Chapter 37 -
"Do you guys know about the DA club?" Astoria asked as she and her friends, Scott and Jean, sat with Harry, Daphne and Tracy by the lake.
"Okay, I will bite, what the hell is the DA club?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow.
"It is some illegal defence group," Scott answered. "apparently a few students go there to secretly learn defence against the dark arts."
"If their studies are anything like their ability to keep secrets then they are doomed." Daphne commented, earning amused looks from everyone.
"Apparently it is being taught by Cedric Diggory." Jean replied.
"Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger wouldn't happen to be in this group, would they?" Harry asked with a smirk.
"Why do you ask?" Tracy asked.
"Because a while back the pair of idiots tried to get me to lead a group that sounds exactly the same as what the young Ravenclaws are describing." Harry answered.
"So they couldn't get you and settled with Diggory?" Tracy snorted. "You think he knows that he was the second choice?"
"Probably not." Harry guessed.
"Yeah well they can do whatever they want," Astoria said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "we've got the better teacher." She grinned at Harry who grinned back.
"Ten points to Ravenclaw." Harry said as he high fived Astoria.
"It is truly the greatest of pleasures to simply be in your presence my lord!" Bellatrix said in the happiest of voices as she and the other death eaters knelt down in front of Voldemort who sat upon his throne like a king above his followers. "I never lost faith!" She added quickly. "I was always loyal."
"Ah yes," Voldemort nodded as he spoke in an appreciative voice. "I know full well how loyal you have all been, you all have suffered through Azkaban for me. Lord Voldemort appreciates loyalty, I will have Severus brew you all potions, soon you will all be back up to health."
"My lord, you are so gracious." Rodolphus Lestange said in a devoted voice.
"That I am." Voldemort agreed without hesitation. He was about to respond but was cut off by the sound of hissing, Voldemort looked down at Nagini who gestured in the direction of the doors which opened a few seconds later as Apophis came into the room. Apophis walked straight up to Voldemort, ignoring the other death eaters. Apophis stopped alongside Voldemort's throne and whispered into his ear in parsletounge. "Hmm, that is workable." Voldemort said to Apophis.
"My lord," Bellatrix said. "do forgive me but who is he?" She said as calmly as she was able to make herself sound. She did not know who this person was but she could not believe how he was allowed to simply walk up to her lord and speak to him like an equal.
"This, my dear Bellatrix, is Apophis." Voldemort said as he gestured to Apophis. "He is my heir." Voldemort asked.
"What?!" Bellatrix blurted out in shock as the other newly free death eaters also looked shocked.
"Barty, please explain to them." Voldemort said to Barty who instantly realised that it was more of an order than a request.
"Our lord needed Potter's blood for his resurrection," Barty explained to the newly freed death eaters. "there was some blood remaining and our lord, in a feat of very impressive magic, combined Potter's blood with his own to create him." Barty gestured to Apophis who stood with his arms crossed. "He is a magical creation, created by our lord."
"But my lord...why Potter's blood?" Rabastan Lestrange could not help but ask.
"Not that I have to answer to you," Voldemort glared at Rabastan who quickly ducked his head down and muttered out an apology, Voldemort let out a small sigh before he continued speaking. "I will satisfy your curiosity this once but do not dare demand answers from me again." Voldemort said in a warning tone, Rabastan quickly nodded and once again apologised. "My resurrection ritual required the blood of an enemy, Potter despite being a halfblood is a strong wizard, much as I am loath to admit. I had his blood already in my possession and did not see the point in waiting until I was able to gain somebody else's. Now no more questions, Lucius, give me your reports."
"The plan has worked perfectly my lord," Lucius Malfoy replied. "the fool Fudge was eating out of my hand and was easily convinced that your heir was sent by Dumbledore, he had sent aurors to arrest the headmaster. However I am told that Dumbledore was able to escape."
"Dumbledore is on the run?" Apophis asked.
"Why do you ask?" Voldemort replied.
"I want a fight." Apophis answered.
"You will fight Dumbledore?" Voldemort asked in an amused voice. "While I have no doubt about how entertaining that would be, I am afraid not." Apophis looked like he was about to protest. "You may have Potter, but you will not be fighting Dumbledore." He said in a firm voice.
"My lord," Rodolphus asked in a quiet voice. "if I may ask, how powerful is your heir?" He asked, wondering what the actual chances of success would have been if Voldemort's heir had fought Dumbledore.
"Avada Kedavra." Voldemort said in a soft voice as he shot a killing curse at Apophis, much to the surprise and shock of the others, surprise and shock that increased immensely when Apophis simply shrugged it off. "Fairly so." Voldemort smirked in response to Rodolphus's question. The death eaters were all looking at Apophis with absolutely pure disbelief along with a combination of fear and awe. "you will all treat him with the respect that he deserves. You will obey his orders as if they were mine, is that understood?" He said in a voice that said there had better not be anyone who did not understand.
"Yes my lord." The death eaters said as they nodded.
"Wotcher Harry!" Tonks smiled as she greeted Harry when he came down to Hogsmeade.
"And hello to you." Harry paused and let out an appreciative whistle. "Looking good by the way." He said as he kissed her on the lips and offered an arm.
"Why thank you." Tonks smiled and took the offered arm before the two began walking together. "So how are you?" She asked.
"I am doing fine I suppose." Harry replied. "What about you?"
"About as well as I can be." Tonks shrugged.
"That's good, how is the order doing? I would think that it is not helpful having the leader of the organisation be on the run."
"Ha," Tonks snorted. "it is not but if we are being honest then the order has not really done much so far beyond information gathering and guarding whatever it is that Dumbledore had assigned us to guard." Tonks said as she rolled her eyes.
"Not what you were expecting?"
"I was expecting a bit more action if I am being honest, " Tonks admitted. "but you are right in that it didn't help. Dumbledore has sent messages to all of the order and until he gets pardoned or whatever he won't be attending meetings."
"Shame." Harry said as the two arrived at the apparition point, they apparated away and arrived near a cinema. Harry figured as long as he came back before curfew he would be fine so he had no real problem with leaving the grounds with Tonks.
A short while later the two were sat in a cinema, ready to watch a horror film. They were hoping that this would be more scary than the last one they watched, well at least Harry hoped so. To be fair after his experiences in Hogwarts he did not really find it easy to be scared by movies, especially movies that involved magical creatures as Harry could not help but think about how wrong the movies were. They got some things right like werewolves change on the night of the full moon but they got other things wrong like werewolves being incredibly muscular.
A short while into the movie Harry was starting to get bored, he was about to whisper to Tonks and ask if she was also bored when he felt her place her head on his chest and slide down just as her hands slid up his leg and to his belt buckle. Harry couldn't help the wide eyes and massive smile on his face, as of the moment he was just glad that they were sat at the back and people were focused on the movie. He did quickly cast a few charms around them just in case.
"Hey Luna," Harry said as he walked into Luna. "are you alright?" He asked as he looked at her. He could not help but think that there was something off about Luna, her face still had the same dreamy look but her cheeks were slightly more red than normal and her smile seemed a bit more enforced.
"Oh, I am fine." She said in her usual dreamy look, that was not what Harry found odd, the fact that she had her hands behind her back was what Harry found odd.
"Alright," Harry sighed. "show me." He said.
"What?" Luna blinked.
"Show me whatever you are hiding." Harry replied.
"I...am...not hiding...anything." Luna said in what Harry saw as the worst attempt at a lie ever. Harry was tempted to stop and teach the girl how to actually tell a convincing lie but decided to train her in the art of deceit at a later date.
"Luna you are about as successful at lying as a giraffe would be successful at sneaking into a polar bears only nightclub while wearing nothing but a pair of glasses." Harry said as he rolled his eyes. "Now I think you should know that I have spent the majority of my life pretending to be somebody else for the benefit of others so I am all too familiar with acting and lying, so you would be wasting your efforts even if you were good at lying. Now let's try this again, show me what ever you are hiding." Luna reluctantly pulled her hands from behind her back and showed Harry the back of her left hand, Harry looked at it and saw 'I must not tell lies' etched into her hand. "What the fuck?"
"Professor Umbridge was not appreciative of my father's words in the quibbler," Luna began explaining. "she did not like the fact that he was supportive of Dumbledore."
"Damn," Harry sighed. "is this recent?" Harry asked.
"About ten minutes ago." Luna answered.
"Come on," Harry said as he pulled her into an empty classroom. "Dobby," Harry called and the excitable house elf arrived. "get some essence of murtlap." He ordered. Dobby nodded and quickly popped away before popping back a few moment later and handing Harry the essence of murtlap. "Thank you Dobby, that is all for now." Harry said, Dobby nodded before popping away.
"This really isn't necessary Harry." Luna protested.
"Yes it is." Harry replied.
"I don't want to be a bother." Luna admitted in a shy voice.
"You are bothering me more by not helping me, if you do not want to be a bother then you will sit there and soak your hand in this and tell me what she did to you, is this the result of a spell?"
"No," Luna shook her head. "Professor Umbridge is using a blood quill."
"A blood quill?" Harry asked, not entirely sure if he heard right. "What the hell is a blood quill?"
"It is a quill that writes using the users blood." Luna answered. There was a long silence in the room, that was eventually broken by Harry.
"Tell me everything."
A few days later Harry was walking through the halls of Hogwarts, deep in thought as he wondered what he should do about Umbridge. On the one hand Umbridge was still useful for him as he was still able to play her like a fiddle, but on the other hand she was becoming a bit of a problem, okay a major problem. Her educational decrees were getting ridiculous and making the school seem more like a prison. Plus the thing that bothered Harry the most was her liberal use of blood quills.
If she was so willing to torture students then it was likely only going to be a matter of time before he did something to piss her off or vice versa. While Harry was not the biggest fan of the majority of Hogwarts students he did not really wish a blood quill to be used on all of them, okay perhaps a select few, but not all of them, especially not first years. Thankfully the Gryffindor chasers had so far avoided any detentions as Harry suspected that he would not likely remain calm if any of the three chasers were harmed.
Harry was brought out of his thoughts by the sound of sobbing, he paused and looked into an empty classroom where he saw three familiar figures. Harry opened the door and entered the classroom to find Astoria, Scott and Jean whimpering as tears slid down their faces as they sat against a wall. They hadn't yet appeared to have noticed Harry so he cast some privacy charms around the room before he slowly walked forward and stopped right in front of the three and sat down.
He waited a moment and when they appeared to have still not noticed his presence he let out a small cough, the heads of the three Ravenclaws snapped up as they all realised that he was in the room.
"Harry?!" Astoria blurted out as she wiped her tears with her sleeve. "What are you doing here?!"
"Oh it's a really funny story. Here I was, minding my own businesess, walking around, deep in thought when I hear you three crying." Harry replied. "So what has happened?" Harry asked.
"It's nothing." Jean, who was sitting in the middle with Scott on her right and Astoria on her left, murmured.
"Did Umbitch use blood quills on you three?" Harry asked, deciding not to waste time.
"How do you know?!" Scott blurted out in surprise.
"Because she used a blood quill on Luna." Harry replied.
"Luna?" Astoria gasped. "Is she okay?"
"She is fine," Harry responded. "but she is not who we are talking about. Show me your hands."
"It's nothing." Astoria said, hiding her hand away from him along with Scott and Jean.
"Tori," Harry said, purposefully using her nickname. "I am not your father, nor am I your mother and I am definitely not your sister. I have done some crazy shit, I have suffered through some crazy shit, I have been bitten by venomous snakes, hated by an entire school and attacked by soul sucking dementors. If you are in pain then trust me when I say that I will not judge, I know pain, it does not make you weak and you will not be weak if you tell me what happened.
If you are worried about rules or some crap like that then I should let you know that I have broken my fair share of them. You can stay quiet and lose more blood in the future or you can tell me now so I can see if I can fix it." Harry said in a soft voice.
"Me and Scott," Jean said since Astoria looked like she was unsure if she should speak. "we are muggleborns."
"Umbridge hates us," Scott scowled. "she hates all muggleborns. She gave us both detention without a good reason, apparently we were 'disrespectful'. Bloody cow, all we did was ask why we weren't learning spells."
"That explains you both," Harry said before he looked at Astoria. "what about you?"
"I...I argued with her about giving Scott and Jean a detention." Astoria sniffed.
"Show me your hand." Harry said.
"It's not important."
"It is to me, now hand." Harry said as he held his own out. Astoria slowly gave Harry her hand, Harry took it gently and looked at it for several seconds before he sighed and moved so he sat down next to Astoria, he leaned his back against the wall as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her in for a one sided hug. Astoria leaned her head against his chest. "Let it out, you will feel better." Harry whispered.
Several seconds later the tears began flowing and Astoria had buried her head in Harry's chest, it was nearly half an hour later when all three Ravenclaws were all finally cried out.
"T...thank you Harry." Astoria sniffed as she rubbed her eyes.
"It's not a problem," Harry said as he kissed the top of her forehead. "now I am going to write a letter, I have a few auror friends who can help out and I am pretty popular as far as the ministry is concerned. But first I am going to call my house elf to get some stuff to help your hands." Harry said.
"Thank you." Jean said quietly.
"You are welcome, and don't listen to any crap about muggleborns being weaker or anything, my mum was a muggleborn remember." Harry said as he smiled at all three of them, thankfully they focused on the smile and did not focus on his eyes because they would have possibly been able to see him come to a decision about Umbridge.
A short while later Harry was walking towards Umbridge's office. He felt Selena shift and crawl up his body until her head was on his neck and near his ear.
"Are you going to kill her daddy?" Selena asked.
"We'll see." Was all Harry said as he entered the defence against the dark arts classroom, he walked in and headed towards Umbridge's office. When he entered her office he saw that she was alone. Umbridge looked up from her desk to see Harry close the door.
"What are you doing Mr Potter?" She frowned while Harry cast a silencing charm and locking charm on the door. "Mr Potter? Mr Potter what are you doing?" She repeated, Harry didn't immediately answer, she was about to call him again when Harry turned around and hit her with a body bind. "Mr Potter!" She screamed after she fell on to the floor, "what are you doing?!" She demanded.
"Nothing you will like." Harry said as he walked over and stomped on her face.