October 31, 1996
The Halloween feast was as magnificent as it was possible for it to be, like every year. The first years had awed in amazement the moment it had begun. The decorations alone had set them off, followed afterwards by the piles of food which had far exceeded the welcoming feast.
Ron had already formed a large pile of food within his plate and was focused only on his plate than that of the people around him. His now girlfriend, Lavender, sat next to him and tried to ignore Ron's eating habits, but he didn't seem to notice as he was so focused on his food. Hermione, of course, had a book which she had propped open against a glass and seemed to be focusing on half the time while she attempted to converse with Harry and Imogen.
"Really, they aren't so bad," Imogen said. "I've met a couple of decent ones."
Harry laughed. "Alright, so some of them are alright," he said, daring himself to look towards the staff table.
"Draco Malfoy is okay," Imy said.
"This year," Harry agreed rather reluctantly.
"Malfoy is what?" Hermione asked as she cut into her chicken.
"Well…civil, I guess. He isn't that bad in potions, anyhow, not friendly or anything, just civil, though why still escapes me."
Hermione laughed, suddenly. "He's looking at you, you know—Malfoy. It's as if he knew we were talking about him."
Ginny who was sitting at Hermione's other side and had too noticed the stare. "Longing, it looks like, that stare," she said to Harry. "Maybe he's in love," she added in a sing song voice.
"Who's in love?" asked Ron in a moment when his mouth did not contain food.
"Just Draco," Imy said before anyone could stop her.
Ron spluttered. He coughed once. Twice. Lavender hit him on the back until he was once more breathing evenly.
"Malfoy!" Ron exclaimed loudly.
Harry dared to look back at Malfoy who frowned towards them and looked as if he wanted to get up and say something to Ron.
"And who is he in love with, then?" Ron asked, his voice lower this time.
"Harry, of course," Hermione said with a roll of her eyes. "Then again, who isn't these days? He's the 'Chosen One' after all."
Harry laughed. "Ah, well, I guess he's a good looking chap," Harry said. "Not particularly my type."
Hermione laughed. "And who exactly is your type, Mr. Potter?"
"Tall red heads," Harry said.
Ron nearly had a coughing fit once more at hearing that.
Harry laughed again, until Ginny quite seriously asked, "So are you gay, Harry?"
"Not in the least. Did I mention that those tall red heads had to be men, by any chance?" Harry winked at her.
Ginny blushed deeply.
"Harry stop teasing the poor girl," Hermione said suddenly with a frown.
Harry nodded and continued eating his dinner. Imogen who had been quite silent during the entire conversation smiled shyly at Harry as if she wanted to ask something but was too embarrassed to.
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That night Harry went to sleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, to the sounds of Neville's snoring, and Ron's muttering. As was a custom with him he had gone to bed late, though this time it had had nothing to do with any of his lessons or his apprenticeship but instead it had much to do with Imogen Copperfield and the question that she had finally dared ask.
They had been sitting in the common room after dinner, he, Hermione, Imogen, Ron, and Dean. Hermione had remained engrossed in her book while Ron and Dean battled it all out on a chess board which had left him and Imogen to stare into the fire in a comfortable silence.
"Harry," she had said suddenly. "I heard, well, I heard you can talk to snakes."
Harry nodded. "What about it?"
"Well, I was reading something the other day and it said it is the mark of a dark wizard, and that only they do it. Slytherin spoke to snakes, didn't he, and Vol—He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named speaks to snakes."
"Why do you want to know about this, Imogen?" Harry asked gently. There had to be a reason for her curiosity. She wasn't like Hermione, she wasn't asking just for knowledge's sake.
She blushed. "Can I—can I tell you after, somewhere more private?" She asked looking around.
Harry who had only ever explained what had happened during the night Voldemort attacked him to Ron and Hermione nodded, standing. "Come on, I'll take you up to my dorm," he told her. "We won't be overheard there."
She nodded readily and followed him up the stairs to his dorm room.
"I heard the boys can't come up to the girl's dorms," she said as they walked up the stairs.
Harry nodded. "Girls are more trusted it seems," he said.
They remained silent until they were in his dorm and then Harry led her towards his bed. She sat down and watched him. He began to pace. "Muffliato," he said. It was a spell that Snape had taught him, which was according to him better than a silencing spell.
"What was that?" she asked.
"Just a spell so that no one can hear us. I could have done it in the common room, but I didn't want to risk it."
She nodded, but said nothing.
"When Voldemort attacked my parents and I, he did not think about the fact that love is a powerful thing," Harry told her. "When he tried to kill me and my mom wouldn't let him kill me without killing her first she sacrificed herself for me. This is ancient magic that I'm sure she herself didn't even know she was evoking. Anyhow, this allowed something like a shield to remain behind around me. When the killing curse killed me, it was her shield that saved me. Her shield that made his spell bounce off, but it was a killing curse and it did destroy him, but it was I think only part of it that rebounded on him. When my scar was formed somehow with all the magical force in the house some of his powers were passed on to me. That is how I can talk to snakes."
Imogen frowned and muttered something inaudibly.
"What was that?" Harry asked, coming to stand in front of her.
"I can speak to snakes," she said softly. "I've always been able to. I knew I could when I was younger. I always liked them, too. Am I dark? You—you can't be, obviously, I mean it wasn't always your talent."
Harry sighed and sank down next to her. "I don't know that," he told her. "I don’t know that I wasn't just born with it. What I just told you is a theory, something that Dumbledore imagined was what happened, but I've been able to do it since I was one, then, if that is the case. You are not dark, because you have a power that is considered dark."
Harry hadn't noticed until that moment but Imogen was crying. He pulled her into his arms instantly. "Anyone can do evil," he told her softly in almost a whisper. "Anyone could easily do evil with a spell that isn't necessarily considered dark, just as good can come from spells considered dark."
Imogen frowned at him as he said that. "How?"
"There are spells that were once considered to be good, actually, every spell created, or at least most spells had a good side to them, I guess you could say, every spell is meant to do something when someone creates it. The killing curse, for instance was a healing spell once."
"Really?" Imogen said in wonder.
"Yes," Harry said. "I cannot tell you the exact details because I haven't read much on it yet but it was designed that way and for a short time used as a healing spell until someone died from it."
There was a pause.
"So then, any spell today could be used as the dark arts?" she asked.
"Take a simple levitation spell," Harry said. "If you were to lift someone high enough and drop them, wouldn't the result be the same as that of the killing curse?"
Imogen nodded deep in thought. "Then, I'm not dark," she said. "I'm not going to turn bad?"
"No," Harry said reassuringly. "Is this what was bothering you that other day?"
She nodded slowly. "There was a snake on the windowsill. I couldn't stay up there. It was talking to me."
Harry frowned. "A snake, in the dorm?"
"Is that unusual?" she asked.
"Not unless it's someone's pet, but I don't think anyone has one in Gryffindor."
She bit her lip in a very Hermionelike fashion.
"You'll tell me the next time there is a snake, won't you, Imy?"
She nodded. "I should go. Thank you, Harry. You're like a big brother. I really appreciate it. I miss home sometimes and you're a comfort to have around."
Harry smiled at her slightly and pulled her into a short hug. Harry canceled the Muffliato spell as she began walking to the door, but she stopped.
"Do you like snakes, Harry?" she asked.
"They're beautiful animals," he said almost silently. "They are very elegant and graceful."
She grinned again and then walked out of the dorm.
Harry sighed as she left. There was another parselmouth at Hogwarts, and she was a Gryffindor first year, and a muggle-born.
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Severus pushed the oak wood door open and entered the dark room only lighted by the fire in the corner of the room, though no one stood by the hearth, save for the large snake that seemed to be enjoying the heat.
"Ah, finally here," Severus," Voldemort said.
"I am sorry my lord, but there was a staff meeting I could not leave."
Voldemort waved him off as it if were no matter. As Severus moved to his place he did not show his surprise to the others around him. Voldemort was in some sort of good mood. Bellatrix sneered at him as he walked by her. He gave her a smirk.
"Today is a night of celebration," Voldemort said. "Tonight is a sacred night. All hallows eve. Tonight we complete a ritual that was started many years ago."
Severus' eyes widened at the implication of what this could mean. He hadn't expected to be called that night considering that Voldemort rarely ever wanted to see anyone on Halloween due to the fact that he had attacked the Potters on a Halloween night, but now he had some sort of plan, some sort of ritual that he wanted to complete.
Severus heard footsteps suddenly, and moaning. Then there was a bang and a whimper. The door was thrown open and a woman that looked as if once she had been beautiful fell to the floor. Rebastian Lestrange glared at her, as he took her arm and brought her farther into the room. She was tall and thin, too thin in his opinion, with too pale skin, bags under her eyes, and a dark shadow within her eyes that seemed to just tell everyone that saw her that she had seen too much over the years.
"I'm very grateful you could join us," Voldemort said almost amiably. She glared at him and ripped herself out of Rebastian's hold, walking towards the fire and towards the snake whom she sat next to and allowed to coil around her.
Anything like this woman had never been seen at a death eater meeting and Severus couldn't keep his eyes from straying towards her. It was her peculiarity that interested him more than anything.
"This, my loyal followers, is Faye," Voldemort said. "She has been a prisoner for the past sixteen years, held at an unclosed location and kept by a house elf. She is part of the ritual."
Severus looked towards the woman again and noticed at once that she was whispering to Nagini as if the snake could understand her, and then he heard the distinct sounds of the hissing. She was a parselmouth! But there were so few in the world, and here was a woman, a captive of Voldemort's who seemed to have the ability.
"She has been a valuable prisoner to have, a mudblood, but nevertheless a very powerful prisoner."
"What—what will the ritual entail?" the silent voice of one of the death eaters asked.
Voldemort smirked evilly and began describing exactly what he meant to do, and even though her death was being discussed, Faye did and said nothing to tell them that she knew that she was going to become a blood sacrifice for Voldemort's spell. She continued on, instead, talking calmly to the snake.
Severus listened intently, trying to find any clue that would tell him exactly what Voldemort was going to use his ritual for, but Voldemort did not seem to want them to know anything at all about his ritual for he didn't give them more than what they needed.
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November 2, 1996
Draco looked at the potion bottle sitting in front of him. It was a potion in the form of a perfume. He had ordered it to be sent to him that way just in case, and now he had it. Poison that he could use to kill Albus Dumbledore, even though he didn't in particular want to kill the headmaster of Hogwarts. On the contrary, he wanted instead to help him, but his mother had made things difficult, involving Severus Snape had to be the biggest mistake she had ever made, and that included trying to pair him off with Pansy Parkinson whom he could spot sitting on the lap of Blaise Zabini in the darkest corner of the common room.
"Hey, Draco," a girlish voice said, coming to sit down next to him.
"Hello," he muttered without looking at the girl that had sat down next to him.
"Do you want a cookie?" she asked. "Mum's just sent me her homemade double chocolate chip cookies, but she sent me a bunch. I don't think I'll finish them all."
"Alright," Draco relented. She offered him a small container full off cookies and allowed him to take one.
She watched him as he bit into it.
"This is really good," Draco said once he had finished his first bite.
The first year grinned and then stood up. "See you later, Draco," she said and walked away.
Draco sighed deeply as he finished off the cookie, and continued to stare at the bottle. He didn't have to become a killer. Snape didn't want that, hadn't he said he didn't want that, but then that meant that Snape would be the one killing Dumbledore. Somehow, Dumbledore was going to die. There was nothing anyone could do about it, it was either Dumbledore or Snape and Snape wouldn't die to save Dumbledore. He was the one that had sent his father to jail, regardless of anything the man wanted to tell him, and Snape probably even wanted Dumbledore to die.
He had to at least make attempts on the headmaster's life, if nothing else, but Dumbledore was rarely ever alone or at Hogwarts for that matter.
He stood up gently and pulled the potion bottle into his robes pocket before making his way, with a sigh towards his godfather's office. He was sure about his loyalties, and he was willing to take a chance. He was willing to share that piece of information with the potions master in order for him to share his loyalties with him. They needed to trust each other.
When Draco knocked on the door he did not expect it to be opened at once and for Snape to look out as if he had been expecting someone.
"Mr. Malfoy," he said, motioning for him to enter while looking around the hallway as Draco stepped inside. "What can I do for you?"
Draco reached into his robes pocket and placed the potion bottle on the desk.
"What does that mean?" Snape asked, walking around the desk.
"Just that poison can be brought into the school for all those protective wards that are supposed to be around the place," Draco answered. "I don't want to use it. I don't even want to try it, but I have to look as if I am trying and ordering poison is something that they would have expected from me."
Snape folded his hands in front of him as he looked at him, and Draco had the impression that Snape didn't really have any idea how to go about their ordeal.
"My loyalies lie with Dumbledore and the order," Draco said. "I do not want to be my father, or to be on the dark lord's side, even if this side does lose, I will remain on this side."
Snape gave him a calculating look and opened his mouth to speak when the door was pushed open and Harry Potter rushed in, looking paler than usual his eyes wide. He didn't even seem to notice that Draco was in the room before he spoke.
"Remus sent me to get you, he said it was important, that we should head to headquarters right now. He didn't give me much detail, all he said was that Tonks just sent her patronus and that it was best we go."
Snape looked from Potter to Draco before answering. "And is Dumbledore aware of the fact that you are joining us tonight?'
Potter nodded.
"Alright, then, Potter, get whatever it is you need and hurry."
Potter nodded once more, and for the first time looked towards Draco. He frowned at him and then rushed back out of the office, closing the door quickly behind him.
"Does Potter know you're a death eater?" Draco thought to ask the moment the door had closed. "That you aren't so trustworthy?"
Snape didn't look as if he knew what to say to that, so instead he didn't answer. "Draco, I do believe this conversation must be cut short if there are more important things to be done. However, I would like to continue it."
Draco sighed, but walked out the office regardless, and nearly ran into Potter on the way out.
"Alright, ready," he heard Harry say as the door closed behind him. He really didn't like Harry Potter sometimes.
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Harry sat between Snape and Remus at the table. Mrs. Weasley kept giving him worried glances. She had been very objective to his even being in the house and out of Hogwarts, but after Dumbledore had arrived he had put a stop to it, by first pointing out that it was Harry's house, and that Harry had a right to be there, and then telling them that Harry was allowed to make his own decisions about his involvement with the order, not to mention that he did better when knowledge was given to him, if they didn't remember the previous year. Mrs. Weasley hadn't liked it, but in the end she had given up, which was all the better for the rest of them, most of which hadn't put any opposition. After all he was Harry Potter.
"Alright, what is this about," a woman Harry had never seen before said.
Tonks stood up. "This," she announced, "is about an Azkaban prisoner."
Emmeline Vance a couple of seats away frowned. "An Azkaban prisoner? I am here because of some Azkaban prisoner? What importance does this have with anything?"
Harry too was wondering that exact same thing, but he noticed that his father seemed to know what Tonks was talking about and he didn't very much like where it was going. Dumbledore, too, was frowning.
"The dementors no longer continue to follow orders from the ministry. The time they spend in Azkaban is ordered by Voldemort, or is only done because they are most familiar with the place. As such, Aurors will do routine patrols. Today was my day to patrol, and I was not looking forward to it. I hate going there to look after the prisoners, however, something interesting happened during my patrol. I came upon a death eater."
"Because there are so few around there," Fred Weasley said sarcastically sharing a grin with his twin.
Bill hit them both on the back of the head and their mother gave him an approving nod.
Tonks smiled in their direction, before continuing. "It was not a surprise to run into this particular death eater, but it was surprising to actually see him. I did not expect him to act as if nothing was wrong. He was completely lucid, just sitting there as if he deserved to be there, so of course he caught my attention, but before I could approach him an owl arrived for me, detailing some other business. I was distracted. When I turned back to see him, however, another death eater had joined him. He was teasing him, he was calling him a traitor. I stayed and listened.
"This death eater, he one that had caught my attention did nothing to dissuade the other, and then once he had left he just remained there, just as unbothered, so I thought to tell someone, and the first person that came to mind was Severus, but as I could not be sure to reach him, I sent a my patronus to Remus.
"Remus was not very much help, so I decided to talk to him, and I did, and I discovered quite a bit about him. I never would have thought that I would be the one to argue his case in front of all of you, maybe not all of you,"—here she gave Remus and Snape a long look—"but I do believe he has either changed his beliefs, or he's never really been one of them. Anyway, I couldn't just leave him there, knowing this. And it isn't like anyone will miss him there, or if anyone from the ministry will notice until tomorrow. So—I um took him out. He's not here, obviously, but he's tied up in my apartment.
"What this meeting is about really, is about letting me bring him here for questioning or something."
Tonks stopped and looked around the room.
"Who is this death eater, Nymphadora?" Moody asked. He was giving her a doubtful look.
"I don't want anyone to just decide because of his name," she said, looking around.
"What is his name, Tonks?" This time it was Mr. Weasley who asked.
Tonks looked at him and then around the table. Everyone was waiting. Harry was almost sure he knew who Tonks was talking about. Snape and Remus, both on either side of him also seemed to know though they seemed rather annoyed at the fact. Dumbledore looked as calm as ever. Some of the rest looked curious, others disappointed, and a few even annoyed. Dumbledore, however, was the only one taking the news as calmly as if Tonks were just talking about the weather.
"Fine, I'll tell you," said Tonks after a moment's pause. "But if I do you must all agree to let him come here."
It took another pause for everyone to nod, and then Tonks opened her mouth. "Lucius Malfoy."