Unofficial Portkey Archive

A/N: Ok ladies, gents and various familiars, here we go again. Once again, thanks to Lady Starlight for her superlative work on this fic, it is much appreciated.

Chapter 22: Potters' Bequest
****************************Hogwarts*********************************

October 30, 1997 (Thursday)
10: 20 am

Slightly vexed, Hermione looked on, as Ron failed, again; to feed the Unicorn that Hagrid had acquired for them study today. She looked about the class from her spot leaning up against Harry as they sat under a handy oak tree set a bit up on a small rise near Hagrid's hut, warmed by a hasty warming charm courtesy of her husband while they waited for the Unicorn to allow someone to approach it. Hermione was half temped to explain to their giant friend just why the unicorn, the symbol of purity, was not letting the majority of the students near, but she didn't want to ruin his class. He was just so happy that Harry, Ron and her were back in the class. She shook her head as she took in Parvati and Lavender sitting together doing what looked to be Divination homework from the chart that they had spread out on the grass and Ernie and Susan slipping off behind Hagrid's hut, Hagrid had never quite mastered the concept of 'class control'.

Hermione shared a glance and a miniscule smile with Harry before he looked back down at his notes. She bit her lip as she closed her eyes and let Harry read for both of them, as she listened to his internal dialogue. Unfortunately what they were studying today had little to do with creatures. Both Harry and she, and probably Ron, were getting frustrated with the Horcrux hunt. There had been no real leads on the Horcruxes, since that false Horcrux had caused them to have to deal with Inferi and damn near get killed. There had been no sightings of the Hufflepuff cup, and they still had no definite idea what the Ravenclaw item was, of the two possibilities, Rowena's staff, of which Hermione had finally found an old woodcut image of in the 23rd ed. of Hogwarts a History, was the one that she felt the most likely for some reason. She really didn't think Voldemort would repeat himself with another ring after having already used the Riddle ring for one.

They had even gone to the condemned, abandoned orphanage that had already been searched once to no result. Hermione had walked in the front door of Borgin and Burkes with blond, straight hair and in an outfit that had caused Harry blood flow issues, with a money pouch that exclaimed money and tried to get information on the Cup or possibly Rowena's item, but also to no effect. They had canvassed Knockturn Alley both openly and covertly, and had, during one heart-rending night, returned to the cave where Dumbledore's fate had been sealed.

Harry had transfigured the entire shallow lake to oil and roasted the remaining Inferi where they slept before he had let Hermione or Ron in the cave.

There was of course one Horcrux that they knew of and knew were it was, more or less, but that was absolutely the last one that they could destroy. Nagini was at the same time the most vulnerable and most dangerous of the Horcruxes. Most vulnerable because despite her size, and fangs and poison and whatever other enhancements Voldemort had enchanted her with she was still a living creature, and as Lupin had said in a particularly memorable training session, if it breathed it could die, even Voldemort.

But it was also the most dangerous as those who were destined to destroy it, if anyone could, had to do so at the absolute last moment lest Voldemort finally cotton on to what they had done. For a brief while and without adding to Harry's fears, Hermione had worried that Harry would be vulnerable to the freed soul fragments, but then she had realized something. Voldemort in his full powers had not been able to possess a much less powerful Harry at the Ministry; his soul fragments wouldn't either, especially against a Wizard with two more years experience and powers that just might rival Voldemort's own.

Hermione flicked her eyes open again to find that Parvati had had even less success in luring the Unicorn to the apple in her hand, and closed them again, content to listen to Harry's voice in her thoughts as he recounted the notes. Ron should have been over here with them using the time to look over Horcrux information but he was not. Ron was looking over Quidditch plays and debating with a large notebook and several scraps of Parchment spread about whom he was going to get to replace Ginny. Hermione knew he was just trying to cope the best he could, and he was being responsible, but the old "why don't you play Harry," debate had returned. To be perfectly honest, if Harry wanted to play she would not say a word other than cheering for him at games, but Ginny's flight had only redoubled Harry's determination to find the Horcruxes, if that were indeed possible, and Hermione was really tired of anyone hurting Harry.

Hermione's eyes cracked open as the bell rang and she looked down at her watch, Hagrid was over leading the Unicorn to a paddock as the rest of the class left and Harry frowned over at her and started to pack, but stopped with a small grin as she slipped down from his shoulder to rest her head in his lap and look up at him with a grin in her eyes before she closed them, Don't you have Runes? Harry asked, knowing quite well she did.

Shut up, Potter, I'm resting...besides Glyph had to go into London for a family emergency or something. No class...

Make me do all the reading. Harry groused as he started to idly comb his fingers through her hair. He looked up as Ron mouthed, "I'm off to look for Luna, see you at Lunch?" and Harry nodded.

You needed to catch up with the research side anyway. Hermione replied, not mentioning that she knew Ron had headed off as Harry knew so she did...occasionally it did get a bit confusing where one of them left off and the other began. She smiled as he bent down to kiss her before straightening up.

Sometime later after several minutes had passed Hermione felt herself being nudged awake. She had dozed off in the warmth and security. Mione...listen, according to this register of known magical artifacts, the Potter family lent several artifacts to the British Museum when my dad was still in school.

So...your family is an old Wizarding one, they of course might have things that have cluttered up some castle attic somewhere...oh...She suddenly realized what he was thinking.

Yeah, what if that night he... Harry stopped suddenly as Hermione remembered afresh what day it was. Tomorrow would mark the sixteenth year since Voldemort had walked into the Hollow; his thoughts freshly filled with the words of a traitor, and had killed both of Harry's parents. He continued after she reached up with her mind to gently hug him without moving a muscle. What if he never had it with him that night? What if he had already made it with something from my family? Hermione sat up and leaned back against the tree at his side and looked down at the parchments in his hands, copies of copies of old Prophets she had found with a Googling Charm. There is a ring in the collection and the supposed dating would match Rowena's.

You know what I think, but lets look into it anyway. It'll be tough to do at night, maybe try during the day, go in openly. The British Museum isn't some little touristy thing like Sherwood Harry...we'll need help.

He frowned as she gave him a small, odd look shrugged. I didn't want to bring any of the others in Mione...I only let you and Ron come along because you won't leave me alone.

Thanks...Hermione replied sarcastically.

You know what I mean. Hermione bit her lip but nodded and looked around. She wormed her way around until she sat in his lap and kissed him hard enough to raise his blood pressure. She smiled, a Cheshire grin and rolled off his lap and snap-kicked her way to her feet in one motion, intentionally flashing him as she did. Damn it woman, Harry griped as he took a breath and glared at her and she smirked, before they collected their things and headed to lunch. You just had to wear the fun skirt didn't you?

It is sorta short...she mused, looking down. Maybe I should get rid of it.

Don't you dare, Harry replied instantly as they passed through the main doors of the castle.

Don't worry dear, dear husband of mine...I have like three, four more of these. Her eyes twinkled as she took his hand again and led them into the Great Hall for lunch. And just think of all that free time we have tomorrow.

*********************Transfiguration #1***************************

2:33pm

Transfiguration with Tonks was a entirely different experience from those years of study they had experienced with McGonagall. It was not that the young Auror, only a bare few years older than the seventh years crowded into Transfiguration One, did not know her subject. No, in many ways she was as much a master of this subject as the Headmistress or Dumbledore ever were, as where they had learned almost everything there was to know about the subject through tireless study, she had literally been born feeling the transfiguration potentials.

So all in all, her lessons were often, eclectic, bouncing from unrelated subject to subject, as the mood might strike her, unlike McGonagall's strictly linear teaching style. A habit that would have greatly annoyed the girl sitting next to Harry, periodically sharing a glance or a muffled snort as Tonks would trip over something like a dust mite or a Kneazle hair on the floor, with the dual exceptions, that she had already read the entire seventh year book, twice, along with the recommended reading list for the Doctoral Track in Theoretical Transfiguration, so she knew what Tonks would teach in class at least, and the fact that she was too busy occasionally teasing Harry by playing with the hem of her skirt and pretending he wasn't watching her. It was a pretty good thing that she had made him read the same material too.

"Mr. Potter," Tonks said suddenly, and his eyes shot to the front of the class to catch the soft, amused twinkling he found there, in a pair of knowing, dark eyes. "Can you demonstrate the Agwa Metallio charm?" she asked as she extended a thick, steel bar to him and set it on the table in front of him.

Harry crooked an eyebrow and looked up at her as she smirked slightly and changed her hair from Gryffindor red to a dark, dark green. "What forms would you like...Professor L...Tonks." Harry finished with a smile.

Tonks looked as if she wanted to laugh, "A dagger and a teapot would be fine Mr. Potter." She stepped back to watch. Harry's eyes ran up and down the bar as if measuring, then with an odd, rolling flick of his wand and a long, mouthed sentence of Latin that Tonks knew that Harry had gotten perfectly just from the expression on Hermione's face and the odd, suspicion that the Heads really could read each others' minds, the bar glowed a bright pink and shook several times before dropping back to the table.

Tonks picked it up and said loudly and distinctly, "Teapot." A shining copper teakettle, with an inlayed picture of the Thestrals towing the carriages on the students' arrival at Hogwarts, appeared as the metal bar flowed up and expanded into a pot. She smiled slightly, "Dagger." The teapot flowed back into it's original bar shape, the metal changing color as it did so, before flowing into a ornate, dagger with a wire-wrapped handle, and fancy, gold-inlayed engraving all the way to the tip of the blade. She smiled and nodded, "Excellent, Mr. Potter, fifteen points to Gryffindor.

Tonks stepped back, almost tripped on the hem of her robes, again, and looked out over the class, "Can anyone give an example of a practical use for this charm...Miss Granger?" Tonks said carefully, her and Lupin had been catching themselves almost slipping on a daily basis. The actual fact that the Potters were really married was of course under a Fidelius Charm, that only Harry or Hermione could bestow the knowledge of, but that still didn't keep one's brain from trying to fill in the blank.

"That Transfiguration is most often used to have one of several needed tools available to those such as Aurors who might need a verity of equipment with them, but not have the space or time available to either carry them all or transfigure or conjure them." Hermione smirked just slightly as if to say, "Yes I was flirting with my husband Nymph, we know where you and Lupin live and we are both Marauders as much as you or he are, do you want to bed to become a large swimming pool some morning?" Her gaze was rather expressive when she wanted it to be.

Tonks gave her a small motion of her fingertips to her forehead, as if awarding points in a practice duel, "Correct Miss Granger, another ten for Gryffindor." She stepped around her desk and looked through a pile of papers before looking back up at the class, "Originally I was going to have Headmistress McGonagall in here this afternoon to help demonstrate effects that one can see when you try to transfigure a magical animal or object, but she was tied down with covering for Professor Glyph today with the third years, so...Wotcher, you have a free day..." The class let out a soft cheer, "providing that you have your comparative essays on the Incan Transfiguration series and how they compare to modern practices completed, it is ten feet due next week people." Groans greeted her announcement and she sniggered slightly as the majority of the class glared at her before heading in the direction of the Library.

"I guess I better go get started," Ron muttered, he looked at Harry, "you coming mate?"

"I'm done Ron, for at least a week or two," Harry replied softly.

Hermione's eyes were huge as she looked across Harry, and he covered his face with his hand. He had told Ron last week to start it. She let out a small huff as she got up and didn't look at him she went to talk to Tonks. Harry shook his head as he began to pack Hermione's books, "She has you whipped mate," Ron whispered, chuckling as he watched Harry gathering Hermione's bag as well as his own.

"Why didn't you start it Ron?" Harry asked tiredly, trying not to laugh as the more things changed the more they stayed the same.

"Bloody Hell, Harry, I think you were there, let's see, Quidditch, various dark forces out to get us, my girlfriend, I dunno, I got busy."

Harry shook his head, laughing under his breath, "And how is that different from any other week?" He glanced up at Hermione deep in conversation with Tonks, and from the byplay he could overhear in her thoughts Tonks was asking Hermione about dress choices for Tonks' wedding, whenever it was that her and Remus actually got around to it. "Oh well, mate...I'm the one getting laid tonight, while you'll be working on that essay."

Ron looked at him oddly, "Last I looked my girlfriend was blonde, not brunette mate..."

"Oh, I know, and I thank God for that every day bro," Harry replied with a small glint in his eye as he shouldered both his and Hermione's bags and stood. "But Hermione is helping Luna with her Arithmancy tonight...and you know how they like to talk about us, and I think Luna mentioned something about your homework just the other day."

Ron looked a touch pale as Harry left him standing at the table. Harry slipped up next to Hermione and kissed her on the cheek as he took her hand and they left out the door to go somewhere not involving homework.

************************Hogwarts, Library******************************

October 31, 1997 (Friday)
8:30 pm

Hermione gasped silently against the skin of Harry's neck as he smirked and pressed her back against the wall of the Library, far, far back in the stacks. She was wearing "fun skirt number two," evidentially, as it was flipped up for easy access and held up by the pressure of their bodies together. She closed her eyes and moaned, as his fingers played under her knickers, what there was of them. She managed to pull his lips to hers as first one, and then a second finger slipped home and started to dance to the same rhythm as his tongue with hers.

Her heart sped up, faster and faster until she felt herself crashing, her eyes rolling back in her head as she fell forward limply, trusting him to hold her up. She took a deep, shuddering breath before she trusted her legs and leaned back against the wall. "Ready to continue on this course of study Mr. Potter?" she whispered throatily and reached forward to start to unbuckle his belt...

"'ERMIONE...'ARRY," a familiar, slightly accented voice rang out from the front of the stacks, and Hermione leaned forward and dropped her head to Harry's shoulder in resignation. She gave him a small smile as he waved his hand to clean them up and she carefully smoothed her skirt while he tugged her jumper back down. More or less presentable, they marched up to the front of the stacks where Gabrielle was standing looking sheepish.

She looked up at their approach and Harry could swear the eleven year old, smirked, but she kept it hidden if she did. Hermione gave him a small shrug and looked down at the small girl, who looked up at her and pulled on a platinum braid. "What's wrong, Gabrielle, why aren't you at the Halloween feast?"

Gabby's look in return more than amply asked why they were not as well, but she didn't voice it. Instead she frowned and looked down slightly, "I...iz left my Tranzfiguazion bookz down near 'Agridz... can you?"

Hermione rolled her eyes slightly, "Sure Gabby, lets go get them," she glanced over at Harry, then over at their pile of books stacked on the table, where their investigations had been interrupted for a "study break." Harry went and grabbed her heavy outer robes and tossed them to her, and started to gather his, "It's alright Harry, stay here; we'll just be a minute." He opened his mouth to object. "It's alright, Har..."

"Harry, Hermione..." Honor came running into the Library, her black hair in disarray. She looked as if she had been laughing hard enough to burst a gut, and she seemed to be still letting out soft, periodic giggles under her breath as she looked up at them.

"Yes?" Harry asked mildly, and Hermione fought off giggles of his own as she heard his thoughts.

"You guys need to come quick...Ernie and I were patrolling...someone turned Crabbe into a...well...a jackass."

"He already was, Honor."

"No...I mean a real, jackass, ears, tail, everything," she giggled softly and Harry felt his eyes dancing, "we can't change him back and we don't want to bother the Headmistress in the middle of the feast." The slight, black-haired girl broke down in giggles then and Harry sighed and looked to Hermione.

"You go handle the jackass Harry," Hermione replied with an utterly straight face, "I'll run down to Hagrid's with Gabrielle and get her books and join you." Harry frowned, not liking that plan but nodded and let her leave, knowing that she could take care of herself.

Several minutes later, Hermione and Gabrielle were panning the beams of their lit wands over the dewed grass near the trees overlooking Hagrid's hut where Gabrielle and several of her classmates had been studying outside on a particularly nice day, warmer than yesterday. Hermione looked up as Gabrielle shouted and held up a damp, leather-bound book. A smile began to blossom and then died as her eyes flared green as a dark presence bounded out of the forest and a red beam shot out of the darkness to fell the little girl.

Hermione turned as a hard, dark voice came out of the night and resolved itself into a hated visage. Fenrir grinned at her as he slipped between her and Gabrielle, "Potter's little slag...it will be fun, breaking you." His nose flared and he laughed, "I can still smell him on you, I hope you had fun, I ensure you that I won't be as much so...at least for you." He looked at her meaningfully, "I rather will however." He steeped back and waved his wand in the air, "LUNARIUM"

A bright shining ball of white light appeared at his shoulder and he began to change, stretching, growing. Fur sprouted along his body, as his clothes tore away and his jaw distended. Three-inch fangs hung from a wolf-like face as he gathered himself and sprung.

Time slowed as Hermione's eyes lit brighter and she flipped backwards out of the way. She landed in a backwards summersault, and shrugged off her heavy outer robe, leaving herself free to move in only the dark jumper, skirt and trainers she had had on under it. She reached back to feel a pair of familiar friends slide into her hands. Twin, twelve-inch blades gleamed in the light of the quarter moon high above and the false one still hovering near them as she pulled herself into a ready crouch, balancing on the balls of her feet. Argentium, she murmured and her blades flickered briefly in the moonlight, seen only by her. She glanced over at the unconscious first year, and knew she could get away, that she could outrun even this werewolf for long enough to gain the castle, which even a were wouldn't have a chance of getting out alive of, but that really wasn't a choice, not with a family member on the field. She could feel Harry sprinting towards her, moving much faster than humanly possible, and knew she just had to keep Fenrir busy until then, if she could.

Fenrir sprung, leaping the ten feet between her and growled as she danced backwards and snapped a kick into his shoulder. He howled and bounded again, hissed as her sliver blade drew his blood and laughed in his head as his claws tore into her leg. His teeth were the real danger of course; he had to bite her to turn her, though he intended to kill her in the end, perhaps after having a bit of fun first. His claws shot out again towards that injured leg, but missed as she flipped sideways and landed hard, staggering on that damaged thigh.

He looked at her, a dark, malevolent intelligence in his eyes and sprinted for Gabrielle. Hermione gasped and the pain in her leg vanished, and all of a sudden, she did the impossible. A breath of air whispered as she vanished and reappeared in front of the girl.

Greyback's eyes were wide as he slashed at her face, and watched as his hand-paw was blocked in a pair of crossed blades, Hermione pulled them together with more than human strength and a blood-curdling scream echoed into the night as his hand-paw fell away with a spray of blood, without pause, she rolled inward along his extended arm and thrust upwards under his jaw with her right hand dagger. A loud crunch, the werewolf's eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed to the ground. She let the dagger remain where it was as her other slipped from her hands to fall to the grass.

Hermione staggered backwards, her damaged right leg folding under her, just as Harry's arms stopped her collapse. He dropped to the ground as Ron, Remus, Tonks and McGonagall came running up, the elderly witch clearly out of breath. A bare two minutes later, a dozen DA members were lighting the area with their wands and forming a perimeter. Hannah Abbot, Susan Bones and Luna surrounded a revived Gabrielle and hurried her back to the castle under guard. Harry whispered a charm and a small, floating ball of light hovered above he and Hermione and he looked down at her worriedly. She smiled up at him, slightly drunkenly, as he tenderly felt up under the side of her skirt and jumper searching for unseen damage. "He just scratched me, Harry, no teeth." She said softly and both Harry and Remus looked relieved. Harry's eyes still glowed softly as he ran his wand along the four parallel gashes in her thigh and closed them up with almost no trace of a scar left behind, only four faint, white lines against her thigh.

His head fell against hers, I'm supposed to be the one, who gets the scars...God damnit Mione...you scared me.

Scared you, she shot back incredulously, breathing heavily, as the adrenaline overload slammed into her. Big fucker with teeth was out here... McGonagall looked on them as if they had lost their minds as they started quietly laughing together as their brows touched softly. Harry waved in the direction of Greyback and caught her daggers in his hand, flicked his wrist and they vanished with a small pop of light. Without so much as a grunt, Harry rolled to his feet with her still cradled in his arms, and started back towards the castle. I can walk, Hermione commented softly, but sighed as he just kept walking, leaned her head against his shoulder and let him carry her, But this is nice too.

None of the wizards or witches trailing them commented that Harry could have just levitated her if she couldn't walk.

Behind them at the body of the werewolf, now once again human, or as human as Fenrir Greyback had ever been, Ron, Hagrid and Remus looked down at it with undisguised loathing. The Seventh Year and the Half-Giant watched as Remus spit on the corpse's face. Remus turned his back on it, "Hagrid, burn it, somewhere where no one will ever find the ashes. Let Tom wonder what happened to his...dog."

**************************Head Students' Quarters**************************

9:35 pm

Hermione walked out of her and Harry's bedroom in her old, ripped jeans and a Lions sweatshirt, having changed out of her torn and bloody school uniform, and curled up in a small ball next to Harry on the couch. She looked up, not concerned at all with propriety as this was their home after all, and glanced around the room at the various people scattered about the room.

An impromptu council of war for what was, for all intents, the Order of the Phoenix, the part that supported Harry anyway, was assembled in their Common Room. Harry had briefly deactivated the Wards to allow Mad-Eye to Floo in to the room, while Tonks, Minerva and Remus had just arrived. Their quarters had been chosen, as they were more discrete than either Minerva's office or the Room of Requirement.

The students were not unrepresented either, Neville had arrived in the escort of Ron and Luna and sat at a chair by himself looking slightly overwhelmed. He had already been told that he might hear things that he would not know of. He took a sip of a conjured cup of something as he watched Hermione shiver a bit and reach over the back of the couch for a throw.

Hermione smiled at Harry as he flicked his wand to conjure a pitcher of milk and a plate of cookies. She took two and scarfed them, before looking up and shrugging at Neville's odd look. "Harry's and my metabolisms are on overdrive Neville...we are wizards, but we still have to use the energy to move and such. And at the rate we were moving tonight, I am sorta sugar crashed." She grinned slightly, "How do you think that Dumbledore stayed so skinny all those years the way he ate every sweet in the universe." She looked over at Ron pointedly, "I can't actually explain Ron, though. Honestly, I can't...I've tried."

Ron pretended to laugh, and took several cookies pointedly.

Harry smiled at her fondly before he took a breath and looked up at Mad-Eye. It was probably better for all concerned that Hermione was mostly leaning on him and Voldemort himself would have to come in the door before he would disturb her, as she felt the anger in him gather like the clouds at the forefront of a storm, "Before we begin," Harry said in a flat, lethal tone as his eyes swept from Hermione to focus on Mad-Eye. Both of Moody's eyes, real and fake focused on him, "I would like to know...Just what the fuck the so-called Order is doing these days. How the hell is it that my w...girlfriend could be attacked not five hundred yards from the bloody front gates of the castle."

"Harry..." Hermione snapped.

"Are you that overwhelmed that..."

"HARRY JAMES..." Hermione snarled and sat up. She took a breath as the blanket fell from her shoulders, "I...am...fine."

"Yeah, NOW," he hissed back and the rest of the room fell suddenly silent, "What if that had been Tom, or what if they had had more werewolves or..." His eyes dropped from hers to glare around the room, anywhere but at her.

"Harry," She grabbed his chin and forced him to look at her, "I am fine, love, just a couple more scars, now calm the fuck down." Or I swear by Merlin your arse is sleeping on this fucking couch tonight and will until I let you back in the bedroom, she added silently, as she looked into green eyes filled with...Oh, my god, Harry...Baby, I'm sorry...

No one in the room except them existed as he sighed and pulled her into his lap, shaking slightly as he fought to keep in what he had to until this meeting was over, He set it up Mione...he wanted to give himself a birthday present and remind me, your body would have made a hell of anniversary card on the lawn. Look I killed your parents sixteen years ago...now I killed your wife...Happy Fucking Halloween...

Then it's funny how he keeps fucking up on this night then isn't it...He didn't get you sixteen years ago, Quirrell didn't get me with the troll, his stupid blood warning on the wall just put us on the trail of his Basilisk instead of scaring us, and his fucking dog is feeding the Acromantulas or something. She cracked a tiny smile and kissed his nose. But your question was valid...and don't you love the Fidelius charm? His eyebrow rose for a second before he nodded as she turned to the rest of the room, Securiata The defensive wards flashed to full strength and she took a breath, "However inelegant my..." she didn't even grin, "husband's presentation of the question was, it is still valid, just what the fuck does the Order do these days?"

For the first time in her almost six and a half years at Hogwarts, Hermione had the pleasure of seeing Minerva McGonagall with an expression of total bewilderment. She sat back in her chair looking from one of them to another, her eyes wide behind her square glasses. Mad-Eye did not looked as if the news affected him much either way. Neville did not look nonplussed at all, he just rose slightly from his chair and extended his hand to Harry, "Congratulations mate," he said simply and sincerely and sat back down.

"What..." McGonagall started in her burr, "But none of the school records changed...how long...who married you?"

Hermione took pity on her, "Taking them in order, the fact is under a Fidelius charm," she held up her and Harry's joined left hands to show their now visible rings, "Since the day before that picture in the Prophet was taken, my birthday in other words and Dumbledore." She pointed over her shoulder at the so-far silent portrait. He waved.

"Is that legal?" McGonagall asked, stunned, and Harry and Hermione shrugged in unison.

"It's legal in our eyes, that's all that matters in the end," Harry replied softly and looked at Alastor, "but that still does not answer my question, what is the Order up to," Moody opened his mouth to speak and Harry shook his head forcefully, "and if I hear that we are too young or some such foolishness, I will openly break with the Order tonight."

Mad-Eye growled something under his breath and pushed himself to his feet and started pacing. The clump of his wooden leg on the stone floors echoed in the sudden silence for a long minute, before he stopped and took drink from a burnished silver flask he took from a hip pocket. "Not a bloody thing lad," Moody admitted after a long moment, "not a bloody thing." He glanced around the room, and sighed, "in fact the only reason that you are alive today is that you have become more individually more dangerous than the Death Eaters. There hasn't been a watch on any of you since the end of school last year, not a real one. The Dursleys' protections were pulled when you left...and Stilton died at the Grangers." He looked at Hermione and shrugged, "When Albus was alive we had real protection on your parents lass, but now..."

"What happened to all of the members?" Harry inquired, his voice odd as he shared a look with Hermione.

"Albus stopped recruiting last year, he was busy with something else," Mad-Eye replied simply and looked at Remus, Tonks and Minerva, "and there are few left who are actual fighters. Vance, Dodge, Bones, Jones, they're all dead. Kingsley has almost totally gone back to working for the Ministry exclusively, and Remus and Tonks here, and I suppose me, we're on the outs..." He took another sip, "When Voldemort was striving for power the first time, we had fighters, Harry, your parents, Sirius, the Prewitts, but now most of them are old and scared, the ones that are still alive anyway."

"But we have them Professor," Neville piped in suddenly and every eye shot to him as if they had forgotten he was in the room, he straightened in his chair and carefully set down his cup on the coffee table, "Right now, we you could have another twenty members, maybe more, in the fight."

McGonagall spun, "There will be time for that later, Longbottom."

Neville stood suddenly and Harry was reminded afresh that the soft, timid young man of their past was long gone, Neville's shoulders subtly squared about as he looked at her, "With all due respect, ma'am...we are in the fight," he waved violently towards Harry and Hermione, "Harry since he was born, Hermione and Ron since they were eleven and the rest of us for years as well." Neville's eyes tightened, "My parents are stuck in St. Mungo's, their minds raped for Bellatrix's amusement, Ron lost a brother and still may lose another, Susan has lost her entire family now, and Hermione damn near did, and SHE AND HARRY HAD TO SAVE THEM." He took a breath, and looked sheepish, "I am sorry ma'am I will accept whatever punishment is appropriate for raising my voice out of turn, but I will not apologize for my point. We are the ones fighting now, not just Harry."

"You don't know what it's like out there," Remus said softly, unthinkingly.

Hermione let out a soft sound as Neville clenched his fists and paced away, his eyes dark and hard. "Yes, we do," Luna put in, in an oddly lucid, diamond-hard voice before anyone else could respond. She didn't move her head from Ron's shoulder as her eyes focused on his, "Do we know what it's like to see the red mist shining in the flickering light of spell fire after you've delivered a Reductor to some random Death Eater's head...I've seen that in my dreams almost every night Remus..." She quieted abruptly and closed her eyes, her piece said.

A tear tried to escape McGonagall's eye as Mad-Eye turned back to Harry, "what do you want then lad?" he asked resignedly.

"Support, and not holding out on us because we are kids," Harry replied, "I'll..."

"We'll..." Hermione whispered.

"We'll kill Voldemort," Harry said determinately, "I have something to live for after all, you lot just keep his followers busy until we can be ready to strike."

Alastor nodded and carefully did not look in Minerva's direction to see the look of newfound horror on her face, "Fine then Harry, I'll come by the next DA meeting and we'll discuss the best way the Order can..."

"NO," Luna and Neville snapped as one, Neville looked to Luna and she nodded, "We will follow Harry," she announced like it was a fact rooted in the very bedrock below, "He's our leader, and he's the one who will kill Tom, no one else."

There ya, go...next chapter, the Order is back in business, a surprise for ya'll, and we catch up with some little redhead or another.

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