The Healer | Part 2: The War

The Dream

Edith

Diagon Alley was much less busy now that Hogwarts was in session. There was hardly anyone out in the street at all. It was mainly the tenants of Diagon Alley themselves that frequented the other shops. Ministry wizards were ever present and keeping an eye on things as well.

There were other wizards around too, these ones didn't look nearly as official as the Ministry wizards but their presence was still foreboding. They were certainly more unkempt and usually travelled in groups of at least three. They didn't seem to be doing much apart from watching the different witches and wizards as they did their shopping.

'Snatchers,' George had explained when I asked him about them. 'They're looking for Undesirables.'

I learned that term a few weeks ago. That was what the Ministry was calling muggleborns, blood traitors and anyone who openly supported Harry Potter.
I was certainly an Undesirable, but so were George and Fred. The difference was that they were still pureblood and therefore weren't being summoned to hearings and accused of wand theft. From what the Daily Prophet was reporting, it was, in fact, illegal for muggleborns to have a wand in their possession and strict punishments were being enforced for those caught evading their hearings.

I wondered hundreds of times per day if my parents had received an owl with my summons for a hearing. No doubt they had, I wondered what date it had been set for and if I had already missed it. Surely they would be sending more owls if I had missed it. I hoped for the thousandth time that my parents would cotton on and get out of the country soon, if they hadn't already.

More muggles were dying everyday and muggleborns were going missing. We hadn't heard any mention of my name yet through the Extendable Ears, and I hoped it was because I wasn't worth much to the Ministry. There wasn't anything terribly special about me apart from the fact that I was muggleborn. As far as the Ministry was aware, or anyone for that matter, I didn't associate with Harry Potter, the Weasley family or anyone else of any importance. This was reassuring to George and Fred at least. All I had to do was stay hidden.

Meanwhile, we had heard from Professor McGonagall that things weren't as bad as we had feared so far at Hogwarts. Even with Snape in charge. The rest of the teachers were doing their best to keep the students safe from the new Dark Arts teachers, who were also both Death Eaters.

I knew the Weasleys were still uneasy about Ginny being at Hogwarts and Ron being on the run with Harry. We had heard a couple of weeks ago that Harry, Ron and Hermione were safe from Remus, who had seen them at the Order of the Phoenix's previous safe house. Apart from that, we hadn't heard anything. Everyone was trying to convince themselves that no news was good news like Lee had said on the radio broadcast. Surely if Harry Potter had been captured, it would be front page news for the Daily Prophet.

I was getting better at magical cooking, though I still preferred to do it the muggle way for the most part. With magical cooking, everything was done so quickly. I liked being able to use more time to cook, as I had time to burn in abundance. Down the road, I was sure I'd be glad to know how to cook with magic, but for the moment, I was quite content to carry on as I was.

The weather was cooling off with the transition from summer to autumn. But Diagon Alley was as dark and gloomy as ever. I got to know the habits of the shopkeepers in the alley as I spent a good portion of my day looking out the window. Directly across from George and Fred's shop was the Appartion Licensing Agency, to the right was The Charming Clouder, a cat shop, and to the left was a bread and butterbeer shop. There was even a tattoo parlour right next to the bread and butterbeer shop, but they looked like they were out of business. I hadn't seen anyone go in or out of the shop since I had arrived anyway,