Flying Without A Broom
One Of Those Days
By Ruskbyte
Chapter Seven
- One Of Those Days -
Albus Dumbledore had lived a long, long time. He had spent most of his life studying various arts and crafts - some of which were Muggle, rather than Wizarding. During his travels, in the days of his misspent youth, he had journeyed across the seven seas and to all four corners of the globe. As headmaster of Hogwarts he had access to one of the largest stores of lore and magic in the world.
Nothing, however, had prepared him for this.
"I once believed that I had seen pretty much everything the world had to offer," he muttered to himself as he surveyed the chaos strewn streets of Hogsmeade. "Trust young Harry to prove me wrong."
The last time he had seen the village in anything even remotely resembling its current state of disarray had been one notable Halloween night, fifteen years ago. Strangely enough, Harry had been the cause back then as well, having survived Voldemort's attack and earning himself the title of The-Boy-Who-Lived. Then Hogsmeade had been engulfed in a party that had lasted several days and left most of the inhabitants suffering from rather painful hangovers.
This time, however, it was panicked confusion that gripped the village rather than joyous celebration.
Quite naturally this did not lend itself to making the search for Harry Potter progress as smoothly as Dumbledore would have liked. Not that the old wizard would have considered things to be going smoothly even if there had not been a single disturbance happening. After all, it had been nearly eight hours since Harry had disappeared from the Three Broomsticks and he was still missing.
There had been sightings; a handful of people here and there had remarked about a black-haired young man meandering his way throughout Hogsmeade as if he had not a care in the world. But those sightings had dwindled down to nothing nearly six hours ago, though admittedly everyone was somewhat preoccupied with the task of restoring some order to the streets.
Still, six hours without a trace...
Not only was Harry missing, but it seemed that Nymphadora was nowhere to be found either. This eased Dumbledore's concerns somewhat, as it stood to reason that wherever Harry might be, Tonks was likely with him. At least he had someone to lend him a hand should he need it. Though it was worrying that she had not yet reported in.
The entire Order of the Phoenix had been called in to aid with the search. Every active member had been pulled from every assignment and brought to Hogsmeade. Harry's friends, namely the Defence Association, had also been scouring the streets - with varying degrees of success. Those that had failed to encounter Harry were despondent and beginning to despair. On the other hand, those who had succeeded in crossing Harry's path before all sign of him vanished...
Thus far the headmaster had made two visits to the Hogsmeade lockup.
The first call had come in only minutes after Dumbledore had arrived in the village. Apparently, as reported by Constable Troy, two students had been arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct. Dumbledore had no idea what to make of the fact that Ginny Weasley and Neville Longbottom had consumed nearly three bottles of Ogden's Fire Whiskey between the both of them, ending up so intoxicated that they literally could not walk.
After taking them into custody, and having to apply two separate Sobering Charms on each of them before they were properly coherent, Dumbledore was both alarmed and relieved by their abashed explanation.
He was relieved to learn that they had encountered Harry, apparently intent on celebrating a wedding of some sort that he had attended. Somehow he had convinced the pair to join him in a drink or two. Naturally one thing led to another...
His alarm was caused by the thought that Harry was now not only pumped to the gills with Aquila, but also drunk as a Lord. The combination of potions and alcohol was never a good one, particularly potions of the sort Harry had consumed.
While escorting Ginny and Neville to a carriage that would take them back to Hogwarts, where they could sleep off the hangovers they were suffering from (Sobering Charms did not cure that affliction), he happened across a besieged Hermione Granger. A mob of magically animated broomsticks, complete with catchy background music, were trying their utmost to swab her down with their mops.
Sadly Dumbledore only succeeded in compounding the problem by blowing nearly a dozen of the brooms into splinters before Hermione was able to stop him. As a result where there had at first been roughly three dozen brooms, there were now close to two hundred - a good number of which managed to steal away before the headmaster could Vanish them away. Suffice to say the chaos spreading throughout Hogsmeade multiplied rapidly after that.
The only good point about this was that Hermione was able to report that Harry had seemingly been entirely unaffected by the Fire Whiskey he had shared with Ginny and Neville. The fact that he was still completely smashed out of his mind, courtesy of the Black Lotus (a message Hermione passed on from Tonks) seemed almost incidental after that.
Detailing Hermione, over her protests, to escort her fellows back to the school, Dumbledore hurried to the Three Broomsticks. He had hoped to trace Harry's magical signature from there, but had quickly been discovered that Harry's aura was fluctuating wildly. The Black Lotus Aquila must have reacted with Harry in such a way as to open the door for his true potential to finally come forth.
Until his magic settled down, which would take several days at the very least, Harry would be next to impossible to track or scry by any conventional means. Not to mention that all hell was likely to break loose whenever he was in the vicinity.
He had been in the process of relating this to Alastor Moody, via the pub's fireplace, when Constable Troy had appeared with the news that he had just taken another pair of Hogwarts students into custody. Pausing just long enough to tell Moody to assemble the Order and join in the search, Dumbledore had made his second visit to the village lockup.
At first Dumbledore had held the hope that the two students in question were Harry and Tonks (disguised as Nikki Fraser). Constable Troy, however, was quick to inform him that Ron Weasley and Luna Lovegood were being charged with public indecency.
From what he could make out, between Luna's dreamy ramblings about her 'blushing bride' and Ron's incoherent rants about being molested by his 'pervert husband', these two were apparently the cause of Harry's earlier celebration with Ginny and Neville. Having bound them up in enough rope to restrain Hagrid's brother Grawp, Harry had then proceeded to vanish their clothes and perform what essentially amounted to a wedding at wandpoint.
Luna was understandably disappointed to learn that her marriage was not binding, though there was a gleam in her normally misty eyes that made her future intended decidedly nervous. Apparently she was very eager to consummate the relationship and now fully intended to do just that - regardless of Ron's protests.
Dumbledore conjured clothes for both students and arranged an escort back to the castle (deciding not to leave Ron alone in Luna's company right then). Once the newlyweds, as Luna insisted they be referred to, had departed with Professor Snape of all people (much to Ron's horror), Dumbledore met with the now assembled Order at their impromptu headquarters.
By now, to his dismay, the animated broomsticks had multiplied so much that there were easily a dozen present along every street in the village. The accompanying music was beginning to grate on everyone's nerves, save perhaps the Weasley twins who instead seemed positively delighted by the current state of affairs. Seeing their already demented grins of glee, Dumbledore decided against revealing the fates of their younger siblings.
Dealing with the broomsticks had severely hampered their efforts to finds Harry and Tonks. Most people made the same mistake that Dumbledore had and blasted the broomsticks, thus causing the cursed things to multiply by the dozen. While Hogsmeade's cobblestone streets were looking better than they had since the founding of the village, it was impossible to step outside without getting a mop in the face.
It took nearly three hours and involved rounding up nearly every able witch and wizard in Hogsmeade, but eventually the tide began to turn and the number of brooms began to drop to manageable levels.
It had taken so long because several storekeepers had failed to observe the need to vanish the broomstick and had insisted on expressing their displeasure, at having their shops ransacked, by using enough Exploding Curses to emulate a small Muggle war. Several overeager housewives had also been reluctant to get rid of something they really wanted to have for themselves and thus tried to smuggle the brooms back to their houses, rather than Vanish them.
The big problem, however, had arisen midway during the clean up operation when news filtered in that a pair of Death Eaters had been captured in Satissa Lane. Constable Troy's superior, Inspector Barnaby, had cordoned off the area until Dumbledore arrived. It did not take long for the headmaster to understand why the Inspector had requested his presence, rather than call the Ministry.
The first Death Eater was a new recruit, a graduate from Durmstrang that Dumbledore thought looked familiar. The man had been strung up from a streetlamp like a side of beef. Dumbledore had to admit that Harry had done a spectacular job of subduing his opponent so readily.
The second Death Eater, however...
It was only thanks to the first Death Eater that Dumbledore was able to identify the remains of Bellatrix Lestrange. Harry had done a thorough job of brutalizing her face beyond recognition. Keeping this quiet from the Ministry would not be easy.
Dumbledore was able to convince the Inspector, whose daughter Cully had just started at Hogwarts, that it would be in everyone's best interests to leave Harry's involvement out of any official reports. Tom Barnaby was an intelligent and dependable man that understood the need for discretion in matters such as this. It also didn't hurt, so he said, that Cully had developed a bit of a crush on a certain black-haired, green-eyed, sixth-year housemate of hers.
As far as the rest of the wizarding world was concerned, Bellatrix Lestrange was killed during a duel with Auror Nymphadora Tonks when a stray curse caused a support beam in the ceiling to fall and crush her head.
Once that potential disaster had been averted the Ministry had been called in. With several dozen Aurors arriving to take charge of the situation, Dumbledore was able to conscript them into lending their aid in dealing with the broomsticks. This allowed the Order to concentrate almost exclusively on their search for Harry, much to everyone's relief, though Fred and George seemed a bit disappointed.
Despite this, however, there was still no sign of Harry. Or Tonks.
"Professor Dumbledore, sir?"
Dumbledore was shaken out of his wonderings by a familiar voice. He turned to find himself faced, yet again this day, with the face of Constable Troy.
"Oh dear," he sighed, realizing that he presence was required once more at the village jail. Indicating for the Constable to lead the way, he asked, "What is it this time, Gavin?"
"You'll have to see it to believe it, sir," Troy replied.
This proved quite accurate, as Dumbledore would never have expected to find his Potions Master, Severus Snape, stilling impatiently in a Hogsmeade jail cell. Well, perhaps he might had believed it possible, but he would never for the life of him believed that Snape would be butt naked at the time.
"Severus, have you been drinking your experimental potions again?" he asked.
"Potter," Snape ground out through clenched teeth.
Dumbledore approached the bars of the cell and asked, "You've seen him?"
Snape glowered unhappily, displeased that Dumbledore was more concerned with locating Harry than with punishing the young man for whatever imagine insult had resulted in this... situation.
"No. This is all his fault."
"Severus," Dumbledore admonished.
"It is!" insisted Snape, jumping angrily to his feet. The effect was ruined as he was simultaneously trying to cover his lower regions with one hand and hide his Dark Mark with the other. As a result he looked rather too hunched over to portray his usual intimidating self. "Earlier he Vanished the clothes of three of my Slytherins."
"Yes; Mssrs Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle, I believe."
Snape glared at Dumbledore and stated flatly, "Twenty two minutes and six seconds."
Dumbledore blinked in incomprehension. "I beg your pardon?"
"He did a lot more than simply Vanish their clothes, headmaster," Snape explained with forced patience. "Every twenty two minutes and six seconds, exactly and without fail, whatever they are wearing disappears. Everything."
"And in what way does this relate to your being here?"
"It's spreading, just like those damned brooms," Snape groused.
"Excuse me?" Dumbledore asked, not sure he had heard correctly.
"Everyone that had come into contact with Draco and his companions since they returned to the castle is... infected... by whatever Potter did to them," reported Snape, teeth bared in a snarl. He made the mistake of waving both arms about in emphasis, before remembering his current state of undress. His black eyes burned with even more hatred for Harry than usual as he hastily covered himself. "Half of my house are trapped in their dormitories because their clothes keep disappearing before they can even get out of the dungeons!"
Dumbledore struggled not to smile as he asked rhetorically, "And yourself?"
"I was coming to inform you of the situation when... twenty two minutes and six seconds," Snape nodded in confirmation, now sounding just barely resigned. "After I was... arrested... the Constable was kind enough to conjure me a set of replacement clothes, but that was over half an hour ago."
"Which would explain your current state of undress," noted Dumbledore, allowing a hint of humour to bleed into his voice as he regarded his frustrated colleague.
"It's all Potter's fault," Snape asserted unhappily.
Dumbledore had to bite his tongue to keep from smiling, fully aware that if Harry were present and in command of his faculties, he would likely find Snape's predicament to be hilarious. The words divine retribution sprang to mind, as Harry still considered his disastrous Occlumency lessons with the Potions Master the previous year as something akin to mental rape. Having Severus laid bare like this, literally, would be guaranteed to put a smile on his face.
"Ah, Harry," he muttered to himself, arranging to have Snape released, "My mother told me there would be days like this. If only you did not produce them so regularly."
TBC...