Categories > Books > Harry Potter > The Number of Fools
DISCLAIMER: See Ch. 1.
ANSWER ABOUT THE LATIN IN THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER: "Usque omnis unus" is a rough Latin translation of the phrase "Till All Are One." That just happens to be the Autobot motto from the old original Transformers series. The Latin translation is also the title of a story by Classic Cowboy, which is an Evangelion crossover with Transformers/, and definitely worth checking out. /In fact, since I got the idea from him, this chapter is therefore dedicated to Classic Cowboy. And since one of my readers named "Goldenfire" emailed me and correctly answered first, Kudos to him. Kudos to everyone else who also figured it out on their own!
Chapter 13: New Times, Old Memories
Professor Granger, otherwise known as Hermione Granger-Weasley, was preparing herself for the first day of a new year at Hogwarts.
She went over lesson plans, what to do... and her thoughts couldn't help but wander back to her eldest daughter and child, who was just starting at the school.
Hermione swore to herself she wouldn't show favoritism towards Jessica (or any student for any reason, for that matter). Even so, seeing Jessica start at Hogwarts reminded Hermione of herself starting at the prestigious school of magic.
And her good memories of her education tended to lead to the bad ones.
After discovering Harry was innocent, and learning of his subsequent death, her seventh and final year at Hogwarts seemed to mesh all together into one long year of depression and guilt. Somehow, Hermione managed to move on, even marry Ron, have children and raise a family with him.
But the terrible albeit well-deserved misery seemed to leave an indelible mark on her.
She thought about Harry at least once each day since he died, and over time, her pain got a little less, but it was still definitely there. At her and Ron's wedding, they left a seat open for Harry at both the ceremony and the reception, with a Muggle picture of him sitting on that chair (a wizarding picture may have done something they wouldn't have liked). Ron's brothers and sister did the same at their own weddings.
There had been some backlash against Hermione and the others whom Harry ranted at during the first year after his death. The wizarding world seemed less interested in finding the truth, in favor of finding scapegoats to blame. And yet, their scapegoats could lose the blame just as quickly as it came to them. That happened with "Harry Potter's Betrayers" after their attention shifted to new Dark wizards who had come along not long after Hermione graduated from Hogwarts. None of these Dark wizards (later dubbed "Phantom Wizards") had ever been caught, but everyone else was on the lookout for them to this very day.
With the blame shifted somewhere else, the "Betrayers" were able to argue that the rest of the wizarding world was just as responsible for Harry Potter's betrayal, more or less (also discretely reminding them on Harry's thoughts of the wizarding world in general). At least now Ron's and Hermione's children wouldn't suffer any backlash for whatever their parents may have done in the past.
Pushing her thoughts aside, Hermione finished getting ready for the new day. She made a quick firecall to her husband Ron and her sons, Harry and Liam, and all three of the males in her family wished her a bright new day for the beginning of the school year.
Professor McGonagall was going over some paperwork before she went down to the Great Hall for breakfast.
Not a day went by when she would look around her circular office, remember Dumbledore, and feel pangs of sadness. Dumbledore had passed away, almost to the point of weeping, but at the same time, accepting his fate. If McGonagall didn't know any better, she'd think that Dumbledore was almost apprehensive about meeting Harry in the afterlife and facing him there.
In the years following all that, McGonagall thought time was going by sluggishly as she grieved to important people she had both taught and been taught by. And yet, looking back on it now, it all seemed as though it flew by in a haze of sadness.
Because they had nowhere else to go (or so she thought), McGonagall hired Hermione Granger and Remus Lupin for the respective teaching positions of History of Magic and Defense Against the Dark Arts. It seemed that while the wizarding world could be quick to blame people, the blame could also be as quick to go as it had originally come. After a while, things settled down to the point that those whom had betrayed Harry Potter could resume seemingly normal lives. By a strange stroke of luck, Ron Weasley even managed to become reserve Keeper for the Chudley Cannons.
Pushing all the old memories and flashbacks aside, McGonagall departed for the Great Hall.
Professor Snape was definitely not a morning person.
Then again, his mood was pretty much the same regardless of the time of day.
However, some students would attest that Snape had changed in that respect over the past decade or so...
Ever since Harry Potter died, Snape felt this strange sort of gloom lingering, although it got more noticeable from time to time. The Potter boy had shown him forgiveness and trust, and even then gave him some plentiful spoils of war... and Snape felt like he was stuck with a debt he never could repay.
Contrary to popular belief, Snape was not heartless, but just very secretive and closed off. He did have a heart, but just one which he was so used to hiding away for his own sake. There were small parts of him that cared for very few and select people that he technically "cared" for, in a true sense of the word.
And for the past several years, he felt guilty about choosing to ignore the true side of Harry Potter, instead looking at what he wanted to see. As perceptive as Snape was, he was also very good at ignoring things when he wanted to. There were times when Snape couldn't concentrate or sleep because he kept asking "what if?" scenarios in his head.
Ah well/, he inevitably ended up thinking to himself, /no use lamenting over spilled potions.
In the end, he could only conclude that Harry Potter and forgiven him in the end, especially judging by same of his last actions involving him (such as simply giving away the location of Voldemort's secret ingredients store).
Pushing those thoughts aside, the Potions Master finished getting his things together and departed for the Great Hall.
In a palatial yet secluded (not to mention magically hidden and protected) manor, a tall man with blond hair, a pale complexion and a pointed face gazed out the window, brooding.
Draco Malfoy had seen off his son, Adrian, the previous day. The sun had barely risen when the boy's owl came in, telling his father how he was sorted into Slytherin.
'I wonder if my own father felt this way when I told him,' Malfoy mused.
The year after the deaths of Voldemort and so many Death Eaters had been hard on Draco Malfoy, since his father was among those killed. Snape (Draco's godfather) had tried to save as many of his students' Death Eater fathers as he could, but alas, Lucius Malfoy could not be saved from Wormtail's final attack. Malfoy wanted to blame Potter or Snape for his father's death, but he knew better than to go after his own godfather, and Potter was now long-dead.
Speaking of heroes and Dark wizards, some new evidence had turned up in the still on-going investigations of these "Phantom Wizards." For the past decade or so, no other Dark wizards or witches had arisen, but every now again, these new Dark wizards would be focused on yet again as new evidence in the on-going investigation surfaced.
Malfoy had to give these wizards some credit; they weren't foolish like Voldemort in trying to take over the entire world and radically change wizarding society forever. In Malfoy's opinion, fools who attempted to take over the world only ended up being crushed by it in the end. He himself was never a Death Eater; while he didn't like "Mudbloods" and such, he didn't want to die for Voldemort's insane cause, either.
Still, all things change over time, and evil was no exception...
(End of Chapter 13.)
A/N: So, this should answer some more questions...
Note about these new Dark wizards: More info later...
Next chapter is how Dan's doing at Hogwarts for his first week or so... -Quillian
ANSWER ABOUT THE LATIN IN THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER: "Usque omnis unus" is a rough Latin translation of the phrase "Till All Are One." That just happens to be the Autobot motto from the old original Transformers series. The Latin translation is also the title of a story by Classic Cowboy, which is an Evangelion crossover with Transformers/, and definitely worth checking out. /In fact, since I got the idea from him, this chapter is therefore dedicated to Classic Cowboy. And since one of my readers named "Goldenfire" emailed me and correctly answered first, Kudos to him. Kudos to everyone else who also figured it out on their own!
Chapter 13: New Times, Old Memories
Professor Granger, otherwise known as Hermione Granger-Weasley, was preparing herself for the first day of a new year at Hogwarts.
She went over lesson plans, what to do... and her thoughts couldn't help but wander back to her eldest daughter and child, who was just starting at the school.
Hermione swore to herself she wouldn't show favoritism towards Jessica (or any student for any reason, for that matter). Even so, seeing Jessica start at Hogwarts reminded Hermione of herself starting at the prestigious school of magic.
And her good memories of her education tended to lead to the bad ones.
After discovering Harry was innocent, and learning of his subsequent death, her seventh and final year at Hogwarts seemed to mesh all together into one long year of depression and guilt. Somehow, Hermione managed to move on, even marry Ron, have children and raise a family with him.
But the terrible albeit well-deserved misery seemed to leave an indelible mark on her.
She thought about Harry at least once each day since he died, and over time, her pain got a little less, but it was still definitely there. At her and Ron's wedding, they left a seat open for Harry at both the ceremony and the reception, with a Muggle picture of him sitting on that chair (a wizarding picture may have done something they wouldn't have liked). Ron's brothers and sister did the same at their own weddings.
There had been some backlash against Hermione and the others whom Harry ranted at during the first year after his death. The wizarding world seemed less interested in finding the truth, in favor of finding scapegoats to blame. And yet, their scapegoats could lose the blame just as quickly as it came to them. That happened with "Harry Potter's Betrayers" after their attention shifted to new Dark wizards who had come along not long after Hermione graduated from Hogwarts. None of these Dark wizards (later dubbed "Phantom Wizards") had ever been caught, but everyone else was on the lookout for them to this very day.
With the blame shifted somewhere else, the "Betrayers" were able to argue that the rest of the wizarding world was just as responsible for Harry Potter's betrayal, more or less (also discretely reminding them on Harry's thoughts of the wizarding world in general). At least now Ron's and Hermione's children wouldn't suffer any backlash for whatever their parents may have done in the past.
Pushing her thoughts aside, Hermione finished getting ready for the new day. She made a quick firecall to her husband Ron and her sons, Harry and Liam, and all three of the males in her family wished her a bright new day for the beginning of the school year.
Professor McGonagall was going over some paperwork before she went down to the Great Hall for breakfast.
Not a day went by when she would look around her circular office, remember Dumbledore, and feel pangs of sadness. Dumbledore had passed away, almost to the point of weeping, but at the same time, accepting his fate. If McGonagall didn't know any better, she'd think that Dumbledore was almost apprehensive about meeting Harry in the afterlife and facing him there.
In the years following all that, McGonagall thought time was going by sluggishly as she grieved to important people she had both taught and been taught by. And yet, looking back on it now, it all seemed as though it flew by in a haze of sadness.
Because they had nowhere else to go (or so she thought), McGonagall hired Hermione Granger and Remus Lupin for the respective teaching positions of History of Magic and Defense Against the Dark Arts. It seemed that while the wizarding world could be quick to blame people, the blame could also be as quick to go as it had originally come. After a while, things settled down to the point that those whom had betrayed Harry Potter could resume seemingly normal lives. By a strange stroke of luck, Ron Weasley even managed to become reserve Keeper for the Chudley Cannons.
Pushing all the old memories and flashbacks aside, McGonagall departed for the Great Hall.
Professor Snape was definitely not a morning person.
Then again, his mood was pretty much the same regardless of the time of day.
However, some students would attest that Snape had changed in that respect over the past decade or so...
Ever since Harry Potter died, Snape felt this strange sort of gloom lingering, although it got more noticeable from time to time. The Potter boy had shown him forgiveness and trust, and even then gave him some plentiful spoils of war... and Snape felt like he was stuck with a debt he never could repay.
Contrary to popular belief, Snape was not heartless, but just very secretive and closed off. He did have a heart, but just one which he was so used to hiding away for his own sake. There were small parts of him that cared for very few and select people that he technically "cared" for, in a true sense of the word.
And for the past several years, he felt guilty about choosing to ignore the true side of Harry Potter, instead looking at what he wanted to see. As perceptive as Snape was, he was also very good at ignoring things when he wanted to. There were times when Snape couldn't concentrate or sleep because he kept asking "what if?" scenarios in his head.
Ah well/, he inevitably ended up thinking to himself, /no use lamenting over spilled potions.
In the end, he could only conclude that Harry Potter and forgiven him in the end, especially judging by same of his last actions involving him (such as simply giving away the location of Voldemort's secret ingredients store).
Pushing those thoughts aside, the Potions Master finished getting his things together and departed for the Great Hall.
In a palatial yet secluded (not to mention magically hidden and protected) manor, a tall man with blond hair, a pale complexion and a pointed face gazed out the window, brooding.
Draco Malfoy had seen off his son, Adrian, the previous day. The sun had barely risen when the boy's owl came in, telling his father how he was sorted into Slytherin.
'I wonder if my own father felt this way when I told him,' Malfoy mused.
The year after the deaths of Voldemort and so many Death Eaters had been hard on Draco Malfoy, since his father was among those killed. Snape (Draco's godfather) had tried to save as many of his students' Death Eater fathers as he could, but alas, Lucius Malfoy could not be saved from Wormtail's final attack. Malfoy wanted to blame Potter or Snape for his father's death, but he knew better than to go after his own godfather, and Potter was now long-dead.
Speaking of heroes and Dark wizards, some new evidence had turned up in the still on-going investigations of these "Phantom Wizards." For the past decade or so, no other Dark wizards or witches had arisen, but every now again, these new Dark wizards would be focused on yet again as new evidence in the on-going investigation surfaced.
Malfoy had to give these wizards some credit; they weren't foolish like Voldemort in trying to take over the entire world and radically change wizarding society forever. In Malfoy's opinion, fools who attempted to take over the world only ended up being crushed by it in the end. He himself was never a Death Eater; while he didn't like "Mudbloods" and such, he didn't want to die for Voldemort's insane cause, either.
Still, all things change over time, and evil was no exception...
(End of Chapter 13.)
A/N: So, this should answer some more questions...
Note about these new Dark wizards: More info later...
Next chapter is how Dan's doing at Hogwarts for his first week or so... -Quillian
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