The Boy Who Lived

Dictatorship and its Downfall

'I don't know... I was asleep and then I was there...'

'You mean you dreamed this?'

'No!' he said forcefully; and she believed him. 'I was having a dream at first about something else, something stupid... and then this interrupted it. It was real, I didn't imagine it. Mr Weasley was asleep on the floor and he was attacked by a gigantic snake, there was a load of blood, he collapsed, someone's got to find out where he is...'

'I know where he is,' she said quietly. 'Put on your dressing gown - we're going to see the headmaster. You'd better come too, Ron. The rest of you, back to bed, yes, you too, Mr Longbottom.'

The one single benefit of the rescue of Arthur Weasley was that Harry got to see Remus and Sirius again at Grimmauld Place. He got to see their closeness and that brought him comfort even though he'd not really thought any further about his own sexual preferences and he certainly hadn't talked to his friends or Minnie about it. He had an ongoing strange sort of disastrous relationship with Cho and he was still confused about how he felt about Cedric and he thought he might sort of be attracted to Ginny but he knew Ron wouldn't cope with that. He pushed those feelings aside, happy to see Sirius and Remus and spend Christmas with them.

The downside of rescuing Arthur was that Albus decided that Harry needed Occlumency lessons to block Voldemort from entering Harry's mind, albeit unconsciously. The concern was that he would realise and try to manipulate Harry's thoughts. However, Minerva was furious because Albus decided Severus would be the best teacher. Maybe he was superb at Occlumency. Maybe Albus had an ulterior motive; that he thought the two might find some common ground between them and bridge a gap of ever-growing animosity. Instead, it only proceeded to drive the wedge in further, especially as Severus would insist on openly calling the sessions Potter's Remedial Potions classes, which only served to humiliate the boy further and anger him more.

As Christmas edged towards Easter and Spring began to lighten the skies and melt the snow on the hills, Dolores Umbridge felt like she was winning. The children were being subdued into submission. They were looking smarter too because a few well-placed spells meant shirts were tucked in and ties straightened to near throttling tightness. Though her spells could never do anything with Potter's hair, no matter how much she tried. The Potter boy had nearly broken. There had been that incident where he went to the Quibbler and given a full interview full of lies about events last summer. Naturally, she banned any copies and it wasn't until afterward that she realised her mistake because the ban seemed to prompt every student in the school into reading the article. Still, she'd been able to punish the boy again. And she knew he was plotting something against her. Probably against the Minister too. She was itching to expel him.

So, it was to Dolores's gleeful delight that young Mr Malfoy caught Mr Potter on the seventh-floor left corridor, leaving what she was informed was an illegal club. She summoned the Minister for it was time to finally get the boy expelled. One more step towards order and discipline in the school was to rid herself of him. The Weasley twins were next.

'Off you go, Mr Malfoy,' she instructed. 'And you can come with me to the Headmaster's office, Potter,' she added in her softest, most dangerous voice.

The office was full of people. Albus Dumbledore was sitting behind his desk, his expression serene, the tips of his long fingers together. Professor McGonagall stood rigidly beside him; her face extremely tense. Cornelius Fudge, Minster for Magic, was rocking backwards and forwards on his toes beside the fire, apparently immensely pleased with the situation; Auror Shacklebolt and Auror Dawlish were positioned either side of the door like guards, and Percy Weasley hovered excitedly beside the wall, a quill and a heavy scroll of parchment in his hands.