Daughter of Padfoot

Chapter XII

Small attacks like the tear gas incident continued through the New Year. The defenses of the castle were slowly lowering according to Fleur, because they were very hard to keep up with Voldemort taking them down as soon as we did. And we still couldn't catch Voldemort in he act. Also around Europe it was evident the Voldemort was trying to regain the kind of control he had when our parents were kids. Dark marks were appearing, people were disappearing, and more masked people (death eaters) were appearing in public places. One day the Daily Prophets big headline was "Do We Tell The Muggles About Voldemort Or Not?"

Apparently there were some witches and wizards that felt the muggles should not be alerted about Voldemort. I personally felt differently. I mean the muggles could be attacked at any time and they wouldn't even have a warning. But anyway this was now the big subject being debated in the wizarding world now. The Minister of Magic felt that the muggles should not be alerted, so his supporters followed this. Dumbledore on the other hand said that they should be alerted, for it was in their best interests to be ready. He was thinking about only alerting the heads of the most powerful countries in the world, so that they could just tell the smaller countries that it was just a normal war.

It was on a Monday in January I got a letter from my adoptive parents. The owl landed in my cereal. It was the first one I'd gotten from them. In it was a clipping from a newspaper and a letter.

Dear Aphrodite,

The Army magazine just came out with this article. It hasn't been announced in public yet. Only the military knows. That's how your father got it. We thought that you might be interested. It turns out the Hogwarts has just been discovered.

Love,

Your mom and dad

I took out the article and read it over.

NEW CASTLE DISCOVERED PEOPLE INHABIT IT
Today in England a new castle just suddenly came up on radar. The US Military made this discovery when they were scanning for a sunken ship. They had never seen the castle on radar before today and that's what makes it so mysterious. The army has informed the officials in the U.K. the US has already flown over it and seen people out side of it. They are now assuming it is inhabited. The inhabitants looked like children. They are thinking it might be some sort of child labor place. England denies know about any child labor camps though, so they are not placing blame.

More news will be reported as it comes.

I almost fainted. I read the article about five times before I came back to my senses. I decided that the castles defenses must have been falling more than we knew. I read the report one more time just to make sure it was true. It of course was. My breathing became sharp and it was hard to do. I slowly poked Harry, Hermione, and Ron and waved the report in their faces. When they read it over Hermione made a small squeaking noise in her throat.

"This has never happened before." She whispered, "I couldn't happen."

"Anything's possible." Said Ron weakly.

I snatched it back and got up from my breakfast table. I slowly walked over to the head table, and handed the article to Professor Dumbledore. He took it joyfully but as he read his joyfulness wore off.

"Breakfast is adjourned." He announced as soon as he was done reading it.

"What'd you give him?" Maxis asked me (she was sitting two seats down.) "A bomb?"

"Something much worse, much worse." I sighed.