Disclaimer: I do not own the HP world or its people,
only JKR does... I'm only borrowing it for a bit.

The Raven

By Bree McGregor

Chapter 17

The tension in the Headmaster's office could be cut with a knife.

"It sounds just like watching a movie performance. Why are you making such a big deal about this, Snape?" Potter complained. "If anything happens to Hermione in the mirror, we'll just use our wands."

Unlike Potter and the rest of the group that would be in attendance tonight, Severus understood all the things that could happen at a dark revel, and how everyone's emotions would be frayed when they watched it through the mirror.

Despite Snape's arguments against it, the Headmaster said that Harry was attending this viewing of the mirror. In this meeting with Dumbledore, there was little talking: all that really happened was the Headmaster said he would have a "private talk" with the young Mr. "Pain in the Backside" Potter to explain the seriousness to him, but that wasn't enough for Snape. He knew the Headmaster's words would not adequately prepare Potter for the danger involved
tonight.

Harry's overly noble sense of heroism at the viewing would not be a plus in Snape's opinion. He knew the boy would want to jump in and try to save his friend from what she was seeing, but any interference might mean disaster since Hermione's soul could be lost within the void of the Twin Demon Mirrors forever.

The only way the Potions master could effectively get that message across was for the boy to witness a memory that Snape had of when a young cousin didn't heed the warnings of their family to stay away from the mirrors.

Even though Severus had himself been a youngster at the time, he never forgot the incident. For years, his cousin just laid in his bed not moving, his eyes lifeless, his body never decaying as if everything was working – just no soul to run it. Then several disembodied spirits came; they wanted to inhabit the boy's empty body. The fight to keep them away and the long hours of trying to contact the boy's spirit were hard on the family. Three years later, they finally gave up hope and cremated the body in hopes that his soul could rest and the spirits would stop attacking.

Snape stood at the bottom of the stairs, waiting. When he saw the young Gryffindor leave the Headmaster's office, he led him to his office for the full explanation about the dangers of tonight's meeting. Harry's reaction to the Pensieve memories had been what Snape expected... anger.

"If using the mirrors is so dangerous, why don't you do it? Why send Hermione? Why does Dumbledore keep putting her in such danger?" Harry raged.

"Ask the Headmaster. All this is his idea," was all Snape said to him, while thinking, 'Boy, you don't know the half of it.'

The meeting was starting. Hermione was sitting quietly in meditation, preparing to look into the mirror, as Dumbledore set up the Pensieve so that everyone present could see what she was seeing at the same time. It was a complex spell to enable the Pensieve for multi-person viewing, but it was critical for everyone to see what was happening at the dark revel. When Hermione nodded that she was ready, the Headmaster touched his wand to her forehead and then to the Pensieve, activating the spell.

At first it was a hazy black mist. Snape had told them beforehand what to expect and how the mirrors worked, so everyone waited patiently until the mist cleared
after a few moments. Finally the images started to come – only as shadows at first but growing sharper by the second, until they all could see a large room with
incantations painted on the floor, surrounding the image of the skull and serpent that marked Voldemort's Death Eaters.

To the left was a large throne with two chairs just behind it. Snape knew that the large throne was for Voldemort and the two smaller chairs were for his
closest associates. Snape himself used to occupy the right-hand chair before his betrayal was discovered.

Slowly two figures entered the room. A tall figure in a black robe and silver mask was helping a deformed figure to the throne chair. The first look at Voldemort as he sat down was shocking; it seemed his body was deteriorating.

"May I bring you anything, Master?" the Death Eater asked respectfully.

"Yes, bring me my elixir," came the raspy voice from the form of Voldemort.

"As you wish, Master." The Death Eater bowed as he hurriedly left the room.

Voldemort's breathing became painful and ragged. He clenched his chest in pain as he waited for his servant's return. The Death Eater came back in with a smoking goblet.

"Is it fresh?" rasped Voldemort.

"Yes, Master, I extracted the venom just before leaving the lab."

"Very good." With that, Voldemort swallowed the entire goblet in one shot, then gave back the goblet to the Death Eater. He sat up straighter as his face filled out, and his back also straightened.

"Call the meeting," Voldemort said with a strong steady voice.

Then the Death Eater ran out to call the others into the room.

"Tonight we plan our attack on Hogwarts," Voldemort told his men after they were all assembled. "I have been planning this for months, but with the defection and betrayal of one I held in confidence the original plans have changed."

Not a breath could be heard from the Death Eaters as they awaited further information of their master's grand plan for domination of the wizarding world.

"I have several valuable spies in Hogsmeade who are very close to the staff of Hogwarts. For the past two months, I have been giving them orders to feed the
staff wrong information. The staff thinks that we will be attempting a takeover of the Ministry first. This is not true: my goal has always been Hogwarts."

A young Death Eater nervously shifted his feet, wanting to ask a question but too fearful to ask.

Voldemort noticed the movement and called upon the man. "You have a question, young one?"

"Yes, my Lord. Why Hogwarts and not the Ministry? isn't it the Ministry that runs the wizarding world?"

"Yes, for this time it is, but I am looking into the future of our world, I want Hogwarts to become my school so I can teach the next generation, choose who will carry on my legacy. Since I will be deciding who attends Hogwarts, the school and staff will be completely Slytherin. I will teach the children to rule and to dominate those weaker than them, and I will give them knowledge of the Dark Arts that has never before been taught at Hogwarts. To control totally, we must have a firm hold on the coming generations.

"My choosing who may attend Hogwarts means denying all magical training to Mudbloods. The enrollment book at Hogwarts lists the names and addresses of every magical child born in Britain; we can use it to identify and eliminate all Mudbloods before they even know about magic – before the Ministry knows their names. If parents try to hide their children from us or send them to other schools, we will find them and take them by force. Within one generation, my approved students will be able to subjugate the rest of the wizarding world."

The assembled Death Eaters were in awe of the future that their master had just set out for them. Their vision was limited to the way magical children were educated in the here and now, not the future. 'And this is why you are only Death Eaters instead of conquerors,' thought Voldemort.

"The attack on Hogwarts will be the night of Thursday, July 9 – the first full moon aer the summer solstice," he announced. "The students will be away on summer break, as will most of the staff. The school's wards will be weakened since this is the night the annual protective spells are recast, but first the old wards must be taken down. This is when they are most vulnerable – when we will strike. I have all my spies trying to get the exact time of this recasting, since it is a closely guarded secret. Madam Rosmerta is a trusted friend to the Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts and is one of my most valued spies, and I'm sure within a week's time we will have the information.

"In three weeks we will attack with full might against Hogwarts. After that we will take over the Ministry. Soon, my Death Eaters, we will be victorious!"

A loud roar rose up from the Death Eaters in anticipation of their Lord's impending attack on Hogwarts. Their time of victory was coming.

Voldemort sat down as a signal for the festivities to begin. Two Death Eaters left the room. They quickly returned, one man dragging a hysterical woman and the other man holding a struggling child who was about eighteen months old. The woman obviously was the boy's mother, by the way she was trying to reach him.

The young boy had no idea the danger they were in but he did understand that his mother wanted desperately to reach him. The scary people were keeping her from him, so he tried to get away from the man holding him to reach her.

The Death Eaters found their struggles amusing. Why couldn't Muggles just accept their superiority and surrender to them? A large Death Eater pulled out his wand and looked to his Master; with a nod from Voldemort, the man cast a spell and a red light shot out from his wand. The woman screamed in pain as she fell to the floor. Her breathing was labored but she was unfortunately still conscious.

The Death Eater who shot the spell pulled open his robes, revealing his nude body. His large erection was plain for all to see. The man became only more aroused as he cast another spell on the woman. Despite seeing her in pain, he entered her viciously, as her son watched and screamed.

Voldemort himself never took part in such sadistic activities – he found them unproductive – but if they kept his men happy and loyal, then he allowed them the reward.

The woman stopped screaming after the third Death Eater finished with her, but as she looked up she saw a man fondling her son. As he opened his robes, something broke in the woman. She bucked off the man who was starting to straddle her, and kicked him between the legs. She dodged the men who tried to grab her. Amazingly, she made it to her young son and threw the child's molester to the ground.

Voldemort watched it all from where he sat. As he was unpredictable and sometimes gave in to whims, no one knew what he was thinking as he stood up and slowly made his way to the weeping woman; they only knew to get out of his way. The Muggle cradled her child in her arms rocking him back and forth. No one saw the wand in their Master's hand until a bright green light shot out of it, hitting the mother and child and killing them instantly.

Back in the Headmaster's office everyone instinctively turned their eyes away from the mirror, as the Death Eaters' room filled with an angry green glow. Dumbledore cut the spell to the Pensieve and the mirror as Snape ran to Hermione. He was careful not to touch her while drawing Hermione back into herself, before he closed the link.

Hermione fell to the floor. Her face was wet with tears. Snape became worried because of the total devastation he saw in her eyes. This was what he feared when he argued with Dumbledore against using Hermione to witness a dark revel. "It is enough that she spies on his meetings! Why must she witness his depravity?" But the Headmaster had been right: they all needed to know about Voldemort's plan to attack Hogwarts. They all needed to know the cost if they failed.

The Potions master's eyes locked on to the Headmaster's; their silent conversation was both bitter and regretful. Looking over at Harry, they both realized that the boy was in just as bad shape as Hermione. Dumbledore motioned for Snape to take Hermione away, as he himself led Harry to a chair.

Professor McGonagall covered the mirror again as Snape left the room, helping Hermione walk. Halfway down the steps, her legs gave out. He picked her up like a bride and carried her to the dungeons where he had a sedative potion waiting for her.

A/N: all hale June!!! girl you make me look so good! LOVE YA! thanks for being there for me! and thanks for the info on the dates!! Your great!