Chapter 164: Dark Wings

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I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.

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1 November 1993, Hogwarts

Harry woke up from his bed and realized that it was later than his usual waking time. He was genuinely just exhausted by the time he had gotten to bed, and he would have loved to sleep in. Alas, it was Monday and they still had classes. How unfair was that? He literally saved an entire village from an attack, and he had to go to class the next day.

Things were tense when he joined his friends back while levitating an unconscious Lupin but his clothes. He tried levitating the werewolf by himself, but his magic resistance was on another level. It was strangely reminiscent of how people described Dragon Hide.

Neither Blaise, Tracy, nor Daphne said a word to him, on their way back to their common room. They were obviously pissed with him but he was too exhausted emotionally to care. He simply summoned all of the silver from the unconscious werewolf's body, allowing his wounds to heal unnaturally quickly. He did an experiment discreetly to see how silver interacted with him. Unlike other werewolves, it didn't burn him at the touch, but it seemed to skip any magical protection he had. To normal werewolves, silver was more akin to acid, and it was one of the biggest reasons why they put up with the way the ministry treated them. Such a well-known weakness, that affected them even outside their transformation, made killing them very easy.

However, in Lupin's case, the silver severely burned his eyes like pepper spray and weakened him when it entered his body. Theoretically, if a serum containing silver entered his bloodstream, it would be very easy to kill him. However, with the melting point of silver being extremely high and the fact that researchers discovered that altering silver in any way, like using silver nitrate, or enchanting the silver in any way rendered whatever property it had that worked so well against werewolves useless, those avenues were very slim.

The measure would be to get the man to breathe silver powder. It would be very hard to remove it, and Lupin would be very weakened until the silver left his system which could take a long time. He would think of another measure later but the data he had so far was extremely useful. Still, he left the werewolf on the school grounds where he was visibly healing and would probably have regained his consciousness soon after.

When Harry went down to the common room, he was met with an uncomfortable silence. He took his time to actually notice how his friends were looking, and while Blaise and Tracy seemed angry, Daphne looked more hurt for some reason. Harry expected them to start some kind of confrontation but was thankful that they didn't. He had warned them about the common room being bugged by the Court of Slytherin and honestly, he was just too worn out to start a confrontation without even having a chance to drink his morning coffee.

After they silently went up to the Great Hall for their breakfast, they saw that while the Great Hall buzzed with the usual morning chatter, there was an undercurrent of unease permeating every table.

Tracy seemed to beat Harry to the punch and asked one of the prefects whose name Harry simply didn't bother memorizing, "What's going on?"

The prefect gave her an incredulous look, "You're joking, right? McGonagall just announced that classes are cancelled today. It probably has something to do with whatever happened in Hogsmeade yesterday."

"What happened yesterday? We left early since Harry wasn't feeling well."

"Lucky timing, I guess. Apparently, Hogsmeade was attacked last night. But this weird black fog came and when it disappeared, the attackers were petrified. Half of the house had spent last night answering questions from the ministry. We still don't know who the petrified people were since they wore masks, but the DMLE grabbed them for interrogations."

Tracy and Blaise stared wide-eyed at Harry, while Daphne chose to end the conversation with the prefect, "Thanks for answering our questions."

The boy just shrugged and went back to speaking to his friends. Seeing his friends about to explode he waved his wand to cast a small privacy bubble around them.

He did it just in time since Tracy whispered, "Morgana, it bloody worked."

Harry scoffed, "Of course, it worked. However, I am curious about how the ministry is going to spin this. I think they'll pretend it was their idea all along or something."

"But… They didn't do anything," Tracy exclaimed.

"They didn't, but people need to trust their government. That's not to mention that Fudge's approval rates are lower than they've ever been. People just don't feel safe ever since Azkaban was destroyed. This is an easy way to get people to reelect him in the next turn."

Daphne nodded, "Any politician would have done the same. It's a fairly common tactic, but the beneficent often pays whoever was responsible, but since we want to stay anonymous, it's a free win for the ministry."

Their theory was proven to be correct when they say the first page of the Daily Prophet:

TRIUMPH OVER DARKNESS: FUDGE'S MINISTRY PREVAILS IN HOGSMEADE

By Rita Skeeter

In a stunning display of courage and cunning, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement (DMLE), under the commendable leadership of our esteemed Minister, Cornelius Fudge, successfully thwarted a heinous attack on Hogsmeade this past weekend.

In what could have been one of the darkest days in our recent history, the brave witches and wizards of the DMLE captured all the attackers, which included all the remaining Azkaban escapees, Fenrir Greyback and his infamous werewolf pack, and several mercenaries. Surprisingly, Walden Macnair, a ministry employee, was found wearing a mask and participating in the attack. The ministry has promised a thorough investigation into Macnair's involvement, ensuring that justice will be served.

The attack, characterized by nefarious dark magic and chaos, was quickly met with a new magical technique that summoned some kind of black fog that blinded everyone and temporarily petrified the attackers. Sources say that the magic was developed by a collaboration between the Department of Mysteries and the DMLE, as a response to Azkaban's destruction earlier this summer. This reporter can do nothing but praise the result of this collaboration which captured every single attacker without a single casualty.

Minister Fudge, in a statement to the Prophet, expressed his unwavering resolve. "Let this victory be a testament to the strength and resilience of the Ministry. Let it be said that in these dark times, our main priority is to guarantee the safety of the citizens of magical Britain and today was a monumental success in making our glorious nation safe once more. We stand united against any force that dares to threaten our peace and prosperity."

The Minister's decisive actions and strategic foresight have been lauded by many in the wizarding community, causing a dramatic rise in his approval ratings.

In the wake of this triumph, the streets of Hogsmeade remain calm, with citizens expressing their gratitude and relief. "We owe our safety to the Ministry," said one relieved shopkeeper, "Without their swift response, who knows what horrors could have befallen our village."

As the Ministry continues to uphold law and order, we sleep a little sounder, knowing that under its vigilant watch, the darkness will always be kept at bay.

For more information about the Hogsmeade Attack, view pages 2-3

For more information about Fenrir Greyback, view page 4

For more information about the escaped inmates, view page 5

For more information about Minister Fudge's leadership, view pages 6-8

Blaise's face turned stormy, "I can't believe they're taking all the credit."

"It's better for everyone in the long run. The minister has been trying to engage magical Britain in an International way. But with what happened to Azkaban, he was starting to lose sponsorships for the Quidditch World Cup, and that would have been a disaster. You can't blame a starving man for eating any meal that comes before him," Harry responded calmly.

"You always have an answer, don't you," he answered while sneering.

"I know that you're angry at me…" Harry started.

But he was interrupted by Tracy, "You treated us like children. We made that plan with you; we worked our asses off for you. You didn't even say what happened with the freak with the knife. He didn't even have a wand, but you sent us away like we were less than you."

"In my defence, you were acting like children. I told you that we should leave, but you refused. I indulged you because you deserved the break and I recognized that, but you promised me that you would follow my orders if there was an attack, and not to second-guess me. You went back on that promise. And just for your information, the smiling killer wasn't just some freak with a knife. Did you see what happened to Lupin? He tried to intervene in our fight. He lasted less than two minutes. And while I was able to drive him off, I didn't really hurt him."

"So, it's a man," Daphne asked.

"Yes, it was. Or at least, he used to be a man. It's very hard to call him human after what he became. But that's not the point. The truth is that for all your talks of joining me, you still don't trust me. And until that happens, I just can't trust you to do something without questioning it first. And if I hadn't forced you into that tunnel, you would have died. There's no way around it."

"We would…" Tracy protested.

"I'm not saying you're not good. You're very talented for your age. But the four of you together wouldn't be able to land a hit on Lupin let alone the thing that almost killed him. And I know for a fact that I made the right decision."

"How would you know?" Blaise asked with a frown.

"I know because I was his target. He wanted to kill me. Look, you're the ones who agreed to follow me. I didn't ask you to do it, but it was your decision, not mine. I wasn't sure that I should have, but I brought you into the big leagues, nonetheless, assuming that you would trust me to make the right choice. I didn't ask any of you to join me, and yet you did. I didn't ask to be the target of a fucking serial killer and yet I am. I didn't ask for that fucking monster in human skin to be my godfather who was supposed to be dead, but he is, and he fucking wants to kill me. I didn't ask for my mother to be some kind of dark witch that killed my own fucking father, yet she did. I have a lot more on my mind than to listen to you whining about not being treated like adults when I have literally trusted you with the defence of an entire village."

Harry took a deep breath and continued, "If I treated you like children, I wouldn't have trusted you with my visions. I wouldn't have asked you to contribute to Hogsmeade's defence. And I definitely wouldn't have been training you to hold your ground. I have so much on my plate and I'm tired. I guess I just expected my friends to support it with me instead of piling on even more."

The words hung heavily in the air, and Harry could feel the weight of his friends' hurt and frustration. They looked down with a mix of shame and anger. Daphne's eyes were red which made Harry really regret his words. He was just tired. 

The last Potter could understand that they felt betrayed when he trapped them in that tunnel. He would have been as well. But they had to understand that this was the only way to keep them safe. He would have been distracted if he had tried to protect them, and Sirius would have definitely taken advantage of that. He just didn't want to see them hurt.

He had a lot to figure out and quickly. Black would return and he didn't know when. Hogwarts' ward will not stop him. The castle walls will not keep Harry safe. He needed to start planning for that inevitability. Luckily, he had an idea about how to get started.

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AN:

Before any of you say anything, this is just a minor spat between friends. I noticed that I haven't really developed any of Harry's friends' characters. It was an oversight on his part. I guess I'm mirroring my thoughts towards Harry, since I did, in fact, neglect their character development. This is essentially my trying to get them a little more involved in the story and I didn't want it to be a sudden thing.

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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr

I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.