The Boys Who Lived

CHAPTER 16

The rest of the holiday was great, they kids even went to see three movies with Uncle Ted and Aunt Andy, and Tonks came along for Neville’s pick which was The Three Ninjas. It was a kick ass show about three boys and their grandfather, at first the kids didn’t understand it a whole lot until Uncle Ted compared the crime boss to Death Eaters then it made a whole lot more sense. *Three Ninjas (Young siblings Rocky (Michael Treanor), Colt (Max Elliott Slade) and Tum Tum Douglas (Chad Power) arrive for their summer stay with their Ninjutsu master grandpa (Victor Wong), who has passed down his vast knowledge of martial arts to the boys. But they're accosted by the criminal Snyder (Rand Kingsley), a rogue ex-student of Grandpa's who kidnaps the boys as part of a scheme to get to their FBI agent dad, Sam (Alan McRae). But Snyder doesn't know just how skilled his abductees are.)

Harry decided on Bram Stroker’s Dracula, after he had read the description of what the story was about, it sounded real good to him. Besides it had Vampires in it, so it had to be interesting, they hadn’t covered them in class yet but he kinda wanted to see what Non-Magicals thought Vampires looked like and acted like. So they went to see the movie.*Bram Stroker’s Dracula (Count Dracula, a 15th-century prince, is condemned to live off the blood of the living for eternity. Young lawyer Jonathan Harker is sent to Dracula's castle to finalize a land deal, but when the Count sees a photo of Harker's fiancée, Mina, the spitting image of his dead wife, he imprisons him and sets off for London to track her down.)

After the boys picks, the girls decided to pick something a little more light hearted so they went with Aladdin, a cartoon version of the fairytale of a young street urchin who finds a magic lamp and falls in love with a Princess. *Disney’s Aladdin (Aladdin is a lovable street urchin who meets Princess Jasmine, the beautiful daughter of the sultan of Agrabah. While visiting her exotic palace, Aladdin stumbles upon a magic oil lamp that unleashes a powerful, wisecracking, larger-than-life genie. As Aladdin and the genie start to become friends, they must soon embark on a dangerous mission to stop the evil sorcerer Jafar from overthrowing young Jasmine's kingdom.)*.

In the end everyone was thrilled with their movie choices and couldn’t wait until summer to see what else was coming up to watch. They also went to a few book stores and a hobby store for Neville to see about getting a couple of new catalogues for his bonsai garden. Then they went out to dinner a couple of times as well, which was really neat. Pavarti got to have her first Hamburger, she liked it, although she had to admit it wouldn’t be something she would be adding to her diet as a regular occurrence.

Although when they went out to Fish Central they had an Amazing meal and everyone was thrilled with it. Sirius, Remus, Andy and Ted all got the Scottish Lobster dinner, then Alice and Frank tried the Catch of the Day, while the kids all got the Cod and Chips, the Grangers went for the Smoked salmon, and Xenophilius and Persephone tried the Rock Salmon and Scampi, and it was Amaretto Creme Brūlée all around. Of course it was wine to all the adults and tea to all the kids but they didn’t complain too much, most of the time the kids weren’t allowed wine anyway, it had to be a special occasion if they were. And simply going out to dinner didn’t qualify. They loved the place and made plans on a return trip this summer.

They went shopping at Diagon Alley to get restocked on a few things although they didn’t need much, mainly just quills, ink and parchment. But of course everyone wanted to see what new books had come out and check and see if any of the second hand stores had any new books come in.

All in all the holiday turned out to be great. But all too soon it was time to get back to school.

*Google search about the movie.

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This time they the kids were allowed to ride the train back to Hogwarts, since there was no more threat of Bad Kitty getting them or anything. They all met at the train station at ten o’clock to make sure they had plenty of time to find a good compartment for everyone to sit in.

Susan and Hannah got there a little early and saved them a compartment and were waiting for everyone when they stepped through the barrier. Susan started waiving at Pavarti to get her attention and immediately did so,
“Hey there! There is Susan guys, it looks likes she and Hannah are already on the train. Bet they already have a place for us. Come on.” With that she led everyone over to the train and the boys helped the girls board, of course they all had their trunks shrunk down and placed in their bottomless bags so they didn’t have any carry on baggage except pet carriers. Which the boys happily helped the girls with.

When everyone got into the compartment and got settled Susan shut the door and looked over to Harry and Neville and asked “Have you guys heard about the attacks on muggleborn homes?”

Harry sat down next to Luna with Neville on his other side and Pavarti on Neville’s other side. “Attacks, what attacks?” He asked.

“I didn’t think so. They are trying to keep it real hush, hush. There have been three attacks so far. All on muggleborn house holds. So far only one person was killed, the father to one of the muggleborn. The wife and family were at the movies watching some movie called “Aladdin” and so they weren’t hurt when it happened.”

Luna looked over to Harry and grasped his hand, “Oh Harry, do you think they were in the same viewing we were in?”

Harry squeezed her hand and gave her a sad but reassuring smile. “I doubt it Luna, there were a lot of viewings of it, it could have been any one of them. Besides it was being held at several theaters too, so chances are that they weren’t even in the same theater.”

Luna sighed and leaned over onto Harry, resting her head on his shoulder, her eyes sad even with his encouraging words. “That poor family.” She whispered.

“Yeah, was it anyone we know?” Neville asked, looking almost as sad as Luna.

Susan shook her head. “No, so far the attacks have been centered around day-timers that go to St. Georges Academy. But what happened if it does switch and they start hitting the families of kids that go to Hogwarts?”

“Do they have any idea who is doing it?” Harry asked.

“One witness said it was four men in dark capes with masks, but then they had to obliviate that witness, muggle you know. So they have nothing to go on really. Except unsubstantiated facts. Nothing that would stand up in a court of law.” Susan sighed, “My aunt has been run ragged trying to get ahead of this one, three attacks in two weeks, trying to find the culprits and keep it out of the media has been pure Hell. The paper got wind of the father of that girl dying and they were all over it, trying to find out anything they could, but the aurors put such a blanket of smoke on top of it that they haven’t been able to get through any of it, without running into doing something that might being illegal to break through, they aren’t risking it at this point. Not for one single muggleborn any way. Now if they new about it being four caped and masked men who did it, or that it was the third attack and not the first, things might be different.”

“Yeah, way different. Then it would be a media circus. With Fudge as the head clown.” Neville said with a smile. “We have been telling them for years that they are still around, and no one listens to us. Maybe now they will listen.”

Harry shook his head. “Not over some muggleborns they won’t. It would have to be at least a half blood or a pureblood killed for anyone to listen at all. Then they might take notice, but muggleborns they are just cannon fodder to them. Collateral damage as it were.”

Luna nodded. “If fifty muggleborns are killed, in a firefight between two pureblood, I can guarantee the only ones that will be reported in the paper are the two pureblood. At least in The Daily Prophet that is, in the Quibbler it would have all of their names equally.” Luna stated with quite a bit of pride. While her father was teaching full time now and didn’t have as much time to spend on the Quibbler as he used to, it had lost none of it’s integrity, or morals that seemed to never have even been present to begin with with the Prophet.

“True, too true.” Neville agreed.

“Yeah, totally.” Hannah nodded.

“I wonder if this is something that should make it’s way to the Quibbler, or if it would make Aunt Amelia’s job harder if we said anything about it?” Harry asked. He had been calling Amelia Bones, Aunt Amelia every since he and Neville had saved Susan from falling from her broom that time. She had insisted.

Susan thought for a moment then stated.“I hate to say it but I think it would make her job harder at this phase, people would start to panic and that is the last thing she needs right now. Mobs of people panicking on top of Fudge screaming at her, the media going nuts, and trying to solve the cases. No right now, I think it is better left as it is. If or rather when more happens I think that it should all be brought forward though.” Susan looked a little let down, she really hated that no one knew what happened to that poor family, and that poor man. But right now it couldn’t be helped. Timing was everything, and with this they had to wait until the timing was best to break the story to the press.

Everyone just gave a mournful nod and sat there thinking for a while, then as if in mutual agreement they began to play poker. It was about three games in when Hermione popped her head into the compartment. “I have been looking for you guys everywhere.”

“We have been right here. I’ll take one.” Harry laid down his discarded card and picked up his card, then laid down everything. “Full house, beat that.”

“Damn, again…” Neville slapped his cards on the table, “How do you draw to a full house? How?” He kept mumbling under his breath about how unfair it was as he passed over another stack of chocolate frogs and grumbled more as he grabbed the cards out of Susans hand. It was his turn to deal now.

“I don’t keep trying to go for the inside straight like you do, you idiot. That’s how.” Harry snickered as he gathered up his winnings and invited Hermione to sit down and join them in the next hand, which she did. She hauled out her chocolate frogs and every flavored beans.

“Texas holdem this round folks.” Neville announced and began to deal the cards. “Five beans to get in the pot everyone.” And everyone scooted their beans into the center of the table and the game was off.

It was a hard battle that night to see who won the most hands, Harry or Hermione, it seemed about even, when it was all said and done that it was an even match. No one could really say who won the most hands, and really no one cared. They just had fun playing cards and being with friends.

“It’s time to get changed. Neville and I will step out while you girls get changed.” Harry stated as he got up and headed to the door.

“Just let us know when you are finished and we will swap out.” Neville stated.

So Harry and Neville stepped out into the hallway, and waited. “So how far you down?” Harry asked.

“A box and a half. Damn it. And I was saving some of those for later too.” Neville scuffed his shoe and stuck his hands in his pockets and looked down at his shoes.

“You need to quit going for those inside straights man, they are going to kill you. Everyone knows that’s what you are trying to get. Or that you have it in your hand, so they bet around that. If you start mixing up your hands then you will be able to keep people guessing. Confuse everyone. Especially now, that we are so used to you doing the same thing every time.” Harry grinned at Neville. Who blushed and nodded, he hated it but his brother was right. He liked his straits, but people were betting on him holding them in his hand and he wasn’t getting any where playing like that.

After a few minutes the girls came out and gave them access to the compartment, they all headed down to the little girls room. Why do girls do that? You know, go in groups like that. Is it like some herd mentality or something? Harry’s mind was wandering as he got changed into his school uniform. It didn’t take very long at all for them to change and they opened up the compartment door and allowed the girls back in.

It was a few minutes before the girls actually came back but Harry and Neville were waiting patiently for them when they showed back up. They were just getting putting their winnings in their bags when the girls showed up and boy were they mad. Harry asked about it once the girls got into the compartment.

“It was Pansy Parkinson, you wouldn’t believe what she said, we were waiting to use the bathroom, and she said she should be allowed to go first since we were blood traitors, a half breed and a mudblood, and she was a pure blood. She should go first. What nerve! How dare she!” Susan ranted. Apparently being called a blood traitor really upset her. Especially by the likes of someone like Parkinson.

“I can’t stand blood bigots, I hate them. They killed my parents and now they are out there starting up again! And here she is trying to bring it onto the train, well that is just not going to just not work around here. Not if I have anything to say about it.” She continued.

Harry was a little taken aback by Susan’s rant, he wasn’t used to his mild manner, happy go lucky Hufflepuff friend being mad at anything, but apparently there were a few things that could indeed get her dander up. “So what did you do about it.”

“She punched her.” Luna stated with a smile.

Neville gasped. “What?”

“Yep, gave her quite a shiner, I bet too.” Luna giggled. Apparently thinking the whole thing was quite funny.

Luna always had an odd way of looking at things and apparently she thought being called a blood traitor was funny, and not insulting, and when Susan punched Pansy over it, it suddenly became hilarious.

“How can you be giggling and think this is funny, being called a blood traitor is not a good thing Luna.” Hannah asked.

“The first rule of bully’s is to take away their power. If they think that calling you names upsets you then laugh at them and they lose that power. They lose the power they have over you. They fail, they are the laughing stock and therefore, powerless and a fool. They become helpless and weak. They have no power over you.” Luna simply smiled.

Harry smiled and nodded. She was right. Like always. He loved he her logic. No matter what, she saw things a different way, but in the end she was normally right about things. “Your right Luna, if they think they can’t upset you, then they have no power over you and you have won already.”

“That is what I do when people call me ‘Loony Lovegood’ I just laugh and go about my business. It makes them look stupid and helpless and I have just won that round, point to me.” Luna smiled he normal dreamy smile.

Susan looked at her friend with her mouth slightly agape and realized she was right. Bullies were almost always predictable if you laugh at them when you are being picked on, either they won’t know what to do and they will leave the situation embarrassed, or they will get mad and escalate the situation. It all depends on the type of bully you draw to yourself. Luna logic, who knew.

Just about that time the train slowed and pulled into the station. Within a few minutes people were getting off the train and making their way to the carriages that were waiting for them. Harry and his group waited until the corridor cleared just a little to head out, not wanting to get squashed in the stampede. Then they too headed to the carriages.

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Dinner was magnificent as always, roasted leg of lamb with mint sauce was the main dish. It was delicious. A hit all around.

Harry couldn’t help but notice that Pansy was getting the beginning of a real shiner on her left eye. Wow, Susan must have landed a good one on her. Wonder why didn’t she glamour over it, since she is always so particular about her appearance. Probably going for the sympathy vote, knowing her. Especially since this is the one time that he has ever noticed Malfoy paying any attention to her. The way she craves Malfoy’s attention you might think she would she would go around insulting Susan more often.

“Miss Bones, I believe there was an incident on the train earlier, that requires some satisfaction. I would say twenty points and a weeks detention should do it.” Headmistress Mcgonagall stated.

“I honestly think she should get more than that Headmistress,” responded Susan. “She called myself, Pavarti Patil, and Luna Lovegood blood traitors, she called Hannah Abbot a half blood and on top of that she called Hermione Granger a mudblood. She insulted the family lines of three Ancient house holds, all of which could call a blood feud on her and her house if they so wished. And you are only giving her a weeks detention.” Susan looked at Headmistress McGonagall in question.

“That is not her punishment Miss Bones, that is your punishment for attacking her.” McGonagall stated.

“Oh so you are rewarding her insulting three Ancient houses and two others, including calling one new-blood a mudblood, by punishing me. I see how it is. I now see which side of the fence you are on. That is very interesting. Good to know who I can trust in times such as these. Thanks for the heads up.” With that Susan got up and walked out of the Dining hall. Followed quickly by Hannah Abbot, Pavarti Patil, Hermione Granger, Luna Lovegood, Neville Longbottom, and yes even Harry Black.

At the entrance to the Dining Hall Harry and Neville turned around as one and addressed Headmistress McGonagall, “And to think my parents trusted you.” Was all Harry said then they turned and headed towards Gryffindor and Hufflepuff Commons room.

Headmistress McGonagall stood there in the middle of the Dining Hall with a hand on her throat, watching as the children left. After a few minutes the silence of the Dining Hall was deafening and became too much for her, so she left and headed back up to her office. As soon as McGonagall was gone the Dining Hall broke out in whispers and murmurs everywhere. No one could believe what Susan and Harry had said to the Headmistress. What did it all mean? Was she going to dock them more points for their little demonstration of defiance? Was she really on the darker side? The question whispered around the Dining Hall were quite shocking to say the least.

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“Don’t you think you were being a little rough on the Headmistress?” Hermione asked, “After all it was physical violence in response to a verbal assault. Which is quite frowned upon.”

“Hermione, I realize that you are new to the magical world and were not around when the last war happened, but both Harry and Susan lost their parents and grandparents due to the people that stood up for those verbal assaults. People that believed that the things that she said were perfectly fine and acceptable. So what you just said was insulting to the highest degree.” Luna said, looking at Hermione with some distaste.

Neville just nodded and kept on walking not saying a word, but throwing his arm around Harry’s shoulder in a show of support to this brother.

Harry paused, then looked at Neville and gave him a half sad smile and continued on towards Gryffindor commons room. Neither saying a word.

Susan and Hannah had headed toward the Hufflepuff common rooms as soon as they left the Dinning Hall. What they didn’t see was the four shadows following them staying hidden in the darkness. Before they knew what was happening they were hit. Susan could feel the the curse hit her in the back, it felt like several blades racing across her skin at once, deep into her skin, then she felt her blood running out of those cuts, deep cuts to be sure. She stumbled as she tried to run away, throwing curses over her shoulder, and then Hannah screamed, she was hit in the leg by the same cutting curse and down she went.

Susan reached down and grabbed her friend and pulled her back up and threw Hannah’s arm around her shoulder and started towards the Hufflepuff house again, it was only twenty feet now, they could make it. Ten feet, another curse, this time Susan’s left shoulder. Thankfully, the opposite one that was holding up Hannah. Five feet. A curse hit Hannah across the right hip, again she screamed. The door to Hufflepuff opened and out came Cedric Diggory, he saw Susan almost carrying Hannah at this point and put up a shield on the other side of them and then pulled them into the Hufflepuff House.

Once inside he quickly took charge and shouted to Maxine O’Flaherty to floo call the Medi-Ward and get Madam Pomfrey here immediately. Heidi Macavoy grabbed some towels and tried to help Cedric stop the bleeding once he carried each girl over to a couch but it was no use, nothing was stopping the bleeding. And the girls were getting weaker by the minute.

Madam Pomfrey came rushing up to the scene and took over first she demanded to know what happened and Diggory gave a brief of what he had seen, while she worked, which wasn’t a lot. Dear Merlin she hadn’t seen this curse used since the war. Thankfully, she knew the counter curse and slowly, ever so slowly the edges began to knit back together again, but it wasn’t fast enough to save these two. What could she do? She raced over to the floo and made a call, emergency to St. Mongos. Two coming through. And with Cedric’s, Megan Jones’, Wayne Hopkins’ Kevin Whitby, Malcolm Preece and Rose Zeller’s help they managed to float the two girls on stretchers through the floo and get them to St. Mongos.

As soon as they made it too St. Mongos, Madam Sprout popped out of the floo, someone must have called her, then right after here popped Amelia Bones. Ah… it must have been Leann Moon. Their family had gotten close to the Bones’ over the holidays and so of course she would contact Amelia immediately when she saw what happened. Shortly after Amelia exited the floo, the Abbots also came through into the lobby of St. Mongos just as the girls were rushed into a room.

“What is going on here? I am Amelia Bones, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and that is my niece they just took back there, I want to know what happened to her and how much danger she is in?” Amelia demanded

“I don’t have any information for you yet Ma’am, they were just brought in, right now they are trying to save their lives. Let’s see if they manage that, before we go in and ask them a bunch of questions, what do you say?” The Welcome witch said happily.

Amelia turned her back on the woman and went over to the group of Hogwarts students that were standing near by that were currently trying to scourgify the blood off their clothes and hands. She went up to Cedric Diggory who was the oldest one of the group and asked him if he knew what happened.

“Not really Ma’am. I was getting ready to go to the library when I was heading out and saw Susan trying to practically carry Hannah down the hall to Hufflepuff. I put up a shield behind them and then grabbed Hannah and half carried her into the commons, Susan managed to hobble her way in then she collapsed just as soon as she made it into past the entry way. There were still sounds of curses hitting my shield as I grabbed Susan and took her to a couch. I didn’t see anyone specific, but I know it was multiple individuals. At least three, four I think. Then I told O’Flaherty to call for Madam Pomfrey, and started basic first aid, I’m taking that class. I used clean towels to put pressure on the wounds since none of the spells I knew were having any effect on the cuts. When Madam Pomfrey got there a few moments later she looked at the wounds and immediately started in on a counter curse which worked but not fast enough, so we put the two of them on stretchers and brought them here. They were bleeding so badly, especially Susan… she is really bad off, I’m sorry Madam Bones.” Cedric stated. Looking down at his already clean hands and trying to wipe away blood that wasn’t there.

Amelia put a hand on his shoulder and said “Thank you, you did your best.” Then she turned and made to head into the exam room where they were workin on Susan and Hannah.

At first they tried to kick her out but then she flashed her badge at them they reluctantly let her stay as long as she didn’t get in the way. So she stayed over in the corner of the room and watched, she watched as they vanished the girls outer clothing so they could get a better look at the damage and then they started to work on trying to close the cuts, all the while magicking two vials of blood replenisher into their stomaches as quickly as possible, along with some pain reliever, and dreamless sleep. They didn’t want the girls to wake up while they were trying to work on them and tear open some of the new wounds.

Susan had a lot more cuts and her’s seem to be deeper, so who ever hit her was out to kill not just harm or scare. They wanted her to die. Who ever it was was going to pay…

It was nearly forty minutes of touch and go, racing the clock and lots of blood replenisher, but they managed to save both girls. If the girls lived through the night that is. They still had the problem of their bodies going into Hypovolemic shock, which unfortunately is a very real possibility with how much blood these two loss. The biggest problem with this type of shock is even with the treatment recommended for Hypovolemic shock, a patient can still have a heart attack and die quiet easily. Even if they survive the chances of organ failure is also a high risk. If two or more organs fail then the chance that the shock will be fatal is even higher.

The more the Healer explained to Amelia the paler she got, but she held on, Susan had made it this far. Susan was a strong girl. Suddenly she realized that no one had told the kids, Harry, Neville, Luna and Pavarti what was going on, they were probably worried sick.

So as soon as the Healer was finished and they got Susan and Hannah set up in the observation room she went out to use the public floo to call Sirius and let him know what was going on.

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It was almost dinner time and no one had seen the kids since Sirius had told them what had happened to Susan and Hannah. They hadn’t shown up for any of their afternoon classes, something they never do was skip classes. And then they had missed lunch and now it was dinner time and they still hadn’t shown. Frank and Sirius had decided if the kids didn’t show up by the end of dinner they were going to start searching the school and let Amelia know that the kids were missing. Hoping the kids were just off in a room somewhere, and not trying to find a way down to St. Mongos to be with Susan and Hannah.

About five minutes into dinner time they appeared, dressed in their full battle gear. Instead of walking over and sitting down, they walked up to the front of the Dining Hall and addressed the Headmistress, or at least Harry did. Sirius couldn’t help but notice that they were in their battle formation, with Neville and Harry in the center, holding hands, Luna on Harry’s right and Pavarti on Neville’s Left. Merlin they looked like a power house, what were these kids up to.

It was Harry that spoke up. “Headmistress McGonagall, I hope you are proud of yourself. You have managed to get two very intelligent, very talented students, attacked and hanging onto their very lives with very little prayer that they will live through the night. Your actions encouraged an attack on them where they were shot in the back by multiple sectumsempras a curse that was invented during the last war by one of Voldemort’s lieutenants and used only by people that were involved directly with the war back then, in other words, Death Eaters and their kin. Now you have shown them that not only can they use words against us and get rewarded but now they can kill us and get a reward too. What are you going to do this time, give them a trophy, a plaque perhaps?”

“That is quite enough!” Alice leapt to her feet.

Harry’s head lashed over and he glared at Alice, his Mum, for the first time in his life. “No it is not! Tell that to my two friends that are dying in St. Mongos right now. Two people that may only have mere moments to live. Two people that never got a chance to graduate, date, get married, have children of their own. Two twelve year old little girls. They never hurt anyone except for standing up to a bully and you people punished her for it. Now they are dying, well congratulations.”

Alice blinked and blinked again, surprised that Harry, her sweet little Harry would ever talk to her like that. Alice slowly sat back down, not knowing what to say. She realized that Harry was mad, but this wasn’t just mad this was furious.

Half the hall was in tears, the other half was mad at the way that Harry was talking to the teachers. But right now not a word was spoken, or a fork lifted, not a sound echoed through the Dinning Hall.

“I think it is about time we take this elsewhere,” Sirius tried.

This time it was Neville that spoke up, “I don’t think so, we won’t be silenced or have points taken away in some office somewhere for our opinion. We have the right to be heard by all. Bullies are just the first step to out and out violence, against innocent victims and you saw it today. Shot in the back no less. Bullies. Cowards. From the shadows where no one could see their faces. Just like the Death Eaters that created that curse that has my friends on deaths door. Do any of you even care? Have any of you tried to find out how they are? Have any of you gone down there to watch the elves try and clean up the blood off the walls, the floors, the ceiling? Innocent blood. And it now decorates the hallowed halls of Hogwarts thanks to you people, and your policies of punishing the victim.”

“Miss Bones was punished because she physically attacked another student.” Headmistress McGonagall tried.

“Yes, but Pansy Parkinson had just verbally attacked four, not one but four students, using vicious racial slurs, with the full intention of inciting a violent response. And you rewarded her by making sure that the solitary person that defended themselves was punished for doing so. Teaching everyone else in this school that defending themselves against racists is bad. That no matter how disgusting or prejudicial their words are, how degrading or belittling the things they say are, if we defend ourselves in any manner we are to be punished and they are to be rewarded. Like Harry said, aren’t you proud of yourselves.” Pavarti asked.

“Since I doubt the Quibbler would write anything about this,” Luna stated glaring at her father, “I think I shall write a letter to the Prophet and see what they think about your new policy about bullies around here is. Punish the victim and reward the bullies. Oh and encourage things to escalate, it is always more fun when someone ends up in St. Mongos for a while….or a morgue, which one do you prefer Headmistress?”

“Now that is going too far! I have never wished any student’s death. Nor do I wish to see Miss Bones or Miss Abbot pass on. Nor did I encourage any attack on them…”

“But you did. When you refused to punish a bully for picking on them, you only encouraged the next bully to attack and use more and better weapons. Don’t you understand it yet. Words are like weapons. And they can do just as much damage if you let them. So by letting Parkinson get away Scott free and punishing Susan Bones you showed precedence that anyone can do what ever they want as far as bullying goes, and it won’t matter, they won’t get punished. You decided it, you made it quite clear, you made that choice, you did, not the rules, not any standard of behavior, since it clearly says bullying of any and I repeat any form is to be taken quite seriously and treated immediately as a true threat. You ignored the school’s rules and wrote your own. You did, not the school, not the school board, not the teaching staff, not anyone else, you and you alone. Therefore you are responsible for Susan and Hannah’s life hanging by a thread right now. No one else. You opened the door, they just merely stepped right on through.” Luna stated at barely a whisper, but somehow the whole Dining Hall heard every words she had to say and uttered a collective gasp at her words.

With that the four turned around and joined hands and attempted to leave the Dining Hall but they were stopped when the whole of Hufflepuff house joined in and followed them, followed by Gryffindor house and finally reluctantly even Ravenclaw house followed the students out of the Dining Hall.

Harry lead everyone down to the Music Hall which was right beneath the Dining Hall, since it was one of the few rooms that everyone would fit into. Then he called Jeeves, and asked him to go down to the kitchen and see if dinner could be brought down here to the Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw Houses. Please. Which of course they did They even rearranged things a little and put in some tables and set it up for everyone to eat at. They were not sure exactly what was going on, but when they heard that it was in protest against what had happened to Missy Boneses, and Missy Abbotses, they immediately when about helping anyway they could. They had all heard about they horror of the blood everywhere, from those elves that had to clean it up. Shiver.

Dinner was a somber occasion and while no one really wanted to go back to their dorms they knew they all had home work to do so finally they began to trickle out of the old music room and head back to their dorms. Harry, Neville, Luna and Pavarti were the last ones to leave because they were helping the elves clean everything up and put the room back to rights. Just as they got ready to leave they were interrupted by Sirius, Remus, Frank and Alice.

“So this is where you were all hiding,” Sirius stated.

“…” Harry looked right through Sirius and started heading out the door.

“Hey, I’m talking to you. What’s up?” Sirius reached over to put his hand on Harry’s shoulder and jerked it back real fast as if it had been burned, when he looked at it his hand was bright pink.

Remus grabbed Sirius’ hand and held it in his own and checked it over, then performed a mild healing spell which healed it right up.

“What the Hell?” Sirius glared at Harry. “What was the meaning of that?”

“I believe that was Harry’s way of saying, ‘Don’t touch me.’” Luna stated

Harry was still not even looking at any of them.

“Then why doesn’t he say it, and not try and hurt me, I have never hurt him in his life…why not say it?" Sirius asked.

“You’re not listening to what we are saying, so what difference would it make to what ever we say, you would just do what ever you want to do anyway.” Luna continued. “You being here now proves it. You are here to get us to apologize for what we said, and to punish us for saying what is the truth. Which proves you are not listening. Now we have home work to prepare, to get ready for for tomorrow, if you will excuse us.”

“You kids can’t dictate the way adults treat you in school.” Alice stated.

“Actually we can. By leaving. If you decide to support a school that supports bullying, then so be it. But we either have the choice of home schooling or we can go to Beaubatons Academy of Magic. We are all quite fluent in French so it wouldn’t be a challenge to make that shift.” Luna explained, “Do not think this is an easy choice on our parts either, it would rip out hearts to shreds, missing seeing our siblings grow up. But there is only so much hypocrisy we can tolerate, and encouraging bullying is our limit. Dumbledore did it when you were going to school here Mr. Black and Mr. Lupin. And now McGonagall is doing it at this time, we will not be another generation of victims. And we won’t be punished for standing up for ourselves. Harmless name calling is nothing, until it ended up with two people on the verge of death, but no one cares. No one wants to admit it started with ‘harmless name calling’.”

“What is it that you want?” Remus tried.

This was the first time that Harry actually looked at them as if they were in the same room as them. Almost as if he was in shock that Remus would even ask the question.

But it was Pavarti that answered, when someone finally did. “We want to see the words, half blood, blood traitor and mudblood forbidden on Hogwarts property and that includes the Hogwarts Express and the station. We want to see an adequate punishment given when someone does say those words, not just ten points and a slap on the wrist. It has to be something that the individual will remember. We won’t say what, but twenty points and a weeks detention for punching someone in response to what was said… come on, a week? That was excessive for a first offense by a twelve year old, even for McGonagall that was excessive. She was trying to make a point. She wanted to say she was still in charge here and people better listen when she talks. If she wasn’t trying to make a point she could have given that over to Professor Sprout to handle, which is the proper protocol. But she chose not to. She chose to be the one to make the example out of Susan, and now Susan may die because of it. Now do you see why we are so upset. She stepped outside of school mandate, gave a punishment that was too harsh for the offense, and did not follow the proper chain of authority, all to make a point. And her point was ‘I’m still boss here’ and it very may have gotten two girls killed.”

“Shit.” Sirius stated.

“When you put it all together like that it does sound kind of bad, doesn’t it? We are sorry for not listening more closely to your points earlier. Let’s sit down and talk.” Remus stated.

———————————————————————————

Two hours later with Pomona, Filius, Alice, Persephone, Xenophilius, Remus, Sirius, and Frank all in tow with Harry, Neville, Luna and Pavarti headed up to the Headmistress’ office.

Once there they noticed she was a little paler than she usually is, and looking every one of her many years. Her head down in her hands and she didn’t appear to hear anyone come into her office when they arrived, she was so deep in thought.

It was Sirius who cleared his throat that got her attention and made her jump when she realized that she was surrounded by an audience. “What’s this?”

“Come to slander me some more?” McGonagall asked, her held high as she stood up.

“To be slander it must be false.” Luna said simply and left it at that.

“Now see here…”

“No. You see here, the fact that you punished Susan Bones was either out of spite, or to prove a point. Which was it?” Harry Potter asked. His stance gave no quarter. Neville Longbottom was once again on his left side and Luna Lovegood on his right, with Pavarti Patil on Neville’s left side. And again they were dressed in their full battle garb.The only thing the boys didn’t bring with them were their swords, apparently they assumed they wouldn’t need them. After a pause, Harry continued, “According to school regulations an offense of such magnitude, in other words a first offense with minor physical damage, should be handled by the Head of House. No where does it state that the Headmistress or Headmaster is to over shadow the Head of House and dole out a punishment seven times more strict than that individual would have given, that’s right seven times. We asked Professor Sprout what she would have done and she informed us she would have given Susan a single detention writing lines, and twenty points from Pansy Parkinson for each of the names she called each girl, so eighty points taken from Slytherin.”

Neville took up speaking at this point. “So which is it, out of spite, or to prove a point? We don’t normally see you as a spiteful person, so you had to have done this to prove a point. And the only point we can think of is that you wished to prove that you are still the Headmistress, and are still in control here. Which we don’t know why you would need to prove at all. But we don’t know what is running through your mind at this point, which is why we are asking. We are trying to give you the benefit of the doubt that maybe you made a mistake and don’t realize how this looks, but honestly you are a brilliant woman, you wouldn’t make a mistake like that. You wouldn’t miss something so simple as seeing this as an invitation to all those who wish to escalate this hatred and bullying to the next level as an open invitation. You opened the door for them, and they gladly took the invitation, two girls are in the hospital right now hanging on to life by a thread and we would like an answer.

“Correction,” a voice from the back of the room by the door stated, causing everyone to turn around. It was Amelia Bones, “One girl is hanging on by a thread. Hannah Abbott died fifteen minutes ago at St. Mongos Hospital from massive organ failure and an associated heart attack that was directly related to going into Hypovolemic Shock brought on by loss of blood.” She hated that she sounded so cold and hollow, but that was kind of how she felt right then. She had known Hannah since she was born, Hell before she was born. and to see her life wasted over something like school bullying, such a horrible, horrible waste.

Luna Lovegood grabbed hold of Harry’s arm as her knees went weak, Hannah…died. No. It’s not real. It can’t be. She didn’t do anything. She didn’t do… Harry had to wrap his arms around Luna as before she sunk to the ground. He lifted her up and put her over on one of the couches, ignoring the Headmistress, no matter what she said. It was if she didn’t exist in his world right now. Which right now he was almost that upset. Hannah, poor, sweet, innocent Hannah, dead. And Luna out cold. This was was getting to be almost more that he could bare. Xenophilius decided to pick Luna up and carry her down to the Medi-Ward and with others by his side.

Once there they laid her down on one of the beds and Madam Pomfrey came over to on her Harry informed her that Luna had fainted, when Madam Pomfrey asked if he knew what triggered the incident. He brushed the hair out of Luna’s eyes, and said. “She just found out a dear friend died for no reason at all.” When asked to explain himself he just looked into Luna’s beautiful, helpless face and cried silent tears, shaking his head. Persephone came around the bed and put her head on his shoulder and he rested his head on her chest and cried silently. Both for Luna and for Hannah. Persephone wrapped her arms around Harry and whispered encouragingly in his ear.

Everyone in the room was either in tears or on the verge of it.

Harry pushed himself away from Persephone and reached into his bottomless bag. He suddenly remembered something, after a moment or two he pulled out a shrunk, what looked like a child’s violin, Harry turned to the chair and sat down and enlarged the ‘violin’ but it wasn’t a violin at all it was a cello, in fact it was Hannah’s cello. She had been showing Harry how to play a song on it and had let him borrow it to practice it. And in the medi-ward the slow rhythmic music started, everyone held their breath as they tried to figure out what was he was playing, after a cord or so Neville reached into his bag and pulled out his violin and began playing with him, then Pavarti was playing her clarinet and soon there was the easy sweet music of the flute joining in. And everyone realized that Luna was awake, but that didn’t stop them playing, about that time Sirius and Remus recognized what the song was. It was We Are The Champions by Queen. And they began to sing with it low and soft. Almost hauntingly. Soon everyone that could was singing with it too. Soft and low. It was for Hannah. It was the song she had been showing Harry how to play, and it was dedicated to her. Harry played it with all the heart and soul that he could muster, just like she did. Adding his magic to the music. The song took on a vibrato that almost sounded like two cellos playing simultaneously it was eerie yes, heart lifting all the same, some how it felt like she was there with them playing along one last time. When they finished not adult had a dry eye in the room. Even the big, strong Kingsley Shackelbolt who had come in with Tonks and Amelia Bones had been able to fight the tears. That music had hit something in their souls.

—————————————————————

It was about an hour later when breakfast was to be served that the whole group decided to gather in the Dining Hall with the rest, as requested by Madam Bones. Before breakfast was served the doors were sealed and prefects were asked to do a count of heads to ensure each person was present. With the exception of the two injured girls everyone was present.

Then Amelia Bones got up in front of the assembly and waited until the room was quiet to speak. She pointed her wand at her throat, “Sonorus” “Last night Hannah Abbot died of complication due to the injuries she received after being attacked last night. She went into organ failure and had a massive heart attack due to complications with Hypovolemic Shock which was brought on by blood loss as a result of the curses that she received while trying to make it into Hufflepuff commons room. She was twenty feet away from the door when she was hit with the first curse and ten feet away when the second curse landed. We know this because a witness has come forward and named the four people that they saw in the shadows that night. And pensieve memories have been taken, with parents approval of course. We are here to do a comparison of the wands that made those curses with the residue that we retrieved from Susan Bones and Hannah Abbot. Those individuals that match Hannah Abbot will be looking at Murder in the first degree, those that cursed Susan Bones are still facing attempted murder, at this point. Quietus” With that she stepped off the podium and headed over to the Hufflepuff side of the room.

Everyone in Hufflepuff was beside themselves. Cedric Diggory had some first year girl in his lap rocking her back and forth as she sobbed, unable to stop his own tears. Gabriel Truman was doing the same thing with another first year girl. Megan Jones was holding Leanne Moon, while Ernie McMillian looked as if he was going to cry and Wayne Hopkins was leaning on Zacharias Smith, Hanna’s whole year was barely holding up, and none had a dry eye.

Hannah had a habit of helping everyone with their homework, and spending at least two hours a day helping the younger years with theirs. So everyone knew and loved Hannah. Her giving personality, her gentle soul and attentive nature. She was always there for everyone and open minded. Never a bad word to anyone came out of her mouth, ever. Her motto was if you can’t say something good, don’t say anything at all.

“I want everyone to put their wand on the table in front of them, when we come by we will ask you to cast a spell with your wand. First I would like to state that we have an expert here to state wether or not the wand you present is actually the wand that was sold to you, or belongs to someone else, so don’t try out swapping wands or forcing someone to do so. Second the doors will be locked until we are finished, so running for it would be futile. Mr. Ollivander please go with my Aurors and begin scanning the hall.

They started with the Hufflepuffs to get them over with, and then they made sleeping bags and bean bags and set them up in a corner together.

Next came the Gryffindors. They were doing little better than the Hufflepuffs were. Those that knew her best, her year mates looked so lost, totally uncertain of what to do. They had already cried their eyes out in the medical ward and so they were almost, kinda numb right now…you know?

Then came Ravenclaw again the older students were helping the younger students, who were all crying and holding onto each other, and the older students were just looking around to see if anyone knew what they should be doing. So everyone just followed the instructions from the Aurors and just did what they said performed Lumos and Nox then sit their wand down and the Auror would move on.

Finally the Auror and Mr. Ollivander moved over to start going through the Slytherin students, and began with the lowest years. They made it up to the second years and Mr. Ollivander stopped the Auror and stated, “That is not the wand I sold this young witch. I sold her a beech and dragon heart string, I remember it well, twelve and a quarter inches, firm yet subtle.”

“You don’t remember anything old man, that’s my wand, see! She grabbed the wand from Auror Tonks hand and shouted “Lumos!”, “Lumos!”, “Lumos! Dammit!” Then she threw the wand down and started to try and run but Shackelbolt stopped her.

“That is the wand belonging to this young man, I believe, That is a Elm and Unicorn Tail Hair thirteen and a half inch, nice and swishy. This is the wand of one Greg Goyle.” Mr. Ollivander took the other wand and placed it in Greg’s hand and he performed the lumos without a problem. Then handed the other wand to Pansy but she refused to take it. Shackelbolt simply put the cuffs on her and lined her up with Tonks.

“It was all Flint and Pucey, they said if I didn’t…” Was all she got out before Marcus Flint and Adrian Pucey jumped to their feet and shouted “Avarda Ka…” But their voices stopped there. As they fell to the floor.

Mr. Ollivander putting his wand back into it’s sheath. Apparently the old man not only knew how to make wands but he could use them quite well as well.

“Auror Shackelbolt, finish up with the rest of the Slytherins, it’s about time we give this school back it’s Dining Hall.” Was all that she said. As she loaded the two unconscious Slytherin suspects on gurneys, for travel. Taking their wands and placing them in evidence bags after she had done so.

While they were finishing up with the Slytherins she went and collected Pansy Parkinson’s wand and put it in an evidence bag as well.

“Madam, we have another match, an Felix Rosier. Fifth year, Slytherin.” Shackelbolt stated.

“That matches the list given by the witness, and the pensieve memory identification. Port those two on gurneys directly to a cell, then Tonks you take Miss Parkinson since she has already shown a perchance to running, stun her first and port her to a cell as well. Mr. Rosier do you intend to run?” Madam Bones asked.

“No Ma’am.” He responded.

“Then you, will come with me.” She put the cuffs on him and escorted him out the gates of Hogwarts then they Apparated to the Ministry to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

“Well they have all Barristered up, trying to say we framed their little angels. And how dare we. Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. They are even going that…I am going to sue you for everything this Ministry has bit as usual.” Shackelbolt stated as he sat down in the chair across from Amelia Bones. She was sitting at a out of the way table going over some case notes for her next case to come up that after noon.

“What did you say to that?” She asked with a smile looking at her tall, bald, dark skinned Auror friend and co-worker.

“Get in line. As usual.” Shackelbolt grinned and sipped on his tea.

Amelia chuckled. People never realize that that play doesn’t work, in fact it just makes the individual seem just that much more guilty. The innocent ones usually just wait for their day in court, quiet like. The guilty ones rant and rave and scream about it and make demands that they know they won’t get. Or in these cases the parents do.They realize their kids were caught red handed and they have no defense, so they are trying anything they can to get out of a bad situation.

“Thing is, I think Franklin Rosier, may be willing to cut a deal in order to get Felix Rosier a deal. I may be reading it wrong but that is the way it is looking right this moment. Maybe five years house arrest, for full disclosure?” Shackelbolt asked.

Amelia thought for a moment. Considering no one knew it yet but that was the wand that did the shoulder hit on Susan, practically inconsequential considering her other wounds at the time. Pansy had hit Hannah on the leg, that is the one that severed the artery, the kill shot. Flint got her in the hip, another bad hit…it was deep but not as detrimental as the leg shot. And Pucey had hit Susan in the back. The worst shot she had.

The twenty four hour window was over with, and her fever was down, her blood levels were normal again, the kidney that had shut down had been replaced…that was a tricky bit of work but it was successful. And thankfully no signs of Hypovolemic Shock. And the norm is that it shows up within the first twenty four hours if it is going to show up at all. They are still keeping a close eye on her, she still isn’t out of the woods yet, but she is doing better that she was doing yesterday, thank Merlin.

“Gifford and Patrica Abbott were not going to be happy with that anything that we are going to do so I want to try and get as much damage done as possible. We have to remember that the primary offender is only twelve years old, so the best we can do is house arrest until she is seventeen, then maximum security in Azkaban for life. Since she was the one that actually cast the killing shot that should be an easy conviction. If we can get a plea bargain all the better. That girl will never know life as a free person as long as she lives, if I have anything to say about it.” Amelia stated thinking out loud.

Shackelbolt just nodded. He would rather see Rosier get away with a lighter sentence and see the other three convicted without a shadow of a doubt. Especially Parkinson, that one he had to agree, her age would be a problem and would trigger a sympathy vote from the Wizengamot if they went in there without a plea bargain in place, she would probably get a slap on the wrist and released. So he liked Amelia’s idea much better.

“Well let’s go then, that offer isn’t going to be on the table for long, letting them take their chances with the jury sounds better and better by the moment.” Amelia packed up her folders and they stopped of at her office to drop of the folders and pick up her folder on Felix Rosier and walked down to the holding cell he was in right this moment.

They opened the door and went inside, Felix was handcuffed to the table and Franklin Rosier and Michael Harris, of Harris, Hubris, and Humbrinckel were sitting there talking low and quiet.

“Gentlemen, “ Amelia sat her folder on the table and she pulled out some pictures, horribly graphic photos of the damage that had been done to the two girls. It being common practice to take pictures of the wounds before they are treated, mainly for the court cases. She laid the photos on the table in front of Felix and waited, she didn’t have to wait long, the boy threw up all over the place.

Amelia vanished the vomit and picked the pictures back up, not wishing to see them herself any longer. She placed the pictures back in the folder and closed the folder then set it aside. “Well Mr. Rosier you don’t seem to have as much of a stomach for witnessing what your wand does after the fact than you did when you did it…” Amelia stated.

“Now see here, that was a dirty trick, how dare you show those pictures to my son. He is innocent I tell you.” Franklin stated.

“Mr. Rosier, we have a witness testimony, we have pensieve memories of the incidence, we have his wand…matching the wand signature on the wounds of one of the victims, and we have corroborating testimony from one of the other accomplices stating that he was indeed involved and did fire sectumsempta on the date in question in the halls of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, approximately ten feet outside of the Hufflepuff dormitories. What other evidence do you need to prove his guilt, for I assure you that is enough to prove his guilt beyond a shadow of a doubt in the Wizengamot.”

“My son says he didn’t do it and I believe him.” Franklin Rosier who was looking a little worried about now.

Felix Rosier was looking pale with some greenish tones, Amelia could tell those pictures were still going through his head right now.

“This is what I am offering. Five years house arrest, if and only if he gives a full confession to my satisfaction, and provides pensieve memories of the attack as well.” Amelia looked at her watch and then stated “You three talk about it, I will give you one hour. At the end of an hour I will come back and if you haven’t made up your mind by that time the deal is off the table. I do have to let you know that if the deal is gone that Felix is looking at minimum security in Azkaban until he is seventeen, then altering to a Maximum security section for life.” Amelia looked as if she were going to get up when Felix stopped her.

“Wait! I don’t need an hour, I will take the deal.” Felix whispered.

“Felix!”

“No dad, this is my life we are talking about here. Five years house arrest I can live through, Azkaban I can’t survive. I know I can’t, I would rather die now than go to that place. I will take the deal.” Felix said tearfully. How do I do this?”

Amelia set up the ever ready dict-a-quill and began to record his every word. She gave the introduction then nodded that Felix should start.

“It was all Pansy Parkinson, she was infuriated about getting a black eye from Susan Bones, she didn’t think that the week’s detention and twenty points that Bones got was enough. So she was going around the commons room shrieking about how unfair it was, that Bones was being shown favoritism, just because of who she was. Soon she had everyone up in arms, Marcus Flint was the first one on the join in her little rant. He started in on how we should teach them a lesson, Adrian Pucey soon followed. Flint told me if I didn’t do what he wanted he would kick me off the Quidditch team so I went along with it, I figured I could aim at them and not hit them, and nobody would know but me. I didn’t want to hurt anyone. I have never even gotten a detention before, and I am a strait EE student, I have a future before me. I would never mess that up with some school yard prank or anything. But Pucey hit my arm at the last minute and caused my aim to go slightly off, I think I hit Susan on the shoulder, I was aiming for just over her head. When they made it into the Hufflepuff commons we took off, and ran back to Slytherin trying to come up with alibis. Flint ordered two others on the team to say that they were with us in the library or he would kick them off the team. So he thinks he has everything wrapped up.” Felix finished, silently crying in his seat.

Amelia thought for a moment then stopped the quill. “Thank you very much Mr. Rosier, I would have that memory now, and if you could go all the way back to when Miss Parkinson began her rant please.” Amelia stated and showed the young man how to retrieve a memory then placed it in a glass vial and capped it then placed it in a inner robe pocket of her robes.

“Thank you Mr. Rosier, I will have an officer come by in a few moments, he will escort you home and put up a new ward on your home. This ward will allow anyone but Felix in or out, it will not interfere with any other ward you have in place and it will cost you nothing to have the ward put in place. If the ward is tampered with in anyway we will be alerted to it immediately, and the deal is off and the original sentence will resume. At the end of five years we will have someone come out and remove the ward and Felix will be free to come and go as he pleases. Felix I do suggest you use your time wisely, study and get tutoring if possible to finish your NEWTS. Then when you are free to leave come down and take your NEWTS, get your certification and maybe go for an apprenticeship or something like that. Don’t let this one situation destroy your life.” Amelia rose from the table and gathered up the testimony and her file folder and left the room.

Then she headed over to Pansy Parkinson’s interrogation room. Pansy was sitting there at the table griping about how tight the handcuffs were but the Auror in the room was ignoring her which was making her mad apparently. “I want these things off right now you understand me! Can’t you hear what I am saying! They are too tight and they are chaffing my wrists! I am in pain here! I am going to see you in prison if you don’t remove these cuffs right this minute!” She screamed. Her voice could put a Harpy to shame. It was grading on her nerves and she had just entered the room. She had the Auror trade out with Shackelbolt and he immediately thanked her and left as quickly as possible. Amelia bet he was sporting a rather big migraine by now. She would have to do something nice for him later. Maybe patrolling Bloomsbury park for a couple of days would be enough to make up for having him in here with this miniature banshee for four hours.

Amelia could already feel a headache coming on so she changed that to a week in Bloomsbury park for Terrance Witicker. She marked that up in her mental book and sat down at the table with Pansy Parkinson and her father Percival Parkinson and their Barrister Richard Groce were waiting impatiently, apparently her shrieking was getting to them as well.

“Miss Parkinson, no one is going to remove those cuffs, but if you don’t quiet down we will place you in a holding cell and be done with it. Right now you have the option of sitting here and listening to what I have to say, in two minutes, if you continue shrieking like you are, that option will not be available to you. And you will be sitting in an eight by ten cell while I talk with your father and his Barrister. Your time starts now.” With that Amelia looked at her watch and continued to listen to the twelve year old sheik and scream for the two minutes then motioned for the guard to take her from the room and she really began to scream.

“Miss Parkinson you were told if you did not be quiet what the consequences would be, now you are going to go sit in a holding cell while I speak with your father and Barrister. Good bye.” And motioned for the Auror to take her from the room.

“Wait! Wait! I’ll be quiet! I’ll be quiet! Wait!” She screamed.

Amelia held up her hand and motioned the Auror to put the little girl back in the chair and have her cuffed to the table again. “Very well, I am here to offer you a one time deal, this deal will be on the table for exactly two hours and at that point if you do not agree to this offer, Miss Parkinson’s case will go to trial and we will be trying for life in Azkaban with no possibility of parole, which means minimum security until she is seventeen then transferring to maximum security at that point. So, the offer is quite simple, she is on house arrest until she turns seventeen, at which point she is placed in Azkaban prison maximum security section for the remaining of her natural life.”

“You can’t do that! You have no proof” Pansy shouted. Again with the shouting.

“Actually we can, quite easily too. One of the conditions of your deal is that you will make a complete confession, and you hand over a full memory of the incident in question. If you refuse, the deal is off.” Amelia stated, quite easily.

“Never! I will never confess to something I didn’t do. I had nothing to do with all this, I was in the library I tell you.” Pansy ranted on.

“Miss Parkinson, first we have your wand, which has been verified by an expert to be one of the weapons that hit Miss Abbott, in fact your wand was the one that caused the cuts on her leg, severing an artery and causing severe loss of blood, leading to the hypovolemic shock that she went into, her organ failure and eventual severe heart attack that killed Miss Abbott. You will be facing first-degree murder charges which is the most serious form of basic murder and is punished accordingly, it involves the premeditated murder or intentional murder of an individual. The fact that you are an adolescent is the only reason capital murder is not on the table, which is to a category of murder considered so heinous that the perpetrator faces the death sentence. The intentional terroristic manner in which you murdered a twelve year old little girl, and shot her from behind as she raced to get away from you, I think that qualifies as heinous don’t you.

We also have sworn witness testimony of the events in question, and pensieve memories of the event from the time you began firing off the sectumsempta curses and when you fled the corridor. And a secondary witness that has provided an expanded version of the same. With pensieve memories as well. So you’re looking at murder one at least, the only question is how you sped your time. Your two hours starts right…now.” Then Amelia gathered up her folder and left the room.

When Amelia came back into the room it was to a slightly different Pansy. The girl looked devastated, it looks like the magnitude of her actions had finally hit her, and the consequences she was facing were finally real. Percival Parkinson was whispering something to Mr. Groce but he was just shaking his head and making hand gestures as he spoke, apparently Mr. Parkinson wanted to try and negotiate something for his daughter, if Amelias lip reading skills were anything to go by, and Mr. Groce was basically telling him that with the evidence we already had the girl could be looking at a Capital Case and he should drop it and take the plea.

Mr. Groce wasn’t the highest paid Barrister out there, but then again he was definitely not one of the cheapest, he was just well known as being one of the best. And right now Mr. Parkinson should follow the his Barrister’s advice.

With that, Amelia opened the door and headed inside at exactly two hours. She went over and sat down and and placed her folders on the table again and looked at Mr. Parkinson to speak, since Pansy was crying too hard to speak right now.

“We accept your offer. House arrest until she turns seventeen, then maximum security in Azkaban for life.” Then he swallowed. “With no possibility of parole.”

Ah now she knew what he had been hoping for, probably parole after ten years or something like that. Or switched to minimum security after ten years. Anything he could get to help his little girl what so ever. But he finally accepted the plea bargain and Pansy just sobbed harder when she heard him do so.

“Very well, now does Miss Parkinson need a calming drought to giver her testimony?” Amelia asked.

When Mr. Parkinson nodded, she had Shackelbolt ask the Auror outside to get one and hand it inside, she read the label and handed it to Mr. Groce who looked at it then handed it to Mr. Parkinson, who helped Pansy drink the potion since her hands were still cuffed. It took a few minutes for the potion to take full effect and then they were ready to get started.

An hour and twenty minutes later they had a full confession from Pansy Parkinson, from the events on the train and how she had hoped to incite an argument. To her behavior in Slytherin commons again to gain attention and practically incite a riot. To the final attack. She got memories of it all. Even of Flint threatening members of the Quidditch team to falsify testimony saying they were in the library studying if they were ever questioned. Then they got the pensieve memories to all of it and signed all the paperwork to seal the deal.

“Mr. Parkinson the Aurors will follow you and your Barrister and bring Miss Parkinson to your home. They will then set up wards that will allow anyone in or out with the exception of Miss Parkinson. She will be restricted to your home until her seventeenth birthday at which time they will reappear and take her into custody to remove her from your home and transport her to Azkaban. Any attempt to alter or tamper with the ward we will be alerted immediately and the original sentence of minimum security in Azkaban until her seventeenth birthday and life imprisonment in maximum security after that point will be enacted. Is that understood?” Amelia asked as she gathered up her paperwork and the memories together.

“Yes,” Mr. Parkinson said sadly placing his hand on his daughter’s shoulder for the last time.

Pansy was once again sobbing, staring at the vials of memories, and the paperwork that had just been signed, her life had just been signed away. Her dream of becoming Lady Malfoy one day was gone, the idea of moving into the Malfoy Mansion and having it remodeled, of buying fancy gowns, of having expensive jewelry, of baring the next Lord Malfoy. Was all dead now, it was like her whole world was dead now. Everything she ever wanted, wanted to be, wanted to do, the trips to Paris and Rome she dreamed of, it was all gone. There was nothing left.

“Your wand will of course be kept as evidence in the trial, you will be restricted from using magic, while on house arrest. You have your choice of magic restraining cuffs or you can have your magic bound, it is your choice. Which would you prefer Miss Parkinson?” Amelia asked.

At that point it all seemed a little too much for Pansy and she passed out, even with the cuffs keeping her attached to the table she began to slip down the chair and slide into the floor. Mr. Parkinson grabbed his daughter and put her back into her chair and then had Amelia perform an Enervate on her to wake her up. Which worked immediately.

“What? What is going on?” Pansy asked.

“We will take the cuffs, I don’t think she would survive without her magic, and if she ever got sick she would need what magic is within her to help make the potions work and all that wouldn’t she?” He asked Amelia.

“I honestly don’t know Mr. Parkinson, I am not an expert in Potions and the only reason I am even asking you that question is because it is a stipulation of your plea agreement. The only way to guarantee that Miss Parkinson does not commit a further crime by the use of a wand is to take away her ability to use a wand. You have agreed to magic suppressive cuffs, those will be placed on immediately. They are self cleaning and waterproof so you don’t have to worry about maintenance. Auror if you would.” Amelia motioned for Shackelbolt to place the cuffs on Pansy, which he did. They were metal just like the regular cuffs, so they couldn’t be cut off.

“By the way Miss Parkinson, trying to remove those cuffs or altering them in any manner will also send an alarm to us and will invalidate your plea agreement, just to let you know.

There went Pansy’s idea of maybe being able to soap up her wrist and slipping the disgusting things off. It seems they had her by the throat with that plea agreement that her idiot of a father signed. She could have gone to court and acted all terrified to be there, cried her eyes out and been let off with a mere warning if anything at all. But no he had to do this stupid plea. He was an idiot. He had destroyed her life. All she had done was tried to teach a couple of blood traitors a lesson and then her father goes and destroys it all. Everything. Well she was never going to forgive him for this. By the time she is seventeen he will wish he was the one going to Azkaban and not her, just you wait and see.

——————————————————————

Amelia was pleased with the results of her interviews and was sorting and storing away the pensieve memories when she received a message from a Mr. Hathaway, the Pucey Barrister if she wasn’t mistaken. So she took her file folders with her and headed down to the interrogations room where he was being held to see what they had to say, this time she let Shackelbolt take the lead, that way they couldn’t say she was interfering or too close to the case due to the fact that Adrian Pucey that had hit her niece, Susan, in the back with such force as to almost be considered a kill shot. It had been so close, so close.

Shackelbolt walked into the interrogation room and with Amelia no where in sight. Since they didn’t want to say that she influenced the circumstances in any way.

So she was on the other side of an enchanted mirror, one that she could see and hear everything that was going on in the room adjoining the interrogation room. So she went in there and waited to see what would happen.

“My name is Kingsley Shackelbolt, you wished to speak to who is in charge of your son’s case?” He asked.

“We asked for Bones.” George Pucey started.

“Yes Sir, and I am sure you are aware that anything associated with the attack on Susan Bones herself would be considered prejudicial and unfortunately might be a problem in a court of law, therefore I will be representing the Department of Magical Law Enforcement at this time. Now you wished to speak to me?” Shackelbolt inquired.

“Hmmpt. Well… I don’t like this. I would rather speak with her. She has the pull to see something done to help my son, where you don’t.” Mr. Pucey tried again.

“Mr. Pucey, we have wand traces of your son using to shoot a twelve year old little girl in the back with Sectumsempta…” Then Shackelbolt took the pictures out and laid them on the table and noticed how Adrian closed his eyes immediately, George Pucey cringed then looked away, and Mr. Hathaway proceeded to throw up on his own shoes. Shackelbolt vanished the vomit and put the pictures back in the folder. “…then when confronted with one of his accomplices trying to accuse him of it being ‘all him and Mr. Flint’ as it were he tried to Avarda Kedarva her in a Dining Hall full of witnesses. We have three witness statements at this time as to his involvement into to the attack on the night in question, the only thing Adrian has going for him right now is that his shot hit Susan Bones instead of the Hannah Abbot, so the charges will attempted murder instead of Murder in the first degree, although we do still have a case for Capitol Murder since this crime was done during the commission of a second crime, that being murder in the first degree. Also since Adrian is going to be seventeen in four months we are going to request that he be charged as an adult. Which means that he is facing life in Azkaban in minimum security at best or if it is seen as a Capitol offense then it can be sought the death sentence.” Shackelbolt summed it up quite nicely.

Adrian Pucey looked a little more pale than he did a few moments ago. He hadn’t even considered the death sentence as a possibility. Well honestly neither had his father but they were beginning to see that as a fact now. Mr. Hathaway had tried to say how serious this all looked but George thought if he could speak to Bones he could clear things up a little. Maybe get her to see reason or something. His son was an idiot and made a bad choice, he knew that and his son knew that but he didn’t deserve to die for it.

“Okay…what do you have to offer.” George Pucey licked his lips and wiped his brow, looking at Shackelbolt in desperation.

“Offer? You must be mistaken Sir, I have a rock solid case for Capitol Murder Sir, and intend to preset it as such. Three witnesses, with pensieve memories of your son committing the crime knowingly and willingly. Of him attempting to murder another student later in a crowded Dining Hall, wand signature proof, and sworn witness testimony, I have no intention of ‘cutting a deal’ with your son. I have no need to.” Shackelbolt stated then he started to get up from his chair.

“Life in Azkaban, minimum security. For my testimony and memories. I can help you get the others, please.” Adrian Pucey begged.

“Adrian!” George Pucey began.

“You realize what you are stating?” Shackelbolt asked.

“Yes, it means I don’t die, I will take it. If I go to court they will kill me, I know it, I was involved in the murder of that little girl. It was only meant to scare them, maybe give them a good scar to remember the whole thing about but never kill one of them. It was a stupid idea. We shouldn’t have done it. It was Pansy who wanted to do it, but Flint who decided what spell to use. I didn’t even know how to do the damn thing to start with, he had me practice on pillows until I got it right, that was the reason it was over powered, I didn’t know how strong I was doing it. I had never used it on a real person before. I don’t want to die because Parkinson and Flint are idiots. I will take life in prison, minimum security. Just let me live.” Adrian begged.

Shackelbolt appeared to be thinking for a moment then nodded. He went and got the dict-a-quill set up to take down the boys testimony and they began.

An hour later he walked out of the room with the memories and testimony in his file folder and went into the room where Amelia was waiting.

“Well that is three out of four. Should we try for four or leave it there?” She asked.

“I think we should try for it. Who knows maybe he is an idiot and will ask for life in prison as well.” Shackelbolt stated. Smiling about the fact he had just gotten the boy that had shot Susan to plea to life in prison for Amelia.

“Okay, let’s see what we can do. Come on.” With that they headed into the final interrogation room and to Marcus Flint, Orion Flint and their Barrister and brother in law, Sayers Burke.

Orion Flint was the one to speak up first. “Alright let’s hear it, what offer do you have for my boy here? I am a busy man and I have an important meeting to be at in a little over an hour. So let’s get this over with shall we.”

“Offer, I don’t know why you think I have come in here now Mr. Flint, but I assure you it was not to offer Marcus a deal of some form. I don’t have to. You see I have have him dead to rights. His wand signature matches the wand used to help kill Hannah Abbot. Which means he will be facing murder one charges. I have four eye witness testimonies, with pensieve memories, including him threatening on at least three separate occasions, two of which was to try and ‘buy’ an alibi for said crime. He chose what spell would be used, he trained his accomplices on how to use the spell, he chose where to attack from, he chose when to attack, he formulated the whole thing Mr. Flint, there is no deal here. None what so ever. Now if that is what you are looking for I thank you for your time, have a pleasant day.” And with that she began to get up and to leave the room,

“Life in Azkaban, Maximum security, no chance of parole. If he confesses to it all.” Orion stated just as she got to the door.

“FATHER!”

“SHUT UP YOU IDIOT! Didn’t you hear what Sayers was saying a few minutes ago, that since you’re an adult already that this will be viewed as a capitol offense. Because the victims were just twelve years old and because you killed a little girl while in the process of committing another crime which was the attempted murder of another little girl. Don’t you get it, it is either life in Max or you die. Which one do you want? Are you really that stupid? Did I raise an total idiot? I realize you took a lot of your mother in there somewhere but I was hoping you took after me in there some where. Death or Max, which one?”

“I’ll confess the whole thing, I guess.” Marcus reluctantly stated.

Orion looked at Amelia with pleading eyes and said “Maximum security in Azkaban for life?”

Amelia paused at the door for a moment then sat back down and set up the dict-a-quill and began to take his testimony. She then gathered his memories and set up the agreement and they signed the paperwork, “They will come and get him in two hours, you might want to let Ursla know so she can come say her good byes before he is gathered up and shipped over to maximum security. Once there he is only allowed visits from his lawyer, other that once a year on a day of your choosing and that is a one hour visit. If I were you I would pick his birthday, so at least he has that to look forward to.”

With that Amelia got up and left the room with Shackelbolt following close behind. She then turned and looked at him. “I wish all cases were this easy to resolve.”

“Tell me about it, they all wanted to rat each other out to save their own hide.” Shackelbolt agreed.

“Do you think we did the right thing, mainly with Parkinson really. I mean she is just twelve, so I think we got the best we could have gotten. She gets the ease of five years of house arrest for five years before she has to face maximum security at Azkaban, but she is still heading there for the rest of her life. So that is something right?”

“I think if she got up in front of the Wizengamot she would have cried those crocodile tears of hers and she would have gotten off scott free and she would never see a day in prison at all. I think her short stint of house arrest will be nothing at all compared to maximum security. The Dementors will eat that spoiled little girl alive, with vinegar and relish.”

“Yeah and it keeps her from committing any further crimes, or hurting anyone else in the meantime. So I guess it is for the best. Come on I want to tell Gifford and Patrica Abbott about the end result, they may not like them but they are quick and neither of them have to worry about court or anything lengthy.

The went into waiting room one where the Abbotts just so happen to be waiting, they had been for about three hours, refusing to leave until they heard something about the boys that murdered their little girl.

“Gifford, Patrica, I am sorry to keep you waiting like this. I hope my people have met your every need?” Amelia asked gently.

Gifford nodded sadly. “That have been wonderful Amelia. And I hate that we have to be here, when we have places we should be at instead. But this is far more important. What can you tell us.”

“Some of you may not like but I will try and give it to you as gentle as possible. First it wasn’t one of the boys that hit Hannah in the leg, what we believe is the fatal shot, it was Pansy Parkinson. And due to her age primarily we set up a plea bargain with her for her to remain on house arrest until she turns seventeen, then she will be relocated to Azkaban prison where she will serve out the remainder of a life time sentence in maximum security. Which would be the section of the prison that houses the most Dementors and has the least amount of creature comforts.”

“She is what now, twelve years old, just like Hannah was? How can a twelve year old do this? But then again she is the daughter of a Death Eater so maybe I shouldn’t be too surprised.” Patricia stated sobbing.

“She gets five years of luxury and my daughter gets a grave, that is hardly fair!” Gifford growled.

“I understand your feelings, I honestly do, but do to her age, this is the best I could get. If she would have gone before the Wizengamot they would have only seen the tear streaked frighten face of a twelve year old little girl in pig tails and ruffles that looked just like their daughters and granddaughters and she would have gotten off without so much as a strong warning. This way she ends up with life in maximum security at Azkaban even if we do have to wait five years to see justice prevail.”

Gifford finally just nodded and motioned with his hand for her to continue.

“The second shot, which was to Hannah’s hip was done by Marcus Flint, and we have him for life in Azkaban maximum security with no chance of parole. He was the master mind to it all, he was the one who chose what spell to use, forced Felix Rosier (whom we will discuss in a moment) to join, he was the one that decided where they would ambush the girls, when it would happen, everything, he was in charge. Parkinson was the instigator but Flint was the ring leader.”

“There were four of them. I am assuming the other two hit Susan?” Patricia asked.

Amelia nodded, “The first was Felix Rosier, he was threatened by Flint to join them or else he would be kicked off the quidditch team, he stated he intended to aim off and just fire in their direction and that no one would know but Pucey hit his arm at the last moment and caused his arm to jerk and he hit Susan high on the shoulder. This was all verified through pensieve memories. He was given five years house arrest.”

“FIVE YEARS! That’s nothing! For attacking our girls! How could you!” Gifford shouted.

“Did you not hear that he was threatened into participating. And the wound he accidentally inflicted was also verified, had minimal effect at best. The boy could barely cut paper if he tried. The one that actually did the damage to Susan was Adrian Pucey and I got him for life in Azkaban minimum security. And before you ask, it would have been attempted murder, and he is fifteen. It would probably be the best we could get, chances are they would have given him ten years at best otherwise. So I think we ended up with a win win all around. Also we have pensieve memories all around from each one of them verifying their part in the crimes so they can’t come back later and change their minds or say coercion or anything otherwise. It is a done deal. It is over with, now you two can go home, be with your family and loved ones and try to move on as best as you can. I know I am asking the impossible. I still have Susan in the hospital after all, so I know exactly what I am saying. I will be there for you every step you take, in any manner that I can be, and I know once she is better so will Sue.” While it isn’t exactly Auror procedure or anything she hugged both of them then seen them out with escorts to the private flew in her office. As if they were a visiting dignitary or something.

“Well they took it all rather well, I thought.” Shackelbolt stated after the Abbotts had left Amelia’s office by floo.

“I know, and I am thankful that they were realistic about things and realized that I did the best for Hannah’s memory that I could. I hate that we had to go the route we did but honestly we are working with children here, and I think we got the best possible solutions that we could get. I mean, sure I would love to have seen something more dramatic for Parkinson than those first five years of house arrest, but get real, she is twelve years old. No one is going to let us put a twelve year old in Azkaban, plain and simple. Now when she gets to be seventeen, yes…but by then who knows what trouble she could have gotten into by then, so I think we got the best bargain we could have gotten out of it. She can’t hurt anyone any longer, she is away from everyone else, she is restricted from leaving her home, and we have her in Azkaban when she reaches seventeen. So we eventually have her anyway. She started all of this, well we are finishing it. She will eventually pay for her actions one way or another.” Amelia signed the final paper work to get the other kids transferred over to Azkaban and handed the files over to Shackelbolt to start the transfer process. Thankfully, it was now a time to heal.

———————————————————————

The next two weeks crawled by so slow for some and sped by far too quickly for others. Harry honestly didn’t remember much of those two weeks if truth be known. He spent most of his time going through his books in his personal library and everyone pretty much left him to grieve in the way that he felt he needed to.

Susan had pulled through just like the trooper that she was, but she had practically had a mental breakdown when she found out about Hannah. If it hadn’t been for the other kids, she would have sank into a deep depression so far that maybe she never would have come back out of it.

Today was her first day back at school and all of Hufflepuff house was forming a living wall around her to protect her from prying eyes and those with less than welcome questions. Especially those in her year. They were letting her go no where alone, Cedric Diggory had taken a special interest in Susan which seem to irritate Cho Chang, who had been after Diggory since she was in first year. Cedric had become very protective over Susan and was insisting on escorting her to classes whenever he could and walking her to and from the Dining Hall each meal, it was as if you could almost see the smoke coming out of Cho Chang’s ears. That is until Hermione Granger had a little one on one with her and explained the facts of life to her, new Marauder style. Basically she said if she didn’t cool it they would be picking up pieces of Cho off the school yard for months to come, although not in so many words mind you.

Since that discussion Cho Chang had stayed as far away from Diggory as humanly possible while still going to the same school as him. She rarely spoke to him and to be quite honest he probably didn’t even notice. His mind was on other things. Like how mature and intelligent Susan honestly was, he knew she played violin from the band and had always liked her from that but he had seen her as sort of a surrogate little sister, now it was more along the lines of something else, what was yet to be seen, after all she was only twelve after all.

Everyone managed to shuffle into Charms class without incident and take a seat quietly, although the four of them couldn’t help but worry about how Susan was doing right now in her first class since the incident, Transfiguration. Leanne Moon who had never really had a parter to speak of asked her this morning if she would be offended if she sit with her and she accepted although reluctantly, she sort of felt like she was replacing Hannah and no one could replace Hannah in her heart. But she had to allow herself to slowly move forward with her life somehow.

“The first charm we will be working on today will be Colloportus, now this is a locking spell. On each set of desks is a small chest and I want each pair to try this charm on the chest until you get it correct then raise your hand as soon as you do.” Flitwick wrote on the board how to pronounce the charm and where the stress should be. Within a few moments, both Harry and Neville raised their hands and Flitwick came over to test their chest and sure enough they were locked tight, then he taught them Cistem Asperio can be used to open a chest or box. And with one or two tries they had that one down too. They then passes the little chests over to the girls and let the girls try, and sure enough after watching the boys do it, it was a breeze for them, Flitwick had no more than gotten back to his desk than he had seen their hands in the air, this time he had them open the chest then lock the chest and open it up again. Just in case they were clowning around behind his back and he had failed to see it. And sure enough the girls did it without a problem. He then had them reading the assigned reading on the two charms and working on the questions at the end of the reading.

——————————————————————

They all had study hall until Potions so they thought they would read up on the strength potion that she was going to assign them today. Professor Lovegood had warned them last week about it but most of them were kinda in their own little world last week and not really paying too munch attention so they might as well get it done now.

Today in Potions they were going to work on the Strength Solution. “Alright everyone take your seats, if you will notice that there is a lot of red on the board today, I want everyone to spend the first thirty minutes of the class reading the section on the strength solution, I want everyone to read the questions that are at the end of the section and answer them before you even try and start on this potion. If you try and start on this potion before you hand in those answers to me I will stop you and mark your work as an incomplete until you go back and finish doing so, so you might as well as do it right the first time.” Professor Lovegood stated as everyone was sitting down in their seats. The potion instructions and the pages they were to go to in their books were the only other things that were on the boards.

Harry didn’t even bother taking out his equipment, neither did Neville, Luna or Pavarti. They each just pulled out their books and writing equipment and continued to read. After about twenty minutes they were writing the answers to the questions at the end of the reading and soon Harry was taking all four of their scrolls up to the Professor for them with his own.

“All right, you four may begin.” Professor Lovegood stated after she gave each scroll a quick once over and nodded.

Draco Malfoy was the next one to finish and again got an approval to go ahead and start.

Then Blaise Zabini and Daphne Greengrass, followed by Theo Nott and Tracey Davis, Millicent Bullstrode and Dean Thomas with Lavender Brown and Seamus Finnegan tying for being last as to handing in the correct answers. Mainly because Lavender Brown had to go back and try her redo her answers twice before she was allowed to start her potion. And by that time it was almost an hour into the time allotted.

Harry began by going into the ingredients closet and getting everyone’s ingredients while they were setting up their scales and equipment. The potion itself didn’t have that many ingredients in it, but it was one that if you missed a step you could end up with a minor explosion that might just set off a chain reaction to several individuals potions in the room and several students getting injured.

This was one of the reasons that Professor Lovegood was walking continuously between Finnegan and Brown’s station and keeping close eye on each stage in the potion they were at. She had demanded they not move on to the next step unless she was there to help them and so far, no mistakes had been made. Although it was a close call with the black beetle eyes, when Lavender almost put two table spoons into her potion and it called for two teaspoons. What a mess that would have been. As strong as this potion is, they would have been scrapping little pieces of Lavender off the ceiling all night. It was little mixups like that, that Professor Lovegood had everyone read the section on this potion and do the questions at the end of the section. Apparently, Lavender didn’t learn anything from what she read or else she didn’t retain anything that she had read since she almost made that mistake…or it could have been just a honest mistake, who knows. Tablespoon, teaspoon, maybe she just read it wrong or something.

“Alright people, that is time. I am going to put everyone who hasn’t finished their potion under a stasis charm and you will be able to finish it on Wednesday. So review that section one more time folks, and goodbye.”

“That one was actually a little hard to work with, the level of concentration cutting those shrivelfigs is unnerving.” Pavarti stated.

“Not if you stretch the skin taunt and then start cutting, it keeps the skin from expanding and moving about all over the place. Makes it so much easier. I hate shrivelfigs fruits too they are a pain, but after a while you get use to them.” Luna stated as she packed up the last of her equipment.

“Stretching the skin, why didn’t I think of that? Thanks Luna.” Pavarti smiled at her as she packed away her scales.

“To tell you the truth it took me years to learn that little secret. I was almost ten years old before I figured out how to work with shrivelfigs, and before you say that that is young you should remember that I am the daughter of a potions genius and have been working on potions since I was six, so no it isn’t young.” Luna smiled her normal dreamy smile at Pavarti then headed out the door behind Neville.

———————————————————————————

Harry, Neville, Pavarti, and Luna were all sitting around the fireplace in the Gryffindor commons playing poker kinda half heartedly, tomorrow was the day that Sirius said the person who he had gotten to come help with the whole passing of a close friend was suppose to come but Harry didn’t think he could talk to a complete stranger about his feelings where Hannah and her death were concerned. They were just too…personal some how…to private. Harry sighed. He would try tough, he hated this feeling as if his world was on hold right now and every thing he loved or enjoyed reminded him of Hannah so he hated to do it because he didn’t want the pain of being reminded that he wouldn’t never see her again so he was slowly sucking every bit of happiness out of his life, even going down and seeing his Storm was becoming difficult.

He could barely play his music any more, or play poker, or Hell even visit with Susan and it definitely wasn’t Susan’s fault but he would always sit there forcing a smile while inside he was breaking apart thinking when was Hannah going to walk into the room or where was Hannah. And suddenly he would remember and all the pain and hurt would rush right back in and he would feel like crying instead of smiling.

But he had to be the strong one for everybody else, he had to be the strong one. The one everyone looked to. Took their feelings to, took their pain to, took their hurt to, took their confusion to, he was the one everyone looked to him for support but who was he suppose to go to when he needed someone. He hoped this person would be worth it, but he doubted it.

With a sigh, Harry played his hand and laid down to an inside strait that had Neville on his feet hoping and bouncing around, how could he, he took his hand and used it against him! The snook! Harry gave him a half smile and said “I said for you to quit doing it, I didn’t say for me to quit doing it you big doofus.”

“But that’s my hand!” Neville said.

“Yeah but I only needed one card and I thought what the Hell might as well try…” Harry grinned.

“You jerk.” Neville glared at him.

Luna giggled and Pavarti was laughing outright at those two, stronger than brothers those two. This is what Harry had needed to get his mind off of Hannah for a second at least she thought.

“All right but I am dealing next you jerk and Texas hold up, no wilds.” Neville was still glaring at Harry as he dealt the cards.

This time Harry pulled to a full house(kings over fours) and Neville pulled three of a kind (deuces) so the world was happy again, if only for that moment, since Luna trumped them all with a royal straight flush. She could be so fun to have around sometimes. Well there goes a huge pot of chocolate frogs.

Harry couldn’t help but laugh his ass off.

Then it was Pavarti’s turn to deal and they played seven card and again Luna won. It looks like it is going to be her night tonight. But it seemed like everyone was having fun at least, and the boys were back to normal for the moment at least.

Before long it was time for everyone to head to bed and for the first time in three days Harry was able to sleep without dreaming of Hannah. Was this healing or forgetting a friend. One way it was painful the other way it was more painful than that. Sigh.

——————————————

Transfiguration class was interesting they were going to turn a rock into a turtle. Any rock it didn’t matter which one. Oh well to a normal person it didn’t matter, but to Luna it did. She had to have the right rock, it had to speak to her. And she had to hear what it wanted to be. Luna had a way of being oddly brilliant at times.

Apparently she had studied up on turtles when she heard that turtles were going to be on our list today and had read up on which turtles would make good pets, her first turtle was a Eastern Box Turtle which she made a little aquarium for it and all. “Cautistestudo” She called out and there was this beautiful colorful turtle just as she envisioned it.

“Excellent Luna, twenty points to Gryffindor, she is the first to get this one down.” Professor Black stated. This is one transfiguration that no one had ever tried before so everyone got treated the same on.

Pavarti decided to do a plain Wood Turtle it was plain but still colorful all the same. She closed her eyes and focused for a moment then opened them pointed her wand at the rock and “Cautistestudo“ and sure enough a colorful Wood Turtle was in its place.

Harry was thinking and thinking some more and decided what he wanted, he closed his eyes and focused, when he opened his eyes he pointed his wand and “Cautistestudo” this time it was a Painted Turtle popular in Midland Canadian regions.

Then it was Neville’s turn apparently he remembered seeing a turtle when they had gone to the zoo a long time ago that had caught his interest and stuck in his memory because “Cautistestudo” and there was a Map Turtle in the place of the rock that had been there before. With all its bright yellow lines that looks like a ‘map’ on it. Wow look at those fingernails, better be careful those things can hurt.

Sirius was thrilled and gave each one ten points for their interesting turtles and showed each one off to the class, showing the differences and types of turtles they could make then they started having turtle races in the middle of the room just for fun mind you.

All the while Luna was working on a secondary one. She had stuck to realistic long enough as far as she was concerned and picked a regular box turtle but made it quite unique. “Cautistestudo”, okay who said it had to be realistic never met our dear, sweet Luna.

“All right people Miss Lovegood has let her imagination go a little and here we have a pink and purple box turtle, I hope for it’s sake it is a female turtle. I would hate to see the ego bruise this would bring to a male turtle to be pink.

“She is a female her name is Torty.” Luna stated.

“Ah for tortoise, I get it…” Sirius gave her a half smile.

Then Malfoy finally came up with something interesting, “Cautistestudo”, and an Albino Red Eared Slider. That’s right folks solid white except for those distinct red patches where it’s ears would be. Great for beauty, bad for camouflage, but then again the pink and purple masterpiece of Luna’s wasn’t exactly any better. Malfoy of course got ten points to Slytherin and a lot of praise for his actually very beautiful turtle, and he put it down with the others to see if it would win the turtle race.

So far it looked like Torty was doing the best, but then again Luna smacked Neville when he said it was because the poor thing was trying to outrun it’s bright purple shell but couldn’t. So Harry thought better than mention anything about it. He just chuckled and nodded with poor sore armed Neville, who was giggling and laughing at that poor innocent pink turtle.

Then apparently he had an idea. So Neville closed his eyes and focused then “Cautistestudo”, and there appeared a standard box turtle that had a painted shell that was made to look like grass.

“See that one doesn’t need to go anywhere, it is it’s own camouflage.” Neville stated chuckling, and he got smacked again by Luna.

Then it was Pavarti’s turn, she thought of something as well. This time she made a standard box turtle that had military style camouflage on it’s shell, for those especially good turtle hunters, her’s would have a real hard time finding her turtle when looking in the wetlands with a Mossy Oak shell on it’s back. Nature made camouflage magic style. She giggled.

Then Harry got into it. And “Cautistestudo” and there was a standard box turtle with an Autumn Forest shell design on its back, who knew the little guys could be so designer. Twenty minutes later the floor of the Transfigurations room was filled with camouflaged turtles of all kinds, mainly standard box turtles but each had a unique type of woodland or grassland or even swampland camouflage on it’s shell. It was a unique way to look at things and it was a hit. Neville’s idea could go so wild.

By the time they manages to count all the turtles and find them all and box them all up in aquariums for everyone else to look at the bell rung and it was time for History of Magic class already.

——————————————————————

The last two weeks they had been going over rare and unusual laws that were still on the books, apparently it was Professors Lupin’s way of getting the students to focus on something other than Hannah. The law to be thought of as the most bizarre or most weird that day got the student a bar of Honeydukes Finest. And boy was the competition rough, there were some pretty strange ones out there still.

But today they were starting in on the International Statue of Wizarding Secrecy Law more commonly known as the Statue of Secrecy enacted in sixteen-eighty-nine. Although it wasn’t fully ratified until sixteen-ninety-two.

“The Statue of Secrecy was enacted by the International Confederation of Wizards to help hide the Wizarding world from the Non-Wizarding world on a whole in sixteen-ninety-two due to the continuation of Witch burnings and Witch prosecutions that had started during the fourteenth through the seventeenth centuries. Their very own Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington in fourteen-ninety-two was one of such Wizard when they immediately took his wand then he was killed by forty five hacks to the neck with a dull axe. It was this brutal act that staved off such killings for a while but not for long, by the sixteenth and seventeenth century witch burnings were all the rage again. And anyone could be labeled a witch for any reason.” Professor Lupin began.

“The International Confederation of Wizards saw no solution but to separate Wizard from non-magicals completely. Many wealthy Magicals used to hobnob with the greatest of royalty such as William the Conqueror and Queen Elizabeth the First as well as the highest of aristocracy but after the statute passed into law they pulled away from all contact with the upper crust of the non-magical world all together. Which in truth caused a huge dip in their financial gains for quite some time.” He continued.

“The one thing that this did seem to do was bond together our own Wizarding society, several families congregated into rural areas and created small villages or hamlets setting up ‘Muggle’ repellent wards and such. To make sure that Non-Wizarding folk didn’t wander into their townships by accident or anything of the sort. Over the ages many clauses have been added to the original laws, ones concerning magical beasts, underage magic, magical games and sports, ghosts and spirits, dress guidelines, well you get the idea.” Professor Lupin stated.

Harry raised his hand, and Professor Lupin nodded towards him “If all that is illegal then how do Non-Magicals know about ghosts and spirits at all, and how is it that some of them can actually see them, I mean they have books and movies about them all of the time, they even have television shows about people who do nothing but hunt ghosts?”

“There are a lot of slips in the Statue of Secrecy, sometimes hermits or Witches that preferred to live quite alone and away from any standard community pass on and become a ghost and stay around to haunt their home that they passes away in. The Ministry tries to round them up and relocate them as soon as possible but sometimes there are familiar ties that just can’t be broken. As far as movies, television shows and all that I have no idea. I had no idea you could copy the picture of a ghost on film, that might be something that the Ministry would want to look into though.” Professor Lupin was totally surprised by this information, he had never heard of such a thing. Maybe he could find a couple of books about it and take it into Amelia and see what she would do about it.

Pavarti raised her hand, Professor Lupin nodded in her direction, “I understand that in the seventeen-nineties the MACUSA enacted the Rappaport’s Law which is like a the Statute of Secrecy Law on nutrient potions. They made it so you couldn’t marry a Non-Magical, you couldn’t work for a Non-Magical, you were even ostracized if you even befriended a Non-Magical. Sometimes punished with heavy fines too. It wasn’t until nineteen-sixty-five repeal of the Rappaport Law that a student could even take their wand home during the summer months. You have to apply for a wand license when you are seventeen in order to earn the right to carry a wand and you have to have your license on you at all times or else face serious fines, possibly jail time.”

“That’s right” Professor Lupin stated, “The United States of American version of the Secrecy Act was by far more strict and demanding, but thankfully has since been repealed. Oddly enough it was repealed at the same time as the Non-Magicals were having all of their racial riots and Civil Rights riots all across their nation. And have since passed the Civil Rights Act in nineteen-sixty-four and the Voting Rights Act in nineteen-sixty-five. Segregation was becoming a thing of the past in America in more ways than one in the sixties.” Remus Lupin agreed. “Now their Magical Government is still completely separated from the Non-Magical Government and in many ways that does form some hostiles within the populations but the Non-Magical Government demands it’s independence and solidarity therefore it maintains its distinction and therefore its separation. Perhaps someday that will change but that is something for a far away distant future I believe.”

Malfoy raised his hand at that point and Professor Lupin pointed to him, “Do you think it would be better for our world to be more exposed to the Non-Magicals or less exposed Professor?”

“That honestly is a hard question, in many ways I think our world would benefit from mixing of both worlds, like I think television, or movies, or even books and magazines that Non-Magicals have would be interesting to have. And then some of the medical advances that Non-Magicals have been able to develop would be wonderful to share with them. But they out number us so magnificently that I am afraid that we would basically be hunted down and kept like lab rats in cages while their governments figured out what to do with us. So unfortunately I think the separatism is probably for the best. I mean think about it, what would an army do if they had a team of soldiers that could apparate in behind enemy lines, plant some of their explosive devises and apparate back out without anyone being able to stop them. Or what would they do to get a soldier that could sneak into some enemy fortress and with one spell AK their leader in a matter of a few seconds with no trace what so ever, no sound of weapons, nothing, just in, one spell, and out again. A soldier that could put up wards that no other Non-Magical could get through, say around a school or church or hospital or even a secret military base. Where their leader could hide away forever. Think about the ramifications of what would happen if they found even a tenth of our skills or possibility of our skills. Rune wards, wards in general, medical breakthroughs, potions, apparition, floo travel, messenger by patronus, magical creatures, communication mirrors, moving pictures, speaking paintings or soul paintings, brooms, magic carpets. These are all things which would come in handy or big demand to Non-Magicals.”

Lavender Brown actually raised her hand for once in the class and of course he nodded to her, “Self sizing clothing, self warming clothing, or self cooling clothing, color changing clothing, indestructible cloth, acromantula silk clothing, fairy silk clothing, the possibilities are endless, and the demand would be so great that we would never be able to fill it.”

“That’s right, they think they are doing great with something called elastic, which is like rope but it has a lot of stretch to it. But we have self sizing clothing. When you put it on it sizes itself to match your body exactly. What else do you need. If it is hot out we have clothing with built in cooling charms that will keep you cool, if it is cold out we have clothing that will keep you warm. If the weather doesn’t know what it is doing, we have clothing that will just keep you at seventy-two degrees and make you comfortable no matter what. We have clothing with cushioning charms in it, like riding pants for riding horses, or brooms. We have pants that are made to keep your legs invigorated if you have to make a long walk. We have invisibility cloaks, impervious cloaks and fireproof cloaks, again well beyond the imagination or possibilities of Non-Magicals at this time.” Professor Lupin stated.

Luna raised her hand, and Professor Lupin nodded “Unicorns, Dragons, Fairies, Gnomes, Trolls, Imps, Pixies, Darcorns, thestrals, nifflers, hippogriffs, abraxans. They would all be hunted to extinction.”

“That’s unfortunately true, as soon as the Non-Magicals found out about the other creatures that inhabit our world that they are not aware of, they would want to keep them in a zoo somewhere or have one as a pet maybe. Or even exterminate them. The first to go would probably be the dragons. Without realizing the benefit of the dragon is to our world they would only see it as a large and dangerous beast that must be eradicated and try and kill them all. Or kill them to keep them as trophies somewhere, with some of the really rich hunters out there. Believe it or not there are some incredibly rich people that have nothing better to do with their time than to go around and kill poor helpless animals and have them stuffed and put up on exhibit in their homes. They make a sport of seeing who can bag the most unique or rare specimen. What would they do with House Elves? Or a Werewolf if they found one? Or a Vampire perhaps? Would they think that Jeeves our house elf was sentient or not, would they hunt house elves like they do rabbits? Would they turn house elves into breeding farms like they do with their cats and dogs?” Professor Lupin Asked.

“There is a lot of things that is bad about the Statue of Secrecy, it’s restrictions can be a little rough on us sometimes and can keep us from helping people when we know we can save their lives. But… it is there for a reason. A very good reason. Where do you draw the line? It has to be drawn somewhere. And it is safer to draw the line on the side of safety than let yourself get caught up in the middle and have to suffer with the consequences later.

Now I want each of you to write me up a one foot essay supporting and opposing the Statute of Secrecy, and pick one area that you feel strongly about that you think is either opposed to the Statute or should support the Statute. Like what we have done here in class, and yes you can use some of the examples we used in class, although please if you use something we said in class, please expand on it, give it your own twist and explain why you chose to discuss that specific thing.” Professor Lupin stated just as the bell rang.

Everyone was chattering away about the class and possible topics as they left the class, everyone had a specific area they were interested in, Luna of course wanted to continue with the animals and actually Neville wanted to go the route of magical plants that would be endangered if Non-Magicals found out about them. Pavarti wanted to explore magical transportation, mainly magical carpets, apparition, floo and brooms. Harry wanted to explore the exploitation of magical races in general if the Statute of Secrecy were to be obliterated.

———————————————————————

Everyone was waiting in the hallway talking about the Statute of Secrecy and it’s possibilities when the door to the Defense classroom finally opened and the class before them finally came out.

When Harry made his way to his to his desk he saw a cage with several Imps staring back at him and grinned. This was going to be a fun class for sure. Then he saw the next container it had some sleeping Gnomes in it, oh boy this was going to be great.

They walked into the room and Harry, Neville, Luna and Pavarti sat down in their traditional seats then waited for the class to start.

“Welcome all, I see you have already spotted out friends for this class. First we are going to study Imps. Now Imps are a lot like Pixies in a lot of ways, except they don’t have wings nor are they brightly colored like their mischievous cousins the Pixies. They are a class XX creature as defined in the Ministry of Magic Classification. They usually grow to no more than six to eight inches in height and are found only in Britain and Ireland. An Imp will make its home in the marshlands, when they see an unwary traveller they will amuse themselves by tripping them or pushing them into the mush and muck just for their amusement. They are carnivores. Their diet consist mainly of insects, but on rare occasions a tiny bit of fish might tempt them although that is rare. Imp breeding habits are a lot like Pixie’s as well but their young are will hatch fully formed. Their forms of communication is making grumpy, gruff sounds that makes complete sense to them but to us just sound like grumpy noises, kinda cute with a side of evil in there somewhere.” Professor Longbottom stated.

“These little menaces can get into boats of fishermen and dump their entire catch of the day right back into the water, just to see the reaction of the fisherman. Or if you live in the marshes they may climb down you chimney if your fire is not burning at night and start throwing your dishes around just to see if they can wake you up and what will happen, so keep them fires burning all night long. They tend to like night time adventures more than daytime but they will appear at any point. Stealing lanterns, pulling laundry that has been left out to dry into the mud, stealing a pie that was put on the window seal to cool, tying the dogs tail to it’s collar just to make it run in circles. All these thing and more are favorites of these little menaces.” Professor Longbottom stated.

“Now a Imp bite can get infected quickly and if bitten by an Imp while in the thick of the marshland, by the time you get to medical assistance you probably have got a huge whelp on your skin that started of red but is quickly turning purple, and itches fiercely. Putting a raw potato on the Imp bite will draw out the venom but it will take a while for the swelling to go down and the color to return to normal. Their bite is not as poisonous as a Doxy by any means but if you get caught by a swarm of Imps you will end up with a bunch little red to purple bumps all over that take forever to heal. Non-Magicals used to call it Swamp fever not knowing what it really was, due to the fact that they can’t see the little demons. And once a house was infested the only way to get rid of them was to leave the house, because by the time you notice them it was too late. At least for the Non-Magicals. For Magicals it is quite a bit easier, a simple Knockback Jinx better known as Flippendo, will push them away from you and make it to where they can be easily put into a cage and taken down to the Department of Magical Beasts and they will handle it’s relocation without an issue. So I want everyone to gather to the center of the room and we are going to practice Flippendo today. It has been a while since we have actually worked on a new spell so today you get to try one.”

With that he moved the two tanks to the side of the room and then created a nice center aisle for every one to create two two lines in. Harry took first spot and took aim at the pillow, “Flippendo.” And sure enough up in the air and over a couple of times then it landed about five feet away from it’s starting position.

“Excellent. Mr. Longbottom you next.”

“Mr Nott you’re up.”

Nott made the pillow do a summersault and land about five feat behind itself.

“Very good, Mr. Zabini you’re up.”

Neville flipped his pillow about three times in the air and it landed about three feet from where it started.

“Excellent, good height there, Miss Lovegood you next.”

Professor Longbottom went down the list of students and each one could do the jinx, although some had to have a little help, mainly Brown and Finnegan, but other than that they did really well. Finally every person got through the line at least once. “Okay, I want you all to practice on pillows when you get a chance with that one, nothing else do you understand me, pillows and pillows alone. And Preferably in this room, if not…an empty class room will do as long as it is not in use. And preferably with some teachers permission.” Then he moved the second case back up to the podium so that everyone could see the Gnomes that were in the wire cage that was there. They all were sleeping in a heap in one corner so they kinda looked like a pile of potatoes with legs or something but it appeared to be about four or maybe five of them in there together although right now who could tell. It wasn’t until the Professor waived a long slender carrot through the wires of the cage that they seemed interested in anything that was going on in the room. But at the presentation of the carrot all of the sudden the little things were up on their feet reaching for the prize and stepping on top of each other trying to get the carrot. After a second or two he would give the winner a carrot and grab another one for the next little guy until they were all happily munching on carrots. And it appeared there were indeed five of them in the cage.

“As you can see these are Gnomes, and they are the typical garden variety and they stand between eight inches and twelve inches in height. They will only infest magical gardens, somehow they know the difference between a Magical and Non-Magical garden even if they are right next to each other. They are found throughout Europe and North America. They are also a level XX creature through the Ministry of Magic. They are usually brown or tan in color and have a disproportionately large head which I think makes them look a little like a potato with legs but that is just me. Their feet are hard and boney and their nails are quite sharp, good for digging. They live in burrows underground, known as gnome holes where they dig up and eat the roots of plants. That’s right people these little guys are primarily Herbivores, while they love most plants a tender sweet carrot, or a nice fat sweet potato will get them any time. It may be the orange coloring or it may just be the fact that they are such succulent roots, who knows. They love them though. You want to keep them out of your garden, make a peace offering for them, keep a plate of sweet potatoes or carrots on at your garden gate and they will accept that and go no further. Some say that they will eat worms in the winter to stay fat, so that is also a possibility. Although normally they hibernate in the colder months.” Professor Longbottom continued.

“Now their natural predator is the Jarvey, and you can buy a Jarvey to de-Gnome a garden unfortunately their method is a little messy and rather brutal. So it is best to be prepared for the bit of clean up that it will require. However, you will not have any Gnomes after a day or so, and the Jarvey leave a rather Gnome repellent scent around for weeks that any self respecting Gnome could detect and never cross. Which is why you can by ‘Jarvey Juice’ in a bottle now days, scares the little blighters away and keeps them away for weeks at a time. Just long enough to get fall harvest in and make sure that your garden doesn’t go to the pests.” He continued.

“ They are very fast breeders having litters of young at a single birthing instead of just a single live birth. Now the specific way most people get these pests out of their garden is to swing the little thing around your head until it gets dizzy then throw it over the hedge as far as you can, the problem with that is, that they are not the most brilliant creatures on this planet, and seem to like this whole game. They will return. So if you don’t want a continuous fight of flinging legged potatoes, buying a jarvey or moving, I suggest de-Gnoming by stunning them then putting them in a cage and taking them into the Creature department at the Ministry for relocation, it is their job after all. Yes folks rehousing Gnomes is also listed on their list of duties within the Ministry, so make them earn their keep. Maybe it is a little irritating but it saves you the trouble of Jarvey left over clean up and you don’t have to spend a couple of hours a day flinging the little menaces out of your garden.” Professor Longbottom chuckled.

Harry wrote down Jarvey and stunning spell next to the Gnome blank and Flippendo next to the Imp just as the bell rang.

Wonderful he wanted to get started on that essay for History of Magic.

———————————————————————

Besides he had that appointment with that counselor right after dinner.

When he walked into the spare Transfigurations classroom, which was where these counseling sessions were being held, he felt very apprehensive, but when he saw who it was he gave a sigh of relief. It was Aunt Andy. Sirius couldn’t have picked anyone better if he had tried.

Harry went over to Aunt Andy and grabbed her and began to cry, she wrapped her arms around him and allowed him to cry himself out. Then guided him over to one of the chairs nearby and the two of them sat down. Still holding onto Harry she asked, “Now, why don’t you tell me what is going through that handsome head of yours.”

“I don’t know where to start. I am so angry, and hurt, and lonely, I miss her so terribly, everything reminds me of her, it’s so painful. Then I so scared too, if they can kill one of our own as they are just walking down the corridor to their commons room, what safety do any of us have here. I thought with all of us training as we have all these years we were safe, but they shot her like a fish in a barrel. One minute she is fine, the next she’s dead.

“I thought for a while I was angry with Susan and Hannah for letting themselves get attacked, then I realized that isn’t quite right, I’m angry that they were in a position to be able to get attacked. It was kinda like when Neville and I got attacked by Bellatrix Lestrange, this is the second attack on students in one year here. This place has no security at all. Nothing set up to alert a teacher that shellfire was underway in that hallway except to let them know that someone cast a spell in the hallway, not that someone was dying in the hallway, or that the spell was dark. And there is nothing like that at all on the grounds what so ever.

“I’m mad because this never had to happen at all. If McGonagall had punished Parkinson like she should have then people would have thought twice about being bullies and picking on others. They would never have even thought of something like attacking them and shooting them in the back. It was an obvious escalation to bullying and they took the opportunity given them.”

“Im mad because a twelve year old, spoiled rotten, rich brat, racist caused all this and now a dear friend is dead. And it seems so unfair that she gets to spend five years playing around in the luxury of her home then and only then does she have to finally face the justice she so richly deserves. But five years from now my friend will still be dead.”

“I’m mad that the adults seem to be pleased with this outcome and think that justice has been served. That Pansy gets to sleep in her comfortable bed at home, having house elves serve her every whim, wearing expensive gown that her father bought her to cheer her up with, eating honeydukes finest buy the bar, and fine dining with whom ever happens to show up for dinner at their mansion that night. For five years, but my friend is still dead.

“I’m mad because I will never get to hear Hannah’s laughter again, or her insightful antidotes, her little bits of wisdom, or jokes that were so bad, never get to hear her play cello again, or have her finish teaching me how to play. Never get to watch her moon over her first crush, or tease her about it, never get to threaten to beat the snot out of the guy if he so much as touches her inappropriately, I’ll never get to dance with her at her wedding, or hold her first son, or grin as she cries when he takes his first steps. There are so many I nevers out there that I quit counting them all and just cry at night most nights. I try so hard to be strong for everyone else and it makes me mad that I have to be the strong one and I have no one to be strong for me.

Andromada smiled after Harry finally stopped and took a breath, it appeared the dam had well and truly broken, he so needed that. He had been holding all that in for days and it was beginning to fester and he needed to hear himself say it if nothing else. Now he needed to know it was alright to be mad and he didn’t have to be the strong one.

“Harry, you are twelve years old, a very mature twelve years old to be sure, but still twelve years old. It isn’t your place to be the strong one for everyone else, that is what parents are for. Yes I know that children have a habit of not going to their parents when it comes to something so personal, so deep or life altering, but try to get them to include their parents anyway. It will help ease the load some, I guarantee.”

“As to the sentence, unfortunately that was the best that they could do, with Pansy being twelve they couldn’t put her in Azkaban, even minimum security until she if fifteen, so the next best thing is house arrest until she is seventeen and immediately into maximum security from there. If they had gone to court she would have cried those big crocodile tears and been in a pretty little dress with ruffles and in pigtails, everyone would have seen some innocent little girl and let her off without even a warning before the trial even started.”

“It’s alright to be mad, you will be mad for a while, it’s a natural stage of grief. First there is denial, then anger, then bargaining, then depression and finally acceptance. Your just working your way through the stages as you see fit. Some stages last only a matter of hours some last for months or longer, it all depends on us and the help we get to walk us through them. That is what I am here for. To help walk you through each stage and make sure I am there on the other side to greet you when you come through it.”

They continued on talking for well over an hour and after that made an appointment to meet next Saturday then Harry headed off to bed, a little lighter, and a little freer than he had been earlier, and a whole lot less mad.

———————————————————

Today they walked and the room was filled with plain white balloons, at first they thought that Flitwick was having a party or something, but he stood on his desk so that he was taller than the balloons and told everyone to take their seats and began to point to the word on the boar Colovoria, “Colovoria is the basic charm to change the color of something, hence these balloons, I want each of you to grab two or three balloons and begin to explore what you can do with it. So come down here and grab your balloons and let’s get to work.”

All of the sudden it didn’t sound quite so bad. Alright then Harry thought for a couple of minutes and then began first one first “Colovoria Argenteus”, and the white balloon became a glisteny silver. “Excellent, now for you, hmm. Okay, I know Colovoria Electricus,” and the balloon became a beautiful amber shade of yellow. “Now the third, oh I know Colovoria Subcaeruleus,” this one turned a gorgeous shade of lavender, one of Luna’s favorite shades of purple in fact.

Now was Luna’s chance. She was going to go just a little exotic she thought, “Colovoria Chlorinus,” and happily she had a chartreuse balloon before her, next was Colovoria Herbaceus,” and a Caribbean green ballon danced next to that one, and finally “Colovoria Violaceus,” a marti gras purple balloon joined the other two and bounced along to some tune that only the three balloons could hear. Perfect Luna nodded and she smiled over to Harry who smiled back at her, his Luna.

Now Neville was going to take a crack at it, “Colovoria Aureus,” and a golden ballon hung up with the two white ones above his head. “Colovoria Rubidus,” and a lovely deep rich almost brick red joined that one, finally he gathered the last ballon and thought and thought and thought finally he came up with one “Colovoria Spadix.” A rather fetching chestnut brown, almost the shade of warn leather. Neville looked over to Pavarti and said “It reminds me of the couches in the commons room.

Now it was her turn. Pavarti looked at the colors the others had done and thought about what she could do and then an idea came to her “Colovoria Smaragdinus,” an emerald green balloon was there, waiting on the other two. She took the next one and “Colovoria Sapphirus,” then a sapphire blue ballon popped up to join it and the final balloon held its place waiting “Colovoria Aureus,” she said and let that balloon join the other two, she turned and looked at Neville, “The colors in a peacocks feather.” They both smiled at each other and enjoyed their balloons.

“Excellent! Excellent! Twenty points each for your work, oh magnificent!” Flitwick was his normal bouncy self and just about exploding as he saw their balloons. You could tell he had been holding his breath as each balloon was made, waiting to see what color it would be. Now he was just thrilled with the variety and loved what they had done. Apparently he wasn’t used to kids that had taken four years of latin already coming into his class. But oh well they live to surprise.

Most of the class Professor Flitwick spent his time coaching people on how to pronounce a color or what color to choose. But in the end the room was filled with vibrant beautiful balloons that they ended up getting to take with them if they wanted. So they took their balloons to History of Magic class and agreed to take them to their dorm once they finished class and put them in their rooms.

———————————————————

Today they were suppose to have a basic continuation of the Statute of Secrecy Act but focusing on the the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery.

They had already had a little run in with Deloris Umbridge who used to be in charge of the Improper Use of Magic Office in the Ministry of Magic until she was promoted to the Chief Pooba’s Senior Undersecretary that is. Which she reminded people of as frequently of as possible.

When they got into the classroom they were given a little bit of a surprise though, there was a cloaked figure sitting in the corner of the room, just sitting there not doing anything else, although Harry kept a weary eye on him, he could tell it was a him by his basic body structure and build, the person looked to be between six foot and six foot six, and weighed about a hundred and eighty if Harry had to guess, Tall, slender, hooded hmm, could it be?

“Hello all, I realize everyone was getting ready for questions about the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery but instead we have a special guest with us today. Today we have a member from the Department of Mysteries here and so I thought we would wait on the other discussion until tomorrow. Now Mr. Green here is an Unspeakable and usually does not make such appearances, so please show your respects and act appropriately.

With that the classroom began to clap and everyone in the classroom began to raise their hands to ask questions of their guest. And so he began to point to individuals, since it was a given that he probably didn’t know their name each student stood and introduced themselves, then asked their question and sat down.

The first person was pointed too stood, “Earnie McMillian, Sir, is it true that the Department of Mysteries existed before the Ministry for Magic was ever even in existence?”

The hooded figure nodded, “That is quite true, we predate the Ministry of Magic by about fifty years give or take a few years.”

The next person pointed to stood, “Luna Lovegood, Sir, since the first released investigation was in sixteen-seventy-four and you state the Ministry for Magic was establish was in seventeen-zero-seven and that is only thirty four years, does that mean there are even more investigations out there that no one is aware of?”

“The Department of Mysteries is conducting investigations into a wide variety of subject all the time, only one half of one percent ever get revealed to the public and it is on a need to know basis only. When the public needs to know the information they will receive it.” Mr Green answered.

Megan Jones raised her hand and he nodded to her. “Megan Jones, Sir, Which do you consider the bigger threat to our society, a History of Magic teacher here at Hogwarts of a investigator at the Department of Mysteries?”

“Oh my that is a loaded question, well if I am to be honest with myself, with very few exceptions I would say the History of Magic teacher. The reason behind that is because he or she will be shaping how a whole generation views their outside world, how they interact. They will learn about war, about conflict and justice, they will learn about their government, their laws, their career choices, how to mold their future, they will learn about their place in this world and what a difference they can make in it, about discrimination and the Non-Magical world. History of Magic it the gateway to a world of possibilities, and with the knowledge you receive from this class you can go into many other occupations within the Ministry or Government, even the private sector. Being a barrister, being a solicitor, working as a teacher, working as a auror, working as a researcher, working as an investigator, the possibilities are endless really with a good solid base in History of Magic.” Mr. Green stated.

Susan Bones raised her hand and stood when acknowledged “Susan Bones, Sir, what do you find the most frustrating part about you job?”

“All that knowledge and so little of it can actually be released to the public. For our safety and their own, we have very stringent rules about what can and cannot be released to the public, and a very harsh protocol that must be followed. Unless there is a clear and present danger to the public without the knowledge being released the knowledge is withheld until such time as it is viewed prudent to do so. Which in most cases is… never. Years of thankless research that people should be getting accolades for and they get a pat on the back from their boss and that is it, they should be seen as national hero, earn metals, viewed as some of the greatest minds of our time and they sit in little offices, hidden deep underneath the Ministry, surrounded by piles of books and scrolls, and rarely get to see their families their only friends they have are the books they have before them. They get no recognition for their efforts or dedication, nor do they get those awards or ribbons, no articles about themselves or chances to see their name in print anywhere.”

Neville Longbottom was the next called on. “Neville Longbottom, Sir, is it correct that the Department of Mysteries has the largest vault of ‘extinct’ and extremely rare or unique plant seeds and seedlings in the world. With over seven million separate samples in storage at this point, both in active seedlings and preserved seeds under stasis?”

That caused Mr. Green to pause just a moment, then he stated “We do have a herbology section but to be quite honest it is not my specialty so I would know the details about it.”

Harry raised his hand and was called on. “Have you ever researched the bond between Darcorns and their riders? And if so, what were the results… As a Darcorn rider, I think it would benefit myself and my partner greatly to know anything and everything that could aid in the development of our relationship.”

“Yes, but that is something that is to be shared with Darcorn riders alone, and couldn’t be shared with anyone else, so see me after class we shall set up a time to discuss this further.” Mr. Green was again slightly taken aback.

“There are six Darcorn riders here at Hogwarts at this time would it be acceptable for all of them to join in on that conversation?” Harry asked smiling.

“Six? My word, well of course, all riders are welcome.” Mr. Green was definitely in shock about that, apparently their spy at Hogwarts didn’t know everything that was going on there after all.

“Yes Sir, two stallions and four pregnant mares at the moment. We hope to foal during the summer months.” Harry stated. “We four,” he said pointing to his companions, “and Hermione Granger, as well as Padma Patil are Darcorn riders.”

Pavarti was the next one called on, “Pavarti Patil, thank you Sir, since we are getting ready to go into third year and have to choose our electives shortly, what electives would you recommend for us to take if we wanted to get a job working for you?”

“Good question, but it would honestly depend on what your field of expertise would be, a good basis of Runes, and Arithmancy is always a plus, but I would recommend one more in your field of study, like if you want to study Non-Magical technology then take Muggle Studies, if you want to study Divination or Prophecy through the ages take Divination, if you want to study Animal Behaviors or Potions take Care of Magical Creatures as well it all depends on the area you are interested in. But Runes and Arithmancy are a great head start. They are useful in almost any field of study we have.” Mr. Green stated.

Wayne Hopkins raised his hand and was called on. “Wayne Hopkins, Sir. I am interested in going into the medical field, but if your agency is doing medical research I think that would be totally fascinating. Do you do medical research?”

Mr. Green nodded, “Yes we do, and that is one field that does indeed get some of it’s research passed on to the appropriate sources from time to time. Especially cures for certain diseases, or inoculations, no methods of surgery, better potions, things like that. It is definitely our most rewarding area of study.”

“Way cool!”

“Indeed.” Mr. Green chuckled.

Dean Thomas raised his hand and was called on. “Dean Thomas, Sir, do you currently have people working on the problem with the Non-Magicals having movie cameras everywhere, people are carrying them around on their person taking pictures of everything they see and putting it on their computer and then millions of people see it in a matter of a hour or so. It is getting to be big business to capture the strange and unusual occurrence and put it on the internet for people to see. And if you don’t, why not?”

“Very observant young man, actually we are working on that, although we have had little to no breakthroughs as of yet. Our research in that area is classified so I can’t honestly talk about it I am afraid.” Mr. Green stated.
Like he was going to tell a twelve year old kid that they had the WWW set up inside the Ministry of Magic just to observe what was going on. Oh it was a bitch, setting it up, finding a squib to do the wiring, another squib to set up the electrical for them, and another squib to train the team how to use the damn thing. But they have had it up an running for two years now and were very aware of what all was going on out there. Far more so than people thought at least.

Wayne Hopkins was raising his hand and Mr. Green pointed to him “Wayne Hopkins, Sir, it has been said for a while that the Department of Mysteries has some control over the Minister of Magic that we get, is that true?”

Mr. Green chuckled and shook his head. “There are times like these that I wish that was true but no, we have no control over who the Minister will be from vote to vote. We have to suffer right along with the rest of you.” And he chuckled again.

Leanne Moon raised her hand and he indicated towards her, “Some people say that it is best to get an apprenticeship first before you seek out a position within the Department of Mysteries and that it will give you a better chance of getting a position, is that true?”

“Not necessarily, some research heads want to train their researchers from day one, they want their people to do things their way and use their methods. So previous advanced training is just a waste of time and money. They like to take someone fresh from school and train them how they like things done, mold them like they were a piece of clay into the fine piece of pottery that they know is in there somewhere. They honestly hate to waste their time, going back and reteaching and unlearning everything everything that the person had been shown before. So what I would do, if you are interested in a specific of research, or a specific project, go to that research manager and see what they want, do they want you to start fresh, do they want you to go get basic training, do they want you to get advance training, do they want you to get an apprenticeship, what are their requirements before you make any big plans for your future talk to the case manager themselves. And please remember on the top ten percent of applicants get chosen to work in the Department of Mysteries. So if they don’t have a spot for you ask the case manager what they would suggest you do instead, maybe they would like you to pick up some training in a specific field to meet their needs better, maybe that was the reason your application was passed over that year. And never, ever give up. I myself applied three times before I was accepted and I have been working there several years now, and have worked my way up from assistant research analysts, to case manager, to field manager, to shift manager, to finally site manager. Everyone starts at the same place. There are no exceptions. Even if you have all the training in the world. You may get advanced faster with the proper training, but you still start at the bottom like we all do.”

Mr. Green pointed over to a young man that had his hand up. “Justin Finch-Fletchly, Sir, has the Department of Mysteries ever explored the possibilities that New Bloods or what some label as Muggleborn were actually Squib born from a long line of Squibs instead of Non-Magical families?”

“We have done a lot of research based on New Bloods, but I honestly could not tell you if that was one of the specific ones we did, it would be an interesting topic if we have not explored the possibilities though. Thank you for that idea.”

The bell rang just as Zacharias Smith raised his hand and he lowered it with a huff and began to get his quill and papers put back into his bag like everyone else in the room. For the first time Mr. Smith noticed that all of the kids had been taking notes on everything that he had said, and from the looks of things, rather detailed notes. This whole experience had not been anything like he had expected it to be, he had expected a couple of interesting questions perhaps but every question was well thought out and respectful, each child had introduced themselves and knew exactly how to speak in circumstances like this. All in all it was well worth giving up his afternoon for. He even got a few interesting ideas and a better view of just exactly how aware the younger people of this generation really were. Which to some degree was quite frightening. Their knowledge and insight was astounding.

“Alright kids we will be going over the Laws on Underage Witchcraft on our next meeting so do come prepared. Class dismissed.”

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With that the kids headed over to the Potions classroom and all of their potions were on their stations ready to start work on them as soon as they got to them. The stasis charms were still in effect so Professor Lovegood wood still have to take that off before you could do anything about starting to work on you potion though.

So each student went about setting up their equipment at their station and work on their potions. Each student would call over Professor Lovegood as soon as their station was set up to have her remove the stasis charm so they could continue working on their potion and class continued as normal.

Thankfully, class was pretty benign in potions that day, Neville, Harry, Luna, and Pavarti handed theirs in first, followed closely by Malfoy and Greengrass.The last to hand theirs in was Seamus.

“I want a ten inch report on the dangers of this potion and what could go wrong during its manufacturing. Due next class please.

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For Herbology they were working with Magical Tiger Lilies, oh they had their non Magical counter parts to be sure, but the Magical Tiger Lilies looked a great deal different. In the center of their fronds was a tiny tiger head or what resembled one at least, fangs and all. And it would bite you if you got too close. So gardening gloves were a must on this one.

“The petals and roots of this plant are used in the strengthening potion you just completed in potions class, so we are going to restock the stores today and I want everyone to be particularly careful of these little beauties, they will bite.” Professor Sprout started.

“Now what you do is to take good aim at the central fronds of the plant and point while stating quite clearly ‘Glacius’ this will freeze the plant and therefore allow you to pick the petals without getting bitten and you can pluck the plant at that point. Next I want you to pull up the plant and cut the roots off the plant one inch above where the brown of the roots are at.” She continued, the whole while she was demonstrating how to do this on one of the Magical Tiger Lilies that was within her reach.

“Then take the special mixture of soils that you will find in the blue barrels on either side of the room, it is high in many wonderful nutrients that are excellent for rerooting plants. This mixture is made up of coir, compost, aged pine bark, rice hulls, earthworm castings, and dragon dung. You will find it has just the right mineral balance for rerooting a plant and will help things along quite quickly.” Professor Sprout started.

“Now I want you to put about an inch of small gravels in the bottom of the pot to make sure it has plenty of drainage, then an inch of fine grain sand on top of that to make sure that the new roots don’t get bruised by the gravel when they are forming. Then put in four inches of the mixture in the blue barrel, and finally we put about an inch of the regrowth mixture that is in the yellow barrel, that is a special mixture of compost that will act as food for our budding roots for several days and speed up the repotting mixture. So let’s get this done here. And here we go.” Again she demonstrated exactly how to perform the glacius spell then she quickly plucked the petals off the flower and snipped the roots from the bottom of the stem. Finally she repotted the whole thing in a fresh pot and added a good amount of water to it and put the freshly harvested potion ingredients in a basket off to the side.

Everyone proceeded to do the same, well almost everyone, Seamus must not have done his Glacius very well because he got bit, and quite hard if his squeals were anything to judge by it. Apparently a Magical Tiger Lily bite is nothing to laugh about because Professor Sprout sent the bleeding student into the Medi-Ward to get healed quite quickly.

But thankfully that was the only catastrophe that there was in class. Everyone else manage to get their petals and roots and repot their plants without a problem.

Harry tried so hard not to laugh at Seamus but it was difficult, since he was dancing around doing what looked like and Irish jig holding his finger, and cursing in Gaelic. Who knew he even knew how to speak that language.

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“Today we have a special treat in Care of Magical Creatures, we have a whole litter of Cruppies.”

“Crups are Wizard bred and native to southeast England, they look very much like the Non-Magical Jack Russle terrier except that a Crup has a forked tail, now if you live near a Non-Magical neighborhood you will have to have your Crup’s tail cropped or removed entirely. Depending on the length of the forked nature of the Crup. The Crup is s class XXX beast according to the Ministry of Magic Classifications. They are hostile towards Non-Magicals and Squibs so you must have a special license to have a Crup if you live in a Non-Magical area, to prove that you can control your Crup adequately if needed.” Professor Lovegood started.

“These little guys we have here will live to be about thirteen to sixteen years old in the wild, but if they have a owner and a home their life expectancy can go up to as much as twenty five years. They will weigh up between thirteen and eighteen pounds and be between ten and fifteen inches in height when full grown at the withers. They are playful, stubborn, energetic, fearless, athletic, vocal, intelligent, and good scavengers. They can run up to about thirty-eight miles per hour when going after prey. And they enjoy going after anything from gnomes to foxes. They are a lot less messy than a Jarvey to cleaning up after a Gnome invasion so it might be a good solution to that if you happen to have that problem in your garden. The Crup definitely love playing with and finally eating the Gnomes it is a good way to keep them occupied.” He continued.

“The biggest problem is their insistent barking and a little bit of Crup sleeping draught will take care of that, it will keep them sleeping for up to forty-eight hours. The common color of a Crup is white with brown spots, on rare occasions you will find one that is white with black spots, or even the occasional white with black and brown spots. The ones we have today are all white with brown spots. So the breed standard. The pups we have are three males and four females, a larger litter to be sure the average litter is four to six. The largest litter on record is twelve. Crup puppies are constant chewers so if you don’t have something for them to chew they will find something to chew, like your new racing broom, make sure they are kept in a secure area at all times they are not in constant supervision or you will regret it, believe me I know. Now a good Crup may cost any where from ten galleons up to eighty galleons for a show quality registered breeding Crup. I know they can get extremely expensive but people go crazy over these little guys. And Crup breeding is big business in many places, due to the rarity around the world, since they are native only to southeast Britain.” He concluded.

Micheal Corner raised his hand and Professor Lovegood pointed to him, “Are Crups hard to house train?”

“Actually they are easier to train than a standard dog, they are much more intelligent than their Non-Magical counter parts the Jack Russel Terrier.” Professor Lovegood answered.

“You stated that they bark a lot, is there a way to train that out of them?” Harry asked.

“They have been trying to do that since the mid seventeen hundreds and have had no success, so I would say that is a…no.” Professor Lovegood chuckled.

Padma Patil raised her hand and asked, “Does the gender of the Crup seemed to make any difference on the general disposition of the dog?”

“The males seem to be more territorial and the females to be more protective of children or families. But other than that no there doesn’t seem to be any great difference as a whole.”

Harry Black raised his hand and waited to be noticed than asked, “You stated that they are excellent Gnome hunters, which would you recommend to actually get to take care of a Gnome infestation a Jarvey or a Crup?”

Professor Lovegood thought for a moment then answered, “That one has several answers, the Jarvey is quick and deadly, quiet and to the point, but messy and there is a lot of clean up. With the Crup the kill takes longer because they like to play with their catch first, which is fun to watch actually, but since the Crup actually eats the catch in the end, there is little mess. What I would recommend would be to rent either a Crup or a Jarvey to take care of your Gnome problem and then when the problem is solved you don’t have the additional issues again, or perfection would be to rent a Crup and get rid of the problem then use Jarvey Juice on you garden to prevent Gnomes from re-infecting your garden for a while.”

Lisa Turpin raised her hand, “What is most difficult problem about having a Crup as a pet?”

Professor Lovegood thought about that then said, “That would probably be the barking, although the constant flow of energy is another problem, the Crup is a little power house when it comes to energy. They have more energy than they know what to do with, running and playing all the time, or wanting to run and play all the time. But I defiantly think the barking is the most annoying part of a Crup, the constant barking has had more than one Witch or Wizard evicted from their homes…unfortunately.”

Luna Lovegood raised her hand and asked, “You stated that the average Crup lived thirteen to sixteen years in the wild but if they have an owner, do you feel this is magic related or care related?”

“A little bit of both actually, the care and health related issues might count for about thirty percent of that increase but the rest is the pure magic, the Crup is a very magical creature and without that magical support their lifespan is cut dramatically.” Professor Lovegood explained.

Mandy Brockenhurst raised her hand, “If Crups are so intelligent why can’t they be trained not to bark?”

Professor Lovegood chuckled, “If there is one thing that outweighs the Crups intelligence is their stubbornness. They are the most stubborn creatures I know. Even with years upon years of careful breading they have never been able to breed out that one serious flaw out of a Crup.”

Seamus Finnigan raised his hand, “Why are these magical dogs listed as a class XXX creature, they seem pretty harmless to me?”

“They are listed as class XXX creatures due to their serious aversion to Non-Magicals and Squibs, it makes them quite dangerous and therefore they must be put in that category. They can be unpredictable around them and attack without a moments notice. They are vicious and intend to do as much harm as possible when they attack, so keeping them as far away from Non-Magicals and Squibs is a must.” Professor Lovegood explained.
“In an all magical environment with no Non-Magical contact they are perfectly harmless, fun loving, and playful. The perfect pet, wonderful watch dogs, and great companions.”

Harry raised his hand and was acknowledged, “I noticed in some of the older potion books I have that there are several potions with Crup ingredients in them. But not so much any more, is there a reason for that?”

“Actually yes, before people started domesticating the Crup they didn’t mind using them in potions, but once they started domesticating them and having them as pets it seemed to be too cruel and heartless, so a huge petition went around and there was a ban placed on all Crup potions in nineteen-twenty-three. To date, I don’t know of a single potion that is still legally made that has Crup harvested ingredients in it. Now there are some dark potions, and illegal potions that are made, but no one risks making them unless they want to risk a long stint in Azkaban minimum security section.” Professor Longbottom stated, glad that that subject was brought up actually. He had forgotten to mention it, but it was quite relevant when Crups were discussed and he was glad that Harry had mentioned potions and Crups. The idea of using these adorable creatures in a potion was sickening as far as Xenophilius was concerned, as he watched the puppies play with the students and wrestle about in the grass for the class.

Professor Lovegood continued, “Along the same lines, Crup furs or fur coats are also illegal to own, or purchase at this time as well. And have been since Nineteen-zero-one. The only place it is legal to have a crup fur is a museum at this point. It isn’t even legal to have one in your family vaults, as a historical item any more, that is how serious the law is. But think about it, some of those coats took as many a twenty even thirty or thirty five Crups to make. And that is just for a standard, waist length coat, for a floor length coat it could take as many as sixty Crups to make it. At one point Crups were on the verge of becoming extinct then the laws were passed and the Crup breeding programs were started and now Crups are rare, but not on the verge of extinction any longer.”

Most of the classroom that was playing with the cruppies shivered or gasped at the idea of these little guys being made into a coat for some wealthy person just to wear around.

“Alright folks we have a few minutes left, so I want you each to draw up a Crup and get me as many details as you can. I will expect it due next class.There will be extra credit available on this one if you give me a twelve inch report on the Crup, and yes you can use anything we discussed in class. But I want other sources as well if I am going to give you extra credit for it.” Professor Lovegood stated and then he dismissed the class to play with the cruppies as the would.