Harry Potter and the Darkness before the Dawn

Harry Potter and the Darkness before the Dawn

All characters belong to JKR, with the exception of those I made up of whole cloth. Have fun

Chapter 1, Of Heartbreak and Nightmares.

*******************Number 4, Privet Drive, Little Whinging*******************

July 31, 2004

12:01 am

In a tiny bedroom at the top of the stairs in an incredibly average middle class house in Little Whinging, a young man with messy black hair tosses fitfully in his bed. Horrific images flash before his minds eye at a quick pace. Images, of a giant snake towering over him, a red-headed girl laying lifeless on the ground in front of it. Of a boy, obviously her brother, trying to pull what look to be brains off his body, then a flash to a much younger version of the same boy laying lifeless on a giant chess board. Of a…a thing rising from a caldron surrounded by figures in black, of a man with longish black hair falling through an dark archway and not returning. And finally and most horribly of a young brown-haired girl laying frozen in an old hospital bed, a shocked expression on her face and then the same girl, older, laying seemingly dead to his shocked eyes. He snaps awake with the last. This is always the image that he wakes to. Even more than Sirius’s apparent death, this image is one that shakes him to the core. It’s just because I’ve known her so long isn’t it. I mean, I’ve probably been friends with Ron longer, but…Harry trails off in his conscious thoughts, still not sure exactly what the order of the images mean if anything at all. All he knows is that while the nightmares change around they always end the same. I guess it’s because I just couldn’t take it if I lost Ron or …Mione. The last thought gives him a feeling of a lead weight dropping to the pit of his stomach. Harry sits up and runs his hands though his messy hair it has grown longer over the summer, the act reveals a lighting bolt shaped scar that had been hidden by his bangs. He gropes for a second on a bedside table and finding a pair of black round-frames glasses, he slips them on. The glasses frame a pair of shocking green eyes, which are filled with pain.

As he looks up he sees familiar shapes framed in the moonlight on his windowsill. He crosses to the window and opens it carefully so as not to awake the Dursleys, in whose house he currently resides in under protest, both his and theirs. “Hey girl,” he whispers to a large snow-white owl, who hoots back at him in a seemingly carefully muted manner, almost as if she knows that she should be quiet. Hedwig is bearing a package for him with a letter on top. Harry smiles at the address written on the letter, the pain easing from his eyes, at least in part:

Harry Potter, the smallest bedroom, #4 privet Dr.

The Letter was in Hermione’s neat handwriting. For some reason over the years, Hedwig has always known to go to Hermione for a letter or package to Harry, That is weird now that I think about it, maybe Hedwig knows that Hermione doesn’t have an owl of her own? Hedwig having delivered her package gives him a light affectionate nip and hops up to perch on his dresser. The next entrant is far from quiet or sedate, a small fuzzy tennis ball with wings shoots in the window and caroms around the room almost knocking off lamps and books to Harry’s horror. OHHH, shit that damn owl of Ron’s is going to wake up Vernon. But Harry’s fears are waylaid, as Pig flies too close to Hedwig, she slaps him with one of her great wings, knocking him out of the air into a pile of clothes. “Thanks, Hedwig” Harry says to her in a whisper, and gets a muted HOOT in reply. Harry walks over to Pig and grabs him, pulls a letter from the tiny owl and tosses him back out the window to Ron, I have to talk to Ron about that damn owl, Errol would have been better, he would have just ran into the wall or something.

As Harry gets ready to open his package and read his letters, one final messenger arrives. In a bright silent flash, a beautifully red and gold plumed bird appears. He is holding a note in his golden beak, which he drops into Harry’s waiting hands, and then vanishes as he came. Well a note from Dumbledore, this may be…interesting. Harry sets the package and letters on desk. However when he looks down at the desk he sees another pile of letters on the desk, and with a snarl he sweeps those to the floor. As they fall one can see Harry’s name and address on them in a feminine hand, however that handwriting is not Hermione’s.

FLASHBACK

******************Chudley Cannon’s Stadium***********************

July 24, 2004

Harry, Ron, Alastor Moody and Remus Lupin have just found their seats, in the massive Chudley Cannons Quiddich stadium. Today the Cannons are playing the Tornadoes. The day is sunny and hot. The end hoops are gleaming in the sun and the mascots are cavorting on the green grass of the pitch. Harry had received tickets from Cho Chang, an ex- or maybe current girlfriend who would be entering her 7^th year at Hogwarts in the fall, but had been drafted early for the league. This was a little annoying to Harry as he knew in his heart that he was better than she, however he would just be a 6^th year this year and he was only 16. Cho however was 17 and of age in the Wizarding world so that may have had something to do with it. Last year, Harry and her had become close; Harry had even received his first real kiss from her. Well there are those kisses on the cheek from Hermione, but those don’t count right? He wondered to himself.

Cho spotted them and gave a little wave. Which Harry returned and the match began with a quick goal by the cannons.

“This is cool of Cho” Ron exclaimed happily to Harry after the score had been tied up at 50-50, “and thanks for letting me come too Harry.”

‘You’re welcome, you should also probably thank my babysitters back there,” Harry pointed a thumb over his shoulder at Mad-Eye and Moony, and Dumbledore too I guess as he allowed me to come, and persuaded the Dursleys to let me back in the house for a few days after the game.” Harry finished with a grimace.

“That bad mate.” Ron asked concernedly, never taking his eyes off the game.

“Not as bad as some years thanks to Mad-Eye again, but bad enough, Anyway you should also thank Mione.” Harry said reflectively as he watched a cannons chaser get knocked flying by a bludger.

“Why?”

“No offence mate, but I originally asked if she wanted to go, she said that she had some stuff with her folks and to ask you.” Harry replied, as he watched the Tornadoes score a goal.

“I will thank her in a week or so.” Ron replied, does this mean Hermione likes me, surely it does.

Right as they finished this conversion, Cho grabbed the snitch ending the game 200-50 Tornadoes, the catch was ok but Harry knew that he could have topped it. Harry stood up and waved, but Cho never even looked up, she grounded her broom, walked up to the Tornadoes keeper who had also just landed, threw her arms around his neck and proceeded to snog him right there on the sidelines. Harry was shocked for a second, then he just looked green, then he turned to Lupin. “Remus can we go, please.”

Lupin saw the scene on the pitch and just nodded, “Sure Harry, sure.” Damn that girl’s a bitch, it was a setup this could be bad. And producing a parchment from his pocket, he taps on it with his wand, “portus”. They all touch the parchment and disappear.

*******************Privet drive****************************

Current.

Harry shakes off the memory, though he knows that he may have to deal with Cho this year, after all she will be in her last year. He grabs the letter from Hermione first; he has an odd feeling that it will cheer him up a bit. He’s right.

Harry,

I have missed you so much. I was at Grimmauld place for a little while then I went with my parents for a while, now I’m back at headquarters, I am fully recovered from our escapade this summer, so DO NOT BLAME YOURSELF It would make me mad and I’m sure you don’t want that.

No Hermione, I don’t want you mad at me, but I…don’t want you hurt.

I have been harassing Dumbledore and Lupin as to when we will come and get you, and they finally agreed to get you by noon on your birthday. They should have never made you go back there at all.

If only I could never come back here, Mione, but until Voldemort is in the ground I have to come back to this shithole, someday I’ll tell you why.

Thank you for inviting me to the Quiddich match, but my parents were insistent that I spend time with them, and I’m sure that Ron enjoyed the game in my place. I have sent your present with Hedwig; it’s amazing that she always seems to know when I have a message for you. I tried to get to come and get you but Dumbledore refused, forcefully, damn he does have a good full body bind. I will see you at headquarters tomorrow.

Happy Birthday

Love

Hermione

You too, Mione…WHERE THE HELL DID THAT COME FROM. Harry wondered

He opened the neatly wrapped package and found, as usual a pair of books, the first was titled An Moron’s Guide to Defense Against the Dark Arts, How to Run Away Real Fast. Funny, Hermione, We’ll see what you get in September, how about, Hogwarts, the History for Know-It-Alls edition. He thought with a grin. The other book was pretty cool, it was a book on advanced Quiddich strategies. There was another note attached.

Harry you may need this, Dumbledore has already told us when he stopped by earlier that your ban was lifted.

I missed you on the pitch Gryffindor needs you.

Hermione

Thanks Hermione

Harry next grabbed Ron’s note, but it was pretty short.

Harry,

Screw Cho, she’s a bitch anyway. Anyway mate; I only had Pig, so I’ll just give you your present when I see you at headquarters. The place is already clean so we don’t have to do that again. Happy Birthday, mate.

Ron

Unfortunately Ron I was kinda hoping for the experience in the physical sense not in the metaphysical. Harry replied, slightly annoyed.

Finally, Harry picked up the note from Dumbledore, Harry had spent the last year progressively getting angrier at his Mentor, maybe-former Mentor as he didn’t know if Dumbledore would care to speak to him after his performance last June in his office. Harry had been angry, rightfully so, but that was no excuse for his behavior.

Harry,

I apologize.

What for, I’m the one who screwed up?

Right now you are asking what for, It is as I said I messed up I did not trust you enough to make your own decisions with the proper information. I forced you to operate from the seat-of-your pants as they say and make up decisions as you go. I should have explicitly warned you about Unbridge, and I should have taken steps myself in that situation, instead for forcing you and your friends to work in secret. You will be glad to know that she is currently in Azkaban for her attempted use of the Cruciatus Curse on you.

I am not able to appoint you to prefect at this time, as I already have two fine ones from your year, however I feel that you will not feel left out on this matter, as I have come up with something else to fill your time, I am sorry to say. Starting this year, you will begin full combat training with Alastor, Remus, Nymphadora and myself, You should have begun this years before, I fear that once again an old man has let you down. Your friends will not receive as much training as you, however I feel that Miss Granger’s skills, intelligence and loyalty to you as well as Mr., Weasley’s bravery will help them though any trials. The additional training that you were forced to look for on your own last year for yourself and your friends will not be needed this year I hope as I have found an excellent defense against the dark arts professor to fill in for next year. I am sure that he will concentrate on practical, effective skills with little reading per say. I know that will annoy Miss Granger, however when you relate this letter to her, please let her know that I am sure that a sufficiency of homework will be assigned in the class.

How did he know that the first person I would share this letter would be her? And I wonder who this new DADA teacher will be.

Harry, in an effort to try and repair the gap that I fear I have caused between you and me, I will promise two things to you, First starting when we meet at Headquarters tomorrow, I will tell you what I can about things that concern you. If I am free to relate the information I will. There are obviously limitations to that as knowledge that I have promised to keep secret I must, and for that I am sorry. Also my office is open to you once again as it should have always been. The password for this year is “Sugar Quills” if you need to speak to me, speak to me there, as I am reasonably certain that that is the safest place. Finally, however I must insist that you restart your studies of Occlumency. Severus has been spoken to, and he will moderate his tone, additionally I will sit in on the sessions occasionally, and will teach them myself when needed.

Happy Birthday Harry

Albus Dumbledore.

Ok, that was interesting. I really don’t want to start Occlumency again, but I know what that lack cost last time. I wonder what Dumbledore said to Snape.

“Ok Hedwig lets get packing, it looks like we escape at noon.” Harry muttered to the snow-white owl that had been watching him expectantly the whole time.

11:58 am

Harry sits on his trunk in the foyer; Hedwig is in his cage on top, with the Firebolt leaning against it, she just stared at Vernon, almost like she would like to tear his eyes out. Vernon has finally stopped glaring at him, though Harry still hears occasional mutterings of “Damn Freaks”. Harry doesn’t respond he is just glad to escape this prison to return once again, to his true home. This last month at the Dursleys has been rough, for the most part Vernon has remembered the threat from Moody, but there are a couple of incidents that Harry still carries bruises from. The days weren’t so bad; it was the nights that were hell. The constant images of his loved ones falling, and the nightmares, it was those that had woken Vernon, and had brought on his wrath. Harry had stayed quiet in his letters, as he didn’t want another person on his conscious. He knew that Moody would have cheerfully used Vernon’s intestines for garters. It didn’t matter he was gone now; hopefully he wouldn’t have to come back again, though her knew that he probably would.

The other two occupants of the house were less aggressive in their dislike of Harry. Actually Dudley had more or less ignored Harry, which was an unstated truce that Harry was happy to keep. Aunt Petunia was actually non-hostile, not nice or even civil really, but at least she wasn’t actively cruel. Harry did notice that she seemed to be more non-hostile when her husband wasn’t present.

At precisely noon, the doorbell rang and Harry ran to open it. It was Tonks and Moody, and for a change, they both looked more or less normal. Today Tonks had long red hair, a shade darker than Ginny’s but was otherwise unchanged, from her natural appearance, she looked for all the world like a taller, older sister of the youngest Weasley. Moody was more or less unchanged, his electric blue magical eye was still whirring about, his nose was still missing a chunk, and from a CLUNK as he bumped his leg on the doorframe Harry could tell that he still had a false leg. Both of them seemed to be in some sort of uniform, Harry figured that it must be the Auror dress uniform; it was a dark blue jacket with a high collar. The uniform jackets were more or less void of any markings except a British flag on one shoulder and a subdued patch with crossed wands on the other shoulder. A small rank insignia was also present on each, a Lieutents in Moody’s case with Tonks’ being a Sergeant.

“Nice threads” Harry said as way of greeting.

“Don’t start,” Growled Moody. “We had to go into the Ministry this morning, we’re reinstated as Aurors since we’re back in favor with the Ministry, and junior here got kicked up a rank.”

“Back in favor?” Harry asked confused.

“Yeah, I’ll explain in the car.”

“Car?”

“Yeah, like I said we’re no longer persona non gratis, ready?” Moody asked, almost dancing in his impatience to go, after all standing still, just meant that you were an easier target.

“Yeah, lets go.” And Harry and Moody grabbed his trunk while Tonks grabbed Hedwig’s cage and the Firebolt. “Bye,” Harry yelled to silence in the house. The Dursleys never even look at him, though inside he was sure that they were cheering.

The three walk to the curb where a large black SUV waits, from the way it sits, it’s probably armored. Alastor and Harry toss the trunk in the back and Tonks placed the Firebolt on top. “Alastor, what’s with the light escort this year, last year you brought a herd?”

“Look up boy.” And sure enough when Harry looked up he saw occasional flashes of movement, which were probably disillusioned wizards and witches.

As the three get on the road to London, with the invisible overhead cover, Harry asks, “Ok we’re in the car, what’s with us being back in favor, I thought Fudge still hated us,” as he looked about the luxurious appointments of the VIP vehicle.

“Don’t you get the Prophet?” Asked Tonks.

“No, I stopped after they kept calling me insane for saying Voldemort was back and printing things like Hermione was my girlfriend.” Harry missed the quick look that flashed between Moody and Tonks.

Tonks glanced in the rear view mirror where she was driving, Alastor was riding shotgun, with a wand. “Harry, there’s a new Minister, Dumbledore was reappointed by a vast majority to the Wizengamot, and their first act was to call for a vote of confidence in Fudge, he lost big time.”

Harry could tell that Tonks wasn’t telling him everything. “Then who is the new Minister of Magic, Dumbledore?” It probably is and we’ll get some dufus as Headmaster or something.

“No,” she replied with a grin her eyes alight, “Arthur Weasley.”

“What, Brilliant.” Harry exclaimed. “Wait” as a thought crossed his mind, “what about Percy he was working for Fudge.” Did Percy try to kiss up to his folks now that Fudge is gone?

“We’ll let Ron explain if you don’t mind, Harry” Tonks replied hastily as she swerves to dodge London traffic. Harry is convinced that he should have drove by now, Tonks drives the vehicle like it was a broom, and it’s a little too big for that.

The rest of the trip was spent in comfortable conversation. Harry had been lacking news of his real home, the wizarding world, for a month now and was dying to catch up, on things like the Quiddich standings, the latest wizarding bands, and since he was looking to become an Auror, he took advantage of the fact that he had two with him in the car.

“Oh there are actually different groups, or branches to the Aurors Harry.” Tonks replied to one of his questions. “I mean everyone is trained the same, and everyone has the same basic skills and legal powers, but Aurors are grouped into one of three divisions based on their specific talents. For example, Alastor and I are field investigators; we investigate crimes by dark wizards and track them down. We also have the intelligence and research division, where Aurors use informants and spies and other techniques to provide the field agents with information on suspects. Finally there is the long term strategy division where agents try to anticipate rising threats, unfortunately it was the last that Fudge cut the most, the few agents that were left, weren’t able to piece together the threads of information that might have allowed us to stop Voldemort’s reawaking.” Tonks finished almost looking embarrassed.”

“Thanks Tonks.” Harry replied gratefully, that was much more information than the 5^th year brochures had contained.

“I’ll get ya a book to read up on Harry.” Moody growled, then “were here.”

Harry looked out the window; saw # 11 and #13 Grimmauld place and his stomach sank. He had not thought about it the whole ride but returning to his godfather’s house was hard. Sirius had been his connection to his parents, his guide through the storms of the last two years, even if Harry hadn’t always followed his advice. Harry thought about the loss of Sirius everyday and standing here in front of his house was almost too hard to bear. Tonks came around the car and opened his door. Seeing the look on his face, she immediately figured out what was wrong. “It’s okay Harry, your friends are inside waiting for you.” This was the only thing that could get Harry out of this car and to the door of the house. He got out of the car at the curb and walked up to the narrow gap between the two houses and thought about the note Dumbledore had given him last summer. Suddenly a door appeared out of nowhere and Tonks knocked on it with her wand. The door opened to display Mrs. Weasley, who greeted them with a great smile and a hug.

“Harry dear, I’m so glad you are here. Come on in come in.” She said releasing him. “Ron, Hermione and Ginny are in the parlor waiting for you.”

Chapter 2, Welcome back.
**************#12 Grimmauld place***********************

Harry stepped into the parlor of his Godfather's house. During Sirius' time the decorations had included things like house-elf heads, disturbing sculptures and other artifacts most associated with Dark Wizards and their like. There were no longer cabinets full of devices to attack the wielder, and decanters of blood. The door handles had been changed from snakeheads to little Owls, They look like Hedwig Harry observed silently, feeling slightly amused. There were several high-backed, overstuffed chairs and some long couches, from the looks of them; Dumbledore must have had a hand in the refurnishing. When last Harry had been here the furniture had been old, dusty and not terribly comfortable, the new appointments looked quite good to Harry. The tapestry of the House of Black was also gone, in its place was a portrait of Sirius, which turned and winked at Harry. Harry gave it a half smile and hurriedly turned away from it. As he turned he caught the eye of a tall fire-headed man Harry's age. Who broke out into a huge grin and ran over to Harry, and gave him a brotherly hug.

"Harry, damn you look good, I've missed you mate." Ron exclaimed still grinning.

Before Harry could even respond he heard an ecstatic "HARRY", and he was knocked backwards a step, the only thing he could see was a mass of wavy, brown hair. "Hermione," Harry muttered returning her hug, feeling oddly comfortable with her arms around him. Both of them missed a quick flash of...something that passed across Ron's face. Harry pushed her back and held Hermione for a second at arms length so he could look at her instead of just her hair. She looked...good, was the best way to describe it though Harry did not know why he would use that term, she had been one of his best friends for almost 6 years and he had seen her made up, to a much greater degree than she was today, today she just had on some khaki shorts and a pink t-shirt, but he felt a sudden flush that he forced down. She's just my best friend isn't she? Her hair was still wavy but now seemed to be more or less under control, it now fell more or less evenly over her shoulders to about halfway down her back.

Chocolate brown eyes came up and met his green ones a little too quickly; "Harry how have you been, I mean that we tried to get Dumbledore to let you come here right off, or let us go see you or something. I mean you had to stay with those awful people for a whole month, I wanted to get you away..." She seemed almost flustered as she stammered out a greeting of sorts.

Harry cut her off before she really got going. "I'm fine Hermione, I'm just glad to see you two, though because it's you two I will admit that I...have reservations about coming back here." With that identical flashes of sadness crossed both Harry and Hermione's eyes they of everyone had been closest to Sirius. "Umm how are you feeling Mione...Ron?"

"Oh I'm fine mate, they used a targeted memory charm on me to block out the brain's memories, and there are no scars anymore." Ron replied cheerfully.

"I'm ok Harry, the spell that Dolohov cast was only about half power since he was silenced. It's my fault Harry if I hadn't screwed up and just stunned him instead of getting fancy and silencing him, I wouldn't have gotten hit and I'd been there to help you later." She replied with a twinge of guilt as she flashed back to her perceived mistakes.

"No Mione it was my fault, if I'd just listened to you..." Harry replied, guilt coloring his voice.

Hermione shook her head, and noticing that Ron had wandered over to get a drink from the sideboard, "Harry drop it, we're both guilty, let's talk later ok?" She whispered to him. He just nodded silently. Just as Harry backed off, Hedwig fluttered in the open door, someone must have let her out of her cage. Hedwig landed on Hermione's shoulder and gave a soft HOOT. "Hey girl how have you been." Hermione said happily as she petted the snowy owl.

Damn I wish I had a camera, they're soo cute...wait what is with me today, Must be the stress. Harry thought to himself. "So what are we doing today?" Harry asked to the room.

"I hope you have time to talk with me." Came from the doorway. Albus Dumbledore had as usual arrived without a sound.

Harry nodded at him; "lets do it now if it's convenient?" Though he really didn't want to.

Dumbledore agreed instantly and led him to a second floor bedroom with another right across the hall. Harry recognized the room from his previous stay as Sirius'. The room was greatly changed though; the room was now decorated in the Gryffindor colors of red and gold. There was now a large four-poster bed much like his at school, but at least twice the size. There was a golden hanger for Hedwig's cage and a comfortable, for a bird anyway, series of perches at various heights sitting next to the window along with an overstuffed couch. The windows were now sparkling, much unlike their previously grungy condition. Harry's stuff was already put neatly in drawers with his trunk setting in the corner and all of his books on a bookshelf next to it. Harry turned to look at Dumbledore, who said. "We thought that you'd want Sirius's old room." To which Harry just nodded, he was slightly stunned at the room, it was light years beyond his poor room at the Durselys, and yet he was only staying here a month wasn't he? Dumbledore pointed at the bed as he sat down on the couch facing. Harry settled down on the edge of the bed as Dumbledore waved his wand at the door and muttered, "imperta" The door closed and locked and a brief flash lit up the walls and the door. Harry recognized an imperturable charm when he saw one. "Harry," Dumbledore began, "I'm sure that you will relate this conversation to Hermione and Ron, however I felt that it should be your decision as to what to tell them."

"Everything...unless it would hurt them." Harry responded instantly.

"To which is the crux of our problem; Harry. Last year I made decisions based on my fear for you, and now we are paying for them."

"But I..." Harry started but was interrupted once again.

"Harry, you are going to say that it's your fault your friends were hurt, that they would not have been there it weren't for your stupidity. It is those thoughts that make you better than our enemies, do you think Riddle is concerned about the Death Eaters that you and your friends helped capture, beyond their absence hindering his plans, no. Harry, your friends were there because they trusted you."

"Yeah see where that got them." Harry snapped acrimoniously.

"Harry, your friends, followed you because they trusted that the cause was just and that you would do your best for them, no more, no less." Dumbledore looked distant with his response almost as if he too were remembering sad memories, ignoring totally Harry's retort of a minute before.

"I obviously didn't do good enough Hermione was hurt...I thought she was dead, and Ron and Ginny and Neville were hurt also." Harry replied with tears in his eyes.

"Harry, I have been were you are now, I have lead my friends into battle against the same darkness we are fighting now and some of them did not return, others did but fell in other ways such as your parents. I am determined to prevent that happening to anyone else, which is one of the reasons that I tried to keep my distance from you, and for that I am sorry. But in the end, both you and I are not all-powerful, and we will fail at times, we have to try to be ready for that, but as you are a good person at heart, you never will be. I'm afraid I know I'm not." Dumbledore finished grimly. "Anyway, Harry I'm sure that we will talk of this again, but there are other matters you should know about. As I stated in my missive to you, I will tell you what you wish to know, unless I have promised others to not tell you or for some other very overriding reason, I promise you that that reason will not be because I do not trust you, I do, more than almost anyone else."

"Anyone else?" Harry asked.

"Well there is Fawkes" Dumbledore replied to brief laughter then went on with a purpose. "Harry I do not know what Voldemort is up to right now, we know his general purpose, but not specifics, know that while the Ministry was a trap for you, the actions of yourself and your friends made it a defeat for Riddle."

"You and the others had to save us." Harry replied quietly.

"Yes, but you had already defeated his purpose, and you made Voldemort come out into the open after you. You kept the prophesy from him, and at least for a while have imprisoned his top lackeys in Azkaban. Yes, I will admit that you were not ready for him, nor were your friends totally ready for the Death Eaters that they faced. The fault for that is entirely on my shoulders. If I had taken steps, you would not have had to instruct yourselves, even so you did more than any DADA teacher in your last 5 years at Hogwarts to further your education in this area."

"Remus was good" Harry objected flashing back to his third year.

"He was, but there were other factors involved that year, weren't there?" Dumbledore asked with a raised eyebrow. "Anyway as to correct these faults, first I am taking over teaching the DADA classes, and I assure you that my NEWT class will be...challenging, even for you and your friends Harry, a fact that I'm sure will please Miss Granger to no end." This statement told Harry that Dumbledore did indeed know his students well, Harry and Minerva McGonagall, were probably the only other people who realized that Hermione's smart act wasn't an act, while every one knew she was a genius, many including Ron, thought that she flaunted it to show off. The real answer was twofold, she used her knowledge to help her self worth, she still didn't necessarily have confidence in herself, and second she really enjoyed sharing knowledge, she was a fine teacher and loved it when her friends learned too, which was possibly a source of the never ending skirmishes with Ron.

Mione I'd rather have you at my side than anyone, maybe even Dumbledore himself. Again the source and the deeper thought behind the thought confused and scared him a little.

"Second," Dumbledore went on, "Starting in the next few days, you will begin advanced combat training with myself and Alastor and then later with others. As we go on, your friends will join you for parts, though possibly not all, I do not know yet. The underage restrictions on you and your friends have been removed while you are here at the Manor or under instruction, in effect it is as if you at school already." Harry just nodded at this; he had been half expecting it since the letter from Dumbledore. "Harry there are a couple of more items. As I'm sure Miss Granger told you," Dumbledore said with a barely repressed smile, "I rescinded your Quiddich ban the moment I found some Hogwarts letterhead." His manner then cooled a little, and he dropped his eyes, "Harry tomorrow, we have an appointment."

"We" Harry asked, with a lump in his stomach

"Yes Harry, we have to go the reading of Sirius's will"

******************Harry's Room*************************
(A/N this part of the chapter seems to go well with "when I'm gone" by Three Doors Down)
3am

Harry, was tossing and turning in his sleep, He had listened to Dumbledore try to explain that it wasn't his fault but he still woke up with images of Hermione and Sirius, dead or dying. Finally he gave up on trying to sleep, lit a soft lamp, much to Hedwig's disgust, and started reading the Quiddich strategy book that Hermione had given him for his birthday. Almost as if the act were a summoning charm, Harry heard a soft knock on his door, "come in."

Hermione walked in, she was in her pajamas, a pair of plaid, flannel, sleep pants and a short t-shirt, and Harry's stomach gave a brief flop. It was obvious, from the condition of her hair if nothing else that she too had tried to sleep and failed, Harry was afraid that he was the reason. She walked over to the bed where he was reading and plopped down on it, sitting cross-legged facing him.

"Hey Harry" Damn he's in poor shape I hate those people, it's obvious he's been having nightmares since Sirius and Ron or I...haven't been there for him "Like the book?" She asked softly.

"Yeah"

"You're not up because you want to read."

"Yes I'...." Harry ran his hand through his already messy black hair, it was a nervous habit he had acquired over years of stress, looking up he caught a pair of chocolate eyes, "no" damn I can't lie to her, never could really, Ron yeah no problem, but not her.

He never could lie to me, "Tell me."

"It's Sirius, I see him dying every time I close my eyes, then, I..." he broke off, doggedly not meeting her eyes, he can't stand to tell the rest, however the choice is soon taken away from him.

"Harry?" She asked resolutely, her tone not booking an evasion.

"It's you, the nightmares always end with you falling to Dolohov's curse, and your laying there. That day, I froze, I have faced Voldemort face to face, and herds of Death Eaters, but when you were laying there, I just couldn't think I couldn't do anything, I was so scared, and it keeps coming back, dammit." Harry softly growled and broke into tears.

Hermione on the other hand, felt her stomach do a flip. She gathered him into her arms and held him against her shoulder as he cried. He couldn't function when he thought I was hurt? "It's ok Harry," she cooed softly rocking him back and forth. It's probably about time he let it out, I'm sure it was probably worth more than his life was worth to breakdown at the Dursleys, damn them, and damn Dumbledore for making him go to that hellhole. At that point Remus who had heard something, he was a werewolf after all, peeked in the cracked door. He caught Hermione's eye and with a quick headshake from her, he nodded and silently closed the door all the way.

Harry finally stopped crying but he didn't pull away, "there's more," he said quietly. He didn't want to say this to anyone, especially not to her, but at the same time he did. "I know the prophecy, Mione. I have to become a killer or die myself, there's no other way."

"What" she replied softly though she had heard the first time. Can't the universe just leave him alone for one damn minute?

"Dumbledore knew it, he was the one that had made the recording, he heard it one night while interviewing a divination professor, why do you think Trelwany has a job? Its not because she's a good teacher, hell, Mione you knew that in 3rd year. It's to keep her from Voldemort." Harry said with a grim smile, his thoughts flashing back to memories of viewing Dumbledore's Pensive a little over a month ago.

"What does it say?" Though she already knew somehow.

"The one with the power to vanquish the dark lord approaches... Born to those
who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...And the Dark Lord
will mark him as his equal, But he will have power that the Dark Lord knows not....
And either must die at the hand of the other, for neither can live while the other
survives...The one with the power to vanquish that Dark Lord will be born
As the seventh month dies....I've heard Trelwany give that prophecy every night since I heard it in Dumbledore's office when we got back. I can't do it, Mione, I can't become like them, I'd lose my soul, I'd loose you and Ron and the rest of the Weasleys, and I don't think I could live if I lost all of you in defeating him." Harry replied softly tears once again streaming down his cheeks. "Hermione can you do me a favor?"

"Anything"

"Can you go with me to the reading of Sirius's will tomorrow, please I..."

"Sure" Harry nestled back into her shoulder and she continued rocking him softly back and forth until he finally fell to sleep against her. Great, I don't want to move and wake him up, not now. She gently eased him down, all the while retaining contact, and held him while he slept, until almost dawn when she finally slipped out to her room across the hall.

******************Ministry of Magic**************************

August 1, 2004
9am

Harry, Hermione, Dumbledore, and Remus climbed out of another of the Ministry's SUVs. Instead of the visitor's entrance, they now entered though a secret underground combination parking garage and stable. Various cars, trucks and SUVs were parked next to stalls containing winged horses, and hippogriffs and other magical steeds. Over to one side where a bicycle rack would be in a muggle parking garage, a rack for brooms was mounted on the wall.

The quartet entered the atrium from a side door, but since they are not there for a disciplinary hearing this time, no one had to submit their wands for inspection. There were still signs of rebuilding in the atrium from the battle a little over a month ago. The original statue of a witch, wizard, goblin, house-elf and centaur was gone, replaced with a simple golden plinth from which water cascaded out the tip. Unlike Harry and Hermione's last visit, there were plenty of people around and nary a Death Eater in sight. However it was not only Harry who had dark memories of this place, as they entered the atrium, Hermione grabbed Harry's arm tightly and they stayed like that until they reached the lifts. "Our meeting's on the 5th floor Harry" Dumbledore said as he led them to the lift. They exited on the fifth floor and proceed to a conference room at the end. Hermione toke a seat close to Harry, close but not quite touching.

Dumbledore saw this and then caught Lupin's attention. Someday you two. Dumbledore thought with a mixture of hope and more than a little humor, Lupin for his part just gave a tiny shrug.

A blond-thirty-something witch came in and handed Dumbledore a file folder. "Thank you Andrea." He said and turned to Harry. "Harry, as I am once again Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, I will read the will, ok?" Harry just nodded, however under the table his hand found Hermione's, she grabbed it for mutual support. "Harry, after Sirius escaped from Azkaban and you two saved him, he contacted me and had his will changed. At one time a portion would have gone to Bellatrix and Narcissa, his will before he went to Azkaban had not been changed since he was your age. I will just read the disbursements. First, Sirius wills a sum of 100,000 galleons to Hogwarts to set up a scholarship for wizards from muggle homes, with the comment that he probably owes it to the school somehow or another." Dumbledore rolled his eyes for a second at the comment and Harry cracked a small smile thinking of the chaos the original Marauders caused. Lupin for his part just looked pleased. "For Remus Lupin, my dear friend, and if you are reading this the last of the true Marauders I leave the sum of 100,000 galleons, that should keep you in flea collars for a while."

"You too mate." Remus muttered.

Dumbledore continued, "To The Order of the Phoenix, I leave the sum of 500,000 galleons to destroy the blight on the world that is Tom Riddle and his followers. These funds will have been transferred on my death to a separate vault at Gringorts. The control of these funds are to reside in the hands of Albus Dumbledore, or in the case of his death or incapacitation in the hands of my godson Harry Potter." Harry and Hermione's eyes got big at the last, actually they had been growing steadily through the will reading but they still hadn't heard it all. "For the friends of my Godson, and the people who helped ensure my freedom, I leave the sum of 10,000 galleons each to Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley. These funds are not to be awarded until their graduation or expulsion from Hogwarts, and Hermione if you are here, don't tell Ron." Hermione's jaw dropped at the comment and she stared at Dumbledore. "Hermione I just witnessed his will at the time, I have no idea how he knew you would be here. I'm glad I could say that with a straight face. "Finally, I Sirius Black, leave the balance of my estate to my godson Harry Potter including the remainder of the Black monies and properties, the Grimmauld Place manor and my motorbike and car, with the proviso that the Order be allowed to continue to use the manor as their headquarters."

Harry looked stunned, the funds for Hermione and Ron had been shocking enough especially the comment about her being here, but the last was entirely too much. Harry looked Dumbledore in the eye and just sat there.

"Harry" Dumbledore said quietly, "minus the other disbursements, the Black fortune is around 10,000,000 galleons at least, actually that's just what's in cash assets, the real assets including investments and properties is much, much more and it grows at a decent clip every year."

"HUH!" Exclaimed Harry, his face growing heated. Then more calmly after a deep breath, "Professor, Remus, could I talk to Hermione in private for a second."

"Yes Harry, but be quick, we need to return to Grimmauld place soon." Dumbledore replied, as he got up and with a nod to Lupin, the two elder wizards left the room, and quietly shut the door,

Harry nodded to the departed Dumbledore, talking Hermione's hands in his; he looked her square in the face. "Mione, I needed to ask you a favor in private."

"Yes Harry"

"Don't tell Ron, some things I can't hide, from him such as Grimmauld Place, after all he's living there, and I know Sirius didn't want Ron to know about his gift until he graduated, but I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell him about the money, he gets weird about that stuff."

"Sure Harry." Ron can just get over it, it's not your fault, after all like you wanted your parents and then Sirius to die, I wish that he'd think about just what you paid for that fortune buried under Diagon Alley.

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Chapter 3, The Lion Reborn
***********************Somewhere in England*************************
August 2, 2004
5am

Dumbledore had came and awoken Harry early that morning. Harry woke with a start, reaching for his wand, only to stop when he realized who was in the room. He had slept though the night, though for some reason he had dreamed that Hermione had came in the room last night and talked softly to Hedwig while watching him for a moment, but that was silly wasn't it? After all he had kept her up all night yesterday. Hedwig did hoot now, indignant at being woke up early, or was it for being woke up again? As dawn cracked though the panes of the windows, Dumbledore and Harry crept out of the room, he could see into Hermione's room, which was across the hall from his, through the slightly propped door. Glancing in, he saw a pillow covered in a familiar fall of honey-brown curls with a huge ginger cat tucked next to her. A feeling of relief flooded his thoughts. She's asleep; so it was a dream, good she should sleep, not check up on poor Harry!

Though the veil of her hair, Hermione watched Harry and Dumbledore walk past the partially open door, she caught Harry glance into her room as he passed, then saw him visibly relax as he thought he saw her sleeping. Stupid boy, he's enough to worry about with out worrying if I'm asleep. He's gone now, I guess I'll kip off for a second, the dreams shouldn't come in the day should they?...good luck, Harry. She finally fell asleep on her bed, which like Ron's was more or less a copy of the one in Harry's room. Crookshanks curled up closer to her and dropped off too.

Dumbledore and Harry snuck down the stairs, thankfully without having to worry about the portrait of Sirius's mother to scream at them. After Sirius had died, Kreacher had removed the family tree tapestry and the portrait and disappeared. No one knew what had happened to him, nor did anyone care, not even Hermione. Even her feelings of injustice towards how house elves had been treated historically, had not extended to Kreacher once she had found out that he had helped lead Sirius to his death. Harry was actually slightly relieved, as he feared that he would have killed the house elf the moment he saw him for his part in Sirius's death.

Harry and Dumbledore reached the kitchen and stepped inside. Even Molly was not up yet, though Harry figured that she soon would awake to start breakfast for the various occupants of the house. Harry slightly bumped the old oak table in the center of the kitchen and repressed a slight curse; he doesn't want to wake anyone. He was hungry but far too nervous to eat right now.

"Here Harry" Dumbledore whispered holding out a shiny rock he had taken from his pocket. "A port key to where we are going, since you aren't to apparate yet." Harry reached out and touched the rock with a finger. He felt the familiar snap-tug and the feeling of being in several places at once and then they were there. But where are they? Harry and Dumbledore had appeared in a large clearing in a wood. Over to one side there appeared to be some sort of obstacle course, on the other a set of target stands. Several round sand pits were spread out throughout the clearing. Harry saw all of this in the pre-dawn light; the sun was just starting to clear the edge of the trees to the east.

In the distance standing at the edge of one of the sand pits, Harry witnessed a figure in a dark cloak. His cloak was billowing in the slight breeze, and he was standing oddly though it seemed familiar somehow. The person was turned away from them so his face is not visible. Dumbledore started towards him and Harry followed, it was so quiet that Harry could hear the soft swish of the grass against their pant legs. The figure turned and with a slight shock Harry now recognized him, it was Alastor Moody, he was dressed differently than Harry had seen him before, under the black cloak that Harry had seen from behind, he was wearing black cargo pants, and a black sweater. Absently Harry noticed that the cloak was fastened with a clasp emblazoned with a Phoenix.

"Alastor?" Harry asked slightly confused.

"Aye lad, I guess you know why you are here?" Moody asked, his eye spinning around and looking into the woods as if he expected the deer to attack any second. As he started to pace back and forth, his real eye stayed pointed forward, however his magical eye stayed pointed at Harry, regardless of the direction he was pointing at the time. "Harry, you know that you are here to start combat training, where you are right now is the main outdoor training site for the Auror field division. Over the hill are more training facilities. Fortunately, since Arthur Weasley now runs the Ministry, we are able to use these facilities and others. Unfortunately, I basically have to try to stuff a complete Auror training regimen, plus any additional skills that Albus here thinks you need into your head as soon as possible. I feel that we may have a decent amount of time before Voldemort is ready to strike again. You six did good lad, but you could have done better, that's not to criticize, just a fact. I am here to fix that. I will teach you what I know, along with Albus here, Remus and Nymphadora. "Follow so far"

"Yes" Harry replied though he wasn't sure about this, he knew that it was necessary. "Well I did want to be an Auror..."

"That's the spirit lad. This morning you are mine." As Alastor said this, Dumbledore disappeared silently, the wind whistling though were he had been just a second ago. "I am an old Auror lad, and I became an old Auror, because I used what I had to stay alive. In the end what is important is that you get home to your family, anything that gets in the way of that deserves what it gets, its cold but it's true."

Harry gulped hard at that statement. It had disturbingly mirrored the fear that he had expressed to Hermione the night before. Alastor saw his expression, nodded and went on determinedly. "I'm sorry Harry but it's the truth. In the end it's them or us and I'd much rather you win than spend the rest of my days running from Death Eaters, and hoping that they didn't find where I had hid my family. If Voldemort wins, than we all fall Harry, we fought twenty years ago and we fight now, to prevent that future."

"Mad-eye, I..."

"Like I said lad, I believe in using what you have to survive so today, we begin with..." He waved his wand and two wooden bokken appeared. "Harry the full blown personal combat training for Aurors usually begins with hand to hand and progresses to various magic and muggle weapons along with combat magic, tracking, concealment and other skills, thankfully you don't have to learn the paperwork until you actually start taking the Ministry's knut." Moody gave a short chuckle at his own joke. "However, since Lupin's time of the month is soon, I'll start you with the sword, as he will be your hand to hand teacher along with various other things." He tossed one of the wooden swords to Harry, who caught it one handed by the hilt. Moody started to turn away, then snapped the training blade at Harry's head. Who caught it on his sword without a thought. "Good reflexes son."

Over the next several hours Moody in turns showed Harry proper strikes and blocks with the sword. Harry practiced them alone, with Moody occasionally engaging with a random strike, that more often than not Harry blocked, not always well but he usually managed to defeat the strike to a degree at least, out of perhaps fifty or so attempts, Moody only succeeded in landing five or so.

At noon, Albus Dumbledore reappeared, and strode over to Mad-Eye where he stood observing Harry. Dumbledore watched Harry practicing a combination and whispered to Moody out of the side of his mouth. "So?" he asked as the crack of the wooden sword on a target rang out.

"Off hand I would say that you are right Albus. He has skills that there is no other way for him to have. It's like he has the reflexes, but has yet to integrate them with his body." Moody replied perplexed.

"I had inklings in his 2nd year, when he was able to wield the sword at all." Dumbledore muttered, "You know his bloodline Alastor." Dumbledore replied mysteriously but Moody just nodded as if he understood all along what Dumbledore was saying. "Get out of here Alastor, I'll take him for the rest of the day."

Moody disappeared with a crack and a faint puff of smoke. Dumbledore walked over to the sand ring where Harry was still practicing strikes with the wooden sword. Alastor is right, he does have the skills, but is it him, the prophecy never said anything about them, but if it were, it would explain much over the years. Harry's hair was for once not standing up, it was plastered to his head with sweat, and the t-shirt he had on was discolored. "Harry, that's good come on over here."

Harry looked up, he had been in a zone, "Where's Mad-Eye?" He asked just having noticed his departure.

"He left, I'll be instructing you for the rest of the afternoon." Dumbledore waved his hand and Harry's wooden sword vanished. "You won't be needing that for the afternoon, Harry, just your wand." In turn Dumbledore pointed his wand at the grass and a picnic table appeared complete with a pitcher of water, a pair of glasses, and a pile of sandwiches. "Lets eat." Dumbledore pronounced and grabbing a turkey sandwich he followed his own advice.

"That was interesting this morning, Professor, I mean with Mad-Eye and all, I've never picked up a sword, except the Gryffindor sword in the Chamber, but it felt natural." Harry shrugged and took a drink of water.

"Yes Harry, it was. Have you actually ever followed Miss Granger's advice and read Hogwarts, a History?" Dumbledore asked a slight twinkle in his eye, for the first time in a long time.

"I...no not really, I mean Hermione has it memorized and she's always there...." Harry replied thrown by the abrupt change in topic.

I sure she is Harry, "Then let me tell you a story, about Hogwarts, and the 4 that founded it." Dumbledore asked taking another bite of his sandwich. And without waiting for a reply he began his tale. "1000 years ago, this was right after Merlin disappeared mind you, the four greatest remaining wizards in the world decided to found a school to teach young wizards about their powers and for at least some of the four the responsibilities that went with them."

"Professor, I've heard..."Harry put in a little sheepishly.

Dumbledore just looked back at him and continued with a little smile, "Yes Harry I'm sure you have been awake for at least part of the welcoming speeches. Anyway these four, Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff and Salazar Slytherin founded the houses, and you know the rhyme as well as I do, however what is not related in the stories are their reasons for founding the school and their relations to one another. Godric and Salazar were both great warriors and wizards; both were very intelligent, with skills beyond those of any wizard except the other two founders. Rowena was as exemplified in her house, uncannily intelligent and also highly skilled. She too became a warrior in the end but reluctantly. She was loyal beyond any measure to Godric, and in the end they were married. Helga was peaceful beyond measure and never did follow the warriors road of the other three, however it was her who helped Rowena recover after their fateful final battle before the four founded Hogwarts. It was that battle that convinced them to found the school, they had finally ended the reign of a cabal of dark wizards that had taken it on themselves to find magical children and twist them to their needs. The four bonded in the battle and the chaos that followed and the next year, the great castle of Hogwarts appeared overnight and Owls flew with the dawn to deliver the first letters to Families.

One of the marks of the four was that all of them could use wandless magic with relative ease. A further mark was bestowed on at least three of the founders and may have been what finally lead to the spilt at least in part. As you know all too well Harry, it was Salazar that created the Chamber."

Harry just nodded shakily, as the reminder of the year threw images of Ginny laying in front of a young Riddle and a petrified Hermione across his mind. A chill wind blew across the grounds or maybe it was his imagination.

Dumbledore continued his story, "The great fight that spilt the houses came about because of the chamber. Salazar confronted Rowena and Godric in the Great Hall; they wanted to destroy the chamber as they thought it evil, it is said that during the argument he became so angry and so infused with the magic that he commanded that his eyes began to glow a bright red. At the start of this argument, the students were assembled in the great hall, but when the argument broke out Helga took all of the students from the hall in the greatest recorded mass apparition ever, so other accounts are absent, the only known record was a partial diary entry from Rowena recovered after her death. It was after the spilt that the current wards were put into place of course.

"Professor, an argument caused the splitting of the houses, wouldn't that seem extreme?" Harry interjected.

"I don't know Harry, would beating Draco until he couldn't stand, seem extreme for insulting your mother because he was trying to get under your skin after a Quiddich match?" Dumbledore asked with a raised eyebrow, after a moment he went on, his point made. Harry for his part was quiet, he knew now how stupid he had been to get his "lifetime" ban from Umbridge, but it had seemed like a good idea at the time. "Of course I call it an argument because that's how Rowena referred to it in her diary, this argument resulted in the partial collapse of the Great Hall and the toppling of Ravenclaw tower. The great argument as it's referred to in the History resulted in the Chamber being hidden, and the near deaths of Rowena and Godric. Salazar is said to have just left in most accounts, but some count him as destroyed following that discussion."

"Professor, I don't mean to be dense, but what does this have to do with me?" Harry asked even more confused.

"Just think about what I have said, it will have bearing on you in the future, remember that even the best initial intentions and goals can be twisted to ends that their owners would never imagine." Dumbledore stood and walked to the targets, Harry following, "Now Harry, lets try to hit those targets with stunners, but," with a raised finger, "Without saying the incantation, the spell is more powerful with the verbalization, however as I'm sure you remember from your trip to the Ministry, spells can be still dangerous if only the thought is used. It's best to use the incantation if possible, however there are times silence is necessary, or unavoidable."

Ok, I'll try I guess Harry thought doubtfully, he pointed his wand at steel gong target down range, STUPEFY, STUPEFY, but nothing really happened except some bright sparks from the end of his wand. Harry looked at the end of his wand and shrugged, he didn't think he could cast the spell without at least muttering it. Dumbledore however just smiled and waved casually at the target. Harry sighed and a bird perched on top of the gong, obviously feeling perfectly safe. Seeing Dumbledore looking at him, but not expecting anything, Harry casually pointed his wand at the gong, oh well, stupefy. This time was different however, a red bolt shot out of the end of his wand, slamming the gong hard. It rang loudly and sent the poor bird into a panicked flight. What, how'd I...

"Very good, Harry, I too have found that the non verbal incantations often work best when you relax and let the magic flow, now practice this for a while." Dumbledore said with a smile, meanwhile the scared bird shakily perched on a tree several dozen yards away.

Harry practiced the stunner for an hour, until Dumbledore was satisfied; the only sound the slight snap of the red stunner bolt and the repeated ringing of the gong. After that they progressed to shield charms and later still to some minor transfiguration, all without saying a word.

************************12 Grimmauld Place******************************

3pm

Hermione was sitting in one of the parlor's collection of overstuffed chairs. The enchanted fire still glowed green from where Lupin had escorted Ron and Ginny to the burrow to get some things from home. Hermione for her part had gotten up at noon, since she hadn't gotten to sleep until six or thereabouts. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, at which Crookshanks would bat occasionally, from his back of the chair perch.

I'm glad Ginny covered for me with Molly, telling her that I didn't feel well this morning. At least I was right and my nightmares didn't come in the daytime. I hope Harry is being ok. Ron was looking at me weirdly when I got up this afternoon; I guess he didn't buy my excuse. I didn't tell him why I slept in; I have this odd feeling that he would take it badly.

At least Harry slept though the night, I thought just for a second, that he woke up and saw me talking to Hedwig, but it was my imagination I guess. I hope he can sleep once he gets back to school, I know Ron will and Neville will be ok, but I'm afraid that Dean and Seamus may have problems with Harry waking up screaming, but I know that it wouldn't be the first time, so he should probably be ok.

Now, Pavarti and Lavender may have issues with my nightmares, though. She finished the thought grimily.

Hermione opened the huge book on her lap, she had read Hogwarts, A History innumerable times, but she always seemed to find something new in it. Maybe the book is enchanted. This time was no exception. Opening the book to the table of contents, she saw a chapter titled: The Background and the Foundation of the School and Its Spilt into Four Houses. That's weird I don't remember that chapter. She turned to the chapter and began to read: The founders of Hogwarts were a varied cast, Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin were great wizard warriors with knowledge and skills beyond any others at that time, besides the two other founders. They are recorded as having fought several dark wizards in the years predating the founding of the school. Rowena Ravenclaw was also a warrior among many other occupations, however in her case it was destiny and not choice that led her down that road. Her preferred occupation was that of scholar but fate had other designs. She was almost pernaturally intelligent and was skilled at almost every facet of magic. Helga Hufflepuff on the other hand, was extremely pacifistic, and even when confronted would not give resistance. She was a healer, and discovered several cures to curses that are still in use.

Interesting, but I've read this before.

The foundation of Hogwarts was undertaken as a response to events that overtook the four friends in the year 1002 A.D. That year, a cabal of dark wizards set upon Rowena in a mountain village near her home. The reasons for the attack upon her have been lost in the ages, however the results are known. Rowena was captured early in the attack and it was only through the actions of her familiar that she was saved. The familiar, a kneazle, ran for a complete day until it had found Salazar and Godric in a tavern in a neighboring village. Godric, who knew Rowena quite well, knew the kneazle would not have left her of it's own free will. Grabbing the cat, both of them apparated to Rowena's village and there found a scene of horror. They found Rowena tied to a stake, obviously having been tortured with what was perhaps the first recorded usage of the Cruciatus curse, they also found why Rowena, who was their equal, had been taken so easily. The dark wizards had gathered a group of magical children, trained them and used them against Rowena. She had been unwilling to fight children and so had fallen. Together, Godric and Salazar were able to stun the children, and summoning Helga to help Rowena, the two friends went to find the lair of the Dark Wizards, and vanquished them.

In the aftermath of the battle, after Rowena had been fully healed by Godric and Helga, the four resolved to found a school were magical children would be taught to prevent this occurrence from happening again.

And a Great Castle appeared and the owls went out the next day, blah, blah, Hermione thought sarcastically and went to the end of the chapter

This is new though

The school coexisted with itself for almost 20 years, each of the four founders established a house that exemplified his or her ideal quality and accepted students into that house based on those qualities: Courage, Intelligence, Cunning, and Acceptance of all. From the beginning, Salazar had only taken purebloods into his house, and for the most part this is still the case for Slytherin House. The other three houses accepted any parentage, and still do so to this day, providing they fit the criterion of the house. The infamous split began during a meal, when Godric confronted Salazar about the Chamber of Secrets he had created under the school, Godric stated that the chamber was evil in its purpose, that to someday "purify" the school of Muggle-Bornes and Half-bloods. It is thought by some, that the original means of "Purification" was not the death that the chamber came to represent when He-Who-Should-Not-Be-Named opened the chamber, in the 1950's, but a means of magically removing and barring the non-purebloods from Hogwarts. Upon the accusation, Salazar stood and was reportedly channeling so much magic that his eyes glowed red. From that point only supposition about the spilt is known, due to the fact that Helga removed all of the students in a mass apparition. None of the participants ever related their experiences in the argument, only the results are known, at the end of the argument, the great hall was partially collapsed, and the Ravenclaw dorm tower had collapsed. In 1974, the wizard archeologist, Henry Jones, found what was believed to be a diary of Rowena buried near Hogsmeade, in which partial accounts of the "argument" were discussed. In it, it was stated that after the students had left, Godric began unconsciously using magic to a degree as great as Salazar, to a point at which his eyes glowed also, but a blue as a counterpoint to the red of Salazar. Rowena also stated in the diary fragment, that she was told after the "argument", by Godric that her eyes had matched his after Ravenclaw tower fell. As only one source, and that a fragment of unknown veracity, this example of magical alteration of the eyes is unconfirmed, but is entirely possible as other well documented cases of this phenomenon are known. It should be stated however, in both of those known cases, the participant's eyes were seen to glow white, not the pure colors described herein. See Dumbledore, Albus (Grindelwald duel) and Merlin (various examples).

Regardless of the particulars of the battle or of the magical alterations of the participants, the results are known. After that disagreement, Salazar Slytherin either left the school or was dead; accounts vary as to this result.

That was cool, I never knew Dumbledore's eyes could glow like that, I'd read the Merlin accounts of course. Hermione thought briefly then as she heard a soft POP she looked up and saw Harry and Dumbledore standing in the parlor. She jumped up, greatly upsetting Crookshanks who plopped to the floor glaring at both her and Harry in turn. She looked Harry over quickly, with a hidden touch of worry, and he looks tired, not sad or hurt or anything just tired, as if he has just played several Quiddich matches in a row. "Harry, how are you, how did it go?" She queried a little too excitedly.

Harry winced a little at Hermione's exuberance, but smiled wearily at her none-the-less, I wish she would stop worrying about me so much, crossed his mind randomly. "I'm fine Mione, I'm going to go take a shower and come back down ok?" Harry asked, trying to put off questions for now. But since it was Hermione, he knew that in the end he would tell her everything about today, but first he really needed a shower.

"Oh, Ok Harry" Hermione replied as Harry gave a small wave and headed towards the stairs and his room. She turned to Dumbledore, and with a sudden glare worthy of McGonagall she asked, "A little tough on him for the first day?"

Dumbledore at 6'5 and being one of the most powerful wizards in the world, still winced a little too, at facing a 5'9'' 15 year old girl, though unlike Harry, he had been married and had had 153 years to practice a straight face. He replied therefore in a reasonable tone. "Hermione, I am sorry that I tired him out, but I'm afraid that the training will get more difficult before it gets easier." She was more respectful of authority when she was younger; I guess Harry has corrupted her. He thought wistfully, remembering an eleven-year-old girl who wouldn't dare challenge authority.

"I'm sorry, Professor", Hermione sighed, "it's just that he's been through so much recently." As she flashed back to the first night that Harry had been back in his true home.

"Yes and as you reminded me, rather forcefully as I recall last month, much of that is my fault, and I am sorry for that, Hermione, but alas my guilt does not change what must be done. You and Harry and the rest have delayed Riddle, but he or his followers will not rest forever." Dumbledore said evenly, though inside he was already cringing at what he knew would be coming in the months and years ahead.

Hermione blushed a bit at the reminder of her tantrum of July, but she pressed on, "Then when are you going to start me...and the others in more advanced training." She replied, with a peevish tone to her voice. She had asked to start when she found out about Harry's advanced training. Dumbledore had prevaricated trying to not to answer, though he knew that he would soon have to start with the rest also. He had briefly tried to keep the training a secret from Hermione and Harry's other friends, but had realized rather quickly that a) Harry would probably tell her right away, unless Dumbledore forced Harry to promise not to, and b) that as they had learned last year, it was hard to keep anything secret from a group of very bright young adults, who were collectively as stubborn as a herd of mules.

"Honestly, Hermione I don't know, I'm sure that as soon as I turn my back, Harry will start teaching you and your friends any magic that I have taught him, but there are other things that he has yet to learn. Also some of the more...physical training, I'm afraid that none of you except Harry is ready for yet, or at least that we are ready to teach yet, I'm afraid. However as to the magical arts, what Harry does not show you..." Hermione interrupted Dumbledore impatiently.

"You will show us, don't worry Professor, I believe that Harry has only told me that you are taking over the DADA position. What about the DA?" She asked hopefully.

"I believe that it should continue Hermione, after all you can only get so much from class and homework, even mine, I feel that such outstanding individuals such as your self and Harry in this topic after all your OWL scores were out...wait forgive an old man I'm babbling" Dumbledore broke off with a grin.

"PROFESSOR," Hermione yelped, "That's no fair, what did we get, you aren't going to make us wait now. And by the way, I've known you for almost six years, you don't' babble." She finished with a pout.

Dumbledore grinned and glancing up the stairs he leaned close and whispered back, "Fine, I don't want to ruin the surprise for Harry, but all of the members of the DA achieved Os on their OWLs in DADA, and in fact two students tied the old record, with perfects on both the written and practical and gaining the optional bonus points to get O+s" he paused still smiling.

Hermione's eyes grew wide, "Who Professor," she asked in an urgent whisper, "Was it Harry and?"

"You Hermione," Dumbledore finished for her and answered her question at the same time. He continued to her shocked face, not for Harry, he knew but that she had achieved the score as well. "Yes, both of you, Harry received a perfect on the written, with a perfect with optional bonus points on the practical, while you received a perfect on the practical with a perfect and bonus points on the written. In fact yours was so good it was almost in dispute, one of the examiners grading it later came up to me and asked if you had written the book. They couldn't believe that you remembered everything that could have been brought up; even Harry's wasn't as complete.

Hermione blushed again at the complement and muttered, "Harry does tend to forget things when he's rushed."

"Indeed, a trait that I hope you will help correct in DADA this year" Dumbledore said with a grin, as Hermione nodded vigorously, I almost feel sorry for Harry. "Remember don't tell him yet. I have something to do tonight, please inform Molly that I won't be at supper, but I might make it in late this evening I don't know as of yet." And with a final nod he disappeared.

Harry comes down the stairs a moment later, and seeing Dumbledore gone he asks, "Where's Dumbledore?"

"Oh he said that he had to go do something."

"What were you two taking about?" Harry asked. He felt slightly nervous but he did not know why.

"Oh stuff," Hermione, replied, "What did you learn today?"

Harry smiled, his nervousness forgotten as he started showing Hermione the silent incantation techniques that he had learned from Dumbledore. However to Crookshanks great relief, they tried the Wingarum Leviosa spell instead of the stunner that Harry had first practiced today. As Crookshanks floated by, mewing softly, victim of a silent levitation spell, Harry's thoughts flashed back to a mousy-haired know it all that had been the first to master that spell in Flitwick's class six years ago. God, she's grown up. As another of the random thoughts that had plagued him since his and his friends' return to Grimmauld place crossed his mind.

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Chapter 4, Ow, OWLS.
**************12 Grimmauld Place, Hermione's Room***************

August 5, 2004

The sun streamed into Harry's eyes, waking him from a deep dreamless sleep; once again he had slept though most of the night. Though the reason was more likely shear exhaustion rather than him getting over the nightmares, it was just that with his current schedule he didn't have time for them. However, he had made a grim discovery last night before one am, as he found out to his horror that he was not the only one who had trouble sleeping. As he had lain in bed, finishing some material that Dumbledore had given him to study, he heard a soft moan from across the hall. He had slipped into Hermione's room only to find her tossing in her dreams, muttering something about the purple flame that Dolohov had used on her at the Ministry. Harry stroked her hair and calmed her down until she quieted.

Unknown to either, Lupin had wandered by once again, and on seeing the two through the open door, just smiled, shook his head and stalked silently away.

Harry had fallen to sleep holding her, he had a day off as he was not going to train today, so he tucked a stray lock of hair out of her eyes and slipped quietly back to his room across the hall.

As Harry came into the room, he saw a brown barn owl sitting on the windowsill, waiting patiently for him to open the window. Harry quickly crossed to the window, opened it and the owl hopped in and dropped three letters in his hands, wheeled around and left in a flutter of feathers. Harry picked up the letters, on top was one addressed to him:
Harry James Potter

Opening it he saw:

Enclosed are your OWL results, please owl Albus Dumbledore or myself with any questions that you may have.

Minerva McGonagall

Assistant Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Head of Gryffindor House

Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Written O
Practical O+
Average O+

An O+ is that even possible, I...damn that's cool.

Transfiguration
Written O
Practical O
Average O

Charms
Written O
Practical O
Average O

Potions
Written O
Practical O
Average O

OH MY God, I got an O in potions?

Care of Magical Creatures
Written O
Practical O
Average O

Herbology
Written O
Practical E
Average O

Divination
Written E
Practical A
Average E

History of Magic
Written A
Practical-none
Average -A

Astronomy
Written E
Practical -N/A: all practical results were declared null and void due to unforeseen circumstances
Average E

Congratulations, on 8/9 OWLs Mr. Potter. I will be happy to arrange for your Auror training should you still choose that path.

Cool I got an O on everything that I'd need to be an Auror, Snape is going to SHIT! Harry thought gleefully, then suddenly with sudden realization, Oh shit I have Snape for two more years.

"Harry" he turned and saw Hermione standing in the door, she had just gotten up from her bed across the hall, and had wandered over to his room, as the door was still open. She closed it softly as she came inside.

Looks like I got up just in time. "Hey Mione." Damn she looks cute in her pajamas, what...dammit, down boy that's Mione. A different voice replied to his inner dialogue. Really, I hadn't noticed.

Thanks Harry, you didn't get away as fast as you thought, thank you but I wish I hadn't burdened you with my problems. "What do you have there Harry?" She asked curiously.

Harry looked at her and one corner of his mouth twitched upward. Should I tease her, nah I want to live "Oh just OWL results."

"WHAT, Harry... how did you do, wait how did I do?" Hermione rambled back, Hedwig rustled at this disturbance and fluttered over to Hermione, landing on her shoulder she looked reprovingly at Hermione from about four inches away.

"I don't know, I haven't opened yours Mione" Harry replied with an outright grin holding out her results in his hands.

"Damn you Harry James Potter, I...ah hell, open it for me Harry, I can't" She finished almost whining, Hermione dropped her eyes from him and nervously petted Hedwig. Outside the sun has fully risen; soon the rest of the house will probably wake up, except for probably Ron who may require a water spell. Hermione stopped petting a Hedwig a second, "Harry can I see yours, you don't have to..."

Harry just handed his to her without quibbling, and while she was reading it he opened hers and began to read:

Hermione Jane Granger
Enclosed are your OWL results, please owl Albus Dumbledore or myself with any questions that you may have.

Minerva McGonagall
Assistant Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Head of Gryffindor House

Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Written O+
Practical O
Average O+

Another O+ WOW

Transfiguration
Written O
Practical O
Average O

Charms
Written O
Practical O
Average O

Potions
Written O
Practical O
Average O

You too huh, Mione, at least I won't be alone, not that there was any doubt.

Care of Magical Creatures
Written O
Practical O
Average O

Herbology
Written O
Practical O
Average O

Arthimancy
Written O
Practical N/A
Average O

Ancient Runes
Written O
Practical N/A
Average O

History of Magic
Written E
Practical N/A
Average E

Astronomy
Written O
Practical -N/A all practical results were declared null and void due to unforeseen circumstances
Average O

Congratulations, Miss Granger on 10/10 OWLs. I will be happy to arrange for your Auror training should you still choose that path.

Damn, Hermione you got near perfect scores, It's good to know that you're not perfect though. You wanted to be an Auror too? As he thought this...

"HARRY, I'm so proud of you a O+ on DADA, and you made all O's on everything to be an Auror." Hermione looked at him with pride in her eyes, and Harry's heart skipped a beat. He had never really noticed, not really that her eyes were almost even with his, and how the gold flecks in her eyes danced... Harry quickly glanced down at her OWLs.

"Well Hermione, I don't know how to tell you this..." Harry stopped as he saw her expression fall, he couldn't do this, not to her, Ron of course, but not her, not on this. "I'm sorry Mione, I couldn't resist, you aced them, including a O+ in DADA."

Hermione didn't say a word she just leaped forward and hugged Harry hard, as before Harry felt weirdly comfortable with her arms around him. He didn't say a word, but wrapped his arms around her, returning the hug. Only to jump back suddenly as a knock on his door rang though the room. Harry and Hermione exchanged a slightly guilty look and Harry called out, "come in."

"Oh there you are Hermione, dear," Molly said as she saw a Hermione in the room with Harry, "I was just looking for you, breakfast will be in a bit. What are those you have there?" Without a word, Harry and Hermione hand her their results. After she examined them for a second her face lights up, "I'm so proud of you Hermione, and you too Harry, I'm sure you two will make great Aurors with those scores. Are those Ron's?"
Harry just nodded, and handed them to her and she returned his and Hermione's to him. Molly turned to leave but as she walked out the door, she turned back to Harry, "Your parents would be proud Harry."

"Thanks Molly" Harry whispered to the door after she walked away. He turned back to Hermione, "What's with that E in History Miss Granger, sheesh?"

"What about you Mr. Potter you only got an A in that subject." She replied with a grin, then "Ohh I'm sorry Harry" as she remembered why, it was during the examination for that subject, that Harry had received Voldemort's vision that had ultimately led them to the Ministry on that fateful night when Sirius died.

Harry felt a brief pang, but "It's ok, Mione, we can't keep tiptoeing around trying not to hurt each other, or we'll end up going even more insane than we already are." Harry walked towards her, and grabbed her shoulders in his hands. Looking deep into her eyes, "Hermione, I'm not going to let them win", they both knew who them was quite well. "They win when we are too afraid of talking to each other because we may dredge up a bad memory. And I'm not going to let them win ok?" Hermione just nodded quietly, she now had tears in her eyes, and Harry was the one who dragged her into a hug this time.

They were once again interrupted, and Hermione jumped back this time as Ron ambled into the room without knocking, looking still asleep, "hey guys."

Harry and Hermione shared a look that neither knew the meaning of, and both of them turned as one to Ron. "Morning, Ron" Harry said as Ron finally looked up at them.

Ron noticed the parchments in Harry's hand and suddenly turned a slight shade of green. "Harry are those the OWL results?" He asked with a sense of foreboding.

"Yeah mate, they showed up this morning." Harry responded easily.

"Where's mine" Ron asked slowly.

Hermione looked at Ron with an evil glint in her eye, "Oh your mum already took yours."

"OHH Bugger, what did you two get?" He asked hoping by some miracle that Harry's at least had something he could compete with, but his hopes were soon dashed.

"Oh I got an 8/9, Ron" Harry replied casually, he didn't know why Hermione was playing with Ron, but he was going along.

Hermione smiled sweetly, "I got a 10/10 Ron" Take that Ron, you were the one who talked me out of talking to Harry last year when he was suffering from Cedric's death.

"Ohh Bugger" Ron muttered and as if it were a signal...

"RONALD WEASLEY WERE ARE YOU, COME OUT HERE NOW!" Molly Weasley's dulcet tones rung out.

I'm glad we have an Imperturable charm on the house! Harry thought with a glance at where Ron was cowering. "Ron, mate if that were Voldemort I'd be right with ya."

"I know, wish me luck" Ron said grimly as he ducked out the door almost running over Ginny on her way in.

"Hey!" Ginny called out indignantly but Ron was already gone. Harry sat down on his bed and watched the red and gold lava lamp that was Hermione's contribution to the room decorations. Hermione sat down next to him and Ginny sat down on the couch facing them. "I assume from the yelling that your OWLs showed up and Ron didn't do so hot."

"Can't tell you Gin," Hermione responded with a shrug, "Molly grabbed Ron's results before anyone saw them."

"Oh he's fucking toast," Ginny replied with a grin.

"Ginny" Hermione replied as if the language shocked her.

"Oh you try growing up with six brothers, Hermione and see how your language is. Besides, I think I remember a certain prefect in this room saying a few words on occasion. What did you two get? Oh by the way, I'm a prefect too," Ginny replied matter of factly.

Hermione studiously ignored Harry's inquisitive look about the language comment, and replied to Ginny, "Congratulations Ginny, oh I got 10/10 and Harry got a 8/9."

As if in answer, Molly could be heard again. "RONALD BILBUS, WHAT IS THIS, YOU ONLY GOT 4 OWLS. I'M GLAD THAT ONE IS IN DEFENSE AS YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO DEFEND YOURSELF WHEN YOU ARE SLEEPING ON THE STREET BECAUSE YOU CAN'T GET A JOB!"

"Ouch" Harry said softly and the two girls just nodded. And Molly continued.

"A T IN HISTORY OF MAGIC"

"They really do issue a T" Hermione said with a sense of wonder.

"A D IN HERBOLOGY, I KNEW THAT YOU WERE USELESS IN THE GARDEN"

Ginny just nodded at this one.

"A D IN ASTRONOMY TOO? AND ONLY AN A IN POTIONS, THERE'S NO WAY FOR YOU TO GET INTO THAT CLASS NOW."

"He wanted to be an Auror too," Harry whispered to Hermione as she sat next to him on the red and gold bedspread. It shifted slightly as she turned back to him.

"Well maybe Dumbledore will let him into the class anyway, it has happened before." She said with a shrug, though inside she guiltily acknowledged that it would be easier on her if she only had to get Harry though two more of years of portions without any of them getting dead or worse expelled.

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Chapter 5 Diagon Alley showdown, and its not even Noon ********************Diagon Alley*********************
August 10, 2004
10am

With a whoosh, Harry arrived by Floo in the Leaky Caldron. The combination wizard pub/boarding house was sporadically populated, mostly with late risers. Tom the bartender/proprietor waved at Harry from the bar, and went back to serving several customers a late breakfast. Unfortunately, unlike when he was younger, a simple jaunt to Diagon Alley was now a major event, with members of the Order arriving ahead of time to verify the safety of the London wizarding center. Waiting on Harry were Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Remus and Tonks. Various other members of the Order were spread throughout the area, and Remus is carrying a parchment, signed by Arthur Weasley, that states that the underage wizards present are under his "training" so as to allow them to use their talents as a last resort if necessary.

"So where to, guys?" Tonks asked from where she had been talking to Lupin, rather happily to Harry's eye.

"Well I'd like to go to Fred and George's shop, they opened it after they left, school last year, but they've got Charlie and Bill watching it part time while they are at school this year." Ron replied with a smile at the thought of the shop that still annoyed his mother. It hadn't been enough to sidetrack his mother, with the fact that Fred and George had received only three owls each, but still had a successful business. That was mostly due to Fred and George's decision to return to Hogwarts for their final year. Privately Ron thought they had just came back to play out a final season of Quiddich now that their ban had been lifted. The infamous ban imposed by Delores Umbridge on Harry and the twins, had been revoked by Dumbledore the instant he returned to Hogwarts, but it had also been ruled invalid, as Division of Magical Games had ruled, that the "High Inquisitor" may have had the power to suspend them from playing at Hogwarts, only they could impose an actual ban.

"Me too," piped up Ginny, Molly had not relented to let her daughter go see Fred and George's yet.

"How about you Harry, Hermione?" Lupin asked, as he finished his tea, that he had gotten while waiting for them to show.

"I need to go to Gringorts, I can't keep wizard cash around at the Dursleys, Dudley steals it even though he cant spend it." Harry commented while thinking about the Galleons that have mysteriously gone missing over the years.

Hermione glanced at Harry, and put in, "I have to go exchange Pounds for Galleons. And I need some books as do you Harry."

"It's only August and you are already nagging Harry, Hermione" Ron said with a grin.

Hermione gave Ron her patent pending McGonagall Glare, "Ronald, I think that you are the last one here that should question why one should study." She replied softly, raising one eyebrow. Harry knew that the reason that he had eight owls and could apply for NEWT classes, so he could be an Auror had curly brown hair and was standing next to him. Inwardly he probably lent more towards her position than Ron's. However he didn't want to take sides, so he acted to break this familiar refrain up before it got started.

"Remus let's go ok?" Harry asked quietly to his ex-professor who had been standing next to Harry as he finished his tea.

Lupin nodded slightly and "Ok then, Tonks you take those two." Waving at Ron and Ginny, and "I'll take Harry and Hermione, we'll meet at Flourish and Blots in an hour ok?"

"Sure" replied Tonks, she led the two to the back wall, giving Remus a peck on the cheek as she passed. Harry would have thought that if Remus hadn't been in his thirties, Lupin would have blushed.

He was a little flustered as they went to the back wall, Harry ended up having to tap the proper sequence of bricks, as Lupin seemed unable to do so. The three of them headed down the street to Gringorts, it's massive white marble edifice visible anywhere in Diagon Alley. Walking up the stairs, Harry saw what he thought was someone he knew in the distance, but that's impossible, she's in Azkaban.

"What Harry," Hermione asked, concerned at the expression that had flitted across his face.

Harry forced a smile, "Nothing Mione, I thought I saw someone, but it's nothing"

"Ok" she replied, with a look that showed she wasn't quite convinced. As they reached the door, Lupin opened it for her and the three of them strode into the bank. "Wait here a second, Harry I have to go convert these pounds." Hermione walked over to the shortest line and waited for the next teller. As they waited, Harry idly looked around the vast bank lobby. Wizards, goblins and creatures of all types, that were sentient anyway, walked about on various errands. The lobby where they were waiting was opulent, as it should be with a great deal of the wizarding world's wealth located here. Even wizards from America often have accounts with Gringorts of London, and in fact a couple of American wizards could be seen talking to an account manager, one of them had a Yankees cap on over his robes. Harry for his part thought this was a grand idea, he had always hated the traditional wizards hat. After a few minutes Hermione came back to them, "Ok I'm done, lets get your stuff.

Harry led the other three to a receptionist. The goblin, Harry couldn't tell if it was a boy or girl, muttered something in Gooblydegook to a coworker then looked up at Harry. "Can I help you sir."

I wonder if I should point out that I speak goblin, though not as well as Hermione, no better not. "Yes, I'm Harry Potter, I need to get into my vault." Harry said.

"Gronk, take them to vault 117542" She told one of the security goblins behind her.

"This way gentle beings" Gronk said in a gruff voice, even for a goblin. Harry and the others followed him to a mine cart, which they all piled into, and in a high speed run similar to a seeker chase they arrived at Harry vault. The vault door they exited in front of was set directly into the rock, with other vault doors on either side. "Sir please place your key into the opposite hole. And turn." Harry and Gronk turned their keys at the same time, the massive door swung open and Harry walked in.

"Damn" Harry muttered softly, he knew that his fortune had grown with the inheritance, but the pile was absolutely enormous. Harry also noticed that on a set of shelves to one side, a set of three boxes sat, with a note lying on top of them. Curious, Harry pocketed the note, and turned back to the gold and bagged some for walking around money and school supplies.

"WOW" Hermione said from the entrance, she had not come in, so had not seen the boxes or the note that Harry had pocketed. Hermione's family unlike Ron's was well off, both of her parents were dentists, but still that was a really big pile.

Harry walked to her and signaled Gronk to close the vault which he did with a BOOM. "Yeah, now you know why I asked you not to tell Ron" He said quietly to her.

"Yes, and honestly it might have been a good idea, but you know you're buying lunch right?" She replied with a twinkle in her brown eyes worthy of Dumbledore and that did strange things to his stomach.

"Uhh sure Mione." He replied his snappy comeback suddenly forgotten.

Hermione knew instinctively that she had the advantage though she knew not why, so she used it. "Harry can we go on to Flourish and Blots so we can look, you know that Ron will want to leave as soon as he gets his books."

"Sure Mione," Harry replied. Lupin just looked away so Harry wouldn't see him laughing.

The three of them headed down the street, As they went, Harry gained a promise from Hermione to visit the Quiddich shop in exchange for the extra time in the bookstore, and they both nipped into the pet store. Harry had to get owl treats, and Hermione got a new collar for Crookshanks that gave the owner the ability to find a lost pet with a spell and a map, though as long as Harry had the Marauder's Map it wasn't a problem at Hogwarts.

As they walked down the street, "STUPEFY" rang out in a high, girlish voice and Lupin fell unconscious. Harry and Hermione dove in opposite directions and whirled about, their wands seeking a target. Wizards and witches on the street grabbed children, and hurried out of the way. A couple of owls that had been perched outside of the pet store took off to the accompaniment of the shouted curses of the proprietor.

"Umbridge" Hermione snarled with hatred uncharacteristic for her, she was the first to see their assailant.

"Yes, children, it is I your humble Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor." Umbridge said in her nasally voice, dripping with false sweetness, "I see that old fool Dumbledore sent a half-breed to shepherd you, shame, shame."

Harry on the other hand started laughing, it just seemed funny, "Delores, in the past three months I have faced at least ten Death Eaters, and Voldemort," Umbridge cringed, "and walked away, go away you old hag."

"What did you say Mr. Potter, I'd expect that from your know-it-all mudblood companion, but as a pureblood..." Umbridge continued too stupid to back off.

Harry had ample experience in what happened when he did not keep his anger in check especially with this disgrace to wizards everywhere. He was determined to stay in control this time around, though the insult to Hermione for some reason was far worse than the implied slight to his parents. "Actually, Delores I'm a half-blood, just like Voldemort, who if I remember correctly you did not believe in, have you changed your mind? Fudge did just before he was sacked for his gross incompetence." Harry paused and with a slight smile, "How did you get out of Azkaban anyway, did the Dementors decide that you tasted too much like shit for their tastes, I mean you must be a come down from the Death Eaters that are there now."

Umbridge looked shocked, for some reason she had thought she could win this duel easily, Potter was only a child, wasn't he? And she after all had been a Professor. He should be running or at best trying to throw up a shield or attacking her because of her insults, she thought that he would have last year. "They um, hem, let me out on appeal, there was only the word of underage wizards against me, an Undersecretary. Un, hem, I expect an reappointment any day now."

Hermione for her part just looked more or less annoyed, she had been with Harry against the Death Eaters at much worse odds, let alone 2:1 in her favor, What is this crackpot idiot thinking? Though I am proud of Harry for keeping his cool.

"Delores." Harry began exasperation starting to show in his voice.

"Uh hem, I prefer Professor Umbridge, or High Inquisitor Umbridge." Umbridge replied with a fake sweet smile.

Harry just raised an eyebrow, and after letting another laugh escape, "Delores, last time you faced the two of us, you lost and we started out without wands, for the love of Merlin just leave..."

"CRUCIO" Umbridge cried shooting the curse at Harry, missing as he dove out of the way and almost hitting a child standing in the door of a store behind Harry. This action finally snapped the majority of the other wizards and witches out of their stupor and they began to point their wands at Umbridge.

Harry however, had spent the last two weeks training for combat, and had seekers reflexes faster than any of the pros currently playing. As Umbridge had fired the spell, he dove into a forward roll at her. Coming out of it he sent his elbow across her face as he rose, dropping her to the ground like a felled tree. As she fell, Harry neatly picked her short wand from her fingers. Holding it over her so she could see, he snapped it with one hand. "That half-breed is a thousand times the person you are, bitch" Harry spat, dropping the pieces of the wand on her shocked face, small magical particles slowly trailing down. He turned his back on her and walked over to Hermione, where she had just enervated Lupin.

"What happened," Lupin moaned from the ground. Only to be quickly echoed as Tonks ran up.

"What happened", Tonks began only to be interrupted by Ron.

"BLOODY HELL, it's Umbridge." Ron shouted as he saw whom Harry had defeated. "I thought she was in Azkaban."

"Harry" Tonks asked again, though she had pretty well guessed what had happened already.

But before Harry could say anything, Hermione jumped to his defense, in her adrenalin addled mind she thought Tonks was blaming Harry for some reason. "TONKS, we were AMBUSHED..."

Harry quickly crossed over to Hermione, "calm down Mione, she's just asking. Tonks..."

But Hermione went on though she was calmer now. "Tonks, that woman stunned Remus from behind" A sudden fire rose in Tonks' eyes but she nodded for Hermione to go on, "Harry and I dove out of the way and turned and she was there. Harry really tried not to fight her, but she shot a Cruciatus curse at him..."

"And almost hit a kid..." yelled an anonymous voice in the crowd.

"WHAT," Tonks snapped, "come here you." A middle-aged wizard walked from the crowd, "She did that?" The man nodded, Tonks closed her eyes for a second and pulling a business card from her robes, "I'm Nymphadora Tonks, I'm a Auror, call upon me tomorrow at the Ministry so I can get your statement, ok?" The wizard nodded and headed off. "Finish, Hermione."

"Harry dove forward with the shot, elbowed her, and took her wand, he snapped it." Hermione finished challenging Tonks with her eyes.

Damn she's fierce when she defending her own. Tonks thought trying not to grin, this was serious after all "Good work Harry, I hate breaking wands; I always get splinters." Hermione beamed at this, though Harry just gave a brisk nod.

Hermione however quickly dropped her expression at the one on Ron's. Aw hell, Hermione thought with sudden insight, Ron's got that I hate Harry for getting attention face again.

Tonks muttered into a crystal and two magical law enforcement officers apparated in and took Umbridge into custody, "Ok what now guys?" She asked with a shrug.

"Well I don't know about you three," Harry paused and helped Lupin to his feet, "but we were going to the bookstore, shall we Hermione?" And with that Harry took off towards Flourish and Blots, Lupin for his part just gave Tonks a shrug and followed. After a moment, Tonks led her two charges after them.




A/N: Don't you just love it when Christmas comes early?

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Chapter 6: Back to Hogwarts.
********************12 Grimmauld Place, London*******************
September 1, 2004
6am

"195...196...197...198...199...200" Harry stopped the crunches he had been doing on the floor. He had done them daily since 2nd year, core strength was amazingly important to staying on a broom with bludgers whacking you, but since staring training with Moody he was doing more. He usually did them at night before bed; however, he had been busy last night and put them off. Hedwig stopped watching him, she had been tracking his head as it bobbed up and down and hooted at him. "I know girl, I'm a stupid human, and you wouldn't catch an owl dead doing any exercise except chasing food. Harry laughed at a replying indignant HOOT; I know that she understands me at times. This lull was interrupted by a soft knock on the door, "Come-in" Harry said from the floor.

Hermione walked in already dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, for a second, it gapped from where Harry was on the floor, giving him a flash of her navel. Bloody hell, when did she get a belly button ring? He thought suddenly as he glimpsed the green-jeweled ring that her shirt normally hid.

"What?" She asked with a half smile, and then she unselfconsciously pulled the hem of her shirt up to look at her navel. "Oh this, I got it in London the other day at a shop. Tonks, and Ginny dared me, and you know how much I hate to lose, besides I like it, though mum probably will hate it. I think Harry likes it...Well I thought of him when I picked out the color anyway.

Well I like it...For the love of Merlin Harry, for the last time, it's Hermione, And then a not so small voice anymore said. Yep it surely is.

Harry got up from the floor only to be pushed back by an outstretched hand, "You Potter, go take a shower, I'll pack your stuff." Hermione said as she fanned her nose.

"Yes, ma'am," Harry replied as he knew it annoyed her and taking a change of clothes from his trunk he walked off to the bathroom. Hermione watched him go out of the corner of her eye, and then started to pack Harry's few possessions that he had not already packed. A promise was a promise, and after all she was already done.

As she finished packing Harry's books, Hey that's where that one went, she thought finding one of her books and going ahead and putting it in Harry's trunk It's not like I don't know where he lives, Ron came in without knocking.

"Hermione, I thought Harry lived here?" Ron asked, in a strange tone.

"He does dufus." Hermione replied, as she rolled her eyes.

"Then why are you packing his stuff? Yeah why? Ron thought with a twinge of what was probably jealousy.

"I already had my stuff packed and I'm doing Harry a favor, ok Ronald" Hermione replied with a touch of annoyance, her voice growing cold.

Harry had been coming back from the bathroom, he caught the last couple of exchanges, he didn't know why but he hurried in to sidetrack the argument. "Because, I asked her to, ok Ron" Harry said as he walked into the room, he flashed a glance at Hermione as he passed. Hermione was both relieved and a little thankful at Harry as he deflected Ron, after all she had offered, she hadn't been asked.

"I was just asking sheesh," Ron responded, though he did give Harry an odd glance when both Hermione and Harry had turned to corral Hedwig who did not like the idea of going back in her cage even if it was only to the train.

"BREAKFAST" Molly Weasley yelled up the stairs and they went down to eat their last meal before they returned to Hogwarts.

As they sat to breakfast, a pile of food on everyone's plate, Hermione asked, curious, "Harry, what was Dumbledore talking to you about the train ride to school last evening?"

Crookshanks jumped up into Harry's lap and tried to extend a cautious paw to steal a sausage off Harry's plate. Harry looked down and slipped it to him, before Molly could see, and replied to Hermione, catching the brief smile that crossed her eyes as he snuck the cat food. "Oh I forgot to tell you two, I'm to go along with you two to the prefects meeting, as head of the DA, I'm supposed to help with security if need be on the train, and once we get to school, Dumbledore has something else about that, I'll find out later."

"That's cool Harry" Ron replied. So he basically gets to be a prefect without the badge, why aren't you jumping up to congratulate him this year Hermione?

All of them: Ginny, Harry, Hermione, and Ron hauled their belonging down to the first floor, where Remus and Moody, placed them in another of the ubiquitous black Ministry SUVs. As Tonks and Alastor were officially back on the roles as active Aurors, though officially seconded to Hogwarts, they could acquire Ministry vehicles for use in "official activities." And since Ron and Ginny were the children of the current Minister, they were officially "escorting" Ron and Ginny, though everyone knew that Harry was the real target. A fact that caused Harry a bit of heartburn, but he didn't comment, as he had already lost the argument. Harry and the rest gave Molly a goodbye hug and loaded up in the black Suburban. Tonks was once again driving and tossed in an Evanescence CD that she had picked up the other day. Moody was once again riding shotgun, with 5 people, and 4 familiars, (Ginny now had a kneazle named Spooky) spread out among the back of the vehicle.

"Remus, what are you going to be up to, now that we will be out of your hair?" Harry asked as he slid into Hermione, Tonks had just dodged a cab, whose driver flipped her the bird as she passed.

"While I thank you again for letting me stay at Grimmauld, it looks like you aren't getting rid of me that easily." Remus said, muffling a curse, as he rubbed his head. Tonks had somehow managed to hit a bump hard enough to launch him into the ceiling of the cab.

"What", Harry asked as Hermione grabbed his arm in fear, and he heard Ron mutter something with the words, "bloody" and "hell".

"Oh" Remus replied crossing himself after Tonks narrowly beat a double decker into a lane, "since madwoman, there..."

"I heard that Moony" came a female voice from the front.

"That wondrous font of witchhood," Remus corrected to Harry and Hermione's muffled laughter, "up there and Mad-Eye are officially attached to Hogwarts, they will be quartered there, and I am to help with DADA and the DA at times this year. So I'm going to ride the train. Don't worry I'll ride in the teachers compartment this time, I don't expect Dementors." He finished with a happy little smile.

"Funny Remus, remember I have the map and cloak" Harry muttered back, the treat implied.

Suddenly they came to a stop, a couple of cages crashing to the floor in a cloud of feathers. "We're here" came the cheerful announcement. After they had all gotten their stuff loaded on carts, Tonks and Mad-Eye bid them goodbye. Tonks had to go to the Ministry to deal with her arrest of Umbridge, and anyway as Remus had said, they would be at Hogwarts later anyway.

Everyone managed to make it though the barrier without incident this year, of course since Dobby was now working for Harry as the caretaker of Grimmauld Place, with a salary of course, which made Hermione happy, there wasn't too much danger in their getting locked out.

The group of friends boarded the train. Walking into their usual compartment, they found Luna and Neville already there. "Hi guys," Neville replied happily, this year he had a leash on the ever-escaping Trevor, and he hadn't escaped, yet.

"Hello," Luna replied with her usual airiness, though everyone now knew that it was an act, sort of, she really could be that air headed, but she was also very bright, and could be very focused when she needed to be, she just didn't always feel the need. She caught sight of Ron at the back of the pack, "Hi Ronald"

"Hey Luna" Ron called in a friendly voice.

"I didn't see you around the village, Ronald"

"Oh I was at Grimmauld place." Ron replied with a small shrug.

After the train started to pull away from the station, Hermione glanced down at her watch, "Come on Harry, Ginny, Ron" Neville looked up asking a question, he had seen Ginny's prefect badge and had congratulated her, but Harry?

"I am supposed to help with security Neville," Harry answered his silent question to which Neville just nodded; it made sense to him.

"Harry" Ron began as a sudden thought crossed his mind, "Malfoy"

"Oh that's right Harry," Hermione said, looking shocked that she had not thought of this, "He will still be a prefect, unless Dumbledore sacked him."

"It's ok Hermione, he won't try anything." Harry responded confidently though inside he had doubts. Harry was correct though. Beyond Harry's tonelessly worded introduction and the explanation by the new head girl, who just happened to be Cho Chang, that Harry had final say on security matters if something came up until Hogsmeade station, a revelation that shocked Harry with Dumbledore's trust in him, Malfoy just ignored him. The two new heads dismissed them all and they went back to their cars.

The day was to be without confrontation, however. As Harry and his companions were leaving to go back to their back to their compartment, Harry turned to ask Ron a question. Not looking where he was going, Harry bumped into the yielding softness of a person. A very familiar head of black hair turned to them. As she stepped back, her head girl badge throwing a flash of light in Harry's eyes, "Cho" Harry said neutrally, trying to stay on an even keel.

"Why it's Harry Potter and his friends, including Miss Hermione Granger, Why don't you just go out with him Hermione, you're all he talks about anyway, though I do have to tell you he's not that good a kisser. I guess he likes the nerds though, he is kinda weird." Cho said softly in an acidic tone.

"Cho, what the hell did I do to you?" Harry snapped back at her implied insult of his best friend, "If I remember properly..." He broke off suddenly as some first years started to come out into the hall only to dart back at his glare. Harry huffed a little and growled, "You were the one who broke up with me, and then set me up for a fall at the Quiddich match this summer."

Hermione had not heard this permutation; she had still been mulling Cho's initial comments, though somehow she didn't believe the kisser thing. She hadn't been called a nerd in a very long time, though that insult didn't really bother her. But the partial story about Harry being setup this summer for a fall by his ex- was very...bothering.

"I don't know, what about that Bilotuber pus bomb concoction that you sent me?" Cho shot back, then "GOODBYE" she snapped and walked away briskly.

Harry was confused; he had done no such thing. He pulled everyone into their normal compartment as soon as they reached it, and closed the door, he didn't bother to have Neville and Luna leave; they were friends. And after they went into the Department of Mysteries with him he trusted them explicitly. Though he had a sneaky feeling that his oldest friend was responsible for this exchange just past.

"Ronald, why do I think this is your fault?" Harry asked with an utterly flat tone to Ron who was sitting directly across from him. Hermione and Luna were on the bench next to him with Ginny sandwiched between her brother and Neville on the other side.

"Well mate, I sort of field-tested a new invention of Fred and George's," Ron said without a trace of guilt, and more than a little humor.

Harry dropped his head to his hands and used them to shake his head. Hermione patted his back supportively, to flash of annoyance from Ron, which just made her pat harder. After a moment Harry sat up, he hadn't minded Hermione's support, at least it was a sign that the majority of his friends had more common sense than a headless chicken, but his back was starting to get sore. "Ron...why?"

"Well after she did what she did, I thought I'd get you some payback." Ron replied, almost confused that Harry would think it a bad idea.

"Just never mind, Ron, never mind." Harry closed his eyes and took a nap. Hermione for her part spent the rest of the trip thinking about Cho's comment. Harry escaped the trip without any need for his security role.

The six had changed into school robes as they arrived. Walking to the coaches, Harry noticed that Hermione was studiously studying the ground, or the sky, or anywhere but the coaches. As the six of them grabbed a coach Hermione claimed a rear-facing seat. This was not her usual practice, as she liked to see the castle loom larger as they approached. The rest of them piled in, echoing their seating arrangement on the train. Hermione kept her gaze directly to the rear, even when Harry or Luna, who were sitting to either side of her, asked a question. With a sudden flash of insight Harry realized what Hermione was up to. She's trying not to see the thestrals.

Ron however didn't see the problem, "What's up Hermione, I thought you liked to see the castle, don't you want to look?" Glancing foreword Ron saw a thestral and suddenly figured it out. "Come on Hermione, afraid to see the pretty horses?" He teased.

"Leave me alone Ron," Hermione replied softly.

"Oh come on Hermione they are just big horses." Ron said with a grin as he waved toward the thestrals.

But Hermione just shook her head. Before Ron can say anything else, "Drop it Ron" Harry snapped. Ron did drop it, though he pouted at little at Harry for breaking up his fun. That prank on Cho, and now this with Hermione. I'm not that angry about the Cho thing though I was just going to drop it and let bygones be bygones. Looking back it was just a crush I had, but Hermione is my best friend, and at the rate Ron is going, she'll be my only best friend as she may kill him and I may help, Harry thought with a glare at his friend.

Arriving at the castle, the sextet dismounted their carriage. Harry instinctively walked between Hermione and the carriages so she wouldn't have to repeat the incident with the thestrals again. As he led the group into the Great Hall, one thought crossed his mind: I'm home. The hall was setup as usual for a sorting, the four great tables were set lengthwise of the hall, with the Gryffindor and Slytherin tables as far apart as possible. Set crosswise across the width of the Hall, the raised table for the staff sat mostly full of professors.

The only exceptions were two empty seats to the right of Dumbledore's golden chair, McGonagall's, and Hagrid's. Hagrid was, Harry knew currently leading a flotilla of small boats across the lake from Hogsmeade station, with the first years, and McGonagall, was most likely retrieving the sorting hat. As Harry watched, McGonagall came in, carrying an old wood stool and the very decrepit sorting hat, which was looking pretty spry for a thousand year old hat. As Harry sat, he looked up to see, innumerable candles floating in mid-air about halfway down from the rafters. The rafters themselves were invisible. However, the ceiling was covered in an exact duplicate of the outside sky, including to Harry's amusement, the moving lights of a muggle jet that was over flying the castle right now, unknown to the muggles aboard. Hundred of banners hung down, all showing the red and gold of Gryffindor, and the rampaging lion, from the awarding of the house cup for last year.

Dumbledore stood, and raised a hand for silence. He pointed at the great doors to the hall, which opened to reveal a herd of nervous first years, McGonagall and Hagrid at their head. He waved them forward and they came in a long shaking line, to stop shy of the stool with the hat. McGonagall walked ahead to the stool, and looked up at Dumbledore waiting for the signal to begin. However tonight, she, along with the rest of the school, got a surprise. "Welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, for those of you who are returning, welcome back, to those of you joining us tonight for the first time, I am sure that your next seven years will be the most rewarding and may I say adventurous of your life." He completed the last looking directly at Harry and his friends, a twinkle in his eye. Harry just smiled back at him tightly, and marked an invisible tally on a scoreboard.

Dumbledore went on. "Before we begin the sorting of the first year students, a momentous thing happened to me today. As I was preparing for tonight, the sorting hat informed me that it had become necessary for a current student to be resorted into another house." To the shocked silence Dumbledore called out, "Will Luna Melanie Lovegood please come forward." At the Gryffindor table, Harry and the rest looked at each other dumbfounded, while at the Ravenclaw table, the students looked about the hall as if wondering where she will go. Cho glanced over at Gryffindor, as if this too was Harry's fault, though once again he's blameless of this at least. Luna for her part, had been shocked out of her usual poise, she was looking around nervously as she went to the to the stool and sat, she was much larger than the last time that she sat in this place.

McGonagall gave a short shrug and set the hat on Luna's head. It began to sing:

Long ago I was unneeded, all the houses were as one,
Then that all came undone
This one's intelligence is true,
But at heart, her colors are not bronze and blue
As I did twice six years ago
I must override my initial call
Her heart is of a lion, so to Gryffindor she must go.

With the hat's final words the Gryffindor table exploded. Ginny was hopping up and down and the rest were hooting and hollering. Luna for her part just gave a little smile as she turned to Dumbledore, who beamed down on her, "The hat has spoken and as it has been for a thousand years, so shall it be." With a wave of his wand, Luna's uniform colors changed from the blue and bronze of Ravenclaw, to the red and gold of Gryffindor. On her chest, the eagle mascot of Ravenclaw changed to the rampaging lion of Gryffindor. Luna walked over to the Gryffindor table and sat down between Ron and Ginny, who have made a space for her. Ginny gave her a crushing hug and whispered welcome into her ear.

The rest of the sorting went by without Harry noticing much, the hat gave its now usual warnings of impending danger and the need for uniting against outside threats, He did notice that one of the first years that popped out on the train during his argument with Cho, a Jennifer McCoy, was in Gryffindor, and that some kid with the last name of Blackheart went into Slytherin, which he thought appropriate. He tuned back in to Dumbledore as he started to speak, though mostly due to an elbow in the ribs from Hermione.

"Now that you are all in your proper places, a few announcements, first all first year students are to be informed that the forest on the grounds and the third floor are out of bounds. Second, Mr. Flitch our housekeeper, has asked me, to once again remind you, that magic is forbidden in the halls between classes, and that the list of prohibited items is posted outside of his office, I have been told that the list is upwards of 500 items." At this Fred and George stood and grasped their hands above their heads in celebration, only to lower them quickly at a glare from McGonagall. A great many of the listed items were their creations after all. "I am also pleased to inform you that replacement Captains for the Slytherin and Gryffindor House Quiddich teams have been selected. For Slytherin House, Professor Snape has chosen to have Draco Malfoy, fill the position." Dumbledore paused as applause from the Slytherins and outright heckling from the Gryffindors, and several members of other houses too, filled the hall. After the celebration had ended, "And for Gryffindor, I am pleased that Professor McGonagall has seen fit to appoint Co-Captains, Ronald Weasley and Harry Potter."

The ruckus of before was reborn, the only difference was that it was louder, and the cheering and booing were reversed. At motions from Neville, Ginny and Hermione, Harry and Ron stood and waved, Harry sat down quickly with Ron taking a little while longer. After McGonagall got them quieted down with a glare, though Harry noticed that the glare wasn't even half-hearted when it passed over Gryffindor, Dumbledore finished his announcements. "Finally I have two announcements with regards to your school work, which is why we are supposed to be here," a muted chuckle broke out at this, "Due to the less than satisfactory way in which the Defense Against the Dark Arts post was filled last year," Boos came from almost everywhere, Umbridge had been almost the most hated professor ever in the history of Hogwarts, even Snape didn't come close, "I will be filling that position myself," The hall erupted again, at this announcement, "Due however to my schedule, I will have guest lecturers at times, and I expect you to treat them as if you would treat myself. Also in this subject, the Defense Association that was founded last year, by your fellow students has been granted official status. The president of that association, Mr. Potter, will be functionally equivalent to a Prefect and should be given respect accordingly. Fourth years and above from any house are eligible to join, please see, Mr. Potter or Miss Granger if you are interested."

Harry had known that the Dumbledore's Army had been given full status, but the revelations of his Quasi-Prefect status, and the statement that members of any house would be accepted had rocked him, it had rocked Hermione too evidentially, "Harry!" She whispered urgently, asking the question?

"I'm shocked too, and the part about accepting anyone." Harry whispered back, his shock evident.

"At least you are a Prefect now, mate, sort of anyway" Ron put in quietly having leaned across the table. Almost as if on command, a flash of light two quick for anyone to notice except Harry and his friends erupted by his head, and a letter settled in his hands. Harry pulled the letter in close, and angling it so Hermione sitting next to him can read along, it he opened it and began to read.

Harry,

Please come to my office at 10:oo pm tonight. Mr. Flitch and the other staff have already been informed that you have permanent permission to be out of your dorm at that hour, do not abuse this privilege. Bring Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley if you want, as it will save you time explaining to them later. While you are permitted to be outside of your house it may be advisable to remain unseen nevertheless. The password for this year is "Skiving Snackboxes" in honor of Mr. and Mr. Weasley

Albus Dumbledore.

The feast ended, and Hermione, Ron and Ginny led the Gryffindor first years to the common room. They proceeded, giving the usual advice on what to avoid, how to tell if Peeves is after you and other necessary information. The first years, looked around the Gryffindor common room in awe, though it is honestly a little shabby. The older students just took the room in stride, some heading up to their dorms to go through their stuff, some hanging out in the common room with their friends.

After most of the students had given up for the night, Harry bid Ron and Hermione goodnight and headed for the stairs to the 6th year boys room. Ron and Hermione waited a couple of minutes, and muttering something about "bloody patrols" Ron led Hermione to the portrait hole. They walked out of it casually; only the portrait seemed to stay open for just a few more seconds than usual. Not that anyone would notice.

Hermione and Ron paused in an alcove just down the hall from the Gryffindor stairs. "We're clear" Hermione said softly and a patch of messy black hair, followed by the rest of Harry appeared next to them. "Ok Harry, how do you want to get there, without us getting noticed, though technically all us have the authority to be out?"

Harry grinned and pulled out an old stained piece of parchment, "we cheat of course, Hermione", He tapped the parchment with his wand, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." A map of Hogwarts appeared on the parchment, emblems of a stag, a wolf, a dog and a rat were in the corners, and if one looked closely one could see little labeled moving dots. Including one of Dumbledore in his office, no doubt waiting on them and ones of Mrs. Norris and Mr. Flitch, the student hating tag team. Mrs. Norris was safely out of the way in the medical wing, however Flitch seemed to be walking back and forth in the very hallway that they needed to go down to get to Dumbledore's office. Harry pointed to the dot and frowned. "Well what should we do about him, we can't all fit under the cloak anymore," He commented looking at Ron. Ron had had another of his growth sprits and he was now well over six feet, inches taller than Harry's or Hermione's respective 5' 10" or 5' 9". Of course if Harry hadn't been malnourished for almost his entire childhood it probably would have been different, but there it was.

"Simple mate, " Ron responded eagerly, "We distract him." Reaching into his pocket, he pulled a WeasleyWhizBang firework from his pocket, and set it on a banister. "I just apply a five minute delay to the fuse," he pulled his wand and touched the end of the fuse, "Incendio impediata five memento" ... "and now we run". And he did, to a corner, around which he could glance and see Flitch if he peaked.

Harry and Hermione exchanged glances, and ran after him, speechless. After they caught up to Ron who had just peeked around the corner. "Now what Ron?" Harry asked in a whisper, this idea is either brilliant or I may kill him, we'll see

Ron glanced at his watch, "Okay under the cloak you two," Harry shrugged but threw the cloak over him and Hermione. "One minute, stay here" Ron boldly walked around the corner to where Flitch was standing. Harry and Hermione stepped around the corner as they were invisible, but other wise stayed where they were.

"What do you want Weasley?" Flitch growled.

"I am a prefect and I am working, in fact I am trying to track down a rumor that someone will set off fireworks in the hall tonight." Ron replied, with a very good impression of Percy.

Flitch blanched, during last year's fireworks protest, the fireworks had kept going off for almost two days, and had caused him and Umbridge to chase them all over the grounds. As if Ron's pronouncement was a signal, the roar of a golden dragon firework came out of the hall way he had just came from. "Weasley you go that way," He pointed behind him, coincidentally towards Dumbledore's office, "and I'll go after that one, let's see if we can catch the buggers." The old Squibb took off. Ron walked to the gargoyle guarding Dumbledore's office and muttered "Skiving snackboxes. " The gargoyle nodded and stepped aside. A rotating stair started spiraling upward, and Ron stepped on it. "Dumbarse git" He muttered and muted laughter from out of nowhere responded to his pronouncement.

He knocked on Dumbledore's heavy oak door using the griffin knocker, and hearing a familiar voice, "enter" he opened the door and stepped though.

Dumbledore looked up from his huge desk covered with parchments, and various implements of Wizarding, and said quietly, "Harry and Hermione, you can come out now." With a flutter of a cloak, the two mentioned appeared standing before Dumbledore's desk. With a wave of his hand, three comfortable, old overstuffed chairs appeared before the desk. Harry dropped into the center chair with Hermione and Ron to either side of him. Harry was somewhat relieved, if he were in trouble, Dumbledore might not even have bothered with the chairs. Another relieving confirmation was that Dumbledore; unlike this time last year, had no compunctions about meeting Harry's eyes, though both of them know it could be dangerous. Harry took a second to glance around the pandemonium filled office. From where Harry was sitting, he could see the portrait of Sirius' grandfather in his Slytherin robes. Phineas was asleep, or most likely pretending as Harry assumed most of the rest were doing.

"Good job with the distraction, Ronald." Dumbledore said with a smile, "Shows a good sense of strategy using an opponents weakness against him. However, you should really look into Prefects having such prohibited items at school." Eyes twinkling, he turned to Harry. "Harry I called you here to discuss several items that I announced in the welcome feast this evening, and no the Gryffindor Quiddich arrangements are not part of that. Congratulations however on Ronald's and your appointments as captain."

"The DA" Harry said, his mind flashing back over the speech. Fawkes trilled softly from his perch and hopped down to Dumbledore's desk. "The Slytherin part..."

"Yes, Harry and your position...that is what I have asked you here tonight to discuss. I have also allowed your friends to come, as I would save you time that you would otherwise waste on informing them of this conversation, and second as senior members of the DA they should know, especially Hermione as she is your de facto second in command of my army." The grin was growing larger by the second. "First as to the DA, I was not kidding when I said that any student, regardless of house was welcome."

"But Professor, why should we teach our enemies anything." Ron snapped with a tone of almost total disbelief. "They will only use it against us."

"Mr. Weasley for two reasons, both of them strategic on our parts. First as an old Muggle philosopher once said, keep your friends close, your enemies closer. And second not all of Slytherin House is composed of Death Eaters in waiting. Some of them may prove valuable in the end."

"Professor, who..." Hermione asked; eager to know who in Slytherin was not all bad.

Dumbledore, did not answer the question, he merely went, on, a point that Hermione found annoying at best. "As to you, Harry, you are not responsible for enforcing school rules, other than if some event may effect the school's safety. You do not have to patrol the halls as the other prefects do, however you may if you wish. I wish mainly to have you help coordinate the activities of the DA with myself as DADA instructor and possibly directly with the Order if necessary, though I hope that it will not be so. As you can imagine I would like for the last to remain confidential. I would imagine that you four would like to get back to the tower, I will see you in my class tomorrow, I imagine."

"Professor" Harry interjected, "why have us continue the DA at all, why not just induct us into the Order?"

"Because I promised Sirius that I would not do so until you were of age," Dumbledore replied to Harry's shock. "And I would not induct your friends without you. As I have said before, I have made promises that I must keep." Harry just nodded, he might not like the reason but he understood keeping a promise all too well.

The three turned and headed for the door, only to be stopped once more, "by the way, Mr. Weasley," Dumbledore said as a parting shot, " I have overridden Professor Snape, and have convinced him to allow you to take his NEWT level potions, Do not disappoint me." Ron nodded, his Adam's apple visibly gulping.

As they were approaching Gryffindor tower, Ron looked over at the other two, since the map was clear, they had been able to return without any tricks. "Hermione?" Ron said knowing that she knew the question already.

Hermione sighed and returned his gaze, "Ron I'll make the same deal that I made with Harry, I'll help but I'm not doing your work, that's what got you to the point where Dumbledore had to convince Snape to let you into the class in the first place." Ron just nodded, as he felt it was the best he was going to get for now. Harry, however, slightly raised an eyebrow to Hermione from where he was standing behind Ron. He knew full well that she never made any such deal with him, he hadn't even thought of asking. Hermione gave him a tiny shake of her head. They all entered the common room, which was mostly deserted, and Ron, yawing, gave his goodnights and headed up the stairs.

"Coming Harry?" Ron asked from halfway up the stairs.

"Just a sec," Harry replied, motioning towards Crookshanks who had somehow untied his laces. Ron nodded and headed up the stairs.

"Ok Mione?" Harry asked bending down to tie his shoes. "That was good work untying my shoes while Ron wasn't looking" motioning to her wand that she was holding down by her leg to hide it.

"Thanks," She replied blushing a bit at the compliment, then with a slight frown, "Sorry, Harry, I know that you never asked me to do your work, but both of you used to, and me ending up basically doing Ron's work at times is why he had to have Dumbledore get him into Potions. I never really had to do yours, usually, just correct it" she finished with a shrug.

"All right, night then," Harry said and headed off the stairs. I wonder why she thought she had to lie to Ron?

Below him, Hermione watched until he disappeared, then with a tiny shrug, she too went to bed.

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Chapter 7 The First Day of School
********************Great Hall, Hogwarts********************

September 3, 2004
7:30 am

The Great Hall was filled with students, with everyone except the new first years chatting eagerly with their friends. The first years, for their part were looking around with awe, a few were talking to other first years in their houses, but more were looking around. They were amazed at the sights of Hogwarts, the Great Hall, the students around them and the staff at the table, which, to be honest was always a sight in and of itself, especially for the muggle-borne who have probably never seen the like. Harry as usual had to put up with the "is it really him," and other like comments from the firsties, who had never met him, and had only heard stories, often embellished by the upper classmen especially those like George or Fred. Or often worse, had only read articles about him in the Prophet or the Quibbler.

Harry and Ron were already sitting at breakfast along with the rest of their roommates, and the sixth and fifth year girls. So far, Hermione was absent, Harry had asked her roommates, but had just gotten a strange look in response. Finally she came in and plopped down next to Harry, grabbing some toast and coffee as she did so. Harry handed her, her copy of the Prophet, which the post owl had already delivered, and that he had paid for in her absence. The owls tended to get annoyed if you didn't pay them right away.

"Thanks, " she muttered to Harry, while she munched her toast. Taking a sip of coffee, "Has McGonagall given out our schedules?"

"Why do you ask?" Ron asked; then with a smirk, "Where were you this morning anyway, catching up on your beauty sleep? Hmmm."

"No" Hermione replied curtly and turned from him. As Harry glanced over he could tell that wasn't the answer at all, Ron, do you know her at all? We've only known each other for what, six years, if anything I'd say she didn't sleep at all last night, kinda like I didn't, but I've had more practice at it. Harry thought, annoyed.

"No Hermione," Harry answered her, "I would have thought that you'd already known yours."

"I did" She sighed, "But there were so few in NEWT Arithmancy that they moved the class to a different time." As was often the case, as soon as one of them said something, it happened. McGonagall appeared handing out the schedules for this year.

Harry glanced at his schedule, he saw that he only had seven classes, Advanced DADA, of course, Advanced Potions, am I insane? No Mione would hate me if I was not in that too to take the heat off her, he thought with a grin, Care of Dangerous Magical Creatures, Advanced Transfiguration, Advanced Charms and Muggle Studies, Harry had asked to have that class added, as it looked good on an Auror application, and it was an easy course for him, he had been raised by Muggles. He also had a class labeled special studies, but he knew that that was his defense training with Dumbledore and the crew. Today, which happily was a Friday, was a light day; He only had a double with Hagrid at ten and then DADA at one. Harry suspected however, that he would end up having a "special studies" lesson today, as that "class," was listed as floating.

"Let me see Harry," Hermione said holding out her hand. Without a word, Harry obediently gave it to her. After a moment, "Good, I have all of the same classes as you have...crap I have two hours of Arithmancy first thing before Hagrid."

"Language, Hermione," Harry murmured with a carefully straight face. "I thought you liked Arithmancy."

"I do" she replied almost embarrassed, "and Runes also, but I only have that on Tuesdays, I just didn't want it first thing today, it was on Tuesday with Runes until they moved it. What's this special studies, I don't remember signing up for it, though it looks like mine has yet to be scheduled by it where you have it floating."

Harry's expression dropped a bit; he sighed," You signed up for that six years ago on a train when you fixed a poor boy's glasses, it's your defense classes. You could always drop me as a friend." Harry tried to joke, though he still didn't want to look her in the eyes and listlessly played with his food.

"Never...Anyway, I need to get going to make Arithmancy." She replied hastily and stood up, slinging her infamously heavy bag of books over one shoulder.

"Ok, I'll meet you in the first floor hall after, we'll walk down together, Ok?" Harry said in return, secretly relieved that she had once again reaffirmed her friendship with him, or whatever.

Glancing over at Ron, he was arguing something with one of his brothers, she couldn't tell which one; she bent close and smiled saucily, "Are you going to carry my books to class Mr. Potter?" My god...what did I just say; am I flirting with Harry?

"As my lady commands." Harry gave back. Is Hermione flirting with me?

Hermione just gave him a little smile and headed off, whistling a little muggle tune. Harry stayed a moment, then after asking Ron if he wanted to get in some early broom practice and getting a no in response, Harry wandered out to the Pitch to fly, or think, or something.

****************Hagrid's Hut*************************

10:00 am

Harry and Ron had met Hermione in the hall, Harry for his part, did ask if she would like her books carried, Hermione just laughed, shook her head and took off towards Hagrid's hut, the two boys trailing after. Ron asked what he had meant by asking to carry her books, Harry just responded that it was a joke and Ron seemed to leave it at that.

As they approached the hut, smoke rising from the chimney even in September, they could see that the majority of the class was already present, however to their joyous surprise Draco was not present. "Where's Malfoy?" Ron asked in an urgent whisper as Neville, Pavarti and Lavender walked up.

"Didn't you hear?" Hermione whispered back with a tone of cold satisfaction, "He didn't make an OWL, and Hagrid elected to not accept him into his NEWT class. I guess he spent too much time making fun of Hagrid and not enough paying attention."

"Brilliant" Harry whispered back beaming, "serves the git right."

As the class finished assembling, Harry noticed that his entire Gryffindor 6th year was present; eventually they had all at least listened to Hagrid over the last five years. Harry did notice, apprehensively, that Hagrid had a cage covered with a sheet, over to one side.

"Gather round, Gather round" Hagrid called as he came out of his cabin trailed by the massive black boarhound Fang. Fang immediately went to Harry and tried to lick his face, much to the amusement of the other students. "Come 'ere, you daft dog," Hagrid shouted as he noticed the dog molesting Harry. After a final lick, Fang obediently went to Hagrid. To the classes' barely concealed relief Hagrid stepped away from the covered cage, and walked to the opposite side of his Pumpkin patch, the class obediently following along. "Today" He began with a smile, "We will be discussing wyverns"

"WYVERNS" Hermione whispered harshly in Harry's ear, "They're lesser dragons.

Acting like he hadn't heard Hermione, which he may not have, Hagrid put two fingers in his mouth and whistled loudly. Loping out of the Forbidden forest, came what looks for all intents and purposes, to be a dragon, albeit the size of a large dog. The wyvern walked up to Hagrid and calmly sat down beside him. Smiling, Hagrid leaned down and petted the creature along its spine. "Now class," That he had their attention, "Who can tell me about wyverns?..." Hagrid glanced around and witnessed a familiar arm shoot up, "'ermione?"

"Professor, the Wyvern or Dracanois Minor, is commonly called a lesser dragon. They look like a smaller version of a dragon. They generally do not have the ability to breathe fire as greater dragons do, however there have some cases of wyverns doing this very thing, so the fire breathing may actually be a recessive trait among wyverns. The wyvern typically ranges from the size of a large dog when grown to approximately half the size of a greater dragon." Hermione hammered out without a pause.

"Correct, take 10 points for Gryffindor." Hagrid turned from Hermione and addressed the rest of the class, "Now since I only have one wyvern, and they can get jumpy, pair off and come up in pairs and I'll show you, Grinch here, up close. Don't worry he usually doesn't bite." Hermione tapped Harry on the arm, he nodded and they went up to see the wyvern. "Aw "ermione, 'arry, this here is a wyvern, as you can see, Grinch here is on the small side for wyverns, he doesn't breathe fire, Hogwarts used to have a fire-breathing wyvern, but he burnt down his stall one night." Hagrid pointed out a couple more useful features on the animal and the pair went back to stand in the back. After everyone in the class had gone, Hagrid whistled and sent the Wyvern back to wherever it had been before he called. "Now that everyone has seen the creature, I'd like a drawing of it with it's features and the differences between it an a major dragon labeled. Ok? Class dismissed go eat." Everyone in the class, including Harry, Ron and Hermione, started to walk back to the castle.

"'Ermione, stay a moment." Hagrid growled after the three as they turned to leave, "I 'er need some 'elp with research." Hermione shrugged at Harry and Ron.

"Go on you two, eat, I know how you are Ron. Harry save me a seat ok?" Harry nodded, and the two turned to go to lunch, Harry's eyes lingering for a second on Hermione as he turned to go, a glance that was not lost on Hagrid. He has the reputation of being dim, but this is mainly due to his accent and the fact that he had been unjustly expelled from Hogwarts, and his wand snapped, theoretically. A thestral howled invisibly somewhere beyond the cabin, Hermione, shivered a bit and was careful not to turn in that direction.

After Harry and Ron have left, and the swishing of the their legs though the grass has faded, Hagrid turned to Hermione. "How is 'arry doing? Really?"

"I don't know, Hagrid, when he first got him back from the Dursleys, he was in bad shape, oh he could get by during the day, but the nights were worse..." She broke off not wanting to violate Harry's privacy.

"Lass I 'alked to 'emus he told me." Hagrid said softly, for him anyway.

That statement finally broke her reserve, she wasn't as far from the edge as she pretended either. Luckily she hadn't woken up with nightmares...yet, though her sleep was rough to say the least. "He broke down that night to me, Hagrid, he said that he saw Sirius die every night and that he woke up when he saw..."

"What lass." Hagrid gently inquired.

"He wakes up with the vision of me lying lifeless, damn it Hagrid, are you HAPPY?" Hermione snapped at Hagrid. Hermione suddenly looked horrified as she realized what she had said and to whom, "Ohh God, I'm sorry Hagrid."

That settles that, Hagrid thought with satisfaction, Lupin and Tonks were right, the two of them just haven't figured it out for themselves. Just the fact that he told her is enough, I wouldn't even tell Maxine or Dumbledore something like that. "It's a'right, 'ermione, and you?" Hagrid asked, softly placing a hand on her shoulder like he did when she was eleven.

"I don't have to work myself to exhaustion to sleep through the night Hagrid, like Harry does, but yeah, I have them too. I haven't woken up screaming yet, back at school, but I will. I was ok at my parent's house, but they came again after I returned to Grimmauld Place. I almost couldn't walk into Sirius's house, can you imagine what it was like for Harry?"

"Nay lass I can't" Hagrid paused, for at least a minute, then went ahead and asked the question at least half of the Order and several others were dying to ask, but were afraid to. "'Ermoine, how do you feel about 'array, 'really?"

"I...he's my closest friend Hagrid." Hermione answered after another long moment with more or less complete sincerity.

Hagrid looked thoughtful at that nebulous answer but smiled and waved her on toward the school.

Hermione hurried up to the castle and into the Great Hall, to find out she wasn't too late after all, Harry had saved her a seat next to him as promised and had even saved her some of her favorites, from the rampaging appetite known as Ron.

"What'd Hagrid want, Mione?" Harry asked, curious, after all Hagrid can do his own research; he was a Professor after all.

"Oh" she replied, not quite meeting his eyes, "He wanted help with a translation of a rune, for an upcoming class on extinct creatures" Hermione continued, lying though her teeth. She could tell from the look Harry gave her, he didn't quite believe her story, but to her relief he didn't press.

Soon the bell rang signaling the end of lunch, "Let's go I want to get a good seat," Harry said to the shock of his Gryffindor tablemates, he was notorious for wanting a back row, seat, a habit that at times has annoyed Hermione to no end. Today was different, Harry led the pack to the main DADA classroom, and went directly to a front table, Hermione, Ron sitting down on either side of him, with the rest of the sixth year Gryffindors taking up the rest of the front row. Much to the disgust of several Ravenclaws, including Margaret Conch, a girl that was trying forever to beat Hermione's academic records. Hermione had smoked her on the owls though.

At exactly one pm Dumbledore appeared before the class, instantly and without a sound or a puff of smoke. "Good afternoon, class" Dumbledore said with a smirk.

"Good Afternoon, Professor Dumbledore" The class responded obediently although most of them were grinning when they repeated the greeting. The only holdouts were the Slytherins including Malfoy, who were filling the rear rows of the room.

"Now that we have that out of the way." Dumbledore began, "I usually do not teach classes, since I have become headmaster. I am stepping in to fill this vacancy this for two reasons, first is to correct for the intolerable excuse for a professor that you had last year in this subject. I feel that a great deal of the blame for that experience lies on my shoulders and I apologize to all of you." His eyes swept the Gryffindors in front, lingering on Harry for a moment then moving on. "This class is a NEWT level class, it is for a two year period, however you can and will be failed out of this class at the end of the year, if you do not achieve an 'E' or higher in this class for the year. Now I assume that you all have a copy of Defensive Combat Magic, by me?" Dumbledore asked and a flurry of books appeared on student's desks, with several sighs, everyone thought that Dumbledore's class would be different.

They were right. "Good, put them away and get your wands out." A quiet cheer, if there could be such a thing, erupted from the class except, of course, for the Slytherins in the back who just looked disgruntled. The fall from power of Umbridge had taken much of the power of their house away from them. "This year and next, we will focus on magic used to defend one selves and those that you are responsible for, legally and morally from attack, or to prevent such attacks from happening at all if possible. In the class we will use the book only sparingly, the books is there to teach you the theory, incantation and proper wand movement of any spells and any special implication that a particular spell may carry. You will however be expected to know the material covered in the text, and have studied the relevant pages before we cover a topic. Now to start out with we will look at a basic defense charm, the disarming charm, this spell may be simple, however it can be quite effective if used properly, as several of your classmates already know. "

Harry didn't say a word; he just sat and watched Dumbledore with rapt attention. He didn't want this fight, but he was going to use any means to win it that he could and if it meant that he must know everything he could then so be it.

"Does anyone know the limitations of this spell?" as both Harry and Hermione's hands shot up, Dumbledore nodded at Harry, for once Hermione didn't seem to mind someone stealing her thunder on this field of endeavor. "Sir, the disarming charm is most effective against relatively weak wizards, who are not paying attention. It can also work against much stronger wizards, however the effectiveness is directly proportional to the strength of the wizard casting the spell, the strength of the wizard being defended against and surprise."

"Why surprise Harry" Dumbledore asked softly, not wanting to have Harry give this answer, but at the same time needing it, because the answer he knew Harry would finally give would be the best one to prove his point.

Harry took a deep breath, and under the table, as she had a month ago in Sirius's will reading, Hermione grabbed his hand for support, and though she let go almost immediately it was enough. "Sir, surprise is important because the most powerful wizards can be disarmed of their wands relatively easily with this spell if the target is not paying attention."

"Could you give an example of this?" Dumbledore said, trying to lead Harry to give an example that would be guaranteed to shock several of his fellow students. Fortunately Harry had been vindicated in the papers over the summer and was now once again well considered in the wizarding world. Except for the Slytherins of course, who wouldn't believe Harry if he said water was wet. Yep, here it comes, thought Dumbledore slightly guiltily.

"I disarmed Voldemort in the Graveyard, at the end of the Triwizard with this spell," Harry said just loud enough to hear in the suddenly quiet classroom. Several comments were heard, including a couple of muttered "bullocks" from the very rear of the classroom.

"MR MALFOY" Dumbledore said from where he had just appeared beside the student, "I think I heard you volunteering for demonstrating this technique. Dumbledore walked to the front of the room, with the sullen Malfoy following, "Now another I think..." Dumbledore looked over several raised hands, all members of the DA, his eyes swung by Harry and he gave an almost unperceivable shake of his head to Harry, now wasn't the time. Harry's table mates though... "Miss Granger please come up here." Hermione got up and walked to the front with Dumbledore and Draco. She looked a little apprehensive, but after she caught Harry's eyes for a moment she felt strangely calm.

After all, Hermione thought with a tiny shudder, Harry trained me and led us against actual Death Eaters. And even Dumbledore couldn't stop Harry or Ron, if Draco is stupid enough to actually try something. Then with a little shrug, well, he could probably stop them, he just probably wouldn't.

Dumbledore looked at her, "Miss Granger demonstrate surprise as a tactic to the class please."

Hermione didn't acknowledge at all, she merely snapped her wand into position "EXPELLIARMUS" Drano's wand went flying into the seats, where Harry snatched it out of the air, with a smile, as it flew by. "Surprise, Draco" Hermione finally spoke, and sat down.

"Wait I wasn't ready..." Draco tried to object, only to be interrupted by Dumbledore.

"I believe that was the idea, Mr. Malfoy, good job Miss Granger take 20 points for Gryffindor." Draco looks disgruntled at the imagined slight, but he knew not to take offence right now...however as he passed Hermione, who had just resumed her seat beside Harry, he looked daggers, a promise of retribution in his gaze. She just gave him a little smile in response, and he walked to the back of the class and resumed his seat.

Harry had noticed the silent contest between Hermione and Draco following his seemingly easy defeat at her hands moments ago, Harry made a note to be sure that he protected her, with out her knowing of course, for the next several days. In fact on reflection he realized suddenly, well actually it wasn't a sudden realization but more of a confirmation of earlier thoughts, that his friends might very well be targets almost as much as he himself was. He thought then he should try to talk to Ron, Hermione and the rest as soon as he could, to get them to realize the danger.

Hermione glanced over at Harry, knowing what he was thinking, she knew him that well. At times, his protectiveness annoyed her, but it also gave her a curiously safe feeling. Even taking into the account the events of last June, in which events had proven no matter how much Harry cared or tried, sometimes he just couldn't protect himself or any of them, it was just a fact of life, just like she knew that Harry would give his very life in the trying, and a very small voice commented quietly, she would do the same for him.

Dumbledore spent, the next hour going over various basic, but quite useful defense spells. Harry realized that Dumbledore was picking random students to demonstrate the spells, in an attempt to ascertain his student's talents and knowledge, much like he himself had done with the beginning of the DA last year.

At three, the bell ran, signaling for many of the students present the first full day back at Hogwarts was complete. Harry, and friends stood to leave, the Gryffindors, almost instinctively forming a pack as they started to walk out. As they reached the door, Dumbledore called out, "Harry a moment" Harry nodded and waved the rest on, since they were in a group even Draco shouldn't be stupid enough to start something. "Harry," after the rest had left the class, " I need to speak to you about your extra training. I would like to have a session tomorrow morning; I know it is Saturday, however that could work to our advantage. It would like take the morning if it is agreeable with you." Harry just nodded after all, what else could he do.

"Um Professor, Hermione..." Harry began softly, only to interrupted by a soft chuckle.

"Miss Granger, has noticed that her "Special Training" is unscheduled, I'm sure the rest of your friends have noticed similar schedule items, however she would be the only one to actually court an extra class. Tell her that her training will begin, when I am convinced that she is ready." Suddenly a crash was heard from the hall and loud angry words were heard. Harry and Dumbledore's eyes met, and with a combination of a twinkle in his eye and a deadly serious expression on his face, Harry had not thought such a thing was possible but he was seeing it right now. "I dare say that you are needed in the hall, Harry."

"What?" Harry asked, confused, he wanted to run to the hall, but he wasn't going to run out on Dumbledore without being dismissed.

"As head of the DA, Harry, I do believe that one of your members is being...challenged." Harry glanced at him and without another word headed out the door at a dead sprint.

**********************Hallway out side of the DADA classroom****************

Ron, Hermione and the rest of the Gryffindors, had walked out together, talking animatedly about what to do this weekend. It was not a Hogsmeade weekend, and no one really had much homework. Ron was trying to get a pickup Quiddich game going, Harry and he were not scheduled to start practice or tryouts for the team until late next week. The seven sixth year Gryffindors were passing a section of hall with many alcoves, when suddenly Draco Malfoy stepped out from behind a statue of an old witch, Susan Grimor, whose greatest contribution to Hogwarts had been to retire early. Without breaking stride Draco swept in front of Hermione, who was leading the group, and knocked her bag off her shoulder. Hermione as usual was carrying approximately twice the number of books as anyone else and when they hit the floor, a BOOM sounded down the length of the hall approximately like that of a cannon going off. Instinctively Ron and the others went for their wands...

"I wouldn't do that Weasley," Malfoy drawled. He waved around the hallway, "Look around."

The seven Gryffindors' hands stopped all at once, halfway to their wands. They noticed quickly that they were all alone, except for the at least twelve fifth through seventh year Sytherins surrounding them, all with wands pointed their way. Draco stood hands on his hips, a nasty smirk on his face and backed by his cohorts, Crabbe, Goyle, and Parkinson. "Weasley, Mudblood and Longbottom, my father is in Azkaban because of you lot and you are going to pay."

"What about the rest of us Ferret boy?" Seamus snarled as he stared down a Slytherin seventh year; who was about the size of a house.

"Well you get to pay because your friends with them." Draco replied laughingly and the rest joined him.

Harry had come out of the classroom at a run, but he had learned a great deal from Tonks, Lupin, and Dumbledore, and especially Moody. Stopping at a corner, he could hear Malfoy's aristocratic drawl from around the corner as he pulled up short. "Enimatus Reveal" Harry muttered holding his wand to his hand. Suddenly in the palm of his hand twelve little red dots appeared surrounding seven blue dots. Think Harry...Use what you have, or what you can get. A brief grin blossomed on his face as the answer appeared. He raised his wand again. "Appero Cloak" conjuring charms were normally seventh year NEWT, but with Hermione and Dumbledore's help he had learned them this summer along with several other new and useful tricks. Swirling the cloak around his shoulders he vanished from sight. Dumbledore, who needed no cloak, smiled invisibly and padded softly, unknown to anyone, after Harry to watch the show.

Hermione suddenly felt a flash of something. Talking much later to Harry, she would compare the feeling to the one he had had when Dumbledore appeared to save Harry and the rest in the ministry. But this time it was not Dumbledore who did the saving. Draco was still going on about what he was going to do to them, when in six very quick, silent flashes of red light, Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy and all three of the Slytherin seventh years collapsed to the floor, stunned. The remaining Sytherins, who had all seen the others collapse, were behind the Gryffindors, their eyes grew wide and as one they turned and ran. Draco who had not seen his compatriots fall or had heard them fall over his ranting yelled out, "WHERE ARE YOU IDIOTS GOING?" only to be interrupted by a calm voice from the rear.

"They're saving their skins Ferret Boy." Harry said quietly his hair ruffling very slightly in an invisible wind. Hermione, Pavarti and Lavender could feel a charge building up in their longer hair, Hermione's eyes grew wide with shock, recognizing from personal experience just what was happening, though she had never seen Harry this angry, only herself that once this last summer with Dumbledore.

"Fucking Brilliant," Ron whispered to Hermione's right, stunned with what Harry had just done. The rest just nodded to his sentiment, though by now, it was the Gryffindors that had their wands out. "Well what shall I do with you Draco?" Harry asked in a conversional tone, though all of his friends could hear the fury under it. "Should I turn you into a Ferret, I mean it's been done, but it's just so damn funny, or I could just walk away right now and let them take care of you now that you don't have them outnumbered two to one and without wands?" Harry raised his wand casually and cast a silent disarming charm knocking Draco's wand from his hand.

"What," Draco muttered, looking like a deer in the headlights of a lorry. "I"

"Accio wand" Hermione muttered and Draco's wand flew into her left hand. She twirled it in her left hand while waiting for whatever Harry decided to do.

After a long moment, Harry looked up, a slight grin on his face. "Ladies", waving to Hermione, Pavarti and Lavender, "a word please, Ron, Seamus, Neville you got him?"

"Yeah Harry" Neville replied happily as he replayed in his mind the faces of Crabbe, Goyle and the rest as Harry had silently taken them down. Harry led the three over to one side and pulling the three girls in close he spoke softly, Pavarti broke out in a slightly evil giggle at one point, the sound of which caused sweat to bead on Malfoy's forehead. Harry pulled out of the huddle and walked over to Ron to watch, he had just suggested something, and he wasn't sure how it would play out.

"Potter, the Dark Lord will free my father, and..." Draco sputtered, breaking off suddenly as the three Gryffindor girls straightened up from their chat and started walking over to him, with a look that frankly, scared the shit out of him.

Hermione led the three, a sight that in some ways reminded Harry of a History of Magic lesson about the Furies. All three had a definite swing in their step and came over to Draco like he was a lame antelope and they were the lionesses typified in their house mascot.

The three girls circled the hapless Slytherin slowly, who so recently was ready to curse them into oblivion. Hermione stopped in front of him, the other two girls to either side of her, "Pavarti" she said sweetly.

"Yes, Hermione" she replied, in the same tone.

"This would be easier without anything in the way" Hermione replied, her eyes dropping down Malfoy.

"Sure" and with that, Pavarti casually pointed her wand at Draco, "envesco" and his pants disappeared revealing a pair of Tornadoes boxers, a sight that did nothing to improve him in Harry's eyes.

"Harry dear, what was that charm suffix?" Hermione asked casually

"I think it was microsify, Mione" Harry replied. By now the rest of the Gryffindor boys had gotten the gist, and were slightly sliding away from their female comrades.

"Aw yes, "OBJECTUS MICROSIFY"" Hermione incanted, but only red and sparks came out of her wand. "Well damn, I guess I'll just have to go with the old severing charm, Diff..."

"NO" Draco screamed covering himself and diving for the floor. The girls started laughing hysterically, Pavarti wearing a look that slightly worryingly to Harry; looked like she was a little disappointed. Harry walked over to Hermione and threw his arm around her shoulders, he could fell a slight trembling but he's proud of her, since they were able to end this with only a scare, this time.

"Draco", Harry said calmly, "just get the hell out of here and don't try that shit again, ever." Harry knew quite well that he probably only bought a week or two of grace, but he was already thinking of ways of preventing the like of Draco's little ambush in the future. If Draco had caught all of them, without Harry being free to act it could have been messy. "I'll give your wand to Dumbledore, you can ask for it back, now get." Draco gave Harry a look that promised retribution as he ran away towards the Slytherin dungeon and home. Harry turned back towards the others. "Okay guys lets go home, Ron or Mione can you come with me to go give Dumbledore dippy's wand, I may need a prefect to testify for me, or at least console me after he boots me out of school for exceeding my authority as DA officer, or whatever the hell I am."

"I'll go Harry," Hermione replied softly her thoughts still on the altercation they just shortstopped and how she helped with Harry's plan, the scary part for her was the predator role, felt...comfortable. "What about those guys?" Pointing to the Sytherins still on the ground.

"Leave 'em." Harry replied, stepping over Crabbe to enforce his point. "They made their bed so to speak, let them lie in it." Harry started down the hall towards Dumbledore's office, Hermione following. The rest of the Gryffindors waved and with an occasional "misstep" stepped over the sleeping Sytherins and headed home.

After Harry had cleared the sight of his fellow housemates, he stopped and leaned against the wall in one of the alcoves. He slid down the wall until he was sitting on the floor at the base of the wall, shaking just a tiny bit. Hermione sat down beside him. Harry leaned his head against her shoulder and sat there for a minute. "Thanks Hermione, I don't know where it would have ended up. When I saw that he had all of you surrounded..."

"I should thank you" she replied feverently, " If you hadn't been able to sneak up on them..."

"You know you scared me just a little there." Harry said softly.

"Well you know not to piss me off now don't you" she replied back just a little teasingly. She leaned more comfortably into Harry and sat there a little while longer. "You know that we need to start up DA meetings again right?" Hermione asked, not moving from him.

"Yeah, let's go to Dumbledore's office" Harry replied, getting up and pulling Hermione to her feet.

"There's no need for that," Dumbledore said, appearing suddenly. With a wave of his wand, Draco's wand flew from Hermione's hand where she had still been holding it loosely. "Good job, Harry, and no you didn't exceed anything, but for the record, it was just another incident between students." Dumbledore started to leave, only to turn back, "oh and Hermione, to answer a question Harry asked earlier before we were rudely interrupted, your full training will begin around Christmas break, I suggest you use Harry to help you get ready." And with his last, Dumbledore disappeared again.

"You know he was there the whole time" Hermione asked Harry softly, knowing quite well that Dumbledore had seen everything including her and Harry's mostly silent post battle session.

"Yep, I figured."

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Chapter 8, Of a Snake and a Lion
**********************Hogwarts, Room of Requirement***********************

September 6, 2004
5am

"Well lad, you had your time off, now your ass, once again is mine." Moody said with a smile as he paced before Harry. Harry had had the few days off since before he had returned to Hogwarts, and now he knew that Alastor would make him pay for his lapse. "However," Moody turned to Harry, with a triumphant grin, "I heard about your little escapade with the Malfoy boy, and you did good, especially with your lead time and what you had. So with that in mind, we'll play with these today," Like a muggle magician, Moody reached under his robes, and slowly brought forth a heavy, double-edged sword, about three feet long. It was plain, and utilitarian; Harry could tell that it was well cared for but also, somehow, that it had been used a great deal in the past.

Harry looked around the Room of Requirement, as it had last year, the room had outfitted itself as needed for their studies, in the case of Harry, and Alastor, the setting was much like it would be for meetings of the DA, of which Harry had one tonight, The walls were lined with tall shelves of books on various subjects in the realm of Dark Arts Defense. Such titles lined the shelves as Basic Wanded and Wandless Dueling and Transfiguration as a Means of Attack and Defense along with thousands of other similar titles. The floor was covered in a thick mat, and along one wall, an array of various magical devices to detect and combat dark arts lay on a long table. The one thing that was missing however was a weapon to call his own. "Hmm, Alastor, I seem to be missing something." Harry asked with a raised eyebrow, understandably nervous at facing Alastor Moody with only his bare hands vs. Alastor and his sword.

"Look behind you, Harry" came an unexpected, but very familiar voice. Harry turned to see Dumbledore standing there behind a simple wooden table. Neither Dumbledore nor the table had been there before, Harry was quite certain. On the table, was another object, a long wooden box, about four feet in length. The box was almost like a wand box, only much bigger, the only marking on the box, was a very fine carving of a rampaging lion, exactly as depicted on the Gryffindor house coat of arms, or had Harry been wearing them, his school robes. Harry looked at the box for a moment and then up to Dumbledore. As Harry had noticed earlier, Dumbledore seemed to have no problem with meeting his eyes this year, even though Harry had yet to master Occlumency fully. "Open it Harry." Dumbledore said with the air of someone waiting for a friend or child to open a Christmas present.

Harry reached out to the box and pulled it to the edge of the table nearest him. As he slid the cover from the box, slowly, hilt first a sword was revealed. The hilt of the sword was cord-wrapped in a diamond pattern over three rubies on each side of the grip. The guard of the sword, was similar to some Harry had seen held in the hands of the armor suits, consisting of a simple dark disk of steel, inscribed with runes. The blade itself was hidden in a wooden sheath that was oval in cross-section and closely fitted to the sword. Harry cautiously picked up the sword, still in its sheath and looked it over for a moment. "Thank you Professor, but I can't take this." Harry said, though his voice was filled with awe at the sword, even without drawing it, it seemed to belong there in his hand.

"It is not a gift per say, Harry, but more like a inheritance, or more properly a symbol of your fight and who you are, besides that sword, has belonged to you for years now." Dumbledore replied his voice full of what to Harry seemed to almost be pride.

"But I've never even seen this sword before." Harry objected confusedly, even though somewhere inside, he knew Dumbledore was right.

"I dare say you have Harry, draw the blade, and some of your questions will be answered"

Harry drew the sword and gasped slightly. The blade was about thee feet long, and basically similar to a Japanese katana, however this sword had the spine of the blade sharpened for approximately half its length, unlike the oriental blades. Some of Harry's questions were indeed answered with the sight of the blade even though more were created at the same time. Near the guard on both sides of the blade, a rampaging lion was engraved, and along the flat of one side of the blade, the name Godric Gryffindor was inscribed. "But the Gryffindor sword was smaller and different last time."

"Aw, you see the magic in the sword at part. As I witnessed you being able to wield the sword in your second year, I knew that it belonged to you. I said it at the time and I meant it, not only as a complement, but also the truth, that only a true Gryffindor could have drawn that sword. The reason it changed is that the sword changes to suit it's user, their size, strength and fighting style, however only the one that the sword has bonded to can use it, though the "one" can have various connotations, I'm still working that out. I confess that I had not looked into the history of this sword in depth, as I couldn't draw it anyway. But there are certain things I know about it that I can tell you, in case you are curious." Dumbledore said teasingly, a twinkle dancing in his eye. Harry just nodded voicelessly and he continued his explanation. "According to the records of the school, there were five swords forged just after the founding of Hogwarts. The one you hold now, obviously belonged to Godric, the reaming three founders also each received a sword, Rowena's was similar in properties to the one you hold now, Though the original form is thought to have been like a claymore or such, with hers being smaller, and lighter. Salazar's sword, did not have the ability to change to suit its user, but could act as a portkey in emergencies, and possibly had some other functions that have been lost to time. Helga's sword was particularly interesting, as it was made to heal and not to wound, it had no edge and could be used to amplify and focus her healing powers. The final sword was this one", Dumbledore flung back his outer robes, revealing the hilt to another sword, gems of color matching all four houses on its hilt. "This is the Headmaster's sword of Hogwarts, it is both a badge of office, and a means of protection of the school on many levels."

"But I've never seen or even heard of it." Harry replied as he took all of this in.

Dumbledore gave a weary smile and a slight headshake. "I am not surprised, even the formidable Miss Granger, probably would not have found this in her studies." Harry looked unsurprised at the mention of Hermione's name, just for a moment, he almost felt like defending his absent friend on the her research prowess, even though he knew Dumbledore had meant no insult, indeed just the opposite. "The existence of the swords is itself a secret. With the exception of my sword, here, the only other sword of the three that has been seen in the last thousand years is your sword, when it was drawn against the basilisk. As yours did, Rowena's will reappear to be presented to its proper owner when the time is right. And that person, if they appear in time, would be a great ally to us in our fight. Helga's disappeared after her death, but according to some legends I have read, she deeded that sword to the smith who originally created it, to render hers down to make healers insignia pins to symbolize peace. Though most have forgotten that story, I believe that it is the reason that healer's lapel pins are made of steel to this day. Salazar's sword also vanished with his death, though there is some evidence that the sword was passed down though his heirs. Finally the headmaster's sword has several roles, it is a symbol of my duty to my students, and it is a key both to my office, and the defenses of Hogwarts. I am sure that is one of the reasons that Delores was so intent on entering my office last year when I, umm, took my unexpected sabbatical."

Harry had been attentive during Dumbledore's explanation, but both he and Alastor were fingering their swords subconsciously, ready to begin what Mad-Eye had started when he drew his sword, but he was stopped by a raised hand. "No, Alastor, this time the honor is mine." Dumbledore suited his actions to his words, throwing his outer robe off to have more room to move, and at the same time showing Harry what his headmaster was wearing under his robes. Which turned out, amusingly, to be quite similar to what his much younger students wore, an old worn pair of jeans and a t-shirt that had the Hogwarts logo on it and a cartoon of two wizards looking up at a great Hibernian ridgeback, with the caption, "I told you not to wake the dragon, damn it."

Harry gave a slight grin, which he quickly extinguished as Dumbledore, brought his sword up to the salute and muttered "Protego Duelus". A brief flash lit the room, and without a word, Dumbledore struck at Harry's head. Harry instinctively flung up an arm to block, only to see the blade of Dumbledore's sword pass though his arm, leaving no damage except a brief flash of pain. Harry's eyes expanded in shock, until Dumbledore explained. "Harry in this room, the spell I just incanted allows us to practice without having to visit Poppy afterward, or worse. Now, shall we?" The great sword of Hogwarts came back up to a salute, and this time, Harry's mirrored it. In a flash of steel, the duel began.

Dumbledore tried his trick again, however this time, his ancient sword, met its brethren in a shower of sparks and a loud CLANK. Harry rotated his wrists and snapped a return cut at Dumbledore's midsection, only to have that blocked, and to block in turn a low strike by the Headmaster at his left leg.

The "duel" almost became a dance. As Harry or Albus would try a strike, the other would almost block it without thought, usually. With a quick strike Dumbledore drew the first "blood", as he fooled Harry into guarding low and cut at his shoulder, causing a flash of pain to snap though Harry's body.

After another minute or two, Harry turned the tables for a second, Dumbledore had the experience, but Harry was faster, though inwardly he had this funny feeling that both his mentor, and he himself were holding a great deal back. Harry snapped a quick cut at Dumbledore's mid-section, only to pull the feint as Dumbledore responded to the ruse, to spin around behind him and cut at his back, scoring what would have been a fatal hit if this were real, and to then to have his follow-up strike at Dumbledore's legs blocked. As one they both spun in opposite directions, to end up with each other's swords held an inch from the other's unprotected neck.

"Professor, I'm sorry" Harry panted; he had been lost in the moment.

With a hearty chuckle Dumbledore waved away the apology. "No Harry, there is no need, anyway I haven't had anyone who could press me in a practice duel in many years, either with sword, or wand. I enjoyed it."

Harry was confused somewhat at that last comment, "What about Mad-Eye, here or...Voldemort?"

Dumbledore's smile slipped a bit but flashed back quickly. "I said a practice duel Harry, anyway, Alastor, does have superior technique to you, at this point at least, though I dare say that you will surpass him quickly. But your speed, more than makes up for it, I almost had to, un hem, cheat, to stay with you occasionally, and I can say without being vain that my technique is superior to his." Dumbledore pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and cleaned the blade of the sword even though it was spotless, the blood was pretend after all, and sheathed the sword in a practiced movement. He summoned his outer robe from the couch where it had landed and threw it over himself, concealing the sword in its folds, looking once again the slightly eccentric headmaster of normalcy. "Anyway it looks as if it's time for you to leave," Harry glanced down at his watch to see that it was six am, an hour had passed to his amazement, " and you should go get ready for breakfast and class, I believe that you have Potions this morning?"

"Yeah," Harry responded grimly, "I do." Harry resheathed his sword and replaced it gingerly in the box. I have no idea where I'm going to keep this.

Mad-eye waved at them and left the room, muttering something about having to go prepare his own breakfast so he wouldn't be poisoned. Harry and Dumbledore followed at a more sedate pace, Dumbledore walking alongside Harry until they reached the branch of the corridor where they would go their separate ways. Looking at Dumbledore, he had to know, "Professor, where did you get that Hogwarts shirt?"

Dumbledore looked back at him with a twinkle in his eyes, silently laughing, "Fred and George sent it to me, they added it to their catalog. They say they got the idea from my leave-taking last year. Good morning Harry, I will see you this afternoon in class?" To Harry's nod he walked away, whistling a song that sounded amazingly like "Weasley is our King."

Harry shook his head and walked to Gryffindor tower and with the muttered password, the Fat Lady yawned and let him in.

For a moment Harry thought he was alone as he walked into the room, but as he started to turn to go to his staircase and room beyond, some instinct, caused him to turn to the fireplace and the couch in front of it. On the couch he saw an achingly familiar head of brown curly locks poking up just enough that he could see the crown of her head. Harry wheeled about and walked over to the couch and sat down next to Hermione, placing the sword box on the floor in front of them as he sat down. They sat there for a minute or two, staring into the fire, that the elves had started to combat the early morning chill and then Harry finally spoke. "Early morning or late night?"

From anyone else those words could have meant anything from an insult to a nasty insinuation, but from Harry she knew they were just concern. "Bit of both actually, Harry."

"Me too" He replied and both of them knew he meant about the same thing.

"So Harry, did Dumbledore say when I start training yet?" Hermione asked curious, but also just to talk.

"No, sorry Hermione." Harry replied, "I just wish..."

"What Harry?"

"That you didn't have to learn how to fight just because of me."

As he said the words he knew two things suddenly, that he did wish that, and that it was a mistake to say them this morning. "DAMN IT Harry, I am not a fragile doll, just because, you..." Hermione snapped, her head snapping around to his.

Harry quickly cut her off, taking the chance to stop her before she got truly started. Even Ron never had seen her true temper, not really, and Harry didn't want to this morning. "Sorry, Hermione, I didn't mean it like that."

With a sigh she visibly relaxed and dropped her head to his shoulder. "I know." With a look at the box, "What's that?" Harry bent forward and opened the box, pulling out the sheathed sword. He held it out for her inspection, and she took it into her hands. As one would normally do, she tried to pull the sword out, but to no avail. She tried three more times before giving up and handing it back to him. "What's that, a trick of the twins?"

She'd never let Ron off that easily, "Not quite" Harry slowly pulled the sword from the sheath and showed it to her again.

"Harry...that's the sword of Gryffindor" Hermione squealed. "I thought that sword was in the Headmaster's office, how do you have it?"

"Dumbledore gave it to me, he said that it belonged to me, and anyway you saw how only I could draw it." Harry explained than further told her what Dumbledore had said about the five swords.

"But I never heard about those." Hermione objected, annoyed at somehow missing that datum.

With a smile Harry turned fully to her after he had replaced the sword into the box. "Dumbledore mentioned that actually, about how you wouldn't have been able to find it." Hermione just huffed in response. Harry wrapped an arm around her shoulders, squeezed and just as quickly let go as he heard someone start down the stairs.

Hermione looked at Harry a little melancholy, I wouldn't have minded your arms stay there...wait that's Harry. Fortunately, she was saved from her inner voice by Seamus and Dean waving at them on the way past as they wandered down to breakfast. "Well Harry, we need to go change, and get some breakfast, we have a double with Snape in two hours."

"Sure, Hermione, I'll meet you back here in twenty minutes?" He replied as she got up.

"Only if you go take a shower, Harry." Hermione waved to him, and headed up her stairs, past Pavarti as she came down. Harry's eyes unconsciously followed her until she disappeared from sight, then he quickly hurried up his stairs. A sight that didn't go unnoticed, as Pavarti had paused at the portrait and had watched the two until they disappeared.

As Pavarti left the common room, her eyes rolled up in her head, if anyone else was shouting signals as loud as those two do to each other, then everyone else would be deaf.

Harry and Hermione had wandered down to breakfast, and lingered, each making small talk, until Ron finally sauntered into the door and plopped down next to Hermione, where she was sitting across from Harry at the long Gryffindor table. Fortunately both of them knew each other and their fellow Gryffindors so well by now no real concentration was needed for this task, as both of them had other thoughts on their minds. "So, are you ready for Snape yet again?" Ron said with a grimace.

"Yeah I read the book" Harry replied distractedly, his thoughts still on events this morning, both with Dumbledore and later. His friends looked at him with vastly different expressions. For her part Hermione gazed over at him, amazement and pride competing in her eyes. Ron was annoyed though, for some odd reason.

"You read the book, are you trying to turn into Hermione?" Ron replied, with the look of someone who had bit into an every flavor bean expecting cherry and getting bat's blood.

"Let's see Ron, what else would I have to do over the summer, locked in with the Dursley's, Quiddich perhaps?" Harry replied, with a touch of annoyance.

Hermione jumped in at this response, defending Harry, with an echo of what she had done against Tonks in Diagon Alley, "Just because Harry, would like to actually pass the class...Ronald, I think of the three of us, you would be the one who would see the need to study."

With glance at his watch, Harry sighed, "Let's just go, it's already 7:30, and the class starts at eight on the other side of the castle. Harry suited action to words, and grabbing his bag be stood and started towards the door. Without looking, he knew somehow, that Hermione had followed, and that Ron even though he was probably still pissed for some reason had too. Ron's been angry with Mione or me off and on all summer for some reason, and I don't know why, I guess he'll get over it.

As the three joined the queue in front of Snape's classroom they noticed that many of their classmates have made it, along with Malfoy of course. Harry did notice gleefully, that Crabbe and Goyle, were not present, they probably blew up the examiners or something, thought Harry satisfied. Snape finally deigned to appear a couple of minutes before class started and let the class through to take it's seats, glaring at all of the non-Sytherins as he let them pass, but reserving his best for Hermione, Harry, and especially Ron. Harry and Hermione had both received Os in their OWLs, and though he disliked them he couldn't with any defensibility reject their class applications, Ron on the other had, had received a A for "acceptable", a result much higher than the twins may have gotten, but far worse than the Es and Os that his other brothers had received. A fact that Molly had reminded him of, at least ten times since his owls had arrived at Grimmauld place. Ordinarily this would have kept him from the class, and his chosen career path of being an Auror, as Snape usually only took students with an O or occasionally an E into his NEWT level classes.

The trio took their seats in the rear, surrounded by several other Gryffindors: Lavender, Pavarti, Seamus, and Neville of all people, who had matched Harry and Hermione's Os to his own, and everyone else's for that matter, vast surprise. Snape took his position at the teacher's desk and faced the class.

He began snidely, "I will say this once, this is a NEWT level class. Your work will be graded to that level at all times, while this is a two year class, at the end of the year if you are not averaging a E or an O in this class you will be gone, and no one,"
glaring at Ron, "will be able to rectify your mistake. No matter what miracle you performed to get into here." He finished, his gaze passing over Harry and Neville in turn. Turning to the blackboard, he continued, his back to the class he waved his wand and words appeared on the board, "Today, we will attempt to make the Potion of Dreamless Slumber, useful if one is haunted by nightmares. Properly made, it allows the person who ingests it to sleep as they normally would but without dreams. Improperly made however, it causes the ingestor to fall into a coma, from which there is only a fifty, fifty chance of waking. With that in mind, I will partner you off and you will take each other's drafts, as I don't have time to slip into a coma." Snape turned and with an evil grin, he walked to the back of the class, "Hmm, Granger, you and Potter are partners." Snape proceeded to partner off the rest of the class, except Malfoy. Since there was an odd number, he said that he would test Malfoy's potion on a mouse. Snape returned to the front of the class, "Now who can tell me the method for making this potion...no not you Granger. Hmm Potter, and no help from your neighbor" He muttered the last, sotto voice; so the Sytherins in the front row could hear him, they sniggered on cue.

Beside him, Harry could almost feel Hermione want to respond to Snape's slight with a certain gesture, that would probably get her sent packing, but as usual she restrained herself. Harry was still thinking about the side effects on her if he got it wrong, and was thinking of quitting right now, but a quick glance in her direction fortified him. "Sir, the potion's base is one gallon of milk from a female unicorn. The milk should be boiled for exactly ten minutes, while being stirred every thirty seconds, in alternating directions starting counterclockwise. After the ten minutes have passed, the milk is removed from the heat, and eye of newt, one cup of ginger, and ten drops of Dragon's blood, preferably Hibernian Black, are added. That mix is allowed to sit for ten more minutes, and then cut in half with water. The diluted mixture is then heated again, with the same stirring pattern for thirty more minutes, and powdered dragon's claw is added and stirred until dissolved. Finally an owl feather is placed into the potion to soak until served, however if the person receiving the potion is particularly haunted by dreams and it is available, a phoenix feather is preferred." Harry finished, to a whispered, "yes" from Hermione as he nailed the recipe.

"Correct, Potter" Snape responded disbelievingly. Harry noticed that unlike if a Slytherin had given that answer, Gryffindor got no points, but at least he hadn't lost them any. His favorite target lost, Snape turned to Ron, "Weasley, what would happen if you forgot the Dragon's blood?"

"UHH, you grow a horn in your head?" Ron replied stupidly, as Hermione mimed beating her head against her desk beside Harry. Neville covered his eyes, both in shame, and in fear that he'd have to ingest Ron's potion.

"No Weasley, you make the nightmares...more intense, I believe that lapse is worth twenty points." Snape hissed in return. "Now your ingredients are over in the supply cabinet, except for the dragon's blood and claw, which I have at my desk. You will come up for those as needed. Begin you have one and a half hours." The class scurried to the cabinets to get their supplies.

With a muttered "Incendio" Harry lit his and Hermione's burners, leaned over to her and whispered. "Hermione, you don't have to take this potion, I mean I can drop out, I trust yours of course..."

She just replied softly, "Harry there's no one else here I trust more, you did get an O after all." She shut up abruptly as Snape shot a glance in their direction. After an hour both hers and Harry's potions, were done, and to Harry's great relief, both of them looked identical, both were a clear red, looking over, Harry could see that Neville's, was similar, with just a touch of cloudiness, a sign that he gotten distracted and stirred in the wrong direction. Ron's however, was opaque and yellow, He had done just as Snape had asked him and forgotten the dragon's blood. Hermione followed his gaze, swallowed, and said, "at least he didn't forget the dragon's claw. It'll just cause his nightmares to be bad tonight, sorry Harry." Harry nodded; he shared the same room as Neville. Hermione poured his and her potions into beakers, and gave Harry hers, "Cheers" with a touch of beakers, they swallowed the foul tasting concoction. "Congratulations I'm not in a coma." She said to him with a smile.

"Yeah"

The bell rang, and the class ran, most of them to try to escape before they lost any more house points, a couple of Ravenclaws to the stairs to the medical wing to get their stomachs pumped. Harry and his friends headed to the main doors, and outside to Hagrid's for class.

Hagrid's class went quickly, today, they were reviewing what they had learned about the wyverns on Friday, so there wasn't any real new information to occupy Hermione's mind. Which of course started to wander, as she started doodling on her parchment. "Alright, that's it get out o' 'ere" Hagrid announced, and with a jolt Hermione snapped back to the present. Looking down she quickly lined though the snitch she had drawn in the corner of her paper, and got up from the outside benches that Hagrid used instead of desks. She glanced over and saw that Harry and Ron were already heading up to the castle, absorbed in, from what she could hear, was a heated discussion on when to start tryouts. A whisper from about three feet above her ear reaches her. "'Ermione, I'm sorry if I made you angry with me Friday, it wasn't my place to ask."

Hermione turns and glances up at her giant professor, and friend. "No, it's alright Hagrid, you're a friend, and you were just trying to help."

"No lass, I meant about my other question." Hagrid muttered, which was a normal tone of voice for most people.

Hermione just shook her head as if to negate the question ever being asked and hurried off to join her friends, in their free hour before lunch, their only free hour today, as after lunch they had back-to-back doubles with McGonagall and Flitwick.

Both of those classes went well, with Harry and Hermione together, making up for the points that Ron had lost this morning, Harry with ten from McGonagall, for correctly transforming his bookbag into a trunk and back, and keeping the internal expansion charm working in both forms, and Hermione from Flitwick for charming a piece of paper into a origami snitch and having it fly around the room. Since it was sixth year, the professors, had already started giving homework, which to Ron's great disappointment, his friends, both of them, actually started on that night. As Harry and Hermione muttered over Snape's three foot essay on the limitations of Dragon's Blood as a restorative agent, Ron alternately griped about his having to do homework for McGonagall, since he didn't get the transfiguration right, and staring into the flames of the common room fire. Finally with a huff around ten, he stood up. "For the love of Merlin, It's only the second day of class." He barked exasperatedly.

Harry didn't even look up; he was busy explaining that only fresh Dragon's Blood really worked as a restorative, and that it really couldn't be preserved and still retain all of its magical properties. Hermione having already made that point met Ron's eyes, "Have you even got Hagrid's report done yet?"

"Well no, its Hagrid." Ron objected a little guiltily and walked up to his room and went to bed.

Hermione didn't reply but bent back to her essay, only to be interrupted by her other "boy" fifteen minutes later. "Hermione, I don't want you annoyed with me either, but I'm going cross-eyed here, I've been up since 4:30, and you know..." Harry said exhaustedly, to which she gave a reluctant nod.

"Yeah, me too, I just couldn't admit it to Ron, bloody essay isn't due until next week anyway." She rapidly stuffed her books and supplies into her bag and got up. "Night Harry."

"Goodnight, Mione" Harry replied as she vanished up the stairs, for his part he didn't even bother packing he just waved his wand at his pile and levitated it up to his room, were he dropped it on the floor next to his bed with a thump. Fortunately of the five people in his room, Harry was by far the lightest sleeper; no one even stirred at the noise. Glad I'm not a Death Eater sneaking in. Harry thought sarcastically. As he glanced out the window before he took off his glasses he noticed that the storm that had been predicted in the Daily Prophet for today seemed to finally be starting.

*********************Azkaban, North Sea**********************

September 7, 2004
1:00 am

Crashing waves, and howling winds hammered at a black stone fortress jutting from the sea, one hundred miles off the coast of Scotland. Flashes of lightning illuminated the fortress every few seconds. On muggle navigation charts this island was listed as uninhabited, uninhabitable and a navigation hazard to boot. Indeed if a muggle were to actually come across it for some reason, they would only see great ruins covering the island, and in the old days anyway, a great sense of loss only getting greater the closer they came near to it. To wizarding eyes however, the structure was intact, with spotlights illuminating the grounds, though it probably looked even more imposing to those eyes, as they knew the purpose of this place.

It was Azkaban prison, the home for those wizards and witches that were deemed incorrigible, or beyond redemption, or too powerful to keep anywhere else. At one time the prison had been stated to be escape proof until first Sirius Black, and later, several of Voldemort's followers, had escaped from its clutches. The later escape was suspect, as many thought that the now departed Dementors, the former wardens of this prison, had actively aided in the release of Voldemort followers. Of those who had escaped, several were back, though now under the guard of human wizards and witches.

On a hill overlooking the prison, three shadowy figures looked down upon it. With a flash of lighting a strange tableau was revealed. Of the three, the witch was the most normal, though with the weather, the only way one could tell her gender was the way her robes hung on her. The tall wizard next to her also had his hood up, but from within its depths, a red glow came forth. The final member of this trio was indeed only a shadow. It hovered slightly above the ground and faced the other two. No features could be made out about it except the two long-fingered, scaly hands that protruded from its robe.

"Yes, I will allow your kind to hunt freely among both muggles and wizards." Voldemort replied to an unheard question. "Are you ready then?" He asked the shadowy figure. To which he just received a slow nod. "Then go, and do not harm my followers, any others, do with as you wish. As the Dementor glided down to the prison, Voldemort's companion turned to him.

"My lord, why did you not use the Dementors to attack Hogwarts and Potter directly" Bellatrix Lestrange asked as screams started to echo from the prison.

"Patience, my dear." Voldemort replied almost lovingly, "Let us go to see our friends shall, we?" With a pop the two disapparated into the midst of the prison in front of a particular cell. "Lucius my friend how are you this evening?"

"Much better now my Lord," the blond-haired occupant of the cell replied from where he knelt in front of Voldemort, his prison uniform tattered, his hair stringy, but showing an air of maniacal glee.

************************Hogwarts, Gryffindor Common Room*****************

1:30 am

Harry had tried to sleep for an hour, but Neville's muttered nightmares from Ron's poor potion kept him awake. Making a mental note to remind himself to apologize, again, to his roommates about his own nightmares, he headed back down to the common room to sit and read since he was up anyway. As Harry headed down the stairs, lugging along the advanced Quiddich strategy book that Hermione had given him for his birthday, he noticed a very familiar head of brown hair illuminated by the firelight. With a grimace, not at her presence, but at the thought that somehow he had caused this, Harry plopped down next to her and sighed. "I remember this thing I used to do, I think it was called sleep."

"Yeah, don't remind me." Hermione replied, with a yawn "I knew it was you by the way."

"I knew that."

Hermione chuckled briefly at the standard come back, "the funny part is we both should have been able to get off tonight without any nightmares, you made that potion right, you know."

"So why are you up then, Mione, and it better not be homework." Harry replied worriedly, there was studying and then there was Hermione's idea of studying.

"You may have prepared the potion correctly, but Lavender didn't and Pavarti's up there crying out about bunny rabbits, don't ask, I don't know and don't want to." Hermione replied with a roll of her eyes.

"The same with Neville but without the rabbits, what are you reading anyway, Hermione?" Harry asked to be polite, only to laugh quietly at the copy of Hogwarts, a History, she held up. "Should I get you a new copy for Christmas or your birthday, since you will have this one worn out?"

"Nooo," she replied batting her eyes, since he was teasing her she'd return the favor, "but there is a new Arithmancy Puzzles for the Ages, by Thomas Angle that I'd like, I saw it but couldn't afford it."

"As my lady commands, when was your birthday anyway I forgot." Harry replied grinningly only to get a pillow in his face, and a sudden burning pain in his scar. "AGGGHHH" he muttered, holding his face in his hands.

Hermione had a sudden flash of guilt, as she thought for a moment that she had actually hurt him then she registered what was happening. She reached over and grabbed his head and pulled his face up to where she could see it and looked deep into his eyes. For just a millisecond, she thought his eyes glowed a bright electric blue, like Moody's magical one but far brighter, but it must have been just a trick of the firelight she told herself.

The pain in his scar had vanished the instant Hermione had grabbed him, though unlike before, Harry could tell that Voldemort had not succeeded in entering his mind, just a spike of Voldemort's glee?

"What?" Even through the receding pain Harry once again marveled at the fact that the two of them could have a conversion with only a few words shared, he never had that talent with Ron, only Hermione for some reason.

"Don't know, but I do know he's really happy about something. It's probably bad for our side, I'm sure." Harry replied shrugging slightly.

"We should contact Dumbledore right now, Harry" Hermione pleaded in response, her eyes even more than her words.

I should have listened to her last year; I won't make that mistake again. "Fine lets go." Harry replied setting his shoulders, he really didn't want to wake the Headmaster, but all in all it was probably safer than waking McGonagall. "Umm Mione" Harry said softly, consciously noticing something, his unconscious mind had noticed minutes before.

"Harry?"

"You might want to cover up a little" Harry replied with a grin, motioning to the relatively small t-shirt that didn't leave much to the imagination that she had tried to sleep in. "Here, Accio sweatshirt, cloak, map" Harry muttered with small wand flick, and one of his Gryffindor team sweatshirts floated in along with the Marauder's Map and his invisibility cloak.

"Thanks, Harry" she replied slightly embarrassed, as she pulled the shirt on, somehow Harry seeing her in her pajamas, was a far different thing than the Headmaster seeing the same. "Am I presentable now" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah," I miss the belly button ring already...down damn it he thought with just a touch of disappointment as he glanced over her in his sweatshirt over her sleep pants. Harry threw the cloak over both of them and they snuck out the portrait hole and down the corridor. Checking the map, they could see it was clear all the way to Dumbledore's stairs.

As they walked down the hall, Hermione muttered so only he could hear, "this would be easier if we could just apparate there, but no, we just have to have wards."

"You can apparate, Mione? Your birthday isn't until the nineteenth." Harry replied as they rounded the last corner and saw the gargoyle in sight.

"I knew that you knew when my birthday was...of course I know how, I'm just not licensed, and I bet you do too." She replied with a smirk that Harry didn't have to see to know was present.

With a guilty admission, "Actually I have a license, Dumbledore gave me the test, but it's pretty useless, since I can't apparate in school, and even at Hogsmeade, where would I go, I'm not Fred or George I can walk places you know."

"I knew it" she replied victoriously as they reached the guardian, "Skiving Snackboxes" The gargoyle stepped aside and they rode the stairs to the top, Harry pulling the cloak off of them as they rose. "I hope he's not asleep." Hermione said quietly as they reached the door.

"Hermione you wanted to come" Harry said with a grin at her sudden discomfort.

"I know, but still..." her further comments were cut off as a familiar voice from within the room said, "Come in"

Albus Dumbledore looked up as the two entered his office; fortunately he had discovered a while back that he needed very little sleep to function, which was of great benefit in his various roles. He glanced around and saw that all of the portraits appeared to be sleeping, and returned his gaze to his two students. Let's see, pajama's, so they weren't out doing something and got caught, though I didn't know that you could get that sweatshirt unless you were on the team, Dumbledore thought with an inner grin, once again reminded of a certain boy's parents. Also no professors in tow, having caught them at anything, besides, they both have the rights to wander the castle freely now anyway. So, must be something to do with Riddle, Dumbledore concluded sadly.

"Tell, him Harry" Hermione muttered, though Albus heard the hushed command rather well, his powers were formidable after all, and despite the subject, he was glad that his hands hid the sudden smile that bloomed on his face before he beat it back down.

"Ok, Mione" Harry replied in a whisper, and then turned to Dumbledore with an apologetic look. "Sir I'm"

"We"

"We're sorry to disturb you at this hour."

"It's ok you two, I'm sure that it's important." Dumbledore put in to stop the apologies and get to the meat.

"Anyway, we couldn't get any sleep, due to the effects of a potion on our roommates, so I came down to work on strategies, and found Hermione already down there. We were talking for a bit then I felt my scar acting up, and Voldemort, feeling I don't know, gleeful maybe, it was weird. There weren't any thoughts, then suddenly though it was like he couldn't get in was just standing outside yelling or something." Harry replied as he replayed the event in his mind.

"How exactly, Harry?" Dumbledore asked, with a very slight undercurrent of hope in his words.

"I felt his emotions, and I could feel that he started to try to get inside to gloat if nothing else, then Hermione grabbed me, and it was like he had a door slammed in his face, I don't understand sir. I've been practicing Occlumency, but I actually have only had very little instruction since when Professor Snape dropped me."

"Hermione, could you wait outside for a moment?" Dumbledore asked politely and caught the incremental nod Harry gave to her, as she looked at him. After she stepped out into the waiting area outside of his office, Dumbledore tuned back to Harry, "Harry, I'm going to try to enter your thoughts," As Harry reached for his wand, "You won't need that Harry, if I'm right." With a look of confusion Harry replaced his wand in a pocket, and sat looking at Dumbledore. "LEGILIMENS" For a brief moment, Dumbledore saw a couple of flashes of images fly by then as he saw a scene of Hermione laying on the floor, somewhere, seemingly dead, he was thrown out of Harry's mind with enough force to rock him back in his chair. Well that was interesting, Harry seems to have made a quantum leap in Occlumency since he was last tested, or something. That last image is probably the key. "Harry could you step out side and send Hermione in for a moment."

Harry got up and nodded, confused, but well aware that he had just tossed Dumbledore out of his mind, when less than three months before, Voldemort had had free reign. As Hermione stepped into the room, glancing back at the door where Harry waited, Dumbledore motioned to the chair in front of him that Harry had just left. "Hermione, I'm sure you have heard of Occlumency and Legilimency?" He continued as she said, "yes" quietly. "I am going to try to look into your thoughts, I promise that I won't dig too deep." As her eyes caught his "LEGILIMENS" as with Harry only brief, disconnected images caught his mind's eye until with a flash he saw Harry lying face down in a pool of blood, and he was thrown out just as hard as he had been ejected from Harry's I swear I am going to sack Snape in the morning, they're both naturals, wait that's not right, it's as if a switch has been turned on in them. "Harry come in please" Dumbledore said loudly to the door, it opened instantly, a sign that Harry had been waiting just outside. Dumbledore wasted no time with preamble, "Somehow between the last time you were tested, and now, you have both gained significant mental abilities, enough to forcibly block my intrusions."

"I haven't studied at that at all, except in a book" Hermione objected disbelievingly.

"Still the effect is the same, I will have to have Severus test you both also, but it seemed that you have both somehow gained a mastery of Occlumency. I would like you both to continue to study with myself if this does prove to be true, as the reverse technique, Legilimency should also be within your grasp."

Harry and Hermione were both speechless as they glanced over at each other, though each shared a similar thought, if I/Harry was a master at this, then how did Voldemort get in my/his mind last year?

"As to your original purpose here tonight...Fawkes" The phoenix hopped over to Dumbledore, took a hastily scribbled pair of parchments in his golden beak, and disappeared in a flash of light. "I don't know what has happened either, I sent Fawkes with messages to both Arthur and Alastor just in case, but I don't expect any word until morning, now go to bed you two, if you have to cast silencing charms on your roommates, I remember James used to have to do that to Sirius."

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Have fun, a nice middling sized chapter to read, someday I will own characters, but unfortunately not these, they already belong to Rowling.

Chapter 9, Resetting the Board.
***********************Hogwarts, Main Hall*****************************

September 7, 2004
7:00am

Fortunately for Harry, today, Tuesday, was the lightest day on his schedule, today, he only had a double Muggle Studies in the morning, followed by an hour of DADA class work, with Dumbledore's "practical" DADA work immediately following. Dumbledore had added the practical portion, after finding that due to the lack of actual spell work done in the subject last year, many of the students were well behind where they should have been. Though Harry and his friends were not among that number, he welcomed the additional practice, and after all it only would help with his grades. The Muggle Studies that he and Hermione shared was also cake more or less, as both of them were muggle raised, and were taking the class for it's appearance on an Auror application. Ron had yet to make an appearance however, he was still probably sleeping off Neville's potion.

Harry looked across the breakfast table mounded over with food at Hermione, with a slightly guilty feeling, he could see the bags under her eyes, from yet another night of little or no sleep. If Riddle doesn't get us, the lack of sleep will, he thought sadly. "Coffee, Hermione?" Harry asked softly, as he knew from experience that she usually had a headache if she didn't get any sleep.

"Thanks,hu..Thanks Harry" Hermione replied distractedly as the morning post owls started swooping down to deliver the mail. The owl delivering her copy of the Daily Prophet settled in front of her and extended a leg for payment as it dropped the paper on her thankfully, empty plate. Feeling around in her pocket Hermione, found only some pocket lint, "Dang, Harry, I..." Without another word, Harry pulled some change from his pockets and gave it to her, smiling to himself as she paid the owl then whipped out her planner to write a note to repay Harry.

Mione, I really don't care if you pay me back. Harry thought to himself as he picked at his bacon. Just as he looked back up to Hermione, she exclaimed loudly, "OH SHIT" then realizing where she was quickly dropped her voice before anyone could figure out where that came from. "Hermione?" Harry asked amusedly only to lose any sense of amusement with her next words.

"Harry...they escaped, all the ones we put in Azkaban...They're out" She slammed down the paper. Harry looked into her eyes and saw fear in her suddenly pale face. Without another word, she got up and ran from the room, leaving her books behind. Harry scanned the article for a second, only noticing two names in particular, Lucius Malfoy, and Antonin Dolohov.

He's the one that almost killed her...Harry jumped up to follow, "Ginny" he pointed at Hermione's books and his and ran after her, not waiting to see if she would watch the bags.

"Sure Harry" Ginny replied, but he was already gone.

As Harry reached the hallway, Hermione was nowhere in sight, "Damn it Hermione, I'd think you were a kneezle instead of your damn cat, sometimes," he muttered. "Screw it, APPERO MARADUER'S MAP" Harry incanted quickly and his father's map appeared in his hand. With a quick wand tap, as he looked around the hall, no one was about, Harry said quietly, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." From the corners inward, the seemingly blank sheet of parchment filled itself in with a map of Hogwarts. Little moving dots indicating people, ghosts and several familiars appeared in the schematic hallways and rooms. Harry spotted a rapidly moving dot labeled, "Hermione Granger" heading out the front doors. She's heading for the lake, her tree. Hermione had tended to study when she could under an old oak tree near the lake, and she also liked to think there. A fact that normally caused Harry sly delight, because of the other purpose of the tree over the years, that of carving certain initials into, and she had never noticed until he had pointed it out. The tree had a special place in his own heart, especially due to a certain heart with the initials, LE and JP intertwined in it, probably carved with a certain magical utility knife in his possession. Harry quickly blanked the map, shoved it into a pocket of his robes and headed for the lake.

Back in the Great Hall, Ron had finally showed up yawning, and plopped down in the seat that Harry had just vacated. Without looking around he grabbed the nearest platter of bacon and shoveled some onto his plate. Dumping eggs onto his plate he finally looked around and saw his brothers, Ginny, Neville and Pavarti all looking at him. "WHAT?" Ron asked, his mouth full of eggs.

"You didn't notice that both of your best friends have rushed out and left their books, which by the way, you had to move to sit down?" Ginny replied incredulously.

"No, why would they do that?" Ron asked with a shrug, stuffing some bacon into his mouth.

"Well, Ronald" an airy voice came from behind, then beside him as Luna sat down, "Probably because the Death Eaters, we captured at the Ministry last June, escaped early this morning...I always knew the Death Eaters were in league with the ice-breathing Spanish Corkeles. Here." Luna slapped a copy of the prophet down in front of Ron, then at everyone's look, she said she hated the Prophet, "What, we have to know what the enemy is saying right? After all the Prophet still isn't talking about Fudge's army."

Everyone admitted silently that she had a point, somewhere in there, as Ron picked up the Prophet and read the indicated article, "Yeah so they escaped, why would she freak?"

Amazingly it was Fred who answered, "For the love of Merlin, they mention Dolohov by name, Ron"

"So?" as he crunched his bacon.

"Dolohov is the one who damn near killed her." Ginny growled in response.

"I guess I'll see them later then" Ron replied, as both Ginny and Luna rolled their eyes exasperatedly, shaking their heads as one. Fred and George just got up to head to Dumbledore's year seven DADA class; not bothering to speaking to their brother.

"WHAT?"

*********************Hogwarts, Grounds by the Lake*********************

Hermione was sitting under the oak tree, with her back to the castle, watching the ripples spread in the lake from where the squid had just poked a tentacle above the water. As she watched, the ripples turned to a brilliant purple wave of light snapping towards her, and as they seemingly hit her, she felt as if she were falling backwards, her chest on fire. Her eyes were locked on the lake, and she was shivering slightly despite the warm weather. She didn't notice the clear blue day or the birds chirping cheerfully. She didn't even notice Harry's hurried footfalls as he ran up.

"Mione," Harry snapped seeing her under the tree, then with a total lack of response from her, "HERMIONE" gently shaking her shoulder as he dove in beside her.

"Ha, Ha, Harry? " She stammered in reply finally realizing he was here. "I'm sorry." Turning to him, and brushing a lock of hair from her eyes

"For what?" Harry replied looking into those scared brown eyes

She dropped her gaze from his, ashamed for her reaction, "For running out like that, I thought I had buried it, I hadn't really had the nightmares for a few days...I just keep seeing that spell coming my way..." She dropped off as Harry pulled her into his shoulder, after a few minutes she stopped shaking, but she didn't speak for several more.

"You have no cause to apologize, It's my..." Harry started the familiar refrain, only to be stopped abruptly.

"Oh no you DON'T HARRY" Hermione fired back, backing off from him to stare him down, the fire driving the fear from her eyes, only to stop at his tiny grin. "Oh damn it" she muttered falling back into his shoulder.

"Sorry Mione, we've gotten so good at blaming ourselves that I thought I'd use it." Harry shrugged their combined shoulders.

"We are pretty good at it aren't we?" She asked rhetorically, to which Harry just sat silently. RING, the bell in the castle sounded loudly, "Damn I'm missing Runes" Hermione started to get up only to be pulled back down by Harry.

"It'll wait Hermione, you aren't in shape for classes yet." He said, concern flooding his voice.

She took a deep breath and tucked back in beside him, "Umm, ok, you are probably right."

"Don't worry I'll write you a note, I'll say it was a security emergency or something." Harry said with a thoughtful tone.

With a snort, "What emergency?"

"Well you see, we lost all the brains in the castle when you ran out and I had to find them." Harry replied softly to which she just laughed bitterly at his pitiful joke.

"Thanks Harry...do you think we can stay here for a while?" She asked and got a silent nod in return.

Harry and Hermione sat out there alone for another hour, until Ginny found them and left their bags, silently, to a mouthed "thanks" from Harry. Hermione never noticed her presence, she just kept looking out at the lake. Finally at about a quarter to ten, Harry pulled her to her feet and they trumped off to Muggle Studies. Fortunately, neither had to think in this class, and Harry even managed to score ten points by knowing just what a microwave was used for and how it worked.

Lunch passed quickly, Ron acknowledged their presence, with an ill-timed joke, that Harry, just looked at him for and fortunately Hermione either didn't hear or just ignored. I am slightly worried about this afternoon, since Dumbledore has these practical sessions now scheduled in addition to what he has in class already. Harry thought as they got up to go to the DADA practical.

"Good afternoon class" Dumbledore began, with what Harry could tell was false cheer from where he sat in his front seat with Hermione next to him. Though just how he knew he didn't know, he just did. Ron was with Neville over at the next table over to the right, with Pavarti and Lavender to the left and Dean and Seamus behind them. "As I'm sure you have noticed, I, due to what I saw last week during reviews, have scheduled mandatory practical sessions for the time being for the 4th -7th year classes, so you have more or less another double. If I see enough improvement, we will drop back to the normally scheduled class" As he turned to write today's lesson on the board, he caught sight of a raised hand, "Yes, Mr. Boot"

Terry Boot, one of the other "brains" in the year, looked at the Headmaster expectantly, "Sir, what about the Death Eaters that escaped Azkaban this morning, is there any danger to us here?"

Dumbledore turned fully to the student, but not before catching sight of Hermione's pale face and Harry's slightly angry expression at the question. Shaking his head, "I would expect that Voldemort will not attack the school at this time, if that answers your question Mr. Boot" he replied consolingly.

Harry could tell that it didn't, but Terry fortunately didn't push the point. The rest of the class on shield theory went well, and Dumbledore paired them up for the practical. He was having them review shielding themselves from an attack, something they all should have been able to do, at least with a simple protego in third year, but that he had found many couldn't do, or had forgotten how to do, in last Friday's double. Of course, this should have been cake for the members of the DA and especially for the six that went into the Ministry last June and it was, except for Hermione. As Dumbledore watched carefully, he noticed that while Harry had no problem blocking the spells that she sent his way, either his aim was really atrocious today, or he was missing her, just barely, with every shot. Which was good for her sake, as Dumbledore doubted that she had successfully raised a shield yet. Dumbledore walked over to Harry and Hermione, ducking an errant stunner along the way from Zacharias Smith as he passed where he was dueling with Ernie McMillan. "Hold a moment, Miss Granger" he said bending close to Harry. In a whisper, "Harry you shouldn't pull your shots." Standing tall and in a normal voice, "Mr. Potter work with Misters Longbottom and Weasley for a bit, I need Miss Granger's assistance" Crooking a finger at her, he beckoned her to follow him to a quiet corner, with all of the stunner shots and crashes of impacts on shields and the walls, no one could hear them if they tried. Even so, he dropped his voice, "Hermione what is it? The escape?" he asked concern in his voice, which he might not show to every student.

"Yeah" she breathed, "how did you know?"

"You mean besides, this half-arsed note that Harry sent me to try to get you excused from Runes this morning" Dumbledore held up a crinkled piece of parchment in Harry's familiar handwriting. "I excused you by the way, however I will not repeat that understand?" he asked sternly, though the twinkle that had blossomed in his eyes when he drew out the note never left.

"Yes, Sir" I can't believe that Harry, would try to make up an excuse for me...yes, you can, a different voice responded to her inner dialogue, which sounded so remarkably like Harry's that she turned for a second to see that Harry had summoned a silver shield for protection, Where'd he learn that? She wondered distractedly, only to watch Harry have to vanish it at a headshake from Dumbledore, Harry shrugged in response as if to ask What? of the Professor. Thanks Harry, like you forgot that you weren't to do stuff like that.

After Dumbledore had silently made Harry go back to a basic protego, I know you did that to distract me, Harry, she's not in trouble, but you might be, not that you care, "Are you ready to continue?"

"Yeah" Hermione said as she took a steadying breath.

"Then go back and remind Mr. Potter why one shouldn't show off." Dumbledore whispered back as he strode to the back of the class, where Draco, kept stunning and enervating Goyle, Goyle never even starting to get his shield up in time, even when Draco would count to ten before casting the spell.

"Thanks Harry" Hermione said with a smile then snapped a stunner at him, which he deflected, barely.

The rest of the week went by quickly, after dealing with the initial shock Hermione had no problem with the rest of her classes, even managing to score almost fifty points for Gryffindor by herself, split between her DADA, Dangerous Creatures, Transfiguration and Charms classes, which barely offset the damage Ron, Neville and Harry managed in the next days double potions class. Though to be fair, that really wasn't Harry's fault, she thought annoyedly as she watched Ron hover in front of the Gryffindor goal rings on the Quiddich pitch, Harry lost the extra ten points, because Snape said that he cast an incedio spell on Neville's fire, when Ron spilled his potion and caused it to flare up and catch Snape's only clean robes on fire.

Just to be fair to everyone, Ron and Harry had called tryouts for Friday at five, but all of Gryffindor tower and the rest of the school as well, to be real, already knew the line up. Fred and George, having returned to repeat their seventh year, were already in at beaters, even though Harry insisted on letting others try out. After Sam Parkinson, and Nancy Fleet, both somehow managed to knock themselves out either with their own bats or the bludgers, no one was sure, not even Harry who had been watching, the rest of the Gryffindors who had thought about trying out for that position left. All except Neville and Seamus who had easily made it in as backups for the twins. The only positions technically up for up for grabs were chasers, so far the only ones that had survived both Ron knocking quaffles back at them, hard, with broom saves, and his brothers shooting bludgers at them were Pavarti, Lavender, Ginny and a small second year, Scott White.

In the end, the lineup was as expected, Harry did give the White boy a spot as back-up to the chasers, and followed recent Gryffindor tradition, with an all female chaser line up. Ron of course picked his brothers as beaters, but he did it in front of Neville and Seamus, explaining that he wanted them both as back-ups, and that he would rotate them in this season. Neither of the two rejected boys quibbled, the Weasley twins were as great legends at their positions as Harry was at his.

"So Hermione, can we go to Hogsmeade this weekend or do we have to study?" Ron asked as they all walked from the locker rooms where he and Harry had changed back to muggle clothes, since it was Friday afternoon.

"Well Ronald, I can, and Harry can, but you, Mr. Prefect, have the duty this weekend." She replied smugly. "And Harry is taking the map and cloak with him just in case you get ideas."

"Aw hell, Hermione, the head girl likes you, can you talk to her?" Ron whined.

"Last time I looked, Cho hated me, which is at least partially your fault if I remember correctly." She replied turning from him with a hidden smile for Harry.

"Harry? She's your ex?" Ron asked hopefully.

"Whose even madder at me, also at least partially because of you. Hell, if she could she would have made me work this weekend too, except only Dumbledore can give me assignments." Harry shrugged as Ron stomped off to try to change Cho's mind. "Why would I take the cloak Mione, I'm not planning on sneaking around." Hermione reached up, though not much she was only an inch shorter than Harry, and gently whacked him on the back of the head, "OW."

"That didn't hurt, you big baby. Besides, you if anyone should, should listen to Mad-Eye, always be prepared, anyway we'll bring the prat back some treats." She shrugged as she walked off towards the castle and dinner.

Catching up as she entered the Great Hall, Harry objected in a whisper as they reached the Gryffindor table, "Ron can't break the protection wards I put on my trunk, Mione, I'm not stupid." Harry sat down in a slight huff though he didn't quite understand why. He relaxed as she apologized with a shrug.

***********************Hogsmeade******************************

Saturday, September 11, 2004

Harry, Hermione, Ginny, Luna, Neville, Fred and George, along with the rest of his tower mates waved at Ron as they rode away to Hogsmeade. Ron kicked at some rocks mournfully, and headed back into the castle. Hermione as she had the night of their arrival, carefully didn't look forward to see the Thestrals pulling the coaches, and Harry once again, unconsciously acted to shield her from the sight.

"So what do you want to do?" Harry asked Hermione and Ginny after the three had spilt off from the others, with a promise to meet at the Three Broomsticks for lunch. Getting answers, of "the bookstore" and "Quiddich supplies" at the same time from the two girls, Harry broke out laughing, only to stop at glares from the pair. "Sorry" he said apologetically, "Actually I need to go both places so I'll flip a coin to see which is first," Pulling a galleon from his pocket, he looked at Hermione, "Mione?"

"Heads" Harry flipped the coin and sure enough it landed heads up.

With pursed lips Ginny followed along to the bookstore only commenting briefly, "You know it really isn't chance with a wizard flipping" to which Harry just whistled tunelessly. After they had entered the bookstore, a branch of Flourish and Blots, Hermione went to a back rack of Charms books, while Harry and Ginny perused the DADA and Quiddich books. In a low voice Ginny turned to him, "you did change that flip, didn't you? Not that I care actually."

"Can't say" Harry replied as he picked up a book on delayed curses and their use in traps, and went to pay for it, reaching into his pocket as he went.

Ginny watched Harry step into line behind Hermione, where she was picking up a book called Charming Everyday Items for Noneveryday Purposes. Bull, she thought fighting to keep an smile off her face, now if they would only ever break down and pay attention, my brother is going to be a problem though, I can already see it. Hermione exchanged a brief word with Harry as she finished and walked over to were Ginny waited.

At the counter Harry paid for his book, and a little more, with a murmured conversion with the attendant, he arranged for a present for Hermione's birthday, the Monday after next.

After both Harry and Ginny both paid for their purchases at the Quiddich shop, Harry refills for his servicing kit and new goggles for Ginny, they all headed to the Three Broomsticks for lunch. After lunch and several rounds of butterbeers, Hermione nudged Harry and motioned towards the door. With muttered apologies Harry followed her out onto the street.

"I just wanted to take a walk ok?" Hermione asked softly, Dean had started to ask Neville about the Ministry fight.

"Sure Hermione, where to?" Harry replied, understanding instantly.

"Sirius' cave?" She replied hesitantly, not meeting Harry's gaze.

"Umm ok" Harry said and started off slowly towards the edge of town and the cave Sirius had hid in. Passing the Shrieking Shack on the way, Harry looked up and said without looking at her, "Funny how so much of our history is bound up in this little area."

Hermione knew that he wasn't talking of the history of Great Britain or even wizard kind, "sure is." After another few minutes they reached the series of caves where Sirius and Buckbeak had made their lair during the whole Goblet of Fire debacle. With tears almost, but not quite, escaping from both of their eyes, they entered the cave. Trash was strewn everywhere, there had been no house-elves to clean up after Buckbeak, or the even messier, if possible, Sirius.

Harry choked up a little at seeing old Daily Prophets from the time, including one that hung on the wall that Sirius probably used a sticking charm, on showing Harry after he had tied with Krum for the first task. After they both puttered about the cave, looking for a while longer, Harry muttered wearily, "let's go Hermione." As they left, Harry grabbed her hand to help her down the trail and curiously didn't drop it until they were almost back in the town proper. Even more curious was that Hermione never objected or even thought about it until much later.

They decided on returning to the town proper to grab some treats for Ron and head back, which they did. Finding Luna and Neville at the carriage stop, the four of them piled into a coach together. Technically there's at least another four hours until the last coach back, which is of course when everyone else will come back. Neville said that he was tired, and Luna thought she had sensed a bad omen or something. Harry just waved them all aboard, at least Neville's reason made sense; he was tired too.

Stepping through the portrait to the Gryffindor common room, the four of them smelled an overpowering sour smell, overlaying a sharp odor of a different kind. With a raised eyebrow, Harry led the other three, the girls now holding their noses, around the couch. Harry found what he had been dreading, as had seen pretty well all the 1st and 2nd years, outside as they came in. Ron was passed out facedown on the couch, snoring softly, a bottle of Finnegan's Old Reliable Fire Whiskey on its side in a mixed puddle of spilled alcohol and puke. "Aw crap he's toasted." Harry groaned and he poked Ron in the ribs with his wand.

Ron rolled over, revealing another bottle that he had been cradling under him, also empty. "HERMY, LOONY, NEV BUDDY, HARRY, HARRY HOW ARE YOU DOING" Ron shouted with the air of the truly sotted.

Hermione's eyes flashed at the "Hermy" but she turned to Harry with forced calm. "Harry we have to sober him up and clean up this mess before a house-elf other than Dobby happens through or worse, we can order Dobby to not say anything, but..."

"I know, Neville and I will try to sober this dufus up, and you guys try to start on cleaning up, unless you can whip up a sobriety potion quick Hermione?" Harry asked hopefully.

Hermione should her head angrily, "No, I can make it of course, but it takes a week to cure, unless you want to steal some of Poppy's stock?" Harry shook his head in response, he could of course, but inside he sort of felt Ron deserved the Muggle means of sobering up quickly.

"Oh sure leave the girls the cleaning" Luna replied, though she at least had a grim smile when she said it. "I really wish that I had some of those Venusian Wombats that live in the forest they like vomit...I should buy some new quills..." Luna muttered, as she pulled her wand from behind an ear, as usual not quite totally here.

Neville chuckled, "You can pick up idiot there if ya want."

"No" Hermione replied feverantly. "We'll start here." She pointed her wand at the puddle, "SCORGIFY"

"Fair enough, Neville" Harry and Neville, careful so as not to get any puke or booze on themselves, gingerly picked up Ron and drug him to the boy's bathroom. With a wave of his wand, Harry turned the shower on full cold, and they tossed Ron under the shower fully clothed. After a few seconds Ron started sputtering as the cold water started to clear his head.

"Christ Harry" Ron moaned and tried to get out from under the shower, only to be stopped by a firm hand from Neville pushing him back under the spray. "Neville I'll curse you."

"I doubt you could manage the wand movement, doof, here drink this." Harry replied to his threat with a cup of coffee he had summoned. After Ron had drunk the entire cup, "Ok Ron?"

"Fred and George gave it to me, they said it was cut down." Ron replied weakly, from where he stood shivering in the freezing water.

Harry glanced up at the heavens as if to ask for strength, "Ron you drunk two bottles, if it was cut one to ten it wouldn't have mattered. Neville stay here, I'll go help the girls clean up." Neville nodded as Harry ran back to the common room, to see that Hermione and Luna had gotten rid of the puke, spilled booze and bottles but not the smell. Waving his wand at the common room windows, he opened them, and using a small wind spell, Harry used the resulting breeze to clear the air somewhat, though some smell still remained. In answer to her unspoken question, "the twins."

"Ohh, they're dead" She replied already thinking of the things she would assign them, a deadly glint in her eye.

"Leave it to me Mione, you can come though, and they think a prefect is bad." Harry gave a quick smile then dropped it as some first years started to come back, already commenting on the smell. The first years, however were already experienced enough to not challenge Hermione's lethal glare, and they quickly went to their stairs and vanished. Soon after the first years vacated, Neville came back in supporting a somewhat sober, though damp Ron.

Hermione caught sight of the bedraggled redhead, took a deep breath as she seemingly levitated from the couch were she had been sitting with Harry and Luna. In three quick strides she crossed the common room and stood about six inches from the visibly wobbling wizard. McGonagall would have been scared of the look she gave Ron. "RONALD WEASLEY" She hissed coldly, "What the hell were you thinking? Drinking Firewhiskey, underage, by yourself, when you were the prefect on duty, what if something had happened, what if? HUH?" She took another breath as if to store up energy to continue, but Fred and George, unwisely decided that right now would be a good time to return to the castle. She wheeled to them, and as they saw her coming, identical looks of fear crossed the twins' eyes.

Harry had time to mouth a quick "take him to bed" to Neville and headed after her to prevent Hermione from killing one of them or worse, getting herself expelled. Hermione fortunately had the presence of mind to have this discussion at least semi-privately, she grabbed Fred's, or maybe George's ear, and drug one half of the tag team to a side storage room off the main common room. The other twin looked as if he wanted to escape, but froze at Harry's gaze. "I really wouldn't mate, best to take it, now go." Harry pointed at the room and followed the desultory Weasley into the room. Harry closed the door, and with a small wave of his wand, "Silencio".

Hermione gave him a look of silent thanks and turned to the trapped duo, her expression changing like weather on the plains as she faced them. In an icy tone, she began, "What were you idiots thinking?"

"What?" Fred said with a small smile, placatingly waving his hands, all the while trying to figure out which scheme had just got blown without wrecking any others in the process.

"He's a sixteen year old boy, what were you thinking giving him firewhiskey?" She snarled turning on him.

"Ohh that, well he was bored and he wanted to try it, Hermione, and it wasn't like he'd cause any problems." George replied with a small smile.

Harry who had been quiet until now, glared at the two. He recognized their usual tactic of trying to confuse the subject, while he privately thought it wouldn't work on Hermione, and that he also knew that while he wasn't nearly as mad as the brunette prefect next to him. He also knew he would given a choice, side with her, unless she's really wrong, Harry thought to himself with an inner grin, though it carefully never touched his lips or eyes.

Hermione huffed and Harry thought he distantly heard a slight growl, like Crookshanks before he sprang on a mouse. Harry laid a hand on her arm, and she glared up at him, but remained silent as he interjected. "Listen you two idiots."

"Wait Harry, you're not a prefect" one of the twins objected, only to quickly realize that too was a mistake.

Harry went on as if they never spoke. "Did either of you idiots pay attention to Dumbledore's speech where he explained that I have prefect powers in the case of security issues with the school? Should I inquire into just how you two routinely break that security to smuggle in certain contraband items? Did you also remember that my father was one of the original Marauders, and that you really don't want to push it? You will cheerfully take whatever punishment Hermione decides on, though I will stipulate she does not refer the matter to the Professors unless necessary. Hermione. NOX" Harry cast a light-extinguishing spell and the room plunged into darkness.

Hermione waved her wand and relit the room lights, the door, had never opened and there were no windows, but Harry was gone, a fact that rattled the twins a bit. Hermione, for her part, went on as if nothing had happened, as the twins kept glancing around for Harry, who had seemingly vanished into thin air. With a small, dangerous smile, "You two will, get up every morning for a week and clean the common room by hand, before the elves get to it. I will know. You will also go and collect every bottle that you sold to a Gryffindor, and pour them out, and you will return the money." Hermione stood, staring them down, silently daring them to say anything. But for once neither did, they just nodded and she pointed at the door and they left, off to the task of loosing their own money. "Harry" she whispered after they left, glancing around the room, only to damn near jump out of her skin at a gentle tap on her shoulder. She spun and saw Harry's grin seemingly hanging by itself in midair, and then with a flash of movement, he reappeared messy hair first, slowly fading into view.

"Disillusionment Charm" Harry said answering the question she was sure to ask. "Two months of Mad-eye are good for something after all."

"Harry"

*************************Riddle Mansion***********************

The flickering light of torches illuminated a dark, cave-like room under the ancient house. In the shadows at the perimeter of the room, many, many dark-robed, masked figures stood silently, both male and female perhaps up to a hundred. Standing at the center of the room, a tall thin man, with the hood of his robes pulled forward to mask his features, stood silently looking down on twelve figures kneeling before him. A curious red glow emanated from under the hood. With a hissing breath, a high thin voice, utterly devoid of any humanity addressed the twelve. "Lucius, Antonin, I sent you along with Bellatrix on a simple errand, to recover a prophesy from a schoolboy, and I end up having to reveal myself, and you still manage to be captured by a bunch of children. Bellatrix" Voldemort paused, turning to the black-haired witch on his left, "what should we do with them." He asked slowly drawing out each word, distinctly and with an air of threat.

"Send them back perhaps" She replied her voice dripping with scorn, oblivious to the fact that one of those kneeling was her own husband.

"Perhaps, but as I am feeling generous this night I will give you a chance to redeem yourselves, Antonin, it occurs to me that we haven't visited St Mungo's in quite sometime, surely there are friends there that would enjoy a visit."

"Aye, my Lord," a deep voice with a faint Slavic accent responded gleefully, happy at his reprieve.

"The wizarding world knows I'm back, so be it, its time to remind them why they feared me in the first place. Go."

*********************Headmaster's Office, Hogwarts*****************

A thin, slightly balding red haired man appeared in a rush from the emerald flames in great fireplace in Dumbledore's office. There had been no official word, yet, but privately Albus did not want to see the Sunday Prophet this morning. Arthur Weasley straightened his glasses, and stepped aside, as the first of his two-man security detail appeared after him. Arthur, unlike the previous Minister, really didn't appreciate the trappings of the job, he had taken it because it needed to be done, and Dumbledore had convinced him to apply, though the increased paycheck, had helped fix up the Burrow a bit and finally replaced the missing Ford Anglia, that was still somewhere in the forbidden forest. He was privately convinced that the two Aurors, at least, that his undersecretaries made him travel with could have been put to a better use, after all the primary target in this war wasn't him, but a young man, probably less than a mile from here at this very moment.

As he stepped in front of the gigantic oak desk, Dumbledore glanced at him over the top of his half-moon speckles, "How bad, was it?" In a flat tone, communicating amply that he really didn't want to know, but felt he should. Dumbledore, in many ways shared Harry's occasional guilt, that somehow he should have prevented the casualties, that through some act, he could have stopped all this, that he should have squashed Tom almost fifty years before, when he was still in school, but he banished these thoughts as he concentrated on Arthur's reply.

"Bad, but not quite as bad as it could have been" Arthur replied with a frown, his eyes reflecting the pain that he had just seen at St. Mungo's. "From eyewitness reports, it looks like Dolohov, and about ten other Death Eaters, apparated in and started randomly killing staff and patients. Currently twenty are dead, including five Aurors that were visiting the survivors of the Azkaban breakout. It would have been much worse if they hadn't happened to be there." Arthur's expression turned almost frantic, he gripped the edge of Dumbledore's desk so hard the veins popped out on the back of his hands and his glasses slipped down to the end of his nose. A sudden thought had crossed his mind, so terrible he almost couldn't bear to say it, but he had to. "Albus, between the breakout at Azkaban, and last night, I don't know if I have enough forces to cover everywhere that needs to be covered. If V..Voldemort, were to attack say, Diagon Alley and here say, you could very well be alone against him for a very long time." Arthur had never let himself think of that possibility, not really, the closest he had come was when the note had arrived about Ron, Ginny and the others at the Department of Mysteries last June. Behind him, Dumbledore heard one of the portraits gasp, but turning quickly he couldn't tell which one.

(A/N: Once again, I apologize, for seemingly making Ron look like a dufus, I'm sorry, the problem was I'd already written a joke dealing with the firewhiskey incident in the sequel and had to actually show the incident. Just for that, Ron has already gained at least two chapters, in which he is highlighted in this book and the next, so to be fair. Ron's talents will come into play soon.)

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Chapter 10, Happy Sixteenth Hermione *******************Hogwarts***********************

September 19, 2004
6 am

Clouds of breath surrounded Harry, from where he was obediently following Mad-Eye along a path surrounding the lake. Harry was running along after Alastor, who was mounted on a bay stallion, laughing at Harry's predicament. Moody had repeatedly expressed the need for Aurors to be in top shape, and that Harry had to be at their standard at least. Harry's bitterly repressed observation in return was, that of the Aurors that he had actually seen, at most, Tonks and maybe Kingsley would have been able to keep up this blistering shape, none of the rest of them, especially Mad-Eye himself with his wooden leg could have even hoped to run with him. This morning run was an recent addition of Moody's after Harry had soundly beaten him in a practice sword duel, and it followed a solid hour of spellwork and hand to hand.

Finally as they pulled even with the Quiddich pitch, Alastor pulled up and Harry stopped. Stooped over, hands on his knees, Harry glanced up at Moody to see what came next, however Moody was done with him for the day. "All right boy get up to your dorm and take a shower."

Thanks Alastor, I didn't know you cared. Harry thought bitterly as he straightened up and jogged back to the castle and the common room. Today was a packed day for a Sunday, it had started with working out with Moody at 4:30 in the morning, and now had a full day of studying for classes with a quiz or essay due in Potions, Transfiguration. Beyond that he was to lead a DA session, this evening after dinner. And on top of all that he had something else to arrange.

Fortunately he found "willing assistants" on his way to Gryffindor tower. As he approached the staircase to the seventh floor, he saw Fred and George mysteriously coming up to the staircase, mysterious, as they loved their sleep, as much or more than Ron. They must have been up to something, as they caught sight of him, they froze, remembering all too well his forceful reinforcement of Hermione last weekend. Harry's broad smile reassured them, there was no malice in it, only joy at possibly solving one of his issues for today. "Come here you two" Harry called out merrily. As they reached him, Harry pulled them into a huddle and whispered urgently to them for a minute or two, finishing with, "if you help me, I'll get Mione to let up on you a bit ok?" The twins agreed readily, ever since finding Ron passed out on their illicit firewhiskey, Hermione had been their personal nemesis, shutting down every scam, scheme, and joke in it's tracks.

Leaving Fred and George behind on his errand, Harry quickly continued on to the common room, and summoning a towel and a change of clothes from his room, he went directly to the showers, waving in passing at the aforementioned witch. She was already studying at a table in the common room. After a quick shower, he hurried back to see that she had been looking over the essay Snape assigned last week.

"Give it to me." Hermione commanded without even looking up at him. Harry meekly gave her his potions essay and awaited the verdict, fortunately ever since his OWL in potions, he had the confidence to be much better in the subject, much to Snape's chagrin. Hermione soon handed back the essay, with a small grin, Damn, I remember when I'd almost have to rewrite both his and Ron's to keep them from failing, "Just a couple of misspellings, I marked them."

Harry took the parchment and pulled out a quill and corrected his mistakes. Putting the rolled parchment in his bag, "thanks Hermione, Happy Birthday" He said grinning over his shoulder.

With a light in her eyes, "What'd you get me?" she responded eagerly.

Harry looked back at her with a poorly feigned, puzzled look, "I'm supposed to get you something?" Then an odd expression crossed his face, "Ohh crap, Mione, I have to go send an owl to Lupin, I'll meet you at breakfast in a few ok?" Harry got up quickly and on receiving a slightly puzzled nod from Hermione, he walked out the portrait hole, shouting a repeated "Happy Birthday" behind him.

**************************Hogwarts, Great Hall********************

The students continued eating until Hermione glanced down at her watch and noticed that it was almost eight. "Ok you two" she said with a faked glare that she couldn't hold, she broke up at Harry's expression, "Let's go, you owe me three hours of studying before I'll let you go out to play."

"Yes, mum" Ron replied, not wanting to waste time studying, when he could be out playing Quiddich.

"You'll think mum, when Molly sees your grades" Hermione replied with just a touch of heat in her voice. "Anyway, fine, go fail, I'm heading to the library, Harry?" She got up and headed for the double doors of the great hall never looking back to see if Harry would follow.

Harry gave an slightly apologetic look to Ron, but he got up to follow Hermione, "Sorry, mate, but I need to keep my grades up." Harry turned and walked quickly to the door.

Ron mimed Harry's "I need to keep my grades up" in an exaggerated fashion to his sister, Fred and George, but only George laughed at his joke, and half-heartedly at that. "No fun anymore" Ron muttered, grabbing several pieces of bacon, he slapped them between two pieces of toast and headed off in pursuit of his friends, munching on his sandwich as he went.

Ron caught up with the two in the Library, where Harry and Hermione were at their normal table. Harry had his charms text open to a section on memory charms, while Hermione was busy writing down the definitions out of her Transfiguration book. With a sigh Ron sat and dumped his books on the table with a thump. Madame Price came by scowling at Ron for disturbing be precious library, but she did not speak. Ron did however, after Hermione had left for a moment to look up a fact in another book. Ron leaned over the table and said in a low voice, "Harry, did you figure out Snape's essay on engorgement potions?"

"Yes he did Ronald, and he's not going to give it to you." Hermione said briskly as she leaned over his shoulder from behind. She walked back over to where she had been sitting beside Harry and picked her text back up and started reading again.

Ron stared at his more or less blank parchment for about another half hour before in a huff he stuffed his paper back in his back and left. Hermione glanced up as he left, but said nothing until he was out of earshot. "Honestly...Why won't he at least try Harry?" She asked in tired voice, "It's not like he's dumb or anything, Ron can be brilliant when he wants to be, heck look at his chess game."

"I know, Mione, maybe it's because he doesn't want to be like Percy, Percy was the brain, remember the git got even more OWLs than you..."

"Only because I didn't feel like taking Divination" She interrupted snappishly.

Harry smiled at her and patted her head like a puppy, which only caused her annoyed look to grow; Ok I'll stop now, before she hexes me. "Hermione, if you don't know that I have the absolute confidence in your ability to stop Percy Weasley into the ground academically at any time, anywhere, you don't know me at all."

"Yeah I know, anyway Ron, can you talk to him please Harry, I'm worried about him, I have a feeling that the only class he's doing well in is DADA, and he's coasting there, based off what you taught him last year."

"Ok"

**************************Gryffindor Common Room************************

7:00pm

"Hermione, I know that you have a quiz in both Transfiguration and Charms tomorrow, but call it a night will you? How long have you been studying for those quizzes?" Harry asked gently as he came down the stairs from his common room. In truth, he pretty well knew the answer to that question as he had been with her for much of that studying. Ignoring the pained look he received, "I mean it Mione, take the rest of the night off, it is your birthday, you only turn sixteen once. Tell you what, if you don't get a O on both I'll stand naked out in the rain and you can use me as a practice stunner target all you want, I'll even let you use my wand." Harry finished with a smile, which had been known to sway her mind on occasion. Then after a long moment, his cheeks burned red, and he muttered, "I should probably rephrase that shouldn't I?" Hermione didn't answer, she just nodded slightly, her eyes laughing for her.

Interesting offer there, Harry, Hermione thought absently then cut herself off before she went too far down that road. She sighed and started placing her books back in her bag, she would never admit it to him, especially, but she was studying even more than usual to try to keep her mind off other things particularly the thoughts that Hagrid's awkward questions had helped along. "Ok I've stopped, now what?"

"What is, you come with me, how about a walk?" Harry replied, his hands held out to his sides. Harry didn't wait for a response; he just took her by the arm and led her from the common room, down the stairs and out the main door to the castle.

As they reached the lake, a tentacle from the squid broke the surface for a moment and disappeared. Harry could distantly hear the cries of a pack of wolves in the forest beyond. "Ok Harry, we're walking, why?" Hermione asked, though her eyes were smiling at him.

Because I needed to get you out of the way Harry struggled for a moment to find a response that wouldn't give anything away, but with a flutter of wings, a snow-white savior appeared. Hedwig had been out hunting, but when she saw her favorite people out and about, she swooped down and alit gently on Harry's shoulder. "Hi girl" Thanks Hedwig, I owe you one.

"Hi Hedwig" Hermione said happily, to which Hedwig gave a HOOT in response. Hermione had always been her favorite person after Harry, for instance she would have never thought of hopping over to Ron's shoulder as she did just now onto Hermione's. Hermione grinned and petted the snow-white bird, gently smoothing the great owl's feathers.

"I think she likes you"

"Only because you do," Hermione replied absently, a sudden silence fell between the two humans. She hurriedly changed the subject to something a little more comfortable, "By the way where is my present?"

"Oh I think I have you something in my trunk." Harry replied as if to imply that he was going to give her a pair of socks like he did for Dobby.

"It'd better be better than your old socks, or I give your fan club your telephone number at the Dursleys." Hermione quipped in response. "All those little girls calling..."

"Go ahead," Harry replied with a raised eyebrow, "It might just give Vernon a heart attack." Harry slowly started walking back towards the castle only to be stopped once again.

Harry's offhand comment had reawakened old worries in the back of Hermione's mind. "Harry did he again, even after Alastor?" She had commented to Hagrid earlier that she suspected as much, but deep inside she had hoped it wasn't true.

Harry sighed, he had reached the courtyard before she had stopped him; so he leaned against an archway. He did not meet her gaze, "Not any worse than I usually end up with over the course of a year here, from Death Eaters, or dragons, or something." He shrugged, and straightening up he started walking once again towards the main doors of the castle. Hermione tried to awkwardly strike up the subject a couple of more times, but she gave up as they reached the seventh floor, and the entrance to Gryffindor tower.

Harry muttered the password to the Fat Lady and she swung open silently without any quips or comments for once. As they entered the common room for some reason it was dark, all the lamps were out and the fire was not lit. Hermione bumped into Harry in the darkness, "Sorry" she murmured.

From somewhere in the dark room, a very familiar female voice incanted "incedio lamps." With a rush of air all of the oil lamps scattered about the room lit as once suddenly exposing many people standing stock still, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY HERMIONE" came a roar from the mass of Gryffindors, and a few Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs that were crammed in the room. Ginny Weasley put away her wand from where she had relit the lights and walking over to Hermione gave her a hug, and handed her a brightly wrapped package, "Happy Birthday, Hermione" Ginny repeated, much quieter than the initial shout.

Hermione glanced around the room. On a long table against one wall, a cake with sixteen candles, and a great tub full of ice and butterbeers sat. Over the mantle of the fireplace, a banner hung that spelled out "Happy Sweet Sixteen, Hermione" before it changed to "Forgive us, Fred and George" She laughed hilariously and catching Fred's eye across the room, she mouthed "ok" to him. Ron was next in the group of well-wishers; he came over and also gave her a hug, and a peck on the cheek. Turning a little red, he muttered, "Birthday, Herm" and handed her a gift of his own.

After she had done the rounds and greeted everyone, she sat on her favorite couch and started opening her presents; I know this was Harry's idea, the goof. She opened Ginny's present first, to find a brush that magically straightened ones hair. "Thanks Ginny" She replied, as she started on Ron's gift. Opening it up she found an assortment of tricks and gadgets from Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, "Umm Thanks Ron" She replied neutrally, though he looked happy. Finally after opening a never needs ink quill set from Pavarti and Lavender, she looked over at Harry, who had yet to actually give her anything.

With a crooked smile, he handed her a heavy wrapped package, obviously a book and a smaller thinner envelope. "The package is from me, the other is well you'll see." Harry replied mysteriously.

She looked at the envelope first only to see that the handwriting on it while familiar was not Harry's:

Hermione Granger

She ripped open the envelope and began reading.

Hermione,

Harry pointed out to me that while you were already eminently qualified, you would not be able to go to the Ministry to take your apparation test, until next summer, and therefore would not get your license until you were almost seventeen, an obviously unfair situation. He had originally asked if you could get permission to go take the test this weekend, perhaps escorted by Tonks or Lupin, however I feel I have done him one better. As Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, I ruled that you were capable and did not need to take the test, so I personally signed off on your apparation license.

Have fun and don't splich yourself.

Albus Dumbledore

As she finished Dumbledore's note, Hermione squealed like a little girl. She looked inside the envelope, and seeing something else, she shook it and a ID card fell out, complete with a little moving picture of her, with the words "the witch or wizard mentioned here is fully qualified and licensed to apparate, at his or her discretion, without the aid of other persons." Looking up at Harry's smile, he had a pretty good idea what was in the envelope, "Thanks Harry"

"Don't thank me, thank Dumbledore; he signed off on it, anyway open mine"

Hermione opened the package and found just the book she had jokingly asked him for earlier this month for her birthday. "Harry, this isn't a cheap book," she said quietly to him, out of earshot of the rest of the crowd who were at that moment watching Ron, and Dean compete in slamming mugs of butterbeer. "I mean, thanks" dropping the book on the couch she gave him a quick hug, letting go before almost anyone saw her.

"Your welcome, Mione" Harry replied also quietly. He got up and walked over to get a butterbeer from the tub, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

I meant that, he would have had to special order it from the author. Oh Well, She thought happily as she opened the book and glanced though it. The party went on for a couple of hours more, before the music was turned down and the majority of the students drifted off to bed or to study. Hermione was strongly considering going and studying some more, as she glanced over at Harry talking to Ron about something, but he was right I really don't need to study anymore for tomorrow.

The same small red-haired witch whom had opened up the party quickly derailed Hermione's train of thought. "Come on Hermione, lets play a game" Ginny said with an evil glint in her eye. She called over the others and sat them down around a coffee table. It was easy as only her; Hermione, Harry, Ron, Luna and Neville were left. She had read this in a muggle magazine and wanted to prove something to herself if no one else. She had seen the quick hug from Hermione, and how quick she dropped it before anyone could see.

"The object of this game is to see how well you know your friends, I'll put names in a hat, and we'll ask questions about the person, but the person you are paired with from the drawing has to answer them. Writing down names, she slipped them into a convent bowl and had people draw for partners, careful controlling her expression so as not to reveal that she had charmed Harry and Hermione's slips so as to make them partner up, the other two pairs drawn, which were random, were her and Ron and Luna and Neville.

The first two pairs went quickly, Ron and Ginny, being siblings and living together constantly for sixteen years knew each other pretty well, on the other hand as expected, Neville and Luna knew just about nothing about each other.

"Ok Harry's favorite color?" Ginny asked with a suppressed grin.

"Easy, red and gold" Hermione answered without thinking.

"Harry"

"Hers is green"

"I thought it was blue," Ron objected.

"It was but now it's green" Hermione replied smugly.

"Ok, class they hate the most" Ginny interjected

"She hates Divination" Harry replied confidently, Hermione nodded with a slight grin and replied, "And Harry hates potions with a passion."

"Scariest moments, in a class mind you?" Ron asked grinning, expecting Harry to answer the infamous boggart incident in third year.

Harry did as expected "She was afraid of the boggart, in Lupin's class"

With a quick almost unperceivable eye flick to Harry, "No sorry Harry I was afraid there I admit but...When Hagrid introduced you, uhh, us to Buckbeak." A weighty pause then "Harry's is Potions in general."

"Nope Hermione, it was when I thought Draco had you cornered the other day." Harry replied nervously.

"That doesn't count Harry" Ginny replied a twinkle in her eyes, Yep it does actually for my purposes anyway.

"I was still in the classroom Gin" Harry replied sticking out his tongue at the witch, as everyone laughed.

"Boo, harder" Neville said with a grin, "How about what they are most afraid of then, not just in school?"

Hermione didn't look at Neville, but glanced over at Harry before answering, "To be alone at the end."

Harry gulped slightly as she stated his real fears, "hers is to not be good enough."

Luna soon got into the sprit of the game, "How many kids do they want?"

"Two" both Harry and Hermione replied as one, then turned and looked at each other quizzically. After a moment of silence, Hermione got up, "I really need to get to bed, I'm tired. Thanks everyone for the party, and the gifts." She spun and hurriedly went up the stairs to bed.

Game, set and match, Ginny thought happily as she started to pitch in to clean up.

(A/N: Ok I got this idea from somewhere, I can't remember where, probably read it somewhere. However I may have overplayed my hand a bit with the last question and Hermione's response. The game was Ginny's idea, as she just wanted to prove something to herself.)

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Chapter 11, Legilimency, Shaken Preconceptions. *******************Hogwarts****************************

September 21, 2004
5:30 am

"Damn it Mad-Eye, this is 2004, no one has to chase people on horses anymore, we have cars and brooms, dammit." Harry sputtered, as once again Moody thought it would be a great thing for Harry to do to end his morning combat training, after already practicing his spellcasting under stress for an hour straight, by running after him, while he was on his horse. I got to start getting to bed earlier, or maybe I can audit History of Magic so at least I can sleep during the day. Harry thought grimily as he jogged after Mad-Eye and his horse.

"But lad, what if you don't have a broom, and there is no gas for your car, after all I remember the seventies." Mad-Eye pulled up suddenly and without warning he pulled his sword from under his cloak and swung at Harry's head.

"Oh Shit" Harry muttered as he tumbled to his left out of Moody's reach. Moody chased Harry; he was remarkably quick for a one-legged man almost four times Harry's age. Harry ducked another swing and dove forward under a third, all the while looking around for something to even out the odds. Moody was keeping Harry so busy he couldn't aim a counter spell, and couldn't take the second to conjure his sword. Besides, they had run outside the wards of Hogwarts this morning. Wait, Harry thought as he snapped up a small log to block which Mad-Eye promptly cut in half. Looking around again, you screwed up Mad-Eye, we're back on the grounds. When in doubt cheat, "LUMOUS MAXIMA"

A sudden ball of light erupted from the end of Harry's wand, he didn't have time to aim, but he didn't need to for this. While Moody was blinded, Harry quickly incanted a second spell, this one more than evening the odds. "Appero Sword." As Mad-Eye swung blindly through the brightness, his steel met not air or flesh, but steel as old as the castle itself. CLANK. With a quick tap and a sudden reverse, Moody's blade went flying through the grass, and as his vision cleared, he could see the edge of Harry's sword splitting the morning daylight about an inch from his neck. "Give Alastor?" Harry grinned, slightly panting.

"Just seeing if you were awake, lad" Alastor Moody said chuckling. A squirrel chattered in a tree above him and his magic eye pivoted up to look at it while he continued to look at Harry with his normal one.

"And was I?" Harry asked, carefully not taking his eyes off Moody as he backed away and lowered his blade, just in case he wasn't done. He was however.

As the sun finished rising, and started to burn of the early morning mist, Mad-Eye gave a crooked smile and said, "Aye you were, head on back Harry, you won't be any more fun today, try not to get in trouble eh?"

"Ok Alastor" Harry watched him for a moment more then as he had backed off enough to run, just in case, "ENVESCO SWORD." The Sword of Gryffindor vanished in a flash, to return to Harry's trunk until needed. After a moment of walking back toward the castle, Mad-Eye at his side leading his horse back to the stables, "Alastor, do you do that with everyone you train?" Harry asked, curious to see what the Auror training causality rate was.

After a moment of contemplation Mad-Eye decided the truth was best, "No Harry, not usually, and even if then, not until later, especially not out where the dueling wards are not effective."

"Why me then?" Harry asked, a little nervously, as he contemplated that answer.

Mad-Eye shrugged slightly, "No choice lad, not enough time to bring you up slowly, normally in Auror training, you'd be taking administration classes, and prisoner control, and other crap you don't need yet, as it is you are doing straight magic, and combat. Between me, Albus, Remus and Tonks, and your native abilities you are probably at a second or third year equivalent to an Auror Cadet, at least with regards to your magic and combat skills, maybe much further depending on what we are talking about. It's experience and adaptability that you need more than anything now." Mad-Eye, stopped and petted his bay calmly for a moment on the nose then went back to it's midsection and loosened the saddle.

"But I haven't graduated yet" Harry objected.

"Harry, please, you can try to fool your teachers and yourself all you want, and if you tell them this I'll come after you, but. I remember, my sixth and seventh years here, they shouldn't have changed that much, but I've seen some of the stuff Dumbledore, and McGonagall and the others are planning on teaching your class this year and next. What your are learning now in classes, is beyond NEWTS on occasion in some of your classes, DADA alone never gets as far as Albus is planning for this year and next. Snape, and Minerva, and probably Flitwick too are also going to push your class, and it's all mostly because of you."

"ME?" Harry asked incredulously."

Mad-Eye nodded as he finished loosening his horse's saddle, "Dumbledore is upping the curriculum partially to give his other students a fighting chance, but you, and a few others like Granger were already far beyond any of the others. Did you not realize that between the two of you, you stunned or otherwise incapacitated more Death Eaters than anyone else at the ministry, except Dumbledore himself? You should have figured out by now that you could take the DADA, NEWT right now and pass it along with, most likely the Transfiguration and Charms and Potions. You might not get Os because you might not yet have covered some of the happy, feel-good stuff yet, but the other stuff would probably at least get you an E." Alastor replied matter-of-factly, as Harry looked at him stunned.

"And the sword and unarmed work, and the other stuff?" Harry queried.

Moody started walking off, but as he reached about twenty yards away he threw back, "Granger has the mindset, maybe the Weasleys and Longbottom too, but they need focus. She already has it for some reason. I'm moving her training up, she'll start soon, tell her, but not the rest." He vanished into the mist, leaving Harry alone with these revelations.

7:00 am

Harry had gone back up to Gryffindor tower after leaving Moody near the doors to the castle, his words ringing in his head. Harry didn't know what to believe, he still believed in his heart that the battle in the Ministry was a series of screw-ups on his part, he still believed somewhere in his heart that it was his fault Sirius had died, that Hermione, and Ron and Ginny and Neville and Luna, all had been injured in the fight because of him. Of all of them, Harry had probably been damaged the least, which might account for some of his guilt.

He had quickly showered, and headed to breakfast. As he walked down the length of the long Gryffindor table, in the Great Hall, he spotted all of his friends that had recently filled his thoughts with guilt. He nodded to Neville as he sat down in an empty space next to Hermione; he had this weird feeling that she had saved him the seat, though he was sure she hadn't actually asked anyone to not sit there.

"Hi Harry," she muttered as he sat down, and helped himself to some eggs. "Have fun with Moody this morning?"

"Great fun, crazy, one-eyed guy swinging swords at my head and making me chase his lazy ass while he's on a horse. Yep, great fun" Harry replied sarcastically, though quiet enough that only she and Ron heard him.

"Could be worse, mate" Ron put in from the other side of Hermione with his mouth full. Hermione glared at him, and he visibly swallowed his food before he went on. "Tonks told me that he used to make trainees chase him though London while he drove one of the Ministry cars, imagine chasing him on foot through Trafalgar Square, before the Ministry said he couldn't drive anymore, " Ron shuddered at the thought.

Harry didn't reply he was sure if Moody somehow heard, he would have Tonks doing the driving, and that was even scarier. As he glanced around the room he caught Dumbledore's eye, he looked as if he wanted to ask something, but didn't want to say it right now. He turned back to his friends, mentally working out when he could talk to Hermione, though he didn't know why Moody didn't want him to tell anyone else.

*****************Hagrid's Hut*******************************

Harry and friends had survived Potions again, barely. While boiling Dragon's blood down to make a paste, Ron had forgotten to watch his caldron and had let it dry up totally, which of course made it explosive. This error would have been manageable, except Crabbe had cast a tripping spell on Ron as he picked up the caldron causing him to drop it and the dried blood to detonate. Fortunately the heavy caldron had contained the detonation, but the noise it had made, had made blood come out of Snape's ears, a series of events that of course cost Gryffindor 30 points and Slytherin 1 point.

"If you had just watched your damn cauldron Ronald" Hermione said a little loudly as they headed down the stairs outside, her ears still ringing from the explosion. She looked forward to Hagrid's hut, trying to see what he had in store for them today, really hoping that what ever it was, it was quiet.

Ron rolled his eyes at the back of her head, "Well if you had warned me that it was explosive instead of ..."

"Instead of what? Making you learn your bloody assignments?" She replied indignantly, as she stepped around someone's cat that was taking a nap on the steps. She reached in her bag one-handed to grab her planner. The cat had reminded her to get treats for Crookshanks as she was out.

Ron of course, misunderstood her intentions, "making a note to do what?"

"Oh shut up Ron," Harry muttered behind him, only to have Ron turn on him.

"Taking her side are you?" Ron said in a huff and pushing past Harry and Hermione he hurried to Hagrid's hut.

"What the hell got in him?" Harry asked to which Hermione just shrugged. "Anyway I needed to talk to you a second, Moody is starting your training sooner than Christmas, Mione."

"Great" She replied with a touch of bitterness, dragging out the word, "and Dumbledore passed me a note this morning saying he wanted to start Legilimency this evening after dinner."

"No rest for the wicked" Harry said with a smile, which after she thought about that statement for a second, got him thumped on the back of the head. "Ow"

*******************Headmaster's Office, Hogwarts***********************

9:00 pm

Harry came hesitantly up the stairs to Dumbledore's office, Hermione should already be there. Harry was doubtful about this; he still didn't understand the sudden jump in his abilities in Occlumency and now this training in the related discipline of Legilimency.

As Harry entered the room he saw his friend in one of the large armchairs in front of Dumbledore's desk. He walked in silently as not to disturb them, but his plans were nixed as Fawkes trumpeted his arrival, "Aw Harry, I see that you have made it"
Dumbledore said a twinkle in his eye.

"Sorry Professor" Harry muttered.

"Not at all Harry. Hermione and I were discussing her new training schedule" Dumbledore said smiling. He stopped and poured himself a cup of hot chocolate from a carafe on his desk. He motioned to the cups. Harry poured himself one as he settled in the chair next to Hermione. "Once again your abilities as a teacher have come to the fore Harry" Harry raised an eyebrow, questioning Dumbledore's meaning. "As you have been teaching your friends much of what I have taught you since August, Hermione will concentrate for now, with Alastor, Remus and Nymphadora, on using the magic she has learned from you and others including myself and on her combat skills."

Harry frowned slightly, not wanting to offend Hermione, "Sir, wouldn't it be better for her to finish with the magical skills first" Even as he said the words he knew that they weren't right, at least not how he should say it, but there they were.

"Why Harry are you trying to protect her?" Dumbledore asked teasingly, to which both of the students bristled. "I was just joking, however, no Harry, I'm afraid that the Death Eaters do not discriminate in their victims or foes, and so we can't in our training to fight them." He gestured with his wand and the carafe of hot chocolate vanished. "Tonight however, our goal is Legilimency, both of you have demonstrated skills in Occlumency, the inverse of this skill. I will ask you to focus on plucking thoughts from each other's mind and guiding the thoughts to something of interest. Unfortunately this is not a skill that a simple incantation and a precise wand movement are needed for it is more a matter of feeling and experience. As this skill is more about finesse instead of raw power, I will ask Hermione to go first, as you enter Harry's thoughts try to guide them to remember something you both remember. Compare those memories to your own so you will have a feeling of what a true memory is like."

Hermione gulped, and turned from Dumbledore to meet Harry's eyes. Now that she was here, who am I kidding I didn't want to do this in the first place, she was worried about what thoughts might pop out. "Legilimens" she incanted softly and in a rush she started seeing images, of her and Ron on the train as first years, Were we really that tiny? of Harry's wonder on receiving his Hogwarts letter, of Hagrid crashing in the door of some old musty building to take him away or more properly to bring him home. Then like a sea change, the images turned sour, pictures of Ron laying unconscious on the chessboard in first year, of herself, laying in the hospital after the basilisk attack, of Sirius falling through the veil, and finally of Harry's hand on her shoulder, visibly shaking as he tried to wake her as she lay on a stone floor. She felt a wall slam down and she was suddenly back in her own thoughts, wiping sweat from her eyes, she could see Harry visibly trembling in the chair next to her. Hermione felt an almost overpowering urge to hold him just like she had this summer; she knew that the last images she had seen were the ones that haunted his dreams. He had described them to her and somehow she knew that he had not confessed their depth to any of his other friends, or even to the wizard in front of whose desk they were sitting. It was the last image that particularly shook her, before Harry's autonomic reflexes had kicked in, she had been overwhelmed by the sheer feelings of panic, guilt, and gut-wrenching sadness associated with her lying injured on the floor. He said he couldn't think when he thought I was hurt, I thought he was exaggerating, would I have done the same if I thought it was him lying there like he had so many times before...If I thought he was dead, yeah, a voice very similar to Harry's answered her.

"Sorry, Mione" Harry said quietly, he quickly got up and went to the door, turning back, "Professor I can't do this tonight." With that Harry left the room quickly and ran down the steps.

Hermione glared at Dumbledore, and followed Harry, without even the apology that Harry had managed. As she gained the bottom of the stairs, Harry was nowhere to seen. Great, now it's find the vanishing Potter, she thought to herself. Why is it one of us is always disappearing and the others have to find them, we're sixteen not six. She walked down the hall a little while longer and stopped, this is hopeless; I know that he didn't go back to the tower, where would he have gone? Wait, then with a sudden glee, Harry your wards might work against Ron... "APPERO MARADER'S MAP" instead of the unusual instant response when the spell worked normally, she felt a curious resistance, and then almost as if the security wards recognized her, the map suddenly appeared in her hand. Smiling slightly at the turn in events, that had her tracking Harry with his own map, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." The map started to fill in as usual, but as the ink reached the center a curious thing happened. Normally the map displayed a message greeting Harry, or gave the nicknames of the Marauders, but this time the message was different, to her slight shock it said, "Welcome, Hermione, it is good to see the Marauder's ride again, go to him in his hour of need." What the hell was that? she wondered, shocked, the map had only ever greeted Harry, and then as the son of Prongs or something like that.

She glanced down at the map and saw that Harry was sitting still in the exact center of the Quiddich Pitch. I should have known. Erasing the map, she took off at a run for the Quiddich stadium.

****************************Quiddich Pitch, Hogwarts***********************

9:47pm

As Hermione approached the center of the stadium she could only see a flash of pale skin from the side of Harry's face, his black robes and hair blended well into the evening. She pulled up a patch of grass and sat in front of him, waiting. For almost fifteen minutes they both sat there, each silently weighing what they would say to each other. Finally Harry summoned the courage to speak, but not well.

"Mione, I'm sorry you had to see that." He said, his eyes avoiding hers.

Reaching out she touched his arm, "For what? For seeing...Hell, Harry, I'm just glad you went first, I was afraid..."

Harry interrupted bitterly, "why are you my friend, Hermione? You saw yourself lying there, I could have got you killed, and Moody, you might get hurt..."

Sighing, she picked some grass from the field and rolled it around in her palms, she was quiet for a long moment before she responded, "Is that why you tried to convince Dumbledore to hold off on my training? To only do the magic, not the other. Harry...I don't know why, at least not so I can put into words, I guess its because you are really the only person here who just expects me to be me, not the brain, not your sidekick, but me, does that make sense?"

Harry nodded slightly, then mustering his courage he looked up at her, "but damn, its you Hermione, not Ron or Ginny or anyone else that have been hurt more or put in danger more for being my friend than any of the others. Do you want me to count? Shit." Harry said the last in a murmur, dropping his vision once again to the ground.

"You dufus," Hermione half-snapped and half-laughed, throwing the grass in her hands at him, where it stuck in his hair, "Do you think it's any different for me...for the rest of us when we see you come back from some adventure, and be laid up in the infirmary for a week, or when I see you crash into this bloody field." She finished, her fist pounding the earth of the Quiddich pitch in emphasis. She pulled herself up and stood over Harry, reaching down she grabbed the hood of his robe and used it to drab him to his feet with a grunt of effort. "Heavy arse"

"You better get in better shape than that if you want to keep up with Moody, by the way, He likes to start at around five" Harry replied, the corner of one side of his mouth curling up.


September 22, 2004
5:00 am

Harry showed up for his usual "Special Projects" class to find not Dumbledore, or Moody or even Lupin waiting for him, but Tonks. "Wotcher Harry" She waved at him as he showed up, she was dressed to work out, unlike Moody or Remus who usually wore street clothes, this morning her hair was long and emerald green and pulled back into a tail.

"Going to break a sweat Tonks?" Harry asked with a grin as he indicated her workout gear, quite similar to the sweats he himself was wearing.

"Unlike my lazy elders," she said with a matching grin, "some of us are still in shape. I thought that we'd start with a slight jog to warm up. We're just waiting." Tonks bent almost double in a stretch, "if you really want to be an Auror as a career, you'll learn that the bad guys always run."

"Waiting on what?" Harry said as he tied one of his trainers.

"Her" Harry looked up and saw someone coming down the stairs from the castle in the pre-dawn light. He couldn't tell whom it was for sure as they had their hood up, but whoever it was they seemed very familiar.

"Morning" Hermione said with a massive yawn as she came even with them, she was dressed as they were, her breath forming clouds in the early autumn chill.

"Since we're all here now, lets go" Tonks took off at a rapid pace, Harry following. After several minutes, of what was a relatively blistering pace, Harry looked back, slightly concerned about Hermione, but he was shocked to see that she was keeping pace handily, much better than he had at the start of the school year. Harry permitted himself enough energy to shake his head and kept following Tonks. It was different running with Tonks, unlike Moody who made you chase him, you really couldn't get mad at her like you could him, she was running too after all, so you didn't have that motivation.

The entire time, Harry was waiting for something, a trick, or a plot, something to test one or both of them. He wasn't disappointed, as Tonks passed out of sight around a turn in the path, "STUPEFY". He dove forward under the spell, and around the corner.

Sliding forward, he shot a disarming spell at Tonks; her wand flew into the trees, and under some bushes. Before she could utter another sound a bolt of red light took her high on the shoulder and she slumped bonelessly to the ground. "Thanks Hermione, I don't know what Tonks was thinking taking both of us on two to on..." In an instant Harry saw a bolt of red hit Hermione in the back, then with another flash of red, everything went black.

Several Minutes later

"Enervate" A deep voice, uttered with its usual undercurrent of barely suppressed humor. As Harry regained consciousness he could see Hermione sitting up next to a tree, obviously having just been revived. To add insult to injury, a squirrel knocked a small branch from the tree above, it fell and hit Harry on the head.

"Ow" he muttered, looking around. He could see Tonks; she had seemingly been revived before either of them, most likely by her mystery partner.

"Harry, Hermione" Dumbledore's deep voice came from behind Harry's right ear. Out of a corner of one eye he caught a disgusted look sweep over Hermione's face before she carefully blanked it. Harry twisted and saw the great wizard sitting on a log, calm as could be, a slight twinkle in his eye. "I did that for a reason"

"To show us how stupid we were?" Hermione muttered as she stood up.

Dumbledore gave a slight shrug, and pointed at Tonks, She looked a little sheepish, but smiled and answered the question, "To a degree, tricks like that are often played on cadets in Auror training, usually the first ambusher gets at least one of you, but that's not really the point, the point is to trust your partner to take care of the threat, while you look for the unexpected one." She paced a little, picking up a twig and using it like a wand. "I've seen the security orb recordings at the Ministry" Hermione gave a little shudder at the reminder of the Department of Mysteries fight last June, she paced over to the tree Harry was sitting up against and leaned on its trunk, her eyes not leaving Tonks. "I'll be honest, not to pump either of you up, but you are better than the majority of the Aurors and security troops the Ministry has out there right now. In some areas you are better than me, but the key is teamwork, you have to learn to work together to where you don't have to think about what the other is doing, even Professor Dumbledore is not invincible by himself."

"That I am not, Nymphadora" Dumbledore said gravely, though the smile was still in his eyes. "It is always best to have friends. This part of the exercise is over for now, however I think it would best if we spilt off, Harry come with me" Dumbledore parted his robe to show Harry the hilt of his sword, Harry nodded and walked over to him. "Hermione please go with Tonks, I feel that she is a good match for you." Hermione and Tonks watched as Harry and Dumbledore ambled off together, Harry said something quietly and Dumbledore laughed. Hermione smiled slightly; glad to see Harry crack a joke, especially after the two of them had just been beaten.

"Don't feel bad, Hermione, you lost to Albus Dumbledore." Tonks said as if reading her mind.

Hermione gave a slight pout, "I hate loosing period, besides you aren't Harry, you aren't supposed to read my mind" she said as she watched the two wizards mentioned slip out of sight.

Distracted there girl? Tonks thought mischievously. "The reason Dumbledore put me with you, honestly is because I'm about your size and can match your speed. Here." Hermione watched as Tonks conjured a pair of wooden swords and flipped one to her.

"Swords, I know Harry has the Gryffindor sword, but" Hermione asked as she caught the wooden sword by the hilt, her hands finding a comfortable grip instinctively, unconsciously.

Tonks shrugged this time looked off in the distance for a second as if recalling a memory then turned back to her, "Wizards are weird, girl, hell your Muggle born and I'm the next best thing to it, we both know it. If Mad-Eye taught me one thing, its be prepared, in a fight wands are great for when you are across the room, but few people can use them well when you are in spitting distance. Hell right now, I have this wooden sword, a knife hanging around my neck and a couple of other surprises just because you never do know. Anyway, many of Voldemort's followers have been known to carry and use swords..." Tonks almost exactly repeated the initial test Alastor Moody did to Harry on this very subject several months ago, with more or less the same result. Tonks' wooden sword crashed on to Hermione's, Hermione's form wasn't quite as good as Harry's instinctively was, she fell back a little with the strike, but she did block it. Damn, maybe Dumbledore is right. They are soo going to kick his arse for holding shit out on them, again, She thought with a touch of glee.

After a while, Tonks called it a morning and sent Hermione back to the castle. Hermione was rubbing a sore shoulder, she wasn't used to it, but Tonks just waved and sent her packing. After Hermione had left out of sight, Dumbledore appeared beside her, evidently he had completed work with Harry. "How was she?" He asked though he had an idea.

"A lot better than I was at that stage, it's like Mad-Eye said about Harry, its like she has the reflexes, but hasn't incorporated them yet. She's already faster than me, and not as clumsy," Tonks conceded grudgingly. "It's the other exercise I'm worried about, Professor."

"I haven't been your professor for almost five years, Nymphadora, anyway how so."

"Its their..." Tonks broke off uncomfortable with the subject.

Dumbledore smiled down on her, "You mean that the two of them are shall we say repressing certain thoughts, or that they haven't decided on those thoughts yet...Yes I agree, they will be a formidable team, they already are, but several things may have to happen for them to realize their full potential, and those events may not transpire, or they may transpire too late. As it is they trust each other, but not quite to the level they need?"

"Yeah, to a degree I was bullshiting them Pro...Albus" Tonks corrected herself with a grin to his raised eyebrow, "most Aurors, aren't that trusting with their partners, but they will have to be won't they?" Her tone dropped as the subject darkened.

Dumbledore sighed, and using his wand he summoned a flower from a nearby plant which he examined as he replied. "It's like this flower Nymphadora, it's a union of the light of the sun and the earth below, they have to learn to be that union, and to do so they will have to face certain realities...In the end, Harry will most certainly have to be the one to end it, if anyone does, however, he does not have to be alone when he does so."


(A/N) That's it, the end of Chapter 11, are ya'll having fun yet? In the next chapter,
Harry's back on the Quiddich pitch, and the Halloween ball,

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Cause I haven't said it in a while. I only own the plot and the few poor characters I made up myself. JKR owns all the rest.
Chapter 12, Inklings of Something Greater.

***********************Hogwarts*********************************

October 22, 2004
4 pm

Harry ran down the front hall and out the door, Hermione was following at a much more sedate pace, only to almost be knocked down by her other best friend. Who unlike Harry did at least shout an apology as he ran past.

"SORRY HERM, CAN'T BE LATE" Ron hollered as he ran past.

Hermione just grinned, not angry with either of them. Dumbledore had kept them late and their first match of the season was only a half hour away. Normally the games were on Saturday, but due to a special request from the Ministry, today's game was on a Friday so the many families that worked in the Ministry and had kids in Hogwarts could come and see the game as an impromptu day off. Her expression clouded a bit as she gained the front door. She knew that the real reason that Arthur had arraigned for a game day, was to distract people from the off and on attacks against the magical community and muggles that had restarted since the attack on St. Mungo's a month or so ago. With a quick headshake she drove that thought from her mind, she would enjoy her two best friends playing today, actually, it was really more like her family playing in a way, as if you counted Harry as an adopted Weasley, five sevenths of the team was a Weasley or the next thing to it.

Meanwhile she had made it to the pitch and stopped, leaning against a post, waiting for Ron and Harry to emerge from the locker room so she could wish them luck before she took her place in the stands. Sometimes I wish I could play too, I just can't fly that well. I should take Harry up on his offer, but I just get squirrelly on a broom when I'm that high up.

"BOO" Harry said behind her ear causing her to jump two feet in the air, and to half have her wand pointed before her brain processed it was Harry.

"SHIT" Then with a deep breath, "damn it Harry"
Harry looked genuinely contrite, she forgive him instantly, "Sorry, Hermione" He muttered his eyes downcast.

Crap, I got him nervous, I doubt he even realized he wasn't making any noise, too much training with Moody, "It's ok Harry. Good luck" With a small grin she reached over and gave him a peck on the cheek. Harry's eyes grew wide, and a loopy smile replaced the sad expression he had before. Why did I do that? She thought to herself with a touch of panic.

"Hey what about me?" Ron said grinning as he came out of the locker room.

"OH all right" Hermione replied laughing, and gave him an identical kiss on the cheek.

"Thanks Herm, I need the luck, more than seeker boy here." Harry laughed and waved him on. Ron headed for the center of the pitch where he and Harry would take the coin toss as co-captains.

Hermione looked thoughtful as she caught sight of the Ravenclaws. "Harry, I normally don't give Quiddich strategies"

"Yes, Mione?" Harry asked, intrigued.

"Kick her ass." She replied motioning towards Cho with her head, and she turned and headed up the stands to the Gryffindor stands.

Harry looked after her, a smile in his eyes, and muttered, "yes, ma'am." Harry turned and ran to the center ring where Ron, Madame Hooch and Cho were waiting for the galleon flip.

Madame Hooch turned and looked at the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw captains. Thank God it isn't the Gryffindor-Slytherin match, there is a reason we have that one last, so I can get psyched up for it. She thought gratefully. "Ok I expect a clean game today. There are many Ministry families and officials here today to watch, and I want a good show, no shenanigans." Hooch said the last looking at Ron, who just returned a look asking, "who me?" After all three of the team representatives nodded, she turned to Cho, "Miss Chang, call the flip in the air"

"Heads" Cho replied as her eyes tracked the galleon up then back down.

Hooch caught the coin and looked down, "Heads it is, which goal will you defend?"

Cho didn't even hesitate a second, "the south one." The north goal, the one nearest the Gryffindor stands, was impossible for any keeper except a Gryffindor to defend, the roar was defining, and the crowd was actively hostile to any but their own. Therefore, no opposing team in the last ten years had chosen the North goal, except a really ill advised Slytherin team the year before Harry had started school. Gryffindor may not have won as many matches before Harry started but the fans were the same.

"Very well then" Hooch replied, though the answer hadn't really been in doubt, "to the air" Harry, Ron and Cho signaled to their teams, and mounting their brooms, kicked off and started circling.

"WELCOME HOGWARTS STUDENTS, FACULTY AND GUESTS TO TODAY"S OPENING QUIDDICH MATCH OF THE SEASON" the voice of Leslie Jordan, Lee Jordan's younger sister boomed out over the crowds. She had replaced her brother when he had graduated last year. "TODAY"S MATCH SHOULD BE A GOOD ONE, WITH THE RAVENCLAW EAGLES LED BY CHO CHANG, WHO HAS RECENTLY BEEN NAMED TO THE TORNADOES AS SEEKER, AND OUR GRYFFINDOR LIONS LEAD BY THE INCOMPARABLE HARRY POTTER AS SEEKER."

"Impartiality Leslie" McGonagall growled in her ear, but she went on anyway, knowing good and well that McGonagall would forget to be impartial if the game got good anyway.

"TODAY'S MATCH IS OF PARTICULAR INTREST, AS IT IS THE BATTLE OF THE EX'S, MUCH TO THE DISSAPOINTMENT OF HIS MANY FANS, POTTER BRIEFLY DATED CHANG LAST YEAR, BEFORE THEY BROKE UP"

"LESLIE" McGonagall hissed loud enough to be heard over the magical amplification system.

Oh, god, Harry thought as he caught the fire in Cho's eyes, Blow the damn whistle, Hooch.

Harry's wish was granted, Madame Hooch blew the whistle, and the four balls of Quiddich shot up from the center pitch. Harry immediately spotted the snitch, and started after it, only to be cut off by a bludger. He dodged around the bludger, and lost sight of the snitch, Fortunately he saw that Cho had never seen it at all and was still circling the field, He started circling in the opposite direction looking for the snitch.

Meanwhile.

Terry Boot grabbed the quaffle, hurried downfield, dodging bludgers, once, twice. He pulled and shot at the right most goal. Ron who was currently at the leftmost, and should not have been able to block it, was moving as Terry's arm started moving, by the time the quaffle was flying Ron was in front of the targeted hoop and caught it easily. He snapped it downfield at Pavarti, who shot it to Ginny. Fred and George plowed the road, each shooting a bludger straight in front of her clearing out any Ravenclaws, leaving Ginny alone with the Ravenclaw keeper. She smiled, and pump faked a shot at the left most goal. As he jumped to cover that goal, Sucker She shot directly behind him into the center scoring the first goal of the game.

"GRYFFINDOR SCORES 10-0" Leslie crowed, "ON A AWSOME GOAL BY THE SMALLEST WEASLEY"

"Go Ginny" Hermione yelled, as Ginny flashed back in front of the Gryffindor stands by the goal her brother was guarding. Ginny waved as she flew by then joined Pavarti and Lavender in going after the quaffle again.

Boot once again had the quaffle; he snapped a quick turn loosing Lavender, who had to pull up at the last second to avoid the stands. He ducked a bludger sent his way by George, but missed the follow on by Fred. Which deftly knocked the quaffle from his hands into the waiting arms of Pavarti, who flipped it to Ginny again, and joined by Lavender once again and covered ably by Fred and George they charged down the field. Ginny to Lavender to Pavarti to Ginny to Pavarti who shot...and scored.

"20-0 Gryffindor, on an awesome charge by the Gryffindor front line" Leslie commented, McGonagall letting it slide, as it was a good charge, and she had calmed down a bit.

Back up topside.

Harry had continued circling. Today looked to be one of those days when the snitch just didn't want to play. Cho swerved up next to him and snapped across. "What'd got Potter, remember I'm a pro now" She grinned at him.

"Cho, dear, they might pay you for this, by I'm still better." Harry yelled back, dodging a bludger almost unconsciously as it streaked towards him.

"Well, Hell boy; lets see what ya got, then."

"If I remember correctly you didn't hang around long enough to find out," Harry replied testily, he was getting tired of the witty repartee and the damn snitch not wanting to come out. He glanced over at the scoreboard and saw that Gryffindor was leading 60-20; Ron must have let a couple in. Oh well, shit happens. Harry thought grimly.

"Did little Granger find out yet Harry," She replied snidely.

Fortunately or unfortunately depending on your feelings about the matter Harry didn't really hear her consciously. It wouldn't be well until after the game that he really knew what she had said or his response, "she's a hell of a lot more likely than you to do so." Because at that moment, he had spotted the snitch, he pitched over in a near vertical dive. Cho cursing snapped after him. The snitch was hovering far below directly in front of the solid base of the stands. For the first time, their brooms were equal; she had bought herself a firebolt with her Quiddich pay from the Tornadoes. Harry glanced back, Ok bitch let's play He thought grimly and laid flat on his broom. All things being equal, technically Cho should have been faster, the brooms were the same, she was two thirds Harry's weight and smaller. But unfortunately for her, things weren't equal, this was a dive, mass counted in his favor, and he was Harry Potter.

The two seekers, flashed down past the Gryffindor stands, right in front of Hermione who gasped at the red and blue streaks arrowing towards the ground. Suddenly it was over. "Bye Cho" Harry snapped, as he pulled up hard on his broom, effectively skidding in the sky, flashing past the snitch, he snatched it from the air, and with at least a foot to spare, he pulled up, skimming the stands as he crossed them vertically. Cho was a fraction of a second too late, as in a flash of blue light the magical safeties preventing a lethal crash into the stands kicked in and trapped her like a fly in amber. Harry laughed softly; he had paid attention at the preseason briefing unlike the trapped Head Girl and had used them to his advantage.

"GRYFFINDOR WINS, GRYFFINDOR WINS" Leslie shouted from the stands jumping up and down as Harry landed on the pitch. Cho now released; landed, glanced at him and stalked off the field.

"Harry" Hermione squealed happily as she ran up and gave him a hug. "Good job"

He lowered his voice, "you told me to" Harry replied, to which Hermione just grinned with an evil glint in her eye.

"Bloody Brilliant" Ron exclaimed as he landed beside Harry. "That was awesome"

"Think your dad got enough of a show?" Harry asked his keeper and best friend.

"I bloody well hope so, any way I guess you showed Cho who should be drawing the Tornadoes paycheck." Harry laughed at Ron's reply and throwing his arms around the shoulders of his best friends he headed for the castle and the inevitable victory party.

*************************Gryffindor Common Room*************************

October 23, 2004
12:05 pm

The victory party had been going full blast for almost two and a half hours. The Gryffindors had suffered though dinner, while the invited guests from the ministry had dinner with them and mingled. Harry in particular was forced to answer asinine questions on the game and other matters ranging from, "does the scar hurt?" to "are you REALLY sure you saw You-Know-Who?". Finally, he had been able to escape, and had headed up to the common room. Soon after, Ron and the others arrived singing the Gryffindor version of Weasley is our King, the party started. Ron had been only too happy to talk to the guests about the game, especially the representatives of the Department of Magical Games representing the Cannons.

Harry was standing over to one side, a butterbeer in his hand, occasionally taking a sip. He was relaxing, idly watching Ron and Seamus in one of their usual drinking contests. I better get to bed soon, I'll have to get up to play with Moody in a few hours.

"Hey Harry" Hermione said as she came up to him, and turned to watch with him as Ron slammed his sixth beer in a row. "Why are we friends with him again?" She asked a little smile on her face.

With an exaggerated shrug, "I don't know, maybe because his brothers get us free beer?" Harry replied sarcastically as he motioned over to where Fred and George were trying to sell something to some third years. As Hermione bristled and started to go over, Harry stuck a hand out and stopped her, "Leave them, Mione, I made them give their word, whatever they sold was harmless at least to Gryffindors, I couldn't get the same promise towards the Slytherins, but I confess I didn't try to hard."

Hermione turned and gave him a glare; them broke up at his hangdog expression. "Ok Harry. I'll let them be this time." She and he stood there quietly for another few minutes. "Harry..."

"Hermione"

"Are you going to the Halloween Ball?" She asked with a touch of nervousness coloring her voice, though Harry didn't seem to notice.

Harry sighed, "I don't know Mione, Halloween is not really my favorite holiday." Hermione gasped, suddenly making the connection, "Its ok, I know you didn't mean anything, why do you ask anyway?"

"Because I was thinking of not going too. Anyway it's not like I have anyone." She muttered her last, but like usual Harry could more or less read her mind.

"What about Vicky?" Harry replied a twinkle in his eye.

"You know bloody well I haven't exchanged anything with him for almost a year, Harry!" She snapped in return, "Honestly, Harry...What about Cho, huh lover boy?"

Harry gave a short bark of a laugh right as Ron and Seamus simultaneously slammed down their eighth mug each. "Hell, I just slammed her into the stands at three hundred miles an hour, great way to start a date, besides we're over, through, done." Harry glanced over to see something like satisfaction cross Hermione's face, and suddenly he had an idea to save them both, "Hermione, I assume that you are probably supposed to go as you're a prefect, and I'm sure Dumbledore will send someone after me if I don't show up, so...how, um you go with me, I mean as friends?" For some reason, Harry felt really nervous at asking her. He ran his hand through his hair, messing it up even worse.

Damn he's cute when he's nervous. DOWN DAMN IT "Sure Harry it'll be fun" She replied, and watched his eyes light up, for just a second. A sight that caused a slight lightheaded feeling for just a second, almost too quick to notice. A question was born right then that she would answer not right then but later, anyway Ron had staggered over to them, from where he had just had his tenth, and Seamus was on the floor. Oddly, Ron looked reasonable sober, and remembering his resent escapade with ethanol, Hermione had to know. "Why are you sober?"

Ron grinned at her, and crooking a finger at her and Harry to get closer, "Remember Moody?"

"Yeah" Harry and Hermione added at once, they both remembered him quite well as a matter of fact, having just seen him eighteen hours ago.

"Always be prepared, anyway this is a new invention of Fred and George's," Ron held up a tiny potion bottle, "it instantly neutralizes about 95 percent of the alcohol you take in so you can win any drinking contest." Hermione looked shocked for a moment but was mollified by his response, "remember he said never loose, and cheat if you have too." Hermione really didn't want to admit he had a point, but he very well might. To her great relief however, Harry saved her from admitting it.

"He meant in battle mate," Harry replied more than a little exasperated, "But that stuff could come in handy, we might want to start taking it before Hogsmeade weekends just in case, so we're clear headed." Harry wandered off with that thought to find Fred or George to arrange a supply.

"When did he become responsible?" Ron asked after Harry left.

When do you think Ron? "About the time the fate of the world was put on his shoulders." Hermione replied thoughtfully. For once Ron just agreed, nodding quietly. Then after a moment, he turned to her, a funny, nervous look in his eye. "Hermione?"

"Yes, Ron?" She replied as she turned to him.

"I um, well I, anyway I don't have a date for the Halloween ball and was wondering if you would might going with me as you don't either." Ron asked, rambling more than a little.

Hermione rounded on him, more than a little offended at his insinuation, "As it happens, Ronald Bilius, I do have a date for the ball."

"Who?" Ron spat back.

"Harry," she replied and wandered off without a glance backwards. Ron stared goggle eyed at her until she wandered over to Ginny, and started talking to the miniature witch, not looking back at him once, meanwhile Harry returned.

"What's up mate?" Harry asked seeing the odd expression on Ron's face.

"Nothing," Ron muttered and wandered back over to the beer barrel.

*****************Gryffindor Common/Great Hall, Hogwarts********************

October 31, 2004

7:45pm

"Hey, Ginny" Harry yelled across the common room as Ron's only sister came down the stairs. Like at the infamous Yule ball, she had accepted Neville's awkward invitation, though Harry secretly thought that she had been much less hesitant this time. "Is Hermione still up there?"

The tiny red-haired witch turned to Harry from where she had just greeted Neville with a kiss on his cheek, an act that looked as if it almost stopped his heart. Carefully suppressing a smile, "Yeah Harry, I think she is." Ginny turned and murmuring something to Neville that Harry couldn't make out they left for the ball, Neville laughing heartily as they exited the portrait hole, glancing back right before it closed.

Harry sighed quietly; he was probably the last one waiting for his "date." Ron in the end had surprisingly asked Luna to go and she had accepted happily. Very happily in fact, she had bounded about like a giant, blond, bunny rabbit for an entire minute until Ron could get her to calm down. Ron had not really spoken to Harry in the last week, he was mad about something or another, but even so Harry could tell that Ron had been taken aback by Luna coming down the stairs tonight in a gown that perfectly matched his blue eyes, incidentally complementing her blond locks flawlessly as well. Harry strode over to the girls stairs, "MIONE" he yelled up the stairs.

"Yes" She replied softly, coming down the stairs. Harry glanced up, and for just a moment he couldn't breathe. His expression must have shown on his face, for Hermione smiled brightly and giggled just a bit.

"Nice" Harry managed after a long, long moment. Hermione had shown up in a red dress, which suited her brunette locks, and long legs perfectly. The sleeveless dress hung on her like a second skin to the point that Harry wondered briefly how she could walk in it, until he noticed that the hem was spilt up the side, on one side. Harry walked up to her and like the gentry he had seen on television at the Dursleys, he took her hand, raised it to his lips and kissed it softly, to the accompaniment of more giggles. Placing her arm in the crook of his, "Well, shall we, Miss Granger"

"Certainly Mr. Potter," Hermione replied humorously. Leading her as if he did this everyday, Harry led her to the portrait hole, and out.

They came into the hall, Hermione's arm still through his. Glancing around they saw that their friends were already either sitting down, or in the case of Ron and Luna, dancing. The Great Hall was decorated in Halloween colors, instead of the usual, thousands of tiny candles floating in the air; many, many tiny Jack-O-Lanterns were serving the same function. Harry, quickly ducked taking Hermione with him as one of four, of the giant versions of the same, which were flying about the room, came a little too close. Glancing toward the front of the hall, he could see Professor Flitwick up on a table directing them. As Harry caught his eye, he just apologized with a shrug.

"Dangerous here, Harry" Hermione commented wryly. "Ohh look at the mascots," She pointed to a corner of the room, where someone, probably Flitwick again, had the four house mascots, but with Pumpkins for heads, dancing to the beat.

"That's cool, umm, Mione do you want to grab something to eat?" Harry asked with a sidelong glance at the buffet tables.

"'ARRY, 'ERMIONE" Hagrid roared from behind them. "How, ya 'oing?" Damn they look cute together, just like... Hagrid thought to himself

"Fine Hagrid," Hermione responded for the both of them. "How are you?

"Ohh, I'm 'ine lass, I'm 'oing to see m'xine Christmas" He replied, trying to suggest something to them with his words.

"That's great Hagrid" Harry replied sincerely. "See you later?" He asked and got a mysteriously happy nod from the half-giant.

Hermione turned back to Harry, and continued from where they had been interrupted. "Sure we can Harry, but I want to dance first." Her hand dropped to his from where it had been entwined with his elbow and she drug him to the dance floor.

"Hermione, I dance like..."Harry began weakly.

Hermione shook her head at him as she let go of his hand and moved her arms up to his neck, for his part, his arms went around her waist as if they had a life of their own. Without a conscious decision on his part, or hers for that matter, they started swaying to the song, some old, slow muggle ballad, each perfectly in sync with the other. "See you're not so bad," Hermione said softly, with a shy smile.

"Only because it's you, Hermione" Harry responded, then shut up as his words reached his ears. After a minute, when the song changed they continued dancing, without pause, "Look, over there." Harry motioned with his head, as his hands stubbornly refused to let go of her waist, over to his left.

"Yeah, they are cute, Harry" Hermione said with a laugh in her chocolate eyes, as she caught sight of Ron and Luna, dancing slowly together. Luna, who was shorter than Ron, as was everyone else except Dumbledore, was gazing up into his eyes, not blinking once. Ron leaned down, and muttered some joke in her ear and she laughed gaily, her gaze never leaving his face.

After another song had passed and Harry had totally forgotten about any food, Ron and Luna drifted over. "Mind if I cut in mate?" Ron asked with a sly grin.

"Only if you don't" Harry replied and with a nod of approval, they switched partners, though through the next song, Harry idly noticed that he was a better dancer with Hermione than Luna. After the song was over, Ron and Hermione came over, and Hermione and Luna wordlessly switched partners back.

"Harry, how about that food you mentioned, about an hour ago" Hermione said smiling, once again grabbing his arm. Just as she asked the question Harry's stomach grumbled loudly and all four of them laughed as one. Harry nodded and led Hermione over to one of the small tables near the buffet, Ron and Luna following behind. The four sat for a while and grabbed a bite to eat, as Harry wasn't the only hungry one, just the one with the noisiest stomach.

After about a half hour Luna got bored and drug Ron back to the dance floor, leaving the two of them behind. "Harry?"

"Yes, Hermione, what?" Harry replied as he amusedly watched Ginny dance with Neville, avoiding the hazard of him stepping on her feet by her placing her feet on top of his and letting him move them both.

"Thanks, I had a good time" She looked as if she wanted to say something else, but the host calling last dance interrupted her. She got up and taking his hand led him to the dance floor, forgetting for a time, the nightmares and the pain, in this moment.



(A/N: Hope you liked this chapter. Unfortunately the payoff that you are waiting for is still a ways off, sorry. Next chapter, Ron gets his promised time in the sun, and action ensues.)

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JKR owns the world :) A/N: This is actually one of my favorite 3-4 chapters in this story, along with chapter 15 and a couple at the end.

Chapter 13: A Surprise in the Room of Requirement

*********************Headmaster's office, Hogwarts********************

November 12, 2004
8:15am

"How bad this time, Arthur?" Dumbledore asked, sighing and leaning back in his chair. The sun was shining brightly into his office this morning, casing Fawkes normally brilliant plumage to glow radiantly an effect that totally did not suit the mood. Over Dumbledore's shoulders every portrait of headmasters and headmistresses past hung on Arthur's reply.

Arthur groaned slightly and dropped into one of the overstuffed armchairs in front of Dumbledore's desk, facing him wearily, "thirty muggles and five wizards, a family from Kent. And we lost two Aurors to dementors that were with the Death Eaters. They were waiting for them to show up in response. It looks like last time, Albus, V-Voldemort is letting his people out to play." He spit the last words and sat back, pulled his glasses off and started to polish them with a cloth he had removed from his pocket.

Dumbledore looked speculatively into a corner across from Arthur Weasley, "Alastor?"

"He's following the pattern from last time Albus, he's letting his new recruits train themselves, by killing Muggles and normal wizards. The dementors are a new touch, though. I guess he is getting his wizards used to working with them. I'll be really worried if we start getting rumors of giant attacks or something." Moody shrugged as his eye spun to examine Fawkes on his perch, who for his part, chirped at him, annoyed.

"How long before you think he's ready to do something?" Dumbledore asked pensively.

"I think he may try something major by the end of the year, but I'd say it will be at Diagon Alley, or somewhere. He won't be ready to take on Hogwarts or even Hogsmeade by then, too many wizards, and too many defenses here." Moody nodded as if to affirm his answer.

"Yes, that is about what I was thinking, Alastor." Dumbledore replied to an affirming nod by Arthur Weasley.

"One thing though, Albus" Mad-Eye put in suddenly, thoughtfully, "The rest of the kids, we need to start them, not just Potter and Granger, we can't just leave it to themselves any more."

"I thought we agreed they weren't ready." Dumbledore objected softly.

"I did, but I don't want to run out of time, we are pushing it as it is. I'm not even totally sold that Granger is really ready yet, but there were reasons weren't there?" Moody's eye spun as if to emphasize his point, and he shrugged again. Dumbledore didn't answer him right away, but turned and stared at his familiar for a while, almost as if silently asking the phoenix a question.

"There's a DA meeting tonight."

*******************Hagrid's Cabin******************************

11:00 am

"'Ather round, 'ather round" Hagrid shouted to the various students milling around his cabin. They all walked apprehensively towards a large cage that was covered with a tarp. Pavarti leaned over to Lavender and whispered to her friend, "Lord what has he dug up this time?"

Lavender just shook her head, but noticeably, did not walk as fast as she would normally to a class such as divination, or even potions.

Walking by, Ron muttered to the pair, "hell if I know, but I do know that anytime it starts out in both a cage and under a tarp it can't be good. Ron covertly patted his robe pocket to verify that his wand was still there, just in case, an action that was repeated by the two girls. The three walked up to the rest of the Gryffindor sixth years, which were standing in a tight group, as if they were packing up for protection.

"What next?" Hermione murmured out of the side of her mouth as she maintained a smile for Hagrid, "a bloody chimera, a manticore, he's already gone with wyverns 'cause Dumbledore wouldn't let him have a dragon." Harry flicked his glance over to her but didn't answer, as Hagrid beat him to the punch.

"T'day we will be looking a creature that is technically called a "dangerous" creature, but that assignment is wrong, mostly." Hagrid shrugged, but his beady black eyes were smiling. With a dramatic flourish, Hagrid swept the cloth off to reveal a bird, magnificent in the Gryffindor colors of crimson and gold. A beautiful, haunting song broke out from the bird to flutter out over the trees. Fawkes sat calmly on the perch in the cage, and then as he caught sight of Harry and the rest of the Gryffindors he twilled a greeting and vanished from the cage in a flash of fire, a single tail feather floating down in his place.

Fawkes reappeared in an identical flash next to Harry and alighted on his shoulder. "Hey, Fawkes," Harry murmured as he petted his friend. The rest of the students, especially the girls, crowded around and petted him, softly proclaiming their awe at his appearance. For the number of students, few had actually seen Fawkes up close, and probably only Harry, Hermione, and Ron could say they could call him a friend.

"Fawkes here has agreed to participate in class today." Hagrid said proudly, he even agreed to sit in the cage until the start of class, just because, though you can all plainly see that that cage couldn't hold him if he didn't want to be held. Ok, for points now, who can tell me about phoenixes, and why I said they were classified as dangerous?" Hagrid asked glancing around the class just to be fair, before he gave into the inevitable, "'Ermione?"

"Well, sir, Phoenixes are very rare which accounts for their dangerous classification. They can carry tremendous loads, and their tears can heal grave injuries..."

"Really, I hadn't noticed," Harry said out of the side of his mouth, as he continued to pet Fawkes, who seemed content at the attention.

Hermione gave no outward sign she heard him, Smartarse, "their song can inspire the pure of heart, and terrify the dark hearted, and their feathers, especially their tail feathers, are highly valued for magical items and purposes, such as cloaks, hats, potion ingredients, and...wands" Hermione hesitated on the last item, as her eyes flicked over to Harry and Fawkes.

"Good job, 'ermione, I'll let you have fifteen points for that answer, but you forgot one little thing, their natural enemy." Hagrid nodded and glanced over at Harry and Ron, and the others that were clustered around the phoenix. "Ron, the natural 'enemy of Phoenixes?" Ron shrugged and shook his head, "you should know this Ron you were there, 'Arry?"

With a look of distaste as he remembered memories he would rather forget, "snakes, basilisks and the like are the natural enemies of phoenixes, sir" Harry replied softly.

Ron instantly flashed back to that day, that Fawkes himself had helped defend Harry in the Chamber or Secrets, and had carried, Harry, Ginny, Lockheart and himself from Salazar Slytherin's masterpiece. "Sorry mate,"

"It's ok Ron." Harry replied, as Hagrid gave Gryffindor another five points for Harry's completion.

After everyone in the NEWT class had had a chance to see Fawkes in person, Hagrid sent them on their way, with homework to give him three pages on phoenixes in history, famous wizards they had been associated with and with a detailed sketch of the bird attached. "Harry," Padma Patil shouted as she, her sister and Lavender caught up with Harry, Hermione, Ron and Neville at the stairs leading to the castle.

"Yeah, Padma" Harry said as he pulled to a stop, everyone else stopping with him. As they stopped, Luna and Ginny came up from their Herbology class.

"Harry, we still have DA tonight, right?" Padma asked as she looked in a planner, much like the one Hermione carried, and had inflicted on Harry and Ron. Harry nodded, "Ernie asked me to tell you he couldn't make it, Snape gave him detention for thinking too hard or something."

"Thanks, Padma, you still going to be there?" Harry asked, as he saw Hermione pull her planner out of her bag to take a note.

"Yep," Padma responded and headed up the stairs with her sister and Lavender to lunch. Harry led the rest up after them, as Ron told a joke about a Hippogriff and an Owl going into a bar. As they reached the top of the stairs Ron got to the punch line, but couldn't say it he was laughing so hard.

********************Room, of Requirements, Hogwarts*********************

8:00 pm

Harry walked into the Room of Requirement, accompanied by Hermione, Ron and Ginny. The room was arranged so as to provide for the practice dueling of the members of "Dumbledore's Army", and was packed. Almost every student who had been there the year before was present, plus several new members, including more than one Slytherin.

Thomas St. Thomas was the prime example of the few Sytherins who had crossed over that invisible line. He had been placed in Slytherin five years ago, mainly due to his parents being in the house, but he had changed over the years, from a snot-nosed snit even worse than Draco, to a quiet nice, polite boy. In fact he had muttered several times, especially after the news of the breakout from Azkaban, that he wished the sorting hat had resorted him instead of Luna, this year. Harry saw him and waved to one of the few friends that he had in Slytherin.

Walking to the front of the room, Harry turned and perched on a table, and started to address the group only to be stopped by Dumbledore's sudden arrival. "Harry, a moment please." Dumbledore asked from the door, waving him to come over and join him. Glancing over at Hermione and Ron, he shrugged and ambled over amid the excited whispers of the group. They all knew, that if Dumbledore showed up, tonight was to be special; they just didn't know how right they were. Harry stopped next to Dumbledore, who was standing near a huge foe glass in the back of the room. In hushed whispers Harry and Dumbledore discussed something, at one point, Harry snapped a return quietly, but after Dumbledore's reply, shrugged defeatedly. Harry gave a final nod and returned to the front, as he came back up, he stopped briefly and whispered in Hermione's ear. She reacted quite like Harry had to part of the conversion with Dumbledore. Waving off Ron's question, Harry finally got to talk to the DA. "Ok, tonight, is going to be much longer than originally scheduled, if anyone has anything pressing, before tomorrow morning say, let me know and get out of here now." No one left at his comments, so he went on. "Tonight we are going to start with Patronuses." An excited murmur met his words, several of the younger members had never even seen one, and most of the rest had not even worked on one since last year. "Also we will have some guest instructors, and there they are now." Harry waved at the door, to show, Lupin, Tonks, Moody, and Dumbledore coming in the door, with five trunks levitating silently after them. "For those of you who don't know them, the pink haired witch is Tonks, Remus Lupin is the one in the middle, and Alastor Moody is on the end, that's assuming that you all know Professor Dumbledore?" Harry said sarcastically, to which he received a tithe of laughs.

The trunks, and the guest instructors motored up the front of the class, Dumbledore bent over each trunk and muttered an incantation, after which the trunk glowed green for a second before it returned to normal. Turning to Harry, he nodded. "Ok to provide incentive, we have five boggarts in the trunks, which the Professor has charmed into the shape of dementors, and they will stay that way. Split up and line up in front of one of the trunks." Harry along with the four older Order members each picked a trunk and stood behind them as the lines sorted themselves out, Ron and Hermione got into Harry's line at the front so they could go first and help if needed with others. At a further nod from Dumbledore, the trunks were opened, and five boggarts fixed in the shape of Dementors ghosted out. Immediately a cold feeling fills the room, though as Harry could contest, the feeling was a mere pittance compared to the real thing.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM" The spell was incanted by five throats, however of the five, only Hermione's Otter was a corporal patronus the first time. Ginny next to her, in line with Dumbledore, produced a shining sliver mist, than with a visible effort, as she flashed back to a better memory, a large housecat or kneezle padded out of her wand to Hermione's and Dumbledore's happily stated approval. Zacharis Smith, Colin Creevey and Dennis Creevey all did not even produce a silver mist, and went unhappily back to the rear, Hermione quickly went to talk to them and after a while Dennis, the third year Creevey brother, who somehow, was in the group that was supposedly only for forth years and up, was able to cast a successful patronus, some kind of small dog.

After Ron successfully summoned his hedgehog, which promptly curled up in a ball, and Cho's swan flitted past his ear, Harry cracked a slight smile. Not too bad, though the rest of the evening should be...interesting. Harry thought with a touch of apprehension. After an hour had passed, with at least half of the members present now able to at least get a silver mist, which after all did slow dementors down if nothing else, Harry called a halt, and with a "ENVESCO" the trunks and the now restrained boggarts vanished.

Alastor Moody clumped up to the front and looked out over the crowd. He raised his voice like a muggle drill sergeant causing everyone but Harry, Hermione and the adults to cringe a bit, they were all used to it, unfortunately. As he had with Harry, at the Auror training facility, he started pacing back and forth, his glowing magical eye as it did then, looking at his audience regardless of his orientation. "As you all know, Harry here and his friends had quite an experience at the Ministry of Magic last summer. Tonight we will build on that foundation, as it is what we have. Putting aside the reasons for them being there..."

Harry listened stone faced to Moody's talk, next to him the rest of those who had been there listened with a range of emotions ranging from a slight touch of anger on Neville's part, to a almost relaxed attitude on Ron's part. Though since he had had memory charms done to take care of the brains' memories for the most part, that was understandable.

Moody continued on, "there were several mistakes, lets watch them now." With a flick of his wand, the lights in the room dimmed and images started floating in the air above a recording orb, high and large enough for everyone to see. Harry saw for the first time the security orb recordings from the Ministry of that night, it still amazed him that they had these devices so similar to muggle security cameras in function and yet no one had bothered to watch them that evening. At one point, unseen to everyone else, Harry grabbed Hermione's arm for just a second during the flashback of her being injured, as if to verify she was still there and ok. He saw for the first time, the Death Eater grabbing Ginny and Luna detonating the planet in the Room of Planets to let them escape. After the recording had played through, though thankfully before the battle with Voldemort, the lights came back up and the image disappeared. "Ok, there were mistakes made, but that happens, but what was the worst mistake they made in this situation." Moody asked only to hear Harry's reply from over to one side.

"We got split up Mad-Eye, in that situation, if we...I had kept everyone together we could have possibly fought our way out easier, and we would have had more people to cover for each other. And Ginny and Hermione, who couldn't walk, could have been carried out and we would still have had more wands ready to defend." Harry had spent a great deal of time reflecting on that battle.

"Yes, I would agree with that Potter, so tonight, lets replay that night, but we need some actors, first the casualties to get out." Across from Moody, Hermione glanced up at Harry and mouthed, "why am I your friend again" to which Harry just shrugged, it had been this part that he objected to most to Dumbledore at the start of the session. Moody nodded to Tonks, and the pair snapped their wands up together, "STUPEFY." The bolts hit Harry and Hermione in their chests dropping both to the ground, out cold.

If Harry had been awake, he would have been proud at the thirty wands that instantly pointed at Tonks and Moody's hearts. Only to lower them at Dumbledore's hasty request, though Ron's and Neville's seemed to resist being lowered. Pointing at Ron, Moody resumed without the threat of his immediate hexing, "Mr. Weasley, please pick three others. With only an instant of hesitation at Luna, Ron picked the rest of the group that went into the Ministry, after all if it worked once before, sort of... Moody nodded at his choice. Suddenly, without any warning at all, the room changed; in a flash it became the bowels of the Ministry. They were all in the room with the prophesies, but this time, instead of standing at their head, Hermione and Harry were unconscious on the floor in front of them, and there were no Death Eaters, yet...and in some way, Ron and the rest knew that the rest of the DA was watching.

Moody's voice floated out over the room, he wasn't in sight but somehow, Ron knew that he was waiting, "Mr. Weasley, the objective is simple, get your two injured teammates back up to the atrium and out of the building, for tonight's purposes you just have to get them to the phone booth escape, or any other way out of the building, the room will know. The odds will be the same today as they were that night, there are twelve of us waiting, but in the future you won't know how many are waiting on you. One thing, just to keep in the back your mind." Ron, Ginny, Luna and Neville could hear the laughter in his voice, "Tonight Professor Dumbledore has agreed to play the part of Voldemort, if he arrives before you make a escape, you pretty much have lost. The safeties are on in the room so anything goes...GO"

Ron's gaze flicked around the room at the prophecy orbs, then at the end of the row, expecting Moody to be leading fake Death Eaters at them at any instant. "Neville grab Hermione," Ron snapped as he bent to pull his other best friend over his shoulder, never so glad that Harry, was several inches and several pounds lighter than he was himself. "Gin, lead the way, Luna behind us, make sure no one gets two close. If it's in your way, blow it up or stun it, don't fool with anything else...and grab their wands if you stun them and you have time, lets go." With a grunt Ron and Neville started heading down the long row of shelves accompanied by the girls, all four of their eyes flicking around this familiar, yet dissimilar scene.

"DOWN" Ginny snapped and the four of them dropped, Ginny firing a "STUPEFY" as she fell, which bounced off a shield of one of the three antagonists who had suddenly appeared at the end of the row. "LUNA, BLOW'EM UP" Ginny shouted and instantly Luna repeated her performance of last summer and fired a reducto into the racks over the heads of their opponents.

"Run" Ron snapped, as he hoisted Harry and staggered down the row. Glancing up he saw one of the fake Death Eaters turn to fire at Ginny, "STUPEFY." Ron's awkward shot managed to take down that DE and the four ran past, Harry and Hermione still unconscious on Ron and Neville's shoulders. As she passed Luna reached down and snatched the wands of two sleeping foes, one from Ron and the second from the concussion of her Reductor.

As the group reached the bell-jar room, this time thankfully together, Luna, sealed the door behind them, and they cautiously edged foreword, only to spring backwards at a wall of red light that shot through a partially open door they had been headed for. Ron waved at Neville to get over to one side and the girls to the other. They crouched out of sight. As three fakes slid into the room behind their wands, each smiling, and pointing at Ron and Harry in the middle of the room, "EXPELLIARMUS" was bellowed from both sides, and the three's wands go flying. Ron gave them a grin, "STUPEFY" the three slumped to the floor, and with a quick summoning charm, he pulled their wands to him and pocketed them. "Gin," he said indicating the door, the bad guys just came in.

"Ron toss me one of those wands" Ginny responded in a loud whisper. Ron flipped one of the captured wands to his sister, curious at what she would do with it. Ginny picked the wand up in her left hand, and pointed it at herself. "Imago emino". The spare wand glowed yellow, and then Ginny lay down on the floor and pointed the spare wand upward. An exact image, like a muggle hologram, of Ginny appeared, and she carefully eased around the corner of the door on her belly, with her doppelganger standing in the middle of the door. Suddenly two bolts of red light shot out and passed straight through the image, causing it to vanish.

"WHAT THE F.."

"STUPEFY" Ginny fired with both wands as she rolled into the doorway, causing the two Order members standing in for Voldemort's minions to drop. "Let's go" Ginny got up and sprinted to the next door, scooping up the fallen wands of the 'Death Eaters' as she passed.

As Neville and Ron caught up to her, panting, Luna trailing them, Neville stared at her a second, "Where the hell did you pick that up?"

"Fred and George were working on it for a trick, tricked them didn't it?" The fire-haired witch added with a grin. "Five left big brother?"

"Yeah, let's go, if I remember it's the brain room and then the death chamber, and then we can get to the lifts." Ron replied, not noticing the shudder he himself gave at the thought of the brain room.

Just as they started though the door to the brain room, "REDUCTO" came from behind them and the sealed door behind them vaporized. "Get them" the quartet heard in Tonks' voice. Amid a flurry of red stunner bolts, all four of them spun and dove to the floor.

"PROTEGO" Ron cast a shield charm and held on, gritting his teeth, every bolt threatening to knock him and it down. Dragging Harry out the door, the four managed to slip into the next room; "Colloportus" he gasped from the floor and the door slammed and sealed in an instant. "GO, GO" Ron screamed and he and Neville hobbled, through the Death Chamber, and past, into the room of many exits. "AW DAMN, no markings, WHICH DAMN DOOR IS IT?" Ron snapped angrily, only to watch in tired bemusement as the proper door opened itself, Figures.

The four of them, Ginny and Luna each helped Ron or Neville, and together they all more or less ran to the lift. As the lift was climbing to the atrium, Luna looked almost as if she were seeing something just out of sight, "get ready," she said calmly. As one the four nod, and crowd the sides of the lift to try to stand out of the way of spells. And it was good that they did, for as the lift doors opened, a stunner bolt hit the back wall of the lift. Ginny popped her head around the corner of the lift and back just as fast, as a stunner bolt followed it. "Its just Mad-Eye," she gasped, "but he has us pinned here."

"Nope" Neville said with a smile, "he doesn't, he can't fire off stunners if he's shielding himself." The four of them chuckled tiredly at that observation.

"Right," Ron muttered. "Neville, Gin, poke your wands around the corner on three and just keep firing stunners, Luna as soon as we hear the stunners ricochet, fire a reducto right at his feet, Ok...one...two...three..." Ron, Ginny and Neville pushed just the tips of their wands out and started firing stunners off as fast as they could, as they heard a "ZING" Luna jumped out and did her job. The reducto blew a hole in the stone floor, knocking Moody flying and more importantly knocking his shield down. As he flew backwards, Ginny calmly stepped around the corner of the lift and picked him off like a clay pigeon; he was sleeping before he hit the floor. All four dove out of the lift, two each now carrying their comrades, and as they reached the phone booth lift, the room suddenly changed back into the Room of Requirements from before, the unconscious forms of eight of their pursuers on the floor, Tonks standing there looking annoyed and proud at the same time.

A sudden round of applause broke out from the rest of the DA members who had been invisibly watching, and Dumbledore, who had been stated to play Voldemort, but never had to join in. "Excellent, excellent, Enervate" Dumbledore said waving his wand over the sleeping forms in the room.

"UHHH, we win, Ron?" Harry muttered from his shoulder.

"Yeah, mate, Ron replied in a tone of satisfied exhaustion, grinning at the others.


A/N: I wrote this chapter, as both my beta and I thought I was being a little hard on Ron, I hope this made up for it. Next Chapter, the rest of the Ministry six, besides Hermione and Harry, of course, learn the prophesy.

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Chapter 14 The Prophesy Revealed.
**************Room of Requirements**********************

November 13, 2004
12:35am

"Coming Harry?" Ron yelled back at Harry who was still standing near the door of the Room of Requirements. They had all finally gotten through the debriefing Moody had given over their new mistakes, which they had committed in their reenactment. And then Moody had topped that off by having a second scenario, in which Harry and the rest of the sextet teamed with Tonks, Lupin and Moody and had acted as the Death Eaters against a different group composed of the Patil twins, Lavender, Seamus, Dean and Colin Creevy. The best Harry could say for that one, was that it was relatively short, and that his side, "the bad guys" won easily. Especially so, when the three boys had blundered into a crossfire and had been taken out easily, causing the girls to have to try to get the boys out, and since they needed their wands to fight and not to mobilize fallen friends, they had been easy pickings for Hermione, Tonks, Ginny and Luna, who more or less just walked in and stunned the girls without hardly a fight, not the DAs best moment.

Hermione glanced over at Harry's troubled expression, and bit her lip, "Ron, Ginny, go ahead I'll catch up."

"Sure, Herm," Ron said ambivalently, then turned to Ginny and Neville and the three started relating their experiences in today's, or rather yesterday's, now, exercise. The three disappeared, now everyone was gone except Harry, Hermione and Moody and Dumbledore who were still in the Room talking about something.

Hermione stopped next to Harry, and glanced back in the open door, to see Dumbledore and Moody still in conversion. She returned her gaze to Harry, "What's wrong, Harry." As she asked, she glanced up into his eyes, temped for just a second to try to pry the secret out the hard way.

"Nothing" Harry replied succinctly.

"Bullocks," Hermione replied briefly, then with a tiny grin that Harry just had to share, "remember I'm the other friend, not the one with the emotional range of a teaspoon."

"Sorry, Mione, its just that, umm, as I was sitting there watching Moody go over Ron and the rest's performance this evening, and I realized they did so much better than I did when I led y..."

"NO" Hermione snapped, interrupting his words, "no Harry you didn't, unlike tonight you...we didn't have that advantages that Ron, Gin, Neville and Luna had tonight."

"Mione."

"No, Harry, now shut up while I defend you to you," She smiled at him as he mouthed "yes, ma'am" back to her, then she went on with her comparison. "Now I'm not saying that Ron and the rest did poorly tonight, on the contrary I think they were awesome, they didn't get anyone hit at all, you and I don't count, they stopped twice the number they had conscious, and even beat Moody and Tonks at their own game. They went though that place like water through a pipe. Heck, I'll even admit, that Ron was really impressive, his strategies were great, though I do wish he'd put that brainpower towards his schoolwork. Anyway the difference is that they knew what was going down, they didn't start under the wand like we...you had to, when you led us to the Ministry for real, everyone one has had an additional six months of training, and more importantly everyone had already experienced combat for real." Hermione finished and crossed her arms as if physically blocking him questioning himself again.

"Thanks, Mione, thanks for believing in me..." Harry said quietly then in a more normal tone to her carefully neutral expression, "Hermione, I'm going to ask to borrow Dumbledore's pensive, the others that went in with us deserve to know the truth, about what the future will hold. It's time, and I've waited too long as it is, especially towards Ron, he at least deserves to know."

Hermione nodded, though inside, she was still grateful, well grateful wasn't the word exactly, more content, that he had chosen to tell her first, well before the rest of his friends.

"Professor" Harry said quickly, as Dumbledore and Moody finally came out. "May I borrow your pensive...it's time."

Dumbledore merely nodded, as he immediately understood Harry's statement. "It will be delivered to you tomorrow, please bring it back, at your next Legilimency lesson, goodnight then." Dumbledore and Moody walked off, still apparently discussing something important or maybe not so important.

Harry and Hermione turned and headed towards Gryffindor tower and home, with a sudden thought, Harry looked at Hermione, "Just how much emotional range do I have then?"

With a chuckle, "Ohh, I'd say about a soup ladle."

**********************Sixth Year Gryffindor Boys Room**********************

10:30 am

Ginny, and Luna walked into Harry and Ron's room. They had both gotten a note delivered by a certain snow-white owl this morning at breakfast to come up to Harry's room. As they walked in they saw that the aforementioned owl was sitting on Harry's dresser, as opposed to being back up in the Owlery as usual. Harry was sitting cross-legged on his bed with an old gray stone bowl marked with curious runes sitting before him on the bedspread. Next to him on Ron's bed, Hermione and Ron were sitting looking at Harry, and Neville was across from Harry on his own bed. Ginny and Luna glanced around at the assembled teens and with a wave from Neville they crossed over to him and plopped down on his bed, bouncing a little as they settled in. Before they can say anything, Hermione pointed her wand at the door, "Colloportus, Silencio."

They all watched the characteristic white flash of the silencing charm on a room; Harry spoke for the first time, "sorry about being so mysterious before." Harry shrugged but they all noted that he looked serious. "After last night I decided that all of you should know why you ended up risking life or limb last June." Harry stopped and visibly bit back something he wanted to say, then he went on, "you see, the reason Voldemort wanted me there was to get a prophesy about me and him."

"We already know that mate," Ron said.

"Be quiet and let him finish" Hermione whispered harshly to Ron from her seat next to him.

Ron looked as if he wanted to respond, but Harry cut him off with a raised, placating hand, more to stop the ensuing argument than anything else. "Yeah you know that part, but you don't know what the prophesy says Ron." Harry returned.

"But the prophesy was smashed Harry, it was my fault I admit but..." Neville put in before Harry interrupted him.

"Neville, were not going there, Ok? Anyway actually there was one person who did know the prophecy, Dumbledore heard it in its entirety seventeen years ago and he could remember it perfectly. He showed it to me last June after we got back...when most of you were still in the hospital ward." At Harry's hesitation, he glanced around the room, but he saw no blame in any of their eyes and with a nod of thanks he finished. "Anyway here is what I saw that day." Without further ado, Harry placed his wand to his head, and drew out a slivery strand of thought. He placed it in the pensive as everyone except Hermione watched the pensive, she unnoticed to Harry, watched him. After all she already knew the prophecy. "Projectus Mementos" Harry incanted quietly, and an image of a small Harry standing in Dumbledore's office appeared. They could all see clearly that he was battered and bruised from the ministry fight. They watched and heard as Harry raged and destroyed Dumbledore's office. They heard Dumbledore try to take his share of the guilt for Sirius' death and heard all of Dumbledore's reasoning for the last five years, and then they saw a small Dumbledore place a minuscule thought into a tiny pensive and a microscopic Trelwany appeared. Everyone could hear her just fine however:

"The one with the power to vanquish the dark lord approaches... Born to those
who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...And the Dark Lord
will mark him as his equal, But he will have power that the Dark Lord knows not....
And either must die at the hand of the other, for neither can live while the other
survives...The one with the power to vanquish that Dark Lord will be born
As the seventh month dies." The tiny Trelwany chanted, and the room, which had been quiet already, was like a tomb. The memory finished with Harry's verification of what the prophecy meant, and Dumbledore explaining just why Harry hadn't been a Prefect that year.

"Bloody Hell" Ron whispered, "It's all or nothing isn't it?" Harry nodded in response, as he silently returned the thought to his head. "Who else knows mate?" Then with a glance over at Neville, "you lucked out Nev." Neville didn't take offence at all; on the contrary, he just looked relieved.

"Dumbledore of course, probably McGonagall, I don't know if anyone else does. You all deserved to know, though." Harry looked as if he wanted to hold more back but he didn't they deserved the full truth. "That's why the DA meetings have suddenly ramped up in intensity. The final battle could come at anytime, and since I can't get you people to leave me alone." Harry under any other circumstances would have laughed at the assorted tongues stuck out and exaggerated hurt expressions, but he couldn't go on.

Ginny, the youngest one there, saved him however, "Its about survival Harry, we all know that. Our job is to make sure you get to the bastard. You're family Harry, we don't leave family to fight alone, ever."

********************Great Hall, Hogwarts*************************

December 10, 2004
7:00 am

Since Harry's revelation of the prophesy to his "inner circle" their training had taken a more serious note, which down deep concerned him a bit. Their classes had gone fine, however even Hermione had commented on the seemingly increased pace of the classes. Harry had even been joined for an early morning run by Ron, though he grumbled the entire time around the lake, about the hour not the exercise, Harry was glad to note. This morning Ron had actually beat Harry and Hermione to the breakfast table, though honestly that was because Hermione had twisted a knee on a rock during her morning run and Harry had lent a shoulder to help her to the infirmary. Ron had asked if Harry needed help, but Harry said he had it, so Ron left them in peace, and said he'd see them at breakfast.

This morning, breakfast looked like a Weasley clan get-together with himself, Ginny, Fred and George leaning close, plotting. Ron had gotten an ultimatum from Snape, quote: Weasley, you better come up with something that will really impress me before Christmas, and you better not get any help from Granger. To which Ron had snapped back, fine I'll just create the Animangus potion, as his mouth overran his brain. Snape had just laughed and said that there was no way he could do it, and anyway the ingredients were rare and Ron couldn't have any of his. But barring all of that, he had said, if Ron could give him a properly brewed potion by Christmas break, he would give Ron an E for the semester and let him stay in the class. "So," Ron whispered over to the twins, "were you able to get me the ingredients?"

"Ya, mate," Fred, replied with a smirk, "Lee was able to order them under the cover of being materials for the shop so, were set there. He'll sneak them in tonight."

"I wish you'd let Hermione help with this," Ginny muttered, she flicked her eyes toward the door as if checking to see if the just mentioned witch had just walked in, she hadn't.

"The plan is to make enough potion for all of us right?" George said with a grin.

"Yeah," Ron sighed, "Snape thinks that I'm just trying to make enough for him to test, but, I upped the ingredients to make eight doses. Ginny I'm not telling Hermione or Harry, because I don't want to get his hopes up, and I got myself into this mess with Snape myself, and I'll get myself out of that."

"Why did you tell us then?" Ginny asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You're family" Ron said simply.

"And Harry and Hermione aren't?" Ginny snapped back with a touch of heat. She started twirling her wand in her fingers as if considering casting her Bat-Bogey hex. But Ron soon calmed her.

"No Gin, I didn't mean it like that, both of them are as much family to me as you four are, and much more than some people who share my blood." Ron paused at the identical frowns that crossed four red-haired visages at the reminder of Percy's treachery. "Anyway Snape thinks I'm making the potion just for class he doesn't think I'm going to take it or anyone else. And since the needed incantations are in the restricted section..." Ron looked over at Fred with a half smile.

"We got it last night, even though we had to dodge said sixth year Gryffindor prefect on her rounds, Harry teaches disillusionment charms well." George put in from the side with a smirk. They had cornered Harry and made him teach them the charm after they had figured out how he had disappeared from in front of them, earlier this year.

"Hey guys," Harry said as he came in trailed by Hermione, who was now walking just fine, "What are you all talking about, so intently?" Harry plopped down next to Ron, while Hermione took a seat opposite them, and glanced at him with a questioning look.

Ron smiled back, Glad I'm not Harry, he never could lie to her, Ron thought as he quickly prepared a reply, "Oh we were discussing Christmas, Mum owled the other day and said to invite you all. So you want to come? Harry? Hermione?"

Hermione flicked an eyebrow upward, but she just replied, "Sure, I'd love to, I'll owl my parents later, Harry can I use Hedwig?"

Harry grinned, he loved the Burrow, in many ways it was almost his home, after all, it did hold most of those he considered his family, as opposed to his actual blood relatives, who he considered his keepers, "Where else would I go Ron, of course I'll be there...Hermione you know that you don't have to ask, Hedwig will do what ever you say."

Ginny quickly dropped her view to her plate, I swear I am going to get a beater's bat and whack those two upside the head, just so they'll wake up. Even the bloody owl knows...Though I guess my brother still doesn't, Ginny thought as her gaze flicked to Ron as he was bent down munching some doughnuts. I'm just glad I got over my crush on Harry; I never even had a chance... Ginny finished her thought as she watched Neville glide in and sit down opposite the group.

Just as Neville reached for his food, the morning post fluttered in on many, many wings, Harry glanced up quickly but as usual he didn't see Hedwig, so he kept eating. Only to snap out a hand, catching Errol before he crashed into the eggs. "Ron are you guys ever going to retire this poor bird?" Harry asked whimsically as he handed the owl to Fred.

"I wish, but Mum likes him, says he has style." Ron shook his head, as Fred unwrapped a package of food from Molly, even after eight children either though this school or still in it, she still didn't believe the house elves fed them enough. The usual Daily Prophet owl gently landed in front of Hermione, but right as she was reaching for some change, a second owl braked to a halt next to it. Quickly paying off the prophet delivery service, she reached for the letter attached to the second owl.

Opening the letter, which Harry immediately noticed was on muggle paper instead of parchment, she began to read. Halfway though she sighed heavily and frowned. Hermione glanced at Harry, almost as if to apologize for something, then she turned to the Weasleys, "sorry, guys, it looks like I'm staying the holidays with my parents, Mum and Dad say that they'd like me to actually spend Christmas with them this year, as I didn't last year." Hermione stuffed the letter into her bag, and gave a tiny shrug.

Ginny granted a little smile and patted her arm, "that's ok Herm, we'll miss you though." A chorus of agreement floated about the group at this obvious pronouncement.

********************Hogwarts Entryway***********************

December 20, 2004

8:30 am

"We'll see you at the Burrow then, Harry?" Ron asked as he and the rest of the Weasleys and Hermione waited for the carriages to take them to Hogsmeade Station for the train ride home for the holidays. They all had their bags pilled together, and Ginny, in particular was bundled up against the bitter Scottish December day.

"Yeah mate I should be there tomorrow, I was going to ride the train with you all but Moody has this strange idea about separating the targets, or maybe he spiked his pumpkin juice, I don't know." Harry rolled his eyes at what he still considered over protectiveness, but he had given up arguing. "Hermione, I guess I'll see you in a few weeks." Harry said with smile that was a touch forced.

"Yeah," Hermione said, and gave him a quick hug. Right as she did so the carriages pulled up. Looking up and bushing a loose lock behind her ear, "we better go."

Harry nodded and helped them load their bags into the carriage. He stood in the doorway until they had ridden out of sight. With a sigh, he turned and went back into the castle, where he was supposed to catch a portkey to the Burrow in the morning after Moody crammed some last minute training down his throat.

*****************Kings Cross Station**********************

The Weasley children watched the Grangers disappear through the barrier to the muggle world. After Hermione and her parents had vanished, George turned to Ron, "so how did it go?"

Ron's face lit up, "I nailed it, Snape damn near died at the words, but he said it was adequate. I got my E for the semester, not as good as the O Hermione or Harry got, but good enough. I have the potion in an unbreakable bottle in my gear. We can try the incantation and the change tonight, if we get the incantation right, we should be able to transform at will, though it'll be difficult at first. You all have been practicing visualizing the change and performing the initial incantations, like the books said? If it works, we can surprise Harry at Christmas, and we can plot on how to surprise Hermione after Christmas." The Weasleys, all natural jokesters, laughed at that thought, but then Ginny had a more serious one.

"You know," she said in a whisper as she glanced around to confirm that Molly was still out of earshot, "That technically we will be breaking the law, as except for Fred and George we are still underage, and I don't suspect any of us are planning on registering with the Ministry, even though Dad is the Minister of Magic."

All of them looked thoughtful at that last point, no one wanted to get Arthur in trouble, but Ron had a stronger imperative, "We don't want to get dad in trouble, Ginny, but I figure we will have to keep our abilities secret as they may come in handy later." Everyone, even Ginny nodded at that, Ginny had actually been thinking along those same lines, and besides, another ability that the enemy didn't know about couldn't hurt in this war.

"So Ronickins, what do you think you will be?" Fred teased, waggling his eyebrows.

Ron looked at the twins with a feral grin, "Don't know, but hopefully I'll be able to eat you."


A/N: Ok now everyone knows, except Voldemort. Fun isn't it?, next chapter the war comes home to one of our heros.

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A/N this is another of my favorite chapters in the story
Chapter 15 Fighting the Cold

********************Canton, England*******************************

December 22, 2004
10am

"Jane, why again are we braving the crowds to go shopping, I hate shopping, and I have patients waiting?" Roger Granger growled to his wife, from his post on the couch where he was reading Hermione's Daily Prophet. "And speaking of that, where is our daughter anyway, I just put off appointments for this morning not all week. It's not like Harry was down here or anything."

"Shush," Jane replied from across the room at his cross expression. Harry Potter was still a somewhat nebulous subject in this house, they had both met the boy multiple times, and truthfully they both liked him greatly, however Roger still partially blamed him for the various, "accidents" Hermione had had over the years at Hogwarts. Albus Dumbledore had magically repaired the exploded kitchen that had resulted from the fight over if she would return to Hogwarts this year, and he hadn't forgotten the lesson or the talk they had had with Dumbledore after, but he still was her father. "Anyway, they're just friends, Roger" Jane replied grinning, as she got up to straighten a Christmas ornament that Crookshanks had been playing with.

"My arse" he muttered in return as he turned the pages of the prophet. "I'm waiting for Harry's bloody owl any day now, with a letter asking for her hand."

"They aren't that far along, they haven't even gone on a date." Hermione's mother, an almost identical older version of her daughter, replied giggling just like her, as she straightened up from the Christmas tree.

"Only because they are both chickens." He wryly observed.

"Who's a chicken dad?" Hermione replied; her eyes laughing as she came down the stairs.

Roger glanced at his wife, who was hiding further giggles behind her hand. "My patients honey, I've got a whole group of them, that I almost have to go and drag into the office."

"Oh ok, I got that letter sent off to Harry" Hermione replied matter-of-factly as she grabbed her coat from the hall closet and walked to the door leading to the outside and the garage.

Jane's eyes met her husband's he just raised an eyebrow exactly like his daughter was wont to do. "How did you send a letter to Harry dear?"

"Oh Hedwig showed up with one from him this morning, so I sent one back in return." Hermione replied as she slipped her wand into her inner coat pocket, exactly where it would have been if she were in her school robes, not catching the "letter this morning" that her father mouthed over to Jane.

"Why the wand dear?" Jane asked as she slipped her coat on too.

Hermione shrugged, "Habit mum" Oh, like I'll tell you two, that I'm afraid Voldemort's thugs are everywhere and that that 'habit' comes from training to help my best friend kill the darkest wizard to cast his shadow on the world since Morgana. Besides, Harry would kill me if he found out I left it at home.

The three of them piled into her father's Land Rover and went to the mall just outside of town. Hermione had said that she hadn't had time to shop for anyone's Christmas presents yet. Additionally and more importantly, as Jane had told him when she made him clear his schedule for this morning, he had cleared it for the whole day but hadn't told his wife he was saving it for a surprise, that he should spend time with his daughter. Especially since, she pointed out forcefully, that he was the reason that she hadn't stayed with her friends for Christmas and gone to the Burrow with the Weasleys and Harry. His weak disjointer that she had canceled on them last Christmas to be with them hadn't flown, as neither of them believed the "skiing isn't my thing, mum, dad" line that Hermione had floated last year.

"Ohh, I do need new trainers" Hermione muttered as she went into a shoe store with her mother, Roger just shook his head and stood patiently outside the store with the other fathers, husbands and significant others, holding packages and at least one purse for the two. After twenty minutes, Hermione came out carrying another bag, most likely with the aforementioned trainers. To his great relief, unlike most of the other children in their relatively affluent neighborhood, their daughter never had been spoiled; she really had needed new trainers, her old ones looked as if they had a great number of miles on them. And he had noticed that their normally pretty fit daughter was in very good shape when they had picked her up at Platform 9 3/4, and had sometime in the last semester developed the habit of getting up at five am to exercise. But with only seeing her once or twice a year anymore, and usually for a month at a time at the most, these infrequent shopping trips were something else. Glad I brought the Rover, instead of the car, not everything would have fit. Suddenly he rubbed his arms, heating's broke down in here? Getting awfully cold all of a sudden, Roger thought as he glanced around and saw other shoppers reacting similarly.

Hermione paused from where she was talking to her mother, trying to figure out something to get for Ginny, she really hadn't had time to get Christmas presents except for something she had already picked up for Harry. Hermione had already arraigned for Lupin to stop off tomorrow to ferry presents to the Burrow, to keep Hedwig from a heart attack carrying everything back to her friends. I don't really blame mum and dad; I did blow them off last Christmas to be with Harry and Ron. That's weird, you'd think that they'd have better heating in this mall, it's new...OH SHIT...Hermione trailed off in her thoughts, as she knew that cold, that feeling. Her hand dove inside her jacket as she grabbed her mother with her free hand, and pulled Jane over to her father, dropping her new trainers as she went over to him.

"Hermione dear, your shoes, what's..."Jane Granger stopped as she saw the curious sight of people falling over, apparently without cause. She was a dentist, but dentists were doctors after all and she started to go to the people only to be stopped by her daughter's firm hand. "Hermione, dear I have to go help them."

"You can't mum" Hermione replied sadly, for the cause to her eyes was not unknown, she could plainly see the dark shapes of the Dementors, she grabbed the front of her fathers jacket now, with the hand holding her wand. Where, the burrow? Harry and the rest are there it'd be safe anyway. I hope I can do this with both of them. With an effort Hermione mentally concentrated on the burrow, willing herself and her parents there, but she felt a curious resistance. Anti-Apparation wards? She thought incredulously, as that could only mean that there were Death Eaters about somewhere. Lord, Harry I wish you were here...Her thoughts flashing back to her and Harry on the dance floor on Halloween, "EXPECTO PATRONUM." A shining silver otter burst from the end of her wand, the muggles near her looking on curiously at the daft girl, as they couldn't see either the Dementors or the spell.

Fortunately however, the fact that the muggles couldn't see the otter had nothing to do with its effectiveness. Hermione's glowing otter dove among the several dementors and where it passed the Dementors were gone only to be replaced by an equal number in turn. More, oh for the love of Merlin...Hermione forced her thoughts to even happier memories, of a ride on the back of a particular Hippogriff in third year, of the feeling when Harry returned battered, beaten but alive, so alive from the Graveyard duel with Voldemort, the weight that had come off her shoulders. Her patronus glowed even brighter, and with another pass, the rest of the Dementors were vanquished. But unfortunately that was just the start of her problems. For if there were anti-apparation spells up, that meant Death Eaters were somewhere in the area, and even if they hadn't come after her specifically, even if this was just another terror attack, any wizard in the area would have detected her patronus.

"Mum, dad, we have to go, now" Hermione said firmly as she started to drag them towards the door to where their car was parked, glancing from side to side to look out for enemies, wishing for the first time that she had a magical eye like Moody's.

"Dear, what was?" Jane Granger asked a little fretfully.

To which she got a grim reply that instantly confirmed Roger's and her fears for the last six years, "Dementors, and I couldn't apparate us out so someone has put up anti-apparation charms around this place and that means Death Eaters. They'll see that patronus."

Hermione glanced around hoping without hope that she was wrong, but she wasn't. "Thorton look, isn't that the Granger Mudblood?" A masked man in black robes said to another, there were suddenly at least six of them.

"Why yes it is O'Neal, yes it is, the Master will reward us greatly for this, "STUPEFY"" A bolt of red light shot towards Hermione, and in an instant, all thoughts of secrecy were gone from her mind.

"Behind me, PROTEGO" Instinctively her parents listened and stood behind their daughter as she fought a fight they couldn't begin to understand, they couldn't see the red bolt of light but they could clearly hear the sound of its passage, and see the huge chunk that the deflected spell took out of the wall. Hermione snapped off a quick shot at the one called "O'Neal," he got up a shield of his own, but he only managed to deflect her spell into one of his cohorts knocking him unconscious.

Ok, that works, She thought grimly as she witnessed the results. She dove backwards, taking her parents with her as she heard the beginning of the Death Curse, just barely pulling the three of them under the cover of a concrete fountain. The green bolt shot overhead and smashed a concrete pillar behind them, giving her an idea. "MUM, DAD, do not move."

"What's wrong Mudblood?" One of the Death Eaters yelled over to her, his voice magically amplified. "Afraid that we'll send your pretty head to Potter in a box." He laughed manically, and fired another Kedevra over her head.

Hermione grimaced, and mouthed once again "stay down" to her parents, who were sheltered with her behind the fountain. She took a deep breath, and held the tip of her wand over the lip of the fountain, "REDUCTO" a brilliant bolt of light, to her eyes anyway, reached out and detonated right over the heads of the Death Eaters attacking her, battering a second into unconsciousness as a large chunk of debris hit him on the head. Hermione never looked, she was already rolling to her left, and as she cleared the fountain, she shot two very quick stunners, each of which hit their targets, dropping two more to the floor. Rolling quickly back under cover, she breathed heavily, knowing that there were still two more. Then there were none, standing anyway. For in an instant, she heard a beautiful, hauntingly familiar burst of song, saw a beautiful red and gold swan-like bird appear, and a pair of loud CRACKs rang out.

"STUPEFY" Lupin, Tonks and Dumbledore cried at once. One of the two remaining Death Eaters took both Tonks and Lupin's shots in the same spot on his chest, he dropped instantly and did not breathe again, the other one took Dumbledore's stunner with such force that he flew back almost ten feet and smashed into a wall with a sickening crunch.

Dumbledore looked around grimly, but it was too late for the dead and or soulless muggles, and anyway he had one of his own to protect. Where? Her own home? Hogwarts? Aw yes. Dumbledore waved his wand at Hermione's new shoes and they shot over to him. Laying them on the edge of the fountain, "PORTUS" the shoes glowed blue for a second and did a weird dance then lay inert. "Hermione, take this portkey, it will take you to the Burrow, Harry and the Weasleys are there, you and your parents will be safe there. Hermione nodded bleakly and instructing each of her patents to grab onto the shoes, she did so and all three of them vanished in a flash and a POP.

Dumbledore looked up from where his second favorite student had just vanished and glared around at the devastation. "Nymphadora, Remus, take those creatures to the Ministry, and have a talk with them. This looks like a random attack, however I am highly concerned at the timing, that Hermione just happened to be here with her parents."

"And you?" Tonks asked as she tied each of the Death Eaters to a portkey she had just created.

"I'm going to clean up this mess. Closing his eyes, he waved his wand in a broad circle and incanted three spells, slowly and distinctly, "ENVESCO, OCCUPATO REPARO, OBLIVATE AREUM". With a flash the damage caused by the Death Eaters, and Hermione's Reducto blast was instantly repaired, the muggles that remembered the battle immediately forgot, and the bodies of the soulless and dead muggles, victims of the Dementors and Death Eaters vanished to a special morgue at St. Mungo's set up for just this contingency. With a nod and a swirl of his cloak he vanished.

************************The Burrow*******************************

Harry was going spare; he had been talking quietly to Lupin in the kitchen about some tricks Lupin, Sirius and James used to play, when Lupin threw a hand to his chest, grabbing a peculiar medallion from under his shirt. The medallion, which seemed to have a Phoenix emblazoned on it, was vibrating furiously. Lupin had taken the time to shout a "STAY HERE HARRY" and had disapparated with a CRACK. Harry for his part was worried sick, he knew the only thing that would have caused that reaction, would be an attack by Voldemort's forces. But where and on whom, Harry worked desperately though the possibilities, Diagon Alley? the Ministry again? Some poor muggles? Of course the last was the closest to the truth had he known, but he did not allow himself to follow that thought all the way though.

In a snap of light, Harry's questions were answered as Hermione and her parents appeared, still clutching her shoes that had been used as a portkey. Harry's reflexes, were perhaps the fastest seen in a generation, and his wand was pointed at Hermione's heart before she fully materialized, only to be lowered instantly as he saw who it was. As he saw her fully he knew. He dropped his wand and rushed to her, taking her in his arms, both of them ignoring the presence of her parents. "Mione are you all right...you're hurt" He muttered noticing a cut on her cheek that she got from flying debris.

"I'm alright Harry, Dementors and Death Eaters," she whispered into his shoulder. Then with a sound from her parents they broke apart.

"I'm glad to see you Harry" Jane Granger said quietly, "In fact I think I should be very glad to see you" She went on after her and Roger had exchanged a forced grin at their daughter's and Harry's reunion.

Harry nodded, "You're safe here," he went to the door, stuck his head into the living room, and yelled, "MOLLY."

Molly Weasley came running into the kitchen, "Harry wha..." only to stop at the sight of the Grangers standing in her kitchen, Hermione still very close to Harry, her parents standing with Roger's arm around Jane, all three of them looking battered. She turned to Harry and finished her question a little differently. "Harry what happened?"

Harry glanced over at the Grangers, "expecto patronum" he murmured the incantation in response to her question, causing her to cover her mouth with her hands in fright.

"My god" Molly gasped making the obvious conclusion, "are you all right?"

"Yeah, Molly we appear to be, however I would like an explanation, full this time, mind you Hermione." Roger said evenly as he started getting over his shock.

"And you shall have it" Albus Dumbledore replied from were he had just appeared, silently. "I suggest that we adjourn to the living room as it has more space. Molly if you would summon the rest of your family." Molly nodded and left the kitchen, her voice already sounding loudly through the house, calling her family in. "Harry, if you would escort the Grangers to the living room, I will be there in a moment." Harry nodded, and with a gentle motion he did that very thing.

Dumbledore sat down heavily in a kitchen chair and stared at the wall for a long, long moment. He slowly pulled a package of lemon drops from a pocket of his starry, purple robes and tossed a couple in his mouth. After another minute or so he went into the front room, just as Lupin appeared with a CRACK, causing Roger and Jane to jump slightly although no one else moved, as everyone else could apparate themselves and was therefore used to it. "Remus?"

"Random" Lupin replied with a word, and Dumbledore felt a touch of relief, not at the loss of life or worse suffered by the muggles, but that Hermione and her parents hadn't been the target.

"Roger and Jane, explanations are in order." Dumbledore said, looking at them resolutely where they sat on a couch together, holding hands. Hermione had dropped on an opposite couch next to Harry, Ron had sat down on the other side of her when he came in, thankfully not asking any questions for now, as he could easily determine that something was very wrong if Hermione and her parents were here. The rest of the Weasleys that were at the Burrow, Ginny, Charlie, Bill and Molly came in soon after; Arthur was at the ministry, while Fred and George were at their joke shop in Diagon Alley checking up on things. "I assume that you remember what I told you last June?" Hermione glanced over at her parents than at Harry next to her, he shrugged, as this was news to him too. "I told you of some of the trials Harry has been through, and therefore what some of his friends have gone through. Unfortunately I did not tell you everything, a failing that your daughter and Harry have seen fit to call me on, rightfully so, on more than one occasion. Forgive me if I assume you know something you don't
or vise versa, I don't know what Hermione has told you about our world. Do you know what dementors are?"

Jane looked at her husband, then evenly at Dumbledore, "Guards of some prison or another, I can't remember for sure, I read it in one of Hermione's books.

Dumbledore nodded sagely, "Indeed they were. They were the guards at the Azkaban prison. Recently they have turned on the Ministry of Magic and are now in league with Lord Voldemort." The usual gasp of shock was heard, uttered from Molly, by now the rest of the family was used to it, and Harry wasn't scared of the name. "What happened today, was that the mall you were in was attacked by those dementors. They feed on the happy thoughts and souls of humans, the cold that you felt was a side effect of their passage. Hermione drove them away using a spell that very few wizards her age, indeed few wizards period, can do at all."

"What about those people in the masks then? And they seemed to know Hermione, they called her by name, then by something else, mudgut, mudsometing." Roger asked, confused as he had seen them just fine.

"Death Eaters" Harry replied for Dumbledore, "They are followers of Voldemort."

"The mudblood term is an insult to my parentage dad" Hermione replied evenly, "It means my parents were muggles."

"So?" Jane replied.

"Simply put they are evil." Dumbledore responded evenly. "One of the tenants of their beliefs is that only pureblooded wizards are worthy of survival, that half-bloods, like Harry and muggle-borne like your daughter are abominations and should be wiped out. And that muggles are ultimately playthings for their amusement. That is what happened today, a group of Death Eaters was following around a squad of Dementors looking for sport. Hermione being there undoubtedly saved many lives."

"But why did they act like they knew Hermione?" Roger asked, determined to get his original question answered.

Harry took a deep breath and started to answer but was stopped by Hermione's hand on his arm. "Because I stood up to Voldemort," She said, ignoring Harry's muttering at her side.

Roger stood up abruptly, "Molly can we use your kitchen, I would like to speak to my wife and daughter in private." At her slow nod, he motioned Jane into the kitchen, and glared at Hermione until she followed, which she did after she got a squeeze from Harry's hand that she was holding surreptitiously down by her leg.

After the door closed, Roger turned on Hermione with a glare worthy of her own or the head of Gryffindor. "Just when were you going to tell us, at your funeral? I should ban you from going back; you still are underage in both worlds young lady. This is because of Harry isn't it? He somehow conned you into going to that ministry place, and you got hurt and now this madman wants you dead too."

"Silencio," The walls of the kitchen flared with a bright light for a second then faded to normal. Hermione glared back at her father, and only the long sessions of training were what were keeping her from her second kitchen detonation in less than a year, though I doubt it would be the first time this kitchen got blown up in this house, a corner of her mouth flicked upward at the thought.

"Something funny, Hermione Jane?" Roger said with a cold fury, that didn't even come close to hers.

But Hermione stomped on her response ruthlessly, toning down the words she replied with before it was too late. "Father" she said in the flat voice, that if she had used on Harry or Ron, they would have dove for cover, but her parents and especially her father didn't know her as well as her friends, not anymore. Like Harry she had grown up at the school, not at her house. Small tendrils of her hair were floating gently with a life of their own, while in her mothers identical hair, a static charge was starting to take hold. "Did you not listen to Dumbledore? Yes, they want me dead because I'm Harry's friend, but they want me and you and mum dead just because of who we are, just like all those other poor muggles in the mall." Hermione turned on her heel and strode back into the living room without another word.

"Roger" Jane growled just a bit.

"She's my daughter Jane, and that boy..." Roger snarled only to see his wife's temper flare.

"For the love of Pete, Roger, Hermione was right you didn't listen at all, we were attacked today just because we were there, not because of who she is. Anyway, this is who she is, Roger, did you pay attention today? And as to Harry, this isn't his fault, am I angry with him for dragging my daughter into this, yes maybe a little, but you know damn well, that nothing he could say would have gotten her to do anything that she didn't want to." Snarling, Jane leaned on the kitchen table and glared at him.

"She's in love, Jane" Roger said as if that would explain everything away. "And the boy will get her killed, someday."

Jane Granger took a deep breath and didn't look at him for an instant; she had already figured that part out for herself and had tried to reconcile it with her fears. "Roger, you saw his face when she got here, he didn't even notice us two feet away, hell, I doubt she remembered us until you said something. Yes, she might get killed with him, but I seriously doubt that whatever got her, wouldn't have already had to kill him to get to her. And honestly that's all I can really ask of the boy isn't it?" She levered herself off of the table and headed back to the living room, wiping with one hand the tears that had come to her eyes at the thought.

Roger followed her wordlessly from the kitchen, as he reentered the living room, he saw that everyone was gone, everyone except his wife and Dumbledore. Dumbledore waved to a seat next to Jane, and he took it, though his glare was now transferred to his daughter's professor. Dumbledore silently regarded them over the top of half-moon glasses, his fingers steepled before his face. "Roger, Jane, I have sent the rest away, as I probably should have done in the beginning."

"Hermione?" Jane asked with a trace of worry breaking though her voice.

Dumbledore frowned slightly, and sighed. "She went for a walk, I am sure she is adequately watched over."

"By Harry" Roger interjected.

"ROGER" Jane snapped, as the same temper her daughter had inherited, started to boil.

Dumbledore ignored the tone of both of them and responded calmly as it had been merely a casual inquiry. "Very possibly...Right now you are both angry, and not without cause, however I will tell you that Harry, or indeed any of us did not foresee today's events. I can guarantee, that if any of us, and especially Harry, had had any inkling that any of you were in danger, we would have taken steps to prevent the incident."

"But how did Hermione learn to fight like that." Roger asked, his anger fading into confusion.

"Training," Dumbledore replied, with a trace of his normal humor, "in many ways, she is almost the perfect wizard, or witch rather. Her skills and powers match or surpass almost all of my professors right now, and they will grow, possibly to match or surpass mine, in time. At this moment, the only student whose powers surpass hers is Harry; she leads in raw knowledge though to be fair to him not by not much. Their closest friends are also very powerful for their age, and unknown to most of them, I have made the matter more pronounced, as I have accelerated their coursework beyond where it would normally be at this time."

"But why would you train her to fight, she's just a child..." Roger asked plaintively, his confusion fading slowly towards acceptance.

"Honestly," Dumbledore shrugged, "because circumstances will force Harry, eventually, to face Lord Voldemort, and she will be there with him. She may be many things, but a child, I submit, she is not. They have been in love with each other for almost as long as I can remember, though neither has admitted it to the other, or to themselves, I suspect. And if she will be in the fight, she deserves to be trained. I doubt there is anything I, or even Harry could do by now to dissuade her from joining in this conflict. Too many of her friends, and indeed those she considers family, are in his fight or have already fallen in it."

"Sirius" Jane breathed, remembering their conversion from last June.

"Yes" Dumbledore nodded, "Harry considered Sirius almost as another father, and your daughter was probably the closest to him after Harry. I suspect in a way they both were subconsciously substituting Sirius for James, Harry's real father. It was not purely her loyalty to Harry that led her into the Ministry last summer, but also the thought of Sirius dying as well. The same thought that drove Harry there in the beginning. And if you really have to blame anyone for that debacle, blame me, it was my choices that led to Harry thinking he had to go."

*****************Woods Outside the Burrow********************

"Leave me alone Harry" Hermione snapped at her shadow. She had already blown through Ron, Ginny and the older Weasleys, leaving each in turn, none daring to follow her in this mood.

Harry rolled his eyes; thankfully he was still trying to catch up so she didn't see it. "Hermione you know I won't leave until you talk to me." His feet made crunching sounds in the snow as he hurried to catch up.

"That's a fucking change, wasn't you who didn't want to talk all last year?" Hermione snapped in return. Harry visibly bit off a response, and as she had done minutes ago, he held his tongue at the first rejoinder that flashed across his mind.

"You're right Mione" Harry said softly with an air of defeat.

Hermione pulled up short and stopped, her head dropping, at the reminder of the guilt he was carrying around. "I'm sorry Harry, I..." She turned to face him.

"Its ok, it's the adrenaline still talking." Harry sat down on a fallen tree, brushing off enough snow for the both of them, and after a moment she joined him.

"So you heard dad, huh?" Hermione said gazing at her trainers. She shivered in the cold, she had been so angry that she had taken off outside without any thought for the weather. Harry noticed and pulled his coat off and draped it over her shoulders. She glanced at his old beat up leather jacket, probably something he found in Grimmauld place, and looked back down, hiding the sudden grin that flitted across her face. "Now you'll get cold." Hermione bit her lower lip nervously; "You know that I don't blame you, for today, or for..." It wasn't your fault Harry just some damn Death Eaters out for a bit of fun.

"You should," but before she could snap a reply, "but yeah I know, and I love you for it, even though I don't deserve a friend like you." Damn it Mione, I wish you would just run for cover, stay out of this war...I don't want to loose you, when Lupin disapparted and then you showed up bleeding with your wand in your hand and...my heart almost stopped.

I never will leave Harry, I promise, no matter what happens, I love you after all...OH SHIT, Hermione glanced over at Harry, worriedly out of the corner of her eye, hoping desperately that he wasn't able to determine her thoughts as they so often had over the last five and a half years. OHH, god just what you need, another silly girl declaring her undying love for you, you don't need the distraction, not now, probably not ever.

Fortunately for Hermione's piece of mind, at that instant Harry was also distracted with his continuing thoughts, when you popped in...Her dad's right, I led her to the Ministry, she'd be better off without me...Now who's lying a soft feminine voice enough like Hermione's that he glanced over at her to make sure she wasn't talking, responded. You wouldn't survive without her and you know it, and you know she feels the same way. Do I...Lord you really haven't been awake for the last few years have you? Harry eyes flicked over again to Hermione's form, Damn...I wasn't kidding a second ago, I do love her, but I'm just too dangerous to be around. And besides, she just likes me as a friend; she'd have done the same for Ron, wouldn't she? Harry stood, his thoughts troubled as he extended his hand to Hermione. Taking it she let him pull her to her feet, and with his arm around her shoulders they returned to the burrow, neither knowing for sure of the thoughts of the other, and that they both were indeed, "Chickens" as Roger had stated earlier this morning, for a muggle his prophesies had proven very insightful.

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Chapter 16: Christmas at the Burrow
*****************The Burrow, Ottery, St. Catchpole ********************

December 25, 2004
8:00 am

"Get up" Ginny said laughing, as she came running into Ron's room and dumped a handful of snow on Harry's head, then bounded over to her brother to repeat the wake up. Moaning, Harry reached under his pillow for his wand to threaten the diminutive witch only to find it gone.

"Bloody Hell" Harry muttered as he felt for his missing wand. He snapped awake with a touch of panic as he thought it was gone, only to be stopped by a quite familiar giggle. "HERMIONE"

"Missing something hero?" Hermione replied with a twinkle in her eyes as she twirled his wand absently in her fingers. Harry reached out and found his glasses and jammed them on his face, to see his friend still fighting down laughter. His stomach once again did the flop it often did when he saw her, though now after his internal revelations of the day she came to the burrow with her parents, and his sleepless nights of the last two days, he knew the reason why, he just didn't know what to do about it.

"Does everyone have those shirts?" Harry muttered as he saw that the chestnut-haired witch was wearing a t-shirt just like the one Dumbledore had had on when he had first dueled with live blades with Harry.

Hermione looked down at the shirt, "Fred and George gave them out as a gift, I think you have one down stairs. Are you going to get up?" She asked as she flipped him his wand.

"Yeah, but I don't know about Ron, ACCIO COVERS" Ron's blankets shot over to Harry, but Ron didn't get up, he just curled in a tighter ball. Harry just shook his head, and pulling a sweatshirt on over the t-shirt he wore to bed, he followed Hermione out the door, and down the stairs, both ignoring the sound of Ginny summoning a bucket of water to pour on Ron.

Harry came down the stairs with Hermione, to see the rest of the Weasleys minus Percy, of course, and the Grangers waiting downstairs. After the events of the twenty-second, Dumbledore, and Arthur Weasley had talked briefly and an invitation to the Grangers to spend Christmas was extended, and happily accepted, though Arthur actually had already asked Molly before Dumbledore asked. Surveying the room, he could see that the only remaining free seats appeared to be on a loveseat, currently solely occupied by Crookshanks. Lupin, Tonks and Moody had taken four other Order members to the Granger's house and had retrieved Hermione's familiar and other necessities, just in case, though every sign still pointed to the attack being random. And since, thanks mostly to Hermione, none of the Death Eaters had escaped, the fact that she and her family had been there at all was still a secret. Harry sat down in the open seat next to Hermione's cat, and after several failed attempts to get the huge cat to move on his own, Hermione shrugged and sat down on the floor by Harry's feet, her back leaning on the loveseat.

"Morning Harry" Roger Granger greeted, relatively warmly. He still hadn't quite got over the shock of three days ago, but the annoyance of his wife and the fact that his daughter didn't talk to him for a day, caused him to back down.

"Merry Christmas, Mr. Granger" Harry replied, trying his best to be friendly, though Roger's shouted words before Hermione had cast her silencing charm, still floated in his head.

Roger cracked a smile, "Its Roger, Harry, anyway are we going to wait for your friend or open presents?"

"Knowing my son, I suggest the presents, seeing as how Ginny has given up" Ginny came down the stairs, miming pouring water, and shrugging, "he'll get up when he gets up." Molly said with a grin. Hermione glanced up at Harry and mouthed, "egg nog?" to Harry and he just nodded. She rolled her eyes, and returned to looking at everyone else.

Presents were quickly passed out, Ginny received a study guide for her OWLs from Hermione, and a new quill set from Harry. Pulling a package from the twins out, she uncovered another t-shirt like the one Hermione was wearing, and a pair of dragon-hide Quiddich chaser gloves.

Harry pulled out his present from the twins and found it was almost the same as Ginny's, eventually Fred and George had used their own shop to shop this year, with the exception that he had gotten seeker's gloves and his t-shirt was slightly different; as instead of the two wizards looking up at the dragon, his shirt was animated with a tiny, dark cloaked figure being eaten by the dragon in a continuous loop. Harry laughed at the shirt, and promised to wear it at a DA meeting. He grabbed his present from Ron, and after flicking his gaze up the stairs to see if he had woke up, opened it to find the more or less expected, box of Bott's Every Flavor Beans and some Chocolate Frogs. With a smile, Harry pulled Hermione's present from the pile, and bumped her shoulder with it to show her that he was opening it.

"Wait a second, Harry let me get yours and we'll open them together." Hermione replied brightly as she dug through the pile to get Harry's present, which judging by the wrapper was a book. She ripped open the package to indeed find a book, How You Can Learn To Love Yourself, By Loving Me, by Gilderoy Lockheart. "HARRY" she exclaimed, laughing, as she turned her face upward to him.

Harry grinned, while most of the other people in the room laughed; Roger and Jane chuckled, not quite getting the joke. "Sorry, I owed you for the one you got me on my birthday, look under it." Harry finished with a touch of nerves, that while he or Hermione didn't notice, almost everyone else in the room did. Pulling the book out she found another smaller box with a note attached:

Hermione,

Thank you, I would never have survived the last five or so years without your guidance and loyalty even though I often was not worthy of it.

Harry.

Hermione opened the box to find a simple silver bracelet, inset with a single sapphire, her birthstone. The bracelet was exquisitely worked, and had an engraving of a witch flying over the moon on the front, with Hermione in script below the moon. Flipping the bracelet over it was inscribed simply, "Thanks, Harry". She flipped her gaze up to him, and looked at Harry speechless, for a second, "thanks, Harry, I love it." And you. She stood up and held her arm out, "put it on, please."

"Sure Mione" Oh, thank god, I thought she'd think it was stupid or something. Harry fastened the bracelet, and she slipped back down the couch to her previous seat, looking at the bracelet the whole time. Across from them, Ginny rolled her eyes and glanced over at Fred. Fred held out his hand, rubbing his fingers together, Ginny just shook her head and replied silently, "not yet."

Hermione reached over to the pile of presents, and pulled out a box, about the same size as the one he gave to her. Her eyes flickered oddly as if she were nervous about the present. Harry opened the box and found a pair of books. He looked down at the first one with a touch of shock, Offensive Combat Magic, by Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. "Cool, Hermione you can't get this anywhere, even Dumbledore couldn't find his copy, and its restricted anyway, how did you get it?"

"Open it" Hermione said with an odd glint in her eye as she smiled and didn't answer his question. Harry glanced at her and she nodded, so he did as he was told. As he opened it he noticed two scribbled notes on the inner cover page:

Harry,

I hope you enjoy this book, I think you will find it more interesting than the companion book that you have for class.

Albus

Harry laughed quietly at the implication that he didn't like to defend, and at the informality of the dedication, and his gaze flipped down to the second note right below it.

Harry,

Read this and come home safe.

Love,
Mione.

"Thank You, Hermione" Harry said, his heart in his throat a little, but it wasn't all.

"Um, Harry, look under it" Hermione replied, now actually biting her lower lip nervously.

Pulling the DADA book out, he found another, somewhat skinnier, leather-bound volume under it. As he scanned the title his stomach flipped, NEWT THESIS: Sirius Black, Common Dueling Strategies, Their Weaknesses, and Means of Defeating Them. "Hermione, where, uhh, where did you get it...I mean thanks." Harry glanced down at her sitting next to his feet through sudden tears, and desperately wanted to hug her, maybe later.

Hermione seemed to be fighting tears also, "I found it in the library last spring, and I got permission to have it copied, with everything that happened I sort of forgot about it until it came back from the bookbinders this fall. I'm glad you like it." Hermione fixed Harry's quandary, as she got up and hugged him.

"Thanks, Mione" Harry whispered into her hair, she nodded, and slid back down to her previous seat, at the foot of the couch. Harry sat in a fog of happiness for a bit as he watched Hermione's parents open up presents that he and the Weasleys had hurriedly gotten for them. He was particularly happy to see that they liked the Hogwarts sweatshirts he had gotten for them from Fred and George's new catalog. They had recently started adding things like at especially for the muggle-born wizards and witches at Hogwarts. His stomach growling slightly and lunch still several hours away, "Hermione, toss me one of those frogs." Harry asked, pointing at a pile of the wizard candies on the floor near her. She just shook her head and flipped it back over her head, and the Gryffindor star seeker snatched it out of the air without thinking.

Harry opened the package without looking at it, and from long experience caught the frog as it hopped and bit its head off. He glanced down to see what card he had gotten, expecting another Dumbledore, or maybe a Merlin, but what he saw...he couldn't decide whether to laugh or not. "Umm...Hermione" Harry said slowly.

"What Harry?" Hermione replied turning from where she had been playing with Crookshanks. Harry wordlessly handed her the frog card. "WHAT!" She snapped, causing everyone to turn to her. The Wizarding trading card, instead of some ancient wizard or witch, had someone very, very familiar. The card read: Hermione Jane Granger, 1988-, Hogwarts: Gryffindor 1999-, considered to be one of the smartest witches in the last 100 years, Hermione is currently #1 in her class at Hogwarts. She was most recently associated with forces opposing the return of He Who Shall Not Be Named. The picture on the card caught her in the act of spinning around, her wand in her hand, her hair flaring out with the turn.

Harry grinned down at her, "I like the picture."

"Shut up," she grumbled but she had a little grin when she said it. It is kind of cool, once you get over the shock of it. She thought ruefully.

"What is that dear?" Jane asked curious at what all the commotion was about, Hermione just handed her the card. Jane looked down and laughed, and showed it to Roger who cracked a smile. "You have your own trading card, dear, you're famous." Jane teased.
Just at that minute Ron came down with a smile on his face, "what's up?"

"We just found out Hermione has a frog card mate." Harry replied with more than a trace of humor.

"I know," Ron, replied to Hermione's shocked expression, "Let me see." Ron took the card and looked at it, grinning mischievously. "Yours, Harry? This is the special edition, you lucked out; the normal ones Ginny and I got the other day, don't have the action shot. Wanna trade?" Ron finished hopefully, "I have two of me?"

"Umm, no, I think I'll keep Hermione" Harry replied, to which he got a smile from Hermione.

"Do you all have them then?" Roger asked, curious at this peek into the Wizarding world that his daughter, for better or worse, was destined to.

"No, Mr. Granger," Ron replied, "This is mine and Hermione's first one, Dumbledore has like ten different ones, and Harry there has how many, mate?"

Harry looked embarrassed, "is there a new one in this set?"

"Yep" Ginny replied from across the room, "and you're soo cute" she grinned and batted her eyelashes.

"Three of them now," Harry sighed, "the infant one, the one after the triwizard and the new one, which I haven't seen." Ron grinned and sprinted back upstairs to his room. He came back down with several cards in hand and with a chuckle he handed them to Harry. Indeed there was a new one of Harry, this one had his picture on a Broomstick hovering over the Quiddich pitch at Hogwarts, Ron's was similar as it too showed Ron as the Gryffindor Quiddich team keeper, though his stats showed, Ron's vitals instead of his.

Ron took his copy of Hermione's card and handed it to Jane, "Here Mrs. Granger, take this one I have another." Jane took the card with a smile and thanked him, laughing as she pocketed the card.

**********************Ron and Harry's Room, the Burrow*******************
December 26, 2004

7:30 am

After Ron's gift of the Chocolate Frog Card to Hermione's mum, the last lingering ice between the elder Grangers and the rest of the group had broken. The resulting Christmas party had gone late into the night, and had only ended when the twins had thrown a handful of WhizBangs into the living room, at which point Molly had sent them all to bed, except for Fred and George, whom she had drug off to the kitchen, a twin by each ear. Roger Granger, had almost fallen down laughing, and had related something similar he had done in dental school.

In Ron's room, Harry was still asleep, his shock of raven hair poking out from under the blankets. Slowly, the door to the room edged open, and a large, furry head poked its nose in. As the door opened a little more, a huge tiger padded into the room, however even more unusual than there being a tiger in the middle of England, even in the Burrow, was that in place of the normal orange and black markings, this particular tiger was fire-red and black. The tiger snuck over next to Harry's head, and bumped him with his nose. Harry groaned and rolled over, never opening his eyes. The tiger's continuance looked as if it were grinning, even though a tiger, even one as impossible as this one, shouldn't be able to.

Through the open door, another furry visitor arrived, however this one was much smaller. A kneazle, and a rather small one at that, ran into the room and hopped up on Harry's bed. This kneazle was almost a miniature version of the tiger; it had the same coloring and markings, just in a diminutive package. The kneazle strutted the length of the bed, and rubbed against Harry's face, purring. Harry shook his head, annoyed. "Damn it Crookshanks, go bother Mione." On the floor over by the door, Crookshanks looked up at the bed, quizzically. The kneazle purred again and stared licking Harry's face. "Damn it" Harry muttered again and swept his arm around. The kneazle jumped backwards and landed on Harry's legs. Harry fumbled for his glasses, and putting them on, sat up. "That's weird, I didn't know Molly had another cat." He muttered as he looked down the length of the bed, at the small cat preening there.

Suddenly the tiger, which had sat silent this whole time, let out a low growl. Harry's eyes snapped over to the side and just as fast, he reached for a wand carefully tucked under his pillow. "MEOW" the kneazle roared, and Harry's gaze flicked back to it as it SHIFTED into a tiny, redheaded witch, in jeans and a jumper, sitting cross-legged on the end of the bed. Harry glanced back over to the side to watch the tiger transform into one of his two best friends. "Hi Harry." Ron said with a grin.

"Wha..What, RON!" Harry snapped, incredulous.

"SHHH" Ginny whispered, waving her arms at Harry, she turned slightly and pulled a wand from her back pocket, "Silencio". The silencing charm established, she turned back to Harry and said in a low voice, "Mum and Dad don't know. Dad left to go to the Ministry, but Mum's up. We'll explain, but first wouldn't it be fun to surprise Hermione?" Ginny asked with a grin and a raised eyebrow.

Harry glanced over to Ron who was still sitting on the floor, with a happy little smile on his face, then back to Ginny, "Yeah, it would, wouldn't it? But then you two are going to explain."

*********Hermione and Ginny's Room, the Burrow******************

In a repeat of minutes ago, Ron padded silently into the room, Harry along with Ginny still in human form, followed him and closed the door. As it closed, Harry quietly cast another silencing charm. Ron stopped as he reached Hermione's bedside, and his huge furry head turned back to Harry and Ginny as if to ask a question. Hermione, for her part, slept much like Harry, the covers were pulled up over her head, and only her bushy brown locks stuck out from under the blankets.

Harry fingered his wand, a little nervously; Ginny saw the action and asked lowly, "What's wrong Harry"

"This could be bad," Harry, muttered, "I might need a shield in a bit. Ron said it himself our first year, Hermione can be scary, brilliant, but scary." Harry waved at Ron to go ahead.

Crookshanks walked over and sniffed the huge cat, and after recognizing a friend he rubbed against Ron's huge form, and padded off, content. Ron inched up next to Hermione; gently he grabbed the covers with his teeth, and pulled them off. Hermione rolled over, shivering a bit in the t-shirt and sleep pants she had wore to bed, but she didn't wake. PUUURRRRR, Ron emitted, and rubbed his wet nose against her arm. She gave almost the same result as Harry, "damn cat, go bother Harry, or someone."

"That's why that bloody cat keeps annoying me." Harry murmured over by the door, while Ginny giggled under a tiny hand.

Ron's tail flicked back and forth and he emitted a soft growl. He nudged Hermione's arm again and this time she rolled over and opened her eyes. Her eyes grew huge, "EEEK," she saw Harry over at the door, "HARRY THERE'S A BLOODY TIGER IN HERE." Her hand snaked under her pillow only to stop suddenly, "wait..." Hermione sat up quickly, and pointed her wand at Ron's tiger form and muttered an odd incantation. Ron SHIFTED back to human form, with a sudden, perplexed look on his face.

"No fair Hermione," Ron moaned as he resumed human form.

Hermione glared at Ron, then at Harry and Ginny, "HARRY!" exasperation in her voice.

"Not me Mione," Harry replied his hands moved back and forth as if to ward off any counter. "These gits woke me up the same way, and we are getting an explanation." Harry pried himself up from the wall he had been leaning against, paced over to Hermione's bed and dropped down on it next to her. Wordlessly, Harry picked her blanket back up from the floor where Ron had dropped it and handed it to her. He had noticed that she looked cold; the Burrow was a bit chilly in the winter. Hermione gave him a silent look of thanks as she pulled the blanket over her shoulders. Harry turned back to the Weasleys, "ok give."

Ginny smiled, and jumped forward, changing into a tiny kneazle, about half the size of Crookshanks, in mid-air. She landed softly on all four paws, strutted over to Hermione and rubbed against her legs. Ginny paced back over to Ron, and transformed back, "Simple guys, Ron and I are animagi now."

"What, How..." Hermione started, a bit confused, only to be cut off by Ron.

"Well mate, actually, in a sense, this is Snape's fault." Ron said mysteriously.

"Snape's?" they both replied together.

"Yeah, well" Ron began guiltily, to two pairs of wondering eyes, one green and one brown. "Snape sort of, implied, that I would fail unless I came up with something spectacular, and I said that fine, I'd make the animagus potion. The potion got me an E for the semester." Ron actually was proud of that accomplishment and it showed in his voice. Harry and Hermione, for that matter were also impressed, but they didn't want to admit it, yet. "However, Snape thinks that I just made enough potion to test...however I have enough for eight doses, four of which are gone, for me, Ginny, Fred and George."

"The potion isn't the only part, of course, Ron," Hermione quizzed him, "what about the spells? And what about the Ministry?"

"Fred nicked the book from the restricted section before Christmas...we sorta thought that it would be better if the Ministry didn't know." Ron looked a touch defiant at the last response.

To his surprise however, Hermione just nodded, looking thoughtful, "That was probably a good decision Ron, we don't know who Voldemort still has in place at the Ministry. I guess you can...teach us." Hermione paused at that last, and Harry's heart skipped a beat, but they trusted Ron, really they did.

Ron grinned, "ohhh, yeah," he paused as if remembering something, "I assume that you want to start right away?" To a pair of slightly stunned nods, "ok then you will need to practice visualizing the change, and cast the initial incantations on your self, by the way, the initial spell is more or less the human transfiguration that we've started on in McGonagall's." Hermione gave her silent assent at that remark, it was what she had expected, "after about a week, you can take the potion, and perform the final incantations. That allows you to change at will without casting a spell, though it is difficult at first. It becomes second nature after just a bit." As if to prove his point Ron quickly transformed to his tiger form and back. "Ok the initial incantation is Animata...."


A/N: There you, another Christmas. The whole chocolate frog Card thing, is in there based on throw away line that Harry uses in the sequel. And anyway I thought it was kind of funny. Next Chapter...Ok, you pretty well should know what next chapter is based on the end of this one. But I did manage to sneak in some stuff besides.

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Chapter 17 Changes.
***************************The Burrow********************************

January 2, 2005

Hermione's parents had gone home after the New Year's holiday while Hermione had stayed at the Burrow to spend the rest of Christmas break with her friends. Unfortunately however for their hopes for a peaceful, relaxing break, Moody had found them, so he had continued their training right at the Weasleys. This action had proven hilarious for Roger Granger before he left, as the sight of Moody yelling at his daughter had brought back memories of his youth when he had been in the Royal Marines. He and Jane, and Molly and Arthur, had sat out on the lawn one morning, nice and comfortable under a magic heating charm cast by Arthur, while they ate popcorn supplied by Molly, and had watched the kids running after Moody, who had somehow gotten his horse to the Burrow. They had also died laughing at Mad-Eye's consternation when he had forgot there was no wards preventing apparation at the Burrow, so the teens would take turns jumping ahead of him and waving merrily as he went by.

In fact they had all just gotten done with just such a training session and Moody had stomped off, annoyed. Ron and Harry of course had immediately taken to the air on their brooms, to play, and honestly, Hermione couldn't begrudge them their fun. And in fact, she was grateful as it gave her time to talk to someone, without either of "her boys" butting in, however innocently. "Ginny," Hermione shouted to the prettiest Weasley, "can I talk to you for a bit."

"Sure, Herm," Ginny replied immediately, "Fred, George, go on I'll catch up." The twins nodded, in a way that told both witches that they needed to put up impurtable charms. Hermione motioned, and Ginny followed her, mutely, back up the stairs and into the room they shared. Her suspicions were confirmed when Hermione closed the door, and with a flick of her wand, proofed the room against prying ears, natural or otherwise. Ginny just gave her an inquisitive look at this behavior and sat down on her bed.

Hermione collapsed on hers, and sat there for a minute, not looking at her, and not saying anything. Finally she spoke, "Ginny, you said once that you considered us sisters right?"

"Yeah Hermione, I consider both you and Harry family, you know that." Ginny replied with as much sincerity as she could put in her voice.

"Good," Hermione muttered and bit her lip nervously, Ginny hid a grin as she started running her hand though her hair; it was one of Harry's trademark nervous tics.

After another minute of silence, Ginny thought she'd go ahead and break the silence, "Hermione, are you going to ask me if I still have a crush on Harry?" Hermione gasped, and Ginny smiled openly now, "Hermione I have long since gotten over that, and you know it, let me guess you have finally figured out that you are in love with Harry."

"Yeah," came a strangled reply. Hermione still refused to look at her, she merely sat, and stared down at the floor.

"Oh hell, maybe this will help," With a flippant look, Ginny jumped from her bed and transformed into her kneazle form. The tiny cat sauntered over to Hermione, tail held high, jumped up on the bed, and began rubbing and purring loudly.

"GIVE, give," Hermione laughed, then as Ginny transformed back, and sat down on the bed next to her, "thanks Ginny, but...what if he only likes me as a friend?" Hermione whispered and fell backwards onto the bed and stared at the ceiling, "what if Ron still thinks he likes me?"

Ginny turned her head to look at Hermione, "Herm, I can't help you with the first, though I will tell you, that in my opinion, there is no one else that Harry would or does trust with his heart, as to Ron, yeah he probably will get jealous, for a while, but in the end he'd get over it."

"I just don't want him to be distracted by me...he might get hurt because he's too busy saving poor Hermione again..." Hermione whispered, to which Ginny had no reply that she considered appropriate, at least not one she should repeat out loud.

Oh Merlin girl is that what you are concerned about, that is the same hang up Harry has, more or less. Ginny's thoughts went unspoken; she filled them away for future reference. She reached down and hugged her friend, she couldn't think of what else to do.

*************************Woods, Outside of the Burrow**********************

10:00pm

Hermione had sat with Ginny for an hour or so, neither of them had wanted to speak about that last desperate thought, and so had dropped the topic altogether and had gradually eased over to talking about other things, such as how Ginny's OWL studies were going, and if the Gryffindors were going to win the cup yet again.

Tonight a totally different quandary was on the docket. Tonight was the night that Harry and Hermione would take the Animagus potion, cast the final charm, and try for the first time to change into a different form. The teens had all begged off early, saying that they were tired and headed off to bed, not that they were sleeping. The real reason that they had chosen tonight, was that they knew Moody was off duty, and that they wouldn't have to risk being detected, as Ron, Harry, Ginny and Hermione snuck out to the spot in the woods where they would try to first transform away from prying eyes.

Harry and Hermione snuck down the stairs under the invisibility cloak. Harry paused and using his wand, he knocked a book off a table, causing Molly and Arthur to look to one side while Ron and Ginny snuck past. The disillusionment charms that they were using did not give as good of an effect as the cloak did, so just in case, Harry staged a distraction. He saw the door open and close silently behind the two adult Weasleys, and with shared, invisible grins, he and Hermione carefully snuck over to the door, and as soon as Arthur sat back down, they too, vanished into the night.

After a minute of walking, Harry pulled the cloak off of them, allowing them both to move more freely. With a touch of worry in his eyes, he turned to face Hermione, "Are you sure you want to do this?"

Hermione just nodded, and they started walking towards the hidden clearing again, after a few more steps, "well the potion worked for Ron, Ginny and the twins, and Snape tested it..."

"Yeah, he did, lucky he didn't know that we were going to use it or he might have poisoned it." Harry replied with a moue of distaste. They have now arrived in the clearing to find Ron and Ginny waiting. Ron waved and pointed at two identical beakers setting on a stump. Both beakers shone a strange pearlescent white, with a rainbow sheen dancing on top of the liquid, the colors dancing in the light from the fire Ron had started.

"Are you two ready?" Ron asked, and just got two tense nods in return. "Ok, just in case, I have the counter potion ready too, the twins and I and Ginny didn't need it, but sometimes there's a side reaction, or so the text said." Ron showed them a small vial of a green fluid, and Hermione gulped at he implication that that might be needed. But she had been chosen for Gryffindor in the end, and without another word, she knelt in the snow, facing the tree stump. Harry knelt beside her, and gave her a quick smile as he reached forward and grabbed the beakers. He handed one to Hermione, together, they clinked them together, "Cheers."

"Damn, that's nasty." Hermione muttered, then with a nod from Harry, and with jade orbs meeting chocolate ones, "bestia mutatio." For almost a minute, nothing happened, and then both of their bodies gave off a slight blue glow, which vanished almost instantly. Hermione felt her body getting smaller, lighter. Her eyesight became incredibly sharp, she could almost pick the individual threads out in Ginny's sweater from feet away, and most off all, she felt as if she wanted to be, must be, in the air. She cautiously turned her head to either side and stretched out her arms, only to see dark, honey brown feathers coating her arms. She opened her mouth to laugh, only to hear a SCREE come out. What the hell, I might as well try, Hermione flapped her arms/wings, and with three powerful beats, she was in the air. She beat her wings occasionally, but she quickly found out that she didn't need to flap much to keep in the air. And also to her great relief, the fear of heights and flying that had plagued her since first year, when they were learning to fly on a broomstick was gone, replaced with a feeling of peace.

Harry on the other hand hadn't felt himself grow smaller, he felt his body elongating, his teeth dropping, and his back straightening as he stretched out on all fours. He padded forward a couple of steps, marveling at how easy it was to walk on all fours. He felt, instead of saw, a long tail behind him, and could hear Ron's heartbeat from yards away, he opened his mouth to say something, but instead of words, only a ROAR came out, exactly like the one Luna's weird hat gave out at Quiddich matches. Harry looked over at Ron, who with a grin conjured a mirror for him to look into. In the mirror was the oddest lion Harry had ever seen, even taking into account it was actually him, instead of the normal tawny color, Harry was jet back in lion form, and as he turned his great head to the mirror to see his face, he could see that his mane was at least as messy as his human hair, and that his lion form had his emerald green eyes.

Hermione swooped back down over the clearing, I think I'd like to human again, She thought and as easy as that, she transformed back into her normal shape, landing gently on her feet. She gasped a little as the huge black cat ambled over to her, but just as Crookshanks did, Harry bumped her palm with his huge head, and she reflexively petted him, scratching behind the ears. Harry started purring, which as he was a lion was quite loud, "HARRY!" Hermione exclaimed with a laugh, and then watched as the great lion turned from her, jumped into the air, and came back down as her best friend.

"Bloody hell" Ron muttered, "neither of you had any problems transforming back then?" Harry and Hermione both shook their head, and shrugged a bit. "That was cool," Ron grinned and as they watched, he SHIFTED into his red and black tiger form and turned to Harry.

"Fine Ron if you want it that way," Harry SHIFTED back into his lion form, the transformation just as quick as Ron's, he padded over to his friend and as they stood together the girls could see, that even though Harry's lion form was large, Ron was an even bigger cat, almost as if their human forms were influencing the animal forms, which made a weird kind of logic, as Ron was almost five inches taller than Harry. Ginny and Hermione laughed as Ron and Harry started circling each other, then began pouncing on one another, both with carefully sheathed claws Hermione was happy to note. Harry turned to the girls, his green eyes startling in the lion form, and he motioned with his huge black head. Hermione smiled and SHIFTED herself, followed by Ginny a moment later. Hermione fluttered over and settled on the shoulder of Harry's cat form, and together all four of them headed off to go explore the woods, two of them, easily the baddest things in this forest, this night.

The quartet spent almost two hours prowling the forest, poking into things that they couldn't have as humans. Finally with a large cat sigh, Harry motioned to head back toward the Burrow and they did, Hermione launched off of his shoulder just like Hedwig did, and landed in human form next to him. Harry, Ron and Ginny transformed back, and they repeated the procedure for their escape only in reverse. Harry and Hermione slipped in under the invisibility cloak, while Ron and Ginny disillusioned themselves and more or less vanished from sight, though you could see their outline if you tried.

Right after Ron and Ginny had snuck in, Hermione suddenly stopped and pulled up short. An action which caused Harry to crash into her from behind and almost take them both down to the ground, though he stopped the motion for both of them at the last second. "What?" Harry wondered aloud as he recognized the first signs of 'I have a brilliant plan' coming from Hermione. Hermione turned around to face him, in the tight quarters under the cloak, which did things, Harry was trying to ignore, at least for now.

"Harry, if we gave Remus the animagus potion..." Hermione began with a sudden realization, and a little grin.

"Then he could transform at will and wouldn't be bound by the moon, and he'd be in his normal mind when he was." Harry finished for her, completing the thought, as if he had read her mind. Harry's eyes flicked upward as he tried to remember everything he'd ever been taught about werewolves. "Maybe, I'd bet you would have to modify it somehow though, since his animagus form is a werewolf obviously..."

"Wolfsbane, I'd have to add wolfsbane to the potion." Hermione gave a little squeak and kissed him on the cheek. "Since he can transform when he wants it should revive the stress on him." Hermione said happily.

A sudden dampening notion flickered across Harry's thoughts, "Mione, if we do that, we'll have to tell him that we're animagi. Otherwise...." Harry trailed off as she nodded.

"We'll be ok Harry, after all, his two best friends were unregistered animagi." Hermione said with a nod, as if affirming a fact to herself that she had just read in a book.

"Ok, I'll tell him, there are some things I want to talk to him about anyway." Harry replied a little distracted. He did indeed want to talk to Lupin, but werewolves and animagi were just adjuncts to what he wanted to ask.

Hermione frowned imperceptibly, but accented, "Ok Harry."

**********************The Burrow*******************************

January 6, 2005
10:00 am

"Remus, I can I talk to you for a bit?" Harry hollered out to the last Marauder. Harry and the rest of the school age inhabitants of the Burrow had just spent several hours under his tutelage on hand to hand. Harry quickly pulled a coat on before he started to get a chill in the cold January air, even though he was warm right then.

"Sure Harry," Lupin replied and waved the rest of them back inside, dismissing them until this afternoon. To the varying displeasure of the students, Dumbledore and Moody had decided that the remainder of the Christmas break was perfect for additional training without the distraction of regular classes. "What about?" He asked as he came over. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Hermione holding back for a moment, then after brief eye contact with Harry, almost as if Harry were answering a silent question, she nodded and headed in with the rest. Lupin grinned to himself for a millisecond before Harry turned back to him.

Harry didn't exactly answer his question, but asked another instead, "Lets walk?" and without waiting for a response he started walking off down the path that he and the others had used nightly for their explorations in their animal forms. Something that would probably have to stop at Hogwarts, as the sight of a lion and or a tiger prowling the halls, would probably be too much, even for that place.

Lupin followed obediently, clearly realizing that Harry wanted privacy for this conversation, mentally preparing for the questions he thought Harry would ask, maybe about Sirius or his parents, or maybe something else. As events turned transpired he was to be right on some accounts.

"Remus, if I ask for your word, will you keep a confidence or confidences?" Harry asked seriously as they gained the clearing. He nervously ran his hand though his rapidly drying, sweaty hair with a grimace.

Lupin shrugged and leaned against a tree, "Are you planning on doing something stupid?" He asked seriously, though his tone was light. "If you are going to go haring off on some solo mission or something...."

"No Remus," Harry replied somberly, "I learned my lesson at the Ministry, thank you..." Harry paused and tried to clean a speck of dirt off the toes of the same trainers that connected with the back of Lupin's head, just a bit ago in their hand to hand training, after which Lupin had called it a day, "I may not have a choice, in whether my friends will follow me, but I'm not going to get Mi...any of them hurt just because I'm being stupid again." Harry's gaze never rose above Lupin's knees with that statement, and the words barely carried to even Lupin's enhanced ears.

Remus might not be Sirius or James, but he was more or less the closest thing Harry had left to a father, so he couldn't let that pass, "Harry they didn't just..."

But Harry soon cut him off, "it's ok Remus, I originally was just going to talk to you about something, and maybe show you something...interesting, but if you have time, I'd like to talk about something first, as I've been told that you already know about stuff..." Harry whole body language was nervous at that last statement.

Remus smiled to try to reduce the tension, though the sight of his fangs slightly dropped from the adrenaline, from this mornings workout sessions, would have scared a muggle, and most wizards in fact. "Nothing but it, I stopped after I found that your...Hermione could snap kick above my head, and how the hell did you land that one to the back of my head." Lupin replied wryly and idly rubbed the back of his head.

"Hell if I know," Harry chuckled, and sat down on the same log that he and Hermione had sat on the day she arrived unexpectedly in the Burrow. "Remus, you know about the nightmares right?" Lupin nodded quietly.

"A bit, I know that you were having...difficulty sleeping after you got to Grimmauld...and that ummm...." Lupin stopped nervous for some reason.

"Door was open huh?" Harry replied with a sad little grin, "Remus, I love her and I'm going to get her killed."

Whoa, that was direct, Remus thought, a little shocked at hearing Harry admit it. "I take that this is the topic that you added at the last minute."

"Yeah" Harry picked up a rock and silently levitated it over the palm of his hand, a move that shocked Remus with the extremely casual use of wandless magic.

Damn, he learns fast, He thought, Dumbledore had just recently started training Harry, and by automatic definition, Hermione and Ron in the skill, but he hadn't realized how fast Harry was picking things up.

Harry's gaze met his after drifting up from the rock, he closed his hand around it and chuckled, "Sorry Remus, no, I can't actually do useful magic, yet, no stunners, shields etc, wandlessly, just make really small things levitate, and call my wand." Harry said self-depreciatingly. "Remus what do I say to her?"

"I'd probably start with I love you and I want to have puppies with you...wait that was me, strike that last part." Remus said with a smile and Harry broke up laughing.

After a minute of solid laughter, Harry calmed down, "Did you really say that to Tonks?" Lupin nodded with a smile to which Harry rolled his eyes, "Remus I don't know what to do...what if I tell her and she laughs...or what if I loose her as a friend...or worse what if she returns my feelings and it gets her killed, doing something stupid like following me to the Ministry."

"Harry I don't honestly know what to tell you, do I think that she returns your feelings...yeah, I umm saw her holding you and visa versa at Grimmauld, I heard you cry out in the nightmares, werewolf you know." Lupin laughed a little bitterly at that final statement, though inside his thoughts were racing, Damn it James, what the hell am I supposed to tell your son?

Before Lupin could answer his internal question, or the ghost of James could come to his aid, Harry went on, almost to himself, "I mean that she is the only thing, that kept me sane this summer, Remus. Even though I almost died myself, every time I saw her get hurt in one of my nightmares, it was still the thought that I'd see her again that let me go on. I didn't know it then, but I know it now. And now, she shows up here, on the run from an attack..."

"Harry she did good, she ran off all the dementors and took out four of the Death Eaters by herself, and I suspect that she could have stopped the last two if she had to. I know I saw her handy work."

Harry sighed and with a sudden flash of uncontrolled magical energy, the stone Harry had in his hands shattered, Lupin's eyebrow shot up but he didn't say anything, "That's not the point Remus, she shouldn't have had to, in the first place. I should have..."

Lupin interrupted sadly, "What? Been there? Kept her from harm? What Harry? It's the same problem I have with Nymph, I love her but I can't protect her, I just have to pray she comes back safe, and if I can at all, to be at her side. I admit that you have it worse, Harry it's not like you have a choice in the matter."

"I guess that you know about the prophecy, then." Harry replied, his tone unsure.

Lupin nodded, a tear in a corner of his eye as a seventeen-year old memory flashed across his mind, "Yeah, I do, as did Sirius, and your parents. They went on with their lives anyway. As you must. I suppose that it is fortunate that Dumbledore never got around to relating the prophesy to Pettigrew..."

"Reaally" Harry rejoined, sarcasm dripping from his words, "I just am tired of those who I care about being hurt just because they know me. Mum...Dad...Sirius...dead, Hermione, Ron, Luna, Tonks, you, Arthur...hurt, usually more than once. Help me Remus, I'm running out of names, and St. Mungo's and Pomfrey are running out of beds."

Lupin strode over to Harry and grabbed his shoulders, and forcing Harry's head up looked into his eyes. "Harry, those people were hurt...or died because they stood against the darkness. Not because of you, but for you. There is a difference. Did they die because they loved you, yes in a way. But can you say that you wouldn't do the same for any of your friends, and more for her, that you wouldn't walk though the fires of hell for her?" Harry nodded mutely as Lupin backed off a pace.

Harry took that opportunity to change the subject to the one he originally had envisioned. "Remus, what I originally asked you here about was...what if we...well actually Hermione wondered, what if you took the Animagus potion."

Lupin shook his head sadly, "Sorry Harry, your dad thought of that while we were in school, didn't work, I was still controlled by the moon, I...the normal animagus potion didn't really do anything for me, as I was already technically an animagus, however involuntarily. I still had no control over my actions."

"What if you modified the potion...with wolfsbane," Harry replied slowly and watched as Lupin's eyes lit up. "We, well she thinks that it would allow you to transform when you wanted to, and would let you keep you mind when you did. We also think that you wouldn't have to take the wolfsbane potion every month, and that it would relieve the stresses on you. How would you like to make a disability an advantage?" Harry finished rather bluntly though he gave a little smile to lighten it.

Lupin stood shocked, thinking. He wasn't a potions master by any means, but as one would expect he had read everything he could over the years on his condition, he saw immediately where the wolfsbane potion, which wasn't discovered until after he had left school, might be combined, if it didn't kill him of course. "I think that she might be a genius."

"She is..." Harry automatically defended her.

Lupin broke out into a large smile, and then with a shock, just how did they start looking into the animagus potion? Lupin wondered in his thoughts. "Harry, just why were you looking into the animagus potion."

Instead of answering Harry did the next best thing; he SHIFTED into his black lion form. He stalked over to Lupin and sat down in front of him on the cold forest floor. Lupin just raised an eyebrow, as he transformed back. "The reason is long, complicated and involves Snape, but I need to know something and I really don't want to sound like a whiny eight year old...will you tell on us?"

"Us?"

"Me, Hermione, Ron, Ginny and the twins." Harry replied, "Will you? We're not exactly registered or anything."

"No shit?" Lupin sighed, "Harry of course I won't, my two best friends weren't and they became animagi to be with me when I transformed." Harry immediately noticed that Lupin hadn't mentioned Pettigrew, but every one knew just what Lupin or Harry, or Hermione or damn near anyone thought about that particular piece of human filth. And I'm sure not going to turn in the two people that come the closest to replacing James and Lily, Lupin thought guiltily as he regarded Harry. "Harry...thanks. By the way, if you would, tell Hermione that we took her example to heart."

"What?"

"We used info from Snape and several other sources and ambushed five of Voldemort's terror parties, we made them vanish without a trace. It's made him stop his random terror attacks for the time being, there hasn't been once since two days after Christmas when we took them down. I thought that she'd take it best from you." Lupin replied, careful to keep his expression serious.

"Thanks Remus I'll tell her...we'll get started on you potion as soon as we can." Harry replied as he started to walk off, back to the Burrow.

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JKR OWNS everything, except this poor little plot.
(A/N this is a reasonably long chapter, I hope you like it.)

Chapter 18, The Marauders Return

**********************Hogwarts The Room of Requirement********************

January 9, 2005
10:30 pm

"Ok Ron, what do you want?" Ginny groused as she and Hermione came into the room. Today the room wasn't setup for DA or anything like that, it just had a couple of comfy couches, a muggle radio in a corner on a small table and a roaring fire in the fireplace that came and went as needed. Ron just grinned at her and motioned her over to a couch. With a slight huff she dropped down on the couch, an annoyed look for her brother evident on her face, "Ron, Herm and I are supposed to be on patrol, and you two are not supposed to wandering the halls after hours unless you are working."

"When did that ever stop us?" Ron pointed out simply and Ginny just had to shut up, the point was taken.

Meanwhile Hermione had flicked her gaze about and had seen Harry on the couch across from Ginny, wearing a slightly bemused expression on his face and as his eyes met hers, Oh crap, he's got that we are going to get in SOO much trouble look, Hermione realized with sudden insight, and wondered what strange dark force was roaming the halls of Hogwarts this time. She plopped down next to him, and whispered to him as the siblings squabbled good-naturedly, "Harry?"

"Hermione" He whispered back, he motioned towards Ron who, with a flick of his wand, conjured a chalkboard and chalk.

Ron smiled broadly and started to speak. "While on the train ride back yesterday, I had a chance to think..."

"More like snore..." Harry put in under his breath to the accompaniment of Hermione's hushed giggles.

Ron continued as if Harry hadn't spoken, except for the rude gesture he flashed for a millisecond. "And as I was thinking..."

"Always a bad idea" Hermione muttered.

"I realized that we have been entirely too somber this year, and that we must use our powers for the good...of the prank," Ron said as he started writing on the board. "However to accomplish this imitable goal."

"Damn, big word," Harry said into Hermione's ear, she giggled afresh, and had to bury her face in the shoulder of Harry's robes to keep from laughing outright. Across the way Ginny rolled her eyes at their behavior, especially considering her conversion with Hermione last week at the Burrow.

Ron just kept rolling though. "We must reclaim our birthright as the true heirs of the Marauders..."

"Ahem" Harry said with a grin.

"Ok, one of our member's true birthright as the Marauders' heir. So as the preeminent strategist that I am, I have decided on a series of targets that will require our special skills. After all, we can't let Fred and George have all the fun." Ron said turning to the board, only to be interrupted.

'Excuse me, O master strategist," Hermione began sarcastically, "but what makes you think that we will help with your dastardly schemes."

But before Ron could answer that quandary, Harry stepped in, his hand unconsciously on her arm, he looked at her with a soft look, "Let's hear him out, Mione"

Oh damn, he's using those eyes, Hermione thought hopelessly, "Ok"

Ron smiled to himself, knowing that his argument had already won; he turned and started writing on the blackboard. "Now I know that some of these targets are easy, that's fine we are just warming up." With quick, sure strokes he wrote his list of targets on the board, by the end even Harry, who was the son of a Marauder, godson of another, and the best thing to a nephew to the third, was open mouthed in shock.

The Return of the Marauders
1. Snape
2. The Slytherins yes all of them.
3. Draco
4. Inquisitorial Squad
5. Lupin/Tonks
6. Fred and George
7. Dumbledore

"Dumbledore, no one's ever been able to get Dumbledore" Harry muttered, astonished, then like the sun coming, up he started to grin, a sight that made Ron happy. He might very well have the emotional range of a teaspoon, but he had noticed that Harry had still not even come close to being himself after the continuous shocks of the last two and a half years, and he had finally thought he should go on the offensive.

Ron grinned back, and looked at Ginny, "Gin"

"Fred and George huh? And Dumbledore? I'm in" Ginny replied heartily, after all she was a Weasley.

Ron turned at last to the one that he knew would be the difficult one. "Hermione."

"Ron...we could get expelled." Hermione replied, a little exasperated, though she really didn't believe the expulsion part, detention probably, but expulsion, probably not, unless they REALLY went overboard, like put a dragon in the Slytherin dungeon, Though that's not a bad idea per say...Damn they have corrupted me, Hermione realized internally.

"Please Hermione, it's not as much fun without you" Harry asked pleadingly, his green eyes twinkling like the night stars.

OHHHH Damn, Harry...I am so not going to get to be Head Girl...Hermione thought wistfully, "Ok"

"Good" Ron replied, and let out an evil chuckle.

***********************Hogwarts Dungeon****************************

January 10, 2005
6:00 am

A tiny, gray cat padded quietly down the dank corridors, looking every so often from to side to side as if on the watch for someone. As the cat came to an odd statue of a cruel looking wizard, the cat slipped out of direct sight. On the wall, a dim shadow of the cat, seemingly changed, into what almost looked to be a small, crouched girl, but it must have been a trick of the torchlight. An odd word was whispered, seemingly out of the very air and the statue stepped aside, revealing an old oak door, emblazoned with the Slytherin House crest. "Alohomora" The door clicked open and the cat calmly stepped through, its head held high.

As the cat strode into the quarters beyond, the sound of a shower running came from a room further in, and steam escaped the bathroom. On a small table beside a slightly moldy green couch, a steaming cup of coffee awaited the person in the shower. As quick as thought, the cat vanished, only to be replaced with a small, black-cloaked figure. The figure pulled a small phial from its cloak and upended the contents into the cup.

"Have fun in class this morning Serverus." A very soft alto whispered, and the cat reappeared. It left as it came, it's tail held high and striding as if without a care in the world, an illusion that was soon shattered as the cat reached the hall. As soon as the statue stepped back into place, the cat broke out into a sprint, all four legs pumping as fast as they could. The cat ran up one flight, two flights of stairs and streaked into an empty classroom, as the door shut silently behind it. "Allright Gin?" A bushy haired witch asked with a grin, as Ginny transformed back to herself except for her hair, which was an odd gray color.

Ginny soon fixed this problem with a tap of her wand to her head, "finite coloro," She smiled as she held a lock of her hair and it returned to her normal fire-red, "Yeah you are going to have fun his morning in about two hours at Potions. Did the other part of today's exercise go as planned?"

"Yeah, the charms are on all of the Slytherins' uniforms for the day, maybe they'll think twice about making poor house elves put out all of their clothes for the next day, next time." Hermione replied with a little smile.

"Come then, Sis, let us retire to the Gryffindor tower." Ginny said with a smile, and looking both ways as they left the classroom, the two strode off down the hall, wide grins on their faces.

************************Guest Quarters, Hogwarts**********************

"You coming back tonight, Nymph?" Lupin said leaning in for a kiss, which, the for today, blond-haired witch granted with a tremendous smirk.

"Of course luv," Tonks replied as she took his hand, "I'll be back about ten or so I expect." She walked away slowly, their hands finally breaking apart, when they had both stretched to their limits. Tonks turned and blew a kiss to him, which he caught, then walked slowly away, only turning to walk forward when she reached a turn.

Remus shook his head gently after her, privately amazed that she had been able to walk backwards that far without falling down. He turned, closed his door, and headed off in the opposite direction, towards the Great Hall and breakfast.

A hand appeared holding a wand; it touched the door and the door unlocked with a faint click. The wand vanished again as the door opened and shut, all the while no one walking through it. A slight breeze passed though the quarters, until it stopped in the bedroom. Once in the room, a hand reappeared, and swept up and back, revealing as it passed a shock of messy black hair. The head bobbed in mid-air over to the bed in one corner, and with a happy little grin, the tip of the wand was inserted under the covers, "Mutiato Aqua." The bed flashed red, then blue, then green and settled back to its original appearance. The hand passed back over the shock of black hair, and where it passed the head vanished. Quiet steps were heard, the door opened and closed, seemingly of its own volition, and the steps were heard to retreat down the hall.

*****************************Great Hall, Hogwarts*************************

7:15 am

"Morning, Hermione, Ginny" Harry muttered as he sat down next to Hermione, "Ron." He nodded to his other best friend who just acknowledged with a wave of his fork, he was busy eating after all.

"Morning" Hermione replied, then as she caught sight of a mass of silvery fabric sticking out of Harry's bag, "Your cloak!" Hermione hissed and stuffed it all the way into the bag for him.

"Thanks, Mione" Harry replied with a brief grin, that she shared equally briefly. Harry glanced over at the Slytherins across the breath of the hall, "how long?"

Hermione glanced at her watch, and then with a carefully neutral face, "about now..." she replied in a whisper, her brown eyes glowing. In a wave of color, from the front of the room where the first years sat to the rear where the seventh years were clustered, at the Slytherin table, every uniform transformed from the green and silver of Slytherin House to the crimson and gold of Gryffindor.

A chorus of curses erupted from the Slytherins, while every other house, especially the Gryffindors erupted into laughter. For their part, the new Marauders were careful to only laugh as loudly as the rest of their house, but since more than one, like Seamus or Dean, had almost fallen off their bench as they held their sides in joyous pain, it wasn't too hard.

From the staff table, Snape looked down on his house table in horror, however the reactions of the rest of the staff varied wildly from his. Hagrid developed a sudden racking cough, and excused himself, it was odd that his cough got worse every time he turned back to look at the Slytherins. McGonagall's gaze rapidly searched her table looking for obvious miscreants, her mouth quivering slightly, but her eyes gave away her intense desire to join Hagrid. Professor Sprout leaned over to Snape and in a voice calculated to carry, "Severus, it looks as if your entire house is out of uniform." Snape just glared at her, as the laughter increased, and several of the other Professor's and guests, such as Lupin and Flitwick also developed sudden racking coughs and had to leave.

"This is Potter's doing..." Snape snarled as he turned and glared at the back of Harry's head.

McGonagall turned and glared at him in turn, while she might have her private suspicions, "Severus, you will not accuse one of my students without proof."

"Fine," He growled, he then stood and yelled across the hall, "POTTER COME HERE."

McGonagall turned to Dumbledore; he carefully hid a grin, and gave McGonagall a small calming motion. She turned back to look at the Gryffindor table, as Harry got up warily.

At the Gryffindor table Harry slowly rose; Hermione whispered, "Luck, Harry." and Harry gave her a quick grin, before he carefully blanked his face, and started concentrating on his Occlumency, never so glad that he had suddenly mastered the skill months ago. Every eye in the hall watched him as he walked up to the staff table and stood in front of it, "Yes sir?" Harry asked in a calm neutral voice, making a point to stare Snape directly in his black, beady eyes.

"Potter," Snape hissed in a voice worthy of one of his house's mascots, "I know that you caused this." Snape gestured with a hand towards the Slytherin table. "How did you do this, did you sneak into the Slytherin dorm?" Snape snapped, as he fingered his wand.

"Sir" Harry replied, his voice bereft of emotion, "I have not gone anywhere near the dungeons since last semester."

"We'll find out won't we, LEGILMENS" Snape roared, and all at once, several things happened. At the Gryffindor, several students started to rise suddenly, Dumbledore shouted, "NO", and at the table, Snape's probe backfired...drastically...he caught sight of a brief image of Ron and Hermione talking about something. And with a SNAP heard in the back of the hall, Snape was thrown backwards, his chair collapsing under him.

"Sorry Professor, I wasn't ready for that." Harry murmured, his manner apologetic, even though he could almost feel his friends dieing with laughter at the Gryffindor table.

Snape staggered to his feet, and pulled his wand, but before he could do or say anything, Dumbledore interfered, "No, Severus, I think that you have done quite enough, Harry return to your table." Dumbledore and Snape both watched Harry return quietly to his table, but their expressions as they did it varied wildly. Dumbledore looked...bemused, while Snape glared daggers at his back. As Harry returned to his seat, and the students started talking to themselves, Dumbledore turned back to Snape in a harsh whisper, "Severus, you will get over this hatred of Harry, and you will do it now."

"Sir" Snape hissed in return.

"Even if he did do this thing, it was a harmless prank, worthy of detention at most, not an attempt to assault his mind." Dumbledore paused and with a slight glint in his eyes, "you have now declared war on that house, Severus, they all will be after you, you just attacked their leader."

"Not if Minerva keeps her children in line"

"Ohh, no" a soft burr replied from the other side of Dumbledore, "I may be a Gryffindor, Severus, but you just picked a fight that Godric himself couldn't stop now, I would prepare myself for a week or two of pain, I am afraid." McGonagall turned from him and glared at her table, more for show than anything. She saw with inner satisfaction, that any possible miscreants were carefully looking away from the staff table, even as she started running though her class roles in her head at who could have pulled off that transfiguration. Potter...he could have done it, but then he couldn't have stood there and said, "I have not gone near the dungeons..." Nice parsing of words there, Harry. Ron Weasley? No, not that many. Fred and George? No they would have turned them all into chickens or something...Her eyes flashed to the back of the head of the top student in Hogwarts, Hermione...It has to be, she's the only one left who could have pulled that off so exquisitely. McGonagall sat back in her chair as she held her napkin to her mouth, concealing the grin she wore.

*********************Hogwarts Dungeon****************************

8:00 am

"Today, we will begin with a potion that I am sure that will cause the majority of you difficulty, The Polyjuice Potion." Snape began with a sneer. "As I am sure that most of you..." He glared directly a Harry, who just returned his gaze peacefully, 'know this is a restricted potion, and several of the ingredients such as boomslang skin will be held under my control until you need them. This potion... WILL" Suddenly his last word came out sounding just like Umbridge, high and squeaky, like a little girl. He cleared his throat, "TAKE 21..." He stopped and summoned a glass of water. He drank, cleared his throat and "SQEEK." Snape glared around, but didn't dare open his mouth again. With a furious set to his shoulders, he walked to the board and scribbled down the required ingredients on the board and sat down heavily behind his desk.

At his table, Harry was never so glad that Hermione was his lab partner; she was tightly digging her nails into his arm under the table, which was about the only thing that could keep him from bursting out in laughter. Out of the corner of his right eye, Harry could see that Ron's entire head was the color of his hair and that he was obviously biting his lip as he very slowly started to put ingredients into his caldron. After Harry forced a few unhappy thoughts though his consciousness, he settled down and started putting the ingredients he needed in his caldron without looking at the board, he knew the ingredients very well, thank you.

After an hour of stirring, the potion was ready to simmer for several days. Harry raised his hand. Snape glared at him, which Harry took as a sign of recognition, "Sir, our potion is at the simmering stage, may we be excused?" Harry said, his voice carefully full of respect, as he motioned slightly to his lab partner. Snape frowned, but after a moment just nodded and motioned towards the door, with his head. Harry and Hermione didn't waste a second; they picked up their books and scrambled from the room. As soon as the door softly closed behind them, they shared a glance, and sprinted for the main doors and the outside.

Reaching the freedom of the outside, Harry and Hermione's eyes met again, and without a word, they both erupted, each having to hold onto each other for support as they were laughing so hard. "Harry," Hermione gasped out between laughs, "do you think we can shut him up every class?" Harry shrugged, not trusting his voice and she laughed harder.

****************************Headmaster's Office**************************

10:00 am

Minerva McGonagall turned from the window, where she could see her sixth year Gryffindors heading to Hagrid's for class, to Dumbledore. Dumbledore was sitting behind his desk, calmly doing some of the never-ending paperwork that he was behind on. "Albus" Minerva began quietly, "you heard what they did to Snape this morning right?"

"Indeed, though I dare say that he brought it on himself," Dumbledore replied, not looking up from his paperwork.

"Well, what are you going to do about it?"

"Nothing"

"Nothing? It took, me...me two hours to transform one of the Slytherin Uniforms back." McGonagall replied with an odd tone.

"Indeed, remind me to congratulate Miss Granger...after they graduate of course." Dumbledore said as he raised his gaze to meet hers, his eyes sparking.

McGonagall cracked a slight grin, "Humph, how did you know it was her?"

"Simple, Harry obviously spoke the exact truth this morning, no more no less, Ronald couldn't have made the charm that resistant. The twins prefer mass animal transfigurations, and Lupin is on the payroll. That pretty well covers the Marauders past and future doesn't? You know that they are just warming up right?" Dumbledore replied grinning. He summoned a carafe of Hot Chocolate and poured himself a mug.

"Not entirely, Albus, you forgot Ginny, and I daresay Longbottom and Lovegood may get inducted into that fraternity soon." McGonagall replied as she sat back with her mug. "Yes, I know...I wonder who else is on their list...and you never really answered my first question, Albus" McGonagall accused.

"Oh I would suspect, Draco, Delores' inquisitorial squad from last year, Lupin and Tonks, me" Dumbledore sighed as he took a sip, "good chocolate, I need to thank the house elves."

"You?" McGonagall replied a little startled.

"Yes, after all, I'm the only one that no one has ever gotten, not even James, Sirius and Lupin as a team even with Lily's help. Never to worry Minerva, they'll leave you alone, you know that they aren't really afraid of you, whether you know it or not, it is more of a sense of respect for you...I think will consider this further training...consider, Minerva, do you not think that they planned that little demonstration this morning. Harry knew that Snape, would blame him, and would overreact. Thereby immediately removing the actual perpetrators from the line of fire, and providing cover for any activities they do from now on against the Slytherins. Now I have a thousand suspects instead of only six or so. And now the twins will take this as a challenge...this may be a most interesting semester, Minerva, and you get to set back and watch."

McGonagall glanced around the office, noticing the annoyed expressions on some of the older headmasters, "I will have to take points or give detentions if they get caught..."

"Of course, as would I, however, no matter what Severus will say at the next staff meeting, this does not merit expulsion. And since you know my other concern vs. Harry...Its good to see him having fun, there will be entirely too little of that before this trial is complete.

***********************Hogwarts Guest Quarters***************************

10:05pm

"Humm," Tonks said with a mischievous grin as she slowly pulled Lupin backwards toward the large bed in his, or rather their quarters. She flung her arms around his neck and leaning upward, lightly bit at the side of his neck. "How should I look tonight, luv?"

"Like Nymphadora Tonks" Lupin replied lightly as he pulled her to him. Tonks grinned and with a crunching of her nose, her blond hair became jet-black, the color of Sirius or Harry's hair, and her nose became a little smaller, like a tiny button. "Thanks, I fell in love with you, not whatever woman you happen to look like at any given time." Soon enough the back of her legs hit the edge of the bed, and with a blinding smile she crushed her lips to his and pulled them backwards into the bed. But instead of the bouncy mattress they both expected, a tremendous splash erupted, and a moment later, a sputtering, coughing pair, pulled themselves up. Lupin glanced to either side of the small swimming pool that he now had as replacement for his bed, after a moment, he started laughing infectiously, and after another moment Tonks joined him, "Harry did warn me, didn't he...anyway I kind of like pools," Remus said as he leered at Tonks who smiled wider.

***************************Gryffindor Common Room***********************

January 15, 2004
1:00 am

The unofficial declaration of a prank war had spread beyond any of the Marauders imaginations, though at the moment it mostly consisted of a Slytherin vs. Gryffindor affair. As Dumbledore had predicted, the twins got involved early, and had taken it as a point of honor not to take the easy way and use any of their current products, but had made up whole new inventions just for the occasion. Which had so far sealed the Slytherin Dungeon for a whole day, causing them all to miss classes last Wednesday, and had turned all of their hair Red and Gold to match their transfigured uniforms. Snape had seethed at that one, which was performed the very next day after Hermione's mass, delayed transfiguration of their uniforms.

Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny had focused their targets more, going after Umbridge's old Inquisitorial squad almost exclusively. Warrington had found that any time he tried to use any toilet in the castle it would suddenly overflow, only with him of course. Millicent Bulstrode had learned the hard lesson that it was never a good idea to annoy the smartest witch in the last hundred years, especially when she held onto a grudge, like a goblin hording gold. She had discovered that when you eat after hour's snacks, you might want to make sure that they were not flies, as she had been transfigured into a toad, after eating a snack she demanded from a house elf. It had taken two days for Poppy to return her to herself. Draco, of course, had joined her as a ferret; he actually had spent enough time as a ferret this week that Madame Pomfrey had wondered if he really was an unregistered animagus like the rumors had said in fourth year.

The Gryffindors so far however, had remained mostly untouched. In addition to taking up the challenge dropped by the "unknown perpetrators" Monday, with the trifecta of Slytherin, Snape and Lupin all being pranked in the same day, the twins had taken it on themselves to spoil every major prank that any of the Slytherins had so far attempted.

But tonight or rather this morning now, Harry had other things on his mind. Once again the dreams had come, and as there hadn't been since this summer, except for a brief welcome interlude at Christmas, no one was there to force them back into the shadows. Harry eased down the stairs to the common room, lugging along the DADA book that Hermione had gotten him for Christmas, secretly Harry wondered if his improved grades this year hadn't come about from his lack of sleep, which time he often filled with reading his assignments or other books. I'm turning into Hermione. Harry thought with a grin, which soon evaporated, as he saw her once again studying, crouched over a table scribbling madly on a piece of parchment. As he watched, she bit out a curse, swept her papers from the table, and dropped her head to the cradle of her arms with a sob. Harry almost ran to her, "Hermione, what's wrong..." Hermione popped her head up and wiped a tear of frustration from her eye. Harry could see that the books on the table were a mix of DADA, Charms and Arithmancy texts, a good portion of which were restricted. She just shook her head and refused to talk to him. A plan that of course was doomed to fail, as he wasn't going anywhere. "Mione," Harry said slowly and distinctly, as he gently turned her head to look at him, "what is wrong?"

"It doesn't make sense, Harry." She sighed and wretched her chin from him, though she didn't drop her gaze from his.

"What doesn't?" He replied, concern coloring his tone.

"You never took the class..." Harry raised an eyebrow, and a tiny grin twitched at the corner of her lip, "Ok, here, it's easier if I show you." Hermione reached for the small of her back, where Harry knew she often concealed her wand when in muggle clothes, and then stopped with a sudden reddening of her cheeks. "Umm, Harry can I borrow yours?"
"You mean this?" Harry replied grinning, drawing his wand from alongside his thigh and waggling it in front her. To her nod, "constant vigilance, Hermione...summon yours."

"Wandlessly from two floors down...sure Harry." Hermione replied, annoyed at herself far more than Harry, but still...

"I can"

"But you're a great wizard" Hermione replied without thinking.

"And you are a great witch. Its your wand, Hermione, It wants to be in your hand, call it." Harry replied seriously, though his eyes were full of mirth.

"Fine," she replied dubiously, taking a deep breath and holding out a hand, "ACCIO WAND" Nothing happened for a minute, then like an arrow, a shaft of light-colored, intricately carved wood shot down the stairs into her waiting hand. Hermione looked at it for a second, then a smile grew on her face, brightly she exclaimed, "I did it."

Harry just nodded, his gaze on her wand, "Hermione, what is the core of your wand made of?" having felt something as it flashed past.

"Dragon heartstring, why?" Hermione said in reply.

That explains why I could use it so well against Snape; its like... "Oh no reason, just curious I didn't remember. What were you going to show me?" Harry glanced over at the fire as he answered.

"I was reading the new book you got me for my birthday...one of the Arthimathic puzzles is just why the Avada Kedavra can't be blocked or otherwise defeated. Look," Hermione, using the tip of her wand, rapidly drew a series of fiery numbers and symbols in the air, where they floated as if on an invisible blackboard. She pointed to one side of the glowing equation then the other. "On this side, is the Kedavra curse, while on the other is the strongest shield that I can find in the restricted section. I put in an estimate of how powerful it could be if Dumbledore summoned it. The stupid thing is the power is actually greater than the curse, it should deflect it or at least disperse it, but it always gets though. It's like the constants change, instead of the variables. Uggh" Hermione growled and sat down heavily on the couch.

Harry looked at the equation, with a lost expression on his face, "Hermione, I might have picked up a bit of arithmency by association with you over the years...can I see a picture?" He asked with a sheepish grin.

On the couch, Hermione rolled her eyes, but pointed her wand at the floating numbers anyway, "Schematicus." In the air over the table, the numbers shifted into a little flowing cartoon, an endless circle of a green bolt of light heading for a stick figure outlined in gold, with a silver line representing a shield.

After a minute of watching, the repeating loop, Harry said quietly, "can you slow this down a second..."as the repeating image slowed down, Harry watched intently as the bolt neared the shield, but suddenly he realized that it never actually hit the shield. "Hermione come here." Hermione jumped up from the couch, and looked at his pointing finger. "It never hits the shield, it goes directly for the aura, the soul. That's why you can't block it it's not in the same plane of existence as the shield."

Hermione glanced at him amazed, "ummm yeah...so you can't block it, it has to be channeled, away some how."

"No" Hermione raised an eyebrow at his interruption, but motioned for him to go on, "It has to be resisted somehow, thrown off, just like the other unforgivables. I just don't know how."

Hermione shook her head causing her hair to flare out just like on the Chocolate Frog card of her he had upstairs, "Harry, I think that we are both right and wrong at the same time. Think about it, the spell rips the soul from its target, but even as powerful as it is, it only can rip one soul away at a time. The sacrificial protection that your mum performed must have bound a part of her soul to you, which acted as a shield on the spirit plane." Hermione looked pensive at that thought. "But that would only work in that particular situation, in a way, by killing her first after she had cast her protection, Voldemort defeated himself. Otherwise, I guess, if you could somehow spread the effect over multiple people, you could defeat the spell. If they were powerful enough and close enough, they might be able to buttress each other..." Hermione broke off, and as Harry watched, she changed the schematic back to the equation and changed several constants and variables. Suddenly the sign flipped itself and Hermione stepped back with an expression of satisfaction and annoyance at the same time. "Yes that would work, but I don't see how that would help us against Voldemort, Harry."

"Why not?" Harry asked, with understandable curiosity.

Hermione snorted, "Because, you would need at least two Wizards, both of whom are at least as powerful as Dumbledore, physically touching, with their souls bound to each other. Then they might be able to resist the soul being ripped away, almost like you can resist the Imperious Curse when it tells you to do something stupid." Hermione shrugged helplessly.

"Too bad we don't have any of those laying around." Harry replied with a flick heavenward of his jade orbs. "What got you started on this topic, other than you were bored?" Harry ginned at her and dodged the pillow she shot over at him with a wand flick.


"If you must know, I was reading that book you got me, and no not the Lockheart one," Hermione stuck out her tongue at him, "and I was working on my NEWT thesis."

Harry gave an exaggerated groan, "Hermione, it's January of your sixth year, you don't have to turn that in until May of next year...what's it on?" Harry asked anyway.

"Well, while saving you is important, I consider that a hobby," Hermione teased with a smirk, "I am researching just why some muggle items work at highly magical places and some don't. I mean, for instance, at home I have a cell phone, and I can carry it and use it, but if I were to have it here, it would stop working instantly. I believe that it has to do with what Muggles call quantum mechanics. Which I am going to study this summer, what is your topic, you had to tell McGonagall even if you hadn't started it. Be grateful that it isn't a doctoral thesis, I saw one of Dumbledore's in the library it was like two thousand pages."

"How to defeat Dark Lords in four easy steps, by the Boy-Who-Lived." Harry joked as he looked down at his watch, "I should really get some sleep, I have that Hufflepuff game tomorrow, are you coming...I mean are you going to your bed, that is?"

Hermione slugged him lightly on the arm, "Of course."

"Ok I'm going to bed then, and you go too Miss Granger," Harry replied flippantly and started to walk back up the stairs. He glanced back to see her packing her books, and disappeared out of sight.

At the table, Hermione packed all of her books except one that had flopped open to the dedication page, her heart skipped a beat when she saw that it was the one that she had given Harry for Christmas. As she read her dedication, her eyes flicked upwards towards the boy's stairs, maybe someday, Love.

************************Hogwarts Quiddich Stadium************************

January 15, 2004
2:00 pm

"WELCOME TO TODAY'S MATCH PITTING THE GRYFFINDOR LIONS VS. THE HUFFLEPUFF BADGERS" Leslie's voice boomed out over the packed stadium. Harry and Ron had already taken the coin flip and had flown up into the air awaiting the start of the match. Harry tuned out Leslie as his gaze roamed about the stands and stadium pausing over each of the opposing players in turn. As his eyes roamed he spotted Hermione in the Gryffindor stands, as usual right up front, she caught his eye and waved. Harry waved back and hovered there more or less looking at her, his thoughts flashing back to early this morning, and to a day in the snow outside of the Burrow not so long ago.

He was so focused on the past that the present was unknown, even to the effect of not hearing Hooch's whistle. Only one thing could snap him out of it..."HARRY!" In an instant, Hermione's voice returned him from his review of the past. Without conscious thought, his right hand snapped out, at the flash of gold, almost a Pavlovian response by now. All at once he could feel wings fluttering in his hand, he could see Hermione bouncing up and down in the stands, and as control of his ears returned to him he could hear both Leslie Jordan announcing, and Thomas Payne, the Hufflepuff seeker.

Payne's eyes almost popped out of his head, "NO FREAKING WAY!" He exclaimed as he landed his broom and tossed it down in disgust.

Meanwhile Leslie's voice was booming out over the stadium. "HARRY POTTER HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH, WITH ONLY FIFTEEN SECONDS INTO THE MATCH, IT'S A NEW SCHOOL RECORD." Harry just looked down at his hand, stunned, and then raised his gaze to the Gryffindor stands; to see Hermione laughing so hard she was holding onto the rail for support.

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Chapter 19 Visitors From Days Gone Bye.
***************************Hogwarts Library****************************

January 30, 2005

"Harry, I can't bloody well stand this any more." Ron growled as he threw down his parchment containing a half completed essay for Snape on the uses of Widow's breath in healing potions. They, along with Hermione, were cloistered once again in the Library, working, an act that had driven both Ron and Harry to distraction. Ron glanced towards the stacks were Hermione had disappeared into after she had completed her essay, many minutes ago, "I just don't understand her, can't she relax for a day?"

Harry rolled his eyes and replied in a harsh whisper, "Ron she did help plan and execute the largest series of pranks since my father, Sirius and Lupin were here." Harry heard his own words, and frowned a little at them, and then with a visible shake, he went on, with a sigh. "Let her be."

'That may be, mate, but I'm going spare, I'm headed to fly a bit, coming?" Ron stood, and motioned to the door as he started stuffing his materials into his bag.

Harry shook his head and rubbed his left shoulder, "No go ahead, I pulled a shoulder working with Remus this morning, you go have fun." Ron nodded and headed for the door. Harry watched him go, and with a slight groan, reached into his bad for a bit of muscle relaxing potion he kept there for emergencies, this was after all, far from the last time he had been recovering from an injury, however slight, while at Hogwarts. As he reached into an outside pocket of his pack, his fingers brushed an old, folded piece of parchment, curious; he pulled it out. As he examined the winkled parchment, with a shock, he recognized it as the one he had removed from his vault at Gringorts, somehow he had never read it, with the incident with Umbridge and all, and must have stuffed it in his bag and forgotten about until now. Harry gently unfolded the parchment, spread it on the table, and as his eyes caught the first few lines, a gasp of surprise escaped his lips, all thoughts of pain medication suddenly vanishing as he recognized the handwriting.

June 20, 2002

Harry, if you are reading this note, then I have passed from this realm to the next. Just in case, you are not, I would read this note in private if you were not doing so already.

Harry glanced around and confirmed that Hermione had not yet returned, and that he was otherwise alone.

As I am writing this, you and Hermione have just saved my life a few days ago. You already will have heard my will, and know that you are my heir, however what is in these boxes was not mine to gift, only mine to safeguard. In the boxes that have appeared in your vault, along with a pile of gold, I guess you know where the firebolt came from now, don't you? Are relics that are as precious to me as to you. In the two larger boxes are Lily and James' wands. In the smaller one, Lily's engagement ring, along with their wedding rings await you. As you know, unfortunately, I arrived too late at Godric's Hollow, I saw Hagrid leaving with you on my motor, as I arrived. I entered the house and managed to save their wands and rings, as I knew that someday they would be as precious to you as they were to them.

Harry looked at the parchment in shock, privately amazed that he had not opened the boxes when he had the chance.

Lily's engagement ring is particularly special, as it is an old-style Wizarding engagement ring. The ring is simple, but yet beautiful, just like your mother. At the moment, the ring will have set on it a center diamond, with two side stones, one will be a ruby, for your birth month, the other would be the stone of the birth month of your betrothed should you choose to give it and your heart to another. Knowing Lily, I know that she would be honored immensely if you choose to do so. I have an idea of who will gain your heart in the end, but I will not spoil the surprise, just in case. Harry no matter what, no matter under what circumstances I was forced to leave you under, please take these things to heart. First whatever happened, it is not your fault, I know you, you are like your parents where it counts and you probably feel responsible, don't, I knew what I was doing. Second, as to the ring and which witch to give it to, follow your heart, there is one who has already given hers to you. Hopefully by now, both of you will have realized this. If not, wake up, bloody hell, boy...finally, remember always Harry that I am watching over you. In the end, nothing can stop a Marauder.

Sirius

"If only that were the truth, Sirius" Harry choked out quietly, tears falling from his eyes. Silently, he refolded the parchment, and carefully replaced the parchment in his bag. As he sat there, tears staining his robes, Hermione came of the stacks, clutching a thick tome.

"Harry, look what I..." Hermione started joyously, but then as his face registered, she gasped slightly and ran over. Carelessly flipping the book she had just found, on the table, she crouched down beside him and pulled him into her shoulder, "What?"

"Memories," Harry replied, with the truth but not the whole truth. After a minute more, "I'm ok Mione." Hermione nodded and let go of him. Harry gave her a funny look; as if he wanted to say something then, but in the end he just gave her a little pained smile and went back to studying. Hermione just nodded, but glanced over at his bent head every few minutes. Harry just gave her a slightly tired grin when he caught her at it. Suddenly, a tiny, light scraping sound caught his attention, his head snapped up, and his gaze swept the room.

Hermione looked up at his sudden change in demeanor. "Harry, what..." Harry's eyes grew wide, and without a word of warning, Harry leapt from his chair, and dove at Hermione, sweeping her along with him, away from her table, and into a roll on the floor, careful to take the impact on his own back. Behind them, one of the huge bookshelves crashed directly down on the chairs that they just had left in such a hurry. The table instantly collapsed under the weight, and Harry closed his eyes for just a second as he imagined if Hermione had been trapped under the falling bookshelf. In his arms, Hermione glanced back, trembling slightly as she looked back at the table, thoughts similar to Harry's except that he was the one trapped in her mind. "Honestly, Harry I can't take you anywhere; can I."

"Glad you think its funny, Hermione" Harry replied, though the post danger adrenaline was getting to him too. "That shelf didn't fall by itself." Harry stated the obvious as he pulled her to her feet as Madame Pince ran to the back of the room to check on them.

"Miss Granger, Mr. Potter...What happened here." The Hogwarts librarian shouted in an odd librarian whisper. Pince paced around the area, inspecting her precious books, not really paying attention to the students that where almost killed. Taking that as a hint, Harry summoned their things, which thankfully hadn't been trapped under the falling bookshelf for the most part, and covertly taking Hermione's hand, he lead her out of the library, making sure to walk past the place where the bookshelf had just stood a few minutes before. Hermione noticed his nostrils flaring as they walked past the site, but said nothing until they got into the hall.

Still holding his hand, she pulled him into a convenient cubby, away from prying eyes and ears, but not before, a passing Slytherin, who just happened to be Pansy, noticed their disappearance with a hardening of her eyes. Hermione glanced around and seeing no one who could see them now, she whispered, "Ok mister, I'm the embodiment of Gryffindor house in my illicit animagus form, who was it, I saw you sniffing as we passed."

"Caught that huh?" Harry replied, with a slight smirk, "You know that normal animagi aren't supposed to be able to use their enhanced senses in human form."

"Like you are normal" Hermione retorted, a touch annoyed beyond the whole almost getting killed thing, that was almost to be expected as the mudblood friend of Harry Potter, Hermione thought grimly, as she beat the thought deep, deep inside so no trace of it could escape her lips. Harry would feel guilty enough, just because, without knowing she was beating herself up again.

"And you can't?" Harry looked at her queerly.

Hermione gave him a little smile, "I never said that...but the enhanced eyesight, I have to sort of shift between ways of seeing, consciously in human form, and it wouldn't have done anything in that case. I don't have to use omniocculars at Quiddich matches anymore though." She finished in a self-satisfied tone. "Harry...I didn't say anything, because..."

"Its ok, I wonder if Ron or anyone else, can though." Harry muttered, as if summoned to answer their questions, they heard the distinctive footfalls of their other partner in crime thundering down the hall.

Glancing down, Hermione noticed that she was still holding Harry's hand. Quickly she dropped it, and stuck her head out into the hall and stage-whispered, a talent picked up in six years of classes discussing schemes with these two. "Ron...over here." Ron's head snapped over to the cubby, and seeing her wave, he hurried over.

"What happened..." Ron snapped, and then quieted at a gesture from Hermione.

"Why do you ask Ron?" Harry replied sarcastically, "Maybe we were just snogging." Harry's unthinking offhand remark, got two very different responses, Ron gave him a quick glare, before deciding that Harry had been joking. Hermione's eyes flicked towards him, with a betraying look of hope. But that look was carefully blanked before either of the boys spotted it. Harry however, was oblivious to both reactions.

"Well, mate..."Ron replied as he perceptibly flared his nostrils, "Maybe the stink of adrenaline coming off both of you, and the fact both of your heartbeats are racing."

"Well Hermione, that answers your question." Harry said, looking over at her with a knowing expression. She just shrugged, and Harry answered Ron's question, and Hermione's original one. "Some one tried to kill us Ron...a normal day at Hogwarts, all in all." Harry rolled his eyes as Hermione snorted, even she was starting to see the humor in it after six years, not that she didn't worry still. "It was some Slytherin, I could smell that odd dungeon odor, which I guess that you notice now Ron."

"Not usually, Harry, I have to concentrate to use my animagus senses in human form, so I never really noticed, but yeah now that you mention it..." Ron murmured, answering several questions at once.

"However, now matter how good we think the evidence is...we can not tell the Professors." Hermione said in a low, slightly lecturing tone, the one she fell back on when she was thinking out loud, and the one that occasionally echoed in Harry's head. "We would have to tell them..."

"And we are keeping our abilities, secret for now?" Harry asked, and the other two friends reaffirmed their decision, with identical nods. "Ok, so once again, we maraud. Hermione, what do you think, who?"

"I don't know Crabbe or Goyle, I'd guess...."Hermione paused for a moment, as she ran though their list of enemies in her head. Long enough to give Harry, time to feel guilty once again, about making his friends subject to a group of enemies long enough to cause even Hermione's prodigious intellect, to have to take a moment to process. "Pansy's not strong enough to push that over, and we didn't hear any incantation, which she would have had to use?" She asked and Harry shook his head, "and I doubt even Draco would droop that low, he would much rather use magic, than resort to the muggle method...maybe one of the others, I don't know Harry..." Hermione looked guilty that she didn't know the answer to Harry question.

So Harry responded consolingly, "its ok, Hermione, I know the list is getting rather large..." He shrugged.

"Mate, we can't let them get away with this." Ron put in. "If we do, they may try to hurt Ginny, or some other Gryffindor." Ron's cornflower eyes glittered, dangerously at the prospect, Harry nodded and grimaced.

"We won't" Harry's eyes glinted in the light from the torches illuminating the halls. "I think its time to show, our friends," He drawled sarcastically, "that we are never safe to fool with."

***********************Great Hall, Hogwarts*******************************

February 10, 2005

Noon

Over the last two weeks, Harry, Hermione and Ron, with the help of the rest of Harry's inner circle, had tried to determine the culprit. But even their prodigious talents had not been able to find out who had tried to kill them. So, they just fell back to normal, and assumed that basically all of Slytherin house wanted them dead. Which was more or less the truth anyway.

"So mate" Ron choked out though a mouthful of food, "Are we going to have Moody again tonight, at DA?" Ron reached over and grabbed the last of the Shepard's pie, he had devoured the whole dish and Harry, Hermione and the rest hadn't had a bite of it.

"I don't know, Ron." Harry replied, as he took a bite of his sandwich. He pointedly chewed and swallowed the bite before he responded. "He mentioned the other day that he wanted to work with you and Neville on your weapon skills." Harry gave him a wry smile, "you could take me on in a duel mate, I need to get you back for that last chess match." Hermione caught the conversion, and shook her head ruefully.

"Or, if you really want, Ronald, you could duel me...I haven't jinxed anyone in at least a week." Hermione teased, as she took a bite of pumpkin pie. Her eyes glittered; just enough to make Ron wisely just shake his head and not comment. He pointedly ignored the quiet laughter of his two friends.

"Oh leave him alone, Hermione" Ginny put in, with a huge smile, "he's obviously feeling his inadequacies. She caught the thrown roll from Ron, and ostentatiously took a huge bite of it.

After another fifteen minutes of eating and joking, Hermione stood and grabbed her bag. "I'm going to go read over Transfiguration for today, are you two coming?" She threw her bag over her shoulder, staggering a bit as she did so, and looked at them expectedly.

"Sure, Hermione" Harry replied as he rose, slinging his pack over his shoulder. "Do you think McGonagall, really will go over the transfiguration of bats to pigeons? "

"I don't know, why?" She replied as Ron climbed to his feet with a groan.

"I keep getting the pigeons mixed up with crows." Harry muttered in reply, to the accompaniment of a chuckling best friend. As the trio reached the hall and started down towards the transfiguration classroom, Ron looked odd. His eyes suddenly looked glassy and he started sweating.

"Harry, Hermi..." Ron whispered, and as they turned to him, "Ughhh" Ron collapsed to the floor, sweating and shaking.

"RON," Harry snapped, and glanced over at Hermione.

"I'm already going," She yelled as she sprinted off towards the infirmary. Harry grabbed Ron and held him as he stared shaking. A moment later, Hermione returned with Dumbledore, McGonagall and Pomfrey in tow, she had run into them coming out of the Great Hall.

"POTTER, what happened," McGonagall growled as she came up to them, and Pomfrey knelt down by Ron.

"I don't know Professor, he just collapsed." Harry replied, worry in his tone. He stood a little shakily and walked over the Hermione. She stood close to Harry, and they both turned to watch Poppy. She ran her wand over Ron and muttered an odd charm. Ron's stomach glowed; a putrid green and she gave a slight gasp.

Without getting up, Pomfrey turned to Dumbledore and the rest, and in a choked voice, "Mr. Weasley has been poisoned, Albus." Beside Dumbledore, McGonagall let out a gasp, Hermione leaned into Harry, shaking a bit and he unthinkingly wrapped an arm around her shoulder. Dumbledore just gave a brief, grim nod, and with a wand flick he levitated Ron up from the floor and headed off towards the infirmary, the rest of the group following along, forlornly.

************************Riddle Mansion*******************************

"Malfoy, how does our plan proceed?" Lord Voldemort hissed, as he looked down on his chief minion, cowering on the floor. He turned and surveyed the remainder of his minions, looking for any sign of weakness. The room, dark with evil, and illuminated only by occasional torches and a fire in the corner was cold as death. The old stone room, still stunk of the various dark rituals performed there.

"Sire, it proceeds. Our sources confirm that Potter is still grieving the animagus Black's death. And that he cares deeply for the Mudblood and the Weasel, his feelings are his weakness." Lucius replied, a glint in his eye as he looked up at Voldemort from his knees.

"I still do not understand this plan, my Lord." Bellatrix said from the side, a nasty smirk lighting her face. "Baby Potter is just that, a baby, and his friends even less powerful than he. Why not just destroy him and be done with it, wait until they go to Hogsmeade, away from that old fool's protection.

"He shall die, Bellatrix, that is all that you need to know, and know that it pleases me to make him suffer before he dies." Voldemort replied in a hiss, and turned back to Malfoy, "What progress Lucius?"

"Our factors inside Hogwarts have acted twice, now. They missed the Mudblood the first time, due to Potter once again saving her, but the Weasel is lying in the infirmary even as we speak. Our factor, tells Wormtail that they will act against the Mudblood, in a time and place, that will ensure that she dies in front of Potter." Riddle nodded slowly, to Malfoy's response.

"And your Son?"

"He has served his purpose as a stalking horse, Potter will concentrate his attentions to him, and allow our strike to take place." Malfoy replied, darkly.

"Good, Good. If he survives he may be an asset yet, if not..."

*********************Hogwarts Infirmary*************************

February 20, 2005

10:00 pm

"How is he Harry?" Hermione whispered as she came in. She sat down softly on the bed next to Harry, and leaned her head against him. Ron was lying in a hospital bed, the same one that he normally occupied during his frequent stays. Harry and now Hermione sat on a neighboring bed, the infamous "Harry-Potter bed" as Madame Pomfrey was now referring to it in her monthly student illness reports. Ron had not yet awakened from the poison that had he had fallen victim to ten days ago.

"The same Mione..." Harry replied. "Any news on who did it?"

"No..." Hermione muttered something under her breath that Harry pretended he didn't catch, and continued grimly, "The poison was in the food, though...Dumbledore has emplaced charms to remove any poison in the future, but we aren't even sure how they got it in the food. It looks like only Ron had any." Hermione and Harry sat there for another fifteen minutes, before Hermione glanced down at her watch with a groan. "Harry we have to go on patrol. You did agree to cover for Ron until he got better." Hermione shrugged helplessly.

Harry gave her a slight frown but rose anyway. With a heavy sigh, he placed a hand on Ron's shoulder, "Hurry up and get out of this bed mate, I...we miss you, Mione and me."

"Yeah Ron, we do." Hermione leaned over and kissed Ron on the cheek, a tear in her eye. Without another word she walked out into the hall, Harry following somewhat robotically.

The pair did their normal rounds, starting at the Astronomy tower and working down. After they ran the usual plethora of snogging students out of the tower, Hermione sat down heavily on the steps leading from the tower. Sensing her mood, Harry leaned against the wall looking down at her. Glancing up at Harry, he could see just a touch of fear in the cinnamon orbs, and his heart sank even lower than it already was. "Harry", she whispered, "why?"

"Me" Harry replied, tonelessly.

"You know it's not, Harry...Honestly, this every thing is an attack on me..." Hermione replied flatly, only to be interrupted by her companion.

"And it's not Hermione?" Harry spat, and then at the hurt look in her eyes, he groaned under his breath, and slid down the wall to her eye level. "Isn't it obvious Hermione, I mean the library, the poison...It's attacks on you and Ron...If you two, hell all of you would just leave me...renounce me..."

"What Harry, so we can die a week later than we would if we were at your side?" Hermione asked tartly, as she glared at him; then with an eyeblink, her expression softened. "We've had this argument, how many times? This is obviously someone trying to drive us apart. I'm not leaving Harry, and if Ron was awake he'd say the same." Hermione replied firmly. Then as she spotted movement out of the corner of her eye, she stood suddenly, and in a heartbeat, her wand was pointed at a high corner of the staircase. Harry's wand followed hers as if they were connected. "Peeves," she spat, "Don't you even dare..."

Peeves grinned hugely, and held the vase he was holding behind his back, He sang instead, nastily, "Potter, Potter, what a rotter...Potter sickens even the weasel...Potter, Potter, even the Mud..."

With a sudden glint in his eyes, Harry snarled, and Hermione could swear that the temperature in the room dropped several degrees. "Peeves," Harry's growl froze the poltergeist in his tracks and he stared down at the students. "I swear to God, if you finish that sentence..." Harry didn't complete his thought, but without another word, Peeves passed though a neighboring wall, the vase he had been carrying falling to the floor and smashing.

Hermione looked over at Harry, with an odd look, "Harry you didn't have to say anything...I'm used to it...unfortunately."

"You shouldn't be." He replied as he vanished his wand inside his robes. Hermione followed suit, sliding her wand into a holster behind her back as she started down the stairs, Harry following once again. As they reached the seventh floor hallway, they once again reached for their wands, as they heard a pair of footsteps thundering down the hall. The footsteps were soon identified as friendly, as Ginny came galloping around the corner. With a gasp they both replaced their wands with identical sheepish expressions.

Ginny didn't even seem to notice the wands, she just looked at both of them, panting, "Ron's awake."

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Chapter 20: Climax ***************************Hogwarts***********************************

(A/N Sorry it's not the climax of the story, just of a plot point :))

March 15, 2005
7:45am

"Honestly, Harry," Hermione glared at her "protector." "I'm more than capable of taking care of myself." She turned and continued to walk to Runes, making sure she was turned away from him as a tiny smile flitted across her face. Ever since Ron had been poisoned, and Harry and her had arguably been attacked in the library, Harry and later Ron, when he awoke, had followed her around like pair of guard dogs. Or a pair of guard cats in their case actually. Hermione thought with an inner grin. She kept walking, noting with a trace of amusement mixed with just a touch of annoyance, that except for other Gryffindors, most other students did watch their step around her. Even Malfoy had gotten the hint that it would not be wise to fool with the "mudblood," so far anyway.

"I know Hermione," Harry replied as he followed along. He didn't turn to go though, he just kept following her along. His eyes flitted from side to side, almost as if he were Alastor Moody Jr. "Its just that I couldn't stand it if you..." Harry whispered, hoping that she didn't hear as he realized that he actually said that sentiment out loud. Harry was walking down the hall, his hand in his robe pocket, resting on the hilt of his wand.

Hermione had heard his murmured comment, and she bit her lower lip, nervously. As they reached the door of the classroom, she stopped and turned to him, stepping out of the way of Pavarti, who also had Runes with her. "You are going to be here when I get out...aren't you Harry?" She asked with a raised eyebrow, trying not to laugh at his slightly nervous expression.

"Well you did ask if I would carry your books at the start of school," Harry replied, trying to crack a joke. After a long pause, he sighed, "Bloody hell...you know I will be, and I don't care if you're mad, Hermione." The bell rang and shaking her head sardonically, Hermione went into the class before Professor Glyph closed the door.

Sitting in her normal seat, Hermione pulled quill and parchment from her overstuffed bag, and started taking notes. However, today notes were on automatic, as she thought over what she had heard, or rather hoped she had heard. Harry...her thoughts racing, what am I going to do with you, I don't need babysitting. Ahh...but you don't mind it do you? That second, slightly annoying voice that sounded just like Harry replied, she could just imagine a tiny Harry, on a miniscule firebolt flitting about her head, a thought that caused her to let out a tiny giggle. Glyph glared at her, but Hermione, faked a tiny cough, and she went back to writing on the board. You've got it bad, girl...Tiny Harry continued, and she responded. I do but...Honestly, I can take care of myself. He has enough to be getting on with. The tiny Harry voice, just chuckled in her head.

********************Room of Requirement*****************************

Outside, Harry had gone to the Room of Requirement and just stood, dead still in the center of the room, breathing lightly. Finally he spoke, "Room, I need a dueling partner." Instantly a dark, hooded man with a wand in one hand and a long black blade in the other appeared. "That's more like it." Harry smiled coldly, "Appero Sword, Protego Duelus" The dual incantations, summoned the Gryffindor sword to his hand and activated the protection wards for the room. Harry gave his shadow opponent a slight bow, and the room exploded into action. The fake Voldemort, snapped a green bolt at Harry's head, which he dodged, and blocked the follow-up sword swing easily with his own.

The combatants started circling, Harry snapped a pair of stunners at Voldemort, which were blocked, as he expected. And with a breath, he charged, Harry snapped a high cut at his target's neck. Blocked. He in turned blocked a series of three strikes at his head, right side and left leg. All one handed, as he was hoping to get in a spell in.

"EXPELLIARMUS" Harry was suddenly hit with the surprise spell, his wand went flying, but he managed to keep a hold on his sword. The following swing of the fake Voldie's sword missed, as Harry flipped over to the side. As he shot through the air, "ACCIO WAND" Harry screamed. His wand shot to his empty hand, "IMPEDIMENTIA." The fake froze and was knocked back a step taken by surprise, and in another instant, it was over. The sword of Gryffindor slid though the provided opponent, and he vanished in wisp of smoke. Harry stood looking at the empty space just occupied by the image of his enemy and panted.

"It won't always be that easy, Harry." Remus Lupin said as he leaned on the wall near the door. He had come in during the duel, and stood watching, not uttering a word. Just for an instant he had gone for a wand before he realized what was happening, though.

"I know Remus...I knew you were there." Harry replied, "ENVESCO SWORD." Harry's blade vanished, back to where it came from. "So Moony, how did I do?"

"It's risky fighting with only one hand on the sword, but you needed a wand too, so it's a wash." Lupin sat down heavily on a just-appeared couch, and faced Harry. Harry sat down opposite him on another new couch. "Why are you up here Harry, I know that you already had training this morning?" Harry just shrugged in response, "Girl problems?" Lupin asked slyly, and chuckled at Harry's glare. "Harry, I know that you are following her around like a guard dog, or cat in your case...don't worry, I've only told Nymph and she won't tell."

"I have to try Remus, they almost got us, and they did manage to poison Ron..." Harry replied tiredly.

"Harry, you may be the most dangerous wizard in this castle...no really..." Lupin added with a tight grin, "and I know you love her, but she's going to get pissed at you my boy." Lupin laughed.

Harry just grinned and shook his head, "Way ahead of you, she already blew up at me last week. We've already reached a compromise, I still go to classes with her; I pretty much all ready did. We almost have the same schedule anyway. She reminded me this morning in fact, that she could take care of herself." Lupin smiled at him and got up. As he turned to leave, a comment from Harry stopped him, "Remus...can you teach me to ride the motor Sirius left me?"

"Sure Harry" Remus laughed, "Though I don't know how the Grangers would take you picking Hermione up on a motorcycle." Harry's eyes crossed at the thought and he chuckled.

"Only if the gods smile on me, Moony." Harry got up and paced over to the door, next to the werewolf. 'Besides, it would be more appropriate if I picked her up on a broom, wouldn't it?"

Lupin nodded; smirking, "So are you going to tell her?"

Harry sighed, replacing his wand he walked out of the room, "Remus, I will take on Voldemort, or any dark creature or Death Eater you can name, but I'm afraid of a sixteen year old girl..." Looking down at his watch. "I have to go, I said I'd meet her outside of Runes." Harry took off down the hall without another word to the Marauder.

"It's only because you are a sixteen year old boy" Remus replied to his back, though well after Harry had already left. "and I wish that's all you had to be."

*************************DADA #1****************************

1:00 pm

"Mate." Ron whispered urgently from Hermione's far side. Harry glanced over at Ron, annoyed. This was his favorite class after all, and it did also have the additional charm that something he learned here, really might just save his life. Even so Harry gave a little shrug, which Ron took as meaning to go on. "Harry...what about quid...""

"Mr. Weasley" Dumbledore muttered over his shoulder, having just appeared there. "Since you are so eager to contribute. Why don't you demonstrate the technique you were assigned to learn." Dumbledore stepped back and looked at Ron, expectantly, studiously ignoring the bushy-haired witch to the side with her hand up.

"Uhh, sir. I ahh" Ron replied hesitantly. It was only Harry's hand on Hermione's arm under the table that kept her from either turning to glare at Ron or jinx him. She had spent two hours last night teaching Ron, or at least trying, the charm to increase one's strength, similar to the effects of certain potions. But Ron had only paid slight attention, and had spent the evening also working on Quiddich strategies for the Slytherin game this weekend. In all fairness, Harry had also worked on Quiddich strategies, but he could already do the spell, so that really didn't count.

"Ego fortitudo" Hermione mouthed behind Dumbledore's back as he turned to conjure a set of weights. She mimed the wand movement, in a subdued manner.

Reluctantly, Ron stood up and faced the rest of the class. With a wand movement close to Hermione's but a pronunciation, not quite that what she had tried to surreptitiously pass along. "Ergo fortitudo," Ron incanted. Instead of the gold glowing effect that should have enveloped him, a bolt of orange light shot outward.

"PROTEGO" Harry snapped, and the bolt that was headed directly for Hermione and him, whined off and smashed a chuck out of the ceiling. Ron's ears erupted red to match his hair, and a smattering of laughter broke out. "You ok?" Harry whispered to her under the cover of the laughs. Hermione just nodded, eyes grinning.

"That will be enough" Dumbledore pronounced, and Ron sat down gratefully. "As we seem to have difficulty with the assignment, I would like three feet on strengthening potions and spells...due Friday." The usual groans echoed in the room, and Harry gave his friend a covert glare.

The class finally finished and packing their books Hermione leaned over to Ron, "Honestly Ron...we spent hours on that spell last night. And I really needed more homework." She added sarcastically.

"But you love homework Herms" Ron replied with a smile, trying to ingratiate himself.

Her eyes flashed, and Harry bit off a curse, and quietly placed his books in his bag. "Ronald..." Hermione snarled, lowly, "I love learning...not writing three feet on a subject that I've already studied...and don't call me Herms." Slinging her bag over her shoulder, "come on Harry, I guess we need to go start an essay." Stalking out, she took off obviously for the library.

"Come on Ron, let's go" Harry muttered, and led his friend in chase of his other one. As the pair headed down the hall, several steps behind Hermione, quietly discussing the strategies for this weekends climax of the Quiddich season, a low drawl echoed down the hall after them.

"Potty, Weasel, are you still trying to figure out how to beat us this weekend? You really should just follow Granger's example there and just concentrate on the homework weasel there got you. You need all the help you can get Weasley." Draco smirked, his usual bookends holding up either side. Pansy was off to one side, glaring balefully at Hermione, who was standing with an eyebrow raised, hand on her hip. Mere inches from where she had her wand concealed.

"Back off Ferret." Ron snapped, wheeling to face him. Ron strode back to Draco, flexing his fists as he went. Harry for his part, had a bad feeling. His eyes snapped back and forth, and unconsciously his ears started seeking out any aberrant noise, weary of an ambush. "Last I looked, you had never beaten Gryffindor as long as Harry was actually playing."

"Yes...shame that, that old fool Dumbledore let Potty and your littermates play again. The pitch smelled so much better with them gone." Draco laughed, then stepped back suddenly as Ron sprung at Draco. Flinging out a hand Harry stopped Ron's sudden rush.

"Let's go Ron, it's not worth it." Harry murmured, and using main force, he turned Ron back onto their original course. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Hermione sigh slightly. But of course; Draco just wouldn't, couldn't back down.

"Diffindo" Draco snapped, and from behind, the strap of Harry's bag was cut, causing his books, parchments, ink bottles and other supplies to tumble out as his bag crashed to the floor. "Now what are you going to do Potter?"

Harry gave off a great sigh of annoyance more than anything and slowly turned to face Draco. "Malfoy...go away, you don't want to duel me" Harry's hand hovered near his wand, but he didn't draw it, yet. Let's see...tickling charm, no, dancing, nope, not enough fun. I could vanish his clothes, I wonder if you can vanish someone else's wand? Never tried. Have to ask Mione. Harry mused in his thoughts as he stared down Malfoy, and watched Malfoy's minions out of the corner of his eye, even though he knew that he was covered, no matter what. Oh, hell, screw it, With a blindingly fast draw, Harry's wand magically appeared in his hand, "Incendio." Harry glanced at Malfoy then without another word, he twirled and started back towards the library.

"You missed Potter" Malfoy laughed at his back.

"Look down Ferret-boy"

"What, bloody hell" Draco screamed as he looked down and noticed that his shoes were on fire. Quickly summoning a stream of water to extinguish the flames, he shouted down the hall after the trio. "We'll see just how you and you friends like it after the game, Potter." With that, the platinum-haired Slytherin scampered away, Pansy following her master like a puppy. Crabbe and Goyle stood, glaring at the trio for a second, but as Hermione acted like she was reaching for her wand, they too spun and bolted away.

"What was that all about?" Harry muttered to himself the trio started off again.

***************************Quiddich Stadium, Hogwarts*********************

March 19, 2005

1:00 pm

The final match of the year had finally arrived. The day was bright and clear, but the heavy winds of March had set in. Harry and Ron's robes were flapping in the breeze, like great wings, and over to one side, Ginny was shivering in the wind as she stood talking to Fred and George. The stadium was already packed with fans. A chorus of Slytherins had tried to start singing, but had been shouted down, even though Gryffindor and Slytherin had each beaten the other two houses, almost everyone else hated Slytherin. The Gryffindors were clustered around the North goal; and strains of Weasley is Our King, already wafted from that end. McGonagall had already gone down into the Gryffindor stands twice to confiscate WeasleyWhizBangs that had been shot at the Slytherins across the way. Going into the game, Gryffindor lead the point standing by twenty points, an approximate tie.

"Are you ready for this one mate?" Ron asked with a grin as he and Harry led the rest of the team from the locker rooms to the pitch. "We win, McGonagall gets to keep the Cup in her office for next year." Harry glanced at him, and rolled his eyes. He didn't respond, as something was bothering him in the back of his mind, some clue that he knew he should pay attention to.

"Yeah, Ron...I'm fine." Harry replied, flatly. "Are you going to take the flip then, Hooch says I can't go out there with Malfoy, something about temptation?" A tiny grin flitted across his face, but was dampened immediately. Ron smiled at him and headed for the center circle. Watching his friend go, he felt a familiar presence come up from behind. "Mione" Harry murmured, a grin in his voice.

"Hey Harry." Hermione said softly as she meandered up. With the benefit of long experience, "what's wrong, the game, you'll crush them."

"Thanks for the sentiment, but something's wrong I just don't know what." Harry replied with a vague sense of foreboding. But before he could go on, another came along. Floating above the crowd, a giant lion head meandered over to Harry and Hermione.

"ROAR" "Harry, have you seen Ron?" A blue-eyed, dirty blond witch asked with a happy expression. "I was going to give him this talisman to keep off the Quaffle- weevils, that Malfoy has infested the Quaffles with." Luna stood, a hip cocked, as she absently petted her hat. Oddly the thing seemed to like it. The Weasley is my King sweatshirt she wore was awfully tight, either it had shrunk in the wash or she was looking for attention.

"Um, Yeah, Luna, he went to go take the toss." Harry replied, with a shrug, his eyes laughing. Hermione bit her lip to keep from laughing outright. "ROAR" the lion head went off again.

"Ok, Harry I guess I'll just go up to the stands, I should be able to zap any weevils from there, when they pop out." Luna replied brightly and turned back and headed off to the Gryffindor stands.

As she left, Hermione started laughing the instant she was out of range. Harry joined her instantly and they kept laughing until Harry stopped, holding his side. "You'll be up in the stands?" Harry asked, still half laughing.

"Of course, I'll be in my normal spot," Hermione replied instantly, neither of them noticing the person in the green and black robes, that gave a brief smile at hearing that pronouncement as they passed by. "Besides I guess I better make sure Luna doesn't start shooting spells." Hermione turned to go, but with a sudden urge, she wheeled, kissed Harry on the cheek and headed off to the stands. She waved to Harry as she left, Harry just stood there with a slight look of shock.

"Bye Hermione" Harry whispered, then with a visible effort he turned and walked to the pitch, joining the rest of the Gryffindors in waiting for Ron. Ginny turned and smiled at him as he joined her, Fred, George, Ginny, Pavarti and Lavender.

"So Harry..." Ginny said quietly with a huge grin. She rubbed her forefingers together in front of her and giggled.

"Shut up Ginny" Harry growled, in response, giving the tiny witch a glare worthy of the bushy-haired one. As Ron came over she shut up and put on an air of attention to her other Captain and incidentally brother.

"Ok team, " Ron started by looking at each of his team in turn. "All we have to do is play. These Slytherin pukes don't have a chance. Ginny, Lav, Pavarti...steal every chance you get, but be careful, Crabbe and Goyle may not have a single functional brain cell between them, but they'll be gunning for you. Fred, George, cover them."

"What about Harry and you, bro?" George asked with a small, grim smile. He and Fred hung on Ron's words as they fingered their beater's bats unconsciously.

"I don't think it would be...amiss if you just happened to cover us as you had time, but concentrate on the chasers." Harry replied seriously, as his eyes flicked around the stands and the stadium. "It's my job to get the snitch, if I keep moving I'll be ok, and as long as the bludger hits Ron in the head, he'll be fine." Everyone except Ron laughed at the joke, though he did crack a smile.

"All right, you bloody blokes, let's get in the air." Ron shouted as he threw his legs over his broom, and took a weaving, meandering course towards the north goal to the cheers of the Gryffindor fans.

But not before the parting shot rang out after him, "Ron if you think, I'm a BLOKE, you really need instruction!" Lavender yelled after him as she, Ginny and Pavarti mounted their brooms and took off. The girls chortled as they rose to the air over the pitch, and began circling.

"You, know..."Fred smirked, "She does have a point."

"Yep, Lets go" Harry kicked off and shot into the air, barrel rolling as he passed the Gryffindor stands. He gave the stands a jaunty wave as he passed, receiving waves in return from the rest of his roommates, Luna and Hermione in passing.

"WELCOME TO TODAY'S CHAMPIONSHIP GAME FOR THE 2004-2005 SEASON" Leslie Jordan cried from the commentator's box nestled in the Gryffindor stands. Leslie gave the introductions as McGonagall peered out over the stands on the lookout for trouble. "GRYFFINDOR GOES INTO TODAY'S GAME WITH ONLY A TWENTY POINT LEAD, SO IT'S ANYONES MATCH." A see of spectators in red and gold, erupted at the words, and the lion hat ROARED.

"So Potter, how does it feel to be a loser?" Draco sneered as he too awaited the start of the game. He did a little barrel roll and laughed.

With a puff on her whistle Madame Hooch started the game, and released the balls. Dodging a bludger, Harry took off in pursuit of the snitch, Malfoy trailing closely.

"AND THE QUAFFLE IS UP AND...WEASLEY HAS IT...SHE PASSES TO BROWN, PATIL, BROWN...WEASLEY, AND SCORE! TEN-NADA GRYFFINDOR!" Jordan screamed, and the Gryffindor crowd went wild. On the pitch the Gryffindor girls turned and head back down the pitch, going after the quaffle again. The Slytherin chaser line charged Ron and under the cover of two bludgers at his head, they were able to score.

Back in the center, Crabbe shot a bludger at Ginny, who dodged it, as Fred shot it back where it came from, only to be nailed by a second shot by Goyle knocking her spinning from her broom to the ground. Hooch blew the whistle and the game stopped. Ginny hopped back on a broom, and looking daggers at the bookends of idiocy, she took once again to the sky, as her brothers circled the Slytherin beaters threateningly. She took out her frustrations by quickly scoring two more goals on the Slytherins further opening the Gryffindor lead.

"AND WEASLEY GETS HERS BACK..." Jordan crowed as McGonagall glared at her. Leslie gave a little shrug, but she didn't look abashed, far from it. McGonagall waited until Leslie turned back to the game, and let a small grin escape, onto her lips.

"ROAR" Luna's hat went off, magically amplified so as to be heard everywhere. "GO RON," She screamed. On the field, Ron blocked two shots in a row, the second, be beat off with a broom save that snapped the quaffle straight back at Lavender, who flipped it to Pavarti. Pavarti, ducked under two converging Slytherins, who crashed together and spiraled from the sky. She snapped the quaffle to Ginny who charged the Slytherin keeper. At the last second she backhanded the quaffle to Pavarti, who fired a snapshot at the leftmost goal and scored. The Gryffindors scored two more goals as the Slytherin chasers rejoined the game, and then it was over.

Suddenly, Harry spotted the snitch, hovering near the base of the Gryffindor stands, "Bye Draco" Harry laughed and snapped inverted, the superior acceleration of the firebolt almost violating a couple of laws of physics as it slammed Harry from 0 to almost 150 in three seconds.

"Oh Hell, no" Draco snapped and headed off in pursuit, almost going prone on the broom. His and Harry's cloaks whipped in the wind like giant wings, as they jockeyed for position. Crabbe, across the way, hammered a bludger at where Harry and Draco would intercept the snitch.

"GO HARRY" Hermione screamed, leaning on the rail to look down at the snitch, almost a hundred feet below. Jumping up and down, she clapped wildly, her hair bouncing up and down. Across the pitch, a wand poked covertly out of a set of green and black robes. Under Hermione's feet, the wood at the edge of the stands, under her feet crumbled, and the rail she was leaning on snapped with a thunderous crack. "WAHH", THUMP, Hermione's feet fell into nothingness, and as they slipped out from under her, her head smacked the stands, rendering her unconscious and falling. Behind her, a couple of third year girls let out a horrified scream.

Below at the same instant, Harry snatched the snitch, and almost without pause, the bludger, so graciously donated by Crabbe smashed into Harry's catching arm, snapping it with a pop heard across the stadium, Harry glanced up at Hermione's scream, and without thinking he slid his broom under her path and grabbed her with her other arm, just feet above the pitch. Harry's good shoulder wretched out of socket, as he bit through the pain and took the landing in a tumble, rolling, carefully shielding Hermione from harm, even at the cause of even more to himself. The pair came to a stop, Hermione lying on top of Harry.

Her eyes blinked open, and through the blinding pain Hermione blinked down at a pair of brilliant jade eyes. "Thanks Harry..." Hermione whispered. For an endless moment they lay there looking at each other from a few inches away. Without another word, or perhaps a thousand, just not uttered, Hermione slowly started to lean forward, her face tracking like a missile towards his.

"HARRY, HERMIONE..." Ron shouted, and with a gasp, the spell was broken. Behind Ron, Ginny and the twins ran up. Ginny giving her brother an odd look, and she unlike him, had noticed. "Are you alright?" Hermione glanced up at them with an oddly guilty look, to which Ginny raised a questioning eyebrow.

"No, Ron." Hermione groaned a bit and ran her hand over the spot on the back of her head. Her hand came back covered in blood. Below her, Harry's right arm was hanging oddly, and his left shoulder was throbbing, to her gentle touch. "I don't think either one of us is." Slowly and carefully, Hermione rolled off Harry, giving him a quick peck on the cheek as she passed.

"Thanks, Mione." Harry said, and then moaned a bit, in a pained voice, "Do me a favor, check and see if I caught the snitch, Hermione, I can't move those fingers right now."

"I'm the one who should thank you Harry" Hermione replied, rolling her eyes at his behavior, very gently she peeked in his right hand, "You caught it Harry." Harry smiled at her and just lay on the pitch, staring up at the sky. Hermione rolled on her back and lay beside him. Behind Ron and the rest of the Gryffindor team, a crowd was rapidly approaching, lead by Dumbledore, Hooch and Pomfrey.

"OUT OF THE WAY, OUT OF THE WAY" Madame Pomfrey cried as she ran ahead and crouched beside the two Gryffindors. "Potter, Granger, what am I to do with you two?" She mused as she gently examined Hermione's head. "You look fine, Miss Granger, but I'm keeping you in the infirmary tonight." Turning to Harry, she waved her wand over him, and cast a quick charm. Looking at the results, her lips pursed. "Let's see Mr. Potter, broken right wrist, dislocated left shoulder, two cracked ribs...about average for a Saturday." Harry and Hermione glared at her joke, "I will have to keep you this evening as well." She turned and looked at the crowd behind her. "Albus, if you could..."

"Certainly Poppy," with a flick of his wand, Dumbledore levitated the pair, and walked slowly behind them as he lead the school med-witch, along with a parade of well wishers to the infirmary. "Good catch, Harry...both of them" Dumbledore whispered out of the side of his mouth as they reached the castle.

"Thanks," Harry replied as he passed out.

***************************Hogwarts' Infirmary**************************

9:00 pm

"Harry, are you awake?" Hermione whispered over to him as she rolled over on her side to face him. As usual when more than one of the trio was in their second home, they were side by side. Ron, as the last of the well-wishers, had just left. Ron had obviously been wanting to go to the party, the party that would probably not end until sometime tomorrow. As McGonagall, after seeing to her injured students, had proclaimed loudly that Serverus owed her drinks at the Three Broomsticks and had last been seen heading for the main doors of the castle. Snape had growled, but followed anyway after he had checked to make sure his galleon supply was adequate for tonight's debt.

Harry turned his head to face her, and gave her a small pained grin. Poppy had already repaired his arm, but the ribs that he had broken when he took the impact instead of Hermione and the shoulder that he had strained when he caught her still pained him. "Yeah"

"Harry...thank you." She murmured, careful not to summon Madame Pomfrey. Hermione's eyes were soft, and Harry thought he could see a trace of a tear in the corner of one. A small wince crossed his thoughts at the sight, but he carefully kept it from his face.

"Just doing my job, ma'am," Harry replied softly, "you ok, Mione?"

Hermione nodded, "Just knocked me out, you know I have just as hard a head as you do."

"Its not a contest, Hermione" Harry chuckled, then with a wince grabbed his side, "Oww." Harry shook off her concerned look.

"You know how I hate to loose, Harry..." Grinning at her Harry closed his eyes and went to sleep, as Hermione replied. Hermione watched him, concern in her eyes for a moment longer as she too fell asleep, facing him as he faced her.

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Chapter 21: Are We Having Fun Yet?
*********************Hogwarts, Room of Requirement*****************
*******

May 1, 2005.
2pm

"Come on Harry, are you afraid to hit a GURRRL?" Hermione mocked as she stood a couple of meters away, her feet apart in a ready stance. She motioned with a hand, daring him. Harry rolled his eyes as he stood ready, bouncing on the balls of his feet, his face expressionless otherwise.

"Twenty galleons on Harry, Moony?" Ron asked out the side of his mouth as he stood next to Lupin. He along with, the remainder of the "inner circle" stood resting against the walls of the room, watching the impending match-up. Harry and Hermione had already beaten the rest of them, though Ron and quite surprisingly Luna had given the pair, respectively, a run for their money.

"I'll take that, just be glad the dueling charms are on." Lupin replied quietly. And with that, the pair went at it. Harry knocked aside the punch sent at his head, swept at Hermione's legs in response. She jumped over the sweep, using the spring to launch a kick at his chest that connected and sent him back a few paces. Harry grinned at her bounced a bit and came back with a kick, punch and backfist. The last hit her in the back, and knocked her stumbling forward. She spun and glared at him, though a corner of her mouth crooked upwards. In a flash the bout was over. The two came together Harry landed another punch right as Hermione hooked a leg behind his knee, and took him to the floor. She rode him down to the floor, and snapped a punch at his throat, stopping barely an inch from his Adam's apple. Harry tapped the mat beside him, and tried to ignore Hermione's grin. Ron groaned and dug in a pocket, he slammed the coins down in Lupin's hand and walked away dejectedly.

"Wotcher, Hermione" Tonks laughed as Hermione climbed off Harry, and flicked her hair at him. Harry didn't speak; just kicked himself back to his feet and stalked over to join Ron. "Ok, then, that's it get out of here, Harry I'll see you tomorrow for surveillance training?

"Yeah Tonks" Harry muttered as he leaned against the wall next to Lupin and Ron. With a small sigh, he pulled his glasses off and started to clean them on the edge of his sweatshirt. Hermione sauntered over to him and leaning close she whispered something that caused him to let out a little laugh. "Ok, lets go, I'm sure Ron needs a shower." Harry put in as the six of them headed out the door, Neville holding it for Ginny as they left the room.

After the door closed behind the teens with muffled thump, Lupin looked over at Tonks, "You know he pulled that don't you?"

Tonks walked over to him, and grabbed a paw, "They both were holding back, Moony" She replied with a combination grin and shrug. "They were holding back against the others too, though Luna almost made Hermione pay for holding back."

"And she realized it and ended it a second later. Harry did the same with Ron." Remus replied, thoughtfully. "I'm just glad that the protection charms held, anyway dear, how would you like to have dinner in Diagon Alley this evening, I seem to have found twenty galleons." He gave a huge, slightly lecherous wink, as he held up his winnings.

"Why good sir, I would love to." Tonks replied, chuckling.

***************************Gryffindor Tower******************************

4:00pm

"Mione, where are you going?" Harry asked from the couch. He was once again loosing to Ron at wizard chess, and with a tiny groan he witnessed the last defender of his king crumble to dust.

"Library," Hermione replied with a shrug. She slung her bag over her shoulder and started to head towards the portrait hole, only to be stopped again.

"Hold up, I'll go along with you" Harry replied as he got up rapidly from the already lost game. "Ron?" Harry asked as he grabbed his bag from the floor by the couch. Harry automatically checked his wand as he got up; Moody was a good teacher in paranoia. And anyway as the muggle philosopher said, you are only paranoid if no one was after you; Harry had the opposite problem, unfortunately.

Ron looked up and glanced around the room, but as he noticed his sister sitting at a corner desk with Luna, a conflicting thought crossed his mind. "No Harry, you two go on."

"Ok then mate, see you at dinner then." Harry replied and he and Hermione left by the portrait hole.

Ron watched them leave, an odd little grin on his face. He got up and walked over to Ginny. Leaning over he muttered in her ear. "Gin can I talk to you in private?" Ginny gave Ron an odd look, but nodded anyway. Giving a slight shrug to Luna, Ginny got up and led Ron to the side room that Hermione had chewed the twins out in months earlier.

The door closed and Ginny crooked an eyebrow at him, "what Ronnikens?"

Ron ignored the nickname and just looked at his little sister, he seemed weird today. "Ginny, would you say that you are Hermione's best friend here, I mean besides me and Harry?" Ginny nodded slowly in response, wondering where this was going. "Ginny, I think I want to ask Hermione out."

Crap, crap, crap Ginny thought a touch desperately, "Umm Ron, what brought this on?" Ginny asked more to buy herself time than anything else. She already more or less knew the answer to that question, and she also knew the eventual outcome of Ron's chosen course of action.

"I just like her, and she likes me, I mean look, we always make up even when we squabble, and she's pretty, and I don't know..." Ron replied, a little hurried. He ran a hand through his red mane, in a rather good impression of one of Harry's nervous tics.

"Umm, Ron you might want to hold off on that thought. I mean she might get a touch stressed with exams in a few weeks, you know how she is..." Ginny replied reasonably. The tiny witch twirled her finger near her temple and Ron nodded in agreement.

"Thanks, Ginny, I'll do that" Ron replied eagerly.

Thank God, another few weeks reprieve until she shoots him down Ginny kept a smile on her face for her brother, even as the thought went through her head. Ron smiled at her and left the room. Ginny collapsed against a nearby wall and slid down it. As her butt hit the floor, she started laughing quietly.

****************************Hogwarts Library*****************************

"Harry, I think I proved that I can take care of myself this afternoon," Hermione murmured across the table to Harry. Both of them were back at her back table, the bookshelf that had almost fallen on them a few months ago was now magically secured to the floor. It had been almost a month and a half since the last real act against any of them, besides the ongoing prank war of course. The attacks: the shelf, Ron's poisoning, and the "sudden failure" of the rail at the Quiddich pitch had all obviously been attacks on her or Ron, but no true suspects had been found. Their prime suspect, Draco, was out of the picture as he had a perfect alibi during the Quiddich match, he'd been playing.

"I wanted to leave anyway, I was losing, as usual." Harry replied as he looked up from his potions notes. "Besides I needed to study. And isn't it you who is always harping on me, us to study."

"Honestly Harry...I do not harp!" Hermione's lip twitched for a moment, and she tried and failed to glare. She gave up, and looked at him with an odd glint in her eye, "do I really?" She asked in a soft voice, as she bit her lip.

"No Mione, I'm sorry, you don't, not really." Harry replied with a small grin. "Not more than you should anyway. I would have failed out long ago, if it wasn't for you." Harry gave a nod, and turned back to his potions notes. Hermione mutely shook her head, but she didn't trust her voice. She picked her quill back up and with another slightly nervous glance across the table; she started in on an essay for Dumbledore on the spell resistance of common materials.

After a few minutes of silence, Hermione looked up again, "Harry?" Harry looked up and cocked an eyebrow in mute response. "You were holding back today...why?" She glanced across the expanse of the table, her eyes questing.

Harry took a deep breath, and looked deep into the depths of her chocolate pools. "You were also, Mione" he replied softly. Harry paused, then in a thoughtful tone of voice, he added, "Lupin noticed...I don't know, it's like I just know that there's this reserve that I feel...yes, I was holding back, and yeah Lupin and I'm sure Tonks noticed, but I'm also sure that they don't realize how much...do they Hermione?" He asked quietly with a knowing look as he regarded her.

"I'm scared Harry...I can feel it inside, it's like..."

"Like you can hear it whispering inside, that you can do that spell, even though you shouldn't be able to...that you can move faster, if you just will it enough?" Harry completed her thought in a whisper. Hermione nodded wordlessly, her eyes on his.

"Sometimes, I'm in a class, like Defense and I just know, that I can breeze though every one there...except you or Dumbledore." She shrugged with her statement. At the same time, something, some knowledge tickled her brain. She knew somehow, that she knew what this meant though she just couldn't or wouldn't put it together right now.

************************Hogwarts, Hagrid's Hut****************************

May 6, 2005
9:50 am

RING, Harry looked up from the book on countercurses that he had been perusing while he waited outside of Arithmency for a certain witch. Hermione had reluctantly given up on persuading him not to meet her after class as a lost cause. He was, after all, the only person as stubborn as her in the castle, or very possibly in the British Wizarding community as a whole. Harry put the book away in his pack as he stood, rising from one of the stone benches set outside of the classroom, each bench polished smooth with a thousand years of students waiting on others. As the door opened, a couple of Ravenclaw girls saw him and pointed. Whispering to each other, they headed on down the hall, giggling at him. Harry just ignored them; he knew quite well that Hermione was the first in the class, and the last out. Except when I intervene of course, Harry thought with a concealed grin.

Hermione finally came out the classroom lugging along her books. Noticing Harry, she gave a slight sigh and headed down the hall. As they entered a deserted section of hallway, she looked down the hall in both directions with a mischievous grin. Verifying that they were out of sight of any witnesses, she stepped into a small alcove with a wave. And a heartbeat later, a large brown eagle swooped out. Hermione circled around Harry's head once and flew out a conveniently open window. "Show off" Harry muttered as he continued on down the hall to the entrance and the path to Hagrid's hut.

As Harry reached the entrance doors, he found Ron, Neville and Hermione's roommates all walking out the front doors as well. "Where's Hermione, Harry?" Ron asked as they headed down the steps.

"She had to fly" Harry replied sarcastically, "she'll meet us at Hagrid's." Ron bit back a chuckle as he realized the double meaning of Harry's statement. Reaching the end of the stairs, the Gryffindors started off down the dirt path to Hagrid's. Outside, Hagrid had several odd perches set up, but so far nothing was on them. Harry immediately noticed the brown eagle circling over the hut, and as it spotted them approaching, she dived behind Hagrid's.

"Harry" Neville looked over at him as the group reached the pumpkin patch, "Can I get you help with disabling charms this evening. Lupin said to ask you."

"Sure Neville, though Hermione's better...and speak of the devil" Harry muttered the last as Hermione appeared from behind the small house. She gave Harry a small wink as she joined the rest of them.

"What am I better at, Harry?" She asked as she took a seat on one of Hagrid's benches. Neville had gone over to sit with Dean and Seamus, and was out of earshot.

"Disabling Charm's, Neville asked me for help, so I'll help him this evening, want to give me a hand?" Harry replied as Hagrid walked up to the front of the class. He had an odd leathery winged creature on one shoulder.

"Ok" Hermione replied as she took out parchment to take notes on.

"'ELLO CLASS" Hagrid began. "T'day we 'ave a particularly interesting creature to study." Hagrid gently placed the creature on one of he perches they had noticed earlier. "T'day we will study Sneezy here. He is a velium, does anyone know about these creatures...'Ermione?" He nodded to the raised hand in the front row almost automatically.

Hermione's face lit up like it always did when she got to answer a question, "Well Sir...."

***************************Hogwarts, DADA****************************

1:00 pm

As the bell rang for the start of their DADA double, Harry, Hermione, Ron and the rest of the Gryffindors along with the other sixth years that had elected to take DADA, walked into the main DADA classroom. Immediately on entering they could tell that books probably would not be needed today. Instead of the usual desks, mats covered the floor, and it looked as if the size of the room had been magically expanded to several times its normal volume. Dumbledore stood at the head of the room, along with McGonagall, Tonks and Lupin. He had an odd glint in his eye, quite similar to that worn by Fred or George, right before they would pull off a particularly good joke. "Good afternoon class" Dumbledore said to the assembled students. "As you may have noticed, today's lesson will be a practical one. Today, we will be practicing dueling in teams. I will split you up into groups of...say three" Dumbledore winked at Harry, Ron and Hermione as he gazed over the class. "Those three will defend themselves against two other groups of three." With a twinkle in his eye, "Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger, come here please."

With shared slightly pained looks, the trio trundled up to the front of the room as Dumbledore surveyed the rest of the class. With an odd, almost merry look he peered at the back of the large room, "Miss Bulstrode, Miss Parkinson, Mr. Crabbe, Mr. Goyle, Mr. Nott, Mr. Malfoy, you will be the...opposition. Everyone else please step aside." The rest of the class hurried to the edge of the room, to get out of the line of fire. Dumbledore nodded slightly and looked at the two groups, comparing. The trio stood almost relaxed, relatively neutral expressions on their faces. Meanwhile, the Slytherin contingent led by Draco was grinning and fingering their wands, ready to get in a little sanctioned cursing and hexing, with the noted exception of Draco himself. Oddly his appearance was closer to Harry, Ron and Hermione's. "The rules...disabling charms only, the use of any charm, on a person, that can cause permanent harm will cost you house points. Conversely, the winning side will receive fifty house points. Now to make it a bit more interesting..." with a wave of his wand, a maze cropped up in the magically enlarged room. The non-participating students that had been over to one side, and Dumbledore and the other spectators were now suddenly on raised platforms so they could easily see the action. The two teams were on opposite sides of the maze, unable to see the other group.

On the raised platform, McGonagall leaned over to Dumbledore, and in a soft whisper, "Just what are you playing at Albus?"

"Unless I miss my guess, proving a point, Minerva, or rather letting others prove their points without causing permanent harm." Dumbledore murmured back, then in a loud voice filled with power, "BEGIN" Immediately the difference between the two sides became apparent. Harry darted to the entrance of the maze, and carefully covered the corners before he waved the other two up. Hermione dove in beside him as Ron automatically covered their back. Not a one of them so much as muttering a curse. The Slytherins, except Draco, hurried ahead into the maze almost causally. This act caused a pained look to cross his face. He cautiously edged forward, trying his best to stay behind cover.

Harry glanced ahead at the maze then with a slight grin, " What do you think, subtle or direct?" Harry asked his friends in a pensive murmur.

"Honestly Harry...you don't know the meaning of subtle" Hermione shot back in an undertone, her brown eyes shining as she glanced over at him. She fingered her wand and crept ahead to the next corner of the maze, the boys following after.

"Sure I do" Harry replied with a smirk, "discrete, understated, subdued, non-direct." Hermione rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue at him.

Suddenly Ron's face lit up as a sudden thought crossed his mind. He stood up fully for a second, to verify that the walls of Dumbledore's maze were a foot taller than him, about seven five, and glancing up he figured there was about another ten foot between top of the walls and the ceiling. "Harry, Hermione...they never look up." The other two looked at each other for a second, Hermione's eyebrow crooked upward. Ron grinned at her and whispered, "you're the lightest, Hermione," as he pointed his wand at her.

But before he could do anything, she snarled back in a soft tone. "No, Ron..." Harry looked over and gave her an evil grin and she groaned quietly, "Bloody hell...Ok, but Harry lifts me, Ron." Of course if the entire sixth year wasn't watching, I'd just transform, but... She gave a nod to Harry. With a small whish and flick, "WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA" Hermione floated up above the maze. Softly landing on top of the walls of the maze, she looked down and saw the Slytherins, minus Draco in a clump. That group was packed into a little cul-de-sac all looking apprehensively at the next corner of the maze. All five of them with their wands pointed at the same place, down the maze and not at her. Hermione glanced down at the boys, and showed five fingers, then mouthed "Draco" and shrugged to Harry. She turned back to the Slytherins, and with a complicated movement of her wand, "ENCLOSIUM" A wall sprang up in front of the Slytherins, and a top suddenly appeared over the Slytherins, boxing them in like mice in a cage. With a wry grin, Hermione gave another wand flick, and air holes appeared in the top of the box. Suddenly out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a flash of green. She jumped down from the top of the wall, just as a red stunner bolt flashed through were she had been, landing with bent knees next to Harry. "He's all alone Harry" Hermione said with a flash of teeth, as she rose up.

Harry flicked his gaze over at Ron, who chuckled and pointed his wand at himself. "Imago emino" Instantly Ron's doppelganger appeared. The image moved wherever Ron pointed his wand, walking exactly like he himself did. Hermione and Harry looked over at him, impressed despite themselves. Ron grinned, and in a chuckling whisper, "Oh, I forgot, you two were unconscious then." Hermione glared at him, then nodded along with Harry, as Ron pointed with his free hand at himself then at his replica and mimed walking with it. Ron proceeded to creep around corners of the maze, while letting his replica seemingly walk upright, not even bothering to take cover. Finally as the trio, and the fake reached the middle of the maze, a red bolt passed through the center of the fake Ron. As the fake Ron vanished, a muttered curse was heard from around the corner. Even as Ron's image was fading away, Harry and Hermione swung around the corner, "Petrificus Totalus." Draco fell to the ground with a loud thump, landing face down on the matted-covered stone floor.

Harry sauntered over to Draco, and bent low. Flipping Draco over on his back, he whispered in his ear, "Having fun yet Draco?" Draco just glared at him, frozen in place. "Malfoy, I honestly don't think you were behind the attacks this semester, but I think you know who was...they stop, or we play for real." Harry replied, serious as a heart attack. Straightening up he nonchalantly pointed his wand at Draco; "Finite" Harry purposely turned his back on Draco as he walked over to Ron and Hermione, hoping that Draco would try. Draco, however just shook his head as he got to his feet and sheathed his wand with a snarl.

"EXCELLENT," Dumbledore boomed from his raised position. Beside him, Lupin and Tonks were carefully not smiling, merely looking interested. McGonagall looked pensive, though her lips flickered for a second as her gaze wandered over the box still trapping the five Slytherins. "Fifty points to Gryffindor. Now, Mr. Malfoy" Dumbledore said almost gently, "please explain to the class how your side lost, when you outnumbered them two to one?"

Draco gave a slight grimace, and glared for a second at Harry. Harry however did not look happy, or sad, just neutral and Draco's rage faded to annoyance. Yes, though both Weasley's doppelganger spell that Draco had never seen before and Granger's transfiguration of the walls to trap his compatriots were very advanced magic, his side beat themselves. With a sigh, he answered, "Sir we lost as my group let themselves be trapped, and Potter's team, used the surroundings to their advantage." Draco's voice was introspective as he finished.

"Correct Mr. Malfoy, ten points to Slytherin for that honest answer." Dumbledore replied evenly. Draco's eyebrows shot up, but he just nodded in response. Across the room, still in the maze, a loud thump and several muted voices were heard. OOPS, Dumbledore thought to himself as he remembered the trapped Slytherins. She did leave them air holes though. "Finite Mutiao" Dumbledore waved his wand in a hard slashing motion. Without warning the maze suddenly disappeared, and the five, trapped Slytherins who had been leaning on the now vanished walls fell instantly to the floor in a pile. Titters of laughter broke out, but to Dumbledore's satisfaction, no one got caught laughing.

Dumbledore next picked another group, this time three Hufflepuffs, more or less led by Ernie Macmillan, against several Ravenclaws. This next fight was not as one sided as the first, though the fact that all of those chosen were in the DA may have had a great deal to do with it. In the end, that match came down to Ernie against two, and he did manage to stop one of them, Terry Boot, but the other got him from behind. Harry stood watching, and taking notes. He was actually proud of them, but he saw some factors that he wanted to go over especially since Ernie's loss was more due to both of his partners being caught napping than anything else.

After a couple of more groups had their turn, Dumbledore dismissed the class. As the class was filling out, Draco held back. Catching Harry's eye, he gave Harry a touch to the head, which in a formal duel would signify a point. Harry returned a slow nod, from where he stood waiting for Hermione to ask Dumbledore a question about a reading assignment. Ron's gaze caught the exchange, and he asked Harry in a quiet, urgent tone. "What was that mate?"

Harry grimaced, "I have no bloody clue."

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Because I forget to Say it: Rowling owns everything, darnit

Chapter 22: Moonset

*****************************DADA Classroom****************************

May 6, 2005

3:00pm

As Harry, Ron and Hermione left the classroom, Hermione's eyes caught Remus standing with Tonks, and a sudden, slightly shocked expression crossed her face. "Shit...I forgot" Ron and Harry grinned behind their hands, and then Harry took the plunge.

"Forgot what, Mione?" he carefully asked, in a tone that he hoped conveyed interest. Hermione gave a quick, pained smile at him, as she didn't believe him, but appreciated the effort anyway.

"I think I figured out the potion for Remus." She replied quietly, glancing around to make sure no one else overheard. Harry's attention instantly peaked, he was interested, quite interested. As one, all three of them looked over at Remus and Tonks, who were laughing quietly.

Harry gave a quick nod, "Remus should hear this obviously" he said in an undertone to her and she gave a silent look of assent. Harry walked briskly over to Remus, and whispered in his ear, Remus gave Harry a shocked look, and then as Harry motioned back at the classroom they had all left, he nodded. Harry walked quickly back over to Hermione and Ron, "come on" Harry whispered and walked back into the empty DADA classroom, and up the spiral steps to the DADA professor's office. Opening the door he motioned the other two in. Since Dumbledore was the DADA professor this year, the room was more or less abandoned. Only the same desk that Lupin and several other DADA professors, good and bad, had shared over the years remained. Otherwise the room was pretty empty. A light layer of dust had settled on the wood, as the house-elves didn't bother unless there was actually someone to use the office, they had quite enough to do as it was. A knock sounded on the old oak door, Harry crossed to the door and opened it.

Only to find, with a slight shock, not only Remus and the more or less expected Tonks, but also Professor Dumbledore as well. Hermione suddenly looked a touch panicked at his appearance, and she motioned desperately at Harry. Sudden concern filled Harry at her expression and he moved to her. Grabbing Harry's head, Hermione pulled him very close, and whispered directly in his ear, so softly that his enhanced hearing almost had to strain to hear, "Harry...if we do this...you and Ron, will have to be there in your animal forms to control Remus, just in case." Harry gave her a shocked look, but then he took a deep breath.

With a wry smile, he grabbed her hand and gave it a quick, covert squeeze. Well its time for another generation of Marauders to control the wolf. Harry thought with an inner laugh. "Tell him, Hermione...everything, I trust Dumbledore."

With a look that promised death if she was expelled, Hermione glanced at him. As she turned back to Lupin, however, her expression faded to the slightly happy look that she got when she got to explain something. "Remus I think that we have the potion solved." Remus looked like he wanted to be excited, but was forcing it down. Dumbledore regarded her with a slightly questioning look. She continued as she glanced apologetically at her best friends. "When's the next full moon, Remus?"

"Couple of weeks" Lupin responded instantly, he kept up with his time of the month.

"Perfect" Hermione responded instantly. But before she could go on, Dumbledore interrupted.

"Hermione" Dumbledore said slowly and distinctly, "What are you three up to?"

She took a deep breath, Expulsion's not so bad "Sir, while researching another topic...I..."

"We..." Harry put in from the side, trying to pull off any heat off her.

Hermione gave Harry an mixed look of exasperation and thanks rolled into one, "We...wondered what would happen if you combined the effects of the Wolfsbane and the animagus potions." She blurted the sentence out and looked at her friends, Harry and Ron both gave her quick smiles. Fortified, she finished. "Remus it will take a week to brew and you should take it a week before the full moon. It should uncouple you from the moon's influence. You will be able to transform at will...like an animagus and doing so should keep the strain to a minimum. It's not a total cure though. I uhh...thought of a cure, but it was worse than the disease." Remus gave an incredulous look at that comment, and Hermione blushed a bit and muttered quietly, so that the two cat animagi and werewolf all had to strain to hear, "it sort of involved having a vampire turn you." Remus chuckled at her and rapidly crossed the room. He gave her a crushing hug in thanks, and she blushed a bit further. As he let her go though, she dropped the bomb. "Remus there is a catch, or two rather, and they are related." As everyone looked at her, "when you take the potion you will transform to your wolf form. There is a slight chance that you will loose control, instead of gaining it...Harry and Ron will have to be there to control you, just in case."

"As much as I deeply respect Harry and Ron's skills, Hermione" Dumbledore put in amusedly, "I would think that would be dangerous."

"Not necessarily" Harry responded quickly. And before Dumbledore could disagree, "not if we weren't human at the time."

To all of their surprises however, Dumbledore looked at Harry, then at Ron, then at Hermione, and broke out laughing. A hearty belly laugh that shocked everyone there, after a minute he calmed down and looked directly at the trio, " Am I doomed to have a generation of Marauders every twenty or so years?" Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at each other, they didn't get it. Tonks and Lupin did though, Tonks covered her mouth to conceal her giggles, and Lupin just smiled. No one explained to the teens however. "Well?" Dumbledore asked, motioning to them. Without another word, Hermione transformed to her eagle form and perched on Harry's shoulder for an instant, before transforming back. Dumbledore looked introspective for a moment, "and you two?"

"Not enough room" Harry responded succinctly, "I'm a black lion and Ron's a tiger though" Harry shrugged a bit and regarded Dumbledore suddenly at the look that had crossed his eyes at the mention of his animagus form.

"Good, I assume that no one knows? I will keep the confidence. I knew before, and now I know again."

Hermione nodded gratefully and turned to face Lupin again. "Ok, I will give Professor Snape my research then, he can brew up the potion. He should believe me if I say I figured it out while researching something else."

"No" Lupin snapped, then at her quizzical stare, "No Hermione, you brew it..."

"But Remus" She objected. "He's the potions master."

"Hermione please..." Remus moaned.

She nodded, and gave a great sigh, "I'll get started this weekend, I can use the Room of Requirement this time." With that comment, Hermione left, followed by Harry and Ron, who hurried to keep up. Tonks looked at her lover and received a motion to go on without him, which she did, blowing a kiss to him as she closed the door behind her.

After they left, Dumbledore considered Lupin meditatively; "Remus she is right, as good as she is...Severus is better at potions, for right now anyway."

"Perhaps, Albus...but I trust her" he replied, and then as he turned to leave he whispered something under his breath, that Dumbledore wasn't sure that he actually heard. "Just like I trusted Lily."

***************************Room of Requirement*************************

May 14, 2005
11:30 pm

A wisp of wind came in through the door to the room, as the portal opened and closed with seemingly no one coming in the door. With a quick flash of movement, Harry appeared from under his cloak with a serious look on his face. Hermione and Ron were already there. They had gone on rounds together, and had conveniently forgotten to return to the tower. Lupin was sitting on a couch in the corner, talking lowly to Tonks, who held his hand and ran her other hand through his hair, every now and then. Harry glanced over at the couple then walked purposefully over to Hermione and Ron, who were standing next to a table in the middle of the room. The only item on the table was a glass beaker holding an odd potion. The potion was glowing slightly, glowing the exact same pale white of moonlight. Beside that single table and the couch in the corner, there was not any other furniture today, only mats on the floor. Ron looked up at Harry's approach, "We're just waiting for Dumbledore now, Harry" Ron said quietly. As the last word slipped from his mouth, Dumbledore appeared next to Hermione, silently. She jumped a little as he reached around her to inspect the potion.

"Interesting Hermione. It is ready then?" He asked and she nodded slowly, hesitantly.

"As far as I can tell," Hermione shrugged nervously, "I wish he had let Snape make it though, I might have missed something...I don't know." She made a helpless little gesture and Ron gave her a quick one-armed hug around the shoulders.

"Shall we then?" Dumbledore asked, and without further ado, he motioned to Remus. "Harry, Ron" Dumbledore picked up the beaker with one hand, and vanished the table with the other. Harry and Ron glanced at each other and with a shared nod; they SHIFTED. The adults gave a quick gasp of appreciation at their forms. None of them had actually seen Ron's animagus form and only Lupin had seen Harry's. It was quite a different proposition, between having a nine-foot red and black tiger, or a slightly smaller, jet-black lion explained to you, and seeing them in person. Harry and Ron padded to opposite sides of Lupin, as the girls backed away, wands in hand, just in case, and Dumbledore handed Lupin the beaker. Dumbledore crossed to the girls and stood ready.

Lupin observed the silvery-white potion with a lingering look. Raising the beaker, "Cheers" he saluted Hermione, and in one quick draught he swallowed the potion. For almost two minutes nothing happened, then with a sudden spasm, Lupin crushed the beaker in his hand. He fell to his knees in the midst of the broken glass, and SHIFTED. His body started elongating, his face stretching. Brown and gray fur erupted on his body, and his clothes vanished, incorporated into the transformation.

After transformation was completed, a very large, very dangerous looking wolf stood between Ron and Harry. Unlike a normal wolf, this one was almost the same size as Harry or Ron's animal forms. The wolf looked about the room and as Lupin spotted Tonks, he padded over to her. Ron and Harry followed warily, their claws out and making little ticking sounds on the floor. Ready to pounce instantly if he made a hostile move towards either of the girls or Dumbledore. They, for their part kept their wands pointed. Lupin however just stopped next to Tonks, looked up and began wagging his tail furiously. With a happy laugh, Tonks started petting the wolf, and he rubbed up against her like a giant dog. After a minute of getting his ears scratched, Lupin backed up, and with a look of concentration on his snout, Lupin changed back into human form, his clothes reappearing as he went, just like a normal animagus transformation. He barely caught Tonks as she ran and jumped on him, kissing him furiously, laughing as she caught her breath. Lupin looked over at Harry, Ron and Hermione. The boys had transformed back and were standing with her, grins plastered over all three faces. "Thank you" he said, his eyes alight with most happiness Harry had seen on his face since Lupin had rediscovered Sirius in the shrieking shack almost three years ago. Lupin leaned over to Tonks and whispered something in her ear; she gave him a grin and kissed him on the cheek. Lupin kissed her back and walked over to the door and looked back at the teens, "Coming Marauders?" Lupin asked laughing as he stood by the door. He SHIFTED back to his wolf form, and headed out the entrance.

Hermione, Harry and Ron looked at each other and with identical smirks; they vanished, to be replaced by an eagle, lion and tiger. The entrance door automatically opened as Hermione approached, and she flew out into the hall. Ron and Harry followed at a more sedate, cat-like pace, their tails flicking back and forth.

**************************Edge of the Forbidden Forest********************

May 15, 2005
2:00 am

A great black lion stopped and glanced back at his retinue composed tonight of a giant red and black tiger and a quite outsized wolf, that looked oddly as if it could walk on its hind legs if it wanted to, and with a large, almost hand-like front paws. With a slight shake of his large mane, the lion SHIFTED into a cloaked, bespectacled young man, with raven hair. Above them, a great brown eagle swooped down on Harry, and SHIFTED, the chestnut tressed witch landing lightly beside Harry.

In front of Harry and Hermione, Ron and Lupin SHIFTED back into their human forms, and looked expectantly at Harry. "What's wrong mate?" Ron asked, concernedly, thinking Harry had felt something through his scar or something.

"Nothing Ron" Harry replied, with a humorous cast to his gaze. "I just want to ask Moony something."

"Yes Harry?" Lupin asked instantly.

"Remus, how would you like to make up for a missed opportunity, from your school days?" Harry asked, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. Hermione instantly got where Harry was going and covered her mouth to conceal the grin she wore.

Lupin raised an eyebrow, "And what opportunity would that be my boy?" He asked, slowly.

"Why pranking Dumbledore, of course." Harry responded instantly, his grin or Hermione's no longer concealed. Beside Lupin, Ron beamed as he waited with baited breath for Lupin's response.

Lupin paused, looked down at the ground beneath his feet, and then with a quick snap, he raised his head, his fangs showing a bit as he grinned, "What do I need to do?"

"Does Dumbledore still host the Friday evening staff meetings in his office after dinner?" Harry queried, and after Lupin replied with a slow nod, "Good, then you need to do two things, first, next Friday at dinner, I need you to make sure Mad-Eye is not looking up near Dumbledore's office if he's here, and second, if Dumbledore tries to actually speak to any of us during dinner, distract him, ok?"

"Sure Harry" Lupin replied with a puzzled nod, though he was grinning at the thought.

************************Great Hall*******************************

(A/N Start Mission Impossible Theme)

May 20, 2005
6:15 pm

Ron, Luna, Ginny, Harry and Hermione walked into the Great Hall and headed quickly to their normal seats. This was a normal occurrence that had been repeated innumerable times over the last few years, however today there were a few, minor details that a particularly close observer might wonder about. First, although Ron, Ginny and Luna were all talking animatedly, laughing and joking, the other two were curiously very quiet. Also despite the fact that no one had eaten since lunch, the pair seemed to hardly be touching their food. And finally, Ron and Ginny, for some reason, were clutching their wands down by their legs, and surreptitiously pointing their wands at the their best friends.

Up at the staff table, Dumbledore noticed them come in and started to ask Harry a question, only to be interrupted by Remus, "Albus, have you seen the newest article in the Quibbler about Voldemort? Luna's dad is claiming that he's actually a chicken farmer in Wales, the same one who keeps screwing with the muggles' heads by planting crop circles."

Dumbledore chuckled, and forgot the question he was going to ask Harry, as he turned to Lupin, "No I hadn't but there was that article accusing him of cross-dressing last month."

***********************Headmaster's office********************************

"Skiving Snackboxes" A patch of air whispered in a soft soprano, the gargoyle instantly stepped aside, then the with a comical double take it glanced right and left and finding no one, it stepped back into its guard position and settled back down, muttering all the while about the bloody wind in this castle.

At the top of the stairs the great oak door with the griffin knocker, opened of its own accord with a tiny squeak. A small, tiny breeze flitted to the center of the room and stopped. Since there was no one in the office right now, the portraits were all sleeping, all the silver implements were silent, and Fawkes was not at home.

"Perfect" Harry whispered to his partner for tonight's escapade. "Are you ready, Mione?"

"Yeah, if you cast the shielding and bubble charms I can transfigure the air, we'll have fifteen seconds to get out of the room from here though, I have to cast it from the middle of the room, Harry. Otherwise, we'll get kind of wet."

"Okay" Harry murmured back, he closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment, "ebullio quaedam areum" Around each and every portrait, every silver object and every piece of furniture, in short anything that could get hurt if it got wet, a softly glowing translucent bubble appeared. Hermione smiled and took a deep breath.

"Ready, she asked, softly. Harry just nodded and held up the cloak over their heads ready to run. Hermione raised her wand, and with an odd wand movement, almost as if she were drawing a fish in mid air, "mutatio aqua cella mora" A pause for breath, "well run" in a harried whisper. Together they both ran for the still open door, exiting just as all the air in the room, instantly transfigured into water. The water stopped at the open doorway as if there were an invisible wall holding it back. Hermione glanced at he handiwork and looked over at Harry next to her under the cloak with her. Her heart skipped a bit at the happy light in his eyes. With a sudden thought she turned back to the doorway. "Needs something" She mused, "Do you have any knuts?"

"Sure" Harry replied puzzled, but he dug into his pockets and gave her ten or so. He watched as she took them and flicked them into the room, the knuts caused a ripple on the surface of the wall of water, like rings on a pond. Hermione pointed her wand at the knuts, which had settled to the bottom of the room.

"Mutatio piscis," Instantly the knuts changed into ten large koi swimming about the room. "Now that isn't enough" Hermione muttered, and with a "multiplicus" the ten koi became forty. "That's better" she finished with a smile for Harry as he chuckled in her ear.

Without another spoken word, they carefully closed Dumbledore's office door, descended the stairs, once again confusing the gargoyle, and headed for the Great Hall, still concealed beneath the cloak. Entering the Great Hall, the pair crept up behind their Doppelgangers, which were sitting closely next to each other. Under the cover of the cloak, Harry and Hermione sat down, the false images cast by Ron and Ginny's wands unaffected by the cloak. In a whisper that just barely carried to Ron and Ginny on either side of them, "three...two...one...Envesco Cloak"

"Finite" from Ron and Ginny at the same exact instant. Suddenly Harry and Hermione reappeared at the same instant their duplicates disappeared, in a move so well timed that it was impossible for someone not expecting it to notice.

Ron looked at Harry with a slightly raised eyebrow, and received in turn, a slow incremental nod. With a tiny contained smirk Ron buried his joy in pumpkin juice.

***************************Headmaster's Office**************************

7:00pm

"Albus we need to go over the budget for next year on magical creatures spending" McGonagall muttered to Dumbledore as the pair led the rest of the staff up the stairs to the Headmaster's office. Behind them, Professors Flitwick, Sprout, Glyph and Vector climbed the stairs, Snape lagged behind muttering the whole time, about this meeting wasting his time.

In fact Snape was muttering so much that he almost missed the "UMPFH" a small voice squeaked out. Snape had ran over Professor Flitwick, as all the other Professors had stopped and were looking, with more than a touch of shock, and not so secretly with touch of admiration at the wall of water that had been revealed as Dumbledore opened the door to his office. All of them, even Snape watched in amazement as a pair of koi swam by at shoulder height.

Flitwick picked himself up and gazed, entranced at the aquarium that the Headmaster's office had become. "Very good charms work" he squeaked, and looked up at McGonagall in time to catch the grin before she quickly banished it from her face.

"POTTER" Snape hissed, and glared at the water.

"Where?" Dumbledore asked, with a broad smile not quite concealed by his beard.

"He did this" Snape stated viciously, waving with a free hand at the spectacle.

"How Severus?" Dumbledore asked politely. " I was in the office until right at Dinner, then we all saw him at Dinner and we came here directly from the Great Hall. I will admit that it looks as if my office, has, how shall we say it? Changed, but we have had this conversation about accusing students without proof." Dumbledore said the last in a tone that conveyed adequately for all those present it was the last time that he wanted that particular topic to come up. "Now I believe that we have a meeting scheduled, coming? I think the Assistant Headmistress would like to bring up budget concerns." Without breaking stride, Dumbledore cast a bubble head charm on himself and walked through the wall of water into his office, the wall rippling as he passed through. The rest of the Professors, with expressions ranging from gleeful in the case of Flitwick to carefully neutral in McGonagall's case, to basically pissed, in Snape's all followed suit and walked into the office, heads enbubbled.

************************Gryffindor Common Room**************************

11:00pm

In the Gryffindor common room, a pair of heads bent over a pair of parchments. Harry and Hermione were working on yet another punishment essay assigned by Snape because some Gryffindor, Ron in this case, had screwed up a potion in class. So as a reward the entire class, with the notable exception of the Slytherins, had been assigned three feet on the properties of cats paw in poison antidotes. Ron had started the essay, but after he had written the title, he gave up and went to bed muttering something about having until Monday, and accusing Harry of dying his hair brown. "This is bloody stupid, Mione" Harry groused as he threw down his quill. "Can you even come up with a foot on this stuff, I can only find it being used in one potion, and that on curing baldness in dwarfs."

"No," Hermione sighed, "Honestly.... this is asinine, I've read 1001 herbs and they don't hardly even mention it in there. And even the restricted section doesn't have anything on it in potion antidotes, I did find something that is supposed to help with hairballs..." But before she could continue, a brief flash of fire erupted above their heads, but as they were the only ones in the common room, Harry didn't bother looking around to see who had noticed Fawkes' delivery. With a great sense of trepidation Harry picked up the note that Fawkes had dropped on to of his assignment, and held it so Hermione could read it at the same time.

Good One

The pair slowly turned to face each other and as their eyes met, they erupted in laughter.

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Chapter 23: Rejection *************************Great Hall, Hogwarts***************************

May 29, 2005
7:30 am

"Ginny, I am going to ask her out." Ron muttered to his fire-haired sister, as they both sat eating breakfast. "You're her friend, how would you go about it?" Ron whispered urgently so as not to attract the attention of his brothers who were grabbing a bite to eat before returning to study for their NEWTs, that continued this next week.

"Who?" Ginny replied, distractedly, she had been looking over a DADA text in preparation for her DADA OWL tomorrow.

Ron rolled his eyes and pulled her book down, "Hermione, you daft girl." Ron sat back and looked at Ginny expectantly.

Oh, bullocks, he's going to ask her out when she's already stressed studying? She's going to freak. She was already worried about Ron being jealous, that's probably why she didn't kiss Harry when he caught her falling from the stands. I saw it in her eyes; I am a girl after all. Ginny carefully put on an expression of mild indifference. "Ron, when were you going to do this?"

"Today, at the library, she'll be there studying." Ron nodded firmly and scooped some more bacon onto his plate.

Did you consider, dear brother what she is like when she's studying, you guys may not have NEWTs or OWLs like me or the twins, but she's not always...nice, when she's studying. "Uhhh, Ron, you know she'll be there studying right? You guys have a potions exam tomorrow." Ginny replied, trying to convey meaning with her tone, which she didn't want to put into words.

"Yeah I know she'll be there all day." Ron said, enthusiasm in his voice. Next to Ginny, Luna had overheard just enough of this conversion to last a long time. With a slight huff that should have been noticeable to Ron, it was to Ginny, she grabbed her books and stalked out of the room.

Ginny restrained herself from beating her head on the table in front of her at the lead-like denseness of her brother, and tried one last time to convey something important without actually saying it. "Ron, just curious, are you going to ask, when Harry is there?"

"Don't see why not?" Ron replied shrugging. Ginny just gave him a small shrug in return, and quickly uttering an excuse she got up to follow Luna, to talk to her, and to maybe find a soft bit of wall to bang her head against along the way.

As Ginny was walking out of the hall, Harry was walking in. Harry was briefly concerned at the odd look that she gave him as he walked into the Hall. Curious, he watched her walk out of the room, but as she said nothing, Harry just gave his head a little shake and went on to the table. Picking an empty spot near Ron he plopped down and waved at the twins, who just nodded and went back to discussing their NEWTs tomorrow. Harry quietly chuckled a bit at the duo's sudden interest in studying, but as this was their second chance at a seventh year, it was understandable, and anyway it might help business. "Ron." Harry muttered as he started to grab food, then noticing that his other best friend wasn't there, "Have you seen Mione today?"

"No mate" Ron grinned a bit at that statement, which Harry didn't bother to puzzle out.

Bloody hell, she's in super Hermione mode. Harry thought, resignedly. I better take her something, cause Merlin knows she'll forget to eat. Harry hurriedly crammed down a quick meal, then quickly prepared a couple of bacon and egg sandwiches for the missing witch and headed off to the Library. Ron just glanced up at him as he left, and started talking to Neville about next year's Quiddich team, and if Neville was planning on staying on next year to replace the twins.

***********************Hogwart's Library****************************

Harry hurried up to the Library wing, only to run into Lupin on the way. "Hey Remus" Harry said as he came up to the Marauder. Lupin was sitting on a bench by the front doors, reading a text on Counter-curses. Harry rolled his eyes, at the pointed reminder of Dumbledore's saying that learning never stopped, even when you were out of school.

Lupin turned to Harry and grinned, "Harry." He announced, marking his place in the book. "What's up?" He looked a little longingly at the sandwiches, but Harry didn't feel guilty, he could get his own.

Harry gave him a crooked grin, "No, Moony, these are for Hermione," Which as soon as those words reached his ears he winced a bit. And at a look from Lupin, sighed and sat down.

"So, Harry how is that going?" Remus said, his tone more than adequately expressing his interest in the topic. He raised his eyebrows at Harry, and hung on his response.

Unfortunately there wasn't much of one. "About the same as Christmas, Remus." Harry grunted and refused to meet his eyes. He absently fingered the sandwiches for Hermione, as he stood restlessly next to the werewolf.

Remus, uttered a huge, almost howling sigh, "Harry, tell the girl, in the end that is what matters, tell her or I swear I will." Harry just shook his head, as if trying to negate the words. He left quietly, not uttering another word to Lupin, he didn't dare.

Approaching the Library, Harry slipped the sandwiches into his bag to hide them from Madame Pince. Harry casually walked past the witch behind the checkout counter, and like an arrow, he headed directly for the secluded table where he knew Hermione was, he could almost sense her. As Harry wound his way all the way into the back, this sure would be a good place to make out, so many nooks and crannies...if only. Harry found his way around the last stack, and finally caught sight of his quarry, only to have his heart skip a beat at the sight. As Harry had surmised earlier, she was in super study mode, she was nervously biting her lower lip and playing with her hair, idly twisting it around a finger as she looked over potions notes. Damn it, Remus is right, damn it, it's not worth it...but if Riddle finds out he'll go after her...and anyway she probably wouldn't want me in that way, she...Harry walked softly up and sat down next to her, careful from long experience not to disturb her when she was like this, he patiently waited until she noticed him.

Of course she had noticed him the instant he came in, the almost sensing thing went both ways. Oh, Harry, we do know each other pretty well by now, Hermione thought, eating the smirk that threatened to erupt, "Harry," Hermione murmured, quiet enough that he probably more knew that she was talking to him, than actually heard it.

"Hermione," Harry's eyes flicked towards the entry to Hermione's little hidden corner, and seeing no one. "Here," Harry muttered as he pulled the pair of sandwiches from his bag. "Eat, Hermione, I'm the one who needs to study Potions, not you. You are the one who created the potion for Remus. "

That's sweet, Hermione thought quietly as she wordlessly took the sandwiches. "Harry I can take care of myself you know." She tried to grouse, but it failed miserably.

"You wouldn't have." Harry retorted in a whisper, "Now eat, Mione." He sat there and stared at her until she bit into one of the purloined sandwiches.

"I'll eat if you study." Hermione uttered, stubbornly. Harry didn't respond, he just pulled his potions notes from his bag and nestled in to read. Though she noted with amusement and a touch of satisfaction that he glanced over, now and then, as if to check that she really took the time to eat. As she finished with the second one, "Satisfied, Harry?" Harry looked over at her and nodded, Hermione just chuckled in return and they both settled in to read.

After a couple of hours had passed, almost silently, broken only by the sight out the window of Ron and Neville flying by on their brooms, Harry gave a great sigh, dropped his notes to the table, and rubbed his scar idly. Hermione's eyes flicked to his, worriedly.

"Riddle?" She worried aloud, and started to move closer to him.

"No," Harry grimaced, "the other dark one, Snape." He weakly joked, but he was gratified to see her lips twitch upward for just a moment. "Hermione, can we move onto Transfiguration? Please. I promise I'll review Potions again before tomorrow."

"Certainly," Hermione nodded, truth be told, she was getting a bit tired of Potions anyway. Quietly, Hermione pulled her Transfiguration notes from her bag and started quizzing Harry on spells that she thought should be on the exam. Which as usual, her idea of a proper exam was much worse than even McGonagall would dare inflict. After Harry had successfully demonstrated that he knew almost fifty spells in a row, including the spell to change the color of one's clothes, he noted, hiding a laugh, even though he could read it in her eyes, she nodded and sat back.

"Ok that's that then" Hermione related, satisfied at last. She reached into her bag and pulled out her Muggle Studies book, to which Harry shook his head, vehemently.

"No, Hermione, I am not going to study Muggle Studies, and neither are you." Harry verbally put his foot down. "Neither of us needs to study for that class, anyway."

"It is a waste, isn't it, and I guess we probably won't need it on our resumes for Auror applications, I think at least your qualifications are self-evident by now." Hermione pondered for a moment, then gave Harry a slight glare, "Fine then, we ace the test without studying, then we pick up History of Magic next year and drop Muggle Studies."

"We, paleface?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow, imitating a muggle western he had watched on the Dursley's television one night when they were gone.

"Of course," Hermione gave a blinding grin, and then settled back with a sigh, almost visibly moaning as pulled out her Runes and Arithmency texts and notes. "God, I don't want to study these..." She growled to herself as she opened the Arthimency book.

"Hermione Granger, not wanting to study?" Harry teased, then as he received a pained look, "What's wrong?" Harry replied concernedly.

"I shouldn't have to take the exam, that's what." Hermione moaned, "I have enough points to get a zero and still have an O in the class." With a slight huff, she pulled out a thick binder of parchments and started reading her notes for the class.

"Then why are you studying, Hermione?" Harry replied, puzzled, even for Hermione that would be excessive.

"Because Vector, claimed that I'm coasting in the class, and said that I have to get an O on the exam to keep my O." With a slight effort, Hermione forced herself to look at the Arthimency notes, occasionally flicking her wand in the air, as if to work on an equation.

After watching her bemusedly for several minutes, Harry glanced down at his watch, and noted that was after eleven. Damn, no wonder I'm hungry. Harry thought, rolling his eyes. Hermione just kept murmuring and flicking her wand. "Hermione, I'll be back, I'm going to go get my DADA notes, and I need to talk to Dumbledore about DA, and I'll be back, ok? You'll be here?" Hermione just kept going, though he knew she heard him. Harry got up and left his books and bag, covertly patting his hip to confirm that his wand was still present, Constant vigilance, Mad-Eye.

************************Headmaster's Office*****************************

Harry left the library quietly, careful not to disturb the fifth and seventh years in the midst of their OWLs and NEWTs and anyone else who just had a regular exam next week, which was pretty well everyone. I should have saved the world again, damnit Harry thought sarcastically, and then we could have gotten Dumbledore to cancel exams again.

Harry ambled down the hall past several students using the benches in the entryway to study and up to the guardian of Dumbledore's office. With a muttered, "Skiving Snackboxes" Harry rode the spiraling stairs to the waiting area outside of Dumbledore's office, and after knocking, entered.

The office was bright and airy today, Dumbledore had opened the windows to let in the breeze of the late spring day, and the sun was shining. So much so that Harry briefly wished he was irresponsible again, and would go skive off studying to fly or hang out on the grounds like he had seen Ron doing this morning instead of studying, or as he was now, talking to Dumbledore. "You wanted to see me Professor?" Harry asked to the air in a normal tone, Dumbledore wasn't present in the room that he could see, but he had heard him tell him to enter.

On the wall, Phineas looked down on Harry, "So boy are you going to be residing in the house of Black this summer, or should we call it the house of Potter?" The sarcastic tone sorely temped Harry to blast his portrait off the wall, but he restrained himself. Fawkes chirped irritably at the announcement, he was already in a bad mood, as from appearances he was probably a day or so away from a burning day. Or not, as Harry watched, ever amazed, the Phoenix erupted into flames that almost instantly died, leaving only a large pile of ashes. Harry walked over to Fawkes' roost, and gently brushed away the ashes until the baby chick could be seen. Harry petted him gently as Dumbledore came out of his private quarters with a nod.

"Very good, I was wondering when he would finally give in, I think I should just invite you over next time, he seems to have a predilection for burning in front of you" Dumbledore said with a wry smile, crossing to his desk. Sitting down, he motioned Harry to a guest chair, and held out a bag of candy, "Lemon Drop?"

Popping one in his mouth, Harry felt the usual, mild sense of euphoria and peace come over him, "What do you put in these things anyway?" Harry asked, curious.

Dumbledore chuckled as he ate one himself, and vanished the bag into his robes, "I can not tell you, Severus has been after my secret for years." Then with a breath, Dumbledore's continuance turned a tad more serious, not joking, but not worried either, just serious, "Harry, I would like for you to hold DA sessions every night, week after next, I want the skills fresh in everyone's mind before they leave for holiday."

"I was going to suggest the same sir. I will get with Hermione after finals to plan out that week." Harry replied nodding, he had already thought of that, even though he, and Hermione and several of his other friends were training every day anyway, it wasn't a bad idea. And that week there would be no homework due to distract anyone, all the Professors would just be giving back exams or assigning summer work.

"How is Miss Granger?" Dumbledore inquired, "I would have thought that she would have accompanied you."

Harry frowned, "She is studying Arthimency right now, Professor Vector is making her sit the exam even though she already has an O locked up in the class." Harry's tone was a touch resentful, but as he had included the honorific, Dumbledore didn't say anything.

"Aw, yes, I remember, please tell her I am sorry about that, but I try not to interfere in other Professor's classes...speaking of which, are you studying Defense Against the Dark Arts?" Dumbledore replied, with a self-satisfied grin.

You mean the other class that Mione has an O in and shouldn't have to take the exam in...or me either...the annoyed thought crossed his mind, but only for a moment, as he saw the direct impact that that class, anyway, had on all of their well-beings. "I actually left the library to go get the rest of my notes, and to get some food, along with talking to you of course."

"Of course, well then I suspect that you should be on your way...I will not tell you what is on the final, but be aware that it may take longer than the two hours scheduled to complete." Dumbledore grinned broadly at his own statement, and Harry just shook his head and left.

**************************Library*************************************

11:45 am

In the library, Hermione was growing more annoyed by the minute. Ever since Harry left, she had not had the slight distraction that he always was, however unconsciously, or however one sided the distraction. She bent her attention fully to Arthimency, determined to show up Professor Vector for having made her take the final. The source of her irritation wasn't that she had to learn the material; if it was that she would have probably been joyous, or at least ambivalent. The issue came about, as this exam would be basically a review of material that she had already learned in fifth year, instead of in sixth year as everyone else had, she hated repetition. In frustration, she slammed down her quill and sat back. And to top it off, the breakfast that Harry had forced her to eat had worn off; I hope Harry makes it back soon. For once I'll be glad of his ' save Mione' instinct if he brings me food. Hermione thought with just a trace of guilt coloring her thoughts.

It was in that moment, that tired, annoyed, low-blood sugar moment that Ron picked to amble into her sanctuary and plop down across from her. To her increased annoyance, he didn't seem to have brought his books with him, except for a single charms text that somewhere inside, she suspected was a prop. Hermione flicked her gaze back to the Arithmency notes, and only acknowledged his presence with a nod. In fact she was so focused that she missed the murmured question the first time. Just as she flipped to notes on a simple transform equation, equations that she could do in her head, and had proven to Harry one night in January, when she had been working on her NEWT thesis, she heard a second question, from Ron. "Herms, I uhhh, I was wondering if we could go out sometime."

"Don't call me Herms Ron, and besides, I'm sure we will." Hermione replied, trying to keep her patience with him, not wanting to tell her friend to go sod off, if he was Harry, he'd know to shut up or to leave. Hermione thought idly as she flipped another page over, for the love of Merlin, Vector, I've known some of this material since I was thirteen. With a growl Hermione slapped her notes to her table and glared out the window, for a moment temped to transform and fly away, and skive off studying.

"Harry calls you Mione." Ron replied to her comment.

That's different Ron, its...Hermione angrily cut off that thought, not angry at Harry, or Ron in particular but herself more than anything.

At that very instant, when she was angry with herself and Vector, hungry, and tired, Ron dropped the hammer, "No Hermione I meant that we should go out together without Harry sometime, like on a date..."

Hermione's head shot up and she looked at him amazed for almost a minute, and for once her lips out ran her brain, "BLOODY HELL RON, IF YOU HAD ASKED THAT TWO YEARS AGO YOU MIGHT HAVE HAD A CHANCE, INSTEAD OF GOING ALL STUPID OVER VIKTOR." Hermione snapped, and as soon as she said the words she wished to take them back, instantly a thousand ways of letting him down easy flashed though her mind but it was too late. Ron just looked at her, gave her a brief, terse nod, and started to walk away. "Wait Ron, I'm sorry, I..." Hermione called after him.

"That's fine don't worry about it." Ron said softly and walked out of the library.

As he left the library, he about ran over Harry, who was returning with his DADA notes and hidden, purloined food. "Hey..." Harry muttered as he jumped out of the way.

"Oh sorry mate," Ron muttered, "I'll see you later." Ron slid off without another word, leaving Harry confused; he had one friend in the Library who was probably wondering where he was and the other one, mad at something.

He and Hermione probably had a row about something or other. Harry thought to himself with insight gained over the years, though he had no clue about the topic. Walking through the door, he snuck past Madame Pince and headed for the rear of the huge Library. Walking into Hermione's little corner, he noticed tears in her eyes. Instantly concerned, "What's wrong Hermione, did you have a row with Ron?"

Hermione glanced up, saw him and nodded, "How did you know?"

Harry shrugged a bit, "experience, and the fact that he about ran me over on the way out of the Library." He replied, as a sudden desperate urge came over him to wipe away her tears, which he restrained only for a second. Crouching down next to her, Harry wiped a couple of tears from her cheeks, and mentally beat down the ideas that his hindbrain was screaming. "Ok now, would you like me to go talk to Ron?"

Hermione shook her head, "No that's ok, Harry, it was not a big deal." She lied, avoiding his eyes, as she rubbed them to simulate tiredness. Then in a small voice, "you didn't happen to bring any food did you?"

Harry chuckled, and pulled a pair of wrapped sandwiches from the pocket of his robe. "Here Hermione," Harry smirked as she took them from him, and tore into one, hungrily.

Why couldn't you have just asked me, Harry, even as pissed as I was I'd probably jumped you right then instead of tearing into Ron, Hermione thought tiredly then as the food reached her stomach, her tired thoughts vanished. "Thanks Harry."

"Anytime."



A/N: Sorry Ron, but I make up for it in the end. I guess that question is settled. :) In the next chapter, all is revealed, and I don't just mean relationships. Oh and the summary for the story, about stuff being blown up and people dieing, I managed to squeeze that in too.

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Chapter 24: Of Fire and Finding
***********************Hogwarts/Hogsmeade******************************

June 4, 2005

Harry looked down at his trunk setting at the foot of his bed, pulling a small bag of coins from it; he started to close it only to stop with a jerk. Fully reopening the trunk, he ran an appreciative hand over the smooth sheath of the Gryffindor sword. I know Moody, always be prepared. Mad-Eye will probably kill me, but I just don't feel normal carrying a three foot sword on my back as I walk down the street. Harry thought with a mix of wistfulness and guilt.

"Coming Harry?" Hermione's clear soprano came from down the stairs.

"Yeah, Mione, just getting some galleons" Harry replied closing the lid and heading rapidly down the stairs to meet his friends.

Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny and Luna were all waiting for him along with the rest of their age mates, Ginny pointedly tapping her foot impatiently. "About bloody time, mate," Ron growled from beside Hermione, though with a wry smile on his lips.

The day had dawned beautiful and sunny on this Saturday afternoon. For the most part everyone was on fine spirits. Finals had ended the day before, and students would receive their grades in the next week, before they went home on the 13th. As a special treat, a late-year Hogsmeade weekend had been announced and every Hogwarts student as going, even the all of the prefects, as Dumbledore had had teachers stand in for the two that would have been on duty, which by pure coincidence happened to have been Ron and Hermione. Even the 1st and 2nd years were permitted to go under the close supervision of several volunteer prefects. Dumbledore had called it a field trip to get around the parental note. The carriages were so packed that multiple shifts were required to get everyone to the town. A fact that inspired Harry to reveal the secret passage to Hogsmeade that led to Honkeydukes basement to the rest of his friends that hadn't already known of it, basically, Ginny, Luna, and his and Hermione's roommates. An act the prompted the asking of just what else Harry knew that they didn't. He just smiled and headed off down the passage whistling.

Everyone was in a joyous mood actually with the exception of Harry, Hermione and Ron. Harry was still trying to deny to himself, what he had started to realize at the start of the year, he was in love with his best friend, that the fact that his heart had stopped when she came in to the Burrow, battered from an attack at Christmas on her and her parents had crystallized his feelings. Lately that fact, had kept him up just as much as the nightmares. However, it was paradoxically his loyalty to her that kept him from revealing his feelings. He was still convinced that anyone who dared love him would die, heck just being his friend was dangerous enough, witness the attempts on Ron and her lives this last semester. Every time he had almost convinced himself that he was wrong, that he should confess his feelings, he would wake up seeing her lifeless body on the ground from the events of a year ago. Even Lupin had not been able to convince him to tell her, though the puppies comment would reverberate in his mind at the oddest times.

Hermione for her part, also had admitted the feelings she had for him to herself and even directly to Ginny, but she hadn't to Harry as she was afraid that he wouldn't return them. She also woke with nightmares, but hers either featured giant glowing yellow eyes, or a purple slash of a spell, or occasionally a certain black-haired figure lying facedown in a pool of his own blood. When the last came, she did not sleep again that night, and sat up shivering in her bed. The humorous part in all of this was that if either her or Harry would just admit their feelings it would be all over but the fireworks. A fact that had at least three betting pools going, of which, the teacher's pool was getting particularly large. After all to everyone but those two it was so obvious it was laughable.

To everyone except Ron that was; Ron still had not picked up on the signals that his two friends were broadcasting, but in his case it was probably a case of him being intentionally blind. He had just attempted to ask Hermione out not that long ago, only to be turned down disastrously. Fortunately, for his continued existence at Hogwarts, no one else had been in the Library in earshot that weekend afternoon so the incident hadn't spread, and Hermione for her part acted like it hadn't happened.

Harry and the rest took their usual table in the back of The Three Broomsticks, and sat chatting to each other about what to do on this unexpected weekend. The Weasley twins were already thinking of expanding to Hogsmeade as a second franchise when they graduated in a week, so as to move their wares closer to their primary target customers, the students; they were planning on looking for locations. Ron and Ginny said they would go with them. The rest, basically were going to just hang out with their friends, and just possibly, get hammered enough to have to be carried back to the castle.

"Harry," Hermione said softly, snapping Harry out of a quiet reverie. He had been staring off into space for a minute or two; of course he didn't say that she had been the focus of his thoughts despite his best attempts to dampen them.

"Yeah, Mione" Harry responded almost distractedly. Ginny glanced over from where she was sitting with Neville; they weren't quite a couple but kept dancing on the edge. She noticed immediately, the nickname, that somehow only Harry seemed to use, and the fact that Harry immediately snapped to when she said something, even if he was distracted.

"I want to go get some souvenirs for my parents. Want to come along?" She asked with a hopeful tone.

"Sure, Her..." Harry broke off as suddenly his scar burned...a lot. Voldemort or his forces were here NOW! Harry jumped up and grabbed his wand, startling the Gryffindors for a second, but they all drew without him even asking. Harry glanced out the door than back at the now anxious group. "We need to go...right now" Harry led the group quickly out the door, Neville as the last one up hurriedly threw a handful of change on the table as he went. Eyes followed the young wizards out, but no one else moved yet, though several members of the DA from other houses were starting to get up.

"I don't see anything Harry," Ron said in a cautious tone as they reached the street. He might be annoyed at Harry for some reason he didn't realize right now, but he still trusted him. As if Ron's question was a signal, a great black shadow passed over the group. Looking up a great black dragon was passing overhead, a rider on its back. Harry would later swear he could see the rider give him an evil grin even through the Death Eater mask he wore. With a huge breath, the dragon spit out two enormous fireballs, both at least five feet across.

"GET DOWN" Harry screamed. The students and several other wizards in the street dropped unthinkingly to the ground as the twin fireballs hit Honeydukes and Zonkos almost simultaneously. Both stores detonated, throwing wood, glass, and most horribly of all, small bodies, yards away.

"OH MY GOD!" Ginny screamed as she and the rest of the onlookers instantly realized that the majority of the customers at this hour would be the 1st and 2nd years that Dumbledore had let out as a special treat. Harry turned to Hermione who had fallen at his side to see her really pale face, but she just shook her head at him, she was functional. Harry clambered to his feet, pulling her along with him.

Behind Harry the rest of the students and patrons of the Three Broomsticks had pilled out of the bar. Harry glanced and saw that he had most of the DA present, and if there ever was an issue for the DA to act on, it was probably this.

But before Harry could get them organized, Fred yelled, "GET DOWN" and everyone dove back to the ground as another fireball hit the street several yards away, knocking several of them through the air and battering Dean to unconsciousness with the concussion. With a sudden realization, Harry felt weirdly calm, after all this was probably what he had trained for all these years, if Voldemort and his fiends wanted to start something here, on what was practically Harry's home pitch then so be it. Harry started snapping orders, "Ginny, Neville get Dean under cover and get back here, Everyone else, LETS SLAY A DRAGON, on its next pass, I want you four over there," waving to Padma, Cho, and a couple of more Ravenclaws Harry didn't know, "To fire conjunctivitis curses at it's eyes, everyone else, fire either severing charms if you have a shot at it's neck or limbs or otherwise fire reducto blasts at its wings. OK HERE IT COMES...FIRE"

A veritable storm of spells erupted from the scattered members of the DA, Harry did notice that Padma and Cho's blinding spells did hit perfectly. The remainder of the spells smashed the Dragon's wings, crushed its ribs and tore one of its legs off. As Charlie had told Harry almost three years ago, dragons were resistant to magic, but when thirty or more full power spells hit the same dragon at the same time, it might as well have been a bunny rabbit.

It fell from the sky, cartwheeling tail over snout as it hit the ground, crushing several houses as its corpse came to a rest. The Death Eater rider went flying though the air only to land with a sickening crunch against a stone wall. The group erupted in cheers, except for Harry, and taking his clue, the rest of the Gryffindors, they just started scanning around for the next threat. That had been too easy, notwithstanding the lives that had been undoubtedly had just been lost in the stores, and besides Harry's scar was burning even more now. As a rhythmic booming was heard, the rest of the students fell silent, the booming sounded as if an army was on the march, an army of something a little bigger than them.

Almost as if she knew she was needed, Hedwig appeared though the flames and settled on Harry's shoulder. Good Girl Harry thought quickly. "Anyone got a scrap of parchment, and a quill?"

*********************Headmaster's Office, Hogwarts*********************

Albus Dumbledore was sitting in his office talking quietly to Remus and Tonks. They had come up at his request, he was considering having them help with DADA next year and he was feeling them out to see if they would agree. He wasn't yet sure about the rest of his plan for covering the class for next year, for that, he would have to wait and see.

"Sure, Albus," Lupin replied, waving his hands expansively, "I would love to teach a portion of the class next year, I have always enjoyed teaching, and besides," He added with a slight, false grimace at the witch next to him, "I would enjoy my own quarters here, I mean Nymphadora's snoring is driving me batty."

Tonks turned back to him, an eyebrow raised. Today, she had her hair its natural black, however it was long, curly and hanging down her back. Even though she was a metamorphamangus, she normally only changed her hair, even though she could totally change her appearance and voice. "Careful dear, or I'll show you batty, Ginny taught me her bat-bogey hex." Tonks delivered the threat in a dry, flat tone.

"Now, now, Nymphadora, we wouldn't want that, I assume that you also will take the position if Arthur agrees to base you out of here?" Dumbledore asked her with a grin, to which he received a nod, even though she was still looking annoyedly at Lupin. As Remus was reflecting on his sins, or at least his chances of sleeping on the couch, a tapping was heard at the window. Dumbledore got up with a smile, crossed to it and there found a dark brown owl wearing a Ministry tabard. Still smiling, he took a note from the owl and read it quickly:

Albus,

For some reason, floo communication is not working to Hogwarts or Hogsmeade; I sent an owl, even though it is slower. Over the last night, several attacks by Death Eaters have been reported in Great Britain, France, Canada and the States. So far the attacks have been of a scale that allowed them to allow no survivors. This seems to be a return to the terror attacks that first Miss Granger and later the Order dissuaded him from earlier this year; I suspect that he will go for bigger targets in the morning. I would suggest pulling all of your students in under cover just in case, I don't think he would attack Hogwarts, especially if you had time to get ready for him. If you are attacked, you are on your own for now, as all available forces are responding to attacks around the globe, the nearest free forces are in America and they are covering a couple of targets that He would like to hit. All Aurors and other ministry forces are either at the Great Britain attack sites or are covering Gringott's, as an informer has given us word that He might try to hit there.

Kingsley

Dumbledore looked up to relay the information, but before he even opened his mouth, a second owl swooped directly in the open window. Hedwig settled on the desk directly in front of him, almost frantic if an owl can be such, as she extended her leg. Dumbledore's heart leapt to his throat as he hurriedly took the note:

Professor,

We are currently under attack at Hogsmeade, at this time we have taken down a dragon, however the dragon caused several casualties before we could stop it. A DE guided the dragon, we are hearing loud marching coming right now, send backup and medical help. I will try to use the DA to hold of the DEs until we can get the underclassmen clear, however both secret passages to Hogwarts are unusable, the Shrieking shack is out of reach, and Honeydukes is, destroyed. Failing that I will attempt to hit and run to get as many clear as I can.

Harry

"Remus, Tonks, get everyone and get them here now!" Dumbledore shouted, "Hogsmeade is under attack, and there's no help available but us. Harry says he'll hold them off as long as he can, As soon as you can get everyone, make a portkey and follow me. FAWKES" Fawkes flew to his shoulder and they both disappeared. Remus and Tonks shared a shocked glance then they sprinted out of the office screaming as they went.

*************************Hogsmeade*******************************

The thunderous marching had been trolls, a lot of trolls, followed closely by at least 40 Death Eaters. Harry had immediately seen that they couldn't hold this position and had started pulling as many students back toward the carriages and towards Hogwarts as he could. He knew that by the road to Hogwarts it was almost 3 miles, but straight, it was only a mile, if only Honeydukes hadn't been hit...WORMTAIL, he knew about the passage. Oh well, I'd rather go down as a lion, than a lamb. Harry thought sadly as he looked over at Hermione, Sorry Hermione, Ron... Mione if only I'd had the balls to tell you.

As he completed that thought time for thinking was past, with a sudden series of cracks, the Death Eaters that had been following the trolls apparated into the middle of the students and started firing. Almost immediately there were casualties, Ernie McMillan and Zacharias Smith fell dead, victims of Avada Kedavra curses. Harry fired a stunner at one of their killers but he disapparated away as quickly as he had appeared. As Harry turned looking for another target, he was tackled from the side knocking him down, a yellow bolt passing over him and his savior.

"Watch it, dammit, Harry" Hermione growled, firing a stunner at a Death Eater that had just apparated in front of them. Harry rolled back to his feet in a smooth motion, for once not sparing her a glance, but looking out for the people that were trying to kill them.

As the Death Eater fell, Harry returned the favor, kicking another in the knee, dropping him to the ground and stunning him in the face. The DE had run up behind Hermione and had been aiming at her back. "Damn it Hermione, get clear, I'll draw them off." Harry snapped, with a mix of concern and exasperation. Harry looked up and started sprinting towards the Hogsmeade stables, about one hundred yards away. From there it looked as if he could cover some of the DA members that were caught out in the open fighting for their lives.

"No Harry," But she was too late, Harry was already engaged in a running wandfight with what looked to be at least half of the Death Eaters present. Dodging around to make herself a harder target, she looked for the rest of her friends.

"HERMIONE" she heard a shout and turned to see a hand waving at her from behind some cover. Breathlessly, she ran and jumped over a low wall taking shelter behind it, joining Ron, Ginny and Neville where they were crouched exchanging fire with the Death Eaters. Hermione could see where several Eaters had already tried apparating behind them, they were laying unconscious or dead behind them, and right now she didn't have the time to care.

She glanced around the wall and saw that Harry had taken shelter in the stone doorway of an old barn about one hundred yards away, she also saw that several of his pursuers were laying on the ground between here and there, as if in a trail to mark his progress. "HARRY" she shouted across to him, but he didn't hear her, as she got up to run across, Ron pulled her back down.

"Damn it Hermione, He'll be ok, he always is." Ron snarled only pausing long enough to snap out counter spells. Hermione glared at him, but started firing back herself, taking her sudden frustration with one of her best friends out on those who really deserved it.

MEANWHILE.......................

On the other side of town Dumbledore and Fawkes appeared. Dumbledore looked around and immediately felt like crying. He could see perfectly well the fires burning in at least half the town by now, and the two houses that were crushed when Harry and his troops took down the first dragon to open the battle. Overhead, two more dragons were circling, and the army of trolls was smashing houses and businesses as it came ever closer. He looked over his shoulder and saw clearly the multicolored bolts of his students fighting for their lives behind him, but he could not go to them yet, Remus better get here soon, because this may drain me too much.

With that thought, Dumbledore turned back to the Trolls, which were now less than fifty yards from him. Let's see a hundred trolls to the front of me, Death Eaters behind, Kipling eat your heart out. "Fawkes go!" Fawkes took off from his shoulder and streaked like a flaming red arrow at the trolls. Where he passed, trolls fell to the ground blinded or unconscious from a blast of song in their ears at full power, they were dark creatures after all. But there were far too many for the Phoenix to stop them all, this would require his direct involvement. Dumbledore strode to within twenty yards of the horde and stopped. Looking at the obvious leader he had more skulls hung around his neck than any of the others. A sudden wind started up as Dumbledore regarded the threat, "GO HOME, YOU SHALL NOT PASS," he thundered, fury from the threat to his students underlining his voice.

But the trolls were either too stupid or too overconfident to stop at this warning, the leader merely grunted something that loosely translated as "Die old man," and started walking arrogantly towards the great wizard. Dumbledore just shook his head at the temerity and glanced down as if to see his shoes were tied, as he looked back up his eyes started to emit a pure white light, and he transferred his wand into his left hand. With his right now free, he slowly drew a long gleaming sword from beneath his robes. Bringing it up, the emblem of Hogwarts could be seen, with the motto, "Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus" inscribed down the length of the blade. He closed his eyes for a moment and when he reopened them the length of the blade started glowing with a bright blue flame.

"THEN SO BE IT" Dumbledore responded, and with his words what ever glass in the surrounding windows that hadn't already been broken, shattered, fragments flying outward. He took a deep breath and moved...The leader of the trolls didn't stand a chance, his head and several bodies of his lieutenants were falling before the after image of Dumbledore cleared their eyes. Dumbledore moved in a blur, everywhere he passed Trolls, or parts of them fell to the ground. At the same time he was using the Headmaster's sword, his wand was firing spells at trolls too far away to reach easily. Finally only twenty of the original one hundred were left. Dumbledore paused, took a deep breath and then a single step, to which the remaining tolls took flight, running as fast as they possibly could for the horizon. Dumbledore let them go, he was not as young as he once was and his students were still in trouble.

As he turned to go to them, one of the two remaining dragons, grounded heavily in front of him and with an exhalation, a huge wall of flame headed toward the Headmaster. In an instant he reversed the sword, jammed it into the ground and crouched behind it. The dragon's breath hit the sword, and like water around a bridge piling, the flame went around the sword and Dumbledore. Dumbledore with a grim smile, stood, and flung the sword though the air at the dragon. The whirling sword acted as if it had a mind of it's own, and like a magical buzz saw, neatly lopped off the dragon's head in a spray of blood, and returned to his outstretched hand. Dumbledore casually stunned the Death Eater riding the dragon as he fell from his now headless mount and disapparated to his students on the other side of town.

*********************By The Three Broomsticks*****************

By this time, the efforts of the DA members, primarily the Gryffindors, to delay and stop the Death Eaters, have allowed the vast majority of the students, especially the surviving 1st -3rd years to gain the carriages, which were even now speeding towards the safety of the school. Padma, and Cho were now unconscious among others, lying on the ground behind the stone wall where Ron and Neville had braved a hail of fire to pull them back under cover. Ginny was leaning heavily on Neville, her arm was shattered, bones protruding from the skin, but she was still fighting.

Neville for his part was bleeding from a cut to his head from the same reducto that broke Ginny's arm, but he just shook the blood out of his eyes and kept going. Harry had used his forward position to cover several DA members that had been caught out in the open to get back to cover. He had sent them back to cover the carriage evacuation, so now there were only about ten or so DA members still fighting, though those ten had accounted for at least thirty Death Eaters lying on the ground, dead or not, it didn't matter.

Hermione suddenly looked across to where Harry had gone to shepherd back the other DA members. He was gone, apparently having to have had to retreat inside the building. "HARRY," she screamed but received no answer in return. As she watched the doorway where he had vanished from her sight, her heart in her throat, two things happened that made up her mind to go to him. A fireball from the remaining dragon smashed into the building collapsing part of it and setting it on fire and at least ten of the remaining Death Eaters entered the building in pursuit of Harry. Hermione jumped up and started to run only to be grabbed by Ron again.

"No Hermione" Ron pulled at her arm, trying to keep her behind the wall with the rest of them.

She shook him off, "I have to Ron." Her expression as she looked at him communicated the depth of her astonishment at him trying to stop her from going to the aid of their mutual best friend.

"Why" Ron asked confusedly, though he should know.

"Because I love him" And with that statement of simple fact, Hermione sprinted to the now burning building that Harry had disappeared into, to be either Harry's guardian angel or his avenging one.

********************Hogsmeade Stables*******************************

Harry had taken shelter in the doorway of the stables; the cover of the stone doorway had allowed him to cover the retreat of the DA members caught out in the open. He had sent them back to the carriages as he ran past even though he knew that he might be dooming his friends, as they would now take the brunt of the action. His heart broke, especially at leaving Hermione there in the fire, but he knew she and Ron wouldn't dream of leaving him or the others even if he ordered it.

Taking a blizzard of incoming fire, Harry was forced to retreat back into the stables, only to find his only exit was the one he had come in. He gathered himself to try to run back out the door to run for it, when a huge blast hit the roof, knocking him from his feet and into unconsciousness for several moments. When he came to, three things were immediately apparent, the building was on fire, he had no wand, it had fallen from his hand, and he was surrounded by ten Death Eaters, soon to be twelve. He could see his wand on the ground almost at the door. I wish my sword were here instead of in my room, and they'll just cut me down if I transform. Unfortunately though he had learned conjuring much ahead of schedule, it was still beyond his powers to summon objects from behind the wards of Hogwarts, though he could do it once he was within the school itself, a fact that did little to help him right now.

A tall, thin pale-haired man swaggered over to stand over Harry. Looking down on him, "Aw, Potter, so this is how the great hero ends, on his arse in horseshit, in a burning building." Lucius Malfoy drawled. "I will enjoy the company of your mudblood friend when we take the school, or is she out side right now with the rest of your useless friends?" Harry gritted his teeth but remained silent, determined not to let a Malfoy get the better of him.

"But I want her Lucius." Bellatrix pouted from beside him. Malfoy grinned at the image, but did not respond to her.

"Now, Potter, normally I would stay and help, but I have other places to be this night, I believe that our Master is expecting us to invest Gringott's this night, and as much as I would like to, I'm afraid that my comrades here will just have to do, to kill you. I'm sure the Dark Lord will understand. Kill him, and when he is dead show the mark for all the world to see," with that last, Lucius and Bellatrix disapparated away.

With the wands of all ten Death Eaters on him, Harry slowly rose, he would be dammed if he let these scum kill him on his knees. As he was waiting for the sudden green light, the situation changed rapidly. "STUPEFY" two bolts of red light flashed out from the doorway. Hermione came though the door, her hair blowing gently in the wind from the fires blazing in the walls, the light from them glinting in her eyes. "HARRY" she shouted and tossed his wand to him, stunning another Death Eater on the way.

As her eyes crossed his, what he could see in them suddenly both shocked him and reinvigorated him. In an instant he knew why she came through the flames, and that he was through denying it to himself or to her. Suddenly he had all the time in the world to grab his now slowly falling wand. Later, Hermione would tell him that his eyes lit up bright blue at that moment, and he started to move in a blur. Harry caught the wand in his right hand, and as quick as he could think it; three of the Death Eaters were lying stunned. Almost as one Harry and Hermione swiveled and blasted two more Death Eaters, who fell in slow motion to Harry's eyes. Where the hell are the other two, OH SHIT...as Harry's glance caught the last two lining up on Hermione from behind.

"AVA...AHHH" The two were on his left, Harry's wand was in his right, instinctively he snapped his left hand towards the two, and a wave, of something, smashed them through the wall and into the street outside. With this action Harry dropped to one knee for a second, this was draining, for now, some small voice said inside.

As Hermione ran over to him he stood. For a long moment they stared at each other, framed in the burning building and then Harry drew her into a fierce hug. "I love you, too Mione." Harry said softly to her, his eyes now back to his normal emerald. Hermione just nodded into his shoulder, the need for words was now moot. "But for now how about we leave the burning building huh?" Harry asked and got a small smile in response. Taking her hand they turned and ran out, leaving the Death Eaters to burn.

Harry and Hermione erupted from the burning building, wands ready, only to find the battle basically over. The Death Eaters had made a stupid tactical error, they had sent half of their remaining number in after Harry, and with that, and the sudden arrival of Remus, Tonks, Moody, and McGonagall, all fresh and rather peeved, the Death Eaters were now out numbered. And as icing on the cake, an instant before Harry and Hermione escaped the stable, Dumbledore had appeared having defeated the army of trolls and one of the dragons on the other side of the town. The five remaining Death Eaters, that were still alive and conscious just threw their wands down, it was over, and they knew it.

Harry and Hermione walked past the five, now pushed into a huddle in the middle of the street, and the Death Eaters visibly cowered. Dumbledore noticed the reaction and looked more closely at his two students. Suddenly he could see why, even though Harry's eyes have returned to green, any magic user could tell the power coming off in waves from him. And to a lesser extent, for now, Dumbledore realized with a shock, from Hermione as well. Well Tom, Dumbledore thought with a mixture of emotions as he surveyed the aftermath, the board is set. Our king and queen have taken their places. Harry walked up to Dumbledore, Remus and Tonks wandered up a moment later having seen to the prisoners.

Harry sat down on a low wall next to where Dumbledore was standing, Hermione perched almost touching him on one side. Ron came over and after giving him a peculiar look, plopped down next to Harry on the other. He didn't yet know Harry returned Hermione's feelings, but it was obvious to everyone now, including Ron, just how she felt about Harry. Harry looked at his Headmaster, his Mentor, his General, and much more, "I guess you got my message" he quipped quietly. At that moment, Hedwig swooped down from the sky, and settled on Harry's shoulder, her talons wet with what appeared to be blood; she evidentially had been defending her home too. Harry reached up and petted her absently.

"Yes, I did, good job Harry." Dumbledore responded, also quiet, not really a whisper, but more of a tone of exhaustion. With the exception of the late arriving Remus, Tonks, Moody and McGonagall, the rest were drained, Harry and Dumbledore especially.

"Didn't help them" Harry replied as he glanced over at the rescue efforts beginning at Honeydukes. As he watched, McGonagall, and Moody combined powers to lift away debris from the building, revealing the shattered bodies of several students. Neville, and Seamus, were holding back tears as they silently levitated the bodies out. As the body of a little girl passed Tonks, she let out a wail, recognizing the little girl as a 1st year Gryffindor she had helped tutor in DADA. Tonks collapsed to the street, crying softly, all of her Auror shell burnt away in that instant. Lupin gently picked her up and led her away, back to the carriages and the castle. Harry watched them go with a lump in his throat; Hermione dropped her head onto his shoulder. "I wasn't fast enough." Harry finished bitterly, his voice still soft, in respect for the dead if nothing else.

"No Harry you are wrong." Dumbledore replied firmly, looking down at him. "Those children are dead, for many reasons, because their Headmaster thought he'd give them a treat, because the Ministry was more concerned with Gringott's than its children" he said the last with a uncharacteristic bitterness, "but most of all because a madman thought he could terrorize us into letting him win. Harry, Tom Riddle is the one who will go to Hell with this anchor on his soul along with so many others, not you." Dumbledore took a breath, his eyes haunted, "Harry, I need a report on what happened."

Harry frowned, but with Hermione's silent support on the one side, he had the strength to do recount the tale. For some reason however, Ron almost seemed to get angrier as he sat there, but Harry just put that weirdness out of his mind for right now. "We," Harry said indicating the Gryffindors present, with a small wave, "had just sat down at the Three Broomsticks, and were drinking, when my scar started burning, as it does when Riddle or his forces are near. I grabbed everyone and we ran out into the street just as one of the dragons blew up Zonkos and Honeydukes. I saw the rider, and I swear he was smiling as he killed those kids." Harry choked with his last words and Hermione took his hand in hers. Ron saw her action, got up suddenly and walked away. Dumbledore perceived both actions, but Harry and Hermione were too far-gone to notice. Harry leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Any pretense was gone, burnt away in the fires of today. He went on a little woodenly. "Anyway, we."

"You Harry" Hermione interjected softly, as she gave his hand a squeeze.

"I got the DA members organized and we took down the first dragon. Hedwig appeared and I used her to get a message to you. While we were waiting we could hear something marching." Suddenly Harry started to get up, he had forgotten the thunderous marching.

"That has been taken care of Harry, it was a group of trolls." Dumbledore assured Harry with an inflection that told Harry that he had performed the taking care of; it wasn't until the next day that Harry would find out just how many trolls there had been.

"Ok...then we heard the marching, and suddenly forty or fifty Death Eaters apparated in on top of us. We umm lost Ernie, and Zack early on, some of us were close enough to these walls to take cover, and did so...About half of us were caught out in the open, so I ran over there", Harry waved vaguely towards the now collapsed stables "and managed to cover them so they could get clear. I sent all of them back to cover the evacuation to the carriages."

"That was quick thinking Harry, your actions and those of your friends got the majority of the underclassmen out, they are at Hogwarts by now and safe." Dumbledore replied trying to reassure Harry.

Harry, just looked like he wanted to laugh at that, considering all the times he wasn't safe at Hogwarts, but he went on anyway. "I was going to try to rejoin Hermione and the rest over here, but I was driven back into the stable. I remember an explosion and then I woke back up to have ten then twelve Death Eaters surrounding me. Professor...Lucius and Bellatrix were there, they commanded the Death Eaters to kill me and they left saying they had an appointment at Gringott's." Dumbledore just nodded at this, it confirmed what Kingsley had said in his note. Looking around at the other students, and facility listening in on his report, Harry said softly, "Professor can I talk to you privately?" Dumbledore signaled assent and shooed away the remaining spectators to Harry's report. He noticed with a raised eyebrow that Hermione didn't even start to get up nor did Harry even motion for her to get up, which confirmed even more his earlier thoughts.

"OK, Harry go ahead"

"I woke up surrounded and my wand had somehow ended up by the door, I thought I was dead, until Hermione came in and took out two with our wands, she tossed me my wand and we took out all of the rest. I..." Harry stopped as Hermione interrupted.

"You saw me and your eyes started glowing, love, and it seemed that you started moving really fast but for some reason I had no problem tracking you." Hermione put in with a somewhat confused air, Dumbledore however was not confused at all, and these comments just further confirmed his thoughts.

"That explains why it took a day and a half for the wand to come down," Harry replied with a forced laugh then went on seriously, "After we got all of those, we lost sight of the last two, I saw them just as they were about to curse Mione, and I just stuck out my hand and blew them through the wall, I guess." Harry finished confused, looking to Dumbledore as if to give him guidance.

Dumbledore however did not have any to give, not directly anyway, "Harry I'm not sure, I have suspicions, but not firm facts." Dumbledore sat for a moment, pensive, as if he were weighing a response in his head.

However by now, Harry wasn't the only one who was tired of half-truths. "What, that Harry is the Heir of Gryffindor?" Hermione responded, smart-arsedly as even her patience, honed by years of Ron and Harry, had its limits.

Dumbledore gave her a tired, half-arsed grin, though he too was hurting inside, especially as he saw Ernie's body being lifted onto a stretcher behind Harry. "Actually yes, Miss Granger, and that you are the Heir of Ravenclaw." Any other time Hermione's jaw would have dropped at that statement, as it was her eyes just got big; she was too tired for anything else. "I assume that you read the restricted portion that I added to your copy of Hogwarts a History, at Grimmauld place." Hermione suddenly knew that he was right, the facts fit, but how, she was a muggle-born? Harry at least was a half-blood.

"To answer the question you are undoubtedly thinking right now, whether certain people admit it or not, muggle-born is misnomer. Very few people on Earth don't have some Wizarding blood in them somewhere, Muggle-born just means that both of your parents were non-magic users, that is all, it has been corrupted over the years to mean other things." He looked up and saw the burning buildings, and that the sky was just now starting to get dark, and his few students were helping to the wounded and moving rumble all of them exhausted utterly. He saw Ron talking to Luna animatedly over to one side, then saw her throw up her hands and walk over to where Neville was sitting with Ginny while Pomfrey was working on her arm. Damn they did well, but this is just beginning not the end. Riddle never showed for his party.

As Dumbledore completed his thought, proud of his students for once again pulling off the impossible, a series of loud CRACKS rang out in the square.

A series of cracks that almost got the Minister of Magic and at least twenty Aurors killed or at least stunned heavily. Arthur Weasley and all of the Aurors he could possibly spare had apparated almost instantly on receiving Dumbledore's owl. Dumbledore had been forced to use a relatively slow owl instead of the floo, it was blocked, or Fawkes, as he knew he would need him in the battle. Arthur would have been here instantly, except he had to stop to sack a undersecretary that told him that the safety of Gringott's was more important than "a few students half of them muggle-borns, anyway." The Gringott's attack never happened, only a couple of Death Eaters had shown up, Voldemort either had gotten word that the attack was expected or it had been a ruse, no one knew. After Arthur had decked the recalcitrant undersecretary, and not so calmly informed him that his own kids were some of those "few students" he had grabbed every Auror in earshot and apparated straight away.

Harry, Hermione, Dumbledore, and the rest of the light wizards lowered their wands wearily. Arthur waved at Dumbledore, and immediately went to Ginny, where Madame Pomfrey had just finished with her arm. Poppy got up to go check on Dean who was still unconscious though he was breathing ok. Arthur hugged Ginny, causing her to squeak like a large mouse and getting her blood on his robes, but he didn't care. "Are you ok, Ginvera?" Arthur asked quietly and getting a terse nod, he stood and gave the rest of his children hugs, talking to them each in turn, briefly getting a quick narration of the day's events.

Deep in his heart when he got Dumbledore's message, he had been terrified that he would be too late. As he glanced around, he saw the Death Eaters still lying unconscious or dead where they fell, and the Hogwarts dead over to one side, with several Aurors and students grimly standing guard over them. He watched with a heavy heart as another body was carried from the wreckage of Zonkos, and a tear escaped his eye. With a final word to his kids, he got up and went to Dumbledore to find out what happened.

Dumbledore was also tired; he just wanted to get this over, "Arthur, it was an ambush, I received Kingsley's owl too late, and I had allowed an unscheduled Hogsmeade trip as a reward to the students. I take full responsibility, I will turn in my resignation in the morning." Harry and Hermione who still haven't moved from the wall look up shocked, but Arthur shortstopped any attempt to shift blame.

"No Albus, I will not accept your resignation. As I've been told you have already told Harry, It's not your fault this is Voldemort's." Harry noticed that even Arthur had had the shake burnt out of him at the name. "Now my kids have told me some of it, how about I hear the full story."

"Ok the full story, but the quick version," Dumbledore replied to his friend. "Harry and friends were in the bar, and Harry felt the attack coming. Harry got the DA out here just as one of the dragons firebombed Honeydukes and Zonkos, that's where most of our casualties occurred I am afraid. They took out the first dragon and got a message to me. I sent you word by the fastest means I had available, I did not apparate myself to get you as I felt I needed to get here as soon as I could. I apparated into the other side of town, and stopped the trolls, and another dragon."

Hermione glanced over at Harry and mouthed silently, "Stopped the trolls, and a dragon?" Harry just shrugged as Dumbledore went on. "Back here the Death Eaters that had been with the trolls apparated straight here and fought the DA members, we lost several other students to them. Harry managed to get about half of his fellow upperclassmen back to cover the evacuation of the students to the carriages and Hogwarts." Harry and Hermione immediately noticed that Dumbledore had left out the part about the fight in the stable and were immediately grateful. "Anyway Arthur, if you don't mind I am going to get my students and faculty back to the school, I...have letters to write." Dumbledore picked up several pieces of wood that were lying on the ground and spread them out on top of the wall. "Portus" he cast over all of the broken boards. "Harry, take one of these and get your fellow DA members back to the school, I don't want to ask this..."

"We'll make sure it's safe Professor." Harry said softly to which several other DA members in earshot just nodded. Pavarti picked up her sister, and together they staggered over to the cluster of the four Weasleys, Luna, Harry, Hermione, Lavender, a now-awake Dean, Seamus and Neville. "Yeh, fucking lions" Harry muttered, then "On three" on three the portkey activated and they vanished, only to be dropped in the Gryffindor common room.

(A/N I actually have no idea why Harry said that other than the title of year seven, hint for ya'll. Next Chapter Ron responds.)

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Chapter 25: Aftermath *******************Riddle Mansion**************************

June 5, 2005

A tall blond man and a black haired woman kneeled before a tall hooded man, The lights were very low in the room, indeed, Lucius Malfoy, one of the supplicants on the floor, had trouble seeing his master. The only real light in the dungeon room came from a couple of torches and the red glowing eyes of Voldemort. "Lord, I"

Voldemort stopped his pacing and glared at Malfoy, "How is it that a terror attack, one that was meant to show well and truly that I had returned and throw the public into panic failed so miserably? How was it that I sent three dragons, a hundred trolls and almost fifty of your comrades and only yourself, Bellatrix and one dragon return? How is that?" Voldemort asked almost conversationally. He turned to Bellatrix, "How is it that I hear from you that Potter is dead or soon will be then this very morning I hear from our spy that he is not only alive, but according to some stories may have accounted for at least half of my followers that I sent on the attack?" Voldemort turned slightly to Dolohov, who was standing to one side, "Bring me Malfoy's wife."

"NO MY LORD!" Lucius shouted, only to be stopped by a raised hand. "She will not be harmed as long as you perform adequately from now on, but as to now, CRUCIO" Lucius Malfoy dropped to the ground screaming. "Take him away, remove the curse, in ohh a half hour." Several other Death Eaters hastened to comply. "Now as to you Bellatrix, I could curse you, but you probably would like it, it would probably even turn you on. I could get your useless husband, but I doubt that would bother you either. I will think on this, but remember always, you live only at my sufferance. Now go." Bellatrix never looked, up just scuttled from the room, and at a look most of the rest of the Death Eaters followed her.

Voldemort began pacing again, brooding. With an spoken thought, "Harry, Albus, I have underestimated you, I see now that I must look for another way to destroy you, perhaps though others, perhaps..." A low chuckle emanated from under his cowl as he worked through the possibilities in his head. "Bring me the captive." His chuckle turned to full on laughter, as he saw the terrified visage of Sibyl Trelwany being led before him. As he motioned, two of his followers dragged her to him.

"LEGILIMENS" Trelwany screamed hoarsely as he forced his mind into hers. After a minute she started twitching and finally flopped unconscious, a trickle of blood coming from her nose and dripping down onto the already stained floor.

Voldemort motioned to one of his followers, "Dump her back in Hogwarts, leave her alive, I want them to wonder. I want them to not sleep at nights."

**************************Hogwarts, Infirmary*****************************

The casualties of yesterday were in the infirmary, at the least the student ones. The townspeople's were in St Mungo's, hastily set-up infirmaries or in the local morgue. Harry looked up as he entered the infirmary, to see that the nurse portraits were in on the act, watching over particularly injured students like life monitors in a muggle hospital. Of his housemates only Dean was actually in the infirmary, Ginny had had her arm fixed in the field and was even now on probably on patrol with her brother, on prefect duty. All of the prefects, and capable members of the DA, were periodically checking up on the school, there were no real classes for the remainder of the week, though Harry had already agreed to expand the previously planned nightly DA meetings to help those who were not DA members, but now thought they might need the skills. In fact the meetings were so large they were to be in the Great Hall. But for now Harry was looking in on the injured, most of who were members of the DA. Harry had taken responsibility for them in his mind the instant he had starting giving orders, he felt responsible, no matter what anyone else said. "Hi Pavarti" Harry said quietly to her, she was sitting next to her sister, who along with Cho, had blinded the first Dragon.

"She's ok, Harry, I'm glad you came by, she's just asleep, though the howler mum sent damn near woke her up and half the rest of the folks in the infirmary as well," Pavarti said with a forced grin, as she brushed the hair from the eyes of her unconscious twin.

Harry just chuckled a bit, "You didn't hear the one Molly sent to Arthur this morning... if you need anything." Harry said quietly laying his hand on her shoulder for a second, then at a slight headshake he nodded and moved on to...Cho. "Hi Cho." He said to his ex- who happened to be awake now, she like Padma was still in for observation.

"Harry" She looked up at him and with a weird expression, "I'm still kind of mad at you, but I apologize for the thing on the train. I'll be ok Harry, you did good out there, and I don't think we would have made it out alive..."

"Tell it to them," Harry replied wearily, gesturing with his head towards the next room were the bodies of several students waited for their parents to come and claim them.

"Harry, no matter what else happened last year between us, I meant it, you led us well, and if it had been anyone else I doubt any of us would be here now." Cho replied with sincerity in her eyes.

"Thanks" Harry muttered and walked on, as he approached the next student, a Ravenclaw friend of Padma's whose name he couldn't remember for the life of himself, he felt a smaller hand seek his out and intertwine its fingers with his. "Mione" he said quietly without turning.

"You're going to visit everyone, aren't you?" She asked, even though he knew it wasn't a question.

"Yeah"

"Then let's go" and she did, staying with him as he visited every student still in the infirmary, even those that had not been in the DA, but had been injured in the dual explosions of Zonkos and Honeydukes, or the evacuation. Finally she pulled him away to the hall outside. "Ok Harry?" She asked throwing her arms around his neck.

"Yeah Mione" Harry replied in a whisper, as tears started to fall silently down his cheeks, "it's just that those kids, some of which like Ernie, gave his life and I didn't even really like him. And I just feel responsible Hermione."

"I know you do love, it's because were the good guys." She gave him a half smile as she leaned in, her lips met his and for a moment neither of them felt much of anything though their pounding hearts, the energy crackling in the air, and the electricity that coursed though their bodies at the long delayed out come. Curiously, this was their first kiss since they had finally admitted their feelings for each other, in fire and death, except for that kiss of thanks during Harry's report to Dumbledore following the battle. They pulled apart slightly. "I love you, Harry."

"I love you too, Hermione" Harry replied in a whisper for her ears only, a small odd corner of his mind comparing the kiss to his with Cho, and even though there were tears in both, in this one the adjectives, explosive, electric or just...right would apply, not the adjective the previous one to Cho had acquired...wet.

As they stood foreheads together, they suddenly heard "NO FUCKING WONDER" thunder out down the hall. Their heads instantly snapped apart and to find Ron staring at them from the end of the hall. Harry suddenly saw several emotions on his friend's face including one he had never seen before. The jealousy he has seen, and the anger, but the hatred? Ron walked closer to them and they pulled all the way apart. "So Hermione, this is why you turned me down, had to be with the rich hero huh?" Hermione's eyes grew huge, but before she could respond he went on, he was on a roll. "And you, Harry? Just have to have everything, huh, the big seeker, the big hero, the money, the house and now the girl huh? So Hermione, are you putting out for him yet?" Ron said snidely. Harry looked apoplectic, if this were Draco, he'd be dead were he stood, but this was Ron? It was only though sheer willpower, that Harry kept his powers in check, he could feel them, bubbling up inside, begging to be set free.

That last comment was far too much; two female voices snapped back, "RONALD!" Ginny's soft voice echoed Hermione's; she had just come out of the infirmary where she had been visiting friends. Before Hermione could even say another word or punch him in the face, the tiniest Weasley stood in front of her brother, and even though she was at least a foot shorter, laid into him with a chewing worthy of their mother. "RONALD BILIUS WEASLEY JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE A GIT AND CAN'T BE HAPPY FOR YOUR FRIENDS DOESN'T MEAN YOU CAN TAKE IT OUT ON THEM. IF I WERE THEM I'D HAVE YOUR HEAD FOR THAT, LAST COMMENT, AND AS IT IS I'M TEMPED ANYWAY. I KNOW YOU WERE TOO STUPID TO SEE PAST YOUR OWN BLINDERS, BUT STEP UP AND APPLOGIZE." Ron however, just shook his head and walked away. Hermione and Harry started to take off after him only to be also stopped by Ginny before they took two steps. "No stay, he'll get over it. It's his fault; well mostly anyway, if you two had just paid attention years ago, we probably wouldn't have had that. I'll talk to him, quietly ok?" Harry and Hermione just nodded in mute response as she walked off. After she was gone, Hermione cried softly into Harry's shoulder and he bent his head into hers, both afraid that they have just lost their other best friend.

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Chapter 26: Back to the Muggles, one last time
********************Train platform, Hogsmeade**********************
June 13, 2005

Wafts of smoke could be seen hovering over Hogsmeade, a week after the battle with Voldemort's forces. Magical fires were particularly hard to extinguish and the dragons breath that destroyed Honeydukes, with it full of young Hogwarts students and Zonkos, similarly full, had been truly hard to handle. Hardened Aurors had come from those places with tears in their eyes. Nymphadora Tonks, a veteran Auror, had broken down in the street, crying as a first year Gryffindor girl was carried lifeless from the wreckage of the candy shop. Lupin had picked her up and led her off, back to Hogwarts, weeping into his shoulder the whole time.

This was the first time, even after the rise of Voldemort in the Triwizard in his fourth year, that teachers and prefects had actually escorted students back to the train with wands drawn. Harry even though he was not a prefect per say, led the security contingent of prefects and DA members in leading the students onto the platform. And anyway the head boy and head girl still weren't in any condition to discharge their duties. As he was helping a first year Hufflepuff onto the train, he caught Ron's eye, but Ron looked quickly away. Damn it, Ron, we'd both take your apology if you'd even talk to us. I'll even apologize, even though I don't think I should. As he thought this, Ginny wandered up to him, her wand in hand.

"Harry" as she noticed the direction of his agonized gaze, "don't worry, he's being a prat, he'll get over it." She pronounced as if it were already so. "Besides, I think someone else will find him," nodding over to a blond girl with a wand stuck behind her ear, who was helping a pair of injured third years onto the train.

"Maybe, " Harry replied weakly.

"Hey Ginny," Hermione said to the tiny girl next to Harry, "have you seen my boyfriend anywhere?" Harry just rolled his eyes, why girls find this particular joke funny he will never comprehend fully.

"I don't know Hermione, what does he look like?" Ginny replied with a grin, Harry for his part scanned the length of the train and seeing that all of the students with the exception of the DA members and prefects were aboard, He waved them on the train.

"Well he's kind of funny looking, he's got black hair that sticks up in all directions, and a scar and these green eyes." She replied then, "EEK"

Harry reached over and pulled her into an embrace, he sunk his lips to hers and they were quiet for a moment. With a shared grunt, they slightly pulled apart, with their foreheads together. Looking into her chocolate eyes, from only a few inches away Harry asked softly "ready love?"

"Yeah, at least we have the whole train ride." She replied hopefully, though her hopes were dashed quickly.

"Sort of, Mione, We have to help patrol the train on the way back. Sorry, Dumbledore's orders. You can be my partner though." Harry finished with a shrug, though both of them would have much preferred to sit in a compartment together and hold each other until they arrived at the platform, and much longer of course.

Hermione nodded sadly against his head, and then a booming voice interrupted them. ""arry, "ermione we have to go." Hagrid said a little wistfully. The huge professor had his "umbrella" in hand and a giant crossbow slung across his back, yet another reminder of what had happened.

"All right Hagrid, I've got the train until King's Cross, and I think Tonks, Lupin and Moody are covering the platform there." Harry replied with a grimace as he pulled Hermione onto the train after him. Hagrid just nodded and waved at the conductor. The red and gold train pulled away from Hogsmeade station, Harry and Hermione waving to Hagrid until he was out of sight. After several silent moments of staring at the now vanished Hogsmeade, Harry turned to her, "Lets go, and find everyone else before we have to start with looking after the train car." Harry and Hermione walked to their usual compartment, opened the door and found, Ginny, Neville, Luna and...Ron sitting there already. A conversion had been taking place before they arrived, but on their arrival it stopped. Ron looked up and seeing them, just got up and walked out of the compartment, brushing by Harry on the way without saying a word. Luna watched him leave with her eyes, then sighed and opened a copy of the Quibbler she had on her lap. She started reading it upside down, then...

"I wish that you'd make up the auras in this car are horrible." Luna stated succinctly and started reading her article on fire-crested kneazles, who were plotting to take over the world.

"Umm, Harry, Hermione..." Ginny began only to be interrupted by Harry.

"Gin it's ok, we don't hold anything against him, or any of your family for that matter." Harry said trying to placate the tiny fire-haired witch.

"I should hope not" Ginny replied with a smile however forced, "I'll work on him ok." She finished to which Harry and Hermione nodded.

The rest of the ride passed too quickly, though it was peaceful. Ron never did come back to the compartment as he spent the rest of the trip patrolling the cars. Harry and Hermione did run into him in one of the middle cars, when he saw them, he just turned and walked away, an action that caused a lump in Harry's throat, and a soft gasp from Hermione. As if their problems weren't enough, at that moment, Draco came walking into the car, technically he was a prefect, and was theoretically on patrol. Draco had been conveniently sick that last Hogsmeade weekend, and the circumstances behind Hermione's near fatal plunge from the Quiddich stands a few months earlier were also still suspect, despite his alibi at the time. Fortunately or unfortunately depending on one's belief in vengeance, Draco merely contented himself to a small smile at Ron's quick departure and left them hastily.

As they pulled into the station, Harry saw Moody, Tonks and Lupin along with several other Aurors standing security on the platform. "All right lets go," Harry said to his friends still minus Ron, but all of them even Luna knew that was exactly the last thing that he wanted to happen.

"Harry!" Tonks cried happily seeing him and the others on the platform. Harry hadn't seen her since Lupin had dragged her away from Hogsmeade. She looked much better than she had then, she had broken down so far that day, she had lost control of her metamorphmangus abilities and her hair had gone back to her natural color. She had it long, sleek and dark brown today though, so Harry could tell she was back in control, though he knew Dumbledore wouldn't have sent her if he thought she was sub par.

"Hey Tonks," Hermione said seeing Tonks on the platform, also noting her improved condition. Then turning back to Harry, she grabbed him tightly and whispered, "Are you sure? I know I could get mum to let you stay."

"Damn blood magic, love, I'm sorry, I tried, or alternatively just go straight to Grimmauld place, but I'm supposed to stay until my birthday. I was going to ask you, but I... sort of forgot with everything." Harry muttered back to her.

"Yes, Harry?" She replied with a look that told him that she would agree to anything, including running away from all of this with him.

"Could you please take Hedwig until...you're about the only one she will let keep her." He asked hopefully.

Hermione returned his gaze, understanding everything else that wasn't said, "What's a second familiar, of course I will."

"Uh Hem, Ok' you two we have to go" Lupin interrupted them; though it was obvious that was the last thing in the world he wanted to do. They looked up and saw the that the platform was more or less empty except for the Weasleys, the wizards working security and the Grangers, who the Weasleys must have pulled though onto the platform with them. "Go love, I..." Hermione granted him a quick kiss and ran to her parents, and gave them a crushing hug. Harry followed at a more sedate pace.

"Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Granger..." Harry began uncertainly, the last time he had seen the Grangers, after their escape from Death Eaters, Hermione's father had had mixed feelings for him. In the end though he had been more or less accepting, but there still was that ever-present guilt that Harry felt over the circumstances of their last meeting.

"Harry, you know our names," Jane Granger replied with a smile, "Harry we aren't mad at you, really, we know what happened, well as much as muggles can anyway." Harry looked up at them hopefully and Roger just nodded, Jane drew him into an embrace like he was one of her own, while Hermione, though somewhat shocked, beamed. Hermione looked at her mum and getting a small knowing nod in turn, ran back to Harry and gave him a kiss, much longer this time. Then with a whispered "bye love, I'll send Hedwig with letters every day," Hermione grabbed her parent's hands and pulled them though the platform wall.

Harry smiled at the wall, That was the idea love, though Hedwig will be mad at both of us, if she has to fly back and forth between Canton and Little Whinging every day. Then with a sigh, he turned to Lupin, " They here Remus?" Harry asked bitterly, referring to the Dursleys.

"Yeah, no one would pull them through the wall even if they wanted to come in." Remus said with a growl, "I can forget that you and Hermione uncoupled me from the full moon, one's coming up, can I come stay in your Aunt and Uncle's bedroom?" Remus said, a sudden happy thought crossing his mind.

"I would love it, but better not." Harry shot back as they passed though the barrier. As he witnessed the Dursleys waiting impatiently Harry groaned softly, "I guess this is it? Will you be around this summer?" Remus hugged Harry goodbye.

"Sometimes...I'm splitting time between the Dursleys and the Grangers. As long as she's at her parents place, Dumbledore has her covered this summer almost as much as you. If I'm on, I'll be right outside if you really need me I have the 7-12 shift." Lupin replied softly. Harry gave him a quick smile at the mention of the protection for Hermione also. Remus nodded and walked back though the barrier.

Harry wheeled his cart over to the Dursleys. Vernon said without preamble, "Is that one of your freaks...boy?" Vernon's mustache was quivering with annoyance at the very thought of sharing the same air, with Lupin or any wizard or witch.

"Yep, he's a werewolf too." Harry replied distantly, missing the quiver that his aunt showed at the words. He was distracted as he noticed that Hermione had not yet left, she and her parents had stopped to grab a cup of coffee at a stand prior to their drive. She tuned and saw him and gave a little wave, which he returned, happily.

"AWW Harry has a girlfriend," Dudley pronounced, a vapid expression on his face. Then suddenly his beady eyes glowed with an odd cruel glint, "Ohh Harry, you still can't use magic outside of school right."

"Yah," Harry replied, not paying attention to the "conversation" with Dudley. His entire attention was focused on the bushy haired girl at the other end of the concourse.

"Good" Dudley hammered his fist into Harry's stomach, dropping him to his knees instantly, as he had not been at all ready for it.

One hundred yards away, a coffee cup fell in slow motion, and the electric lights in the station started to flicker.

***********************Platform 9 3/4******************************

Tonks and Remus were dismissing the Aurors to go back to their normal duties, when they felt a familiar feeling, "HARRY" Remus exclaimed.

"No that's not Harry," replied Tonks who was a little more sensitive to subtle variations in individual magic. Their eyes grew huge and as one she, Lupin and Moody sprinted for the barrier.

***********************Main Concourse King's Cross****************

Hermione was walking slowly, purposefully, towards the Dursleys; Harry was still curled up on the ground. As she advanced, glass shattered on vending machines, ticket windows and the like. Her eyes began to flicker with a blue glow; so similar to that Harry had shown just a week before and her hair began to blow in a non-existent breeze. She stopped a few yards away and raised a hand to the Dursleys, who started to levitate; Dudley and Vernon were squealing like large pigs, Petunia on the other hand almost seemed resigned to their fate as the three slowly began to rotate several feet in the air.

Two crucial events happened at the same time; Harry got up and Tonks, Remus and Moody crashed though the barrier. Tonks saw the Dursleys, and then glanced over to Hermione. Instantly adding one and one to make two, she cast a stunner at Hermione, only to have it blocked by a hastily cast protection spell from Harry. "NO TONKS" Harry screamed and dove at Hermione, rolling to take the fall on his back, and to break her concentration. He knew from experience that she was the only one that could get close enough to him when he was in a similar state and he assumed that it was the same for her. As they hit the ground, the Dursleys fell from the air into a large quivering pile with a loud THUMP. "Calm down, love, calm down," he whispered into her hair, his arms firmly around her.

"Harry?" A shaky whisper replied as her eyes slowly faded to brown, "I'm sorry I saw that fat bastard punch you and you fell..." she paused, then, "think I'm expelled?"

Harry's lips twitched into a sly grin, "No love, if they didn't expel me for blowing up Aunt Marge, then I think you're safe." Harry planted a soft kiss on the top of her head and pulled them both to their feet. He handed her to her parents who, unlike the Dursleys would have, had charged though the magic storm to their daughter. "Take care of her for me?" Harry asked Hermione's parents. Roger just nodded, this time with gratitude and a hint of respect.

"I will Harry." Roger replied, as he hugged his daughter protectively, and glared over at the Dursleys.

At that very moment, Albus Dumbledore appeared silently. He was dressed as a muggle in a very old pair of jeans and a decrepit Hawaiian shirt; his hair was tied back into a tail. Looking for all the world like a spry old hippie on vacation. He walked over to Harry, and crooking a finger he beckoned Harry to follow. "Sir, I..."

"I know Harry, You were watching Hermione and Dudley decked you for some reason or other. Hermione saw you fall and she lost control." Dumbledore raised his hand and "Protego, Memonous," A yellow bubble appeared for a second around all of the magical people in the area along with the Grangers and the Dursleys. Then a second incantation, "OBLIVATE AREUM" suddenly all of the Muggles who had been watching from the perimeter, suddenly stopped looking at them, and started going about their business. Dumbledore pointed at the Dursleys and thundered commandingly "STAY" and they froze to the spot where they were standing. Without another glance at them, he and Harry walked back over to the Grangers. "I did not erase your memories Roger and Jane, please do not spread this, as I will have to report I have." Dumbledore said with a wry smile, which Hermione's parents returned. "Ok you two say your goodbyes, I daresay for the 4th or 5th time." Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his eye. One could still see the Dursleys quivering where he had told them to stay. Roger chuckled softly as he released his daughter back to Harry.

Harry pulled Hermione back into another embrace, and heedless of the audience, they pushed their lips together, like they wouldn't see each other again, even though it would probably be only a month. After a moment desperate for air, they finally pulled apart, Hermione's lower lip dragging as they pulled away. "I will be there to get you on your birthday, Harry" Hermione whispered to him with fire in her eyes. "I love you Harry."

"I love you, Hermione." With that they withdrew from each other's arms and Harry and Dumbledore watched until Hermione and her parents walked outside to their car, an act that took several minutes as Hermione kept stopping and turning around to wave to Harry. Dumbledore then turned on his heel and marched towards the Dursleys, his smile vanishing like the morning mist as he went. The Dursleys for once were showing some intelligence and staying where they were told, though for some reason Harry, thought it had the most to do with his aunt's hand on Vernon's arm. Vernon's mustache was quivering like a hummingbird by now as he stared at Harry and Dumbledore.

"What do you want old man, I assume that you are the head Freak?" He asked in his typical whining voice, spittle flying from his lips.

Harry, Tonks, Remus, Moody and for some reason Petunia, all visibly flinched at this remark, Talk about monumental stupidity Harry thought with an emotion approaching glee.

Dumbledore for his part just ignored the verbal jab and stared at the Dursleys with a fire in his eyes that Harry had only seen once or twice, and never thankfully directed at him. "Vernon I will say this," Dumbledore began acidly. "You have to be perhaps the stupidest muggle that it has ever been my displeasure to associate with. You and your son are...even I don't have the words. I have not erased your memory in the hopes that you will remember this and treat Harry well this summer, though I do not have high hopes on the matter." Dumbledore turned slightly and stared at Petunia for a moment then returned his gaze to Vernon. "I want you to know several things. Know that that girl is in love with your nephew and she will hunt you down if anything happens to Harry while he is in your care and that I, for one, would not care to be in her way and there is not a place on Earth you could hide. She is one of the most powerful witches it has ever been my pleasure to know or to teach. Know also that I, along with many others, consider Harry family, and if it were not for a bit of magic that protects him from certain parties, then I would very possibly punish you myself. And finally, know this, Harry will be of age in little over a month, and Harry is an extremely powerful wizard at least as powerful as that girl. Think deeply of these things before you try any retribution to a response caused by your son's incredibly stupid act. Harry." Dumbledore added the last with a much friendlier tone and walked away, to where he could disapparate without being seen.

The Dursleys along with Harry walked to their car, in silence. Dumbledore and Hermione probably gained me a week of peace, but we'll see. Vernon, he wasn't kidding about Hermione hunting you down. Oh well 48 days my love, I expect I'll see Hedwig in the morning.

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Chapter 27: Epilogue ***************************The Burrow***********************************

June 17, 2005

"RONALD get out of my kitchen." Molly Weasley yelled, annoyed at her flame-haired son. This was the 5th time this week that she had been trying to clean and still couldn't get anything done. "I know that you are disappointed, but they are still your friends." She hated any of her children being like this, but even she had known years ago that while Hermione may love her son, it was as a brother, not as he had wanted. She had gotten hints from Ginny, but it was the events of almost two years ago now, with the rise of You-Know-Who and the aftermath of that event that had cemented it in her mind. The way that Hermione had tried to let Ron know without saying anything that she wasn't interested. Her rejection of the Christmas presents at Grimmauld place and the next year at the Burrow, the lack of attention to his problems. But even more than the lack of interest towards Ron, it was the constant attention towards another that had clinched the deal in Molly's eyes.

Her looking at him when he didn't notice. The fact that she would go calm him down, or would have the guts to stand up to him and fight when no one else would dare. And that he did the same for her. I don't know what I should think, yes I am sad for Ron, but I am ecstatic for Harry and Hermione, I would adapt Harry in a instant if Dumbledore would allow it. Merlin, I'd adopt both of them, if something happened to her parents. They are my children too in all that counts. This is like when I had to console George, after Fred grabbed some girl instead of him, but it's so much more. Neither of those two were ever in love like this, I saw Harry and Hermione on the platform, I saw that it nearly killed them to be apart, and that she nearly killed that idiot son of Petunia's when he slugged Harry in the stomach.

Of course that was perhaps the stupidest thing I have ever seen, with damn near the entire surviving cast of the Order present, but that idiot thought he was safe, because of that idiotic underage restriction. I'm just glad that Hermione didn't have Harry's "Accidental Magic" record, so Arthur was able to squash the inquiry and was able to get her off with just a warning. Anyway, this is ridiculous, it's been a week since they got back and all he has done is mope about. "Ron get out of the house and don't come back until this evening." She continued as she supervised the pile of soapy dishes in the sink cleaning themselves.

"SURE!" Ron snapped, he jumped up and out of the House, slamming the door in the process. He felt a slight jolt as he walked though the door and heard a soft thump.

"Ummph."

Ron glanced down and saw a petite girl, with long red hair sitting on her butt on the ground in front of him. "RON WATCH WHERE YOU ARE GOING DAMMIT!" Ginny hollered from the ground, you've already got enough women mad at you Ronald, apologize, a vaguely ethereal voice whispered in his head.

"Sorry Gin," Ron muttered as he helped her up and then without another word, continued walking off. He slammed open the garden gate and started down a gravel path between the trees, a couple of deer looked up and scampered away.

"Were are you going?" Ginny yelled after him. Dumbarse brothers, she thought with a silent sigh.

"To town, to get drunk or something, hell I don't know." He replied and stomped off towards the village.

**************Village of Ottery St. Catchpole*******************

Ron walked into a pub named the "Stinky Cat," ordered a pint and sat down in a back corner. The pub was a normal muggle one, there was a football game on the teley hanging in a corner, and a couple of drunks were throwing darts, to the accompaniment of occasional curses as they missed. He stared into the drink and then slammed half of it in a gulp. What the hell, What gives Harry the right to take her, he has everything, he's rich, everyone loves him, and then he takes her from me. Ron took another drink and signaled for a refill. He's the Quiddich golden boy, the great hero, the one with all the powers, hell he's probably the Heir to Gryffindor too. I guess I wasn't good enough for her. He paused his internal monologue, that's not fair Ron,

A different voice in his head replied, Yeah, sure he's rich and famous, and you know how he got that way. You know that he would give it all away in a second to get his family and Sirius back. You were there in the room when he would wake up screaming as he watched Sirius and his parents die, as he cried out when he remembered you, yes you Ronald, his best friend being hurt, and somewhere inside you knew that when he woke up screaming that the last image that he saw was Hermione laying on the ground. You knew then that he loved her just like you knew and wouldn't admit it that she loved him back in fifth year. They were both just too afraid. A refill came and he drunk that a in a couple of gulps. No, you knew before, like in second year.

Yeah, he admitted grumpily, but I thought she would love me too. Before he could go on with this mental tirade he heard a soft voice from the other side of the table.

"Can I sit?" Luna Lovegood asked breathlessly from the other side of the table. She looked like usual, alternately looking around the room as if expecting something to appear from the walls or staring at him intently. Her blond hair was held up in a knot; with...bloody hell is that her wand? But I suppose muggles; just think it's a stick. She stared at Ron, though small glasses that Ron knew from experience that she occasionally forgot. And what country she's in sometimes too. There was something different in that stare today, something Ron just couldn't place. She does look cute today though. Huh?

"Sure Luna" Ron replied, he never really liked drinking alone, or doing anything alone really. It was if he had let himself think about it, probably one of the reasons he had fixated on Hermione.

"Thank you Ronald, I hate to have to drink standing up, the fire-bellied snap moths might fly into my hair, and you know how they are?" She replied and waved her hand around as if indicating the flight path of the invisible moths.

Ron sputtered the drink he had been taking at that moment, "Sure do Luna" So what if she's insane, she's a friend, isn't she?

"Did you and Harry get over that little argument?" She asked as she sat down, a small little airy smile on her face.

"That LITTLE ARGUMENT LUNA?" Ron half yelled and attracted the attention of half the bar. He quieted down and responded more normally. "He was sneaking around behind my back Luna." With a bitter reply, not expecting a response, after all even Mum didn't want to face his temper, having kicked him out for the day. To his disquiet Luna's happy expression fell from her face, I'm sorry Luna, it's not your fault, and you don't deserve me yelling at you. But she didn't back off or leave; even his sister had this morning.

He did get a response, Luna looked at him, the slightly vacant look gone from her eyes, "Ronald, they weren't sneaking, you just had blinded yourself." She blinked slowly but she didn't drop her gaze from his.

"So you think I'm not good enough either?" Ron snapped back, though he instantly hated himself for the manner of his response, for some reason.

"No" Luna replied with a whisper, a hurt look in her eyes, which somehow both calmed Ron and caused him pain at the same time.

"I'm sorry Loony"

"For what?"

"I'm just sorry."

Luna didn't speak; she just reached across the table and laid a hand on top of one of his.

********************Granger Family Home, Canton England.*****************

July 31, 2005
10:29 am

You could hear Dumbledore, Moody, Lupin and Tonks talking to Roger and Jane Granger from down the hall. They seemed to be getting along fine as everyone laughed at a Muggle joke that Remus had picked up in a pup in London last week. In Hermione's room however, the situation was different. Hermione was standing dressed in worn jeans, sneaks and one of Harry's Gryffindor Lions sweatshirts. She had just thrown them on while she was trying to figure out what to wear to go pick up Harry. She had at least ten outfits on the bed and was successively holding them up to herself and looking at herself in the mirror. A soft knock was heard at the door. "Who is it?" She snapped at the door.

"Me" replied Tonks.

"Come in." Hermione sighed and turned back to the mirror.

"Wotcher girl, what is taking you so long? We are going to be late." As Tonks walked in, "Ohh!" She saw the problem at once. I'm glad I don't have that problem. I do like that jumper though, I wonder if I can borrow it? Tonks thought with an hidden smile.

"And I suppose you never have this problem" Hermione asked exasperatedly, after all Tonks was a metamorph and could change her appearance including her clothes at will. She flung down the outfits on her bed and collapsed on it with a loud squeak.

"No not really, at least I don't have to hold the outfits up, it does give me a headache to change that many times though." She replied honestly, with a slight grin, her nose scrunching up and her hair changing color to her favorite, bubble gum pink, from her natural black, shrinking and pulling up into spikes on her head, then back down into a short, ruffled hairstyle.

"You did that just to show off" a pause, then Hermione asked plaintively from where she was laying on her back on her bed, the clothes that she had just thrown down getting wrinkled. "Well what would you suggest?"

"Well you could go with what God gave you, though that might just cause the downfall of society as all our defenders including Harry, would drop dead." Tonks replied with a grin.

"Dammit Tonks" Hermione responded, then started giggling, she couldn't help it, as the image of the mighty Harry Potter fainting dead away at her appearance crossed her mind.

"Do you love him girl?" Tonks asked with a thoughtful face. Thinking of her and Lupin, and how they had found each other this last year.

"More than I can say." Hermione replied her eyes alight.

"Does he love you?"

"Yes" Hermione replied in a whisper, as if she still couldn't believe it.

"Then he's won't care if you are as shabby as Lupin as long as you show up." Tonks replied and gave her a brief hug.

Hermione just smiled at that image, "Ok" and as they walked to the living room where the rest were, she asked Tonks in an undertone, "So you don't care that Lupin is shabby?"

"No, not really." Tonks whispered back.

Jane Granger looked at her daughter and then glanced at her husband. Good choice girl, she thought at Hermione, they knew Harry, and they too had known for years, it seemed like the only two that had not known were Harry and Hermione. He had after all, been the opening topic of every conversation that they had had with their daughter over the last six years about school, or most everything else actually. Of course Hermione had carefully edited her adventures, but her mother had known there was more there than Hermione had told her. She had not been able to leave out the petrification when she was twelve, or the damage from that fight in the Ministry of Magic last year. When she had come home that day from the train, and still had to be taking potions her father had almost tried to block her from returning, and had even yelled about that damn boy hurting his little girl. A comment that had shown her parents just how far they could push their very powerful daughter.

Of her friends, the Weasley's fast temper and Harry's slower, hotter one was legendary, however Hermione's if possible, was worse; it was just buried deeper. It was really was good that the occasional smashed kitchen was okay by the Ministry especially after the incident at the train platform this year, they just tended to come down on things like transfiguring one's aunt to a weather balloon. Hermione had apologized after the fight with her parents and ran to her room from her thoughtful mother and still angry father.

Dumbledore had quietly come that evening and talked to the Grangers, and had reveled things that Jane was relatively sure that that Harry himself still didn't know. With her persuasion, Roger had relented and apologized to his daughter. The situation had come to a head last Christmas, as circumstances dictated the war coming to their front door so to speak, and her destiny had been revealed to her parents, in a wandfight in the mall outside of town.

Dumbledore looked at the group, "now that we are all here, lets go." His eyes were sparkling full bore today.

Hermione ran over and hugged her mum and dad goodbye and kissed them on the cheek. "I'll try to stop back bye before we head back to school."

"Sure dear," Jane replied with a smile.

"Ok then, Hermione you tuck in close to Remus just in case, you don't have as much experience at this than the others." With a nod and a series of pops they were gone.



TO BE CONTINUED in Harry Potter and the Lions of Gryffindor.



Afterword:

I originally wasn't going to write this book, I was originally going to start with Lions however now I'm glad I that have. I especially didn't think this thing would turn into a 240+ page book, but here it is. The next book was what I started with, and I hope you all like it. I really wish to thank my friends whom read this and whom kept me from going too overboard, but its balls to the wall from now on folks. The hardest part of this story was actually keeping Harry and Hermione apart, at least officially, until chapter 24, but that's what my outline said, so I stuck to it, however if you read closely, you can probably tell that I almost bowed to temptation and let them get together, fully, at Christmas. I'm glad I held off though, I think it works better this way.

The Dumbledore prank had been originally cut from this book, and due to reviews on another site, it made it back in, I hope it worked where it was.

Next book; well let's just say that it will be R rated and maybe NC17. I mean it, violence, sex, cursing: all the good parts of life. I changed the rating of Darkness down to PG-13, as the violence and other things aren't as extreme as they will become. This is a war, boys and girls with a very nasty adversary. I think you can figure out the pairings, but there are surprises still in store. Several of which have buried clues in this book, so maybe you already figured them out, but some of them don't.

Recommended Listening.

Evanescence-Fallen. The whole bloody album seems to fit this story and the following one, even more so. There is a hint there. :)

Three Doors Down- The Better Life, and Away From the Sun. Hold Me When I'm Gone is especially suitable for Chapter 2 when Harry reveals the prophesy to Hermione, as I don't think Harry thinks he will survive the war at that point.

The Armageddon Soundtrack, I don't know why, it just seemed to work.

Hoobastank. Neved actually recommended this album in his Solidus Trilogy, and it's pretty good.

Nickleback-Feeling Too Damn good. Ain't that always the case? This song will also fit in very well in a late chapter in the sequel.

Van Halen-Dreams. The song is old but good.

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