Year Five - Chapter Twenty

The day arrived. The day arrived where the very walls of Hogwarts were bathed in the sweat and blood of the countless innocents sent to the slaughter. As the other students wondered what was going on in the lower years, the older ones gave sympathetic expressions. The Fifth Years marched to their doom, humming war songs made of notes and softly whispering prayers to the gods of knowledge, the holy trinity of Coffee, Last Minute Cramming and Sleepless Night.

I did not whistle my way into the exam room, but remained amiably silent throughout the written portions of the exam, and then through the practical themselves.

It was an unnerving thing for the examiners.

"Uhm, yes Mister Umbrus, that is an excellent disarming charm," one of the wizards said. "You could have pronounced the incantation though-"

I raised an eyebrow, my silent judging of the man probably getting to him, since he swallowed and said nothing more.

"A spell for extra credit?" one of the witches hazarded, and I proceeded to conjure forth a crackling typhoon of fire and lightning in a corner of the room.

I was not nervous. Clearly, I was not nervous.

I left the typhoon disappear ever so harmlessly, much to the wide-eyed, shocked expressions of the examiners. "Uhm...y-yes, that will work fine, Mister Umbrus!" one of them hastily blurted. I gave a nod, and moved off.

For Charms, I swished my wand and cleansed the entire room of impurities, filth, and made everyone suddenly realize just how clean the world could become.

For Transfiguration, I used my fingers to touch a pebble, and turned it into a wildly spinning Chakram which I then gingerly morphed into a bouquet of roses.

For Herbology, the plants stared at me with the same intensity I stared back at them, and they silently cowed themselves into the proper positions.

For Ancient Runes, I translated the happy tale of the partnership forming between two Gods, minutes before an evil warlock turned them into stone to steal their precious wealth.

I was not nervous. Clearly, my nervousness was absolutely non-existent. I repeated that even as I proceeded to prepare the Potion taking great care of memorizing every single line of the recipe as I worked on it, doing my hardest to never distract myself. By the end, I reckoned the examiners felt I had created some kind of extremely dangerous explosive, rather than the Draught they had asked for.

Care for Magical Creature saw me snarl a Fire Crab into submission as I cleaned his cage, glare my way through the Porcupines until I found the Knarl, and then calmly suggest the perfect diet for a Unicorn.

My eyes swore murder to any and all creature that dared cross the edge of the Forbidden Forest, especially during exam times.

Astronomy and History of Magic I filled out, but didn't care for the results of.

It was nice, being alive.

"Ah," I sighed in relief, "Exams are over," I chuckled. "Nice and easy, wasn't it?"

"Shade," Amanda pouted, "You terrified the examiners."

"What? I did not," I retorted.

"Don't lie," Megan chided me in turn, "They were pretty generous with their marks when someone went after you."

"Yeah, that's unfair," Wayne grumbled, "You could have changed your surname to go before me!"

I rolled my eyes. "I sincerely doubt I'd be able to scare anyone. If I could, I'd get Amanda here to stop doing foolhardy things after all," as I pointed that out, Amanda stuck her tongue out in my direction. "See? Utterly dreadful behavior, Miss Brocklehurst."

"Whatever," Mandy sighed, and stretched. "It's over. This is all over. The darkest period in our life is over."

I held my breath, ever so briefly, and chuckled. My hands touched the sand of the lake's shore. The weather warm, the breeze pleasant, Squiddie peacefully swimming in the lake without a care in the world. The picnic plaid laid beneath Megan had a basket filled with all the necessary ingredients for a snack. "We won't know our results for a while," Megan acquiesced. "I don't know how I'll deal with the nervousness...maybe I'll brew some Draught of Peace? But...can I actually do that until I know I've passed my Potions' OWL?"

"That's an interesting question," Wayne said. "I'll solve it by raiding the fridge throughout the summer," he answered it just as easily.

I couldn't help but laugh at that. "Fridge-delving, the number one solution to forgetting about existential angst and horror."

I relaxed, and exhaled. The breeze was nice. Hogwarts was peaceful. It wouldn't last. I knew it wouldn't last, but I could cherish the moments I had. These precious moments, I would burn into my memory, never to forget them.

What else was I to do? Oh, right. There was one last thing I needed to do.

"These are egregious times," professor Dumbledore spoke as he quietly looked over the entire hall. "For perhaps the first time in Hogwarts' History, the Houses' points flawlessly match one another."

Both Professor Snape and Professor Black looked strangely pleased with one another, as if a great weight had been lifted off their chest. The tale of Yrrah Rettop had come to a close, and in an egregiously wonderful manner too. Bound by the desire to see the poor girl safe, haunted by the guilt of the mother's demise at his hand, and by the oath sworn to her father, the two had found common ground and faced incredible perils to recover the very important McGuffin.

Everyone would have their happy endings.

Except the people muttering crossly about the unfairness of having lost the House Cup, though technically they had all won it again.

"Shade," Amanda said in an accusatory whisper.

"Amanda," I answered with a bright, cheerful smile. "What wonderful news, don't you think?"

She stared at me, quite crossly. "We could have won," she grumbled. "You raked in so many points doing Detention..."

"And unfortunately, it appears the other Houses did as well," I brightly kept my poker-face on.

The Headmaster exhaled, "Since it appears that the result was engineered to perfection, I feel the need to reward such cheeky behavior by allowing it, but only this year." He continued. "Congratulations, to all of you."

And all it had taken was a bit of blackmail, some witty charmwork on the Entrance Hall's Point Hourglasses and a bit of bravery and hard work.

Indeed, I had achieved another victory.

"You're impossible, Shade," Amanda muttered under her breath.

Four perfect replicas of the House Cups ended up at each of the Houses' tables, and as we all clapped about the joined victory, I knew it was a hollow, and quite dim, act. Yet I wanted to do it, if nothing else, one last time.

Who knew if the Sixth year would happen as peacefully as the fifth had?

It was just as I was about to depart Hogwarts for the station, together with the rest of the students, that the Headmaster caught up to me. "Mister Umbrus," he said, and I already expected him to tell me that something had come up, and I'd need to go elsewhere, or perhaps face incredibly dangerous trials to become the next heir of Merlin, acquire the power of the elemental spirits, and form a soulbond with gorgeous fairies.

"You may need these," he said instead, a nifty-looking British Identity Card and a wallet. "Do spend responsibly, though if you find yourself in need of more muggle money, you can always use the Knight Bus to travel to Diagon Alley and ask at Gringotts for an exchange."

I blinked, and then quietly flipped the identity card open, just to see how my photo had been taken.

The face that looked back at me was serious, and stone-faced. It winked, ever so briefly, once it realized there were no muggles nearby.

"Thank yo-" my voice died in my throat, the words refusing to come out.

I had given a proper look at the name written on the identity card, after all.

Shade.

Umbrus.

Dumbledore.

"British muggle laws are quite stringent when it comes to allowing children leave for work under foster care, and do not take kindly to being told that there is absolutely no need to check the workplace prior to agreeing, or on regular intervals," Dumbledore acquiesced, "I felt that this answer would suit everyone involved, since it merely required a trip to the Ministry of Magic to finalize the adoption, and get a few Obliviators on the job." His eyes twinkled as he said that, as if it meant he could avoid countless months of Adoption Red Tape by merely going through the magical path of it all.

He clasped his hands in front of himself, and looked at me with his usual grandfatherly smile. "Of course, should you find this arrangement displeasing, you will be entitled by the time you receive your OWLs to merely head over to the Adoption Registry and have yourself emancipated." He took a small breath, "Though you shouldn't worry about things like Father's day or the likes of my birthday. Once you reach a certain age, they stop mattering."

"I..." I opened my mouth, and then closed it.

My heart was beating. It was beating happily. My vision was ever the slightest bit blurry, perhaps the dust, perhaps the air.

Somehow, it broke the dam of my thoughts. It had been one of my fears. It had been one of my deepest, darkest fears.

I had always been an emancipated man, but one who cared for his family all the same. Perhaps the stereotype of the Italians as being a bit too Family-connected was spot-on on this, but it was the truth. There had been a searing voice inside of me, a hole of dark, deep thoughts that I refused to let out, because it wasn't like I could change anything after all.

It broke, and I ended up hugging Albus Dumbledore tightly, trying my hardest not to sniffle and failing ever so miserably in the attempt.

"Now, Mister Dumbledore," the Headmaster said with a gentle chuckle as he patted my back kindly. "You have a train to catch and a fun summer to enjoy. Though I would have you keep this a secret, until at least the end of your studies at Hogwarts."

"Y-Yeah," I wiped my tears away, "I'll do that." I swallowed. "Guess...we'll see each others when the new school year starts, dad?"

"That we will," the Headmaster acquiesced with a slow nod, "That we will...son."

His eyes twinkled as he said that.

Mine didn't need to; I was radiating happiness as I walked away from the Headmaster, clutching my documents tightly, and headed together with the other students towards the train, climbing aboard with ease and waving goodbye from the window, the serenity of the smile on my face so big, it was too obvious a thing to ignore, even for the staunchest among the Not-My-Bloody-Business people.

"Someone's in a good mood," Megan said, my smile so infectious, it blossomed on the faces of my friends too.

I knew just what was the right thing to say.

"Expecto Patronum," I swished my wand, and the blinding white magic shone, ever-so brilliantly, in the train car.

The snake-like neck elongated, as wings fluttered ever so gently on the back of a snake body. Two small legs stood at the bottom of the strange, snake creature. Ironically, it was Care for Magical Creature that told me what the Patronus was.

Though as the Patronus gently hissed and then dropped its long head around the four of us in the train car, widening its wings trying to fit into the space with as much of his body as possible, it soon became obvious to the others too.

"An Occamy," Amanda muttered. "Why am I not surprised Shade's Patronus is a territorial half-bird and half-snake thing with a penchant for protecting its eggs?"

"I was betting on a dragon," Wayne grumbled.

"Do I win the bet since it's technically a bird of sorts?" Megan instead wondered.

"No way," Amanda said. "I said mother hen, and I'm winning this," as she pointed at the Patronus' incredibly protective attitude, I simply laughed, even louder.

Truly, nothing could possibly go wrong.

A few hours later, witnessing the corpses of all of my friends made me change my mind.

This wasn't a Boggart infestation. This was a Boggart Nightmarish Armada.