Year 5 (pt.3)
Michael finished his second class for the day and he was walking the halls when he heard someone crying. He isn’t one to want to pry into others business but something about the cry sounded so familiar that he just had to find out who it was from. As he continued down the corridor he rounded the corner and saw Ginny sitting against a wall with her face in her knees crying. Idendiately Michael went to her and put an arm around her making it clear that he was there and everything was going to be ok.
“What’s wrong?” Michael asked in his most sincere voice. Ginny leaned into him and between tears explained that her father had been attacked by a snake and is in horrible condition. While Michael was curious mostly about the snake he moved on and didn’t ask about it. After some time of just sitting there Michael said, “dont worry im going to give your family some money to help with the medical bills and make sure you guys are set while your dad gets better.”
Ginny looked up at him and shook her head. “No, you won’t be doing that.” Michael was taken aback by how simply she said no but he was stubborn and said back, “You don’t have a choice. I'm going to have my parents send it so then you can’t just give it back.” Ginny continued on insisting that Michael can’t just give people money but Michael was insistent that he can.
“It's not like it would mean anything to my family if we gave you a million galleons.” Michael said in frustration at her refusion. This made Ginny stop. “Wait. What do you mean by that?”
Michael sighed and elaborated. “I mean, my family has a lot of money so it won’t make a huge deal if we gave you some money. We have ours invested and we have tons of businesses that continue to add to our vault. So, please. Take the money and use it for something good.”
Ginny looked at Michael and gave out a huff, “Fine. Only if you promise it REALLY isn’t a big deal.” Michael smiled because he won. “Of course it isn't a big deal.” They sat around and talked for a while more before Michael got up and sent a letter to his parents explaining the whole situation and that he wanted to send the Weasly’s money, which his parents did right away.
~
A few days later, while in the great hall, an owl dropped a newspaper on his lap. His dad always thought it was important to keep up with current events so he would regularly read the main stories in the Daily Prophet and then pass the paper on to someone who was also curious about the news. As he unrolled the paper he noticed the front page was mostly by a photo of azkaban. The title read “MASS BREAKOUT FROM AZKABAN”.
After eating, Michael went to find Hermione to show her the paper. When he found her she immediately asked if he read the paper yet today. To which he held up the Daily Prophet and she snatched it from his hands. As she read the paper, Michael could hear her mumbling the words written on the paper out loud.
“Can you believe this?!” Hermione said far too loudly. Michael cringed as people looked over at them. Hermione noticed this and told Michael they should go somewhere more private. They went to an empty courtyard and Hermione continued, “What do you think this will mean for Voldemort? I mean the list of people who escaped are his biggest supporters. That has to be no coincidence.”
“I’m not sure what that means for him.” Michael said in an almost defeat. He began to think about Viktor and how Voldemort killed him. The anger was starting to bubble over the more he thought about it. “We have to defeat him.” Michael said in a cold voice.
“You can’t be serious.” Hermione said, staring at Michael as if he was crazy.
“No, I am 100% serious. Someone has to do it and we know very well that the ministry is denying that he is even back. Umbridge made that very clear. We have to find a way to defeat him and save the wizarding world from this soon to be dictatorship.” Michael declared.
Hermione sighed, “No, you're right. Someone is going to have to do something. I don’t think it should be us. But if it has to be then I guess we'll just have to make it work.”
Michael was still thinking about Viktor and how he was going to avenge him. After a while of silence Michael got up. He needed to cool off before he got too angry and would say something that would hurt Hermione’s feelings. He was also starting to begin to think of where to start with defeating Voldemort.
After walking down some corridors he got this feeling that he knew just the right person that could help him defeat voldemort. With that, he started this trek down to the school’s dungeons.
~
Michael knocked on Snape's office door and entered when he heard “Come in.” come from the other side. As he entered Snape looked a little shocked to see him. Michael sat in the chair across from him and took a moment to think before he decided to get right down to business.
“If I were to try and defeat Voldemort, how would I go about that?”
Snape looked at Michael as if he was crazy, “Why would I know anything about how to defeat him?” he asked.
“I’m not sure but I bet you probably know something. I just want to know because if the ministry won’t do anything about it, someone is going to have to and I will be that person.” Michael said to Snape who was very intrigued by is declaration.
“I do know something that could help you. Voldemort has split his soul into parts. 7 parts if I am correct. The soul is put into objects or living things which are called horcruxes. While normal people would put their souls into objects that one would never find, Voldemort put his in objects that have quite a lot of meaning and are possible to find. All you have to do is destroy them and it makes him weaker.” Snape admits blankly to Michael.
Michael thinks about this for a moment. Before saying, “So, I just need to destroy these objects and it will be easier to kill him?”
“No, you need to destroy all of these objects in order to kill him. He will be impossible to kill unless you have destroyed all of his horcruxes.” Snape responded.
“What are they and where can I find them?” Michael asks.
Snape thinks for a moment. “I only know about a few of them. Slytherin's Locket, which I have no idea where it is. Hufflepuff's Cup, which is in some vault in Gringotts. Ravenclaw's Diadem, which I overheard Dumbledore say was in some lost and found within the school. Finally, Voldemort had a pet snake that I would guess holds some of his soul. They were extremely connected and more than just him being able to understand him using Parseltongue.”
Michael knew he went to the right place to ask about defeating Voldemort. The more Snape talked and the more Michael thought the more it seemed possible to defeat Voldemort. But how was he going to get all the horcruxes? “You said he has seven horcruxes. You only told me about four of them.” Michael said.
“Those are the only ones I know about. I can’t help with the rest. You will have to figure that out yourself.” Snape said with a sigh knowing that he was no help with the other horcruxes.
Michael gave his thanks and got up, leaving Snape's office. As he left the room, he looked at his watch remembering that soon he would have to go to the room of requirements and help Hermione teach Dumbledore's Army.
~
After the lesson and everyone started leaving the room Michael debated about whether or not he would tell Hermione about what Snape told him but before he could come up with a decision he overheard someone say, “I wonder what else the room of requirements could turn into if we asked it.”
This brought up a great idea to Michael. He could walk past it three times asking for a lost and found room. It wouldn’t hurt to try. However, that means he would have to be the last person out of the room so nobody follows him. He went over to Hermione and told her, “I am going to stay here a little longer and practice my swordsmanship, so you can leave without me.”
Hermione offered to stay back and keep him company but Michael insisted that he wanted some alone time to practice and she didn’t push any further. So when everyone left, Michael left the room as well but hoped it would bring him out a door near the entrance of the room of requirements.
He popped out a few doors down from the wall where the room of requirements is so he quickly ran over and walked past the wall three times thinking, ‘lost and found’, ‘lost and found’, ‘lost and found’. As he passed it the third time, a door appeared and Michael quickly ran to it. As he entered the room he saw how enormous it was.
It was a large room filled with so many random trinkets and items collecting dust. Michael's chest fell when he realized how hard it would be to find a small diadem within all of these things. So he decided even if it takes all night he was going to find that diadem. At least he hoped he would. This could easily be a completely different room compared to what Snape told him about.
Michael was going up and down the maze of isles opening all the cabinets and trunks, under random hats and under all the items that laid on the floor. He looked at his watch and was surprised when it showed that he would have class in two hours. People would be already getting ready and were in the great hall by now. He began to get desperate and tried the summoning spell. It didn’t work. He didn’t think it would work but it was worth a try.
With an hour left before class started he decided he would quickly just walk through the maze and scan all the items hoping it would be sitting somewhere. He was right. After a few mins he found it sitting in a velvet head shaped object on top of a wardrobe. He sighed with frustration because if he just scanned earlier he would have found it without all the trouble. Michael grabbed the diadem and went to his dorm, hoping to hide it and freshen up before class.
~
This holiday break was going to be one to remember. Michael and Hermione were excited because Hermione would be spending it at Michael’s house. While they have hung out quite a bit out of school, it was never at his house, so Hermione hadn’t ever met his parents. She was nervous to meet them but also had no idea what to expect given Michael was so vague when talking about them.
When they got off the Hogwarts Express, they said their goodbyes to Ginny and Luna and Michael showed Hermione to the car that was parked outside the station. It was an Aston Martin SUV which Hermione immediately recognized to be an expensive car. As the two of them got in the back seat, it was funny how Michael barely fit. His legs and shoulders, far too big for the small space they were in.
“Welcome, Mr. Butcher.” The driver said before driving off. After a semi long drive, the car turned down a long driveway and Hermione stopped talking to Michael in favor of staring out the window, trying to get a good look at the Butcher’s home. After a moment she realized it wouldn't be that hard because they were approaching a large manor. Bigger than any home that she has ever seen.
She gawked at the house before turning to Michael with a confused look. Michael just shrugged and once the car parked beckoned her to follow him to the front door. “There is no need to worry about your bags. They will take care of it and bring them to your room.” Michael said as Hermione went to grab her trunk.
She hurried to catch up to Michael as he opened one of the grand front doors. As they entered, it opened to a large vaulted room. There were stairs in the middle that stopped at a platform and then split to go up two different directions and there were hallways to the left and right of the bottom of the stairs. Hermione looked up to see an interrogate chandelier hanging from the ceiling and as she did so, she stepped back bumping into a table near the door.
As she bumped into the table, a vase tipped over and fell to the floor in a bunch of little pieces. Michael whipped around and stared at her in disbelief, “OH MY GODS. What did you do?! That was a priceless vase!” As he said this Hermione realized what she did and started to tear up, apologizing. As Michael saw the tears his demeanor changed and he started laughing. “We have like 12 vases like that. You have nothing to worry about. It was kinda ugly anyways.”
Hermione punched him in the arm for the joke he played on her. “That wasn’t funny Michael!” she yelled out. Michael continued to laugh as he motioned her deeper into the house.
“Let me show you around and then I will show you your room before dinner.” He said as he started walking down the hallway to the left. Hermione quickly followed behind him.
This led them through open oak doors into a large dining room. A long oak table stood in the middle while there were several chairs around it. Michael stated this was the formal dining room and went through another set of oak doors into another grand room which he called the 3rd drawing room. “This is mainly for when we have small dinner parties. It's convenient because it is right off the dining room and we don't have to travel far. However the room is too small for when we have bigger get-togethers.” Hermione nodded and continued to follow Michael.
They left out a side door which brought them to a hallway, which Hemrione was confused about how it was placed compared to the rest of the house. Michael continued down it as he pointed out rooms and labeled them as poker room, bathroom, broom closet, coat closet, rarely used bedroom. After they got to the end of the hallway, they were in the entrance again. Hermione was baffled that they ended up back there after the maze of rooms they went in and out of.
Little did she know that was only the left hallway. Michael brought her down the right hallway next. “You are going to like this area better. I started with the boring part of the house in order to wow you with this part.” Michael said as he walked down a ways of the hallway and stopped in front of two large doors. He threw them open to reveal a large library that rose to stories. There was a staircase leading to a wrap-around second level. Every wall was covered in books and the middle of the room had well worn leather chairs and couches sitting unused.
Hermione gasped as she looked around. She was running her hand along the books and looked at the titles, pointing out what ones she has heard of or have read before. Michael smiled to himself knowing that she was going to really enjoy her time here. After a while, Michael mentioned there is still a lot more house to see and Hermione nodded and followed him down the hall once again. He pointed out more rooms. Second drawing room, main drawing room, billiard room, dads office, more closets, and more bathrooms.
As he weaved in and out the rooms they ended up back at the main entrance again and Michael brought her up stairs. They stopped at the top of the first set of stairs before they broke off to separate sides. At this platform was two large oak doors that Michael opened and on the other side was a large empty room with one wall of floor to ceiling gothic windows. “This is the ball room. We have a ball for New Years every year so if you haven't brought something to wear, we can always go shopping for something.” Hermione nodded saying she would need to go shopping and Michael shut the doors.
“So, from here we have two main hallways. We call them the North and South wings. There is no reason for us to go down the South wing right now because we wont have time for that and time to get ready for dinner so I am going to just show you the North wing.” Michael went to the left stairs and showed Hermione all the bedrooms down that hall before stopping at a specific door. He threw it open revealing a small room, with one twin bed and a wardrobe. The room had one small window and as you looked out it there was just a view of an outer wall to the manor.
“This is your room. I will have them bring your trunks in a moment.” Michael said while nodding to himself. Hermione was a little surprised with the room. It was by far the smallest room they had been in yet. Even compared to some of the closets. She tried to be grateful and told Michael to send the bags right away. After a moment Michael laughed and said, “You think I’d actually let you sleep here?”
Michael laughed some more before showing her to another room that already had her bags. “This is your actual room.” He said while still laughing, “You should have seen your face when I said that was your room.” Michael said. Hermione punched him again in the arm but smiled.
“My room is right across from yours so if you need he just knock. When you are ready I will show you to the kitchen. We are probably going to have dinner there.” Michael said while Hermione was taking stuff out of her trunk.