Sometimes It's Good to be Bad

Chapter 45 What to do?

The next morning nothing was said at breakfast of the previous nights events, but everyone was told to go back to their common rooms where their Heads of House would talk to them. When the whole of Gryffindor House was in their common room, Professor Davis came through the portrait hole.

He first told everyone what had transpired, then he opened up a room off the main common room that none of them had known existed (it wasn't even on the Map). He called each family into the office one at a time to tell them what was currently known on the state of their families, whether it was nothing, dead, or alive. When it was time, Harry and Hermione went in together.

"Hermione, your aunt and her family have not been harmed." She smiled at him, seemingly in relief before he continued on. "Harry. I'm sorry, but we believe that your aunt and uncle have been captured by Death Eaters, though your cousin is still at Smeltings. I believe that he will be told of this sometime this morning as well, as we have contacted his school to see if they had any additional information from the muggle police."

"The Dursley's were captured? Are you sure?"

"We're working under assumptions, but all the evidence leads to the conclusion... the Dark Mark was found over the house, the inside was in shambles, and no one was there. So, yes, I suppose that we're sure."

Harry had his head in his hands. "Shit. They were supposed to be safe without me being there. I should have realized something like this would happen."

Hermione leaned against him, putting her arm around his shoulders. "Harry, this isn't your fault, you know. I didn't expect this, and neither did the Order, or else they would have been protected."

He lifted his head out of his hands and looked at her, tears threatening to fall from his eyes. "But I should have known. They were my relatives, of course they would be targets. Now Voldemort has them and who knows what 's happening to them. They're horrible people, I know, but they still don't deserve that."

Hermione rubbed his back in a circular motion as she looked up at Professor Davis. "Does anyone know what's going to happen to Dudley? He's not of age in the muggle world. I'm not quite sure how the laws work in such situations."

"I'm sorry, but we didn't think to ask," he answered gently.

"It's okay. I'm sure he'll just stay at Smeltings. Besides, it's not like they're dead yet. There's still a chance we can find them, right?"

"Of course there's a chance, Harry," she cooed while wondering what he was even thinking to A. care and B. think that his aunt and uncle would still be in any condition worth living for if they did come across them alive.

"Thank you for telling me, Professor," he said, standing up and walking out of the room, leaning slightly on Hermione.

In the common room, there were already students whose parents had sent them owls saying they were to come home. Pretty much none of the students wanted to do so though, as they all felt much safer in Hogwarts where there hadn't been any issues so far this year. The only thing that got some of them to agree was the thought of getting to see their families again in case something happened to them.

By the end of the day, about a quarter of the school's inhabitants had learned that at least one member of their family was killed or captured; mostly killed. Half of that number of students were to be pulled out by the end of the week. Hermione couldn't help but wonder what their families were thinking, taking the children away from school; what were they supposed to do without their education provided they all lived through the war? She was of the opinion that people needed to start thinking with their heads rather than their hearts.

She had been able to talk Harry out of leaving right then to try and find the Dursley's asking what he was planning on doing, where he thought they were, how he would get to them and around any Death Eaters watching over them, and what if they were with You-Know-Who himself? After all, they hadn't gotten to the final horcrux yet and therefore it wasn't even worth it to try and kill the... man(?).

Her thoughts had been right, though. He told her straight out that they weren't going to look into any other methods, they were just going to kill the snake whether she liked it or not. Oh, well. There goes that plan. But at least she wasn't going to have to figure out a way to learn how to do an exorcism since she was reasonably sure that anyone who would know wouldn't help out if they learned she was a witch... they'd probably try to have her hanged or burnt or something.

Now the question was how to stop him from doing it. So far the only way she could think of involved putting Harry in a trap when they go after Nagini that would result in either his capture or death. The origional idea had been to start a battle when all the horcruxes were "destroyed" and have Harry fall when everyone would be there but too distracted to stop it, and leave them all with the knowledge that the Dark Lord had won out right under their fingertips. It would have been fantastic.

There was another option, but she didn't want to bring it up, as she was sure Harry would be against it. They could always tell the Order about the horcruxes and what they had done and what was left. It would get McGonagall nicer to them but it would probably make Snape more suspicious if he knew she was dealing with them and being in such close proximity to Davis; she didn't know what he suspected or anything, but if Davis was worried enough to mention it she probably wouldn't want to go and give him more of a reason to watch her.