive others for being wrong than for being right.  But it’s time for you to open yours eyes”, Harry said. “And for your own information, Bill did not open your present, it went straight to the waste basket. Do you think that just sending a present in that way, as if it were alms, that everybody should be glad and should kneel down to thank you ? Bill has been twice wounded, seriously wounded, on the verge of death. Have you asked for his news ?”

“No, but through the Daily Prophet …”

“The Minister knows my conditions”, said Harry without leaving Percy any chance to finish his sentence. “And permit me to give you an advice: Present your apologies to your father, or else one day you’ll regret bitterly your stupid pride. The longer you wait, the more it will be difficult for you to do it. And next time if you have such a brilliant idea like today, talk to your father, he has better chances to convince me”, said Harry, getting up and leaving on the table enough to pay for his cup of tea, then he walked out of the bar without looking at Percy.

Harry went straight to Fred’s and George’s where Hermione and Ron had been waiting for him in the back of the shop.

“Well ?”, asked Ron as soon as he saw Harry’s head in the doorway that separated the two parts of the shop.

“Oh, he asked me whether I would like to help the Ministry get rid of the Dementors”.

“But the whole army of Dementors, or nearly all of them, were supposed to be already destroyed, it’s reported so in the Daily Prophet”, said Hermione. “There’s nothing  much left  of them! What more does he want ?”

“Precisely not ! The Ministry said to the Prophet that the number of Dementors in Azkaban was about two hundred, but in reality, they were many, many more than that, Percy said so !”

“That means, the Ministry lied ! What a shame !”, burst out Ron.

“Yes, and I said that I didn’t want to link up with liars, and I left”.

“Well done !” said Fred. “And did you ask him whether he came on the Ministry’s order or … ?”

“On his own initiative, he said.”

“I understand !”, burst out George, exasperated. “He’s a big bootlicker, he hoped he could convince you that you should help the Ministry, and so enjoy on the sly the favour of the Minister, taking on the advantage of being Ron’s brother !”

“That’s all Percy ! What a filth !”,  Fred added, “but we must report to the Order that there are still more, many more Dementors left.”

“We’ve lost enough of our precious time for that filth !”, George said. “To come back to what we were talking about, well, we’ve succeeded in correcting the defects of our Misleading Cloak.  We’ll start its production next week. Dad said that the three first cloaks would be for you three. No, the two first cloaks will be for Lupin and Tonks, it would be their wedding presents.  The three following cloaks would be for you three.  You are the Order’s pets, the other members of the Order will come afterwards. We buy ready-made cloaks from Mme Malkin’s. The cloaks then should be soaked in various solutions, each solution is a truly magisterial magic preparation that we cannot make in mass, because the magic will be wasted away if it’s mass produced.  That’s why the production of those cloaks will be very long and tedious.

“That’s brilliant ! And I’m happy for Lupin and Tonks”, said Harry.

“Yes … and we hope we could produce two cloaks a month, if we work as hard as the elves”, added George.

And at once, George got a scathing glance from Hermione who let out “Hum !”

“Oh Hermione ! It’s just an expression !” burst out George, exasperated,  holding his arms above his head.

“Even though !” replied Hermione angrily. She got up. “Let’s go !”, she added turning towards Harry and Ron.

“Oh yes ! No joking in front of the Leader of the House-Elf Liberation Front” said Ron, and he too got a reproachful glance from Hermione.

 

At the entrance door of the shop, they came upon Lupin.

“Good morning, Professor !” they greeted their old professor all together.

“Morning you three ! Are Fred and George there ?  I’d like to drop in and see how far they’ve been in their attempt to modify their Cloak.

“Marvellously  to our knowledge !” replied Hermione.

“I learnt that you’ve decided to get married. All my congratulations ! It’ll be soon ?” asked Harry.

“Tonks and I haven’t fixed the date yet, but perhaps the Order would like to make a big issue out of it.”

“NOO !” cried out Hermione, looking outraged.

“Yes, it’s an idea that Aberforth proposed, and which will be debated at the next meeting.  Of course, it’ll be with our acceptation. We owe very much to the Order, and specially I do. Thanks to the Order, and to you three I’m cured.”

“We haven’t done anything ! It’s Bill who has sacrificed his beautiful face of Star for the good of humanity”, said Harry.

“Congratulations again, and good-bye !” said the three friends all together.

 

***

 

“To day I’ll show you the Incarceration curse. I think that perhaps some of you already know how to cast it. But there is Incarceration and Incarceration. Does anyone know how to cast it already ?”

This was taking place during a D.A. training session.

“Yes”, Luna said.

“Yes, me too”, said Michael Corner, a Ravenclaw, “but my Dad says that my way of casting it is not the good one”..

“Well, Michael, we’ll look how you cast it and we’ll see on which point it’s not correct. Try and cast it on Luna, go !”

“Incarceration !” cried Michael pointing his wand upon Luna.

And Luna was tied up from head to foot in a rope. But after a minute, the rope started dropping little by little and Luna’s upper half body was set free.  Harry removed the rope, and turning to Michael:

“Well, it’s the movement of your hand that’s not correct. You should close your movement this  way as if you tied up a rope and end it with a strong snap of your wand”. Harry took Michael’s hand to show him how to do it. “Try again now !” said Harry.

“Incarceration !” cried out Michael

And this time, Luna was tied up properly in a rope, Harry removed the rope to free Luna.

“Wonderful ! My Dad didn’t know how to explain to me what was wrong in my way of casting the curse”, said Michael, looking happy.

Without warning, with a wave of his wand, and without a word Harry cast the curse upon Luna, and at once she was again tied up from head to foot, but this time:

“Ouch  ! … You suffocate me !” cried out Luna.

“You feel the difference between the two ways you are ‘Incarcerated’ ?”

“Yes, of course !  It’s clear !

“The difference was only in the concentration and determination of the spirit. That’s very important.  Now, Luna, try and cast the curse upon me.”

“Incarceration !” shouted Luna.

And Harry was tied up but loosely, and Harry, making some movements succeeded in driving out his hand and pointed his wand upon himself to remove the rope.

“You’ve all seen how to cast the curse. I reckon we should divide into pairs and practice ! The arm and hand wave like this and end the curse with a firm snap of your wand”,  said Harry.

“Seamus, you commit the same mistake as Luna. You should close the movement by snapping a knot with determination. Yes, that way.”

Then to all the room, Harry said :

“For the Sixth and Seventh year, try to cast it without pronouncing the incantation. It’s very important the Non-verbal curses. Not only that you start your curse a nano second ahead of your oponent, but it also is quicker. The Non-verbal curse does not mean that when you cast it you pronounce mentally the incantation, because if it were so, it would not be much helpful, but when you cast a Non-verbal curse, you concentrate on the result of the curse that you want to reach, like in a flash. It means you can cast a Non-verbal curse as quickly as a flash.”

At the end of the training session:

“Woouuawh”, said Neville. “I’ve succeeded ! Really you explain better than Snape.  You are marvellous. I understand now what it means a Non-verbal curse !”

“Well, good bye and good night, Harry !” said some of the D.A. members just about leaving, as it was already late.

“Yes. Good night to you all ”, replied Harry. Then he added to Ron and Hermione when all the other members had left:

“Well  ! Did you have news of yesterday night at Liverpool Orphanage ?”

“Yes ! Complete victory !”, said Hermione. McGonagall told us just now when we came across her in the corridor on our way here. “She had never looked that happy. The werewolves stationed themselves under the trees in front of the Orphanage.  They were waiting. The moon rose, and they waited, waited but they didn’t transform. Then one of them said “What’s happened ?”, then they gathered, and discussed together. At the end, they broke up and went away, each one in a direction, looking completely lost. Lupin was there, perched on a leafy tree.”

 ***

 

To be continued on next page