17

r 17

"Hem hem," nearly every student in the Great Hall cringed at the sound, the notable exceptions being the new Inquisitorial Prefects. "Attention Students. As Headmistress, it is my extreme pleasure to welcome everyone to the newest school year." Headmistress Umbridge's voice dripped with honeyed poison. The image itself did no favors as a few of the imaginative students cringed at the image of a sultry Umbridge. "This year there are a few new changes to Ministry Policy that I must inform you of, but it's nothing we can't conquer together. As I'm sure you've noticed, there are Ministry Aurors patrolling the school grounds," she waved her hand imperiously towards the doors of the hall and to the grounds beyond, "they are here to escort all present Muggleborns to the Ministry for...registration." The great toad couldn't even keep the smug grin from her face. She continued as she daintily placed her left hand on top of her right as if she were cradling a beloved grandparent's hand, "Now students, I wish to reassure you that there is nothing to be afraid of concerning this process. It's a purely clerical matter than any proper citizen would gladly see completed. After the registration process every proper citizen will be returned to Hogwarts without fuss."

Minerva felt her stomach drop to her feet as Dolores continued her monologue to the heretofore uninterested children. Dolores typically spent the Start of Term feast listening to herself talk endlessly about Ministry Rules and whatever Pureblood Policy had made it through the Ministry to become law. This time however, she was talking about having the Muggleborns removed from the school and registered at the Ministry with the empty promise of returning them. A quick glance to Severus confirmed her worries. This was more than simply registering of the Muggleborns.

Despite her nerves and worry, she managed to maintain her composure during the Feast. Even the overly pleased looks Dolores gave her while eating didn't break her stern visage but she certainly came close to wanting to send an unforgivable curse straight to her ugly toad face. Minerva excused herself from the Head Table with the need to attend to her duties. The amount of Aurors stalking the hallways unnerved her greatly, but they gave her a wide berth as she made her way away from the Great Hall. The amount of Aurors thinned out quickly as she walked, so by the time she got to the Headmaster's Office it had been some time since she saw the last Auror. She spoke the password she and Severus had set after Albus left the school almost three years ago and the guardian shifted to let her in. As she walked into the headmaster's office she could have sworn that the passage was opened quicker and quieter than usual, but she chose not to dwell on it. There were far more pressing matters at hand. She was far from surprised to see Severus had somehow already beaten her to the office.

"Severus. I trust you weren't seen by the Aurors." Minerva spoke in a clipped tone as she sat down behind the Headmaster's desk. She didn't fidget but it took nearly all her willpower not to.

Severus sat down in front of her, a smirk already on his lips. "I daresay that I have far more experience sneaking around this castle than you do, Minerva." He spoke in his usual oily tone that made her skin crawl, but she ignored it. At the moment, he was the only other person in this Merlin-be-damned Castle that had accepted the dangers involved in their mission. She stonewalled Albus when he suggested bringing more teachers into his machinations and had threatened to turn the old man's beard into a necktie when he suggested it. As usual Albus had laughed off her threat but relented anyway.

"Do you know anything about what Dolores and the Ministry are planning with the Muggleborns?" Minerva successfully kept the quiver of fear from her voice and the shudder from her body.

Severus sighed and for the first time he looked very weary. Severus briefly closed his eyes before his face became a stone mask before speaking, "Lucius has let little information out of his grip on this matter, even to me so from him I now nothing other than a few vague hints here and there. The lesser Death Eaters, however, have let far more past their lips." Snape leaned back in his chair in an effort to stall the bad news he knew was going to ruin lives. "It appears that the 'Ministry' wants to use some sort of ritual 'to take the magic from the Muggleborns and give it back to Purebloods'."

Minerva's blood ran cold and her face paled. "Take their magic?" She asked in hushed fear that could barely be called a whisper. "Is that even possible?"

"I don't know, Minerva. I have no knowledge of such a ritual existing, but that means very little in this situation." Severus said before he leaned forward again and intently gazed at Minerva. "At best, the ritual is real and the reasoning behind it is valid," Severus paused, maybe for effect or maybe to choose his next words carefully. "At worst...it's merely an excuse."

Severus was kind enough to let Minerva think on his words without further comment. "Genocide." She whispered as she realized what this meant. This was what their government had become?

"I'm sorry, Minerva. I wish I had a merciful answer," Severus' tone had lost all of it's bite. Whether he was truly sorry was left to be seen.

"That doesn't matter right now, Severus. Our main concern is the children that have been placed into our care," Minerva spoke with far more authority than her pale and clammy skin would indicate she felt.

"Of course Minerva," he pinned her with a stare that showed his fear when he further asked, "but how? Dolores has her guard dogs everywhere, covering every exit." He drawled, maybe unhappily. Maybe annoyed. "They have orders to keep everyone," he stressed the word as he gestured to the castle as a whole, "inside the school until tomorrow morning, at which point the Muggleborns will be escorted to the Ministry!" He shook his head and gripped the arms of the chair he was seated in so tightly the wood creaked. "I don't see a way out of this one, Minerva. There just aren't enough people on our side for open conflict and there's no way I know of to smuggle nearly half the school's worth of children out without someone noticing. Dolores has covered all her bases well." Severus ended with a sneer. He did hate that pink bitch almost as much as Minerva did.

The two teachers sat in silence, each trying to come up with some kind of a plan to get the students in danger out of the school. There was no telling how much time had passed when they were both roused from their thoughts by a strange knocking sound coming from within the Headmasters office. Severus turned around in his chair, craning his neck to look around carefully while Minerva rose from her chair, her wand already at the ready.

The doors to an old cupboard flung open suddenly, startling Severus into a stance that mirrored Minerva's. They were both visibly surprised when a young man walked out of the cupboard. He glanced over at them, but seemed wholly unconcerned with the two mages pointing wands at him.

"Well this isn't Narnia!" The young man announced abruptly, seemingly affronted by not finding what he was expecting.

The boy seemed to be a mish-mash of different cultures. He sounded like he came from somewhere in America, yet his actual accent was hard to place. His head was shaved on the sides with his dark colored hair pulled back into a tight ponytail near the back of his head. The tie was leather with a feather that was tied to the end of the thin strap and his jacket looked like a type of Asian style outer robe. They clashed with the old looking jeans, tan boots, and solid grey shirt he also wore.

"Who are you, young man!" Minerva demanded without taking her eyes off the boy.

"Oh hey!" The young man waved at the two teachers with a big smile. "The name's Logan!"

"Where exactly did you come from…Logan…" Severus hissed like the snake he was.

"The wardrobe," He deadpanned while pointing with his thumb over his shoulder to the cabinet he came out of.

"That is not what he meant, young man!" Minerva replied with much the same tone she used with insolent children that tried her patience.

"Well, obviously," Logan retorted with no small amount of attitude. "I don't know you, so I'm not saying anything to you."

"Young man!" Minerva lowered her wand only to raise her voice. Severus took a step forward to put himself more in between Minerva and the unknown boy. "As Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts, I demand you answer me! Without your attitude!" she continued as she glared at the young man.

"Oh!" His face brightened as he heard her response and ignored her demand, "so this is Hogwarts?" He asked, somewhat surprised. "I wasn't sure it would actually bring me here, considering what happened last time we did that," he trailed off as he tried to think of some way that he and his fathers had been dropped in the woods.

"You cannot walk into the middle of the Headmaster's office without explaining why or how!" Severus growled at the boy, having finally reached the end of his patience.

Severus sent out an Incarcerous before he allowed the boy to answer. The boy then smacked the spell away from him with just his hand, sending it into the wall behind him with a flash and crack of spell on stone. Both teachers were struck silent by the powerful and unusual display, even as the boy looked unimpressed at the mark left by the spell.

"That was a binding spell? Incarcerous was it? What. A. Letdown." The boy turned back to the two teachers, now looking thoroughly displeased. "Is it going to be this disappointing here? Because, if so, I'm going back. Dad said they taught magic here not… whatever that was."

Minerva realized quite quickly that she was not dealing with a standard teenager. She wasn't even sure Dumbledore, You-Know-Who, or even any of the Great Founders were capable of just...smacking a spell away from them with just their hand, with no wand. Even Severus was looking confused as he reassessed the unknown child before them.

"Young man," She stopped herself, trying to control her manners. "Logan?" She asked tentatively. The young man perked up, so she continued. "I believe we have forgotten our manners." Minerva pushed Severus' wand down. "My name is Minerva McGonagall and I am the official Deputy Headmistress of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," she gave him a slight bow.

"Minerva McGonagall?" Logan asked himself softly as he mentally chewed on her name trying to find what it felt important. "Yeah, I know that name! My fathers have mentioned it a lot whenever they talked about when they came to this school!" He informed them with a large smile. "Pleased to make your acquaintance ma'am."

"Your...fathers attended this school? And they know me?" Minerva asked gently. "Are they on the other side of the cabinet?"

"Take us to them," Severus demanded coldly. Logan eyed him with a searching look that Minerva didn't quite like, nor did she think that a teenager should be able to have.

"Be quiet, Severus." Minerva ordered him just as coldly. He was irritated, but ceded to her without saying anything more. He could see it just like she could, this could be what they needed to get the students out and away. Logan looked back to her, seeming more intrigued than anything else. "Logan, dear," Minerva said hoping to keep the edger of desperation out of her voice, "I can only assume that it has been some time since your father's have seen me and, if they speak as highly of me as you suggest, they will not object to seeing me again," She attempted to put on her most matronly voice, she did not have much experience with it.

Logan looked over his shoulder to the cabinet. He wasn't nervous really but he could feel that there was much more going on here than just an invite for tea. "I don't know. We've had a pretty rough day today," He muttered just loud enough for Minerva to hear.

"Please, Logan," Minerva insisted. "We are in serious trouble here and they might be able to help us."

Logan seemed to think on her words for a few moments before sighing softly. "Alright, fine. I'll bring you, but if we want you to leave, you leave," Logan set his terms and Minerva was quietly relieved that they were not steep.

"Of course Logan. That's more than fair," Minerva nodded, while Severus remained a silent gargoyle.

Logan nodded and turned back to the cabinet. He opened the cabinet doors and motioned for the two teachers to follow him. Minerva had been inside this cabinet several times to remove clothes for Albus, if she hadn't he'd have gone out to the feast in puce robes, but it was only this time that it seemed far bigger inside. All three people were able to stand inside comfortably. Logan shut the door behind them, then pushed open the back of the cabinet to reveal a stone walled room with another Vanishing Cabinet in it. She didn't have time to take a closer look at the emblems above the Cabinets before Logan was leading them out of the room and into a stone walled hallway, making it clear that they were in another castle. It looked like a personal castle instead of like Hogwarts, judging by the moving pictures on the walls of people Minerva did not recognize and the furniture that lined the main hallway they walked down. Where Hogwarts felt old to Minerva when she walked down the halls, this place felt absolutely ancient! Logan continued to escort them down a long hallway that seemed to go on and on until they finally reached a large double wooden door that Logan opened with just a flick of his hand.

"Dad! I found some new friends!" Logan called out as passed through the door with his arms outstretched as both a grand entrance and a gesture to his companions.

"Really? So soon? Why am I not surprised?" Came the exasperated question. "Is it one of the weird metallic cats?" Minerva heard a male voice respond and a second, different voice, called the subsequent question.

Logan stopped just as he brought them to two seated figures. One person had short, dark hair that had been messily spiked and the other had lighter colored hair that was combed back carefully.

The one with dark hair turned to look over his shoulder and Minerva immediately recognized him. "Sirius Black?!" She nearly squealed out of surprise.

"Minnie! Darling!" Sirius exclaimed with a broad smile as he quickly got up from his chair with his arms open to request a hug from the woman.

He sauntered over to Minerva and Severus looking like an American Punk with his white shirt, leather jacket, and cowboy boots. He gave Minerva a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek. She looked behind Sirius to see the other person had risen from their chair and was now standing behind Sirius.

"Remus Lupin. Not terribly surprised to see you here with Mr. Black," Minerva spoke with her softly stern voice that put Remus at ease. She was pleased that he looked more like an adult than Sirius, as was usual of course, with a business casual look and a carefully manicured beard.

"Hello Professor. Fancy meeting you here," He said somewhat uncomfortably as he looked at his son.

Minerva looked back to the strange boy that led them here to her former students. A dark haired boy with green eyes that had led her and Severus to two former students that had disappeared nearly fifteen years ago.

"That means you're Harry Potter," She stated plainly as she let all the facts settle in her mind.

'Logan' rolled his eyes dramatically and gave a great put upon sigh. "Is she yet another Seer that has 'seen' right through our fake names?" He asked tiredly.

"I'm no seer. Just someone with exceptional reasoning skills," Minerva smirked.

"I wonder if there is much of a difference between those two things," Harry pondered to himself as he tapped his cheek with his fingers absently, "Grandmother would say the same thing I think."

"That and I'd know the child of one of my favorite students and one of my biggest headaches anywhere," Minerva responded with a smile as she thought of the red haired beauty and the black haired rogue.

"Ok, but which parents? Them..." He pointed at Sirius and Remus,"...or the dead ones?"

Minerva cringed inwardly at how coldly he spoke of Lily and James, but she could understand why since he didn't know them like she did. When she thought about it, Harry made an interesting point. Remus and Lily were two of her favorite students while no other students came close to causing the same amount of trouble for her as James and Sirius had.

"I was referring to Lily and James, but now that you mention it, the same can apply to Sirius and Remus," Sirius smacked Remus on the arm happily while Remus simply nodded.

"If we're done with introductions," Severus broke the pleasant air with his caustic tone, "Where exactly are we?"

Sirius shrugged their shoulders, "No idea really."

"Then whose castle is this?" Minerva asked.

"We're not absolutely sure Professor," Remus replied carefully. "We were at the Vatican when we found an old Vanishing Cabinet in a closed up room that brought us here."

"Why were you at the Vatican?" Minerva asked. This already sounded like she had just caught the boys doing something troublesome. As was her old habit when dealing with the Marauders her eyes narrowed.

"We," Sirius drew out the word as a stall tactic to give him time to think of how not to incriminate himself, "ran into someone in Egypt that told us that things were going to shit here, so we were heading up to get a feel of the situation." Sirius explained calmly, "We didn't get far before we got found by some Aurors."

"How did you find an old Vanishing Cabinet? At the Vatican?" Severus asked, slightly confused. Minerva was confused as well, but suspicious, considering how protective muggles were of that city.

"Harry," Sirius said simply, as if that explained everything.

"Harry" Remus continued as to explain their trouble attracting son to those who did not know him, "has this uncanny ability to find strange places or people that just so happen to help us in some way." Remus explained. "We've gotten used to the insanity and utter ridiculousness of it all really."

"So, just like you and James were when he was in school?" Minerva inquired.

"Oh no!" Sirius explained before a Cheshire Cat grin spread across his face, "Harry's much worse than we ever were," Sirius said with great pride.

"It's true," Remus said tiredly. "I gave up thinking too closely about it after those Monks in China. And really I should have stopped when we hit Louisiana."

"Monks? China?" Severus asked, truly bewildered.

"Hush now," Minerva chastised Severus before turning back to Sirius and Remus. "We don't have time for this. Something terrible is going to be happening at Hogwarts tomorrow morning and we need to get a large portion of the children out of the school," Minerva allowed some of her fear to creep into her voice. No use trying to keep on her brave face in front of the two former students and the son of two more. They needed some help, any help, before innocent children died at the hands of a government in the middle of a Pureblood-led murderous madness.

"What could possibly be set to happen that has you so worked up?" Sirius asked, only half masking his concern.

"The Ministry," Severus began, pulling their attention away from Minerva, "is planning on using a Dark Ritual on all Muggleborns and suspected Muggleborns to take their magic away from them."

"You're a bad liar Snape," Sirius sneers at his former nemesis.

"There's no way they could get away with that!" Remus growled.

"It doesn't matter if they can or can't," Minerva reigned in her emotions to speak again. "The fact that they are trying is cause enough to remove the children until we can find a better solution. I will not let those children be hurt if I can help it!" Minerva said as she clenched her hands as resolve replaced her earlier fear.

"Get them out of harm's way first. Then figure things out from there. Makes sense to me. Find out if that ritual thing is true later, there's much too much at stake to trust it won't be used," Remus muttered to himself.

"What are you thinking?" Sirius asked calmly, very much unlike the brash young man that had seared himself into her memory.

"Here," Severus answered plainly.

"Here?" Sirius questioned Severus like he smelled something foul in the air.

"We don't even know where 'here' is," Remus added, slightly exasperated, "Just a castle in the forest somewhere."

"It's not Hogwarts and at this point, that's enough," Minerva stated with finality.

Standing here, in the courtyard of some long forgotten castle owned by some unknown person, the reality of their situation fully hit her. The Ministry was gearing up to murder children, all to keep a few families in power. And now here she was, talking with a couple of former students about smuggling them out of Hogwarts, a place that was supposed to be safe, to make sure that didn't happen. How did their society get to this point?

Minerva and Severus waited and watched as Sirius turned to Remus, who then turned to Harry who nodded.

"Alright," Remus said finally, "We'll help."

"Yep," Sirius nodded with a subdued smile.

Minerva bristled when Harry rolled his eyes, but relaxed when he nodded. "Yeah, sure. Let's help the kids. Not like there's really a choice. Who plans to murder kids?" He added under his breath.

It only took them a few minutes to throw together a plan that they felt would work. Minerva would go to Hufflepuff and get Pomona to gather up all of her students that were in danger. She would then escort the children, a few at a time, up to the Headmaster's office where Remus would escort them through the Vanishing Cabinet. Sirius would take them to a room in the Castle to wait until the evacuations were complete. Severus was going to go to Ravenclaw and set to gather up the students there since he had no students in his house that needed to be removed.

"What about me?" Harry spoke up once the four adults agreed on the plan.

"You are going to stay here and out of the way," Minerva informed him. She was only mildly surprised to see his anger flare.

"You don't have any authority over me, Professor," He sneered.

"Pup," Remus cut in before Severus could say whatever vitriol was on the tip of his tongue, "This is a serious situation." Minerva rolled her eyes when she caught sight of Sirius' smirk. "The students in the school will have no qualms about hurting anyone going against them." Harry went to speak up, but Remus stopped him with a raised hand. "I know you are fully capable of defending yourself and anyone else around you. My concern is only about how very...unsubtle you can be."

"It's why I'm staying on this side, after all," Sirius added.

Harry sighed loudly, but relented. "Alright, Mooey. I'll stay on this side with Dadfoot, but I won't be happy about it."

Remus gave Harry a kind, loving smile, "Of course not Pup. I wouldn't expect anything less."

Harry spoke up at the door to the Vanishing Cabinet room, "So do you guys have some staff that could come here to help run the kitchens or something? I'm sure trying to feed that many kids as you plan to bring will practically require an army."

That brought a discussion of bringing some of the house elves with them to staff the castle here to support the students. It also opened up new possibilities of moving the at risk students around the castle without being seen. Remus patted his son on the shoulder as he stepped into the cabinet with a quiet, "Good work pup."

As she worked her way to the Hufflepuff common room alongside Pomona, Minerva couldn't help but thing about Harry's situation. It broke her heart. The fact that Lily and James were murdered. That they weren't able to raise their own son. That Sirius knew that he was going to be blamed for that tragedy and escaped with Harry before Pettigrew could spin his tale. At least Harry had loving parents, Minerva thought to herself as she passed a crooked Auror in the hallway near the Hufflepuff door.