Little Dragon

Chapter 19: Srorrim dna Pihstruoc, Sreirrac

Little Dragon

Authors Note: So the title may be simple but I'm still rather proud of it anyways! ^-^

I am so very sorry about the long wait! I wound up having a bad case of pancreatitis and wound up in the hospital for a week and had to get my gallbladder and some gall stones taken out. Not fun! I promise that I'll try to get the next chapter up soon!

Disclaimer: If I were lucky enough to own Harry Potter then all of my dreams would have come true. That and Fred would still be alive, and Hedwig, and Siri, Remmy, well... A lot of people. That is all.
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"Here are the names of all students who will be going home for the holidays as well as those who will be staying," Minerva said at the end of the staff meeting as she pulled out two rather lengthy rolls of parchment from her bag and placed them on top of the table before Albus.

"Very well," Albus said with a sigh as he took the two scrolls and stood, "That will be all, I shall make the necessary preparations and-"

"There is no need for that Albus," Minerva said as she turned and looked at him, her lips thin and the warmth in her gaze that Albus had grown accustomed to lacking. It had been this way since before the school year had started and grown worse with each passing day. "I have already made the necessary preparations and it is too late to change them I'm afraid."

Ah, so she really did not trust him anymore it would seem...

"Very well, then all is settled. Good day to you all," Albus said as he once again rose from his seat and walked quickly from the staff room to his personal chambers.

Once there Albus quickly unrolled the smaller of the two lists and quickly scanned it, upon reaching the bottom of the parchment Albus gave something similar to a snarl and nearly tore the second scroll in half as he forced it to open far too quickly in his haste to read over the list of names for students who would be returning home for the holiday.

There. Right there under the list of every Weasley who attended Hogwarts and before Longbottom and Granger. Harry Potter.

No. He could not leave the school! Too many things had gone wrong already, how would Albus possibly get him to look at the mirror otherwise? Voldemort would try to take the stone and Harry would have to know how the mirror worked, otherwise all of Albus' preparations would be for nothing! But then, what would Harry see within the mirror?

Perhaps he would see that 'Balaur' character, and if Harry believed that he was alone then perhaps he would let something slip? Yes, he would just have to move up his plans! Perhaps a compulsion charm would work? Yes, not on the boy himself though... He needed to behave and that would just cause more trouble for him if anyone were to find it...

On the mirror itself? Yes, that might work. Especially if it were tuned directly to work only on Harry. Yes, that would be perfect.

Very well, time to prepare. Albus had work to do...
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"Why does Astronomy have to be so late?" Ron groaned as he and the rest of the first years trudged up the many sets of stairs required to reach the Astronomy Tower.

"So that we can see the stars obviously," Hermione huffed from beside him as she rolled her eyes at him yet again. "You can't very well study Astronomy very well during the day can you?"

"I actually agree with Ron on this one," Harry murmured as he stifled a yawn and Neville had to catch him before he could trip. "The late hour just messes with our chances of memorizing anything, you go there tired and come back exhausted. It would be okay every once in a while but apart from that it just messes up your internal clock."