It was completely silent but for the faint echoing of dripping water. All Arthur Weasley could hear was the rapid thumping of his own heartbeat. He felt ill. The slain corpse of the basilisk lay in front of the thirty or so adults gathered in the Chamber. It was a mistake to agree to this, he thought, as the footsteps of the others crashed in his eardrums. He could not move. All he could think about was his two youngest children. He shouldn't have interrupted his holiday for this. He needed to see them again, to hug them and to make sure they were safe.
"Arthur?" Dumbledore quietly called to him. "Are you ill, do you need to go back?"
"No, no," he assured, looking away from the beast. "I just need a moment."
"Very well, I am going to head further in with the Ministry officials, why don't you stay here with Minerva."
Most of the group carried on deeper into the Chamber. He heard the loud accent of the American parselmouth they'd brought in conversing with Amos Diggory and some other members of the Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. He'd been introduced to them all, but Arthur couldn't remember any of their names. He was looking at the corpse of the basilisk again, trying to imagine Ron blinding the thing. It was so large, as thick as a train. How had two children and a phoenix defeated it?
"Arthur?" He was guided away from the corpse and led over the rest of the group stationed by the exit. Professors, some miscellaneous Ministry workers and a few members of the Board of Governors were all standing around, too nervous to venture deeper. Minerva led him towards the other Heads of House and Ms. Adams, who was as horrified at the sight as he was, though her face was drawn into a tight grimace that showed very little. She nodded at him.
"Our children were down here!" He muttered without any greeting. "They could have died."
"They should have died," she said darkly. "I'd naively assumed the basilisk must have been young, but the size of that thing! And Harry stabbed it with a bloody sword."
Professor Sprout squeaked in terror.
"Oh those poor dears," she said. "Are they handling things alright?"
Adams nodded but Arthur shook his head.
"Going on a trip was helpful, the sun and some time with their family has been good, I think. For all of us. Ron has been doing alright, all things considered, but Ginny, she's been struggling. She doesn't remember much of last year, and what she does remember was not good. She's been having trouble sleeping."
"Do remind her there is no need to rush on catching up on her school work," McGonagall assured him. "We'll make sure she doesn't fall behind, but she should use the summer to heal."
"Possessions can be major sources of trauma," Alabasandria said quietly. "And besides that, she was essentially being groomed by Tom Riddle. From what Harry told me of the situation, it certainly sounded like that kind of scenario."
"Oh." Another piece of Arthur's heart broke at that thought. Minerva and Sprout both offered a hand on his shoulders. A kind gesture, but all Arthur wanted at the moment was to return to his wife and kids. "I - yes, I suppose it did resemble that. Me and Molly were discussing her seeing a mindhealer - well, I will make sure we look into it post haste."
"That was perhaps an insensitive choice of wording," Alabasandria apologized.
"No, it's alright. I just don't think it's set in for me or Molly what happened, that our daughter -" Arthur's voice shook, and he stopped talking to wipe away a few tears. As much as it hurt to think about, he appreciated her candor. He couldn't help Ginny if he didn't understand what had happened to her.
Minerva pulled him into a hug. "It's over now, Arthur. Your children are safe. And don't forget why we're here. We will make sure this never happens to another child." Arthur nodded and tried his best to pull himself together before someone like Lucius Malfoy looked over and saw him crying. Not that he didn't deserve to. His poor children. Oh, how he'd failed Ginny.
Echoing footsteps marked the return of the rest of their group.
"Excellent news, all! No sign of any eggs, another basilisk, or a different exit. The school is safe!" Diggory said in a happy tone. Arthur couldn't help but feel a tinge of anger against the man. Let's see how happy he was when it was his child who was hurt. As the party cheered and clapped, he forced those feelings down. That wasn't fair to Amos, he was a nice man. Arthur clapped along halfheartedly.
Their group, the newly formed Hogwarts Health and Safety Committee quickly left the dreadful Chamber, none eager to remain. They reconvened in the Great Hall, where a singular table and a light buffet were waiting. The mood of the group lifted considerably, but Arthur was in no mood for further small talk, so he sat down and resolutely made no eye contact.
"How wonderful it is that we can finally put that dreadful matter behind us." Minister Fudge said, dotting at his brow to remove the sweat that had formed upon seeing the terrifying beast. "The basilisk is dead, the children are safe and the victims have been well compensated -" Arthur barely held back his snort of disgust. If the Ministry thought 700 galleons (given to him indirectly too, those cowards) was enough for him to forget about his daughter being possessed! Well, that was why he had insisted on being at this meeting, even if the portkey had been expensive and nauseating. "It should be a simple matter to close off that bathroom. The people will be reassured to hear of the news, I'll make sure to give out a statement to the press. On to our next order of business, if I may recommend, is the matter of Sirius Black." Murmuring puttered across the table as Fudge motioned to Amelia Bones, who stood to address the party.
"May I remind you all that we are here in confidence and out of respect for the safety of the students. You will not repeat this information. The rumors are true, Sirius Black was heard muttering in his sleep before his escape. "He's at Hogwarts," he said. This is believed to be in reference to Mr. Potter, but either way makes it clear that his target is Hogwarts." Arthur looked over to Ms. Adams, who looked neither surprised nor concerned at the news. They both knew Black was Harry's godfather, but this? He hoped Harry was taking all of this well. "The Ministry has a few proposals on how to protect the students. The first is the restriction of those allowed to visit Hogsmeade village. As we've already discussed, our students have not been receiving proper DADA instruction, and it's best we only let older students - perhaps fifth years and above - off campus, those more capable of defending themselves. Another is an overhaul of Hogwarts wards, to prevent any object or creature entering the grounds with intent to harm the students."
"Just creatures and objects?" interrupted one of the Board of Governors, an ancient pureblood with as much hair as he had teeth. "Can we not ward against humans with ill-intent, why not Black himself?"
"May I, Madame Bones?" A young man stood, one of the ward masters called in to provide expertise. "Wards like these are complex. They are not like spells, which may be molded through intention and emotion. You must give it an exact list of parameters, and if you overlook anything, then the ward will not function properly. For example: for a common ward against dark creatures you would specify any creature that can poison, slice, claw at, strike, etc. However, these wards would include benign creatures, like the student's pets, as even a housecat has claws. So often, these wards - including the ones at Hogwarts, are lists of creatures to exclude, such as dragons, centaurs, and such. It is simply a matter of listing every creature, which can have loopholes, as we can see. If snakes are allowed, so are basilisks. Neither method of warding is foolproof.
By these rules, we cannot ward against humans then, for obvious reasons, nor against any specific action Black could do, as those are dangerously vague, and could easily include the person trying to protect themself from Black. It is possible to exclude one specific person, but that would require some of his blood. I would say we should exclude any Azkaban prisoners, through warding similar to that used on the prison itself, but he has gotten around those before, so he must know of some loophole."
"Then what is the point of updating the wards," the grumpy old wizard argued. "This is going to cost us a lot of money."
....
Join my P*atreon for early access to 60+ chapters ahead of the public release.
Link : pa*treon.com/thebookaddict (Remove the *)
Free members can get 2+ advanced chapters FOR FREE.