The Third War by dumbledorefluertwins
Chapter Notes: Hey, this chapter doesn't make much sense if you skim over it so you'll have to read it through pretty carefully. Well done to all those who solved the words - you've just got to hope my characters are that smart!
Edit: A lot of you were confused by a certain name - It's meant to be Emilie with an accent over the "E" but it didn't come out for some reason. So, when you see ...milie it's meant to be Emilie.
“Merry Christmas!” The Potters living room was decorated lavishly with tinsel, glitter, fairies, coloured candles (Fred and George’s clever invention) and, best of all, a huge Christmas tree, nearly touching the ceiling that was decorated with gold and silver decorations and sending a sweet scent of pine into the air. But for Sirius the best sight of all was seeing the room packed full of his family. The entire Weasley household was there as was the Lupins and several members of the old order.
The house was chaotic; kids of all ages were racing around, presents were being given, the adults were getting a bit tipsy and Molly Weasley was having great difficulty keeping both adults and children out of the kitchen, where delicious wafts of her cooking could be smelled from every corner of the house.
Jamie had finally given up his silent treatment on Lillian. It was incredibly hard not to talk to his twin sister when they shared all of their classes and were often paired up. However, he point blank refused to join in with any trouble making and when pranks where suggested, started to sulk in a similar fashion to Ron. He spent Christmas Eve up in Sirius’ room with his siblings, Danny, Melissa and the rest of his cousins (Ellie, Lucy, Jack, Billie-Jo, Natasha, Will, Nicolas, Émilie and Alex), filling them in on what his father had said about the war.
“I asked him and he said he couldn’t tell us anymore than we’d already been told… But I kept bugging him and he finally said that he didn’t know, just that weird things were happening. He let slip something about a veil. That’s it really. Nothing else. He said he didn’t dare tell us anymore.”
“Why not?” asked Émilie, absently braiding a strand of her long blonde hair. At seventeen years old, Émilie was slim, tall and very much desired at school. Jamie opened his mouth to answer, but it was Lillian who replied.
“He says that Potters and Weasleys have a knack for attracting trouble, and with both genes we’re bound to be human magnets for it.” Several people nodded and shrugged in agreement.
“What veil d’you think he’s talking about?” Nicolas asked. He was seventeen and son of Charlie and his wife, Katherine, although Charlie had died before Nick was born. Lillian shrugged, picked a comic up off the floor, and began to flick through it idly.
“What a veil?” Billie-Jo was just four years old and was already showing the same inquisitive nature as her father, Fred, and good looks as her mother, Alicia. Although, she still had trouble stringing words together. Natasha, fifteen, explained slowly to Billie-Jo while everyone pondered.
“Hang on,” said Sirius, slowly, “Didn’t Sirius die by falling through a veil?” Seven-year-old Ellie looked at him blankly.
“You’re Sirius.” He rolled his eyes and began to explain.
“Well, I think that we should research this veil then,” said Will. Everyone started at hearing his voice. The son of Percy and Penelope, he was a very quiet fourteen-year-old that preferred reading books to socialising with friends.
“I agree,” said Lucy, his younger sister. Even though she was only nine, she was smart beyond her years.
“What? Reading and stuff?” Danny pulled a face. Will rolled his eyes.
“Yeah “ the Ministry isn’t doing anything, I think that we should.”
***
“This sucks “ I should be studying for my OWL’s not some stupid veil. Anyway, I hate reading,” grumbled Danny.
“Aren’t you meant to be a Ravenclaw?” asked Émilie, flicking through a large, dusty, red book with gold writing. Danny scowled.
“Just because I don’t like reading doesn’t mean I’m not clever.” Émilie ignored him and began to read. The group (minus Sirius, Lucy, Billie-Jo and Alex) were in the Hogwarts library, trying to research the veil. The problem was that they didn’t know what they were meant to be researching.
“This is hopeless! Can’t you get anything else out of your dad?” asked Will, slamming another useless book shut. Jamie shook his head.
“Already tried “ he’s keeping tight lipped about it.” Émilie sighed, shut her book and began to browse the shelves again.
***
“Harry!” Harry whipped round at the sound of his name. Cho Chang was hurrying towards him, carrying several heavy books.
“Yes?” he asked, curiously.
“I was wondering… my fourth years are studying recent magical wars in their History of magic and I thought it would tie in very nicely if they studied the actual fighting part of it in Defence as well as the political side in History, and, well… I don’t know much about it, I didn’t actually fight at all during the war, so I was wondering whether you could please-”
“No way!” said Harry, quickly catching on.
“Oh, please! I wouldn’t usually ask but it’s vital that they know the… well, the nasty side of war.”
“Since when does war have a nasty and a nice side? No way, I not talking about dark things in front of fourteen-year-olds; they shouldn’t need to know about those sorts of things-”
“Don’t worry; you won’t be asked about Horcruxes or anything and it’s just this once, please?” He considered her for a moment.
“No Horcruxes, inferi or Azkaban, okay? I don’t want to go through those memories,” he said, firmly.
“Thank you! It’s period three tomorrow; come at about ten past twelve.” And with that, she ran off, leaving Harry wondering why on earth he was agreeing to this.
***
“Class, today we have a special guest coming. Harry Potter,” The class whispered excitedly, “He’ll be here in ten minutes or so and you may ask him any question as long as they have nothing to do with Horcruxes, inferi or Azkaban. Please do remember that it may be hard for him to relive some of these memories and he may not answer every question. I would like you to take notes on anything you feel relevant as you will be writing essays for me.” The class groaned, but, while they were meant to be reading a book (Dark times, Dark choices, by Hermione J. Granger), kept their eyes firmly on the clock, waiting for ten past twelve.
Harry braced himself and knocked the classroom door, rather dreading going inside. He opened at Cho’s voice and sheepishly shuffled in. She smiled.
“Don’t look so nervous, I’ll leave you with the kid’s; they’ve been told not what to say “ if you don’t want to answer something then don’t,” she whispered to him. He nodded and she left. He sat down on the teacher’s desk at the front, gazing around at the eager faces of the students, awkwardly.
“Okay, I’ve been told you all want to ask some questions “ shoot.” The hands stay down and students looked at their friends uncomfortably; no one wanted to be the first to raise their hand. He smiled.
“I won’t bite.” Slowly, the Gryffindors raised their hands, having got used to Harry being around. Soon every student had an arm raised, slightly overwhelmed by the sea of hands Harry said, “I don’t know your names so I’ll just blindly point… um… you, girl at the back.” He pointed to a girl with short brown hair.
“Roxanne, Is it true that you’re a Parselmouth? Only your daughter said-”
“Ah, she’s been spreading that about, has she? I’ll have a word with her. Yes, I am. Voldemort transferred some of his powers to me when I was a baby.”
“Why on earth did he do that?” asked a boy with curly black hair. Harry laughed.
“He didn’t do it intentionally.” Soon everybody’s hands were down and people were just shouting things out in one big class discussion. Unknown to Harry, Will was sitting in the corner and he seized the opportunity.
“Hey, did you know he witnessed his own godfather’s death?” he whispered to the girl next to him. She was called Gabriel and was the school gossip. She gasped.
“Really?” He shrugged.
“That’s what I heard.”
“Is it true that you witnessed your godfather’s death?” she asked loudly. Harry stopped smiling and a distant look appeared on his face.
“Yes, I was fifteen. It happened in the Department of Mysteries. That was when the Ministry finally realised Voldemort was back.”
Will smiled. The Department of Mysteries. That was where the veil was. The Death Eaters wanted to do something with the veil. And that was why Unspeakables were being murdered.
And now they had the name, they could figure out the mystery themselves. He grinned as he thought how proud his father would be when he found out that he, Will, had solved something that not even the top Aurors could. With some help from his cousins, of course.
Perhaps if he’d known how many lives would be lost, how many people would suffer or what the Death Eaters were planning, he wouldn’t have meddled. But he did and he opened floodgates that had been closed since Harry had uttered the killing curse for the first (and hopefully final) time. Over the years water had built up behind these floodgates; anger, hatred, malice, greed and above all a determination to get revenge. Unless he interpreted the words that were whispered from behind the veil quickly, the world would fall into the darkness and despair that Harry and the Order had fought so hard to eliminate.
But, of course, Will didn’t know this. To him, and all of his cousins, it was just a game.