"I have already taken the steps needed."
Reassured him Dumbledore. "Thanks to a judicious application of the Misdirection, Secrecy and Babbling wards, no one outside the castle will be able to take seriously the word of any student spreading rumours about a Forbidden Corridor."
"And those who assisted directly to the scene?"
"I have spoken with all but two of the Gryffindors and one Ravenclaw involved in the incident, and I am confident they share our views and will not scream on the roofs what has happened this year." The Headmaster caressed the phoenix perched on his knees and rolled his shoulders. "Still, I have made some 'suggestions' to avoid any slip of the tongue."
"And the three others?"
"One is a Muggle-born, thus what she can say to her parents won't matter at all. The second is living with the old Wolpert."
"This madman?" Sniggered Moody, which coming from him was supreme irony. "Fine and the third?"
"The last Potter."
"Ah." There was no smile anymore on Alastor scarred face. "Why didn't you order her elimination?"
"Killing her would lead to several...questions how we handled the Potter businesses and proprieties after the end of hostilities."
Moody ticked on half of his face.
"And I would lose the Potter vote plus the five minor Houses which still look to them despite James Potter's betrayal." Admitted reluctantly Albus Dumbledore. By itself, it was far from a large block but with Lucius Malfoy pushing for the elevation of many Dark clans to House status, every little bit counted.
"Politics." The word was thrown out Moody's mouth like an insult. "Fine. Do it your way. But at the first sign the Dark Lord is stirring again..."
"I will call you and the Order."Promised Dumbledore. "The Dark will not rise again. Not under my watch."
The noise of two glasses clinking concluded the important parts of this conversation.
2nd July 1992, 4 Privet Drive, England
"DUDLEY! PIERS IS HERE!"
Alexandra groaned, woken up once again at was in her opinion an undue hour by the strident and unpleasant voice of Petunia. So much for the hope of sleeping late at 4 Privet Drive again.
"Why is her voice so strident anyway?" She grumbled. "No one at Hogwarts, not even this bitch of Pansy Parkinson has that kind of voice..."
The problem was that Alexandra was forced to hear that voice every day since she had come back from Hogwarts, except the week she had passed at Hermione's home. And to her horror, her tolerance to the screams of her 'aunt' and her 'uncle' had grown slimmer the nine months she was away from Privet Drive.
The problem was she had not a choice. When Hermione had made her the welcome proposition to pass a few weeks at her home, she had not known her parents had planned a six weeks-long holiday in Germany for July. Nigel, on his side, was with his father diplomat in Norway for the rest of the period before coming back to Hogwarts. Alexandra had been forced to return to the Dursleys. Well, the raven-haired girl supposed she could have rent a room in Diagon Alley, but truly the state of cleanness in these places left much to be desired.
In the mean time, the least one could say about her relatives was that her going to a school of magic hadn't transformed them into pleasant beings. Vernon and Petunia were still the angry and bitter persons who wanted nothing "freakish" or "abnormal" to contaminate their way of existence. Dudley was fatter and more violent than he had been the previous year, brutalising other younger children now he couldn't put his hands on Alexandra anymore.
There may have been differences in 4 Privet Drive when Alexandra was away at Hogwarts. These changes had not concerned the Dursley family unfortunately. Even the little fact that Dudley had sent five of his own Smeltings 'comrades' at the infirmary had not perturbed Petunia, nor had Dudley's bad marks angered Vernon. Dudley, Piers and his gang were free to terrorise anyone who was in their way in Little Whinging, when they were not watching TV or eating the equivalent of food necessary for an adult elephant to survive.
"And there is still July and August to pass..." Alexandra sighed.
In hindsight, doing her holiday magical homework in the first week with Hermione had been a not very good idea. As she had planned to stay at Hermione's home the majority of her free time, writing her Potions essays while she had the subject fresh in her mind had been tempting. Too tempting.
Now, it was July the fifth, and she had already taken out the magical homework option out. In despair of cause, Alexandra had 'borrowed' two weeks before the school books Dudley had been required to buy and use at Smeltings. She was really happy to have done so. In the first month she had passed at Hogwarts, Alexandra had tried to find the time to talk about her Head of House or Professor McGonagall about the absence of non-magical subjects like mathematics or foreign languages at Hogwarts. She had not met a lot of success. Flitwick had explained to her that a very complicated Charm allowed wizards and witches to learn French, German, Spanish and the other foreign languages they needed at an accelerated rate. As for the rest, purebloods were tutored in the things they needed to know; matters like Pure-Blood customs and etiquette were primordial in the magical society. Mathematics, physics and chemistry were judged irrelevant, and as a result basically ignored. No wonder wizards were so far behind the Wizarding World in terms of living conditions and the Goblins ruled with a golden fist the finance sector.
Well, this was not going to happen to Alexandra. With nothing else to pass her time, she had decided to catch up with the normal courses. She wouldn't be able to pass the exams like a normal student, but at least she wouldn't be ignorant.
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