From the table, Minerva McGonagall watched Harry pacing the kitchen of their little cottage, the agitation clear.
'Harry, sit down. You're not helping anyone.'
Her dear boy, still only sixteen, albeit for only a few days more, had seen more, experienced more, in his tender years than the average wizard did in their lifetime. And they both knew the worst was yet to come. He had the weight of the world on his young shoulders.
'Voldemort's getting braver. It won't be long.'
'I know.'
'This...' he said, indicating to the newspaper picture of the latest and most blatant attack on Muggles. The twisted mangled mess of the Millennium Bridge in London emerging out of the fog which shrouded the country, fourteen Muggles killed, dozens more injured. 'What if I can't stop him?'
'Then come up to the school with me. You'll be safe there.'
They both knew that wasn't true.
'Voldemort will appoint Snape as Headmaster at the school as soon as the Ministry falls. You know I won't be safe there. And I need to get on with the task Dumbledore appointed me to do.'
'I wish you'd tell me what it is you have to do...' She held up her hands in submission before the argument even started, they'd been through this a hundred times since Albus had... gone. 'I know, I know. Albus said don't trust anyone, not even your own dear mother.'
He threw himself into the chair at the table and she picked up her cup of tea, sipping it slowly as she waited for the inevitable.
'It's not that I don't trust you, mum. It's just that if you don't know, no one can extract the information out of you.'
His argument made sense, especially when Severus became Headmaster and they knew it was a matter of weeks before that happened. She pursed her lips at the thought. Severus, in charge of all her children; Severus, who she'd finally begun to trust and then he'd betrayed them all, betrayed Albus, like this. Harry had been right all along...
It had torn the Order apart. Kingsley and Moody had stepped up to take charge, Remus was off on some out-reach mission with communities of disassociated werewolves, Hagrid was still trying to negotiate with the giants, Tonks was spying from within the Ministry, Molly and Arthur were doing what they could at their end but the blow was enormous. Severus had been a key ally. And Albus kept them all together.
On top of it all, they knew Voldemort had infiltrated the Ministry at the highest levels. At least Gawain Robards, the Head Auror was trustworthy but Tonks named many of the team who weren't and dissent was becoming more and more open.
Harry refused to let Minerva go to any more meetings with the Order. 'They're going to target you and I don't trust the Floo Network; they'll be monitoring it. We know they've done it before.' He said time and time again, his jaw set in that determined, stubborn way of his when he knew he was right but no one wanted to listen. He pushed his glasses up his nose with his index finger. 'Your connection to me means it's obvious. He'll go after those I'm close to. In fact, I'm surprised he hasn't yet.'
She knew he was right. They were well aware that the cottage was being watched.
'I was an Auror,' she tried to reassure him. 'I know how to look after myself.'
Still, they'd spent a lot of the last month up at the school, practicing their duelling. It was a daily occurrence, often hours on end, both improving their skills dramatically. And they continued on Harry's training of Legilimency and Occlumency, both complaining that Albus hadn't let them do this initially. What Severus had put Harry through was ludicrous, she seethed to herself. But Severus had been making her seethe a lot ever since June. And they knew that Harry would have to face Voldemort and she'd probably have to face Severus, both attempting to read their minds to find out their secrets and plans. Harry finally mastered keeping a barrier up permanently, especially during his sleep. They worked on fakery too, on creating an initial block that could be broken but keeping up a second, even third layer of hidden barriers and releasing certain information so it looked as if the Legilimens was succeeding in raping their minds. Some things had to be buried deep.
It was hard, brutal, and exhausting work.
'We get you up to the school today,' he said with determination.
'Pardon?' she said.
'We bring the plan forward three days. You're safer up at the school. If needs be, you can hide there all year. The House-Elves will look after you and will keep you safe.'
'Harry, I'm not going to hide in the school, moving about it like a ghost for the rest of my living years.'
'You know I'm not asking you to do that. Just stay there while I'm gone.'
'But how long will you be gone for?'
'I don't know,' he said, running a hand through his hair and pushing his glasses up his nose with his index finger again. Albus had told him sweet fuck all about how to find the remaining four of Voldemort's six Horcruxes. His fingers unconsciously went to the fake locket that was hanging around his neck.
Minerva watched him closely. She knew that Harry and Albus had left the school that night and Albus had returned in a severely weakened state but she still didn't know the full story. As Harry said, it was better not to know, he would tell her one day.
She glanced at the back of his hand, the white scars of I must not tell lies clearly visible against his olive skin. It still made her so angry. That and the scars on his back where Vernon had taken his belt to Harry. She'd only seen them because the weather was unseasonably hot in Scotland that summer and he'd been at his punchbag in the garden without a t-shirt on. He'd finally sat down and told what had happened.
'Where will you go for the next three days? You can't go to Diagon or anywhere near...'
He didn't answer, just in case, but she guessed it would be Privet Drive, he wouldn't be unwelcome since he'd ousted Vernon. Anyway, the Order where planning to move Petunia and Dudley into hiding in two days' time.
Instead of answering, he said, 'I wish there was a better plan for this bit.' The torture of what they were about to do evident in his eyes.
'It's a brutal necessity that might help us for a bit.'
'You know I won't mean whatever I throw at you. I swear, none of it.'
She smiled sadly, 'I know.'
'Look after Ron and Mione for me...'
She raised her eyebrow, doubting that either would let Harry go off by himself. She didn't say anything though.
'Mum, I love you. Thank you... for everything,' he said. There was a finality in his words that made her feel tearful. As if he didn't expect to see her again.
She reached across the table and gripped his hand tightly, not wanting to let go. 'I love you too, darling. Take that with you, wherever you go. I won't stop thinking about you.' Or worrying, she added mentally. 'And we'll see each other again before we know it.'
He got up wearily, 'have you got your final things packed? We do this, this morning. We have an hour. The weather is perfect, there'll be people milling around to witness it all.'
They'd already moved most of her belongings up to the school. The important, sentimental items had been moved to their Gringotts' vaults. They were all too conscious of the Weasleys' house being targeted the previous summer and the loss of everything in the fire. Minerva was prepared for the fact that this might be the last time she saw her precious cottage that was full of so many dear memories.
Harry went up to his little bedroom and retrieved his rucksack from under the bed. It was already packed and he pulled together his final things. He hoped he had enough to survive whatever was coming next. He opened Hedwig's cage and the owl looked at him sorrowfully.
'I know,' he said, looking around his room-his home-of the last fifteen and half years. 'Come and find me later, I'll be at Privet Drive,' he whispered and he opened the window and let her fly out, watching as she took to the skies, flying high above Hogsmeade before heading south.
He picked up his wand, holding it lightly in his fingers as if finding its balance. With a brief wordless swish, the Disillusionment Charms fell from the room and it went from being a teenaged-boy's room, filled with dirty clothes and books and Quidditch souvenirs to a sparse empty space with just his bed and furniture. He checked for any last-minute items that might have been lost or hidden under the Disillusionment before recasting the spell. It had to be left in place; if anyone got through the boundary Wards and came looking through windows, it would be obvious they'd left permanently and he needed to give himself time.
'You'll have to be careful over the next four days,' Minerva said from the doorway.
'I know,' he said. 'It's going to be hard.' The Ministry couldn't trace his underage magic in Hogsmeade, there were too many other signatures close by, it was too confusing, but as soon as he hit Muggle London and then Surrey, he'd have to survive without magic until his birthday. Only four days.
'Shall we go?' Minerva said quietly. She shrunk his backpack and he slid it into his jeans pocket. He just wore his jeans and a t-shirt and his trainers so it didn't look like anything extraordinary, so it didn't look like he was planning on leaving.
They hugged in the shadows of the cottage, away from windows and prying eyes. Public and private displays had been very different for a long time. They had been building up to this moment ever since Albus's death. They had realised pretty quickly this day would come and Harry wouldn't be going back to the school. They knew they had to make the parting public to try and protect Minerva.
Madame Rosmerta was outside The Three Broomsticks, clearing tables and serving her lunchtime customers who were enjoying the sunshine when she saw Minerva McGonagall and Harry Potter walking up Hogsmeade high street. Their conversation appeared to be very animated. Minerva looked exasperated, the young man was clearly angry, his arms gesticulating wildly. Rosmerta frowned as she stopped to watch. Poor Minerva, she thought. He was such a lovely young boy and now he seemed to be causing her nothing but trouble. Ever since Albus Dumbledore's death, the young man seemed to be struggling.
Their voices were growing in volume. Well, his voice was anyway.
'Why do you always have to interfere? You're always stopping me. You're worse than Dumbledore,' he said loudly, clearly enough for people in the high street to stop what they were doing and watch. The famous Harry Potter was always a spectacle but this, well... Rosmerta pursed her lips in disapproval at his tone.
'I don't care. I'm nearly seventeen. Besides, you're not my real mother anyway. You don't have any power over me, old woman,' he raged. 'You're just an interfering old bitch!'
Minerva McGonagall went pale with anger. Her voice was cold when she said, 'Harry James Potter, I rescued you from those awful relatives, I raised you from an infant, and you just throw in back in my face, you ungrateful, insolent child. You may say you're nearly seventeen but you act like a toddler.'
'YOU'RE WORSE THAN SNAPE,' he yelled in her face. 'PERHAPS YOU'RE IN THIS TOGETHER. IT ANSWERS THE QUESTION OF WHY DIDN'T YOU STOP THEM, WHY DIDN'T YOU LISTEN WHEN I SAID MALFOY WAS UP TO NO GOOD? NO ONE EVER FUCKING LISTENS TO ME. IT'S THE SAME OLD SHIT, YEAR IN, YEAR OUT.'
'Language, young man,' she said with disapproval.
'Oh, here we go again,' he said in a loud sing-song voice. 'Let's tell Harry Potter how to behave and what to do and what to say. Same old, same old. Don't tell him what's going on but tell him what to do and pat him on the head like the good little fucking Chosen One that he is. You're worse than the Ministry. It's all Dumbledore ever did too. He never told me a thing; he was too busy keeping me in the dark but still expecting me to save the bloody day. Well, I'm fed up with all. I'm going to go and figure it out for myself because no one else obviously knows sweet shit. Someone has to do something while everyone sits about trying to retract their fingers from their lazy arses as they blindly grope for the answers in the dark. AND YOU!' he yelled. 'YOU'RE WORSE THAN THEM ALL WITH YOUR SO-CALLED PROTECTING ME. I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU ALL! I DON'T WANT IT ANYMORE! I WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU ANYMORE, EVER AGAIN!'
Rosmerta watched as the young Mr Potter whipped away in a haze of Apparition as Minerva McGonagall cried out, 'Harry, no!' her thin hand grasping at empty air. She stumbled slightly and Rosmerta rushed forward and put an arm around her.
'You poor thing,' she cooed. 'It's such a difficult age for boys with all their hormones.' She led Minerva to the bench outside the pub. And people gathered around, all offering their thoughts on teenage boys and the multiple problems they'd experienced in their own lives.
'I rather think it's more than hormones,' Minerva said sadly, her voice cracking. 'This has been brewing for a while, ever since the Triwizard Tournament, really. But it's been worse since dear Albus...' a tear slowly tracked down Minerva's cheek and someone graciously offered a clean handkerchief which she used to dab her eyes. 'I believe I may have handled things rather badly, perhaps I should have given him more credit for all he's achieved. He's older than most boys his age. He's been through so much and under so much pressure. Everyone is so harsh on him... Life is harsh for him... so much is expected of him...'
'But where will he go?' someone asked.
'I've no idea,' Minerva said sadly. 'Not his school friends... he won't want to get them in trouble. Maybe ... he's talked about Europe for a while because they're not so strict about underage magic... He said he might actually learn what he needs at Durmstrang...'
'I'm sure he'll be back as soon as he needs his next hot meal,' someone else suggested.
Minerva genuinely wept at that, how could she not?
'He's gone,' she muttered, dabbing her eyes again. 'He's gone and he's not coming back.' She struggled to her feet. 'I rather think I might go up to the school. It might be better to busy myself. Rosmerta, may I use your Floo,' she said sadly.
'Of course, my love, of course.' And Rosmerta busied her through the pub.
By evening, the gossip that Harry Potter had run away with no more than the shirt on his back and his wand in his back pocket after a very public and very acrimonious argument with his mother had spread all through Hogsmeade and reached somewhat further afield too. There were, after all, spies everywhere, for the Ministry as well as Voldemort. More dramatic was the fact that no one knew where he'd gone to. Rumour spread quickly that he'd gone to Northern Germany and had enrolled at the Durmstrang Institute. This was reinforced because word was the house of his Muggle friend's parents, the Grangers, was deserted and the Grangers had all completely disappeared. And the Weasleys, well, Molly Weasley was beside herself with worry and people tended to think she couldn't act to save her life, so although no one could get near The Burrow for confirmation because it was so heavily Warded, it was genuinely believed that Harry Potter wasn't there.
Watches were set up on Minerva McGonagall's cottage in Hogsmeade, but neither she nor Harry Potter returned there before the school year started. And although word got out that Harry Potter had been at the Weasleys, briefly, for Bill Weasley's wedding. The night the Ministry fell, he disappeared again, this time it was supposed that Hermione Granger was with him. Ronald Weasley, word was, was still at The Burrow with a bad case of Spattergroit, Ministry officials had even called at the house and witnessed the poor boy, from a distance, in his bed covered in the horrible and highly contagious purple pustules.
By mid-August 1997, it was declared that Harry Potter was 'Undesirable No.1' and there was a reward for his capture.
And, as Minerva and Harry had predicted, Severus Snape was given Headship at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and the act of any young witch or wizard not attending the school in September was made a criminal offence.
Just before term started, Minerva was standing on the first-floor corridor that looked down the main staircase and into the main hall. Her attention was caught by the presence of Severus Snape and two new members of staff far below her. The Carrow siblings: Amycus would be teaching 'Defence against the Dark Arts'; his sister had been appointed to teach 'Muggle Studies'. She knew what that meant before she'd even met them. It meant trouble. She watched from the shadows with pursed lips, listening to Severus giving them instructions. It appeared he'd risen in the ranks to Voldemort's right-hand man.
'What about the woman?' Amycus snarled.
'You leave Minerva to me,' Severus sneered. 'She is, after all, my Deputy Head. You're not to lay even a single paltry finger on her, Amycus. I know you delight in your business but you heard what the Dark Lord said. Given his current mood, if you so much as defy his slightest whim, Alecto will be grieving her brother's demise after your prolonged and painful death.'
'But once Potter is found?'
'Once Potter is found, then there will be no need to touch her. You would do best to remember that even the Dark Lord knows that tide of popularity would change quickly if the wrong person is targeted at the wrong time. We know that from when Dolores tried to rule the school. The Dark Lord has strategic reasons for his decisions which reach far beyond your ignorant comprehension, so be warned. I won't hesitate to retaliate if you lay a finger on Minerva McGonagall.'
Amycus Carrow snarled again but clearly acquiesced to Severus when Alecto said, 'come on, brother-dearest, let's go and find our new accommodation for the foreseeable future. May there be many years to come of tender young minds to mould.'
Minerva drew deeper into the shadows as she watched Severus do an about turn and stride off in the direction of the Headmasters office. She saw him glance briefly in her direction, black irises glinting dangerously, before he disappeared along a corridor, his robes billowing behind him.
So, she thought grimly. I have Severus to face sooner or later and the Carrow siblings to watch at all times.
She made her way quietly up to the Gryffindor Tower, wondering what the year would bring, wondering where Harry was and if he was okay. All she knew was they'd lost Alastor Moody during the Battle of the Seven Potters; George Weasley had been severely injured by Severus; and Harry lost Hedwig too, that she'd died protecting him. She also knew he'd had escaped The Burrow with Ron and Hermione. But now... there was no news, nothing. She felt so anxious about him.
She switched on the little radio she kept in her office, tuning it until she found Potterwatch. Naturally, she recognised Lee Jordan and the Weasley twins as the voices behind the pirate station. Still, she listened for news. They had nothing to report beyond more deaths. She smiled sadly at their risqué jokes at the expense of Voldemort and their promotion of Harry as the hero battling to save them all.
When there was a tap on her office door, she silenced the radio and hid it under a Disillusionment Charm.
'Enter,' she called.
It was Severus. Already. She braced herself, double-checking her Occlumency barriers.
'Minerva,' he drawled, his tone cautious. His black irises sweeping around her office as he entered. He seated himself opposite her, studying her silently before nodding curtly. 'I wanted to run over a few things before the students arrive. There are certain traditions that the Dark Lord wishes to keep, including the Sorting. We will run it as normal. There will be changes too.'
She didn't speak but waited for him to continue.
He steepled his fingers, watching her languidly. 'You exude mistrust.'
'Are you surprised?'
He paused, as if truly contemplating this for the first time. 'No, I suppose not. I don't suppose you have any news about Potter.'
'You suppose right,' she said tightly.
He nodded slowly, his black eyes never leaving her. She had no doubt he was trying to break into her thoughts, especially when he quirked a small smile. 'A painful business,' he said.
'Which business in particular are you referring to, Severus? Your murder of Albus?' She didn't break eye contact, challenging him.
He sighed heavily, 'that wasn't what I meant. I was referring to your performance in the middle of Hogsmeade. It has a lot of people convinced, including the Dark Lord...'
'I'm not sure what you mean by performance but I'm not willing to discuss personal matters about my family with you, Severus. This is working relationship; I wouldn't dream of asking you about your private life. I expect the same courtesy.'
'Harry Potter is hardly just simply defined as your private life.'
'When it comes to me discussing my son, it is most definitely my private life,' she said firmly.
He sighed heavily again, 'Minerva... you need to understand that Albus was already dying, he had only a matter of weeks, maybe a month at most. He and I knew that when the time came, when Draco succeeded in his mission of getting the Death-Eaters into the school, the task needed to fall to me... We had to protect Draco...'
'You expect me to believe you?' she said coldly.
'No, I suppose not.' He got up and placed a folder on her desk. 'The changes... by request of the Dark Lord, it doesn't do to deny his orders,' he said, before he turned and left. His robes flourishing behind him.
Minerva sighed as she looked through the long list of changes and rules that they were expected to abide by; in less than twenty-four hours the walls of this ancient institution would be filled with young hopeful children; they were in for a shock. Surprisingly, she was relieved that Quidditch had been removed from the extra-curriculum activities. Despite her passion for the sport, it didn't seem right that they would be playing Quidditch at the school while Harry was somewhere out there, struggling to survive. Still, some of these other changes, the discipline was draconian and that was before she got to pages describing what could and couldn't be covered during their studies.
***