The Time-Meddlers [Harmione]

26. Courtesy of the Shadow

Susan Bones, age twelve, was portkeyed into Saint Mungo's last night around eight p.m., suffering from malnutrition, as well as several cuts which she revealed came from rituals that her captors, the Shadow of Pain and her assistant, Severus Snape, forced her participation in. The Healers expect her to make a full recovery from her ordeal. When asked by aurors, she revealed that she knew exactly who her captor, the Shadow, was: Former Senior Undersecretary to Former Minister Cornelius Fudge - Dolores Umbridge.

About a year and a half ago, Umbridge was arrested at the Ministry for...

Hermione and Harry read the article as they sat at the Gryffindor table the morning after the rescue. The Boy-Who-Lived glanced toward Susan's best friend Hannah Abbot at the Hufflepuff table and saw her happier than she'd been since before Christmas. Yet again, the Headmaster made no mention of Susan Bones or Severus Snape.

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Terry Cochran, aka Sirius Black, did actually contact Snape with a list of potions-based products for him to manufacture, in an effort to hide his participation in the rescue of Susan Bones. However, he received no response whatsoever. Whether Snape knew he'd been part of the setup or just knew that someone knew he'd been there was unclear, but obviously the potions master was taking no chances. Sirius half-expected Dumbledore to show up and express disappointment in him for tricking Snape like that, but it never happened.

Time moved quickly, and soon it had been a few weeks since the rescue, and Susan Bones arrived at Hogwarts looking healthy, although if you looked in her eyes, you could see she was no longer an innocent little girl. She had a noticeable scar on her forehead (but it was not shaped like a lightning bolt) above her left eye, along with about ten others that were hidden by her Hogwarts robe. Auror guards had escorted her into the building, but separated from her as she entered the Great Hall to join her classmates for breakfast. She'd only taken a few steps before Hannah Abbot practically jumped from the Hufflepuff table and ran to hug her best mate.

Harry didn't know who started it, but soon most of the Great Hall was applauding the Minister's niece, who had suffered so much, and he found himself joining in. After about a minute of that, Dumbledore walked up to his podium and proclaimed with a twinkle in his eye, "Welcome back, Miss Bones. As you can see, all of Hogwarts is overjoyed to have you among us once more. Please join us for breakfast. The pancakes are delightful."

Hermione turned to Harry. "Obviously, Dumbledore had to acknowledge Susan's presence, but still managed to say nothing about her ordeal or Snape's part in it."

"I noticed that, too. He simply won't admit, even to himself, that he was wrong about Snape turning good."

Neville, who'd been sitting with them, commented, "You're right. I never thought about it, but Dumbledore had that Death Eater her for over ten years, protecting him while he picked on students like me and still won't admit that was wrong."

"I think Minister Bones is getting sick of that, too," commented Hermione. "It looks like those aurors want to talk to him." Harry glanced toward the head table and noticed that the aurors who'd escorted Susan were now approaching the headmaster, no doubt to question him yet again on Snape's whereabouts.

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The next time the time-meddlers saw Susan was in Herbology, where they did some work with the adolescent mandrakes that had been at Hogwarts since September. Susan smiled at them quickly, but that was the extent of their communication until that Saturday, when Hermione was in the library alone.

"Hello, Hermione," said Susan when she walked up to the table the Gryffindor genius was sitting at.

Nervously, she replied, "Hi, Susan."