Chapter 38- Projects progressing

He traced the outline of the little boy in the picture. He loved this picture; Harry had been six and though he already knew how to read he loved being read to. Here, Harry was on his adopted grandfather’s lap hearing for the hundredth time one of Beedle the Bard’s tales, and if you looked closely you could see smudges of paint on Harry’s face and on Albus’ desk. Albus smiled sadly, he had left Harry in his office alone when Minerva had called him to tend to a squabble that had occurred between two groups of students and when he came back his office had been redecorated with little paint hands on the walls and furniture. Harry and Fawkes were nowhere to be seen until he heard a giggle and a soft squeak and bent to look under his desk. Sure enough, Harry and Fawkes were both there, completely covered in paint and drawing on the desk’s wood. When asked what he was doing, Harry answered smiling:

“Finger-painting Grandpa.”

Albus made him come out from under the desk and waved his wand over him, Fawkes and the office making most of the paint disappear. He put Harry in his lap and explained that finger-painting should be done on parchment, not walls and furniture. He summoned the book and started reading to Harry to see if he could calm the hyperactive child down. He never saw Minerva coming in the office later and taking the picture.

A tear fell on the glass. This little boy had adopted him as his grandfather, the lonely old fool, and had made his empty life worth living. He wasn’t just the leader of the Light anymore, not the man everyone came for guidance but afterwards forgot about. No, he was Grandpa. He never forgot that time he got ill and Harry took care of him. He was so little and so serious. So kind.

He had ignored the signs all he could. Had tried to explain off Harry being a Parselmouth, his wand being the brother wand to Voldemort’s, his scar hurting in Voldemort’s presence, but he could not do so anymore. Severus himself had taught Harry Occlumency and vouched for the boy’s shields. Albus had tested them himself and he couldn’t break them. There had to be another explanation for Voldemort unintentionally breaking through those shields. And Albus knew why; there was no denying it. A strangled sob escaped him as he acknowledged, just to himself, that Harry was a Horcrux. That Harry had to die in order for Voldemort to die.

Could he sacrifice him, his boy, for the greater good? Could he sacrifice hundreds, thousands of others for his little boy?

No, deep down he’d always known Harry’s fate, he just didn’t want to believe it.

Right now, Voldemort had some semblance of a body, but was nowhere near being able to cause destruction. Albus didn’t know where he was. He would have to wait. Harry was one of the last two Horcruxes, yes, because Albus was sure Voldemort created his last one with the death of Bertha Jorkins. Harry was an accident that Voldemort was unaware of. Albus noticed that Harry’s connection seemed to be with the snake, Nagini, and not Voldemort. That could only be if she too was holding a piece of Voldemort’s soul.

When the time came, he’d have to act, but now Harry could live happily. While Voldemort still had Nagini, Harry’s death would mean nothing. How long he had, Albus didn’t know, but he vowed that no matter how long or short, Harry would be able to live his life to the fullest. And maybe, just maybe, he could find another way out of this.

XXXXXX

“That was very nice of you Harry,” Susan said in their Herbology lesson. “Bringing the small Delacour girl back.”

“Thanks,” Harry blushed. “I got there last though.”

“Yes, but what did Professor Dumbledore say? It showed moral fiber, and you ended up second in points and tied up with Cedric for first place in the Tournament.”

“Well, yeah. Hum, Susan, what are you doing this Saturday?”

“Nothing special,” she shrugged. “Why?”

“Well,” he said embarrassedly. “There’s a Hogsmeade weekend and I thought that, you know, maybe, you wouldn’t mind my company, terribly, I mean.”

“I’d love to go to Hogsmeade with you Harry,” she smiled brightly. Than she looked sideways and whispered conspiratorially, “What are you going to do about Professor Black?”

Harry grinned mischievously, “It’s not his turn to chaperone. I thought we could meet at the gates; you know how the saying goes: what he doesn’t know can’t hurt him.”

She giggled.

XXXXX

Sirius folded the paper with a frown and threw it on top of the coffee table, where he had his feet propped up, much to Remus’ displeasure.

“I don’t think Hermione should go spend the summer with Krum. She barely knows him.”

“Why don’t you leave that decision to her parents? Aren’t you busy enough trying to control Harry’s love life?” Remus asked raising an eyebrow at him from the center table where he was working.

“Harry doesn’t have a love life,” Sirius snorted. “He’s too young and Skeeter is delusional,” he said the last word in a singsong voice.

“You believe whatever helps you sleep at night Paddy,” Remus said, paying more attention to his work than to Sirius.

“Why?” Sirius asked, abruptly getting his feet off the table and sitting straighter. He narrowed his eyes and asked slowly, “What do you know Moony? Has some, some, woman been trying to take advantage of my baby?”

Remus bit back a laugh and answered in a strained voice, “Not that I know of. But he is hardly too young to start dating. If I recall correctly, at his age, you were already working yourself around your goal to deeply know all the female population of Hogwarts.”

“That’s not true,” Sirius glared at Remus and Remus turned his head and gave Sirius an incredulous look. “Okay, maybe there is some truth there, but Harry is still too young.”

“And yet the girls his age are already vicious women to you.”

“Of course they are! Girls are different. They are more… you know?” he waved his hand, grasping for a word.

“Vicious,” Remus offered.

“Yes!”

XXXXXX

Harry waved to Ron and Hermione. They were going to go to Hogsmeade by themselves today because both Harry and Neville had other plans. Ron had not liked Neville’s plan one bit since it included Ginny but, once again, Hermione reminded him that Neville was a much better choice than anyone else.

Harry grinned when he saw Susan waiting for him at the gates.

“Hello Susan, you look lovely this fine morning,” he said bowing and kissing her hand.

She giggled and said, “You don’t look too shabby yourself.”

“Shall we explore the wondrous town of Hogsmeade?” Harry asked, gesturing towards the road ahead of them and extending one hand.

“You are so full of yourself,” she said as she rolled her eyes, but took his hand. They walked together laughing and talking and did not see the brown haired Marauder that smirked from a few feet behind them as he walked to his chaperoning duties. He glanced towards the castle and thought to himself, “Best if Padfoot doesn’t know what Harry is up to today.”

Harry was really enjoying himself. The whole day had been great. They had walked around Hogsmeade, stopped at Honeydukes where both bought tons of sweets, and went to Zonko’s to see the latest products that Fred and George would be using on them.

“Though they already have their own line in the works and are planning on opening a shop,” Harry told Susan.

“I bet they’ll be a great success,” she answered.

Afterwards they had a nice lunch at the Three Broomsticks where Harry saw Bagman once again being hounded by Fred and George, but he didn’t pay them much attention. He was more interested in talking to Susan as they apparently had a lot in common. He liked talking to her; it was easy. He had been so afraid she would be too, well there was no other word, girly. But she wasn’t, she was just normal. Better not let Hermione hear that or she’ll rant about how girls are normal, but Harry would bet that  every other male would agree with him that they are not.

As they walked back to the castle, they were almost knocked over by Karkaroff who ran right into them on his way out.

“Don’t think you have to look were you’re walking Potter?” he sneered. “Everyone else has to just scuttle away.”

“No sir, I didn’t see you,” Harry tried saying, but Karkaroff didn’t wait for apologies and continued down the road to Hogsmeade.

“Charming fellow,” Susan snorted and Harry laughed.

XXXX

“Are you okay Uncle Sev?” Harry asked worried after his grueling training session. Only Severus had been there tonight because they didn’t want Moody to notice the same three teachers disappearing together twice a week at the same time. Madam Pomfrey had treated Moody and had him well and ready to teach in a couple of days, but since his return he had been more paranoid and observant than ever.

“Why do you ask?”

“You’ve been rubbing your arm a lot lately, does it hurt?”

Severus stopped mid-motion and noticed that he had indeed been rubbing his left arm. He sighed and looked at Harry. He did not want to worry Harry, but then again he already knew Voldemort was getting stronger.

“It itches sometimes. The Mark is becoming clearer,” he answered rolling his sleeve up and showing the Dark Mark. It was dark grey, almost like a faded black.

“Is that what Karkaroff wanted to talk about during our last Potion’s lesson?” Harry asked.

Severus eyed Harry, narrowing his eyes and chided, “You shouldn’t eavesdrop.”

“You shouldn’t read embarrassing articles about my love life in front of the whole class,” Harry pouted.

“You know why I do that. I’ve had to be particularly more vicious this year with the new added attention,” Severus said tiredly, and then grasping Harry’s shoulder, he looked into his eyes and said: “You know I don’t mean any of what I say then, don’t you?”

“Of course I do Uncle Sev,” Harry said comforting. “I was just teasing you.”

Severus nodded and answered Harry’s previous question, “Karkaroff’s Mark is getting darker too and he thinks the same as we do; that the Dark Lord is getting stronger and it’s just a matter of time before he is back to full power. Karkaroff is a traitor in the Death Eater’s eyes. The ones that got off like Malfoy and Nott socialize with him if they have to because they are not stupid. They know they can’t bring suspicion towards them, and if they openly shun him people will ask themselves why, and they worked too hard on their image and their Ministry bribery to ruin it with gossip. But in their private meetings it’s quite clear that if the Dark Lord ever comes back, Karkaroff is as good as dead. Since I was vouched for by Dumbledore, he thinks I may be in the same situation as him and is trying to get my help.”

“Will you?”

“No,” Severus said. “Karkaroff enjoyed being a Death Eater. He loves killing and torturing. He should be in Azkaban, and if he gets his due from the Dark Lord instead of the Ministry it’s nothing more than he deserves. I’m not about to jeopardize my chance at spying to help someone like him. I know it sounds ruthless Harry, but in war you can’t be soft hearted, and that is our next lesson.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that I’ve noticed that you try your best not to hurt your opponent Harry. You keep trying just to disarm us. So during our next session next week, it will be you against me, Sirius and Remus and you will shoot to maim.”

“But-“

“No buts,” Severus said sternly. “Death Eaters won’t be nice to you just because you are being nice to them. You have to neutralize them for good so they can’t start fighting you back. The spells we will allow won’t be anything that can hurt us permanently and nothing Poppy can’t deal with. So you don’t have that excuse not to try. Am I clear?”

Harry nodded reluctantly. He did not like the idea of hurting his family one bit.

“We’ll do it on Friday instead of Tuesday. This way we will all have the weekend to rest. Also because Wednesday is the PWA’s first full moon and I don’t want any worries about what’s going to happen distracting our session. So you get two Animagus sessions in a row. I know you’ve been making a lot of progress.”

“Yeah,” Harry smiled. “I’ve managed to turn all my skin into fur and hooves. I’ve even managed to transform a little of my arms into legs. Dad says he thinks I’ll be done before the last task.”

“Good,” Severus smiled.

XXXX

“Welcome to the Pro- Werewolf Association,” Albus said happily to the people in front of him. They were in a large living room that was comfortably furnished with squishy armchairs and couches in which ten people were seated. Three children, aged five, ten, and a teenager around Harry’s age, and seven adults, two of them around Minerva’s age, but you would have bet they were older. “These people behind me,” Albus said gesturing to Hagrid, Sirius, Remus, Tonks, Hestia Jones, Emmeline Vance, Molly, who had shot Sirius some nasty looks to which he was honestly bewildered, and Arthur Weasley, Professor Sprout, Ted and Andromeda Tonks, Poppy Pomfrey, a young looking man with brown hair and blue eyes, a pretty blond woman of around thirty and black-haired man in his fifties who were standing in a row. “Are here to help you. You were assigned rooms for your stay during this week. Unfortunately you’ll have to share because between having more rooms to sleep in and having more safe rooms for the transformations we preferred, and I hope you agree, being able to help more people.”

“And you thought right,” an elderly man said kindly. “We are very thankful for your work.”

“Thank you Richard,” Albus said. “As I was saying, you will receive one dose of the Permanent Wolfsbane every day. It’s very important not to miss a dose. Madam Pomfrey and Mr. Evans here,” he said gesturing to Poppy and the brown-haired man with blue eyes, “Will monitor you during the week to make sure there are no adverse reactions. On the night of the full moon you will transform in a safe room so that in the very unlikely case that the potion does not work for you, you will be secure and not able to hurt anyone. But we have no reason to think that will happen, since all our tests were very successful as Mr. Lupin, Ms. Chase and Mr. Abbot here can attest to,” Albus said gesturing to the pretty blond, the black-haired man and Remus.

“If you have any question as to how the transformation will happen and feel, just come to us and ask away,” Mr. Abbot said in a cheerful tone. “Mr. Lupin will stop by every night and Abby and I will be here the whole week. Yes, even on the day of the full moon. We will be here, in complete control of our minds, as we have been since Mr. Evans here first tested the potion with us back in October.”

“On the next full moon you shall return,” Albus continued. “So we can make sure that the change is permanent. You do not need to come for the whole week since you won’t be taking the potion, but if you want to, you are welcome to.”

Sirius took a step forward, “The house is divided in this form: there are five stories plus the basement. The ground floor has this living room where you can read, play chess, or many other games and toys that you can find on those shelves. We have quite an extensive library here thanks to donations from the members, and our resident bookworm, Mr. Lupin has approved of all the choices. You can find entertainment for all ages. There is a drawing room where you can also find more books and games. There you will also find a Muggle Television and a VCR. If you don’t know what they are, they are something Muggles have invented for entertainment and were added at the request of Mr. Tonks and his daughter over here, so you can badger them to explain to you how to work it. It’s basically a box that has moving and talking pictures that tell a story. Ms. Tonks here got you a wide variety of movies, again for all ages. She swears that she did get movies that others other than herself would like. Let me know later if that’s true- oi!” he winced and rubbed his head glaring at the purple haired Auror.

“Never mind him,” she said ahead. “On this floor you will also find a kitchen and a dining room. Breakfast, lunch and dinner schedules are affixed in the dinning room. There are also two toilets which we separated between male and female. Can you believe he didn’t think it necessary?” she said glaring at her cousin and all the females in the room snorted.  “There are four safe rooms in the basement, eight on the third floor and eight on the fourth floor, totaling twenty. Each month we have ten people taking the potion and ten returnees. The first and second floors are divided in eight sleeping rooms with private bathrooms. Right now each room has two bunk-beds totalizing thirty-two beds, but there is room to add more if we need to.”

“Since we are volunteering, not all of us can be here the whole week. On the night of the full moon there will be one person for each person taking the potion, and one for every two returnees. We just don’t have enough volunteers yet for one for each,” Hestia said apologetically and continued, “but during the rest of the week only, Ms. Chase, Mr. Abbot and Mrs. Weasley and three of Hogwarts’ finest house-elves will be here full time, so I ask you to help us keep this place in order. Madam Pomfrey and Mr. Evans will stop by every day to check on your health and Mr. Weasley and Mr. and Mrs. Tonks will come and stay every night after work. The rest of us will also try to stop by at least once a day to help you and see if there is anything you need. You can count on everyone’s discretion here as we know we can count on yours.”

“There are also some volunteers who are not here today but you may meet at a later day,” Molly said clapping her hands. “Now shall we get you settled up?” she asked extending her hand to the little five-year-old girl and telling her kindly, “Your mommy and daddy said they would stop by every day. They can’t be here because they also have to take care of your siblings, but they promised one of them will be here the night of the full moon.”

The little girl nodded as she took Molly’s hand, her curls bobbing up and down.

“Mr. Evans,” the same elderly man that talked before said.

“Yes,” Severus answered.

“Thank you.”

“You are more than welcome,” Severus nodded.

XXXXXXX

“So everyone is there tonight?” Hermione asked having trouble turning the page of her book with her heavy bandaged hands. She had received a lot of hate mail because of the article that said she was playing Harry and Krum, and in one of the letters there was some undiluted Bubotuber pus that made her hand erupt in large yellow boils. “Thanks Neville,” she said as Neville turned the page for her.

“Yes, on the first night, the volunteers that will be there on the full moon all stop by to meet the new guests,” Harry explained.

“So who’s there from the teacher’s?” Ron asked.

“Dad, Uncle Moony, Hagrid, Professor Sprout and Professor Dumbledore. Oh, and one of the house-elves that has been permanently directed to the PWA is Winky. Dad said she is way happier now that she has a house to take care of. She was kind of more depressed than before when Crouch Jr. offed himself, but she is doing better. Oh, and yes, Hermione, the House-elves will be sleeping in one of the rooms and not on the floor like some people make them,” Harry told Hermione, who nodded satisfied.

“I thought Flitwick and McGonagall were volunteering too,” Neville said.

“McGonagall and Dumbledore can’t both leave the school at the same time,” Hermione explained and Harry nodded. “And I’m betting that since she has to act as Deputy Headmistress and her Deputy Head of House is at the PWA, Flitwick and Snape have to take care of the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff Houses for the night.”

“Exactly,” Harry said leaving out that actually McGonagall was balancing both the school and Gryffindor, so Flitwick took care of Hufflepuff and Slytherin as well as Ravenclaw. They didn’t know Severus was at the PWA.

“Dad said Aunt Andy and Uncle Ted really liked your work Hermione,” Harry said changing the subject.

Hermione blushed and she said, “Yes, they offered me an internship during the summer and to keep doing the same research I did for the PWA during the school term, but for their other cases. They are going to pay me and everything, and mom and dad said that as long as I don’t overdo it and my school work doesn’t suffer I’m allowed to.”

“So you are not going to Bulgaria?” Ron asked a little too happily.

“Don’t know yet,” Hermione answered nonchalantly. “Maybe I’ll go. Mom and dad talked to Mr. and Mrs. Tonks and said that even though I am allowed to intern part time for them during the summer I still have to take some time off for vacation. They usually take me traveling, so maybe we will all go.”

Ron’s ears went red and Neville asked Hermione:

“Did you find out how Skeeter has been listening to private conversation?”

“No, but I will. I asked Professor Lupin if he knew of a way to make electronic devices work at Hogwarts and he said that wizards have managed to make some Muggle things run off magic instead of electricity like the Wireless and other things, but he highly doubts that anyone tried it on something as complex and delicate as the small microphones she would have had to have planted in order for no one to see them. Not even Professor Moody and his eye saw anything. I asked him,” she said annoyed. “But I’ll find out, and then she will be sorry she messed with me,” she finished with a dangerous glint in her eyes that Harry often saw in the twins and his dad. That glint never bodes well.

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