Chapter Eighteen
Harry awoke the next day to an Adfero hitting him in the forehead. This was not the best way to wake up, especially since the message had been from Tonks. It took a highly organised mind to send an Adfero. It was, essentially a transmission of a thought, so it took organisation to make a clear message. Tonks was many things, but organised mentally she was not. Therefore, while he unbundled the message he sat up in bed. He had taken to sleeping in Slytherin's quarters of late. The hassle with Ron and other factors meant that it was just easier and more relaxing to sleep somewhere out of the way.
He looked around the main bedroom with a slight smile on his face. There was more in the message than Tonks had meant he was sure. A little emotional content was a side effect of her lack of mental discipline. She had a wonderfully visual mind as well. This was doubtless a side effect of her talent. Self-transfiguration or her Metamorph ability took that clarity of vision to work properly. Still, it was a shame that due to a promise he could not take her up on her accidental offer. She was also with Bill and obviously a bit confused about that fact. It was obvious that she did 'like him' that way; she also liked Bill that way. It was confusing the Metamorph somewhat.
Either way, he had to get his arse out of bed and go meet her in her Sarah form straight away. Her message, while not clear, had been quite urgent. He jumped out of bed, quickly dressing casually and then he took to his heels running out of his quarters like a shot.
As soon as he was out of his quarters, he reached into his pocket and enlarged his skateboard. Then he dropped it to the floor, jumped on it and was away. Wandless banishers to the back of the board sped him to a break neck speed and all told, he reached the Great Hall in record time.
Tonks, as Sarah, was already standing waiting for him.
"What's up T…? Sarah?" Harry asked, hitting the back of his board so he came to a stop just in front of her.
"Director Bones has asked me to request your presence today," Tonks told him with a slight smile.
Harry half frowned at her, "Why?" He asked.
"It is in the interests of co-operation later on. She talked to Professor Dumbledore who assured her that you are more than capable. She also asked me, and well I said you were rubbish but she didn't listen to me," Tonks said. The least part said with a giant grin on her face.
Harry smiled at her; "this should be interesting," he noted wryly. "So when is the mission set for?"
"Now, I did try to find you earlier but you were nowhere to be found Luv. It's kind of hard to protect you, or just keep an eye on you, when I can't find you."
Harry shrugged that off and smirked at her, "I don't need protection Sarah and I don't need to be watched either."
Tonks stuck her tongue out at him with a laugh. "Either way, we're off, right now. I have a port key for the assembly point. So just let me know when you're ready?"
Harry nodded at her, so Tonks passed him a length of string and then triggered the Port key and with that, they were off with a slight pop of magic.
-xXx-
The Assembly point turned out to be a small clearing to the west of their final location. As soon as Harry arrived, he frowned and looked around him. There were about two dozen Aurors around the place, which was fine. Director Bones and Senior Auror Moody were both in attendance, and that was fine by Harry. What was not fine, to Harry, was the almost palpable feeling of something in the air. It was the same feeling he had been feeling since the night before. A sense of something building in the air, it was an almost electrical feel of magic.
"You all right Luv?" Tonks asked, eyeing him carefully.
"Hmmm" Harry said, looking around still in a slightly distracted manner.
"What is it?" Tonks asked him.
"I dunno." He admitted, "Just a feeling."
"A bad feeling?"
"No, actually very much not a bad feeling... It is just a sense of something big about to happen." Harry said, obviously thinking as he talked.
Tonks nodded her agreement, "It's always like this before a big Op" she told him, then took his arm at the elbow. "Come on. Come meet my boss." She said with an impish smile. As she walked, she turned into her more normal Tonks look including bright Pink Hair. Which Harry thought more than slightly amusing, where they not supposed to be under the radar? Of course, for Wizards it was likely not something, people would really notice as being out of the ordinary.
"Director Bones" Tonks called out as they approached her boss and Moody.
The two high up Aurors looked over at the call, Moody making a gruff sound of amusement and Director Bones showing them a welcoming smile. "Welcome Mr Potter." The Director for the DMLE said with little preamble. "I am glad you could make it this morning."
Harry smiled charmingly at her; "it's a pleasure to meet you properly Director Bones." He said by way of a greeting. He then nodded his greeting to Moody. The 'professor' was not the sort to stand on ceremony after all.
"I'm glad you could come. I should imagine you are wondering why I invited you." Director Bones said with a half smile on her face.
"I am a little curious. Tonks here said it was in the interest of future Co-Operation. I'm surprised to hear that you would want to co-operate with me to be honest." Harry said with a smile to remove much of the sting from his blunt statement.
"I can see why you would think that. The fact of the matter is that I know if we are to defeat The Dark Lord in the future that it will be you that does so."
Harry looked at her a little warily. "What makes you think that Director?" He asked carefully.
"All the clues lead to it Mr Potter. You have faced him many times and survived. This is much more than most can say. You have ALWAYS been in place to stop his larger attempts, and I suspect you always will be. I think magic itself has pitted you two against each other. I would like to offer you something you should've been offered long before now."
"What is that Director?" Harry asked curiosity alive on his face.
"I am offering you our training and our help." The Director said with a slight smile, "I want you to see that we are trained to do this work, which is why I have invited you today. I want you to stay with Auror Moody and myself. However, I would ask you not to fight any more than you have to. This is ... a show, if you like, to prove we know what we are doing."
Harry nodded thinking hard. "I appreciate this more than I can say director." He told her. It was obvious why the Headmaster had allowed him to come now that he knew the specifics. "I gratefully accept your offer." He added with a smile. The truth was, all he had to do was reach out and tap Moody and the director and he would have all the knowledge he needed. Due to the peculiarities of his 'skill', a little training would be all he needed. None of which even mentioned that he already had a great deal of fight training and spell work in his head already. He did, appreciate that someone in the magical world at least appeared to be able to follow a logical trail of thought and realise his place in all of this.
Tonks was beaming beside him, almost jumping on the spot with glee. He was not entirely sure why, but he suspected that she would be one of those that trained him. Almost casually, he brushed against Director Bones's and Moody's minds. He should not go stealing knowledge it was true. That said, however, it really did cut some nice corners if he did cheat and do a mind dump. It would take a while to integrate of course, but that was the point of his meditations. Meditations he would now have to spend at least a few days on. There was a lot of information buffered in his mind lately.
All around them, the Aurors were getting ready. They were checking their equipment and warming up their magic a little using some small spells. There was a buzz of excitement in the air as they geared up for the mission.
"So, what do we know?" He asked.
Moody smiled slightly, "It's like this..." he said and began to lay out the plans and mission parameters for Harry. This he performed in a clear and concise way that Harry appreciated and it covered every aspect of the mission. Once he had finished he looked at Harry with a slightly questioning look.
Harry smiled at him, "I think you have most of the bases covered Professor. You don't have a plan for any of the inner circle turning up, what if they do? Why is that?"
"This is a minor training facility Boy. The low level Death Eaters will be here, the teachers are likely small fry. We will get them and it will dent Voldemort's plans nicely. I doubt the Inner Circle is here though."
Harry frowned slightly, "Hmmm"
"You have something to say boy?" Moody asked gruffly. The gruffness was not rude it was just his way.
"I'm not sure," Harry admitted. "It just doesn't feel like a simple mission."
"We're all like that first time," Moody said. "Even I was like that once." He said with a smirk.
Harry smiled, but made a mental note to keep an eye out for the Inner Circle. The air was charged and too alive with potential for his liking.
Harry then took a back seat in the gearing up. He watched and he learned, while he did that he also scanned through what he had just downloaded and tried to integrate as much and as quickly as he could. Overall, it took the operation about half an hour to get to the ready stage.
"Put this on" Moody said passing Harry a set of Dragon Hide robes.
Harry smiled his thanks and put on the heavy items of clothing. In truth, he doubted he would require such protection, but it showed they were thinking about his safety. That was a nice change, to have someone care about that.
Once he had dressed himself in the magical protective gear Moody placed Harry at his side. It was up to Moody to protect both Harry and Director Bones. Normally neither would be along for such a small Op, though for obvious reasons the Director wanted to watch Harry in a combat situation.
The squad then moved out of the small clearing they were in and moved towards the Training Facility. The Aurors were moving with professional and energy saving movements that Harry thought was an interesting sign of their training. If he had to guess, he would say these were some of the Directors finest. It was obvious that she was putting on a bit of a show for Harry.
Harry watched the squad moving towards their ultimate goal as he hung back with the director. The Director herself was watching Harry more than her Aurors. She did know, after all, they were up to the task. She was really testing Harry with this exercise.
Harry noticed her watching him and smiled at her, his eyes going straight back to where the action would be. "No… Wait… There's a ward" he began to say; only it was too late. The lead Auror had already crossed the invisible line of magic, visible only to Harry thanks to what he was.
A loud clanging alarm went off, obviously designed to warn of intruders and then all hell broke loose.
-xXx-
Director Bones flinched as another bright green curse flew in her direction. Somehow, and she still was not sure how the curse was stopped dead. An explosion of granite and the most feared curse in all of history became negated completely. She was almost amused actually. She had wanted to train Harry, and frankly, he was training her at that moment in time. Moody had been separated away from them and the rest of her Aurors were more than a little busy. Which left Harry as her security detail, which was the opposite of the way things should be going?
Harry half turned to her, tossing her a wink as he returned fire with a blistering array of spells. She had to admit, she was more than a little impressed with the breadth of his knowledge of both offensive and defensive spells. She was no slouch herself of course and was sending quite a few spells as well. They were ducked behind a wall at that moment, with Harry poking his head over it and sending a hail of curses towards the small knot of Death Eaters in their way.
All of their intelligence had said this was a small and unimportant training facility and that appeared to be incorrect. There was a worryingly large amount of Death Eaters in the area and a fair few of them fought well.
Director Bones spared a glance to her supposed charge and smiled slightly. He was marvellous she had to admit. He was both good looking and courageous and if she were a little younger she would be chasing him herself. His face was a mask of concentration as he chained together some nasty spells, casting in a flash and causing several cries of pain in the Death Eater encampment.
She was really going to chastise Hastings for this. If that prat had not tripped the alarm this would already be over. Since the Death Eaters had gained the advantage of knowing they were coming, they had mustered quite a good defence. A worryingly good defence in fact. It was much easier to think of Death Eaters as barely trained racist idiots. It was unfortunately not the way things were. The Dark Lord liked his troops well groomed for Battle, so they were.
Harry conjured another granite wall in front of them as a hail of Killing Curses fell down on their position. The hall shuddered then exploded apart, just as the others had done. The point was, the curses had indeed been stopped and they were still alive.
It was said that an AK could not be shielded against. Apparently, many people forgot that it could be shielded with a solid object. This was exactly what Harry was doing. Amelia Bones knew this, but she had not expected Harry too, nor had she expected him to have the talent to conjure such a solid object. Many Wizards could not, which is why it was not such a widely held knowledge. Of course, many of her Aurors could. They had been chosen for their abilities and power of course. She had just not expected a student, even one as old as Harry, to be able to do it. He would be truly awesome after she had finished with him, if she had her way.
Harry then stood up, which caused Amelia to make a grab for him. He dodged her and sent of a few especially nasty chains that cooked the Death Eaters. One, a fire spell, literally cooked them. This caused them to jump up at which point Harry obliterated them with some well-placed casting.
Amelia looked at Harry with more than a little surprise. For one thing, he had an aura, a visible aura of power crackling around him. Secondly, he looked angry at that moment as well.
"What is it?" she asked him.
"He's here!" Harry hissed his voice angry and deadly.
"Who?" Director Bones asked, as if she did not know. There was only one person she could think of that got that sort of reaction.
"Fuck Face" Harry replied, confusing her greatly, until she remembered what Tonks had told her in her report. Amelia had to admit, it was about right a name for the bastard.
"I will call a retreat," Amelia said, turning to do just that.
"No" Harry said, "I'm going in."
"No, Harry- You Can't"
Harry ignored her plea though and started walking towards where he could sense the evil stench of Voldemort.
Suddenly he stopped and looked back at her. "Director Bones- I need you to deputise me." He said which surprised her quite a bit.
"Why would you want me to do that?" she asked, her eyes flitting around and looking for Death Eaters. Luckily, they were cleared out of the immediate area.
"Because if I have to kill someone, I don't want Minister Fudge sending me to Azkaban. If you-"
"-I understand Harry. Harry James Potter I hear by Deputise you to the position of Auror in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. We will sort out the paper work later- Harry, I'm coming with you, but I want you to be careful."
Harry nodded and smiled his thanks to her, then squared his shoulders. He then carried on walking with Director Bones coming up behind him guarding his back. This, now that he came to think of it, was a good thing. If things came to a head, he would have a witness of amazing qualifications.
The battleground was clear ahead, but Harry remained alert and watchful. He had no wish to be felled by a stray curse, or worse get Director Bones killed. He had a feeling that Susan would hex the shit out of him if anything happened to her Aunty.
He dodged to the left a little as a stray curse came at him. His hand flashing out and with a shield humming on its surface he deflected the curse off to the side, and well away from the Director or himself.
A few spells shot back in that direction and he was once more on his way, looking for his 'nemesis'.
-xXx-
Voldemort smiled thinly, as if he could do anything but. This was marvellous; the Ministry had attacked one of his training areas and apparently had no idea what they were taking on. He liked it when they were idiotic; it made his life so much easier. His wand lifted and a silent killing curse spurted from its end. Another life blinked out of existence and he smiled again. He loved the mayhem and the death that spread around him. The Aurors were scared of him, as was his due. This meant that they did not react properly or nearly quick enough. That suited him just fine as it meant he was able to get off a curse before they got over their fear and attacked him. It was by that method that he had fought his way into the large clearing at the centre of his training facility.
This was where the main fight raged and he did so love to fight. His wand came up to dispense some more death when a voice suddenly stilled his action.
"Hey there Fuck Face."
Voldemort turned towards the source of the voice. It had been a familiar voice. His lips stretched as far as they could into a fully-fledged smile. "My dear Harry, what are you doing here?" he asked, looking almost jovial.
"I came for some fun- Looks like I found some." Harry said his eyes intent and deadly.
"I have missed you Harry. Such marvellous mental shielding you have now, it is a shame we cannot have our chats anymore."
Harry shrugged, noticing that the fighting was dying off around them as the two talked to each other. Death Eaters and Aurors alike were watching the spectacle of The Boy-Who-Lived and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named standing and talking together. It was almost laughable how bad Wizards were at real combat. Much like show business, no matter what, the show must go on after all.
Voldemort whipped his wand around him in a fluid movement that sent all nearby fighters flying away from Harry and himself. He wanted to squash the brat himself with no outside influences.
Harry smiled, pocketing his wand casually. This caused Voldemort a moment of confusion. Harry noticed this and said, "I don't need a wand for dealing with you Tommy boy"
Voldemort growled, "Arrogant little sod." He said with eyes glowing with anger.
Harry nodded, and shrugged, "Well- It's not really arrogance if you really are that good Tommy. But then, you wouldn't know about that would you?"
Voldemort's wand flicked at Harry and a nasty purple curse winged its way at the young man. Harry swerved to the side, not bothering to block, just letting it slide past him. "Is that the best you can do old man?" he asked with a nasty smile.
Voldemort snarled and unleashed himself, sending a hail of curses at Harry. Harry in return dived forward under most of the curses. Just as it looked like one would hit him, his form shifted. Then a black jaguar jumped at Voldemort causing the evil Dark Lord to back away. Harry swiped with his paw, sending a gash down one of the Dark Lords arms and then showed him what a real snarl was. Long white, flashing teeth and a terrifying roar followed.
Voldemort backed away quickly. However, his lips stretched in a horrible parody of a smile. This caused Harry a moment of pause.
"I had heard you found your form." Voldemort said in an almost conversational tone. "I'm so glad, that this will be a more personal fight." He said reaching into his pocket and pulling out a potion vial. He uncorked it with his teeth and then chugged it in one long go.
Magical power crackled around him as he said, "This body has many advantages Harry- Which includes its own form." He said and began to grow and change at the same time.
By this point, the fighting had stopped completely as those nearby stopped to watch the upcoming battle.
Harry walked backwards, his tail twitching from side to side with nervous tension. His green eyes glued to Voldemort as the evil man changed. One would think that he would be a snake, with a body like that. One would be very, very wrong about that.
Like Harry, he had a feline form; a massive beast appeared in Voldemort's place. Throwing back its head and letting out a deafening roar. The potion had obviously been a growth potion meaning he was a good five times bigger than he should be. Considering his form, that was a scary prospect.
A giant Nundu stopped in place, growling softly. Then shockingly its mouth moved in an almost human way, "Prepare to die Potter" Voldemort growled. His forms voice was oddly rich and deep.
Harry chuffed out a laugh, unable to speak in his feline form he changed back to his human one. "Typical… You just had to be one of the deadliest creatures on the face of the planet didn't you? Then, you had to go up the stakes even higher."
Voldemort walked back and forth, somewhat like a caged tiger. His body language aggressive and screaming that he wanted to attack. In looks, he was not too far off of a cheetah, with slightly different markings but the colour was comparable. His size and power though was obviously much more than a cheetah's could be on its best day. In a normal state, a Nundu was a deadly creature. In this extra large form, it was even more deadly.
Voldemort stopped pacing, the muscles on his body tensing as he prepared to jump. Harry saw this and as Voldemort charged, he switched back to his form and dived off to the side. He could not get too close, Nundus had breath that was as deadly, if not more so, than their jaws or claws. He skittered across the pavement like surface, his claws leaving a mark he had jumped so hard.
Voldemort stilled his forward momentum and turned to Harry with a smile on his feline features.
Harry changed again, flowing up into a human form. Worryingly enough, for Voldemort, there was a smile on his face. "You picked a mythical creature, the most feared for many reasons." He said, walking sidewise and keeping his front to the circling Voldemort. "You have no idea what you're dealing with Tommy," Harry said.
Voldemort jumped at him in a flash. Harry jumped upwards and did a neat summersault over the Nundu form of his enemy. Then he flattened out his body and began to change himself.
Voldemort span around with the full grace of his enlarged form, and then stopped dead.
Harry titled his head at Voldemort, and smiled. On his draconian form, that was a truly terrifying sight. "Your time has come Tommy." He said. His dragons' voice was richer, deep, and above all loud. The windows of the nearby construct shivered with its volume.
"Impressive" Voldemort grudgingly admitted.
The two stared at each other, and then by some unseen signal jumped at each other at the same time.
There was a tremendous clash of sound as they roared at the same time as well. Teeth, claws, and in Harry's case, talons ripped at each other. This was the battle, the final contest in their 6-year long competition to see who came out on top.
Blood flew, fur flew and the sounds of their epic struggle travelled out around the surrounding area.
Voldemort ripped into one of Harry's wings with his teeth. This tore it all down the tender membrane that made up the leathery surface of it. Harry flung his head back and roared his anger at the move. In this form, he was not so much Harry Potter as A Black. The black was the royalty of Dragons everywhere, almost a god amongst his kin. The sound tore through the area as an almost physical force stunning Voldemort enough that Harry was able to shake him off. Dragons' blood flew around the fighters in a spray that created a magical field. That magical field became solid as the blood landed in an arc around the two fighters. It was a ward of sorts, springing up around them. A less than intelligent Death Eater reached out and touched the blood red bubble that had formed. His death screams did not even draw a glance.
The feel of magic was thick in the air now; the smell of blood was rich and heavily mixed into that.
Voldemort rolled back on to his feet, wincing from where he had been tossed straight into a brick wall. He growled his defiance, his hackles rising as he prepared to go back into the fight.
The Black turned to him, glowing green eyes surveying him with righteous anger. Then the dragons' maw opened. Voldemort had just enough time to see the ignition flames and thus dive to the side, as a blast of super heated flame melted the floor where he had stood.
Then he was on the run as the Black turned and sent another ball of fire at him. This caused Voldemort to end up with a seriously singed tail. Tracking Voldemort now by the smoke coming from his tail the Black prepared to end the mites' existence. He reared up, huge chest filling with air. His head choosing the direction and then mouth opening. A bright white flame was sent in front of Voldemort was due to land.
Voldemort's eyes shot open, the heat sizzled and cooked the air in front of him. He twisted his body violently to the side. He even managed, through feline grace, to miss landing where the fire was aimed at. It clipped him thought and with heat at those levels, that was more than enough. One leg burned away in its entirety, the wound cauterised instantly, his fur stripped off by the hot air and he slammed hard into the floor. A floor that was already starting to melt from the heat of the flame directed nearby. He slid in the melted tarmac like substance coming to a stop a few feet away. He was scorched, but otherwise alive.
The Black took a step forward, the ground jumping with that step. Then another and a giant thud to go with it. Then he was looking down at Voldemort with contempt. "You dare fight me?" he asked, or Harry asked. At that point, it was hard to tell where the dragon ended and Harry began. "You think you will win?"
Voldemort tried to raise his head, but found the tarmac was drying around him. Meaning he was finding it increasingly difficult to move. Which was further complicated when The Black slammed one of his hind legs down on Voldemort's form. There was a horrendous crunch as most of Voldemort's ribs were broken.
Emerald fire like eyes bore into Voldemort, spearing into his conscious and sub conscious mind. The small part of Voldemort suddenly remembered why man was afraid of Dragons. A cold hard consciousness invaded his own, tearing apart his shielding like tissue paper. What the Black was looking for Voldemort had no idea, but it would find it no matter what he did.
Harry reared back, a sort of smile on his draconian face. "So that's how you did it," he said. With one of his smaller forearms, he cast a spell and looked at the lines of colour coming from Voldemort. "It's the Dark Mark," he said. His good wing extended with a sound like a bat wing opening, only sped up into a virtual explosion of sound. Then he angled his body around in a slicing motion so his wing cut through each line. Voldemort roared his scream, turning back into his 'human' form in shock.
"What are you?" Voldemort said in what was his version of a scared voice. His eyes wide with shock at what The Black had just done.
Harry reared back to face Voldemort, one ruined and one whole wing snapping out to full extension. His head flung back as he roared, then Voldemort screamed. Sharp jaws snapped down onto his body, grabbing his head.
A horrible tearing sound and a jerk, then Voldemort was no more. A geyser of dark magic shot straight up in the air topping off at about one hundred feet before suddenly disappearing after only a few moments.
Swallowing The Black beat its wings, sending blood flying everywhere and then let loose with a giant flame that reached nearly as far up roaring his victory as he did so.
Then; there was a long drawn out silence.
Suddenly there was a backwards rushing noise and Harry appeared in the Blacks place; dropping to his hands and knees, he emptied the contents of his stomach repeatedly. AS he did that, the blood coloured shield began to fade away.
-xXx-
Harry looked at the bucket in front of him, he needed it and occasional heaves were still hitting him even now. Around him was an organised chaos as the Aurors rounded up the various trainee and instructor Death Eaters present.
"You were right about one thing Professor," Harry said, attracting Moody's attention.
"What would that be lad?" Moody said with a sigh, "That was a total fluster fuck" he noted.
"The Inner Circle wasn't here," Harry said, laughing then heaving into the bucket again.
Moody chuckled and shook his head, "No; I suppose they weren't lad."
Director Bones smiled slightly to herself. For one, she was not sued to anyone treated Moody like that, though it was fun to see. For another thing, she had just witnessed the end of the worst Dark Lord in centuries. That was something worthy of note to her. The fact that a bloody teenager had been the one to take him down was just amazing. She had never thought when she had decided to train him that this would happen so soon. Who could she realise that? Of course, she could not.
Minister Fudge suddenly exploded into the area and headed straight for Harry. "Now look here Mr Potter, you've done it this time."
Harry looked up into the flustered Ministers eyes. Waiting for him to make a mistake he could use against the pompous arse.
"What mistake is that Minister?" Director Bones asked.
"He just killed someone, several people by all accounts." Fudge said drawing himself up to his less than impressive height.
Harry smirked, "Going to send me to Azkaban for killing Death eaters?" he asked mildly.
"That has yet to be proven… Director Bones I demand you take this- this- young man in for questioning."
Harry met Fudges eyes. Since after a change he was more The Black than he was Harry he did something Harry would never do. He invaded the little worms mind and grabbed a hold with a metal mental fist. Fudge stopped sputtering immediately.
"You don't want her to do that," Harry said.
"I don't want you to do that Director!" Fudge said.
"I was obviously working for the Ministry to remove the blight from our culture," Harry said.
"It's obvious to me that Harry was working with us to remove The Dark Lord Thingy."
Harry smirked, "These are not the droids you are looking for"
"These aren't the droids I'm looking for!"
"You should go do a press release now."
"I will go and prepare a press release!" Fudge said looking a little spaced out. He then left as quickly as he had arrived.
Director Bones glared at Harry, "Don't ever do that to me!" she said, then laughed aloud, her head thrown back as she released her tension.
-xXx-
Hermione looked around as a flurry of owls dive-bombed the breakfast table. Just about, everyone was suddenly getting an owl, even her.
A copy of the Daily Prophet landed on her empty plate with a thud. With a half frown, she picked it up and began to read.
[
VOLDEMORT SLAIN!
Minister Fudge says…. These are not the droids we're looking for!
Hermione blinked and put the paper back down again, trying not to laugh. She did so love Harry's pranks. However, she did wonder how he had gotten the Daily Prophet involved.