A/N: I’m really sorry that I haven’t updated for a month! I’ve been really busy, between soccer season, several projects, and increased homework. The next chapter will come up much sooner, I promise!!
Will walked silently through the dark hallway that night. Or morning, if you wanted to be technical, Will thought as the clock chimed at midnight. Not that sneaking out at night was new to him. Sneaking out on a weekly basic came with being Blake’s brother. But doing it often didn’t get rid of the guilty feeling in his stomach, or the fear of being caught. He knew he wouldn’t get into trouble if he was caught, but Ginny would ask questions, and might even send him back to his room, and put his mission in jeopardy.
Luckily for him and Harry, finding the key wasn’t all that hard. It was in the same hiding place, in between the photo album pages. The only tricky part was finding the book, which was no longer sitting on the nightstand, and even then Harry was still able to grab the key and sneak back into the room before dinner was finished.
Will pulled the key from his pocket, inserted it into the lock, and opened the door. The den looked the same as he and Blake left it, except for Ginny had tidied up the papers and the trunk. Will closed the door. The room was in semidarkness, with the Pensieve and the moonlight casting a dim silvery light around the room. Will walked over to the Potions cabinet. He touched the door, waited for it to fade away, and started searching through the several potion vials.
He knew what he was looking for, but that didn’t help his search. All the vials were labeled not with words, but with strange symbols. Will squinted to see them in the feeble light. It didn’t look like Ancient Runes. Will sighed. Harry had done this on purpose, of course. An intruder looking to steal a potion would have no way of knowing what potion they were taking, and could drink a poison by mistake.
Harry must have some code table so he can tell what all these potions are, Will thought. He started flipping through the tattered potions book, looking for anything that looked written in, or pages that weren’t attached. He found several sheets of Harry’s handwriting on instructions for making several newer potions that the book didn’t describe, but no charts or code breakers.
Will knew he didn’t have time to find the code now, especially since it looked like he would have to make the potion himself. He bit his lip. He would have to hope that Harry had all the ingredients he needed. Will examined all the extra sheets until he finally found the sheet he was looking for.
Jesse’s Heredity Potion
Discovered 2024
This potion will alter the physical appearance of the drinker, mixing some of their genes to change their appearance. The amount of alteration can’t be determined, and an antidote must be taken to reverse the effect. Drinking in excess is lethal. It hasn’t been approved by Ministry of Magic’s Committee for Experimental Magic. Has been tested, but not for long periods of time.
Will read the list of ingredients on the sheet and checked the storage cabinet. After going halfway down the sheet he realized that he didn’t have tarantula legs or a raven feather. Will cursed. He had no choice but to find the chart.
He started thumbing through the book again. He turned the pages slowly, looking carefully at the writing on each one. Finally, on page 248, he found a written chart about a page long that matched the symbols with the potion. He found Jesse’s Heredity Potion next to the symbol of a diamond with a diagonal line cutting though it. Will looked for the symbol, and found it on a small vial with light purple liquid inside. It was the only potion he could find. He took the vial and put it in his pocket.
Then he remembered about the antidote, and he searched for it. It was represented with two overlapping circles. Will looked for the antidote, but Harry didn’t have an antidote made already. He searched for and found the antidote sheet, and realized that he was missing one ingredient for the antidote, powdered thestral hoof. I’ll get it in Diagon Alley tomorrow, he decided. He checked his watch. It was 2:29 am. Will yawned, returned the potions area to the way it was, and snuck back into his room, being careful not to wake Blake up, who was sleeping on the couch that night. He snuck back into his room. Instead of tossing and turning like he usually did, Harry was lying silently on the bed and was breathing normally. Will shrugged it off. At least he isn’t having another nightmare, he thought. He hid the potion and the key in his trunk before changing into his pajamas and getting into bed.
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Blake opened one eye. Finally, he thought. Why did Will have to take so long? Blake sat up and headed toward the den. Unfortunately, his brother, being very critical of details, had relocked the den and took the key with him. Blake took out a hair pin from his pocket and started to pick the lock. It took longer than he would have hoped, but he eventually heard a click, and he opened the door.
He headed for the Pensieve. He had planned this ever since they pulled Harry out of the Pensieve. He would get to see the memories first hand, without having to ask Harry and bring them up. It was a win-win situation. Blake smiled. He did have his moments. Earlier, after dinner, he casually asked Harry how to get out of the Pensieve. It was pretty easy, not only because Harry didn’t know him as well as Gina or Will did, but he seemed to be more preoccupied than he had been earlier, and Blake took advantage of it.
But which memory did he want to see first? Should he go with the memory that he had wondered about since his first year at Hogwarts, or the memory that had been eating him up inside for the past few days? In the end, Blake decided to view the memories in order. Otherwise he might miss something important.
Blake checked his watch. It was already 3 am. He guessed that he would probably have until around 7 am, but he planned to be back by 6, just in case. He’d had enough close calls in the past few days.
Blake walked in front of the Pensieve, and pulled out his wand. He tapped the tip of the substance with his wand, and watched the swirling substance form a picture. It looked like a very dark room, dimly lit by several blue candles, and Blake thought he saw several doors lined along the walls. He leaned forward. His nose was an inch from the Pensieve when he heard the doorknob turning behind him.
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Harry opened the door slowly and looked around. The room looked empty, and somewhat more forbidding than it did earlier. The Pensieve even seemed darker than usual. Harry closed the door softly behind him, and headed toward the wastebasket.
Instead of sleeping, Harry had been thinking about the memory he had seen in the Pensieve. There were still a lot of things that he didn’t understand, especially about the scar of the snake. Sure, the scar was horrid looking, but why did his future self go through so much trouble to keep it hidden? Was that why the seventh year chapter had been destroyed? Or did the scar have a side effect? He knew the only way he could find out was if he had read that destroyed chapter.
That’s when he remembered about the book Mad-Eye Moody had given him on his sixteenth birthday, just before he arrived here. Since he knew about Harry’s ambition to be an Auror, he had given Harry his old training manual to look over. He had skimmed it that night before going to bed, and he remembered reading about a chapter all about keeping enemies from reviving destroyed documents.
Harry headed toward the Auror bookshelf, and scanned the book spines for Moody’s old book. He finally found it, and pulled the bend spine from the bookcase, and took a seat on the couch.
A soft rustling came from the corner, and Harry turned. He listened intently, not entirely convinced that he was alone. After a minute, Harry turned back to the book. He looked at the Table of Contents.
Introduction to Auror Training “ Pg. 5
Basic Concealment “ Pg.11
Stealth Secrets “Pg.33
Codes and Code Breakers “Pg. 58
Covering your Tracks “Pg. 81
Safely Destroying Messages “Pg. 104
Harry turned to page 104 and skimmed the page until he found what he was looking for.
When sending or receiving messages from other Aurors, it is important to property dispose of the message to prevent enemies from intercepting it. Simply throwing it away is not only careless and sloppy, and it makes the note easily accessible. Even burning a note does not insure the note cannot be read, because a simple spell can be used to reform the ashes into the original parchment.
Harry kept reading, but the book didn’t mention the actual spell that could repair the burnt parchment. Frustrated, Harry slammed the book shut. He sat there for a moment. How could he think that this would be a good idea? It was, after all, only a hunch that the spell would be written in the book. He had no way of tracking the spell down. Besides, even if he did find the spell, he wasn’t sure he would have even have been allowed to use it in the first place. Harry had no idea how the Ministry of Magic watched for underage magic, and he didn’t know if he would be considered underage or not. It wasn’t worth the risk of drawing attention to himself if he was considered to be only sixteen.
Harry sat there a little while before finally getting up and putting the book away. He yawned. Disappointed that the night had been wasted, Harry turned and headed for the door. His eyes caught the Pensieve again, and he realized how strange it was that the silver light that normally shone out of the old basin wasn’t there. He looked down at the Pensieve, and gasped.
A memory showed on the surface, and Harry recognized the room immediately. It was the Department of Mysteries. There was somebody else in here with him.
Harry started searching the room, looking under the table, and feeling the corners with his hands in case whoever was in here had an Invisibility Cloak. He headed toward the bookcases, groping around with his hands. He heard movement behind the couch, and he looked over.
“Blake!” Harry hissed.
Blake got up slowly, holding his back as he got up. He had obviously been in an uncomfortable position the whole time, and Harry didn’t feel bad about it at all. “What are you doing here?”
“What am I doing here?” Blake whispered back. “What are you doing here?”
Harry wouldn’t let himself be distracted. “Why is the Department of Mysteries showing on the Pensieve?”
“The Department of Mysteries?” Blake said. “Was that the Department of Mysteries? The same one that’s in the Ministry of Magic?”
“Don’t play dumb!” Harry said, his voice getting louder.
“I’m not playing dumb!” Blake said, still whispering. “I don’t know why that room showed up.”
“What were you looking for?” Harry said, his voice betraying the panic he was feeling. Blake looked away, and Harry knew. Blake was looking for his fifth year memories. The memory of Sirius falling into the veil played in his mind again.
“Harry, I’m sorry…” Blake started.
Harry didn’t say anything. He couldn’t. Waves of anger, shame, betrayal, and sadness swept over him and he couldn’t speak. He ran out of the den and back to his room, leaving Blake alone in the den.