Well, greetings to everyone, I've noticed that the story I'm currently posting isn't being received too well by the audience. Perhaps you liked the character portrayal in this story less than in previous ones - well, I understand this and plan to finish it in the same vein. However, in parallel I'll start posting a new fan fic earlier, it will be simpler - a light fairy tale where children will be children, they'll be inconsistent, make mistakes and forget things. I won't create supermen and geniuses, but they will know how to think, discover new things in themselves, in each other and in the world and - win, damn it.
I would be glad to see you on the pages of the new fanfiction The Immunity.
***
The following week I walked around intimidated and thoughtful. I was in deep trouble - in such a position you can't really struggle much. Right now Dumbledore obviously wasn't planning to turn me in. For more than a year he had known, maybe not one hundred percent, but clearly suspected me specifically. And he did nothing. So I shouldn't expect Aurors any minute now. But if I start rebelling, then... I don't even know what. I doubt I'm that important to Dumbledore's plans. There's a chance I'm not big enough a figure for him to take revenge on me for disobedience. But there's no certainty about anything at all! Damn it! For now he's demanding I organize an absurd self-defense club, but that's definitely not the worst thing. Blackmailers always escalate...
After I finally leave England, there will be nothing to blackmail me with. In France, a person with Voldemort's mark is outside the law. About like werewolves here. You can communicate with them, do business if you want, but they're not protected by law like ordinary people. And they wouldn't imprison me there for killing a rat. Just like they wouldn't imprison Snape here for killing Lupin. But I still need to survive until France. So far it hasn't come to demands to drink babies' blood or sacrifice someone's life for the greater good, but knowing Dumbledore, it might eventually come to things no one should agree to under any circumstances.
Although... Snape did agree to kill the headmaster. No, I would agree to kill him secretly now, after what he put me through. Gladly. But to voluntarily make yourself look like a vile murderer before the whole world and then live with that universal hatred from everyone around you until your death - that's too harsh even for Snape, in my opinion. Snape, of course, isn't such a weakling as I am, but a resilient person, yet I still don't understand how he went for such an adventure? And why? He could have poisoned the headmaster quietly, since he was dying anyway. But he agreed to a public performance. And then remained at the school with people who considered Dumbledore holier than all saints and wished his killer to burn in hell.
Thinking about what the headmaster drove Snape to in canon made me feel completely heavy. I'm not worried about Snape, I'm worried about myself.
I need to meet with a lawyer on the nearest weekend when they let us go to Hogsmeade, unfortunately that's only in three weeks. Meanwhile I'll pretend to obey.
A week later I told Harry about "my" idea. As expected, he was delighted. I convinced him not to rush but first think about how to organize it all better.
I don't want to give up the Room of Requirement, so I went to Professor Sprout to cry about my troubles. The Dean was naturally told a censored version. Like, we want to study and pass our O.W.L.S properly, but we don't want to openly go against Umbridge - it would only make things worse, better to agree with everything in lessons and study on our own, but we don't know where and how... Professor Sprout was moved and decided to help. She complained that it was unsafe, of course, but still the children train in empty classrooms. Better together, at least there would be someone to call Madam Pomfrey if something happened. For the classes she agreed to allocate us the farthest abandoned greenhouse with tinted glass, suggesting we clean it ourselves. Not a bad option. With extension charms, with runes for maintaining temperature and durability, several old rough tables for the possibility of setting seedlings at different levels, and empty soil boxes that could be used instead of seats if turned over and cleaned with scourgify. The greenhouse was intended for growing plants that don't like bright light, so the walls weren't transparent, and the lighting could be changed quite smoothly with the help of a special artifact. Harry and Ron approved and promised to handle recruiting people.
Another week later we finally gathered. A bunch of kids and me. Damn. Dumbledore said that after I help Harry gather everyone, I could remove myself. But I'm the only one here who knows medical charms. And there will be injuries, no need to go to Trelawney for that.
Students gradually gathered in the greenhouse. From Gryffindor there was a whole crowd. From fifth, sixth, seventh years, and two from fourth - Ginny and Colin. From Hufflepuff came Susan and Neville - they weren't told by me but by Harry himself. The rest weren't interested. Zacharias could have gone for company with Justin, but Justin doesn't care about O.W.L.S grades, he's leaving after them anyway. And Hannah knows charms at a minimal level and prefers to listen to Cedric, that is, to keep a low profile. From Ravenclaw were Padma, Luna, Anthony Goldstein, and two more boys whose names I don't remember. Cho and her traitor friend weren't there. In canon she wanted revenge for Cedric's death, but here they're still dating, and she predictably listens to him more than to Harry. Maybe it's a pity that Marietta won't be here and no one will betray us to Umbridge. If the headmaster were removed, I would have been glad. Although who said only she could betray us?
The teenagers reminisced a bit about how cool Harry defeated the dragon, how cool he escaped from under Voldemort's nose (the presence of a nose is still questionable), how cool he beat Malfoy in the dueling club... They chose Harry as leader of the secret organization and started coming up with a name. Dumbledore's Army - where would we be without it? I jokingly suggested "Mimbulus Mimbletonia Lovers Club" - they wouldn't agree anyway. As expected, gardening names aren't cool at all, something heroic is definitely needed. Most participants were Gryffindors, and when voting, Dumbledore's Army won.
Since Quidditch is more important to the kids than Defense Against the Dark Arts, and many other things are more important than Defense Against the Dark Arts, we won't meet often, I won't have to spend much time on this venture even if I participate. Besides, there's no decree forbidding organizations yet. It will certainly appear as soon as someone wags their tongue, but we have some time. I'm not going to write lists and reward tattletales with pimples - why? Even if I myself burned with the idea, punishment after the fact wouldn't change anything.
At the first lesson we practiced Expelliarmus and Protego in pairs. Good thing Harry is the teacher here. Many still don't know even this, they're stupid and get distracted.
***
Finally I got to Mr. Goldstein. The conversation with him calmed me down a lot, though not completely.
"I'll start with the unpleasant, Miss Granger," the lawyer began after listening to my story, "You mustn't forget: the law is like a cart tongue not only in the ordinary people's world. If Dumbledore really needs to put you in Azkaban, he'll do it. He could imprison you even if you hadn't managed to do all these stupid things. You're Muggle-born, and Dumbledore has huge connections and opportunities. And the pleasant thing here is that your headmaster doesn't have a single real reason to lock you in Azkaban. Not that level. Most likely, he just decided to scare you so you'd behave properly. But in any case, I advise not entering this fight and at least outwardly showing obedience."
The lawyer paused to let me digest this.
"Now regarding Pettigrew's murder. Don't worry so much. It would have been better if you hadn't done it, but in principle, nothing fatal happened. And you have a lawyer," Goldstein winked at me, "Sometimes the Wizengamot doesn't bother to look into a case, and Muggle-born or last in their line end up in prison because the judge is hurrying to lunch. But I won't let you be wronged. After Black's trial, Pettigrew was sentenced in absentia to the Dementor's Kiss, and that works very much in our favor. The list of questions under Veritaserum will be agreed upon with me anyway. Very likely, I'll manage to compose the questions so that your knowledge about the rat's essence won't even come up. Look how it will appear: You killed an ordinary rat - and that was never forbidden. You used only permitted spells. The rat unexpectedly turned out to be a Death Eater criminal sentenced to the Kiss. Here they won't even pin manslaughter on you, considering the victim's identity."
Goldstein confidently laid everything out.
"If avoiding uncomfortable questions doesn't work and your knowledge of the rat's essence comes up, you still didn't kill a law-abiding person but a Death Eater. You were afraid of him at that moment - weren't you, Miss Granger? You didn't even cover your tracks - very stupid, but in this case it testifies to a state of affect. Did you have grounds to suppose Pettigrew would kill you?"
I nod.
"Well there, it was self-defense. With a permitted spell, which is important. And you're underage too. Your crime won't be punished severely. Definitely not with Azkaban. There was a precedent. At Hogwarts, due to an underage student's fault, a girl died. And the guilty party wasn't imprisoned, they just broke his wand and forbade further education. And he killed not a criminal, but an underage student. Most likely, your guardian will just have to pay a fine, and you yourself might be forbidden to work in the Ministry. Is that a big loss for you?"
"No, I didn't want to anyway."
"In that case don't worry, Miss Granger. Even if it comes to trial, at most your reputation will suffer. But I'm practically certain there won't be a trial."
"But you said that if Dumbledore wants..."
"As long as you haven't become the Dark Lord's right hand and haven't gotten into big politics, you're unlikely to be threatened by anything. The defeater of Grindelwald prefers other methods. On the contrary, to 'save' someone from Azkaban and get an eternal debtor. So you pretend to be grateful for being saved from prison and afraid that the headmaster will change his mind. And don't hesitate to show it. If a person believes you're already on his hook, he won't strain himself looking for other hooks to hang you on. It's hard to outplay a professional player on his field, but here what might work is that no one takes you seriously as a figure."
I paid for the consultation and moved by Floo to the Hogsmeade post office.
***
As soon as Harry became leader of the Defense Against the Dark Arts club, he indeed became calmer and stopped earning detentions from Umbridge. But now he suffers from Snape's Legilimency. Another sadist, and it's unknown who's worse. Snape even at Grimmauld Place directly told Potter that he'd rather see their joint lessons in his grave, but Dumbledore forced him. How can you entrust a child... well okay, not a child but a teenager, to a Legilimens who's completely against such training with his whole soul? He'll fry his brain and not notice. It turns out the main sadist here is precisely Dumbledore.
We almost stopped training with Luna, I spent a lot of time with the healer studying Dilys Derwent's book, or rather, the copy I made, which fit into three thick notebooks. Pomfrey almost drooled over my copy - such a rarity, I had to promise her a copy too if she brought notebooks. Copies made with charms last several days, for an eternal copy you have to transcribe with a self-writing quill. More precisely, it transcribes itself and even redraws pictures, but you have to turn the pages for it. I hope Dumbledore doesn't mind. Generally, wizards don't like sharing information much. And many books are rare not because it's hard to increase the number of copies, but because owners are reluctant to let someone else have them. At least this book doesn't have copy protection. If it did, even a self-writing quill wouldn't help. Even a snapshot with a Muggle camera - I tried it on a Black family book with similar charms. Only by hand.
All the rest of my free time I spent in the training room with moving mannequins. After leaving for France, I won't have this anymore. So I need to get the maximum from the Room of Requirement. Most of the useful books I discovered here have already found a place in my house or vault. Books on demand, for example, virtual copies from the Restricted Section, the Room of Requirement also provides. They can't be taken out, but they can be copied.
Physical fitness is very important for a battle mage. While I fought with mannequins, I trained agility, speed and reaction quite well. And now I have excellent stamina. Years of real battle experience won't replace this, but at least it will allow me not to die in the first seconds and run away if I'm lucky. And it's better if I manage to avoid any battles at all except training ones. But that's so me! While the Room of Requirement was available to me, and I knew it would be available for many more years, I didn't particularly strain myself. And only now, when I know only a few months remain ahead, I'm frantically trying to make up for the last four years.
I really almost don't participate in the DA club, making excuses that I'm intensively studying Healing with Madam Pomfrey, no time at all. If someone gets seriously injured, Harry promised to send a Patronus to the hospital wing.
***
Death Eaters escaped from Azkaban. Sirius Black was cleared long ago, and Fudge has no one to blame, but official authorities still don't believe in the Dark Lord. After this event, Neville almost crippled Anthony from Ravenclaw during training. And a week later Neville himself ended up in the hospital wing with magical exhaustion because he frantically trained Sectumsempra until his hand stopped rising. I feel terribly sorry for him, it's scary to imagine what I would feel in his place, since my family was taken by an accident, I had no one to take revenge on. Words don't help much here. The only argument that reached his consciousness was that he needs to be careful at least to survive until meeting Bellatrix in full battle readiness. And not risk his health and, especially, life over trifles. This made Neville train defensive spells too. But now he looks like a tightly closed vessel with boiling contents - ready to explode any moment.
Rita wrote a very controversial article about the Death Eaters' escape. How it got through to print is unclear, probably the editor didn't even read it before publication, because this is Rita Skeeter - the most sought-after journalist in magical Britain. The article didn't say directly that Voldemort was reborn, but repeated in various variations: "we all know that You-Know-Who didn't return, and these are just tales with which gossips frighten the trusting population. Which means we can assume that..." and then any version of what could be assumed was brought by Rita to such caricatured nonsense that it became clear to anyone - Voldemort is more alive than anyone alive. The article was a great success among the magical population - everyone discussed it, from schoolchildren to Wizengamot lords. And Rita was fired. She held up well, but from her sharp comments on the paired parchment you could feel she didn't expect it and was hurt.
So now she writes for The Quibbler. For the magazine it's good, they even have to print additional runs. For Luna it's bad, because it's known how this might end for her. Umbridge banned The Quibbler and the Prophet issue with Rita's last article at school, which greatly contributed to their popularity.
***
Harry is doing very badly from Snape's lessons. His head hurts around the clock, and he's tormented by nightmares. He's embarrassed to go to the hospital wing, so he comes to me. I really don't want to approach Snape once more, but it's impossible to watch these sufferings anymore. I stayed after lessons.
"Miss Granger, did you want something?"
"Professor, why are you tormenting Harry? There are other ways to teach Occlumency. Why is it necessary to torment him?" - when I said this aloud, I felt like canonical Hermione, who stuck her nose everywhere without understanding. I should have formulated arguments better so they wouldn't sound so stupid.
The Professor, judging by his facial expression, also thinks I sound stupid.
"Miss Granger, how much time did you spend creating your mirror labyrinth?"
"What difference does it make? If it turned out to be so ineffective," I mutter.
"I don't even dream that Potter will ever reach such a level," Snape smirked, "but I assume you spent a sufficient amount of time - a year, maybe a year and a half... And before that you worked on the first shield, much more primitive but quite effective in simple cases. And probably also several months. And Potter needs to be taught to defend himself as quickly as possible. I don't have several years in reserve. Therefore only through pain can anything be achieved, and your pity won't help him. It's necessary to put him in a position where he'll be forced to defend himself, and hope that he at least gets something right. This is a different teaching method, painful and cruel, but it's much faster. And if you think I get pleasure from climbing into the brainless head of our beloved hero, you're even stupider than I supposed. By the way, your precious Potter doesn't even try to make any effort to get rid of me faster. Indeed, why trouble yourself with meditation and clearing consciousness before sleep, if the evil professor demands it? He'd rather cut off his nose to spite his face."
I was surprised to hear such an expression. I thought Snape had long said goodbye to the ordinary people's world.
"It's a pity that Headmaster Dumbledore didn't want to work with him himself," I say. The headmaster needs to remain kind for Harry, he wouldn't torment him so openly.
"Well, at least in something we agree," Snape drawled mockingly, "by the way, don't think of involving Miss Lovegood in Potter's training," he added sternly.
"I wasn't going to, there's absolutely no need to involve Luna in this."
"I'm glad you understand that. Oh yes, perhaps you yourself will decide to work with Potter, but keep in mind, if he tries to use your personal defense method, you'll have one less friend."
At first I didn't understand what other defense method, but then I laughed. The professor has a rich imagination - to imagine myself with Potter!
"Believe me, Potter would kill me first for such a suggestion," I say through laughter.
"Well, Miss Granger, if everything is clear to you, I won't detain you any longer."
"Professor Snape, what does You-Know-Who look like now?" - since I couldn't normally talk about Potter, let me at least try to find this out.
"And why do you need this?"
"Well, what if I meet him on the street and don't even recognize him..."
"If the Lord uses glamour charms, you won't recognize him either," Snape smirks, "however, I can show you if you want."
"In a Pensieve?"
"No, with yours and Miss Lovegood's method, if you dare to look me in the eyes for a second."
I've gotten perfectly good at not doing this. For a long time now in any conversation with Snape and Dumbledore my gaze wanders around the face, avoiding the eyes. It seems I'm not looking away but at my interlocutor, but it's almost impossible to catch my gaze. By the way, with Luna looking into eyes is no longer necessary, we learned to "talk" without eye contact, the main thing is to be focused on the interlocutor. Curiosity wins.
I "see" a picture. Nothing in common with the movie. A person. With hair. With ordinary facial features, but eyes with an elongated pupil and skin that repeats Nagini's scale pattern. [1] Interesting, is there a similar skin disease? The nose is in place! That was the main mystery. Build seems normal, human, though it's hard to tell under the cloak, especially in a mental image.
Barty's ritual turned out better. Maybe this is connected to the fact that Pettigrew didn't really want to give servant's flesh, while Barty cut off his finger with fanatic delight? Or with choosing Crouch Sr. instead of Harry? After all, Crouch Sr. at that moment was both a stronger wizard and had managed to perform more conscious actions against Voldemort and his Death Eaters. A more serious enemy. Of course, Voldemort was destroyed precisely by Harry, but what did Harry himself understand at that moment? Nothing. And he made no conscious efforts. Or maybe it's generally about Barty sacrificing his father for his master. Family ties mean a lot for magic, perhaps some extra energy was released from this. Interesting, did Barty himself become a blood traitor after this? And will Voldemort become stronger and more dangerous because of this?
"Thank you, sir," I immediately look away.
"We obviously won't get along, but you still need a mentor, Miss Granger. Magic doesn't forgive those who neglect her gifts."
"I'm not neglecting. I'm doing what I can. But where would I find a mentor I could trust?"
"You're doing much less than you could. Have you tried talking to the headmaster? He's your guardian, it's up to him to decide questions of your education."
I snort, showing what I think of such a suggestion.
"Still, sometimes you're a remarkably senseless girl. Go on, Miss Granger."
I doubt that Snape in my place would trust Dumbledore or Snape himself. However, Snape himself would step over his personal attitude, fear and resentments for the sake of knowledge. Gritting his teeth, he would endure unfair and cruel treatment if in return he got the opportunity to learn something unique. I'm not like that. But his attitude toward Harry still can't be explained by any respectful reason. Especially now, when he's seen his whole life and understands that it has nothing in common with spoiled James's life. Let the quick Legilimency method be cruel, but between lessons humanity hasn't increased either.