The Intelligent Potter

*** Black Manor, Later

Nicholas, under the guise of Pierre Moreau, had brought Harry, Hermione, and Daphne back to Black Manor where Sirius was waiting for them, before returning back to the Hogwarts Express to fetch more students.

The three of them had found that Nicholas had brought the other kids from the Express to the Manor as well, because of the formidable wards which the Dark Lord could not easily scale an attack upon with his forces tied up with the Express, as well as the large expansive estate, where they had been able to set up several large wizarding tents for the students to rest up and stay in temporarily until they could organise safe travel to their own homes.

Sirius had been very disappointed that he'd been disallowed to fight, but his role in organising and managing the escape of the students to Black Manor was instrumental to the defence nonetheless.

A few hours later, as more and more of the students had made their way to Black Manor, they got news from Dumbledore, communicated via Nicholas as Pierre, that the Dark Lord had retreated, but only after totalling the entire 1-mile radius of the fight in his rage and frustration at his loss to strike the Wizarding World where it hurt the most, their children.

Apart from this, there was very little news for Harry, Hermione, and Daphne, all of whom were desperate to hear anything of the disastrous attack on the Express.

Nicholas hadn't been able to stick around for long, having to leave immediately to lend his magical prowess to the cleanup of what had essentially turned into a warzone.

Harry, in particular, was especially torn up by the lack of any kind of news. He already felt extremely guilty for the death of the peacekeeper who had essentially given her life to save them, despite knowing there was nothing he could have done except give Voldemort his own life in addition to that of his defender.

Harry didn't do much as the day just seemed to pass by, Hermione and Daphne dropped into his room for a bit and they talked about their experience the previous day but the two girls both retired to their own rooms in the Manor after a while.

It was nearly a full day later that Sirius felt the wards alert him that Albus Dumbledore had entered the wards of Black Manor.

"Harry, Hermione, Daphne!" the unruly Black called out, "Dumbledore will be arriving shortly, get yourselves down here, unless you WANT to remain in the dark."

Sirius was momentarily blinded as a bright flash of light filled the entire house, most likely the doing of Harry.

"Goddamnit Harry, that was a metaphor!" Sirius shouted up, rubbing his eyes as his sight returned to him, happy that Harry wasn't too stuck up in brooding to be himself.

Sirius shrugged on his own robes, making his way down to the entrance hall, about the same time as Harry, the girls trailing behind him a bit.

Sirius had just about acciod himself two glasses, a bottle of firewhiskey, and a couple butterbeers, when he heard his doorbell ring.

Quickly doling out the firewhiskey into the glass with very generous pours, Sirius carried the two glasses with him to the door, sending a mental command to the wards to swing open the doors.

As the doors opened, Sirius grinned widely, spreading his arms with the two glasses of golden liquid in them expansively as if he were looking for a hug.

His grin faded slightly as he saw Albus looking the worst he'd ever seen the wizened Headmaster seem in all his years. Albus usually had an ageless aura to him, but his age seemed to be hanging heavy on him.

Albus gave a small smile nonetheless, despite his half-destroyed battle robes, which he hadn't had a chance to change out of, and the heavy bags under his eyes, indicating that he'd been too busy with the fight and then the cleanup and then the inevitable politics to catch a wink.

"Sirius!" Albus greeted, the familiar warmth of his tone reassuring Sirius slightly.

He heard a small gasp from next to him as Harry finally walked up to the door and looked at the state of his mentor.

"Ah Harry, it's good to see you well," Albus said, "Forgive me for the abrupt departure from your company but I need to freshen up a bit before we can discuss yesterday's events at enough length to do their severity and complexity any justice."

"Of course, Albus, I'm sure you can make your way to your room." Sirius said, gesturing in the vague direction of the guest room that had been specifically set aside and stocked for the use of the Headmaster.

Nodding his thanks, Albus made his way to his room.

By this time, Hermione and Daphne had made their way down to the hall.

"Well, make yourselves comfortable in the living room, I guess," Sirius said, "I'll organise some snacks and get Kreacher to fix dinner."

Nodding their consent, Harry, Hermione, and Daphne made their way to the opulent living room of Black Manor, where they each chose one of the cushy sofas and sat down.

Sirius joined them, having brought out a small platter of sorts to much on.

After a slightly longer while, during which the four people already in the living room continued to chat, Albus made his way to their location as well, looking far better than he had a half hour previously.

The bags under his eyes were still apparent, but he had cleaned up into casual clean robes and healed some of his injuries which had gone ignored by the healers who only healed the major injuries before moving onto others who needed the healing more than he did.

"You holding up, Professor?" Sirius asked while Harry just looked at his mentor expectantly.

"As well as can be expected," Albus said cheerfully, "But I think what you really want to inquire about isn't just my health."

Sirius sighed, "How bad was it?" he asked.

The Headmaster's face turned grave, "To be completely honest, the entire operation went about as well for us as it could have, we know that the Dark Lord is incredibly powerful and his forces are if anything, larger than we expected. We managed to keep the entire student body alive but it was at a great cost, we lost over three dozen peacekeepers and more than twenty British aurors. I don't think that we can risk something like this happening again, we will have to ship all the students straight back to Hogwarts from here, even scattered at their homes, too many of them are all too vulnerable under their own protections and striking the young would be a great victory for Voldemort."

*** End of Chapter