Thursday, January 14
"I'm twelve, but with less help. Figure it out."
Susan blinked at Harry's patronus and looked around at her friends.
"What the hell does that mean?" she hissed, waving her wand to put up Snape's muffling spell Harry taught them.
"Harry's being framed for something?" Theo guessed, his brows drawn and a puzzled frown on his face. "Less help? Our groups gotten bigger since he was twelve."
Susan closed her eyes and tried to imagine what Harry wanted her to know from that message.
'I'm twelve again' was easy. Harry had been framed for petrifying students and was either being framed or expelled now. Both, possibly. Framed for something and then expelled, but what? Hermione identified her attacker, and Madame Pomfrey said Hermione's knife marks matched those of Ginny and Seamus. So how could Harry possible have been framed and expelled for that?
'With less help' didn't make a lot of sense though. Harry had way more allies in the castle now than he used to... In fact, Harry's allies within the castle were beginning to outnumber any other group.
'Figure it out' was just annoying. Of course she would figure it out. But...
"Harry's already gone," Susan breathed. "He must be gone if he wants us to figure it out."
Draco looked around quickly, ensuring the Hospital Wing was still empty, as it had been since the lockdown went in effect, before quietly calling for his house-elf, Blippy.
Blippy, a cute little owl-eyed young elf, popped in the Hospital Wing after a few moments and gazed around at them all with a smile before bowing to Draco.
"Master Draco is asking for Blippy?" he said.
"Is Harry with my mother?" Draco asked quickly, his voice hushed despite the muffling charm.
Blippy blinked and Susan knew his answer before he said it.
"No, Mister Harry isn't being with Mistress Malfoy," he said, cringing away like he worried that his response would earn him a punishment.
As if Susan or Hermione would stand by while an innocent little elf was hurt.
"Can you come tell us when he arrives?" Theo asked Blippy, edging off Hermione's bed carefully. "Or, tell Draco at least?"
"Blippy can!" Blippy said eagerly. "Blippy will be watching for Mister Harry and coming back as soon as Mister Harry is at his house!"
"Thanks, Blippy," Neville said with a kind smile and a reassuring pat of his shoulder.
"Overkill there, mate," Ron chuckled as Blippy popped away with tears streaming from his eyes.
No one else laughed though, they just exchanged loaded glances.
"What do we do?" Blaise asked.
"Get Snape?" Trent suggested.
Hermione glanced at the Hospital Wing door and sighed heavily. "We can't go anywhere or get anyone until they release us from lockdown," she said. "The doors are magically sealed closed, they won't open to anyone except the Heads of Houses and the Headmaster."
Trent jumped to his feet and immediately tried to open the door. "Alohamora!" he cried, tapping the door with his new wand Fred bought. "She's right," he said after trying and failing to open the door. He rejoined their group and gave Hermione a curious look. "How'd you know that?"
"Hogwarts a History," Susan, Theo, Luna, and Hermione all said simultaneously.
"What do we do then?" Ron asked.
Susan sighed and made herself comfortable in the chair beside Hermione's bed. "I guess we wait."
The rest of them talked quietly, trying to guess at what was going on, but Susan just kept replaying Harry's message:
I'm twelve, but with less help. Figure it out.
He could have been a little more specific.
Also... if he'd been expelled... why had he not sent a follow up patronus? Was he too upset? Was he not alone? Why wasn't he at Invisibility Way? It was the safest place in the world. There was no reason Harry couldn't go straight home.
He could have been a little more specific.
It seemed to take ages until Madame Pomfrey finally bustled in the Hospital Wing and clicked her tongue at them.
"The lockdown is over. You all need to get to your beds," she said briskly. "Miss Granger, I'm going to keep you tonight, dear. Just to make sure you get some rest. The rest of you, straight to your rooms."
"Do you know what happened, ma'am?" Susan asked her.
Madame Pomfrey paused for a moment, her hand hovering in the air as she reached in a cabinet. Then she shook her head and pulled a vial of dreamless sleep out of the cabinet to give Hermione. "I don't," she said. "But they've ended the lockdown, so that despicable boy must be gone."
Yeah... yeah that made sense.
Susan just couldn't figure out how Harry had gotten framed and/or expelled in the meantime. She also couldn't understand why Blippy had yet to return to tell them Harry had arrived home.
"Snape's office?" Draco asked her as soon as they exited the Hospital Wing.
"Snape's office," she agreed.
Susan, Draco, Theo, Blaise, Ron, Luna, and Trent all ran quickly through the dark and deserted corridors to get to Snape's office and Susan continued replaying Harry's message in her mind.
'...but with less help. Figure it out.'
Harry must have had an audience he didn't trust when he sent it, probably Dumbledore if he'd been expelled again, but he surely believed Susan would understand it. Harry was a bloody genius. He wouldn't have sent a nonsensical message. So Susan needed to figure it out.
"God damnit!" Theo screamed and kicked Snape's wall when they arrived and burst inside his office and it was empty. "Where the hell is he?"
"Probably with Harry," Neville said softly.
"I know the password to his quarters," Susan told Theo. "C'mon, let's check there."
They ran just as quickly to Snape's quarters as they did to his office, and Theo screamed and kicked the wall again when they too were vacant.
"Sirius!" Trent cried abruptly. "He'll know what's going on!"
Susan would run the length of the earth for Harry, but honestly it would be nice if Snape's living quarters and Sirius' were nearby.
Sirius wasn't in his office, or his damn living quarters. Susan eyed his floo thoughtfully as the others argued over what to do next. Just as Susan decided to just floo to Invisibility Way herself and look for Harry, the floo lit up and someone, a tall well dressed wizard with neat grey hair, stepped out.
He stepped out and had six wands immediately leveled at his chest.
...and one knife, because... well, Trent.
"Wha...?" The man's eyes flicked between them before landing on Susan and lighting up. "Susan! Did you help Harry kill Goyle?"
"Excuse me?" Susan's blood pumped at the man's accusation. Did Harry kill Goyle?
And get caught?
No... 'I'm twelve' meant Harry had been unfairly expelled at a minimum, framed for something at a maximum.
'But with less help'.
"Who are you?" Susan asked the man, ignoring his repeated question to her. "Where's Professor Black?"
The man looked puzzled for a second then looked down at himself and rolled his eyes.
"I'm Sirius," he said. Susan raised a skeptical brow, and the man let out a loud huff before quickly transforming in to Grim and back again.
The others lowered their wands, except Susan. She took a step closer to Sirius and jabbed her wand in his chest. "Where is Harry?" she hissed.
Sirius sighed unhappily down at her and shook his head. "Azkaban," he said flatly. "They arrested him for the murder of Goyle."
Susan's breath caught in her throat as her friends went absolutely silent.
"WHERE THE FUCK DID YOU SAY MY BROTHER IS?!" Theo suddenly shrieked. "GET HIM, NOW!"
"I can't!" Sirius yelled right back. "DO YOU THINK WE DIDN'T TRY?"
Theo screamed something else at Sirius, but Susan couldn't understand him as her hearing went fuzzy and her vision swam a little.
'I'm twelve, but with less help. Figure it out.'
"He didn't do it," Susan whispered, silencing the screaming match in the room. "Harry didn't kill him."
And Harry couldn't be in Azkaban.
The dementors were in Azkaban.
Harry couldn't be where there were dementors.
Sirius ducked down in front of Susan, putting his face directly in hers and grabbing her shoulders, shaking her a little. "What do you know?" he asked her. "Was it an accident? Was there a fight? What happened?!"
"Get your hands off her," Ron snapped, jerking Sirius off Susan by the collar of his robes. "Harry said he didn't do it."
"Did you talk to him?" Sirius asked, unbothered with the way a teenage boy just knocked him down. "Someone tell me what happened, NOW!"
"He said 'I'm twelve'," Luna said simply, sliding up beside Susan and grabbing her hand gently. "That means he didn't do it."
Sirius looked around the room at the students, his eyes lingering on Theo for a long moment. "Did one of you shoot Goyle?"
"Don't look at me like that," Theo scowled, "I've been with Hermione since she woke up."
"I did it," Susan said. She squared her shoulders and looked right in Sirius' eyes. "I killed him. Call the aurors and tell them it was me, not Harry."
"No you did not." Blaise stepped in front of Susan and glared at her. "Susan, do you think Harry's going to be pleased if you take his spot?" He turned to Sirius, "Susan's been with us all day as well. She didn't kill Goyle, but neither did Harry."
"He cannot be with the dementors, you bloody moron," Susan hissed. She pushed him aside and narrowed her eyes at Sirius. "Call them, tell them I did it."
"Susan," Luna whined quietly, tugging on her hand. "No."
Sirius' eyes softened as he looked down at Susan. "I said the same thing," he told her, "so did Snape. If your confession can't hold up under Veritaserum, they'll never believe you."
"Did Harry confess under Veritaserum then?" Draco asked.
Sirius shivered, then slowly started shrinking down, his hair darkening and lengthening, and within a couple seconds he was himself once more.
"No," he growled, his true grey eyes flashing dangerously. "They took him straight to Azkaban, he'll be interrogated at his trial."
"Which is when...?" Trent asked.
"October 7th."
"What?! Harry can't be in Azkaban until October!" Susan cried. "That isn't fair! He didn't do it!"
Sirius gave Susan a solemn look and gently placed his hand on her shoulder. "Can you prove it?"
Susan couldn't, not right then, but Harry told her to figure it out and she would.
"I will," she said firmly. "Harry didn't do it. And I'll figure it out."
"We'll figure it out," Neville corrected her.
Susan gave her friends an appreciative look. "We'll figure it out."
And so they began plotting.
They stayed in Sirius' quarters that night, making a list of every possible person who may have wanted to kill Goyle, then a list of every possible person who may have wanted to frame Harry.
Then they compared the two.
"So... Ginny or Seamus?" Ron said, sounding uncomfortable. "I don't..." he glanced up at Sirius, "You said Goyle was shot? With a gun, right?"
"Twice in the chest," Sirius said. "I saw the body myself."
"Well... I don't think Ginny knows how to use a gun," Ron said. "So... Seamus, maybe?"
"It's a start," Draco yawned. He snagged another cup of coffee that they ordered up and downed it quickly. "What now?"
Susan grabbed both lists and pocketed them. "Now we go have a chat with Seamus."
Blaise cleared his throat and sent a pointed look at Trent, who passed out on the floor while they were still compiling the first list, then at the dark windows. "We may have to wait a couple of hours."
Susan checked the time and scowled. "Or we go wake up Seamus now."
It was only two thirty.
Not too early to wake him up.
And it meant Harry had been in Azkaban for hours.
Susan didn't really give much of a damn about Finnigan's sleep schedule.
"Surprise Veritaserum?" Theo murmured. "It could work."
"You can't break in to the Gryffindor tower and force Veritaserum down Seamus' throat," Sirius frowned.
Susan gnashed her teeth together as she glared accusingly at him. Then Sirius held his hands up and Susan suddenly saw a bit of the prankster that Harry described Sirius as.
"You slip it in his morning juice and interrogate him in front of witnesses."
And suddenly their plans just got a lot more interesting.
"Wait." Draco put his hand on Susan's when she went to go knock on the entrance to Snape's quarters less than an hour later. "Send Luna in first," he whispered. "He's got a soft spot for her. If Luna asks for it, he'll never tell her no."
"If he knows what we need it for, he won't tell any of us no," Susan whispered back. She did back up though, allowing Luna to knock lightly then walk right in.
Susan, Draco, and Theo followed behind.
Ron, Blaise, and Neville were 'power napping' with Trent while Sirius went to find Fred before he read about Harry's arrest in the papers.
Susan couldn't sleep. She wouldn't sleep.
How could she?
They all, except Trent, remembered third year. They remembered how the dementors drug Harry under water and held him in place, mocking him with his memories as he struggled to breathe.
Susan couldn't rest while Harry was there.
And neither could Snape, it seemed. He barely spared them a glance as they walked right in to his quarters. Snape was sitting in the middle of his floor, surrounded by some of the thickest books Susan had ever seen.
"I have no time to talk," he muttered as he flicked through a book. "I'm building a defense, be gone."
"Harry didn't do it."
Snape's head snapped up and Susan was immediately caught by his gaze.
"Did you?" he asked.
Susan scoffed. "No, but if I can find a way to lie under Veritaserum then I'll happily say I did."
Snape immediately looked at Theo. "Did you?"
"No, but I'll say Harry was with me all day long," Theo said stubbornly.
Snape snorted and turned back to his books. "Piss off then," he said. "There has to be a way to release him."
"Yeah, we find who did it," Draco said. "Harry didn't."
Snape looked up again long enough to roll his eyes at Draco. "Of course he did."
'... but with less help.'
"He told you he didn't do it, didn't he?" Susan said accusingly as the missing piece to Harry's riddle came clear. "And you didn't fucking help him?"
"Of course I did, you stupid girl." Snape stood up and Susan realized for the first time why there were people who feared Severus Snape. He glowered down at her with his teeth bared and his nostrils flaring. It wasn't his features that were fearsome, necessarily, it was the way his dark eyes looked like bottomless pools of anger. "Do you think I willingly tossed him to the dementors, hmm? Do you think I could just apparate away with him in Albus' office? Use your brain, girl. Was Harry meant to confess in front of the aurors and Albus?"
"YOU WERE MEANT TO BELIEVE HIM!" Susan screamed, taking a step closer to Snape in a moment of lunacy. "DID HARRY TELL YOU HE DIDN'T DO IT?"
"What the fuck do you think he said in front of the aurors?" Snape hissed while taking a step over his stack of books to get right in Susan's face. "Gregory Goyle was shot twice in the chest after assaulting Granger, who else would have done it?"
"Not Harry, you god damned moron!" Susan yelled. "He said he didn't do it. He said 'I'm twelve', what the fuck did you think it meant?"
"It meant he was being removed from Hogwarts."
"Unfairly," Susan stressed. "'I'm twelve', he's being set up. 'Figure it out', find out who killed Goyle. 'With less help', you didnt fucking believe him," Susan spat, fury causing her hand to shake as she jabbed her finger in Snape's chest. Snape was pushed back a step by the strength in her arm and Susan followed him. "Harry doesn't lie, not to you," she said. "If he told you, explicitly, that he didn't do it, then he didn't. And you fucked up, you stupid man."
"THEN WHO DID?" Snape screamed, his eyes looking mad as he glared down at Susan. "Tell me, oh perfect and loyal friend of Harry's, who killed that fucking boy?!""That's what we're trying to find out," Luna said. She slid between them and put her hand on both of their chests, gently pushing them apart. "Professor, we need a bottle of Veritaserum, please."
Snape and Susan were both breathing harshly as they stared at each other over Luna's petite head. Snape finally broke eye contact with Susan, glancing down at Luna.
He cleared his throat and took a step away from them. "For what purpose? They will not interrogate Harry at present time. Scrimgeour believes it was Harry, and the Minister himself signed an arrest warrant minutes after Goyle's body was discovered."
That caught Susan by surprise. How many times had she heard her aunt say that arrest warrants sometimes took hours, even days, to obtain? But the Minister of Magic signed one for Harry Potter within minutes?
With no proof?
Was... was this a setup to get Harry arrested or revenge by a student against a known death eater?
"We don't need Harry's innocence proven," Theo said, interrupting Susan's train of thought, "we just need someone else's confession."
"You know who did it?" Snape asked him.
"Not yet," Susan told him, "but if you give us a bottle of Veritaserum and a few hours, we'll figure it out."
Snape gave Susan a long look, his eyes looking hard in to hers for her determination, or dedication, or some other pointless thing to look for.
Nobody wanted Harry out of Azkaban quicker than Susan did.
Snape swished his wand at his side and Susan watched as he summoned a small vial with the clear potion inside of it. "Take it," he said, directing it to Susan. "I will work the legal channels, you find who did this."
Susan raised the bottle to Snape in a mocking toast. It was Theo who drove the last dagger in before they left though. He spun around and gave Snape such a look of disappointment that Susan imagined one day he'd make a terrific father.
"I warned you," he said quietly to Snape, displeasure dripping from every syllable. "I told you before that Harry looks up to you and respects you more than anyone. Which means that the things you say hurt him worse than what anyone else could say. I sure hope he isn't sitting in Azkaban, alone, surrounded by dementors, thinking about how you didn't believe him."
Susan waited until they were in the corridor with Snape's door firmly shut behind them before she gave Theo a wry smile.
"That was cold," she said.
Theo shrugged and grimaced. "So is Azkaban."
Friday January 15
When their group arrived at breakfast, Hermione included now that she'd been released from the Hospital Wing and caught up, they had a plan.
Blaise wrote to his mother, to get the media wheels turning.
Theo, Hermione, Ron, Luna, and Draco were going to the Slytherin table to see who reacted to whatever article got published already.
Neville, Susan, and Trent went to the Gryffindor table and situated themselves perfectly between Sapphire and Ginny, Finnigan, and Thomas.
"Er... morning?" Sapphire said, her brows raised. "Bit of a change of pace here, isn't it?"
So much for subtle. All the Gryffindors were now staring at them incredulously.
"Not at all," Trent told Sapphire with a sweet smile. "I wanted to sit with you and Susan's being ridiculous. She thinks I can't sit with the scary lions without being eaten." He gave Susan a perfectly exasperated sigh, "Overprotective prat."
Susan sniffed, slipping in to the role Trent apparently assigned her. "You're just so tiny."
Neville chuckled and grabbed a stack of toast, the absolute image of ease. "He's gotten bigger, a bit."
Sapphire laughed too and jumped in on teasing Trent with Neville, causing the other Gryffindors to relax and go back to their own conversations. Susan kept an eye on Finnigan out of the corner of her eyes as owls started flying in.
Drink something, she thought, wishing she could imperio him. Anything, drink anything.
Owls started delivering post to students though, and there was a sudden increase in the general volume level.
"Harry's in prison?!" Parvati Patil yelped, dropping her paper in surprise.
"He killed Goyle?!" Lavender cried, reading whatever headline was on the paper over Parvati's shoulder.
Susan didn't have time to read the paper or argue with anyone, because Finnigan finally, finally, took a drink from his goblet as he and Thomas ducked their heads together to read Ginny's paper.
"Did she take a drink?" Susan murmured to Neville.
"Yep."
"Brill." Susan immediately slid over until she was next to Finnigan and had to work hard to hear herself think over the uproar of the students reacting to Harry's arrest.
She did quite agree with whoever yelled that it was 'utter bullocks!'
It was utter bullocks.
But she would figure it out and clear Harry's name quickly and get her best friend back.
"Did you kill Gregory Goyle?" she asked Finnigan.
His voice was flat, his green eyes slightly glazed when he looked up at her and answered. "No."
Damn.
"Do you know who did?" she asked him, ignoring the bewildered looks of the nearby students.
"No."
Damn again.
"Do you have any information on the murder of Gregory Goyle?"
"No."
Susan turned to Ginny and asked her the same questions with the same answers.
"Damnit!" Susan cried when Neville yanked her out of the nearly rioting hall. "This couldn't just be easy?"
Neville gave her a pitying look and patted her shoulder consolingly. "Is anything involving Harry ever easy?"
No. But Susan hoped he could catch a break, on occasion.
"This is a bad idea," Draco whispered from the alcove he was hidden in with Susan.
"Then piss off," Susan murmured, her eyes sharp as she waited for the last classes of the day to release. She didn't have time to listen to Draco whine, Harry had already been in Azkaban for almost twenty-four hours and Susan was running out of patience and Veritaserum.
After running in to a dead end with their first suspects, Susan and Theo had skulked around the castle, skipping morning classes, and interrogating their other suspects. The first through third years were easy enough to snatch and interrogate. Their defense classes had been cancelled for the day, on account of Professors Black and Snape being at the Ministry causing an uproar, and they didn't put up much of a fight before willingly letting Susan drop a bit of the potion in their mouth and answering her questions.
They only had a couple more names left on their lists, and Susan doubted these students would come so easily. Draco and Ron had been more than willing to skive off their evening classes with Susan, which was both appreciated and a necessity since Susan couldn't be entirely confident that she could strong arm a few seventh years in to interrogations alone.
The three of them were waiting outside Professor Slughorn's classroom, waiting on the seventh year boy, Walden Macnair's nephew, Benjamin Macnair who never created an alliance with Harry, to leave the classroom.
Susan held her breathe as the first of the NEWT students began trickling out, gossipy whispers about Harry's arrest battering her ears as they went, before she spotted Macnair's thick black hair leaving the classroom and heading for the staircase.
"Now," she whispered.
Draco hit him with a confundus just as Ron split his bag with a well place diffindo. Macnair stopped dead in the corridor, staring dumbly down at the mess by his feet.
"Want a hand?" his friend, a seventh year Ravenclaw girl, offered him.
"I've got it," Susan said sweetly as she danced from her hiding place to Macnair's side. She grabbed his arm with her right arm and smiled brightly. "You have a moment?"
"Er..." Macnair blinked quickly as he looked between Susan and the other witch. "Sure?"
Susan smiled at the girl until she shook her head and walked off, mumbling something about 'his funeral'. Then she yanked on Macnair hard as she all but drug him to the nearby classroom she'd designated for abrupt interrogations.
The confundus had already worn off by the time Draco and Ron slammed the door shut behind them and stood guard in front of it.
Susan grabbed Macnair by the front of his robes and slammed him in the wall, careless of the sickening crack his head made against the stone.
"Did you kill Goyle?" she hissed.
"Let go of me," Macnair grunted, twisting in Susan's grip. "You've lost the plot, Bones."
"Have I?" Susan murmured. She put her face right in Macnair's and gave him her cruelest smile. "Perhaps that's because someone killed Goyle and set Harry up to take the fall." She slammed him against the wall again, idly thankful to have her golden arm as a weapon. "Was it you?"
"No," Macnair scowled, his eyes rolling from the way she shook him. "I bloody well didn't. What makes you think it wasn't Potter? Nearly killed him the first night, didn't he?"
"Oh Harry would have killed him, for sure, if someone else hadn't done it first," Draco said.
"Harry just never would have left him in the middle of a corridor," Ron added.
"Harry would have drove his sword through Goyle's neck, watched him drown in his own blood, then tossed him in Slytherin's Chamber, never to be found again," Susan whispered. "And that's what I'm going to do to you if I find out you're lying."
It was vindicating the way Macnair's face paled. Susan knew students thought of her as attractive and flirty, she just had no idea that they saw her as fearsome as she hoped she was.
"It wasn't me, I'll vow it," Macnair said hastily. "I don't like Potter, but I don't have any real problem with him either. There are a lot of us that can't join him, but won't oppose him either."
"Yeah, I'm sure Harry'll forgive neutrality when he's freed and killing Voldemort," Ron laughed spitefully. "We'll be sure to mention to him how you don't like him though, that'll go over great."
"I don't want a vow, I want you to drink this." Susan pulled the Veritaserum from her pocket with her free hand and lowered Macnair so his feet could reach the floor. "You won't leave the room until you do."
Macnair's eyes flicked uneasily to Ron and Draco before he nodded curtly. "You'll tell Potter I cooperated?"
"I'll consider it," Susan hummed thoughtfully. "If I like your answers."
Macnair scoffed, but obediently opened his mouth and held out his tongue. Susan quickly dropped three droplets and let go of him as the potion ran its course.
"Did you kill Gregory Goyle?" she asked.
Macnair's eyes and tone had the dull proof of the potion's effects. "No."
"Do you know who killed Gregory Goyle?"
"No."
Susan ground her teeth and closed her eyes in brief irritation. "Do you know anything about Gregory Goyle's death?"
"The prophet said Potter did it," Macnair said robotically, as did the last few students they had questioned.
"Fucking brill," Susan growled, taking her frustrations out on a nearby chair that she kicked in to the wall. "Let him go," she told the boys. "Bloody, mother fucking, god damned useless."
Ron ushered Macnair out, none of them really giving much of a damn about the potion still effecting him and then gave Susan a frustrated look.
"What now?" he asked. "Someone, somewhere, has to know something!"
"I don't know how we'll find out," Draco scowled, kicking a desk chair for himself. "Unless we just interrogate everyone."
Susan froze with her leg pulled halfway back, planning on kicking another bit of furniture. "Say that again," she said thoughtfully.
"Interrogate everyone?" Draco said, sharing a confused look with Ron. "I mean, I don't really see how we could..."
Susan thought of Harry stealing Flamel's stone.
Harry killing a basilisk with a sword.
Harry taking on a fully grown dragon with that same sword.
Harry surviving a maze full of mad obstacles, then a duel with Timmy.
"Where there's a will, there's a way," she said with a slow smile. She checked the time. "C'mon," she told the boys, "let's meet up with everyone at dinner and plan."
"What exactly are we planning?" Ron asked curiously.
"We're interrogating everyone," Susan said simply, "do try and keep up, Ronald."
***
Saturday, January 16
"LISTEN UP!" Susan yelled, catching the attention of all the Slytherin students. She stood in the front of the common room, her wand in hand, her shoulders squared, and her eyes blazing. They had purposefully planned on doing it at this quite early hour, before anyone had an opportunity to leave for breakfast or any other reason. She waited for her friends to herd the students out of the dorms and take their positions before going on.
"For a lot of you guys, Harry is your ally. For a few of you, Harry is your parents' masters' enemy. But if you're a bloody Slytherin, then for all of you, Harry is the Heir to your house (supposedly, anyway. It was more of a convenient rumor that Harry enjoyed stroking when it helped him in some way and Susan would shamelessly utilize to make her task easier). And someone set him up. Now," Susan clapped her hands together brightly, making sure to lightly flex her golden arm to remind them that she once survived a duel against Bellatrix Lestrange and was not an easy foe to beat, "nobody leaves until you answer a few questions."
A couple students warily glanced towards the common room entrance, where Blaise and Ron stood. A few more glanced towards the dormitory doors, where Draco, Neville, Hermione, and Theo were.
Susan smiled at them as they turned back to her. "This is so easy it won't even be fun," she said, quoting something stupid Harry once told her. "Come up here, Trent's going to mark your name off my list, I'm going to ask you three easy questions, and we're done."
A boy, maybe a second year, raised his hand. "What are the questions?"
"I'm so glad you asked," Susan grinned. She held up the bottle of Veritaserum that had appeared on Theo's bedside table this morning for everyone to see. "Did you kill Gregory Goyle? Do you know who did? Do you know anything about his death? And that's it. I'll even vow that if you answer no to those three questions, I won't ask you a single other one and then you can leave the common room."
It went unsaid that nobody could leave until Susan interrogated them.
There was a beat of silence that stretched on so long that Susan began to worry that she would have to start dueling them all instead, but then Daphne cleared her throat and stepped forward with Astoria, Isaac, and Oscar.
"Make that vow, and I'll go first," Daphne said with a warm smile.
Susan raised her wand and gave them all her word, sworn on her life, and it was simple after that.
People liked to talk about Hufflepuff loyalty; how Hufflepuffs were the most loyal students supposedly. But, while Susan administered a drop of Veritaserum to each Slytherin, and asked them her questions, she thought that loyalty won through fear and respect was almost just as useful as loyalty from an innate type of personality trait.
Even though it ultimately proved useless.
"That's almost every Slytherin," Trent sighed after Susan finished with a very confused first year witch. "There's only me, Ron, Blaise, Draco, Theo, and Crabbe left."
Susan had rolled her eyes when Trent started listing off the only Slytherins she could trust, then froze at the end. "Crabbe?" she said. She looked around the nearly empty common room, most students decided to go hide in their beds until the effects of the potion wore off, and didn't see his meaty shaved head anywhere. "Why was Crabbe not on our first list?"
"Do we really think Crabbe killed his best friend?" Draco asked as he and Neville walked over to them.
"More importantly, do we really think Crabbe knows how to use a gun?" Neville said skeptically. "Not exactly a pureblood death eater type of tool, is it?"
Susan hummed as she looked over all three lists. She wasn't sure how likely it was that Crabbe shot Goyle, but it had to be much better odds than Harry doing it. "Let's find Crabbe, interrogate him, and if it wasn't him, then we move on to the rest of Gryffindor."
Luna sighed dramatically and shook her head at Susan. "Professor McGonagall isn't going to keep sending us Veritaserum if we run out again."
"Professor McGonagall didn't send it," Hermione scoffed. "It was probably Professor Black."
"No, it was Professor Snape," Theo said.
"I thought perhaps it was Slughorn," Draco shrugged. "He adores Harry. Can't ride his coattails if Harry's in prison, can he?"
Luna smiled slightly and gave them a smug look. "It was McGonagall," she said firmly. "Harry's allies have grown."
"I don't care who sent it," Susan said in a brisk manner. She held up the bottle and sighed. "We need more though. Let's find Crabbe, get more potion from Snape, free Harry, then we can figure out which Professor loves Harry the most."
It was easier said than done.
By dinner time that night, Susan had moved Crabbe up to 'Suspect Number One'. No matter where they looked, they couldn't find him. They'd torn the castle apart, from top to bottom, and he was no where. Susan wanted to keep searching, but Theo murmured that he wanted Hermione to eat and Hermione wouldn't eat if Susan wouldn't eat, and Blaise said maybe Crabbe was at dinner, so they relocated their search party to the Great Hall.
"We need Harry's map," Hermione growled as they looked all over the Great Hall and still couldn't see Crabbe anywhere. "What are the odds he left it here when he was arrested?"
"Slim," Theo said bluntly. "And Harry's belongings are warded to hell. Do you want to go trying to break in to his trunk?"
"Um... no," Hermione said with a nervous laugh. "Not at all."
"Sirius made the map, didn't he?" Ron murmured. "Reckon we can ask him to make us one real quick?"
"Doubtful," Susan scoffed. "For one," she sent a pointed look up to the hall-full Head Table, "he isn't here. For two, Sirius, Remus, Pettigrew, and Harry's dad made the map together. Who knows how long it took or how much of the work Sirius even did? We can't waste time on a possibility."
"What do you suggest then?" Blaise asked her.
Susan hummed, trying to think of the quickest way to find someone in the castle.
It was Luna who said it in her simple, unarguable way. "We'll have to split up," she said. "Everyone take a floor and someone take the towers."
Neville and Hermione didn't look convinced of the safety of the plan, but as nobody could come up with a better one, that was what they went with.
"Can we start fresh in the morning?" Draco asked her.
Susan started to say no, started to tell them they couldn't just sleep while Harry was in prison, but she took stock of the bags under everyone's eyes, the pallor of their skin, and the way that they all desperately needed a shower.
"In the morning then," Susan sighed. "Let's ask Mavis to send up some breakfast and then we'll get to it early."
"Want me to ask Daphne to help?" Ron asked Susan quietly.
"No." Susan shook her head and frowned. "We can't involve anyone we can't trust one hundred percent. Only the gang."
Ron looked a little put out, but he nodded in understanding.
This was business, not pleasure. And business meant the gang. Anyone who hadn't sworn in, couldn't be trusted.
And, Susan hated to think it, but at the rate that odd things kept happening, if Crabbe wasn't the culprit, then she'd be interrogating her friends next.
Susan didn't sleep. She waited until everyone else got comfortable in their beds or, in Neville's case, on the floor, then she slipped out to the common room. Susan folded herself up on the floor in front of the fire and pulled her watch out of her pocket.
"Five minutes," she whispered to herself. "Go." Susan blinked and fought back tears.
"I miss Harry. I miss my aunt. I miss Tonks. And..." a single tear slipped down her cheek despite her best efforts to prevent it. "I want Harry back," she whispered.
She couldn't talk for five minutes. She just stared at the watch and wondered how Harry was doing.
Probably not good.
***
Sunday January 17
"You stay on your floor until we find Crabbe," Susan told her friends the next morning. "Do not leave for any reason. We will find him today. I'll take the dungeons, Trent on the first floor, Ron on the second, Theo on the third, Draco on the fourth, Blaise fifth, Hermione sixth, Neville seventh, Luna take the towers. If anyone finds Crabbe just..."
"Just take one of these and tap it with your wand," Hermione cut in, pulling a handful of galleons out of her pocket and passing them out. "They'll all heat up and flash your name and we'll know where to go."
Susan held up the coin Hermione handed her and furrowed her brows. "When did you do this? This is really advanced magic!"
Hermione grimaced and shrugged, her cheeks turning a little pink. "You're not the only one who couldn't sleep," she said.
Fair enough, Susan supposed. Hermione had looked a little peaky recently, but she had been rather cruelly targeted and attacked. Susan would be peaky and unable to sleep well if she were in Hermione's place too.
Susan turned to Trent and raised a brow. "Can you petrify Crabbe if you find him or do you need to team up with me?"
Trent scowled and pulled his wand out, turning it on Ron before he could blink. "Petrificus totalus!"
Luna giggled quietly as Ron was petrified and fell to the floor, stiff as a board.
"I spent the summer with Sirius, Remus, and Harry," Trent said factually. "I'm not helpless, Susan."
Susan rolled her eyes at that while Draco freed Ron. "Alright then, everyone ready?" The others gave her solemn nods with grim expressions. "This is for Harry," she reminded them severely, "we can't afford any mistakes."
"But no pressure," Blaise drawled.
"All the pressure," Susan said seriously. She eyed everyone who had been around for their third year. "All the pressure."
Susan patrolled the dungeons as sneakily as she was able- which, admittedly, wasn't all that sneaky. She checked classrooms, she looked behind suits of armor. She described Crabbe to the Bloody Baron who nodded when she asked him to let her know if he saw him.
She wasn't sure if he would, but the Baron liked Snape and Snape liked Harry, so she had high hopes.
She tried to keep her hopes high, but... but the later it got, the more her chest ached, and the less hopeful she felt.
Plus, she got caught.
"Aah, Miss Bones, I've been looking for you." Susan sighed as Professor McGonagall came striding straight towards her with a solemn expression.
Susan edged around so she could see the corridor around her clearly. "Yes ma'am?" she said politely.
McGonagall stopped in front of her and peered down at Susan over the top of her spectacles. "How are you?" she asked gently, catching Susan by surprise.
"Bad," Susan said honestly. "Harry didn't do it. He told me he didn't, and he's not a liar. I don't care what the papers say."
The prophet, without Rita there, had happily jumped on the shock factor of the 'Boy-Who-Lived' becoming the 'Boy-Who-Killed' (a moniker that Draco said Harry may actually enjoy). Thankfully, the headlines turned swiftly after Blaise reached out to his mother, who owned the majority of shares of the Prophet thanks to her third ex-husband, and painted Harry in a much more sympathetic light. They outlined the lack of evidence, the lack of an interrogation, and the large gap in time between his arrest and his scheduled trial.
Minister Thicknesse, obviously, was 'unavailable to comment'.
McGonagall made a sympathetic sound. "Do you have any idea who may have?" she asked quietly. "Or a plan to discover the true culprit?"
"Hmm," Susan hummed and thought carefully. "I'm not sure if you want involved, ma'am."
Force-feeding students Veritaserum wasn't exactly legal. In fact, it was explicitly illegal.
Professor McGonagall glanced around then ducked her head closer to Susan's. "Harry would never have left a dead student in the middle of the corridor," she said quietly. "I believe Harry would have killed him, had someone else not found him first."
"Exactly," Susan breathed. She had no idea how McGonagall made such a deduction, or how she figured it out before Snape or Sirius, but clearly McGonagall was an underestimated genius.
McGonagall straightened up and gave Susan a keen look over her glasses. "Find me if you require assistance, yes?"
"Yes, ma'am," Susan said with a true smile and a strong feeling of respect. She watched as McGonagall strode away and called after her. "I miss when you were headmistress, Professor."
McGonagall chuckled and gave Susan an amused look over her shoulder. "I don't," she said simply. "Perhaps I'll reapply for the position once you graduate."
Susan laughed at that and waited until McGonagall was gone before resuming her search.
It took a few more hours of Susan strolling through the dungeons, keeping a lookout for Crabbe, before she felt her coin heat up in her pocket. She quickly pulled it out and beamed when she saw Neville's name flashing on the face of it.
"Yesss," she hissed, her face lighting up with joy. Susan began sprinting through the dungeon, headed straight to the back staircase and the hidden pathways that would take her to the seventh floor the quickest. Apparently it would be too much to ask for to have found Crabbe in the dungeons or even the first floor, but she'd run up and down the staircase all day long if it meant someone finally found him.
When Susan finally found Neville, and the group of their friends already surrounding him with wands drawn, her smile sharpened to see Crabbe petrified on the floor.
"Excellent," she said, "where was he?"
"Room of Secrets," Neville said. He held up Crabbe's wand and gave her a solemn look. Neville had some swelling around his left eye that looked like it might bruise later and a cut on his lower lip. "He put up a bit of a fight."
"Not for long," Susan smiled. She glanced around and nodded in satisfaction to see that they were in a relatively dead end of the corridor. "Cover me," she murmured to everyone. She waited until they shifted around in a semi-wall behind her before releasing Crabbe. Susan grabbed him and had him by the throat against the wall before the god damned moron could do more than blink stupidly.
She'd never been so glad to have her new arm before.
"Hermione, shield us," she said.
Susan felt it as Hermione's magic placed a heavy privacy shield around them. She turned her head away from Crabbe for a moment to give Hermione a look of surprise.
"Was that nonverbal?"
"It was." Hermione's tone was as casual and polite as Susan's, but her eyes were flashing with genuine hatred as she glared at Crabbe.
"You're so smart," Susan said warmly. She turned back to Crabbe and flexed her golden fingers tightly, cutting his air supply off for a few seconds. "We're going to play a game," she said so terribly sweetly. "The rules are so easy even you can figure it out. Rule one, do not lie to me. And that's it! Easy enough, right?"
Susan's grip was too tight to give Crabbe the ability to speak, so she loosened her hand just enough that he was able to suck in a heavy breath.
"I'm not telling you a thing," he spat in a hoarse tone. "Filthy blood traitor."
Susan smiled and dropped him on the floor in front of her. She took a step back until she was shoulder to shoulder with her friends who had formed a wall around them.
"That wasn't part of the rules, darling," she said with a Snape-level sarcastic drawl. "You can answer me or my friends here will show you what happens when you break the rules."
All of the boys, except Trent who was the cutest damn thing Susan had ever met in her life, drew their wands.
Trent flicked out his pocket knife with a glower that made him resemble Harry more than any physical trait ever could.
Crabbe's beady eyes flicked between the students, clearly unsure which of them was the biggest threat to himself.
Susan nearly giggled when his eyes landed on Draco.
She would be more afraid of the petite blonde witch humming softly beside her than she would be Draco, but Crabbe was a moron.
"First question," Theo sneered, "who killed Goyle?"
"Potter," Crabbe spat.
"Wrong answer," Susan sang. "Blaise?"
"Diffindo," Blaise said with a lazy twitch of his wand.
Crabbe hissed as the spell cut through his robes and split the skin in his arm, but Susan could see in his eyes that it wasn't enough.
"Hermione, would you and Theo please go ask Professor Snape for a vial of Veritaserum?" Susan asked, smiling as she watched Crabbe's face pale.
"Snape isn't here," Luna said airily. "He's at the Ministry."
Of course he was.
Susan forgot that Snape has been at the Ministry almost every day, fighting for Harry's release.
"That's okay," Susan shrugged, "would you guys please go steal a bottle from his stores then?"
"Certainly," Theo said firmly.
"Ask Slughorn," Luna said suddenly, her eyes glazed over as she blinked at the wall absently. "Tell him it's for Harry, he'll give it to you. It'll be much faster than trying to break in to Snape's stores."
"Done," Hermione said. "Come on."
As their quick footsteps faded, Susan smiled at Crabbe again.
"Here's the thing," she said to him, "Harry is our friend. Our best friend. And we know he didn't kill Goyle, as much as he might have wanted to. So the problem we're having is finding out who did. Now, since Goyle was your friend, fellow scumbag, piece of shite that you associated with, you would think you'd be more helpful. Yet you've been hiding from us and now here we are. So," Susan smiled brightly, "one last chance, Crabbe, what do you know about Goyle's death?"
"I know if you don't let me go that you'll go the same way as your bitch aunt."
WHAM!
It wasn't even Susan that reacted that time.
It was Ron.
Ron who lunged forward and punched Crabbe right in his nose.
"Don't ever fucking talk about her aunt like that again," Ron said before he actually spat in Crabbe's face. "Don't ever talk about her, period."
"My God, Ron," Susan laughed lightly. She put her hand on his shoulder and drew him backwards. "If I wasn't planning on shacking up with your brother, I think we'd have a real honest future together."
Susan truly had no idea that Ron was capable of such violence before. It was dreadfully attractive.
Ron gave her a half-hearted smile that didn't reach his furious blue eyes, and Susan turned to Crabbe once more.
"Last chance," she said softly. "Because I'm going to force Veritaserum down your throat, and you're going to tell me anyway. Except I'm going to be really, really, angry then and I'm going to hurt you in ways you never imagined you could be hurt. Do you understand?"
Crabbe's eyes shifted slowly to his left forearm before he looked back at Susan and clenched his jaw shut.
Draco leaned over and moved Susan's hair back so he could breathe directly in her ear. "He knows something."
Susan hummed in a quiet agreement. Crabbe knew something. And it had something to do with Timmy.
As most things involving Harry did.
Susan and her friends stood as an immovable wall while they waited for Hermione and Theo to get back with the potion.
"Last chance," Susan said softly when they returned and Hermione thrust the bottle in Susan's hands. "Confess now, save yourself some pain."
"Go fuck yourself," Crabbe spat crudely.
Susan just smiled and tossed Luna the vial before she lunged forward, as quick as a snake, and had him by the throat again. She squeezed his neck until his mouth popped open. "Now, Lue."
Luna leaned forward and dropped two drops of the clear potion on his tongue and Susan tilted his face up, causing the potion to trickle down his throat. As soon as Crabbe's eyes glazed over, Susan dropped him once more.
"Did you kill Gregory Goyle?"
Everyone held their breath at Susan's question.
If Crabbe didn't do it, they were back to square one.
Crabbe's chin sagged forward on to his chest. "Yes."
"You shot Gregory Goyle?" Susan asked clearly, triumphant victorious joy coursing through her veins as her friends high-fived all around her.
"Yes," Crabbe said again.
"Why?" Theo asked.
Crabbe's head lolled on his shoulder and he looked up at Theo with glassy eyes. "I was told to."
"By who and for what purpose?" Susan asked him.
"The Dark Lord," Crabbe said flatly. "He told me over the holidays to have Goyle torture one of Potter's followers, a mudblood—"
Draco and Theo both hissed.
Trent flinched a little, probably realizing that if Hermione hadn't gone to the library alone, he could have been the one they targeted.
"—but leave their memory intact. Then to kill Goyle. He gave me a gun. Told me how to do it. Told me where to leave his body. The Dark Lord wanted Potter imprisoned."
Susan nearly shivered his flat words, the way he so easily talked about Timmy orchestrating Harry's arrest from wherever he was. "Why did he want Harry in prison?"
"I don't know."
"What else do you know?" Theo asked him.
Crabbe's lips pulled back in a grotesque smile. "I know it worked. Potter is right where the Dark Lord wants him."
At that, Susan did shiver.
"Don't," she told Theo as he stepped forward with his wand held tightly and a fire of revenge glowing in his brown eyes. "If we hurt him, it'll look bad when we turn him in. Let's just- let's just get Harry, okay?"
"Professor Snape or the Headmaster?" Trent asked after Blaise and Draco stunned Crabbe and had him floating in front of them, ropes wrapped around his unconscious body tightly.
"Snape," everyone else answered nearly in unison.
Susan burst in to Snape's office, jubilant with their victory.
Crabbe confessed. He did it after being force fed Veritaserum, but he still confessed.
Harry wouldn't even have to spent 72 hours in Azkaban, they could get him out now.
The others followed behind her, carelessly bouncing Crabbe off the walls as they levitated his bound body in to the room and dropped him roughly on the floor in front of Snape's desk.
"Ugh!" Susan stomped her foot as she looked around the empty room. "Why is he never here when I need him?!"
"Send him a message? Like Harry does?" Blaise suggested.
"I..." Susan hesitated. "I don't know how to do it."
She couldn't make a patronus right now if she tried. Harry had been in Azkaban for nearly three days already. Susan had barely slept; every time she closed her eyes she pictured Harry surrounded by dementors. Every time she tried to eat; the food stuck in her throat.
If Harry couldn't eat or sleep, how could she?
"I can," Ron said, surprising them all with a sheepish grin. "Hold on, let me concentrate." They all watched as Ron closed his eyes and took a couple of deep breaths. His lips twitched up in to a smile as he opened his eyes and he flicked his wand confidently, "Expecto Patronum."
Susan's eyebrows were nearly in her hairline, she was so impressed by the corporeal little dog that flew out of the tip of Ron's wand and trotted around them happily.
"That's amazing!" Hermione said, beaming at Ron. "That's so—"
"Very impressive," Susan cut her off tartly, "let's praise Ron later, okay? Ron, can you send a message to Snape?"
"I think so," Ron said hesitantly. He smiled a bit at the little dog. "I need you to send a message to Severus Snape. Tell him get back to Hogwarts right now, no matter what, okay?"
The dog didn't make any noise, but it still looked like it yipped a little before it took off through the stone walls.
"And now we wait, again," Hermione sighed. She sank to the floor after casting a look of disgust towards Crabbe and sitting as far away from him as she could.
It was mercifully short.
Snape and Sirius floo'd in to Snape's office after only a few minutes.
"Did he confess or did you bind him for an erroneous purpose?" Snape asked, his usual drawl lacking the sarcastic bite Susan was used to hearing from him, upon entering the office and seeing Crabbe on the floor.
"He confessed," Ron said promptly. "Under Veritaserum, he shot Goyle. Timmy told him to."
"What?" Sirius looked surprised. "Why?"
"He wanted Harry in Azkaban," said Neville. "Don't know why, don't care. He confessed. Can we get Harry released?"
"Yes," Snape sighed, his tense shoulders relaxing. "Excellent work, all of you."
"You..." Sirius spun around and beamed at them all. "You really did it!" he cried. He grabbed Trent and pulled him in to a tight hug. "A billion points to all of you!"
Susan laughed at Sirius' infectious joy. "You can't do that!" she told him. "Call the aurors! Hurry! Go get Harry!"
"Someone has to tell Albus," Sirius said hastily. "We can't just take a student to turn them in to the dementors without at least informing him."
Snape gave Susan a small smile, a smile that said more than any words could. "Go, Black," he said. He snapped his fingers and levitated Crabbe in an impressive show of wandless magic. "You go get Albus, meet me at the ministry. Let's go free Harry."
If there were sweeter words ever spoken, Susan hadn't heard them.
And then Blaise ruined the sweet moment of victory when he sighed and sat down on the floor, his chin in his hand after Snape floo'd away and Sirius ran out the office door. "And now we wait, again," he said.
It was a tense silence; full of anticipation and anxiety as they waited.
Draco combed his hair, a nervous habit.
Luna waved her hand in a wiggly motion and moved her lips silently.
Ron scratched his nose.
Hermione went to the loo a couple times.
Trent flicked his knife out, over and over.
Susan shifted her stance a little. She crossed her arms, then uncrossed them.
"I thought it would be quick," Ron murmured when the bell rang to signal the start of dinner.
Susan shook her head, her eyes trained on Snape's floo. "They have to interrogate Crabbe and take him to Azkaban and then bring Harry back. It's not a short trip."
"They got Harry there quick enough," Draco said snarkily. "Bastards."
Susan nodded in absent agreement from her place leant against Snape's desk where she kept watching the flames.
Waiting.
It was nearing curfew by the time the flames turned green and Sirius stepped out, followed by Snape, followed by...
Nobody.
"Did they lock Crabbe up?" Theo asked Sirius immediately.
"They did," Sirius said quietly. "He's been charged with Goyle's murder. Excuse me."
Hermione and Susan exchanged panicked glances at the way Sirius tore from the room, his face pale and his eyes bloodshot.
"And..?" Susan kept leaning around Snape's taller and broader body, hoping to see Harry coming out soon despite the pit of dread growing in her stomach. "Where's Harry?"
"They are unable to release Harry at this time." Snape's voice was flat; lifeless, defeated. Susan finally stopped looking for Harry and took note of how Snape looked, like absolute hell. A hundred times worse than he had when Harry was missing back in their second year. "We had Shacklebolt file the appeal for his arrest and grant a motion for his immediate release, and the Minister is 'overseeing the evidence, ensuring that no mistakes are made'."
"What?" Susan's jaw dropped. "Snape- they- they can't do that! Crabbe confessed! He killed Goyle! They have to release Harry!"
"I know." Snape ground his teeth together and tilted his head up to the ceiling, not like he was angry, but as if he were fighting back the same tears that Susan could feel welling up in her eyes. "There is nothing I can do, short of breaking him out and causing him to become a fugitive when he does not have to be. Even then, I may be caught before I got to him. And..."
And nobody knew what sort of condition Harry would be in. Would he be able to help his own rescue or would he be too locked in his head from the constant nearby exposure of the dementors?
"Snape... the dementors?" Susan said weakly, her chin wobbling despite her best efforts to stop it. "They'll kill him. He- you know he can't handle them. We found Crabbe. He confessed."
Snape gave Susan a horribly pitiful look and swept over to her at once and pulled her against him. Susan didn't want to cry, but she was tired. Scared. Miserable. Furious. And all her determination to suck it up just broke as Snape hugged her. Suddenly she found herself crying in the front of his robes, wondering why Harry was still in that horrible place?
"We will get him back," Snape murmured in her hair. "We have the law on our side. The media on his side. They cannot hold him forever."
And yet, Harry had already been there for days and the ministry didn't seem very keen on releasing him.
Susan missed Harry.
Susan missed Tonks, who she knew would be of some sort of assistance with all her connections and her knowledge of the auror department.
But most of all, Susan missed her Auntie Amelia more than ever in that moment.