Albus Severus Potter (A Harry Potter fanfic)

Letters

James knew he had to write back to his parents, and tell him about what he'd seen. Though, he could not see the problem with Professor McGonagall living for however longer she wanted. If Neville was giving it to her, then it could hardly be dangerous. Neville couldn't hurt a fly, even if he wanted to.

James had bought much more than his fair share of tricks and treats from Hogsmeade. He had gone straight to his dorm to keep everything hidden away in a small box; of course, the box had an Undetectable Extension charm placed on it. In there, he kept all of his sweets, pranks, and fireworks.

In the same box there was a smaller box. This one was protected against almost everything. No one could open it, besides for James, and nothing could harm or change it in any way. James had found it in his first year in a random classroom he'd discovered in one of the old corridors, the ones that no one used any more. He'd kept the box and the room a secret. In the box there was only his Invisibility Cloak, and an old photo.

James had left his friends downstairs, so his dorm was empty and no one would be coming up any time soon. He pulled out a piece of parchment from his trunk and bottle of ink. His quill was out on his bedside table. He was leaning on the top of his trunk - it may not be the best place, but James couldn't really be bothered. He began to write:

Dear Mum and Dad,

I found out who it was, it's Neville. He's giving Professor McGonagall the Elixir of life.

Also, me and Al have been getting letters from you every week for the past two months. You said that you hadn't written for two months, so I thought that the one's we'd been getting were fake. I told Al about it and he said that he knew that they were being faked.

I don't know if you know anything about this, but I thought you should know.

From James

He folded up the letter, and hurried to the Owlery. He figured that it would be better if he didn't use his own owl. He sent off the letter and made sure that the owl that was making wasn't one that he'd ever used before; then it would probably go to the only Harry and Ginny Potter that it knew. The real ones.

∞

All three champions still had to take the modified Polyjuice Potion every hour. Without it, the wings would come back and the champions had discovered that the wings did get more and more painful each time they came back. They all wished that they had done a little more research into the potion instead of believing that it had come from the ministry and that it was safe.

Everyone had, by now, worked out that the instructions had been tampered with, and if they hadn't, someone would have told them. The teachers, who had been surrounding the champions as the potion had been made, had merely been told to enforce a boundary; they hadn't been watching the champions closely enough to know what they did differently: what they did wrong.

The champions had to be fed, by a magic vial, their potion every night every hour to make sure that the wings did not come back. The pain from the wings was agonising and if the wings stayed for too long, it could kill the champions - it was strange how a Polyjuice Potion had the ability to literally keep them alive.

The next task was scheduled for some time in June, so the Champions had nothing Tournament related to do. The whole school was busy prepared for exams, which were just two months away. The exams had been moved to April to allow teachers to leave lessons to set up and prepare for the Third Task.

Rose and Hugo had, thankfully, not been sent colour co-ordinated study schedules this year, and so were free to study when they wanted to, which was only in compulsory study periods. James was the only one who had really been worried as to why they hadn't received study schedules - he thought that they might be caught up in the same mess as his parents. He obviously couldn't voice his concern to them, out of fear that he wold be ridiculed.

James' fear had soon been confirmed. A few days later, his parents had sent a package, containing a letter and a large, glass bottle of a clear liquid:

Dear James,

Don't share any of this information with Albus.

We have more information about this whole issue, and we have something to tell you.

There is some sort of mad plot to destroy the ministry, though this is ridiculous and we really doubt it's going to happen. However, the Death Eaters are reforming, stronger than before, and their numbers have increased, there are over four times as many Death Eaters as there were before.

They almost outnumber the rest of the Wizarding population, and half of your friends could be part of this plot too. Whatever their plans to destroy the ministry may be, we need to start getting the Death Eaters into Azkaban. If anyone is found to be a Death Eater or is part of this plot, they will be sent straight to Azkaban, regardless of how old they are.

The ministry are trying to find a way to reactivate the trace on over age wizards, though it doesn't look like it is going to work.

In the bottle, we've given you a large supply of Veritaserum. Find out about as many people as you can, but don't waste it. 2-3 drops is enough to make the Dead Dark Lord tell you the name of his childhood teddy bear.

Lots of love,

Mum and Dad