When Felix returned to his office, he was surprised to see a line of owls standing in front of the window.
"Oh, well, Easter, I forgot to leave the window open." He said as an afterthought.
He opened the window and Valen, fresh out of his silver pocket watch, looked in novelty at the rush of owls that came streaming in, circling the office, and one by one dropping packages at their feet like bombers, all the while tittering and hooting in indignation that they had spent most of the day waiting.
Valen climbed up along Felix's legs to his shoulders and looked down at the parcels on the floor.
Felix remembered the Easter candy eggs he had received last year and hadn't been able to finish them throughout the year. But anyway, the whole thing of receiving a present is still itself something to be happy about. Besides, he got to play Exploding Snap cards with Valen, in which the winner could unwrap one present for each win...
When he appeared at the great hall early the next morning, he was not surprised to see the students leafing through their newspapers and talking about it.
"Malfoy ...," a student whispered, exchanging glances with one another.
He looked around but didn't spot Draco, so he sat down and began to eat his breakfast, he still needed to make it to the Ministry of Magic later to continue the trial. The whole process would go on until the end of the Easter holidays, and Felix was suddenly tempted to skip his work.
But he couldn't think of an excuse until he had eaten the last piece of potato. The Skiving Snackbox that Fred and George had developed was not effective on him, so he couldn't bring himself to open his mouth to ask for sick leave...
In the end, he went to the Ministry of Magic on time.
...
On the other side--
"Unbelievable, I still can't comprehend," Harry lowered his head and pretended to be working on a difficult piece of steak when Ron and Hermione came over and heard him whisper, "How could Malfoy possibly be... be a spy working for Professor...?"
He looked up at the Slytherin table, where Draco was expressionlessly stabbing an apple pie with his fork, and the Slytherin student nearest him was sitting two seats away.
"It's Pansy Parkinson," Hermione whispered as she looked over, "she doesn't seem to have figured out what to do with this complicated relationship."
She had read it correctly. When Draco's eyes looked over, Pansy immediately turned her head to talk to the Millicent next to her.
"Oh? That must have hurt like hell, though I was shocked too." Ron said, his tangled expression was more than sufficient to prove he was telling the truth, "I almost thought it was April Fool's Day, but Fred and George's birthdays passed a couple of days ago, and I'm kind of regretting giving them funny hats." He said with meat in his mouth, "It cost me a total of five galleons."
"What's that?" Harry asked curiously.
"You mean funny hats?" Ron introduced it to him with gusto, "Zonko's new product, I saw the flyer in the pages between Fred's book the other day. It basically stated that when you wear it your face can switch between a vampire, werewolf, and banshee, by growing some cute fangs, a silky mane, and stuff."
"Sounds a bit like the Emerald Crown from 'Future World'," Hermione interjected, "one for changing faces and one for changing clothes."
Ron shrugged, "Fred claims Zonko got his inspiration from the anti-spell hat and considers it as a big loss for him. But I thought it was funny."
"Professor Hap's birthday is coming up too, isn't it?" Harry said, "I think it's around the 15th?"
"The 8th, we got it wrong last time." Hermione said.
"Isn't that today?" Ron said in surprise, "And Fred and George said they wanted to make a big splash," he said gleefully, "Oops, I was supposed to keep that a secret, so neither of you are allowed to tell them ... "
Later in the evening, they let Ron's owl Pigwidgeon fly out of the Owlery with a package.
"It looks like it's struggling a bit." Hermione looked worriedly at the sky.
"It can't be helped, Hedwig doesn't want to go to the Professor's anymore, she feels ashamed." Harry said helplessly.
They watched as the little piggy wobbled through the air like a moving pendulum and finally took a hard turn and disappeared from their sight. But they knew that by going over a few towers - if the piggy didn't have the misfortune of hitting one of the pillars - it would fly into the ancient rune office.
"Do you guys think the Professor would like that telescope?" Ron asked, and without waiting for an answer, he muttered to himself, "I was originally planning to send a pet rat to keep Valen company. To be honest, I think they look a lot alike ... unfortunately I was in a hurry, that telescope was something George asked me to do for testing purposes, but I never got the chance to test it, so it's supposed to be new, ... Hermione, what did you send?"
"A potted plant." Hermione said.
"That's a good idea, I'll make sure to write it down." Ron's eyes glowed.
Harry didn't say anything. He stared at the azure sky, his thoughts drifting away with the owl. A crazy idea had just crossed his mind and he thought he must be going mad, but he still pondered one question with unstoppable gusto: what day is Snape's birthday? Maybe ... but the next second he left the thought at the back of his mind. Come to think of it, he told himself, it wouldn't be that much of a big deal even if Snape turned out to be an undercover now.
Well, actually it is kinda a big deal, Harry thought reluctantly, he kinda admired him for that, and his mind wandered back to when he had faced Voldemort. He wasn't afraid of Voldemort, but let him calmly play house and get close ... to Voldemort- Harry's goosebumps were rising.
He hadn't seen Snape in the graveyard, maybe he was hiding among them, or had arrived late?
Harry thought about Voldemort's speech to the Death Eaters that night, he hadn't heard all of it, but he remembered the ones that were said at the beginning, Voldemort lamenting his rebirth while threatening the Death Eaters.
"One didn't have the guts to come back ... and will pay the ultimate price. The other, I think is leaving me forever ... and of course, he will be executed ..."
Now that he thinks about it, the former could refer to Karkaroff and the latter would be Snape.
But Snape is still alive and well now, and Harry wonders how he managed to do it.
He couldn't help but imagine a meeting between Snape and Voldemort, but his mind went blank due to the lack of references. As far as he could remember, Snape was either lecturing and trolling the students in class in his characteristic slow, drawn-out voice, or suddenly appearing from behind, taunting and showing the other students in an unabashedly gloating tone how badly Harry had brewed the potion that begged him to score low ... but Harry didn't think Snape would use either of these two attitudes towards Voldemort.
Probably just like the rest of the Death Eaters, Harry thought to himself, sickening at the thought of the group of Death Eaters grovelling on their knees before Voldemort. Well, he would prefer Snape to be a bit tougher.
As they exited the Owlery, they couldn't help but talk about the Malfoys again. Ron mentioned Draco Malfoy's grandfather, " Well, he was a powerful man."
"Was he a Death Eater too?" Harry asked.
"No one knows," Ron said, but then he lowered his voice and said cryptically, "My dad said he might have been one of the You-Know-Who's first patrons." He seemed pleased to see Harry and Hermione's mouths open wide.
"But he's never been caught in the act and has died in a respectable position." Ron added, "Compared to him, his son seems less intelligent, I mean Lucius Malfoy."
Harry grinned in amusement.
"Let's see," he counted off on his fingers one by one, "claiming to be under an Imperius Curse after losing the first war, then becoming Fudge's walking mokeskin pouch, losing his school board member status in our second year, oh yeah - and losing Dobby! Kneeling before Voldemort to confess his mistake a good six months ago, and now hiding somewhere and unable to go out - yeah, I see what you mean."
They joked and laughed, Malfoy had always been at odds with them, and they were actually quite gleeful to see that family going down now. But as they walked into the common room they suddenly realized that Malfoy is now on the same side as them.
"I would have preferred him to have been a Death Eater-"
"Hey, don't say silly things."
They sat at a desk and rummaged through their book bags. The professors clearly had no intention of making the students comfortable over the holidays and tacitly left a bunch of assignments. This had led to a significant number of the fifth years staying at school instead of going home, sighing and yawning to catch up on their assignments.
As Ron pulled parchment and quill out of his book bag, he exasperated, " The lower grades are so noisy, I want to deduct points from them." But his exasperation vanished in the blink of an eye as the assignment for each subject was placed in front of him.
Harry leaned down on the desk and casually tapped his wand at the revision plan timetable Hermione had given them yesterday, with each subject's assignments clearly marked out. "I even added a countdown," Hermione said gleefully, "It's in the top left corner."
Harry stared at the number '59' on the parchment and had a sudden internal urge to rip it off.
"How on earth do you guys think Lucius Malfoy got involved with Professor Hap?" He couldn't help but ask.
Hermione pushed the newspaper at him. Ron who sat next to him said in disgust, "You believe that? 'Confided to me' - bloody hell, how is that possible? If you ask me, he was probably out of luck when he was doing something illegal and got caught by the professor, so he begged the professor to let him off the hook ..." Hermione glared at him.
"Ahem, I mean, everything went well."
"The Death Eaters are made up of a complex bunch of people," Hermione tried to make sense of it, "Ambitious people, those who are cruel by nature, and there are those who rushed to get a bit of glory," she added after a moment of thought, "Some, a few, were bewitched by the You-Know-Who's evil philosophies and empty dreams..."
Harry thought of Sirius' brother Regulus.
"... We couldn't tell the difference when the You-Know-Who was in the ascendancy, but once he was in decline," Hermione gestured contemptuously at the newspaper picture of Selwyn on trial, "we could tell what these people were made of. "
There was audible laughter heard in the common room, and they turned their heads - Harry and Ron were itching for something new - when they saw Fred and George, each holding a fancy hat in their hands, putting them on at the same time as the onlookers started to cheer. The crowd erupted in shrieks and giggles as Fred and George spun around to display them, and when they turned to Harry's side, the trio finally got a good look at their faces.
Harry was startled and almost thought he had seen a vampire and a banshee(?) combination. Fred's face was as white as paper, his cheeks were sunken as if he had been malnourished for a long time, and his eyes were abnormally bloodshot, but it was his carved, sharp teeth that stood out the most; George's face was another horror - his hair had turned black and was dragging to the floor, and his face looked like a skeleton, with a greenish glow on its surface, more frightening than the vampire beside him.
The two men let out a triumphant laugh as they played their tricks.
After a while, the crowd dispersed and Fred and George came over and sat next to them. They are still wearing the grotesque mask, and Ron subconsciously leaned back his body as Fred and George grinned.
"Don't you like our new faces?"
"Not bad, you guys seem to like this hat," Ron shot back in a mocking tone, "who was it that said they weren't satisfied before?"
" Well, that's a different thing." Fred said seriously, "We just thought the hat turned up at the right time."
"Yeah, it'll brighten up Professor Hap's birthday party ..." George said cheerfully.
The trio looked at each other, Ron kept squeezing his eyes at Harry and Hermione to remind them to keep their mouths shut, and Fred and George looked at them curiously.
"Is there anything we don't know?"
" Nah, not really." Ron said, changing the subject stiffly, "Did you hear, there's a statement in 'New Solutions to Rune', saying that they're planning to prepare an Annual Ancient Runes Edition and that everyone is welcome to contribute."
"That's a big deal." Fred said happily, taking off his hat, his sharp teeth and pale sunken cheeks disappeared, "Which section are you guys planning to enter?"
"What about you guys?" Harry asked alertly.
"The career dynamic." Fred said without thinking, "We've created a new profession, me and George together. The Profession is named as 'Prank Merchant'," he squeezed his eyes at Harry, "The requirements are high: ancient runes, basic alchemy, transfiguration, charms study, and a sky-high imagination- -"
"And a roaring heart." George quipped, half-truthfully.
"That sounds like a boast." Ron muttered.
"Have you tried that punching telescope yet?" Fred suddenly asked, staring at his brother's face as he did so.
"Not yet, er - I gave it away." Ron tried to be vague about it, but Fred was staring straight at him, and he was close to spill out the truth.
"Give it away? To who?" Fred and George shouted in unison.
"A punching telescope? Punch?" Harry caught the keyword.
Ron suddenly looked horrified.
Fred and George stared at his expression and laughed, "Well, we won't ask." Fred said with feigned generosity.
" Anyway, I'm sure we'll eventually find out." George added.
"Come on - that thing - Merlin's beard!" Ron shouted, "what the bloody hell that thing can do?"
But Fred and George just looked at him with regret, as if his life would soon be over ... Ron panicked even more inside, and all he wanted to do now was run to the professor's office to get his present back and get a new one, but the thought of Crabbe and Goyle's unlucky appearance dispelled that notion.
" Speak up! Now!" He yelled.
Ron lunged up and shook Fred's collar as hard as he could, and Fred insisted on keeping his mouth shut with a look of amusement.
"Do you really think that they would accept a name like that?" When it was quiet, Hermione asked, "I've heard that the reviewers are all very old - except for Professor Hap."
"It never hurts to try." George eagerly said, "I figured, they're looking for talent right now and are desperately trying to expand their territory! It also mentions that 'once the profession is officially recognized, it will receive all sorts of support in addition to being included in the Ministry of Magic's occupational list.'"
"-after the war is over." Hermione said.
"What?" Fred asked.
"It does have that clause you mentioned, but it won't be fulfilled until the end of the war." Hermione murmured.
"Why I didn't see it?" Fred and George froze for a moment and yelped in sync.
"It's on the last page of the most recent issue of 'New Solutions to Rune'." Hermione said. The two men couldn't sit still, and they left in a hurry. When they had disappeared, Harry and Ron looked at each other and Harry muttered uncertainly, "Prank Merchant? Sounds good. But could there really be such an additional profession in the future?"
He had spent some time studying the pamphlets handed out at school describing various careers, and although he figured that he would become an Auror in the future, it didn't stop him from reading with interest about the requirements for other professions and discussing them with his dorm mates late at night before going to sleep.
"If pranking will be recognized, why not create a new profession of my own?" Ron muttered disgruntledly.
"So you've got an idea?" Hermione asked intrigued.
Ron's jaw dropped and Harry, knowing he was speaking as he pleased, hastily asked, "Hermione, do you know how to make the Ninth Amulet?"
"It requires the 'flame' rune and the 'protection' magic rune," Hermione subconsciously answered, "You have to combine them together in a way that equates to two sets of loops. When they work at the same time, they will absorb the flames around them and release them in one burst."
"That doesn't sound like it would be very useful." Harry said, "Many spells will do something similar."
"You could give it to a little kid," Hermione said, "And it will work pretty well if you plan to research flame magic. Even when facing a Fiendfyre, it can buy you a second or two - although it will break after one use."
They began to work on their assignments, and it wasn't long before Harry began to get sleepy, he steeled himself to stare at his History of Magic textbook, The Ilfracombe Incident, Ilfracombe ... was that a name of a person or a place? Never mind, what the hell, Harry yawned and copied the name down on his parchment.
His thoughts began to wander, already thinking about the evening party with Sirius, and Kreacher, wondering if Sirius was used to being in the kitchen ...
Meanwhile, Felix was sitting dully on a bench in the courtroom, staring at a dark wizard with skin so dark it mirrored the dim light.
Where did Voldemort find all these people?
The words that Lucius had said yesterday were playing around in his head and made Felix want to make a trip to Malfoy Manor to see if it was burnt to the ground - it would at least prove that Voldemort had read the papers and was pissed off enough.
"Bang!" The gavel fell heavily.
"Papastasso Buwaschi Van Bron Papadopoulos Malafye Miguel Alves, guilty as charged!"
------------
#Andrew Sully, Thanks for all your love and support.
Read 50 days or 100 chapters in advance on P@treon. If you have some extra pocket money, Support me at P@treon: www.p@treon.com/Crazy_Cat.
Happy Reading!!!