A/N: Ok normally I don't put an AN at the start of the chapter, but...This chapter was originally a one-shot set in this universe. It probably contains a great deal of review for those of you who have read B1-5 and Darkness and first half of Lions. I left it in as it does seem to fit. So with that.....Oh yeah, JKR owns everything except my pitiful little plot.
Chapter 32: Promises
**********************Godric's Hollow, Wales****************************
March 11, 2006
On a verdant green hill, overlooking a white house next to a bubbling brook, a figure stood, his head bent. The day was sunny and bright, but the vicious March winds whipped at his jet-black cloak, snapping it like the wings of a giant bird trying to take flight. The hood was down on his cloak, allowing the wind to blow his already untamable hair to new heights of unkemptness, only matched in degree by a full speed run on a firebolt. The cloak blew sideways for an instant, to reveal the hilt of a sword, and a wand holstered down one leg. Without saying a word, the young man radiated an air of tiredness, of utter weariness.
Wordlessly Harry sunk down on the neatly kempt green grass, directly in front of two stark, bone-white, marble gravestones. Directly behind the two markers, a jet black, granite statue of a phoenix in flight with a lion at its feet stood looming over the graves. A large beech tree sat to one side, shading the graves. For several long minutes, he sat staring at the headstones, not saying a word. With a slightly trembling hand, Harry reached out and traced the letters, Lily, with a forefinger. Behind him, quiet as a ghost, another black-cloaked figure suddenly appeared without a sound to mark her passage.
Hermione swept her hood back from her head. She stood, biting her lip, as Harry reached out and reverently touched the inlayed image of a stag on the stone on Lily's right. With a great sigh, he settled back on his heels and sat there looking for another minute, just absorbing. "Mum...Dad, I'm sorry I haven't been by here to visit. No one told me where you were...I know that it's not an excuse...anyway, I guess you know that Riddle sorta wants me dead...but he's not going to win...not this time. You see there's this girl, yeah, I know mum but you'd like her. She's as smart as you, and definitely too good for me. She's already given me too much, far too damn much. Just like Sirius did, dad...I am so sorry dad, I buggered the pooch dad, I should have remembered the mirror, or hell I should have trusted Snape, yeah Snape can you believe it. He turned out to be a good guy, more or less, after all. At least he probably doesn't hate me as much as Voldemort, anyway." Harry paused as a familiar presence slid in beside him, silently wiping tears from her eyes. Hermione leaned her head against his shoulder, kissing his cheek as she settled in. Harry smiled wryly, "And you see dad, mum, she has this annoying tendency to follow me about..." Hermione gave a snort. "Anyway, since you haven't seen me in a while, I guess I'll fill you in, help me Mione?"
"Sure Harry" Hermione replied softly as a tear slid down her cheek.
Harry slid back onto the ground, and leaned his back against the trunk of the tree. Hermione nestled into his arms, and together they began the story. "You see, mum, dad" Harry began slowly, choking up a bit, "After you helped stop Riddle, he vanished. Hagrid showed up and took me to meet Dumbledore, and he left me with Petunia, mum, dad...It was hell, they told me you died in car accident, like a bloody car accident could have gotten you two. O' Hagrid went spare, when he found out that was the excuse Vernon had been trying to pawn off. Hagrid took me away to this place, where I...belong, Then I meet Mione and Ron on the train, oh, I forgot, mum, dad this is Hermione, she's a muggle-born mum, just like you and better than any of the other wizards or witches her age, or any one else for that matter."
"HARRY..." Hermione laughed, "I'm pleased to finally meet you James, Lily...and Harry's too modest, he's much greater a wizard than me..."
"She's the one that's too modest mum, but anyway, that first year was weird, I became the starting seeker for Gryffindor that first year..."
"And you and Ron rescued me from that mountain troll" Hermione put in with slightly rolled eyes as she snuggled closer, and Harry choked out a small chuckle.
"Yeah, there was that...it ended up being the first sign that Voldemort was coming back. He had taken over our DADA professor, Quirrell, and he was looking for the sorcerer's stone, so he could get his body back. Ron and Hermione got me through the traps the Professor's had set..."
"I remember that you got through a few of those on your own, Love, and I think it was you who stopped Voldemort." Hermione interrupted. "Anyway we went into the next year, and Harry had to be rescued from the Dursleys by Ron and the twins. Lucius Malfoy gave Ginny a diary that Riddle had enchanted somehow, and he possessed her with it. He used her to open the chamber and let out the basilisk...and stupid me, I got petrified, and Harry and Ron had to go and save the day...well Harry did anyway."
"Ron was there, Hermione"
"I know Harry, but you were the one that rescued Ginny, killed the basilisk and stopped Riddle again. HARRY..." Hermione chuckled a bit, though it was forced just a tad.
"And then came third year..." Harry smiled bleakly, "I sort of blew up Aunt Marge, you know Vernon's sister, so I ran away, and I thought the Ministry was going to snap my wand. When I got to Diagon Alley I found out that Fudge got me off as he wanted to use my name, and because, it was just then that Sirius escaped from Azkaban. And then we met Remus..."
"Yeah, it was an introduction worthy of a Marauder alright," Hermione rolled her eyes, "we couldn't find an empty compartment on the train, so we got into a compartment with some bum, who was sleeping one off. Then, because it's Harry, the train gets boarded by Dementors, and Lupin suddenly wakes up and fights them off."
"That was a weird year, Lupin taught me how to do a patronus and everyone thought Sirius was the murderer that he had been accused of, and then Hermione and Ron and I finally cornered him in the Shrieking Shack to find out that Peter had been the traitor and had been hiding as the Weasley family rat for since Voldemort was driven off." He paused and squeezed Hermione tighter; leaning forward he rested his head on her shoulder. "Then every thing went wrong, and we had to use Mione's time turner to go back and fix it. I used the patronus to fight off the Dementors from killing Sirius and me in the past, and then Mione and I used Buckbeak, he's a hippogriff, to free Sirius from the tower. Ohh and she loves to fly now..." Harry whispered conspiratorially, Hermione playfully slapped him on the leg in response.
"And then we get to our fourth year." Hermione sighed a bit, a mix of contentment, and annoyance at some of the memories. "We went to the Quiddich World Cup, and while there the Death Eaters rioted and had some fun. Someone set off the death mark above the place, and Harry got blamed...of course. We went back to school, to find out that they have decided to have the Tri-Wizard tournament again. They put up an age limit, though, which Harry and I couldn't cross."
"Hermione?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow, "you thought about trying?"
"Uh, hmm" Hermione cleared her throat a bit nervously, "Honestly Harry...I was just researching, anyway...they draw for the champions and instead of stopping at three, the goblet spits out a fourth name. Harry. Harry of course didn't put his name in the goblet, but someone else did. Harry ended up going into the finals tied with Cedric, and just as they got to the end they tied and vanish."
"There was more than that that year, Hermione, I mean that was the year that, um, anyway you believed in me that whole year, even Ron didn't." With that Hermione turned slightly and they shared a melancholy kiss. With a slight groan, "And that's where it all started to go wrong...when Cedric and I grabbed the trophy to tie for the win, it was a portkey that took us to a graveyard, where Voldemort came back...I, uhhh"
"Harry fought his way out, and got back and warned everyone that Voldemort was back. Dumbledore immediately believed him, of course, but Fudge didn't. Harry went back to the castle with Professor Moody only to find out that Barty Crouch, Jr. had replaced Mad-Eye with a polyjuice potion. He was a good teacher though" Hermione mused, "But Fudge...almost lost the war for us as he used everything he had to attack Harry in the press and other places so as to keep his power." Hermione related the last with venom laden in her tone.
"Fudge sicc'ed Umbridge on us, first she sent Dementors after me at Privet Drive, then when I defended myself and Dudley, they tried to snap my wand. But Dumbledore got me off. But then we went back to school, and found out that Umbridge has connived the Minister to make her DADA professor. She was useless, except for the torture; she was ok at that, not up to Death Eater level, but close. I was stupid that year..." Hermione let out a small sound of annoyance, but didn't comment, as Harry continued. "I was mad about being left in the dark, and Dumbledore didn't help manners by not meeting with me, or even looking at me. I got banned from Quiddich that year, too, dad. Sorry, I sort of got in a fight with Malfoy over you mum. Told you I was stupid. I was so stupid that I eventually got Sirius killed dad. God I'm sorry, but I guess you already know that. I let Voldemort trick me...I went to the Ministry, to save him...only to end up getting him killed and Mione and Ron and a whole bunch of others hurt..."
"No Harry, you know better...." Hermione interrupted again, and behind her back Harry rolled his eyes. "No, James, Lily it was all of our faults, not just Harry's, we all fell for it. I should have known better, I did try to convince Harry not to go, I ended up compromising by helping him to sneak in to Umbridge's office to try to contact Sirius, but Kreacher lied and said he was already gone to the Ministry. And then Umbridge caught us warning him, and I convinced Umbridge that her fears were real and Dumbledore had us up to something. We led her to the Forbidden Forest and we escaped with the reluctant help of the centaurs. I forgot to mention, she HATES all half-humans. She had also tried to sack Hagrid that year, but he got away, and she and several others stunned McGonagall, and sent her to St. Mungo's, that's why we had to sneak in to try to contact Sirius. But after we thought Voldemort really did have Sirius, we all went, Harry tried to keep us away, of course, but I, umm, convinced him. We got there, and we were ambushed by Death Eaters, and we fought our way out and Harry, Harry was amazing, I screwed up and got cursed."
"No I messed up and got you hurt, Love." Harry replied, and then grunted as she elbowed him in the ribs. "Mione went down, and I damn near lost it. I uhh thought she was dead until Neville told me she was alive. Neville's is Frank and Alice's son. They are in St. Mungo's now, Bellatrix tortured them into insanity about a year after you guys left. I ended up against Voldemort, but Dumbledore came in and saved me. He then finally told me of the prophecy that I had to kill Voldemort or die myself. That summer was bad, I was alone at the Dursleys, and I had nightmares every night, and no one to talk to. Finally Dumbledore let me go back to Grimmauld place. It was hard without Sirius, but it was better than with the muggles, anyway."
"Harry let me know about the prophecy then," Hermione put in, softly. "Dumbledore finally began, what he should have done years ago, and started training Harry, and later me and the rest of us to fight. Of course we had already started training ourselves last year at school, as Umbridge didn't want to let us learn combat in class, the Ministry, that is Fudge, was afraid of Dumbledore using us. Harry taught us..."
"It was your idea, Mione..." Harry grinned slightly, then went on sadly. "Voldemort started attacking randomly that year...he sprung the Death Eaters we had captured at the Ministry, with the help of the Dementors, and attacked Muggles and wizards...eventually a bunch of Dementors and Death Eaters caught Hermione in an mall at Christmas, she had gone home for the holidays, and she fought her way out. Dumbledore sent her and her parents to the Burrow, where I was staying with the Weasleys and I about died when she showed up, hurt and on the run. And then her dad got pissed about just how dangerous it was to be around me."
"Honestly Harry, I attract almost as much trouble on my own" Hermione replied, and with a sad smirk, picked up the story, "I yelled at my dad, and stomped off and only Harry followed me. And there in the woods, we both, separately, finally realized that we loved each other, though we were still too chicken to let each other know. We each didn't think that the other returned the feelings. We both became animagi while we were there, Ron had made up the potion to escape a failing grade in Snape's class. Harry's a lion and I'm an eagle. Anyway we got back to school, and Ron came up with the idea of launching a prank war, and Harry got me to go along...told you I was in love with him, the git."
"Don't let her fool you, she pulled off almost the biggest prank single-handedly, she transfigured all the Slytherins' uniforms to change into Gryffindor colors in the middle of breakfast, gave Snape fits. We also got Lupin, dad, you would have loved it, I snuck into his room at Hogwarts with the cloak and transfigured his bed into a swimming pool, and he and Tonks fell in. I forgot to tell you, Lupin is dating Tonks, she's like ten years younger, but they seem happy. The rest of last year...was complicated. Someone tried to kill Hermione and Ron to get to me, and they capped it off with trying to knock her off the stands during the Slytherin game." Harry tightened his grip as the memory of Hermione falling from the stands passed his inner eye.
"After that game, it was pretty quiet around Hogwarts." Hermione expounded softly, "but there were other things afoot, most of all Ron had decided he wanted to go out with me...I mean I love him, he's my brother, now, but he wasn't Harry, Lily. It was like Sirius asking you out. And off course Harry missed it, totally."
"Bullocks, I knew you were upset, and you're the one who wouldn't tell me what was wrong." Harry replied pointedly. Hermione sighed and nodded, and Harry let out a tiny chuckle. "See, mum, dad, I know she loves me, if it had been Ron saying that she never would have admitted it." Hermione rolled her eyes but didn't disagree, Harry just leaned forward slightly and kissed the side of her hair over her ear. "Anyway a week later, Dumbledore announced this surprise Hogsmeade trip, he even allowed the first and second years to go for like the first time in a hundred years. It all fell apart, Voldemort attacked the town in force, probably as a means of distraction so they could grab Trelwany to hear the prophesy, but it may have very well been an attack on the students too. Except for the Slytherins of course, we are after all the biggest single group of supporters of Dumbledore. We still don't know if he got the prophesy or not, when they dropped Trelwany at Hogwarts, Riddle destroyed her mind while he was trying to get it. They attacked, and we led the rest of the DA in fighting them. We lost a few in the fighting and about ten of the first and second years when the dragons attacked. In the end I was trapped in a building and Mione fought her way in and saved me."
"No Harry, we saved each other..." She turned and stared, green meeting brown, until he nodded, she nodded in reply and tuned back, "We finally admitted what we felt, there in that burning building, and we got out, only to have Dumbledore drop the bombshell that we are the heirs of Hogwarts." Hermione muttered something under her breath then, that caused Harry to smile. "After that battle, it only got worse. Ron caught Harry and I kissing, honestly our first real kiss and the git exploded, I mean he could have had the decency to wait, Honestly." Hermione growled.
"Yeah, he could have love," Harry, replied placatingly. "Ron didn't talk to us the whole train ride home, we all had to patrol the whole ride just in case, something happened, it didn't of course. Finally we got to King's Cross, and we had to go apart for a month while I served my sentence at the Dursleys. After we said goodbye, I met up with the Dursleys, and as I'm standing there I spotted Hermione getting coffee. While I'm not looking, Dudley punches me as hard as he can right in the stomach, and the Dursleys got an introduction to what a truly pissed off Heir can do. I glanced up from the floor when I felt her magic skyrocket, and saw her walking towards me, eyes glowing, glass exploding as she walked, must have looked like the ruddy apocalypse to the muggles. Mione raised her hand and levitated the Dursleys, and..." Harry looked slightly perplexed, "Just what were you going to do to them, Mione?'
Hermione shrugged in response, "I don't know, I do know they were lucky that I could feel that you were still alive. Then after Harry calmed me down, Dumbledore made Harry spend his month in hell, and poor Hedwig went spare carrying letters back and forth between us and pecking Dumbledore to let Harry out. And of course we had had to reveal our animagus powers to Dumbledore when we came up with the potion to help Remus, so I couldn't sneak away to Little Whinging."
"You wanted to sneak in to see me?" Harry asked, pleased. Hermione nodded slightly and he kissed the back of her head in response as she wiggled slightly in his arms. "Finally, Mione, Lupin, Tonks and Dumbledore came and got me, and after some broken glassware," Hermione giggled, "we went back to Grimmauld, I own it now, by the way, Sirius left me the Black fortune, he shouldn't have, but I can't give it back. We met up with Ron, and we all made up, though the fact he was shagging Luna might have helped."
"HARRY..." Hermione laughed, "You are incorrigible." Then with a sudden thought her demeanor fell, and Harry instantly felt her sudden pain though their link.
"Hermione we don't have to..." Harry said softly,
No, love, its ok, Hermione thought back, "That evening Dumbledore gave us our Heads badges and inducted us along with Ron, and the rest of the Weasleys not already in and Neville into the Order. After that month at Grimmauld, in which we weren't allowed to go out except at the very beginning, Tonks and I went shopping, Dumbledore wouldn't let Harry out...Harry you tell it..." Hermione said in a whisper.
You sure?
Yeah
Ok, "Riddle went for the sweep, we had a traitor mum, dad, just like Peter. Riddle went for the Burrow, Grimmauld and Hermione's parents house at the same time." Hermione became very still, except for her hand, which came up and squeezed one of his wrapped around her waist, "Death Eaters attacked Granddad, Ron and me at Grimmauld...that didn't work out so well for them, the rest of the attacks, however...Bellatrix and Dolohov, killed Percy at the Burrow and crucio'ed Molly. Malfoy and his herd killed Hermione's parents at the same time. Sorry love" Harry muttered. Hermione shook her head slightly.
"Harry was the only thing that let me survive, Lily. He popped up in my head when I thought I was dead, and he kept me grounded for that week or so after. I would have gone on to join them if it wasn't for him..."
"The rest of this year has been...hectic, mum, dad. Hermione and I now teach DADA for the first and second years along with Tonks, Lupin and Dumbledore for the older students. Then the war came back again, we were in on the attack on Voldemort's safehouse in Scotland; we gave him a reminder of why you should fear Halloween, the bastard. Then it was kind of peaceful, as peaceful as it gets anyway at Hogwarts until after Christmas, Ohh I forgot to mention that the Weasleys adopted Hermione and Ron proposed to Luna. Anyway after Christmas, I went with Dumbledore to Diagon Alley, and we got attacked with a lot of Dementors, we still don't know how many. Then everything was quiet for a while, Hermione did start playing for Gryffindor as a Chaser, now that she's a Weasley, almost the whole team is either a redhead, an honorary one or dating one." Hermione giggled softly at the thought. Then Voldemort finally found out where I had been hiding all those summers. He sent Lucius and Bellatrix after the Dursleys. They missed Petunia, who was their real target, but they tortured and killed Vernon before they left. McGonagall came and got us, it was a trap, but they were they ones who got their arses kicked."
Hermione gave Harry another squeeze of his captured hand. "We got ambushed, the wards stopped working since Petunia didn't consider it home any more and about ten Death Eaters apparated in. We took all of them out except Dolohov; Ron killed one that was going to kill Luna. Dolohov challenged Harry to a duel with blades, winner leaves. Dolohov had been the one who cursed me at the Ministry, and he had been at the Burrow, though we didn't find out until later. I took the Gryffindor blade from Harry and took the challenge instead. We sent Riddle his head, with complements. After that little altercation, Dumbledore figured out that we had a traitor."
"Aunt Petunia is a witch again, mum" Harry put in, "and we have Dudley in Gryffindor. Turns out he is a wizard, though we can't seem to get him to be able to use any magic. After Dumbledore snuck into our room to let us know about the traitor, how did you two put with him anyway?" Harry asked the wind. It just kept howling in response. "Voldemort attacked me in my dreams, we had mastered Occlumency, but he used six of his Death Eaters to batter his way in. Mione saved me again, and we fought him out. That one ended up not working so well for the bad guys either."
"Bullocks, that was mutual...again. Lily I wish you were here, to beat some sense into your son. "
"You love me anyway." Harry replied smugly, "About a week or two after that, we set up a trap for the traitor, and we caught him. It was Mundungus, I don't know if you know him. But when we caught him, it gave Snape away. I hate him, or rather I thought I did and maybe I still do, but we went and got him back before Riddle killed him. That same night Draco came to us, and revealed that he wanted to change sides. I don't know if I like that idea less or the one that I almost understand Snape now." He looked over at Hermione and sighed. "I don't trust Draco, maybe its all those years of antagonism, but he's in this for himself somehow, revenge against his father or something...I dunno, but I will kill him in a heartbeat if he steps out of line, I can't risk it." Harry glanced over at Hermione and whispered, "not any more." She gave him a slight frown, but nodded nonetheless.
Harry paused and regarded the sky over the Phoenix, sighed and continued on. "Now we know what Voldemort's goal is, a friend of Dumbledore's found a parchment dating from the founding of the school. Turns out that the chamber isn't merely a holding pen for the Basilisk, but that the Basilisk was just the guard dog. The Chamber is a means of killing muggles and muggle-borns worldwide. Dumbledore tried to destroy the Chamber again, but he couldn't. So I guess we are waiting for Voldemort's move. I don't know when it will be, but we're waiting. Mum, Dad, I can't let him use the chamber, no matter what it takes..."
Hermione gave a slight shake of her head, "We can't love...Lily, James we are going to kill Voldemort, and stop him from using the Chamber, even if it kills us too."
"He'll have to kill me to get you." Harry replied instantly.
"Me too, Harry" Hermione said fervently. "Harry, we live together or we die together, no other choice. So you better not die, I want to live to have those two kids."
Harry chuckled darkly, "Ok, dear, I never want to disappoint you. Mum, Dad, I miss you terribly." Harry choked up and started crying softly. Hermione eased out of his arms enough to turn around and wrap her arms around him tightly, just what she had secretly wanted to do in their third year, when Harry had overhead McGonagall and Fudge talking about Sirius at the Three Broomsticks. Harry tightened his arms again and they sat there for almost a half hour, until Harry looked up and noticed the fading light. With a groan, he rose to his feet and pulled Hermione up after him, "Mum, Dad, we have to leave, before Dumbledore notices we're gone, and goes spare. I'll..."
"We'll be back, " Hermione finished for them both, and grabbed his hand. Without another word, they both vanished, noiselessly.
For another minute the hill stood empty, the wind howling across its breadth, then a figure slowly faded into view. With a great sigh, Dumbledore walked over to Lily and James graves and softly laid a hand on James' tombstone. "I'm sorry James, Lily...Most of its my fault...I should have kept Sirius alive, I should have made it so Harry could have grown up with you...I should have stomped out Riddle when he was still in school. I promise, I'll do all I can to keep them, from meeting you in person before their time. Give Ann my love." Dumbledore sighed again, and disapparated home.
*************************Hogwarts, Great Hall*****************************
6:35 pm
Dumbledore leaned over to the grizzled wizard on his left. Mad-Eye had shown up at the castle just in time for dinner, and after casting poison detection charms for a solid ten minutes had agreed to stay for dinner. Dumbledore looked down on the Gryffindor table, at a pair of heads, brunette and jet-haired. They were eating quietly, leaning together. As he watched intently, he saw their shoulders shaking in time, as they laughed at a joke put forward by their fire-haired partner in crime. Quietly, he murmured to Mad-Eye, his gaze never leaving the students, "Well old friend...are they ready?"
Mad-eye's natural gaze flicked over to Dumbledore, while his magical eye glanced toward the Gryffindor table for a good minute, before it returned to spinning randomly about. "I don't know Albus. There's not much that we can teach them. I mean they don't know everything, blimey they are only seventeen." He faced forward again, and ate another bite. Without turning back, he muttered out of the side of his mouth, "But they can out fight any of us, hell even the little Weasley girl can take Tonks if she wants to, and the boy's damn near the best strategist I've seen in years. Potter and Granger, well they're almost scary. I think you are about the only one that can compete. I've gotten to where I have to cheat, to put anything over on them, not that I have anything against cheating, as long as it's in a good cause."
"Of course" Dumbledore replied with a soft chuckle.
"Then they are ready, Alastor?" McGonagall interjected from Dumbledore's other side. She leaned over to catch his response, as she pretended to reach for a gravy boat.
"Honestly, if they were Aurors, I'd take any of them in a heartbeat against normal dark wizards or almost any of the Death Eaters for that matter, but against Voldemort...Bloody hell, Minerva...they still have weaknesses, Potter and Granger try to protect each other before themselves, understandable but its there and I don't think we can break them of that habit anytime soon, or ever. They also don't have enough experience with their powers, if we had another five, ten years, then Riddle had better find himself a deep hole to hide in, but I doubt he will give us that much time. Potter still on occasion blames himself for things that aren't his fault, and he doesn't always admit to himself that he's as smart as he really is. Granger sometimes tries to convince herself that she's not as good as she is, and she occasionally falls back on the perfect enunciations and executions of the spells. She hasn't internalized that at their level of power, its more a matter of wanting it to happen verses perfect spell casting. That's mostly you teachers fault, though. Harry just got by in classes except in DADA until fifth year on. When it really mattered he just did it and didn't think. She thinks too much."
"So they can't win?" McGonagall hissed back in horror. She looked slightly pale at the thought. Dumbledore just sat there, with a peculiar little smirk. He nodded to Mad-Eye, who nodded slightly as his eye spun back to the Gryffindors.
"No, lass I didn't say that" Mad-Eye replied hastily, "That's what their normal hang-ups are, but the thing is...when they just go with it, they are probably the most dangerous pair I've ever seen. I mean, I've harped at them for the last two years about their screw-ups at the Ministry, but if they had been trained properly...and they did almost win more or less, they succeeded in keeping the prophesy from Voldemort anyway. At that time, Harry was the only one who had really been in the thick of it, but now they just know."
He shrugged, "as to the rest, Weasley has finally gotten over that sidekick syndrome he was under, and turned into the wizard he can be. He's doesn't have the sheer power of those two, or the instinctive tactical prowess Potter does or the finesse Granger does, but strategically as opposed to tactically he has them both beat hands down. Ginny is just very good, possibly as good as Tonks, and I feel she'd be great as an operative. Longbottom has grown into his dad's shoes. And the Lovegood girl...she's weird, but her other abilities can help make up for it, and she's not a half bad dueler either. As to the rest of the students, they're the best this school has seen in a hundred years. I don't count Riddle as a graduate." Mad-eye grinned evilly, "Put it this way Minerva, I pity the person who comes to this school looking for trouble." McGonagall looked satisfied at that and sat back. The three watched silently as down below them, Harry, Hermione, Ron and Luna got up and walked out of the hall together.
As the quartet left the Great Hall, "Just how did those two vanish today, Alastor?" Dumbledore murmured, a twinkle in his eye.
"Blimey, Albus, I just told you...they are friggin ghosts, they just vanished." Mad-Eye replied shrugging once more, in mystification. Dumbledore let out a soft chuckle and returned to his meal, periodically shaking with suppressed laughter.
******************************Astronomy Tower***************************
March 12, 2006
1:00 pm
The March winds that had blown over Wales yesterday, seemed to have followed them home. Stepping up to the edge of the tower, Harry looked down at the ground, far, far below, the wind grabbing at his cloak, threatening to yank him off and into nothingness. Ron approached, warily, and joined him at the edge. Looking down, "Yep, mate, that's a long way down." Ron whistled softly as he observed a first year, about the size of a small ant sitting at the base of the tower.
"Honestly Harry" Hermione said as she walked up the edge, unconcernedly. "This is...daft. Sweetheart you don't have to impress me." She was smiling as she finished, but Harry could feel the 'Harry, love, you're being an idiot again' vibe: she didn't even have to think it.
"I done this before, Mione" Harry grinned at her, "and besides you don't seem to have a problem with it."
"I can bloody well fly, Harry," she snarled. "And those times you refer to are? Oh yes, I remember, the first was Dementors knocking you off your broom and the second, as I recall was a combat insertion on top of a Death Eater's mansion. And I seem to believe that Dumbledore was the one controlling your fall both times."
Harry, who had not been looking at his girlfriend, suddenly snapped his head around at her tone. "Ron." Harry said softly, motioning with his head. Ron nodded and walked over to the rest of their friends, Luna was sitting cross-legged on a stanchion, while Neville was bent low talking to Ginny, obviously telling her some joke from her reaction. With a small slight sigh, Harry stepped back from the edge and looked into her eyes. "Mione, what's wrong, and don't tell me its this, and by the way that little speck is Dumbledore." He inserted, gesturing off towards the ground, and the tiny blue ant person standing by the base of the wall.
Hermione gesticulated, inarticulately, "No, you're right, its just that since yesterday, I've been thinking" Harry cracked a small smile, and she playfully slapped him on the arm in response. Oblivious to the four other teens, and Tonks and Lupin she leaned against his arm, both of them still quite close to the edge of the tower. "Do you think we can succeed?" She whispered, the subject not the one at hand, the one of jumping off a tower and using the momentum dispersion charm to provide for an easy landing.
Harry continued to look out over the castle grounds, but one of the main advantages of their link was that eye contact was only incidental to their closeness, and in the end honesty. They might trick each other for a while, but never where or when it mattered. If you had asked me that a year ago...I don't know. Now yeah. Harry replied, his thoughts warm, You were right, with what you said to mum and dad, no matter what it takes, but he's taken too much from us, he's the one who is not coming out from this.
But if...
Then we're together no matter what.
Even in this? Hermione laughed out loud, as with a breath, she SHIFTED, and flew off, circling slowly as she approached Dumbledore on the ground far below, coming?
Harry smiled and he could feel the emotion as she landed, transforming back in the beat of a wing. Tuning his back on the drop he looked back at Ron, and the rest and gave them a jaunty little wave. "Well aren't you people here to learn?" And with a laugh of his own, Harry jumped off the tower, backwards. Ron, Luna, Tonks, Ginny and Neville all sprinted to the edge, just in time to witness Harry complete a flip, and as if he were suddenly falling through gelatin, his last fifteen feet slowed to a moderate walk, and he landed on his feet with only a slight bending of the knees.
Tonks glanced over at Ron, "wotcher...he hasn't practiced this has he?" Ron shrugged; then almost jumped out of his socks as his two best friends reappeared right behind him.
"Boo" Harry said, laughingly, almost as if the shock were a continuation of an earlier, good joke.
"Very funny, you two..." Ron growled, his eyebrow inched upward, "and just what were you two discussing so intently?"
"Life" Hermione replied tersely, then gave Ron a mischievous smile, "We were discussing how odd your children would look."
Ron stepped back, and looked slowly at Harry, and then at Hermione, scanning them up and down, stopping purposefully at the rampant black mane of Harry's and the only slightly tamed by time, mass on her head. Suddenly he broke out laughing, "and you two are any better, I pity the poor child that gets the hair genetics from you two." Hermione glared back, and broke out laughing. With a nod, she conceded that point.
A/N ok that's that. Next chapter how about an actual date to Hogsmeade...that'll go smoothly right?