When Demigods Mix with Magic

23. Dam, Voldemort likes Killing People Way Too Much

{-} Harry {-}

Harry flailed around madly, becoming entangled in the hangings and fell out of his bed. His scar was searing with pain. For a moment he didn't even know where he was, convinced that he was about to see the white, skull-like face looming over him again.

"Will you stop acting like a maniac so I can get you out of here!" Ron wrenched the hanging apart and Harry was now staring up at Percy, Jason and Ron in the moonlight, flat on his back. They all looked like they were getting ready for bed.

"Has someone been attacked again?" asked Ron, pulling Harry roughly to his feet. "Is it dad? Is it that snake?"

"No- everyone's fine-" gasped Harry, his forehead felt as though it were on fire. "Well... Avery isn't... he's in trouble... he gave him the wrong information... Voldemort's really angry."

Harry groaned and sank, shaking on to his bed, rubbing his scar.

"But Rookwood's going to help him now... he's on the right track again..."

"What the heck are you talking about?" Percy asked. "Dude, you look exactly like how I did before I had to eat wheat germ."

"Wait..." Ron began, ignoring Percy. "D'you mean... did you just see You-Know-Who?"

"I was You-Know-Who," said Harry, the wheels in his mind working to remember every detail of the dream he just had. "He was with Rookwood, he's one of the Death Eaters who escaped from Akzaban remember? Rookwood had just told him that Bode couldn't have done it."

"Done what?" Jason said, his blue eyes fixed on Harry.

"Remove something... he said Bode would have known he couldn't have done it... Bode was under the Imperius Curse... I think he said Malfoy's dad put it on him."

"Bode was bewitched to remove something?" Ron said. "But- Harry that's got to be-"

"The weapon," Harry finished the sentence for him. His mind was always on that weapon Sirius had mentioned to him. "I know."

Percy and Jason exchanged looks. They were probably thinking that the Doors of Death that they had to find was included in all of this. But Harry doubted it. What would the Death Eaters be doing with those Doors?

The dormitory door opened; Dean and Seamus came in chatting loudly. Harry swiftly swung his legs back into bed. He did not want to look as though anything odd had just happened, seeing as Seamus had only just stopped thinking that Harry was a nutter.

"Jason and I are going to go distract them," Percy whispered to both Ron and Harry. He dragged Jason with him to go start a conversation with the two other Gryffindors.

"Did you say," murmured Ron to Harry when he found it safer, "that you were You-Know-Who?"

"Yeah," said Harry quietly.

Ron stayed silent as he helped himself to some water from the jug on his bedside table.

"Harry," he finally said, "you've got to tell-"

"I haven't got to tell anyone," said Harry shortly. "I wouldn't have seen it at all if I could do Occlumency. I'm supposed to have learned to shut this stuff out. That's what they want."

By 'they' he meant Dumbledore.

He got back into his bed and rolled over to his side with his back to Ron.

✭✭✭

Next morning Harry and Ron told Hermione about their discoveries of last night. They wanted to be absolutely sure that they would not be overheard by anyone, so they went in their usual corner in the Courtyard.

"So that's why they killed him," she said quietly. "When Bode tried to steal this weapon something odd happened to him. I think there must be defensive spells on it, or around it, to stop people from touching it. That's why he was at St Mungo's, his brain had gone all weird and he couldn't talk. But remember what the Healer said? He was recovering. And they couldn't risk him getting better, could they? I mean, the shock of whatever happened when he touched that weapon probably made the Imperius Curse lift. Once he'd got his voice back, he'd explain what he'd been doing, wouldn't he? They would've known he'd been sent to steal the weapon. Of course, it would have been easy for Lucius Malfoy to put the curse on him. Never out of the Ministry, is he?"

"He was even hanging around the day I had my hearing," said Harry. "In the- hang on..." he said slowly. "He was in the Department of Mysteries Corridor that day! Ron's dad said he was probably trying to sneak down and find out what happened in my hearing, but what if-"

"Sturgis!" gasped Hermione, looking thunder-struck.

"Sorry?" said Ron looking bewildered.

"Sturgis Podemore-" said Hermione breathlessly, "arrested for trying to get through a door! Lucius Malfoy must have got him too! I bet he did it the day you saw him there, Harry. Sturgis had Moody's Invisibility Cloak, right? So, what if he was standing guard by the door, invisible, and Malfoy heard him move- or guessed someone was there- or just did the Imperius Curse on the off-chance there'd be a guard there? So, when Sturgis next had an opportunity- probably when it was his turn on guard duty again- he tried to get into the Department to steal the weapon for Voldemort- Ron, be quiet- but he got caught and sent to Akzaban."

She gazed at Harry.

"And now Rookwood's told Voldemort how to get the weapon?" Hermione asked.

"I didn't hear all the conversation but that's what it sounded like," said Harry. "Rookwood used to work there... maybe Voldemort will send Rookwood to do it?"

Hermione nodded, apparently still lost in thought. Then quite abruptly she said, "But you shouldn't have seen this at all, Harry."

"What?" he blurted, taken aback.

"You're supposed to be learning how to close your mind to this sort of thing," said Hermione, suddenly stern.

"I know I am," Harry responded. "But-"

"Well, I think you should just try to forget what you saw," said Hermione firmly. "And you ought to put in a bit more effort on your Occlumency from now on."