Summer time - A crazy summer

Today was a special day for Millicent and the rest of the group, they had seen each other several times but they were finally going to be able to see Clark again, after all that had happened last year they were afraid of not to be able to reconnect with their friend.

Getting ahead and heading to the Leaky Cauldron an hour early with the rest of the group to have time to chat, Millicent thought back to July, with the year-end attack the Ministry of Magic had begun to put pressure on Dumbledore, some of the injured students belonged to influential families so the consequences were all the more important...and her parents like many wizards couldn't go on vacation... she regretted the trip they usually took with her every year...it was the same for Leonard and his sister, so she spent most of the month of July with them seeing Cassius and Mark from time to time, the two brothers had argued at the beginning of the holidays...the brothers didn't seem as close as they used to...and Cassius' phoenix had a bad temper...to the point that he even fought with that of the director Dumbledore when they had met him a few days before...

They even ran into Granger to her great regret...she looked tired...Mark wanted to make fun of her but Leonard stopped him explaining that he had seen her come out of Clark's cabin a few weeks ago earlier in the hogwarts express...and they looked like friends...mark not wanting to risk making things worse with Clark left her alone...they had already talked about it but Clark looked different...they first thought that things were settled between them but the silence of this summer made them doubt...Cassius had even offered to go to Clark and speak to him directly, Mark first asking how he knew where he lived received as an answer quite cold "uncle Dumbledore" which pushed Mark to isolate himself for a while...the story of the Muggle-born having a relationship with the Dumbledore family had also made its share of noise...strangely the rumor of the Clark's ancestry did not stop either, on the contrary as they crossed Malfoy and his two acolytes in mid-July they could hear them vehemently contradict this rumor, Millicent took the opportunity to talk again about the incident in the aviary and the strange way in which he avoided the assailants a few months earlier...Malfoy's eyes screaming that his father would hear about this, before leaving...one of the Slytherin girls that was staying with her friends even replied "that's not funny ! Owls are going to defecate on their mansion every day now...he think someone cursed their family home..." a voice from the crowd added "probably a blood traitor like Potter or Weasley " the atmosphere made the group want to leave...arriving she met Leonard, his sister, Mark and Cassius, this one telling them that yesterday was Clark's birthday... they decided to buy him a present if the atmosphere was right when he arrived...even though Millicent felt sad that she hadn't heard of it or that Clark hadn't invited any of them to celebrate...Cassius then looked serious and said "according to Uncle Dumbledore, Clark no longer lives with his family...maybe he was depressed..." Mark seeming to have finally digested his brother's connection with Dumbledore answered "do you think he will come? I mean...if his family threw him out and that he didn't tell us about it...maybe he's still mad at us..." leaving a palpable and sad atmosphere.

At the same time Dumbledore had just returned to Hogwarts, the last few weeks had been exhausting for the aging wizard...sighing he addressed a paint "the ministry will take part in the education provided at Hogwarts...it's the best I could do given the circumstances...Fudge even wanted aurors to guard the school...a dozen will be staying at the castle for the first half of the year just in case...", then he turned around and petting fawkes he mumbled as if to externalize what was stressing him "Harry's friends don't seem to be enough anymore...Granger is still too affected by Tom's Occlumency and mine...maybe Neville will be enough to replace her while she recovers...as for Ron...without my intervention he would not have passed the first year...fortunately there is still hope...Cassius...with enough attention he might allow Harry to get along with Clark...given his heritage he is doomed to face the death eaters...after all no one knows...that I killed his mother... "Pausing to contemplate he then added "Your plumage seems to have returned to normal my old friend...if only young Pierce could be less dark...he reminds me so much of the Toms...the same talent for magic…maybe I should move private lessons forward a year…if tom can break through his shell maybe harry will gain a valuable ally…" Professor Snape's voice rang out "Fortunately he didn't ask to meet the death eaters in the picture...otherwise he would have been lost..." Dumbledore not seeming surprised then answered him "his past may have already...lost him...magical accidents happen all days but none that kills dozens of people every year...his affinity for ancient magic makes him a target for people like Tom and -" Snape added "for us too..." Dumbledore then continued "we have no choice...his affinity seems stronger than Tom's, almost as strong as our new ally's...maybe even more...if he is guided on the path of darkness the world will suffer..." Snape groaned and said as he left "Maybe honesty will let him choose the right path...but as you will director...". Dumbledore then looked out the window of his office muttering "if I had known...the one time I lost control...I hope I haven't doomed the wizarding world...".

A bit at the time too, Hermione having joined Harry and the Weasley family couldn't help but think back to Clark and his diary...her memory was still playing tricks on her...but a Slytherin more trustworthy than her friends ? She couldn't believe it, even if it was her handwriting...however she doubted very quickly hearing Ron say "it seems that Clark is the son of Snape...he is made to be bad...told you slytherin was for the wicked..." and like every time he spoke badly of someone behind their back Ron went back and saw Clark and his friends...Clark then replied "I wish I had Professor Snape as a father, mine is a muggle wreck...so a magic wreck would have been an improvement..." this one- having understood through Parasite's memories that Snape was not after Potter but his mother...Lily Potter...a Parasite joke no doubt since he knew...so he wanted to defend the man who reminded him so much of Parasite...he even thought that Dumbledore could have been responsible for bringing Potter and Lily together after all he seemed obsessed with Harry and it was a world with prophecies...according to Parasite's memories they were taken very seriously...that would explain the Occlumency on Hermione who still seemed to be struggling to get over it...Dumbledore probably wanted to create a couple again to ruin the future of another talented muggle-born...and after the Slytherins are the bad guys...he looked at her and added "besides Ron, I was sure you'd miss the year...congratulations...". This one seemed to be about to do a nonsense but heard his father arguing with Lucius Malfoy which caught his limited attention...waiting for the end of the 'fight' Clark noticed that Lucius Malfoy had slipped a book in Ron's sister's basket, he greeted Harry who seemed uncomfortable so close to Gilderoy Lockhart, Clark left with his friends, not forgetting to steal the book while greeting the rest of the group making Harry believe that he was trying to bury the hatchet that Ron had spear...the book reeked of green magic, but also other magic, a gray one, no doubt a soul...capable of slowly possessing the holder of the book...Clark smiled as he directed his friends to the magical menagerie to buy a pet or two...

On arriving there he was marked by the quantity, but very quickly bored he did not find what he wanted, he could understand most of the animals in the shop but none seemed to have any affinity with the strange personality of his owl...he wasn't going to buy an animal that would end up as food for this bad-tempered French owl...then he noticed a rat standing on two legs...he leaned over and looked at it,he heard a voice with a very pronounced accent, listening to the rat say " Is that understood ? You will run away and come back if you are bought ! I am the leader, I am the first to leave here or nobody leaves ! " then the rat turned to Clark and said "another idiot, it looks like that French girl who bought you dumby, you know the one who loved kicking people out, taking their house, dude remember it, the one who constantly spoke badly about people. Stop kidding, and remember, the one who had a suggar daddy and who stayed with her boyfriend at the same time while criticizing those who had a crush on their teacher " the rat had taken the head of another rat in his paws, he replied in a stressed voice "that was your buyer, boss...we had a hypocrite who abandoned us for no reason...we didn't kill our owner, we boss...even if when you talk about it frankly the human world looks rotten to the core...maybe it was a good deed boss..." the rat nodded and added letting go of the other rat "yes it's true, a good deed, at least I know how to get rid of a corpse without any problem...oh I know ! We should make a Muggle company for that ! I already have the slogan 'a corpse on your hands and no desire to end up in prison ? Call rat company, we have the rat-ical solution for you' " the other rats looked at each other as accustomed to the scene and applauded...Clark said to himself "another psycho...at least he won't end up in Jasmine's stomach..." buying the rat, he fixed it in the cage to calm it down when he was already talking about killing him and disposing of his body...