Rough Night at Grimmauld Place
The Daily Prophet
November 1st, 1991 • Evening Edition
Coverup at Hogwarts!
Dumbledore Keeps Us in the Dark Once More!
By Rita Skeeter
A bold headline, my dear readers, I know, but not one that is any less true. You see, early this morning this reporter received a tip-off regarding going-ons at Hogwarts that our much esteemed Headmaster seemed perfectly happy to keep us, British Wizarding Society, in the dark about!
As it would seem, Hogwarts experienced a troll loose yesterday evening. A mountain troll! Breaching the wards of Hogwarts and running a-mock in its halls! How could these ancient wards, that have survived sieges in its thousand year history and are meant to be maintained by the Headmaster, allow in a wild troll?
But it gets worse, dear readers! Three first year students were injured by the beast! A muggleborn student, Miss Hermione Granger, received life-threatening injuries- needing transportation to St Mungos. This reporter went to the hospital to confirm- and oh my, confirmed it was. The poor girl had half the bones in her body crushed and some organs! The Healer interviewed also implied the troll had began to consume some of the girl's flesh, but did not delve into where from! The Healers have hope of Miss Granger making a miraculous recovery, but that is something that will take months. The other two students, who remained unnamed, survived the altercation with a few broken bones and concussions. It is a miracle any of them survived!
As shocking a tale as this may be, it does indeed get worse from here! Tracking down the girl's parents for interview, I discovered that they had not even been informed of their daughter's injuries! Naturally, ever the good samaritan, this reporter pointed them towards the Office of Muggle and Magical Liaison. Truly shocking! How quickly would they have even been informed if their daughter had succumbed to her injuries? Would they have been informed at all? Or would the Headmaster have merely recommended their obliviation? Can we really think too highly of the man who put nine innocents into Azkaban for eight years?
This incident begs many questions, dearest readers. Why were the parents not informed, let alone the Ministry of Magic? How could the wards have allowed such a creature into Hogwarts? Could this have been an inside plot from someone in Hogwarts? The public deserve to know.
Whilst representatives from our esteemed Ministry declined to make an official statement, they have declared to this reporter that Auror's will be posted at Hogwarts to look into the incident.
Rest assured, for the Prophet will provide any updates on this incident as we receive them!
•••
"I must say, Sirius, I did not believe that Skeeter was the right choice for this article, but she has truly outdone herself," Lucius mused.
"She even managed to follow up on the information and still have it out in time for the evening edition," Narcissa added.
"Skeeter will make anything happen if you have the right bribe," Sirius said, waving his hand aloofly.
It was fucking hard to remain aloof in this situation. When he had received Hadrian's letter last night night, he had almost shit himself. A sodding troll? Thank Merlin Hadrian had written home about it. Everything about this situation was worrying. Ignoring the troll, a truly difficult feat, how had the Slytherin students picked up on the truly troubling news that their Defence Professor was most definitely hiding something that big. Something glaringly obvious enough for his first year son to pick up on, missed by Dumbledore? That was concerning. Hogwarts' wards had been impenetrable for centuries, yet the year Charlus Potter starts Hogwarts, there's a sodding troll almost killing a student in the first two months? Sirius highly doubted Dumbledore was this oblivious, he had to know there was something up with Quirrell. He had to be hiding something significant in that sodding corridor. Something he knew would lure someone into the school.
He really hoped it wasn't the Dark Lord. Yes, he was loyal to his Lord, but that didn't mean he particularly wanted him possessing a Professor in Hadrian's first year of Hogwarts. At least Hadrian and the other firsties seemed to have the sense not to get remotely involved.
His mirror call with Hadrian, and a half-asleep Theodore Nott, early this morning had eased his worries in that area. Yet Sirius was concerned that Hadrian mentioned his twin's seeming interest or suspicion in Quirrell. The boy was raised by Weasleys, and clearly hadn't a drop of self-preservation. He was all James, through and through. He wasn't Sirius' concern, wouldn't even look at him, but he still didn't like this feeling he had in the pit of his stomach. The feeling that Dumbledore may be placing an eleven year old boy into schemes far above his skill level.
"What bribe did you use?" Lucius asked, snapping Sirius out of his thoughts, his eyes shining with intrigue.
"She's an unregistered beetle animagus. Mentioning that off handedly was enough for her to decide it was best she did what I asked. Not to mention, she's not a fan of Dumbledore either."
"Most interesting," Bella grinned, leaning across the table, "An itty bitty beetle? No wonder she gets all the inside scoop."
Sirius hadn't a fucking clue how his cousin could be so energetic all the damn time. Especially not after the night they'd all had.
Sirius had been abruptly awoken where he had fallen asleep in the library (being an Unspeakable involved a lot of late night research, it seemed) at one o'clock in the morning by Hadrian's raven, Onyx, scratching at the window. Sirius had flung the window open, and scanned through the letter absentmindedly, his mind clouded with sleep. Then he had promptly reread the letter a further three times, cursed up a storm, woke up Regulus with a particularly sharp stinging hex where he had fallen asleep over a desk, pressed the letter into his hands, stormed upstairs to wake their parents, and then floo-called grandfather Arcturus and all but demanded he came over now- nightwear or not. After a further round of disbelief for all the main-line Blacks, they split up to various fireplaces in Grimmauld Place and floo-called everyone in his immediate circle who had a child in Hogwarts.
•••
"Merlin's sodding arse, Sirius" Regulus hissed, clutching his side where Sirius' stinging hex had hit, "Would it kill you to wait until the morning? Surely what ever breakthrough you've had can wait until tomorrow?"
In lieu of a verbal response, Sirius pushed the letter from Hadrian into his brother's hands, grabbed his wand and ran out of the library. He reached the door to his parent's bedroom in record time, considering the two flights of stairs in between it and the library, and began hammering on it.
"For fuck- Sirius! Honestly!" father exclaimed as he opened the door.
"Please get mother and come down to the library."
"Whatever for?"
"Hadrian has sent a note about some rather concerning ongoings in Hogwarts. Say, do you think I'll survive waking up grandfather?"
"Sirius- Merlin-"
"See you in the library!" he called over his shoulder, heading back downstairs.
Within a couple of minutes, Sirius had his head in the library fireplace, telling one of the Black Manor house elves to fetch his grandfather.
"Sirius, what is the meaning of this?" grandfather asked, clearly none too pleased.
"I have just received a letter from Hadrian raising some very pressing concerns. Some of which I plan on having in this evening's edition of the Prophet. I wish to gather the family, and our associates who have children in Hogwarts, to inform everyone of these concerning insights and discuss what to do."
"Is Hadrian safe?"
"Yes, thank Merlin."
"Give me a moment, Sirius, I'm not as young as I once was."
"Of course, Grandfather."
Fifteen minutes later, the five members of the Black family sat together in silent disbelief. Regulus was the first to break the silence.
"A fucking troll?" he exclaimed.
"Language," mother said, instinctively, before catching herself, "Actually, a fucking troll, indeed."
"Split up to the fireplaces, contact the Malfoys, the Lestranges, the Greengrasses, the Parkinsons, Lord Nott and Countess Zabini," grandfather instructed.
"The Bulstrodes and the Averys too, their heirs are in Hadrian's circle,” Sirius added, “I’ll write to Lady Davis later on.”
Half an hour later, the parlour was a rather humorous sight- some of the most notable Pureblood families in Wizarding Britain sat in their nightwear at past two o'clock in the morning. Coffee was offered, and quickly refused when Sirius had personally decided upon firewhiskey. It seemed everyone was in that sort of mood. Sirius wondered if these late night panicked meetings over Hogwarts and their children's safety would become commonplace over the years. He fucking hoped not. There was a very limited amount of times Sirius could watch Darius Greengrass knock back firewhiskey without giving into the urge to burst into laughter at the memory of the time he tried to serenade Professor Slughorn to get out of a detention after getting caught sneaking into the common room on a Sunday morning, still drunk. Darius had been a seventh year, two years above Sirius, but everyone had seen it. Sirius glanced at Regulus, who suppressed a grin as they made eye contact, and he knew he was thinking of the exact same thing.
"So, what are we to do here? I assume you have a plan, Sirius?"
Trust Lucius to go straight into planning the moment he recovers from his shock.
"Hadrian mentioned in his letter that the Prophet may wish to hear about this. I believe I can corner Rita Skeeter in the Ministry tomorrow morning before I go to work, and ensure I have a story smearing Dumbledore by dinner time."
"Skeeter? Are you sure, Sirius?" grandfather asked, "Why not Braithwaite? Or Almeidus?"
"They may write fairer in general, but I don't want a neutral article. I want Dumbledore questioned. Skeeter is the best for it- and I have a way to ensure she does as she is told."
There was a chorus of muttered protests, until grandfather held up a hand to stop it.
"You are sure, Sirius?"
"Positive. It's the best way to have it done."
"And you'll share this method of ensuring Skeeter behaves later?" Lucius asked.
"If you insist," Sirius nodded.
"I want the Aurors involved," Lord Nott said, coldly, "Theo may not be harmed now, but I will not risk harm coming to him in that school. He's all I have left."
Lucius nodded at that, "I will head to the Ministry in the morning to inform the Aurors. I'll do whatever I can to have Corban Yaxley be one of the assigned Aurors."
Lord Nott nodded, satisfied.
"What about these concerning insights on Quirinus Quirrell?" Vittoria Zabini asked.
"I believe we must play the long game here," grandfather said grimly, "On the off chance that the Dark Lord is involved, we cannot take action yet. We must wait."
"And if it is him?" Lady Petronella Parkinson asked, hesitantly.
"Then he will not harm our children."
"Oh, my, my," Bella cackled. She had been uncharacteristically silent for this whole meeting, and Sirius wished she had kept it that way.
"What, Bella?" Lucius asked, with a barely restrained sigh.
"Our Lord! This could be it! Keep an eye on your Marks, darlings, we have years to make up for!"
It was way too late for this.
•••
Safe to say, Sirius was currently unintentionally experimenting with how much pepper up potion and coffee can be consumed in one day before needing medical attention.
A lot of a career as an Unspeakable consisted of personal research projects, and Sirius and Regulus had teamed up in tackling the prophecy issue. They hadn't looked for the supposed prophecy regarding the Potters and the Dark Lord just yet, preferring to know everything they could about prophecies and fakes first. That's what they had fallen asleep researching last night, and what they had been doing in work all day today. They had arrived back to Grimmauld Place after work to discover Lucius, Narcissa, Bellatrix, Barty, Rabastan, and Vittoria sodding Zabini already in the parlour. Great.
They were currently waiting on Severus to floo in, as Lucius had graciously invited him to Grimmauld instead of his own fucking manor. Sirius was itching to get changed out of his Unspeakable robes, but felt it would be unwise incase Severus chose that moment to appear.
Just as he almost gave in to going to get changed, the floo flared to life, and Severus stepped into the room. Dusting himself off with a quick flick of his wand, the man all but fell into the nearest armchair. Sirius flicked his own wand, levitating a tumbler of firewhiskey over to his friend. Severus downed it. With a raise of his eyebrows, Sirius filled it up again.
"I take it everything in Hogwarts is delightful, then?" Sirius said lightly. Bella snorted.
That seemed to spark Severus into rage, thankfully not directed at anyone in the room, "Merlin, I'm going to throttle Dumbledore. You know he wanted the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs to return to their common rooms? In the dungeons. With the troll. He had the balls ask Pomona and I if it was really necessary to ward our students into the Great Hall when we went troll hunting. Troll hunting! Can you fucking believe it? Ten years I have been teaching and never in my life did I think I'd be hunting down a fucking troll in the corridors! And Quirinus- throttling him isn't enough! He tried to sneak off last night during the search, probably towards the third floor corridor the sketchy bastard, and I trailed him back by the back of his robes. There's a fucking Cerberus up there and the bastard thing bit my leg when I was grabbing Quirrell! Told him I knew fine rightly he was involved with this whole debacle and that I'd have his head on a silver platter if a student died. Since that Gryffindor is horrifically injured, I might actually flay him alive anyway. He told me he was glad I was taking my job as a Professor seriously and that I am quite a formidable threat! Never in all my fucking years! Being the one to decapitate that troll was not enough!"
Severus finished abruptly, still waving his hands around angrily but having no words left to speak.
"So you were aware something isn't right with Quirrell?" Lucius asked leaning forward.
"I thought he'd absolutely lost the plot at the beginning of the year, and had been keeping an eye on him in case he had a nervous breakdown. The more I kept an eye on him, the weirder it fucking got. Only this past week or so did I think something potentially sinister was going on. Last night proved it."
"How so?" Narcissa asked.
"Quirrell is an expert with trolls, he's known for being able to communicate with them. How anyone can be fooled by him not being able to take one out is beyond me! I've also noticed him hanging about the third floor corridor, outside of patrol hours."
"Do you know what he's looking for?" Regulus asked.
Severus nodded his head, "Albus has hidden something, all the staff designed protections for it but no one knows what anyone else designed. Everyone's under secrecy vows, so I can't tell you what it is. Quirinus has been subtly asking about what everyone designed. No one's told him, but I surely cannot be the only one getting suspicious."
"Any hints?" Sirius said, hopefully.
"I can't tell you the nature of it, Albus hasn't left loopholes in that damned vow. What I can say is that, in the off chance this is the Dark Lord's doing, if he acquires what Albus has hidden then his return will come within the next year I'd imagine."
"You suspect our Lord, because...?" Rabastan asked.
"Quirrell's vampire attack slash mental breakdown happened in Albania the past summer. Which is-"
"The last place we heard rumours about our Lord residing," Regulus finished, his lips pursed.
Sirius groaned, "Could this not have happened when Hadrian isn't a student?"