Conversations Between Friends
Thanks for all the reviews.
I don't know if you read my other stories, but these are being dictated because there is something wrong with my hands. Dictation doesn't always dictate what I dictate. So, there are commas, periods and capital letters where there shouldn't be. I try to catch them when I go back over it, but I do miss some. So, forgive me if there are some mistakes in grammar. I just figured I'd let you know.
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Albus came up to Vic as they were leaving the courtroom. They had almost made it, but he had caught the three of them when they were ten feet from the doors. He came up to them as if he were furious with the outcome of the trial.
“I hope you are satisfied with today's verdict. Now I am down one Potions Master,” the headmaster stated as if it were Vic’s fault that Snape had tried to read his mind. “Do you know how hard it will be to replace him?” he asked, knowing that there were very few Potions Masters in Britain. At least not ones that wanted to teach. He could get Slughorn, the old one, back, but without Harry Potter in the school it would be a hard sell.
“I do not see how that is my problem,” the Minister stated, flicking a speck of dust off his Wizengamot robes. “He is the one who violated the law.” He wasn’t going to be intimidated by this man. He hated it when people tried to turn things around on him, like it was his bad that someone did him wrong.
“You could have let the violation slide. You are the Minister of Magic,” Dumbledore stated, like it was a given that he should have been the bigger man. “He was merely trying to see what kind of man you were,” he said, trying to pass it off as a flight of fancy.
“Nobody is above the law, not even yourself. It was treason, plain and simple. By the way, it has come to my attention that you have Harry's invisibility cloak. I would like that back,” Vic stated, looking the man in the eye to see if he would try and lie his way out of this one.
“How, pray tell, did you find this out?” Albus asked, narrowing his eyes, like it was a state secret that had gotten out.
“That is my secret. I know you have it, and I want it back,” the other man stated, firmly. He was going to get that cloak back one way or another. If he had to take the man to court, he would. He hoped he didn’t have to, but…
“That cloak was entrusted into my care,” Dumbledore stated, running a hand down his beard in a knowing manner. “I would not give it up to just anyone,” he added as if Vic was just a commoner asking for a valuable item.
“That was before I came on to the scenes. I am now Harry's guardian. I will take care of it until he is old enough to have it,” Potter stated, standing to his full height.
“Albus, it is the law,” Amelia butted in. “Give him his property back,” she stated, putting her full force behind her glare.
“Very well, I will see it is returned to you posthaste,” the old man stated, quite reluctantly. He turned and started to walk away. There was some determination in his steps, like he couldn’t get away fast enough.
“Oh, and Dumbledore,” Vic said, making the man pause in his retreat, “I know about your talk with Alastor. It would do you well to cooperate with the DLME.” He wanted him to know they all knew about the horcruxes. That they were looking for them and that he should help. Perhaps, the man would work with them.
“I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about,” Albus stated, and continued his journey out of the courtroom. He was defeated on this day. He was down a teacher and now the invisibility cloak. It was just not his day. He was going to have to figure out how to make it better.
“Well, that went well,” said Amelia as she watched the man leave. She kind of felt sorry for him, kind of.
“At least he knows we're on to him,” said Vic, not feeling the least bit bad for him. He was a sanctimonious prick.
“Are you sure it was wise to let him know that?” John asked, not liking that someone else knew what they knew.
“I think it's better for him to know than it is for him to guess,” Vic said with a shrug of his shoulder.
“We need to get out of here,” said John, putting his hand on Vic’s shoulder and guiding him to the doors. “I don't like the looks some of these people are giving you.”
Some of the upper crusts were staring at Vic like he was scum on their shoes, and they wanted nothing more than to scrape him off.
“Yes, not everybody thinks I should be Minister of Magic, which is why we hired you,” the Minister said, letting himself be propelled out of the courtroom. He didn’t like how some of the purebloods were glaring at him either. Even though everything was going well in their world right now, they were still up-in-arms that he was half-blood.
“Bloody, purebloods,” mumbled John, still steering him out of the way of the possible hostiles. It was his job to keep the man safe.
“I'm going to go to my office and finish off some parchmentwork,” Potter stated, moving to go in that direction. “Come by my house tonight, Amelia, we've got some things we need to discuss,” he directed at her as he went by.
“Alright then. I've got work I need to get done too,” she said as she waved him off. She’d be there, though she wondered what he had to discuss that they hadn’t talked about yesterday.
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“Hermione, how do you like coming to these classes?” asked Harry as they sat eating lunch. It was a magic day for them, and they were eating some ham and cheese sandwiches that the house elves had made. There were crisps, grapes and fizzy drinks to go with them. It was too cold out, so they were eating indoors, since it was getting close to Yule.
“Oh, I enjoy it ever so much,” the bushy-haired girl stated, bouncing in her seat. “It's so much more wonderful than Hogwarts.” She made a face to show how much she detested that school.
“Do you miss being around the other kids?” he asked, taking a bite of some crisps and washing them down with a drink.
“No, they were awful to me. I do miss Neville though, and I hope he's doing okay,” Hermione stated, getting a wistful look on her face. While she and Neville weren’t fast and tight friends, he was the only one who gave her the time of day at that school.
“Vic said he was going to talk to his grandmother,” Harry said, reaching over and putting a hand on her arm. “We'll see about getting him here next year. Hopefully he will be able to come and learn with us. He’ll be behind in the muggle stuff, but we’ll catch him up,” he stated with some confidence. He didn’t believe that to be completely true, but they’d do their best.
“Oh, that would be ever so good,” she said, bouncing in her chair again and clapping her hands. She was very excited to hear that.
“I wanted to talk to you about raising your hand for every question,” Harry said, putting his fizzy drink down and looking her square in the face to show how serious he was.
“Why?” she asked, getting a wary look on her face. This was when others started calling her a know-it-all.
“Well, there's only two of us and we're not in competition,” he explained, trying to be as non-confrontational as he could. “I think you should let the teacher point to which one of us he wants to answer.”
“He does seem to be getting frustrated with me,” she conceded, biting her lip, like it was something she had been noticing but not wanting to acknowledge.
“Yes, he is,” Harry said, nodding his head and pointing at her. “He asked me to talk to you. He doesn't want to come off as an arsehole,” he said, picking up his drink and shrugging.
“Language, Harry,” she said, smacking his arm, and withholding a giggle.
“Whatever, there are no adults around,” he said, smiling at her.
“Yes, but it is offensive to me,” she said with a faux sniff.
“I'll think about curbing it,” he said, tapping his chin. “Anyway, back to our discussion. Try not to raise your hand at all in class and see if you can't get the teachers to quit glaring at you.” It was just a suggestion. He was in no way trying to tell her what to do.
“I'll do my best,” she said, hoping to do just that. She and Harry got on very well, and she didn’t want to jeopardize that.
“Is there anything about the lessons that you think we can improve on?” Harry asked, biting into his sandwich. He picked up his napkin and wiped the mayonnaise off his cheek. The elves were generous with it.
“Well, I was wondering if we could do some more written subjects,” she said, tapping her lips in thought. She had wondered why they only did practical in magical studies. She still didn’t know about Harry’s spying classes, and they did that to lower his workload.
“You actually like writing?” Harry asked, after he swallowed. He took a drink and stared at her flabbergasted. He liked to study more than most, but he would prefer to do practical.
“I find writing things down helps me retain lessons better,” she said, primly.
“Well, you're more than welcome to take as many notes as you want,” he said in a flippant manner, “but I'm not going to be writing any more homework. I have more than enough to do with my time without having to write down every little thing.” He felt somewhat guilty for not telling her about the spy classes, but it was one of the first things they learned in that class. How to keep a secret.
“I see your point. Not everybody has to do that,” she said, with a sigh. She was just going to have to deal with it and take more notes. Or formulate her own worksheets.
“Anything else?”
“Can we add more science?”
“You'd have to talk to the tutors about that,” he said, thoughtfully, thinking he’d be happy to see that too. “I think they're waiting a couple more years before adding science into our studies.”
“Oh, I see,” she said, wondering if she could talk them into starting them sooner. It was worth a try.
“Anyway, let's get on the computers and see what we can find out about what other people are studying that are our age. We might be able to talk to them about it,” Harry suggested, liking the idea more and more. He grabbed his bag of crisps and drink and headed to the study. They weren’t supposed to have food and drink there, but they’d be careful, and the house elves were really good at cleaning up messes.
“Okay,” she said, picking up her half-eaten sandwich and drink and following along. She was just so happy to have a friend that thought about her feelings and happiness. She would remember this and think about his too.
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Later that night, Amelia, Alastor, John, Marcus and Vic all got together to discuss what to do about the rest of the Horcruxes. Arcturus was there of course, but he was getting quieter and quieter with his advice as the years went by. It was as if he was giving Vic the chance to be in charge and seeing how well he would do without his input.
“We know there's one at Malfoy Manor and we're going to send Arthur Weasley to go get it,” said Amelia as she sat on one of the chairs. Moody and John took the couch, while Marcus and Vic took the other two chairs.
A tea service popped in to being, John decided to play Mum, and poured.
“We think there might be one at Grimmauld Place and we're going to go there this weekend. But do we know where any of the other ones are?” asked Alastor, casting his spell in his cup and finding it fine as usual. One would think he’d stop that at friend’s houses, but no, he was just that paranoid.
“Have we thought about Hogwarts?” asked Arcturus from his painting. He was pacing as far as his frame would allow. He had been thinking about this more than the others, since he had more free time on his hands.
“Why would there be one at Hogwarts?” asked Marcus, looking at the old man’s painting with curiosity.
“Well, old Voldy seemed to like that place well enough that he wanted to get a job there. When he was denied, he might want revenge enough to put one there,” was the answer. Arcturus stopped pacing and looked at how they received that answer and there were nods of agreement.
“That makes some sort of twisted sense,” Vic said, rubbing his chin in thought. He could think of many places in the castle that he would hide one, but he couldn’t suggest them. According to his cover story he’d never been to the place.
“We might want to look into Little Hangleton too,” Alastor said, pouring himself some more tea and doctoring it from his flask. “That’s where his mother was born, and where his father died. He might have some ties there.” It was a good suggestion.
“That's actually a really good idea,” said Vic, thinking along the same lines since Harry’s little reveal the other morning. “I have it on good authority that there are also other things there that are tied to the Dark Lord,” he added, getting a shifty look.
“What kind of authority?” asked Amelia, narrowing her eyes at him. She didn’t like that dubious look.
“Harry's been having some weird dreams lately, and they're kind of prophetic,” he hedged, still not looking anyone in the eye. He looked at Arcturus and the other man was giving him a blank look as if to say, ‘it’s up to you’.
“Prophetic in what way?” asked Amelia, ready to explode on the man to get him to spill it.
“Well, I'm not sure how to put this and I want you to keep this to yourself and I'm going to ask you not to take a vow but make a promise,” Vic said, with a huge sigh. He was going to tell them, but it wasn’t that great of a secret. They probably won’t believe him anyway. It was far out there.
“All right. We all promise not to say anything, don't we guys?” said John with a bit of menace in his voice. It was lost on this crowd though, they were all tough in their own right.
Everybody nodded their heads and gave their word that they wouldn't say anything.
“Harry's been having dreams that Death is telling him to gather up the Deathly Hallows. He knows where they are, he knows what they are, and he knows how to get them,” the Minister spilled out all in one breath. He sat back and put his hand over his eyes like he didn’t want to see their reaction.
“Death?” questioned Amelia with an extreme amount of doubt.
“Yes, as in the entity thereof,” said Vic with a put-upon sigh.
“And he's talking to Harry in his dreams?” she questioned again, a little less doubt this time.
“Yes,” said Vic.
“And he wants him to collect the Deathly Hollows,” she inquired, this time there was a hint of fear for the boy.
“Are you just going to repeat everything I said?” Vic said, getting frustrated.
“I'm just trying to get it all clear in my head. This is not something that happens every day to a young child,” she snapped, coming to the realization that he was telling the truth. That was not a good thing.
“Yes, Death is following Harry in his dreams. Yes, he is telling him to collect the Deathly Hollows,” the dogman stated, running a hand down his face, then looking at his companions and gaging their reactions. They weren’t taking it as badly as he thought they would. The men were angry on Harry’s behalf, and Amelia was in full on protective mother mode.
“Well, I'll be buggered,” said Alastor, taking a swig from his flask. That wasn’t something you heard every day.
“What are we going to do about that?” Marcus asked, not up on what to do about entities as the magicals were.
“I would suggest we get the ring from Little Hangleton. I have a strong feeling it might actually be a horcrux,” said Vic, thinking if anyone could, it would be this group.
“Why do you think it might be a horcrux?” asked John, leaning forward and putting his hands between his knees in a relaxed manner.
“Do you know what kind of protections it has on it?” asked Marcus, tensing up much more than his friend. He wasn’t magical and he was in more danger than they were.
“Where do you think it is in Little Hangleton?” asked Alastor, taking another swig from his flask.
“To answer your questions in order, just a feeling. Yes, it has a Withering Curse on it, and it might be protected by parseltongue magic. And it's in his mother's shack, he thinks. He's not sure of that. He didn't tell him where, but that's just a guess on our part,” Vic said, ticking them off on his fingers.
“Well, shite,” said Alastor, putting his flask away and picking up his doctored tea. “We're gonna have to find a curse-breaker that can get us in parselmouth wards. I'd ask the Weasley boy, but he's in Egypt.” He liked Bill, but he wouldn’t put his job in jeopardy for this.
“I'm sure we can go to Gringotts and find somebody who can do that,” said Arcturus, thinking that the goblins would be more than equipped to handle this problem.
“Yeah, the goblins are always willing to help us. If we have the fee,” John said, thinking along the same lines as Arcturus. He didn’t deal with them much, keeping most of his money in the muggle world, but he had some in Gringotts for purchases in Diagon Alley. Not to mention Knockturn Alley, there were many things to be had down there, if you knew where to look.
Amelia piped up with. “I have the fee. I'd be more than happy to cover this one for that type of endeavor.” She had some savings for such things.
“I think I can more than cover that, Amelia. Don't spend your money on something like that. Besides, you would have no way to Justify that type of expense,” Vic said, not wanting her to hurt her career with something like this.
“You would have a worse time justifying it than I would. You’re the minister. Now you have to account for every knut,” she countered.
“How about I cover the fee?” said John, looking a bit smug. He didn’t have to account for any expenses.
“And just where would you come up with that kind of money?” asked Vic.
“I'll have you know that the bodyguarding business in the muggle world is very good money,” his bodyguard said, rubbing his fingernails on his jacket and then looking at them as if they should be shiny.
“Oh,” said Vic, not sure what to say to that. “Well, go ahead then.”
“So, it's a plan,” Marcus stated, clapping his hands together. “John will cover the fee and see if he can't find a parselmouth in Gringotts. We'll get the curse-breaker. Then Alastor, I, and the curse breaker will go and see if we can't find that Horcrux in Little Hangleton. Then you, John and Amelia will go to Grimmauld Place and see if you can't find that one there. Arthur will get the one at Malfoy Manor. And somehow, we'll figure out a plan to get into Hogwarts. Then we'll have to see if there are any more after that, but until then, this is our plan.”
“Sounds like a sound plan to me,” said Alastor, nodding in agreement.
“All right, we'll get this done and see what happens after that,” Arcturus stated, sitting in his chair with an air of accomplishment.
“Does anybody want a drink before you go?” Vic offered, not really offering other than for forms sake.
“No, I've got to get back to the office,” said Amelia, rubbing her tired eyes.
“It's almost midnight, Amelia,” Moody stated, looking at his watch.
“Shite. I guess I'm going home then,” she said, looking at her own watch and swearing again. “I've just got so much work that needs to be done but I forget the time. Susan's going to be pissed at me again.” Her niece hated it when she didn’t get enough sleep. Then again, the girl was at Hogwarts, what she didn’t know wouldn’t kill her.
“All right, everybody, bugger off. I'm heading to bed,” said Vic in a jovial tone, to show he was just being playful.
“Goodnight, everybody,” said Alastor, getting up and thumping his way out of the house. He hated, but understood, the fact that the floo was family only.
“Goodnight,” said everybody else. And they all parted ways. Amelia left with Moody, and the others just went to bed. John did one more sweep of the grounds, but all was well.