June 23
When she looked in the mirror- she wondered why her face didn't look as different as she felt on the inside.
Her eyes were still a bright teal, a shade Lavender Brown once called 'sea-foam' and Johnny always called 'beautiful'.
Her hair was still a dark red; thick and difficult to brush if she didn't use the smoothing conditioner her aunt brought back from a mission in Paris one time and always owl ordered twice a year to replenish. Susan touched one of her curls, more grateful now for the beauty book Hermione got her for her twelfth birthday than ever before.
Susan still had eleven freckles across the bridge of her nose (a number she knew for sure because Johnny once counted them), her teeth were still as straight and even as they'd been ever since her aunt had them fixed, and her nose still turned up just a little at the end in a way that Padma Patil said was 'so cute she was going to die from jealousy'.
Everything looked the same from the neck up.
Which was ridiculous because she felt like she was so different.
Susan lifted her right arm up carefully, telling herself that it felt just as it always had, and slowly pulled her hair back in to a slick ponytail.
She got dressed, as if her right arm had always looked this odd with her favorite black tank top that showed off a bit of her mid-drift when she lifted her arms, and checked to make sure her pockets were filled with supplies.
Healing potions. Blood replenishers. Decoy Detonators.
When she went to the sitting room, she gave her aunt a hug, and they both pretended Susan didn't accidentally squeeze her too tightly with the strength the new arm carried. Susan snagged her 'sleepover bag' and smiled at her aunt. "I'll be home Monday," she said. "Don't work yourself to death before then."
"Tell Severus and Harry that I said hello," Auntie said as she walked over and placed a soft hand on Susan's cheek. "Do try and stay out of trouble this weekend, will you?"
Susan gave her an innocent look, as she always did when her aunt said that to her. "Trouble? Us? You must have us confused with someone else, Auntie. The Daily Prophet said that Harry and I are role models to the younger generations."
Auntie Amelia chuckled and shook her head. "I never know if I owe Severus an apology for letting my child corrupt his or if he owes me one."
"If I were you, I would apologize just in case," Susan said seriously. "Except, as I said before, Harry and I are role models, so really you both should be pleased."
"Go," Auntie laughed again. "Be safe, will you?"
Susan was so grateful to have her Aunt Amelia. For the head of an entire department of law enforcement, she truly was very lax about Susan's activities during school breaks. Susan thought perhaps Auntie got enough of bossing people around at work all day and home was where she could just relax. Even if she wasn't too relaxed though, Susan knew she got lucky with having her aunt take her in after her parents died.
She only had to look at Harry to know she could have ended up with much worse guardians after the war.
"I'll try," Susan lied. "I love you."
Auntie Amelia smiled, her whole face softening as it did. "And I love you, you little liar. Don't do anything that I have to get involved with at least, alright?"
"Of course."
Susan was fairly confident that the theft and destruction they planned today surely had to be lower priorities for the DMLE considering Death Eater activity has been at an all time high recently. Especially since they were using a minimal amount of magic at Malfoy Manor.
Muggles were truly vicious creatures and had the most wicked machines that didn't need a single bit of magic to operate.
When Susan stepped in the floo, she told herself that her arm didn't actually ache as her body was trying to convince her mind that it did. This golden arm, made of magic and metal, didn't feel pain.
And her old arm was gone.
Susan stepped out of the floo and almost immediately groaned. "You," she said flatly. "Terrific."
"You didn't think Harry would plan the greatest prank ever and not invite me? Did you?" Fred asked with a cocky grin from where he was laying across the sleek sofa in the sitting room. "You remember Charlie, right?"
Susan turned juuuust a little, presenting Charlie Weasley with her left hand instead of her right. "I suppose you're helping as well?"
Susan hoped Harry knew Charlie was coming, otherwise he was going to be upset. Sure Harry let Charlie join the gang, and anyone could see how hard he worked to appear casual and unaffected by his presence, but Harry couldn't fool Susan. She noticed his little ticks in his fingers when Charlie moved too quickly or spoke too loudly. And she didn't think Harry kept a close eye on Charlie's hands because he found him attractive.
Even if he was terribly attractive.
"Harry specifically asked me to help," Charlie said with a roguish smile as if he could guess at Susan's thoughts. "He said, and I quote, 'I need an adult or Snape's gonna be pissed and I know you like fire'."
"What?" Susan was startled in to a laugh by that. She looked Charlie over carefully. He didn't look much like the twins or Ron, aside from his blue eyes and freckles. His red hair was cropped short and his features were more... more hardened than the other Weasley boys. She glanced at his arms, taking note of both the tattoos and the muscles, and smiled slyly at the burn marks littering his arms. "I suppose you do know quite a bit about fire, don't you Dragon-Man?"
"A bit," Charlie said with a wink that temporarily soothed Susan's newly diminished confidence.
Susan never used to worry much about her looks. She was attractive, beautiful, and didn't struggle to find willing partners once her hormones kicked in and she wanted to experiment. She wasn't vain, necessarily, she just knew she was attractive as clearly as she knew she had two arms.
Then she lost one arm and didn't know anything about herself anymore.
Susan was about to see how far the supposedly 'romantically disinterested' Charlie Weasley was, when Hermione, Theo, Draco, and Harry trooped in the room and interrupted her.
Another time then, she decided with a small flick of her head for Charlie before she settled herself on the floor beside the chair she knew Harry would take.
Harry always took the chair that had the best view of the exits.
Sure enough, Harry sat in his chair and Theo shoved Fred's legs off the sofa so he and Hermione could sit while Draco took a hesitant seat next to Charlie on the smaller love seat.
"Where's Ron?" Harry asked Draco immediately.
It was Fred who answered him with an apologetic grimace. "He's at the shop with George. Sorry darlin, I paid him to cover me today."
"His loss," Harry shrugged. "Kay, Mione, let's go over the plan then."
Hermione nodded and pulled out a parchment from her bag that she got up to stick to the wall. "Operation 'Blow Up Malfoy Manor', step one—"
"Excuse me?" Susan said with just the right mix of condescending in her polite tone. "Operation B.U.M.M.?"
"Blow Up Malfoy Manor, yes?" Hermione said, her brows furrowing over her brown eyes at Susan's interruption. "That's what we're doing, isn't it?"
Fred and Charlie began snickering quietly while Susan blinked slowly at Hermione, waiting for her to understand precisely what she's done.
It took a few seconds, but finally Hermione's cheeks turned a brilliant red.
"Operation bum," she whispered, horrified. "Oh God."
Susan gave Theo a very pointed look, "I wouldn't let Hermione name your future children."
Harry and Draco howled with laughter with the Weasley's while Theo blushed alongside Hermione now.
"Fuck off Susan," Hermione snapped. "It was a poorly thought out acronym, no need to be a pillock about it."
Susan loved Hermione all the time. But she liked her as well as loved her when Hermione got snarky and rude.
"Quit," Harry said from his spot. He was quiet, but they all heard him anyway. "Can we get on with it?"
Harry didn't specifically admonish Hermione, but Susan knew that he wouldn't have spoken up if Hermione hadn't just called her a 'pillock' either. He was so needlessly protective, it was adorable. It was probably a good thing she'd never once in her life been attracted to Harry, or else she would have to steal him from Fred.
She glanced up at Harry and could easily admit that he was fanciable, he just wasn't her type. His facial features were too delicate, he looked too easily broken. It was a look she could appreciate in girls, but she liked her blokes to look more rugged.
Not that Harry wasn't strong and powerful, but maybe she just knew him too well. She knew what had the potential to break Harry and vice verse. She knew that the battle had broken him, in a way, and he knew that the loss of her arm had broken her in a way.
They were open books with each other, to an extent. Harry wouldn't share plans with her when he thought there was a chance she'd get hurt, but she wasn't going to be sidelined in any plans anymore either.
Especially not this plan, because this plan was hers and it was brilliant.
"Step one then Hermione," Susan said. "I think that's for us," she told Harry cheerfully.
"Er..." Harry ran a hand through his hair and Susan just knew something stupid was about to come out of his mouth. "I told Fred he could come with me."
Susan counted very slowly in her head (Lupin would be so proud) before she responded to that sudden shift in plans.
"And why, precisely, are you taking Fred instead of me?" Susan asked with a sharp glare. "This was my plan, my idea. I want to go."
Harry shifted his eyes away guiltily and Susan knew it was some mad protective thing.
"No," she cut him off before he could even say it. "I'm going."
"I'm a better thief," Fred said with a bright smile. "Harry's just playing to our strengths."
Susan was no big fan of Fred's. And she liked him even less when he would jump in and hand Harry perfectly logical explanations to hide his illogical thought processes behind.
"Harry, no," Susan said, ignoring Fred entirely for the moment. "I'm going."
"Your wand has a trace on it and it's a muggle area," Fred said, butting in to a private argument again. This is why he gets on Susan's nerves, he lets Harry do whatever he wants and never argues against him, even when Harry is being a prat. "Mine doesn't."
"Then give me yours," Susan snapped at him.
"Sue, c'mon, I'll be gone for fifteen minutes and then you can go to the manor with us," Harry said pleadingly. "If we get caught then they might call the cops or something mad, I don't want them trying to fuckin arrest you."
"Aren't they already kind of like cops?" Draco asked, his nose scrunched up in what Susan and Hermione dubbed 'pureblood confusion'. "I thought that's what muggle military is?"
"It's a little different," Hermione said patiently before launching in to an overly detailed explanation.
"Susan, we need your help to perfect this spell," Theo said, taking Harry's side as Susan should have known he would. "It's trickier than Timmy's followers make it look."
"I know you guys perfected it already," Susan rolled her eyes. "I'm going with Harry and that's that."
"No you aren't, that's that," Harry said stubbornly.
Harry and Fred got to their feet, Harry's cloak already halfway out of Harry's pocket when Susan caught a glimpse of Charlie and had one final idea.
She jumped up and pulled Fred to the side of the room quickly. She yanked his head down by her mouth to make sure the others couldn't hear her threat. "Either you tell Harry that you'll stay and I'll go, or I'm going to shag your brother while you're gone," she hissed quietly before releasing him.
Fred blinked at Susan, his jaw dropping and overall looking just as horrified and worried as she thought he might. Fred never said anything, but she didn't think he was the biggest fan of her either. Which would certainly make it a shame for him if she stole away one of his siblings.
"Change of plans, darlin," Fred called over to Harry. "You take Susan to rob the garrison and I'll wait here and make sure the other supplies are ready."
Harry scowled.
Susan smiled.
Then Harry sighed and held his hand out and she skipped back over to him to grab it.
"If you get hurt then you're out of the gang," Harry said flatly. "Disarm Fred and take his wand."
Susan knew Harry wouldn't kick her out, and she wouldn't get hurt this time. She smirked at Fred before turning her wand on Charlie and disarming him before he even realized what she was doing.
"Oi! What the hell?!"
Susan pocketed his wand and tossed him hers. "It won't work very well, since you didn't earn it, but you can use mine until I get back," she said with a wink. "See you guys soon."
Harry's face was blank as he threw the cloak over the two of them. He pulled a parchment out of his pocket and studied the address Hermione found for them carefully. "Ready Sue?"
Susan squeezed his hand while her heart thudded in anticipation for the upcoming adventure. "Ready."
Crack!
"Woah." Susan glanced down to make sure she was still fully covered with Harry's cloak before staring again at the huge metal gates before them. The gates were taller than Hagrid and had a red sign across where they met in the middle:
Camp Bovington Authorized Personnel Only
Violators will be Prosecuted
"How do we get inside?" Susan whispered.
Harry gave her an exasperated look before glancing pointedly down the road from where they stood where there was a gate arm that muggle men with long black guns in their arms were controlling.
"Quiet now," Harry breathed in her ear. "Let's wait for a car to pull up and we'll just slip in behind them."
Susan nodded and quietly followed behind Harry as they crept up close to the gates.
The two of them stood there for a while, letting the sun warm them beneath the cloak, listening to the muggles in their uniforms talk and laugh with one another. By the time a black automobile pulled up to the gates, Susan had at least three more swears added to her vocabulary.
Susan felt it as Harry's magic silenced their feet so they could run behind the car after the driver showed his ID and allowed the muggle guards to check the inside of his car.
"Fuck." Harry came to a halt and they sent each other a bewildered look. "Any idea which way we go?" he whispered.
Susan looked around at the many, many, huge brick buildings that surrounded them and shook her head. "Look for a sign that mentions artillery," she said quietly.
Harry let out a small sigh and shrugged his shoulders. "Let's try and find it quick."
How hard could it be to find one little explosive machine in a place built for military defense?
Very, apparently.
Susan and Harry had already been darting around the camp for nearly thirty minutes, carefully dodging the men in uniforms that filled the grounds, and were no closer to finding anything marked 'artillery', 'explosives', or even 'top secret'.
"I've got an idea," Harry murmured, his eyes trained on an older muggle in a green uniform with loads of colorful ribbons on his chest. "Be quiet and follow me."
Susan stayed right up against his side as they got close to where the muggle he was watching stood talking to other muggle men. She kept her eyes on the muggle and was able to see the exact second that Harry cast something on him and his eyes glazed over.
"I've got to go," the muggle said in a deep tone that the other men clearly responded immediately to. "Carry on men."
"What's he doing?" Susan whispered in Harry's ear as the muggle turned around and began strutting off importantly with Susan and Harry following behind him beneath the cloak.
"Leading us to the weapons storage," Harry said smugly. "But, er, don't tell Mione. I told her we'd get it without imperio."
Susan huffed out a quiet laugh as the muggle man led them to a fenced in area and flashed his badge multiple times to get through all sorts of gates and checkpoints. They tiptoed behind him into a building half the size of the black lake with thick metal doors and equally thick metal walls.
"Holy fuck," Harry breathed when the fluorescent lights kicked on in the room the muggle man led them to. "Sue... I- I think this is the most illegal thing we've ever done."
Susan nodded dumbly, too overcome by all the complex and dangerous looking metal machines to even know what to say. Harry's eyes were glittering as brightly as Susan had ever seen before when he ordered the muggle man to demonstrate some of the machines for them.
Harry also sent off a quick patronus to the others, informing them that they were fine but they were going to be a while.
By the time they apparated back to Invisibility Way, they brought along two giant wicked machines, a wooden crate, and had obliviated the muggle man with the chest full of ribbons and the men in the security room after they destroyed all evidence of ever being there.
"What is that?" Hermione gasped when Harry stepped aside to show her the machines he brought.
"This, my dearest Hermione, is a machine the muggles call a 'grenade machine gun'," Susan said proudly. She patted the wooden crates Harry stole and positively beamed with excitement. "And these are full of 'incendiary ammunition'."
"Bloody wicked," Charlie breathed. He walked slowly around the weapon and looked it over carefully. "It doesn't have any electricity?"
"Nope." Harry was beaming too, even when Hermione's face turned apoplectic. "Come off it Mione, they didn't have 'bombs', this was the next best thing."
"Do you even know how to work it?" Draco asked, walking slow circles around the machines as well. "It looks complicated."
"We got a demonstration," Susan said without showing the giggles trapped in her chest. "Are you lot ready then?"
"I will be when I get my wand back," Charlie said pointedly. He disarmed Susan weakly with her own wand before tossing it back to her. "Don't steal my wand again."
"I'll take that under consideration," she said seriously.
"And this... this is really our best revenge?" Draco asked slowly. "Blowing up my home? I really don't think my father is going to be pleased when he gets out of Azkaban."
"He'll get over it," Harry said shortly. "Cissa said she's always wanted to design and build a new home anyway, so no real harm done."
Draco seemed too shocked for words for a moment by Harry's blasé tone. "But..."
"Nope." Harry held his hand up and cut Draco's complaint off. "You owed me a favor and the favor is I don't wanna hear you complain about it. If there's anything you want from inside then I'll get it, but that's it."
"I—" Draco shook his head, "There's nothing. Let's get this over with."
"Draco and I first then," Harry said firmly with a small glance towards Susan and Fred both. "We're going to make sure there's no house-elves or peacocks on the grounds before you all grab the machines and follow behind."
Susan loved that Harry thought of house-elves in a time like this. She knew how excited he was for this, how much he's been looking forward to taking something from Timmy like Timmy did him, and he still stopped to think of house-elves.
How anyone considered Harry to be evil was beyond her.
"When I send the message, Charlie bring Susan and the machines, Fred bring Theo and Hermione. Everyone know what they're doing?"
Everyone nodded so Harry smiled wickedly before giving them a two fingered salute. "See ya in a few."
As soon as Harry and Draco disappeared, Theo turned to Susan.
"How did you guys get a demonstration of military grenade machine guns?"
"Magic," Susan quipped.
Charlie suddenly laughed, a full on belly laugh that had him bent over and his eyes tearing up. "Harry fucking Potter," he gasped. "Merlin, Freddie, you have to marry him."
Fred nodded while he too joined his brother in laughter.
Susan knew Harry and Fred were going to be together forever, but she still rolled her eyes with Hermione over it.
Boys were ridiculous.
Susan was worrying just a little as time kept ticking on and Harry hadn't sent a signal yet.
"What's taking so long?" she snapped, checking the clock and seeing that they'd already been gone for twenty minutes. "We should go and make sure they didn't get captured or something."
"It'll be fine," Theo tried to assure her. Which was hilarious because Theo looked just as worried as she was. "Harry would send a message to Snape if he got captured and we would have heard him screaming from here."
"If we don't hear from him in ten minutes then I'm going to check on them," Charlie said. He was watching the clock with just as much single minded focus as Fred. "I should never have let him talk me in to this," he muttered quietly. "Snape's going to bloody murder me if Harry gets hurt."
Susan scoffed, scathing and disdainful.
As if Snape was the one they needed to worry about if Harry was hurt.
Exactly eleven minutes later, Charlie got to his feet with a solemn expression. "Malfoy Manor, right? I'm gonna go find the boys."
Susan didn't even bother to ask him to take her, he wouldn't and she didn't have time to argue with him, she just nodded and watched silently with the others while Charlie disapparated with a sharp crack.
The four of them left in Harry's sitting room were tense and on edge while they waited for some sort of sign, some sort of signal.
Why, why, had they let 'Step Two' be Harry and Draco clearing the manor by themselves?
Charlie wasn't gone long, thankfully, but when he returned Susan thought she might kill Harry.
"This is Blippy, Roo, Grog, and Filly," Charlie said, waving his hands at the four emaciated and teary eyed house-elves he brought with him. "Harry was healing their injuries, he said 'time got away from him' but he's ready for us now."
"It is Roo's fault!" one of the house-elves, a female if the little blood stained and ripped skirt was any indicator, wailed while tears spilled down her cheeks. "Roo was so- so happy to be seeing Master Draco she was delaying Mister Harry from his planning!!"
"Oh for the love of..." Theo muttered. "Mavis!"
Susan ignored Theo while he and Hermione patiently explained to Mavis that it seemed like he had some unexpected guests to care for at least until they got back. She went over to the machines and grabbed one in each hand before giving Charlie an expectant look. "Let's go," she said.
"Yes ma'am," Charlie laughed. He shuffled awkwardly up to her and hooked his arm on her right arm as if it was entirely natural to put his bare skin on something that was cool and hard instead of warm and soft. "Let's go blow up a manor," he said teasingly.
Susan held on tight to the heavy equipment they brought and closed her eyes while it felt like she was being pulled through a straw and unfolded on the other end.
She looked around interestedly when they landed, the machines landing with loud and heavy thunks. Charlie had brought them to the edge of the woods that surrounded the back of Draco's ancestral home.
"Where is Harry?" she hissed at Charlie while he put up a quick privacy shield.
"He'll be here in a minute. He's getting something for Mrs Malfoy," Charlie muttered while he began tinkering with the machines. "Mind showing me how to 'load' these? Harry told me to get them ready."
Susan sighed and pushed him away before he could break them. She began prepping the machines, although she couldn't load them until Theo finished with the house-elves and came with the ammunition.
"What'd you tell Freddie to make him change his mind on going with Harry earlier, anyway?" Charlie asked curiously while he watched Susan mimic the muggle's instructions. "I asked him after you left, but he refused to tell me."
"I told him if he didn't let me go with Harry that I'd shag you while he was gone," Susan said shamelessly. "You're quite fit, you know."
She glanced up from the machines and grinned slyly to see Charlie's ears had turned a truly terrible shade of red.
"I do not 'shag'," he said drily. "And I certainly don't shag the underage niece of the head of the department of magical law enforcement."
"Oh?" Susan opened the ammunition slot on both machines and gave Charlie a frank look. "Do you not shag at all or do you prefer to be in love first?"
"Don't make it sound so terrible," Charlie crossed his arms across his chest defensively. "There's nothing wrong with waiting for love before you go sharing such an intimate experience with someone."
Besides it was dreadfully boring, she supposed he wasn't necessarily wrong. Susan preferred to branch out though, experience what she could while she could. She had loads of time for 'love' later in life if she wanted it. At least Blaise understood her, even if all of her other romantically attached friends didn't.
"Of course not," Susan smiled placatingly while she heard the others apparate close-by. "If you happen to change your mind about waiting for true love, the niece of the head of the DMLE turns seventeen in February."
It was an excellent boost to her confidence to see Charlie reduced to a sputtering mess while the others drug the crate to their spot.
"Not using magic is ridiculous," Theo hissed, his face red and sweaty already. "Harry's being absurd."
"He's being smart," Susan corrected him. She heard footsteps crunching leaves nearby and perked up. "And here he comes so shut up and be ready for step three."
"What's step three?" Draco asked as he came jogging up to them, his arms buried in various boxes and bags.
Susan and Harry shared a gleeful smile.
"Boom," Susan answered him.
It took a few minutes of Harry and Susan struggling to load the machines up the precise way the muggle showed them.
"How many people were inside?" Theo asked.
"Four," Draco answered him, his eyes bright and anticipatory. "They've destroyed the manor. My father would die if he saw it." He held up his hand, a fistful of various colored wands clenched tightly. "It'll be difficult for them to put the flames out without these," he sneered.
"Guess we're about to test that theory." Susan laughed. She looked over at Harry and saw that he was in the same position in front of his machine as she was. "Ready Harry?"
"On three?" Harry said, his voice tight with the same excitement that was quickening Susan's blood.
Susan looked through the telescope hooked to her machine and saw the back of the manor centered in her view.
"On three," she agreed.
"One..."
Hermione grabbed Theo's hand tightly.
Harry and Susan slammed the ammunition in place.
"Two..."
Charlie threw up a protective shield around the seven of them.
Susan pulled back the lever and moved her hand to the heavy trigger in front of her.
"Three!"
Susan pulled the trigger—
Once...
Twice...
Three times.
The noise was ear-splitting, Susan's ears were ringing and causing her to feel a bit dizzy as the grenades flew between the trees and whizzed through the backyard before—
BOOM!
Susan couldn't hear Harry when she turned to look at him and he said something to her with wide and shocked eyes, but she read his lips and was pretty sure he said 'boom'.
Yeah. Boom.
The others stood there, their gazes shocked as screams erupted from inside the manor while it looked like the entire posh foundation shook before slowly sinking in itself.
It took a second, but then more explosions happened from inside the manor and flames suddenly shot up in the air.
"Oh my god," Susan sighed. "It's beautiful."
And it was. The orange flames got higher and higher, uncontrollable and destructive. She could feel the heat from their position and had to hold a hand up in front of her face to keep the smoke and ashes from blowing in her eyes.
"Yep, time to go," Charlie yelled hastily over the sounds of actual death and destruction that Susan couldn't stop staring at. "C'mon, now."
"One more thing!" Theo shouted. "Fred, do it now!"
Fred's face lit up with a laugh Susan couldn't hear over the continuing collapse of Malfoy Manor. She saw as he raised his wand and aimed it in the sky above the manor.
"Fulgervare!" Fred shouted.
Susan let out a happy whoop of laughter as a golden sparkling lightning bolt was shot in the air above the manor.
Hermione was a genius.
If Timmy and his death eaters could leave behind a calling card, so could they.
When they returned to Invisibility Way, ditching the evidence in the broom shed, even Draco was caught up in the triumphant and jubilant feeling of the group.
"Mission accomplished," Harry shouted, his hearing probably still just as poor as Susan's was.
She kind of understood now why the muggle military man wore earplugs when he'd demonstrated the machine for them.
"You did it!" Fred laughed. He kissed Harry quickly, his eyes bright and adoring. "You're mad, darlin, absolutely mad!!"
"Did you see the flames?" Draco asked. His face was pale and he was clutching his mother's items close to his chest, but his grey eyes were bright. "Just... BOOM!"
"Boom," Hermione giggled, collapsing on the sofa with a shocked, but pleased, expression on her face. "I can't believe muggles have access to weapons like that! That's more destructive than almost any spell!"
"Muggles are insane," Theo said. "Absolutely—"
"Would anyone like to explain to me why there are four new house-elves sobbing in our kitchen?"
All seven of them turned as one to see Snape standing in the doorway, an inscrutable look on his face.
"Er..."
"Well I'm headed out," Charlie said brightly. "Fred, got time to show me the shop before I head over to Grimmauld with Mum and Gin?"
"Yep," Fred agreed quickly. He pecked Harry on the cheek and winked at him before he and his brother all but ran from the room, headed straight to the floo in the library.
Cowards.
"Harry, what have you done?" Snape asked slowly, looking the five of them over carefully. "What is on your clothes?"
"Hm?" Harry glanced down and Susan internally groaned to see black 'gun powder' coating the front of his shirt and down his trousers, a look she shared when she checked. "Aah, well, you see... we... blewupMalfoyManor," Harry said in a rush with his carefully practiced charming smile.
Snape's mask cracked for just a second, there was just a brief look of utter shock before he blinked and was opaque once more. "You have done what?" he hissed.
Susan saw Theo, Draco, and Hermione ducking out of the room from the corner of her eyes.
Merlin they had the worst friends.
Susan squared her shoulders and faced Snape. "We blew up Malfoy Manor," she said firmly. "Blew it to pieces."
"You..." Snape's dark eyes bulged as he looked between Susan and Harry. "You blew up Malfoy Manor?"
"Yup." Harry flicked his fingers towards Susan and cleaned the ash off her with a warm breeze of magic. "Timmy wasn't there, but unless they apparated quick, we killed four death eaters."
Snape's eyes flicked with a bunch of different emotions before finally settling on something that looked like exhaustion. "How long until I should expect aurors to show up at Spinners End?"
"You shouldn't," Harry shrugged. "Learned from that experience, didn't I? No underage magic was done and we blew the manor up with muggle machines."
"'Muggle machines'," Snape repeated tonelessly. "And where did you acquire these machines?"
"Her royal highnesses armory," Susan grinned. "You should have seen it Snape, it was amazing."
Harry and Susan stood shoulder to shoulder while they waited for Snape's inevitable explosion.
Susan expected a whole variety of screams and insults to come pouring from Snape's mouth. Anything from 'have you lost your Merlin damned mind?' to 'you absolute imbecile!'
What she didn't expect was for Snape's shoulders to sag and for him to peer at Harry closely. "Are you injured, Harry?"
"Nope."
Snape glanced at Susan, "And you, Miss Bones?"
"I'm fine, sir," Susan said politely.
Snape nodded and watched Harry with an odd look for a long moment. "Please have Narcissa find something to do with the house-elves," he said quietly. "I will see you at breakfast."
Harry's brows were nearly to his hairline when he turned to Susan after Snape just turned around and abruptly left the room.
"Did he- is he... what just happened?" Susan asked disbelievingly. "I thought he would yell."
Harry shook his head slowly, "I told you he's depressed," he murmured. "Must be worse than I thought."
Susan looked towards the spot Snape disappeared and thought maybe Snape was more than just depressed, he seemed really just defeated. Like Harry could have admitted to killing the Minister himself and Snape wouldn't have reacted at all.
"Yeah, maybe," Susan hummed noncommittally. "Wanna go see if Hermione and Theo want to play cards?"
Susan was still riding the high of their successful mission for the rest of the weekend. In fact, it wasn't until she returned home on Monday afternoon that she even realized her 'phantom pains' in her right arm hadn't bothered her once since the operation began.
Which she certainly would not be mentioning to Lupin the next time she saw him, she couldn't stand to see the smug look on his face when she confirmed that it probably was 'all in her mind'.
***
CONVICTED DEATH EATER LUCIUS MALFOY MANOR BURNT TO THE GROUND!
Law enforcement responded to calls of a magical residence burning in Wiltshire yesterday evening. When aurors Johnathan Abbott and Blue Ritters returned from the scene, they described the manor as 'a complete loss'. Despite the presence of stars creating a lightning bolt hovering
above the burnt manor and the yet-to-be-identified bodies, Auror Abbott stated that 'they found no proof that the fire was started by magical means'. Auror Ritters wrote that the residence belonged to none other
than Lucius Malfoy, who is currently serving a life sentence in Azkaban for his actions in May under the servitude of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. "It's a historical loss, but no less than Malfoy deserves," Minister
Fudge said firmly when asked for a comment. "I believe the message is quite clear; it does not pay to work for You-Know-Who." I reached out to my friend and close correspondent, recent hero
of the Hogsmeade Battle, Harry Potter, and asked for his opinion on the mark lingering in the sky above the destruction, as it is in the shape of his infamous scar from He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. "Sounds like there were death eaters who messed up a spell,"
Harry wrote in his response. "Unless there's a vigilant group out blowing up houses; has anyone checked with Dumbledore?" Due to Albus Dumbledore's well-known history and recent arrest
for running vigilante groups, i sought him out for a comment. Unsurprisingly, Dumbledore was unable to be found for a comment. While Lucius Malfoy may be mourning the loss of his manor, the
rest of the wizarding world rejoices in seeing a death eater get his due. ~Head Journalist, Rita Skeeter
For more on the Battle of Hogsmeade and Harry and his friends'
heroic actions, see page 3. For more on Albus Dumbledore's criminal history and past
mistakes, along with information on his upcoming appeal to return to Hogwarts as Headmaster, see page 5.