The Next Dark Lord

A Long Summer

'This is going to be a very long summer', thought Hermione. The cause for her predicament was sitting right across her. Nothing has gone right the last few days. First, Moody's idea to have Snape find the real murderer was shot down so bad that rest of the order, save a very few, were thinking that he lost his marbles finally for even considering Potter might be innocent. Then she was not able to see much of Sirius without another Order member's presence. Next, Molly made the "kids" clean the house to make it "habitable". 'Why make so many people live here if this place was not habitable in the first place?', thought Hermione angrily. Finally, she has to put up with the Ronald-no-brain-Weasley's rumbling. The last one was what made her think that the summer is going to be very long.

"This year I'm gonna try for the Quidditch team. I would have tried last year itself but there was that stupid tournament", Ron said. 

'Now you think the tournament is stupid huh? Where did that go when you were jealous that you were not able to enter?' thought Hermione, but stopped the words escaping her mouth with great difficulty.

"After winning the Quidditch Cup for the next 3 years, the Canons will just have to hire me. After a few years I will be the most popular player in the entire Britain".

Trying to concentrate on the cleaning work, Hermione tried tuning the prat out. It seemed to be working well, that was before the idiot took harry's name into his rant.

"I'm Harry-scarface-Potter. I'm so special, all of you kneel before me. I say good riddance", he rambled on. Before thinking about what she was doing, her wand was in her hand and she was about to curse the prat into the next week. Ginny chose the moment Ron spoke the word Harry to enter that room and forgetting the fact that she's witch, she proceeded to pounce on her brother hitting any place she could reach. Hermione took her time to get Ginny off Ron and took the girl to her room.

'Here comes the second hell. At least she's not going to insult Harry, though the way she speaks as though they are a couple and will announce marriage any day soon is exhausting', thought Hermione. Entering the room, she made Ginny sit on her bed, happy that she wasn't sharing the room with the younger girl.

"I couldn't believe Ron would talk like that about Harry. Harry has always been so sweet to everybody. He came to save me fighting Tom Riddle & the basilisk. Now I'm defending his name here. He'll come back to me", said Ginny. Suddenly turning to Hermione, Ginny grasped her hands. "I know you are the only one who believes Harry is innocent and will do something to help him. Don't take too much time, help him soon. I will help you in anyway I can, I'll do anything you need to get Harry out of there".

As soon as she started, she turned away and started listing the people that she wanted to invite to her wedding with Harry. 'This is new', thought Hermione as she made her way out of the room. Drawing parallel between what Harry described as Barty Crouch's behavior and what she witnessed, she decided Ginny isn't very far from the older ministry official. 'Ginny needs help much more urgently than I thought earlier. Hope Mrs. Weasley listens to me this time at least', thought Hermione as she made her way down the stairs in search of Molly you-need-to-eat-more Weasley.

In a far away corner of the country, inside a rundown cottage, the wizard once known as Remus Lupin was losing his identity slowly among the bottles of local alcohol. The Lycanthrophy which has been an hindrance to him leading a normal life is now an hindrance to losing his pain in alcohol as well. The wolf in him keeps the alcohol from taking effect fully. There was still a part of the wizard inside him that it ached. As he reached for the next bottle, with a soft snap a strangely dressed house elf apparated into the cottage.

'Maybe the alcohol is taking effect finally. My eyes tell me there is an house elf dressed weirdly in there, that can't be true', thought Remus.

"Harry Potter's wolf-man has to stop drinking and see the news in the paper about Harry Potter's dogfather", said the elf and snapped his finger. The sobering charm performed by the elf and the name Harry Potter together brought Remus back to the land of the awake & living. He took the newspaper from the elf, deciding he can ask the questions later. The headline shook his world a second time this summer. On top of losing his pseudo-nephew, he has lost his last friend as well. The paper fell out of his numb hands, but something didn't add up.