- CHAPTER SEVEN -
School Year: 1997-1998... AWOL
The Great Hall, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Saturday, 1st August, 1998
Harry was taking a few moments to gather himself, his wife doing the same next to him. While he was thinking, he called out to the audience, "Does anyone have any questions regarding what we've revealed so far?"
Rita Skeeter stood up, well aware that she was on very rocky ground with the magical powerhouses on the stage. "You mentioned the word 'Horcrux' several times, and said in a very vague form what they did. Would you be able to clarify what these are?"
Hermione nodded, leaning forward in her chair. "In very basic terms, a Horcrux is a torn-off piece of soul. By keeping it separate from the body, it anchors the individual in question to the Earth. They cannot be killed. Voldemort had six of these evil creations. In total, he actually made seven, but after Harry destroyed one in 1993, Voldemort decided to make another. At the end of our sixth year, we didn't know for certain what these were. We had speculations, but nothing else."
"May I ask what you thought the objects were?" Skeeter asked politely.
"As we stated, Voldemort considered Hogwarts his home, not to mention another untapped source of magic. Founders' relics were what he wanted. Now, we told you earlier that during the lessons with Professor Dumbledore, we'd researched the relics. Slytherin only had two relics; the locket and the ring that had been in the possession of the Gaunts. The ring had been destroyed by Dumbledore. The Slytherin connection was reinforced by the diary that Ginny Weasley was corrupted by in her first year, since it allowed her to speak Parseltongue."
Skeeter nodded, her quill scribbling away next to her.
"There was only one relic from Helga Hufflepuff, and that was her goblet. That was in the possession of Hepzibah Smith, and was stolen by Tom Riddle in the early fifties. Her house elf was blamed for the crime. Smith had also bought the locket from Borgin and Burkes, and was something else that Voldemort coveted.
"Ravenclaw had three relics, one of which was confirmed destroyed in the Grindelwald war. Her battlestaff. The other two relics were her Battle-Bow, which had been held by a collector since 1898, and was under lock and key the entire time. The other was her diadem, which had gone missing centuries ago.
"Finally, Gryffindor. With the possible exception of the Sorting Hat, which has been proclaimed as Gryffindor's work, the only relic is his sword. The sword chose Harry back in '93, but it will accept requests by another, provided those requests are worthy. And, those requests have to be made through the Sorting Hat."
Skeeter blinked. "That seems... odd. A sword choosing it's wielder, I mean."
"'The wand chooses the wizard, Mr. Potter.'" Harry said, in a rough approximation of Mr. Ollivander. "If a piece of wood with a bit of dead animal inside can choose it's wielder, why not a magical blade?"
"Good point." Skeeter admitted. "And the sword was not one of these 'Horcruxes'?"
"No." Hermione said. "The sword was, in fact, about the only easy way to destroy a Horcrux. Thanks to the 'adventure' in the Chamber of Secrets, the sword possessed the power of Basilisk venom. But, that's later."
Skeeter was counting on her fingers. "Wait a moment. The ring, the locket, the goblet, the bow, the diadem and the diary... that's only six in total. You said he made seven."
"Correct." Hermione said slowly. "But, the Battle-Bow was never a Horcrux. As we said, it had been held by a collector for almost a century, and had never been taken. We even wrote to the owner, who confirmed that it was intact and untouched. No, there were more Horcruxes. We'll come to those shortly, though."
Skeeter nodded and sat down.
Harry looked at Hermione. "I'm ready to continue. You?" She nodded, prompting Harry to look back at the audience. "So, I returned back to Privet Drive, while Hermione went with her parents. However, we were now becoming desperate with regards to our foci. Our wands simply weren't enough in a combat situation. We were both running the very real risk of the wands exploding. So, one thing we did was gather books, wood and suitable core materials. I started sorting through my various ingredients and components in the Dursleys' cellar during that last summer.
"Now, one thing that's not commonly known is that you cannot use metal when creating a magical focus. Those rumours about 'cold iron' impeding magic are entirely true. If you use a metal file or a drill bit on a wand, you'll make the wood become magically nonreactive, making it pointless. So, we had to wait until we could get appropriate wood and tools.
"Next, we had to pick items that we knew would be able to work together, and we also had to use powerful items. Ollivander uses phoenix feathers, unicorn tail hairs and dragon heartstrings. Those substances, while certainly powerful, don't, as a rule, play nice with each other in a magical focus. Wands are generally too small to be multi-cored. Staffs were our only choice."
Hermione cleared her throat. "Since we'd been researching this on and off for almost a year, we'd collected quite a few useful samples. Fawkes had donated two tail feathers for us, one each, and two full vials of his tears. Healers' wands are bathed in phoenix tears, it helps them cast medical spells."
"So, we had our first two components, good for light magic and healing spells. For combat spells, we thought about something that had exceptional prowess in battle. Initially, we considered dragon heartstring, but then we realised that dragons are only combat-effective because of their immense size and magical resistance. No, they were no good." Harry said. "So, we looked a little closer to home... didn't we, Mr. Moony?" He turned and looked in the communication mirror.
"I'm still amazed Moony let you." Remus said. "Even with Wolfsbane, I don't like to be plucked."
Hermione smiled at the crowd. "Werewolf hair. A single strand each. Then we asked a half-giant of our acquaintance, who gave us a hair and a small blood-sample. Hagrid's blood in our staves gives us an almost twenty percent in a boost to the spells cast, and gives us exceptionally strong shielding charms."
"For a boost in transfiguration spells, we asked a Metamorph of our acquaintance."
Tonks blushed in the mirror, but kept silent.
"Because of her powers, Tonks doesn't actually have hair, as such. Her body is basically pure transfiguration magic. A hair of hers gave us some excellent transfiguration help." Harry turned to the mirror and winked, before turning back. "Hagrid was able to supply us with some other ingredients, thanks to his work in the Forbidden Forest. Because the unicorns often leave hair behind in the bushes as they run, we were able to get some good samples there."
Now it was Hermione's turn to blush. "I went into the Forest to speak to a unicorn. According to myth, they only like virgins, and I wasn't one anymore. That's not true. What they like is pure people, and both myself and Harry were that. I was gifted with a few drops of freely given blood."
The crowd gasped. Unicorn's blood could keep anyone alive, even if they were an inch from death. That was known. But it would curse the person who had slain the unicorn the take the blood. However, there was one ancient legend, about a person being raised from the dead by having freely-given unicorn's blood administered. It was that powerful.
"There were other branches of magic that would be gained by having an additional core." Harry said. "Bowtruckles are guardians of trees. Hagrid managed to convince one to give up two of it's claws, and he managed to pluck an Augury, giving us a feather each. That was Herbology and nature magic all sorted. We were thinking about adding components from the basilisk, but they can only be used for 'Dark' magic. We didn't include those."
"The last two components in our staves are Re'em blood, which was hellishly expensive in the Apothecary in Diagon Alley, and Demiguise fur, which was probably even more expensive. Still, I'm married to one of the richest men in the Wizarding world, and our quest was a noble one. The money wasn't an issue. And we now had everything we could think of. All we needed was the wood for the staves, and the runes, and we'd be set." Hermione concluded. "But, we'll come back to those later."
"Yes." Harry said. "While interesting, it's not tremendously relevant to the tale. They do play a part, but not until the end of our story. So, I was at the Dursleys. Hermione told me that there was a plan to safely extract me, but they couldn't reveal it until the day they came. I had to spend a huge portion of time persuading the Dursleys to leave by the time my birthday rolled round. Finally, they agreed and two members of the Order of the Phoenix turned up to escort them away."
"The plan for escaping Privet Drive was pretty basic." Hermione said. "A group of us arrived at the Dursleys and explained that we couldn't Portkey away, even though Harry had been sneaking out to my place and back, couldn't apparate since Harry was still officially underage, and Pius Thicknesse, the replacement Director of the DMLE had made it an imprisonable offence to hook Harry's house up to the Floo network."
Harry stared at Percy. "Tell me, Minion Weatherby... why do you think that Thicknesse implemented these absurd rules?"
Percy didn't flinch. "According to the reports in the Ministry, it was to make certain that no-one was able to penetrate your home and kidnap you. It was done for your safety, and you would do well to remember that."
Harry and Hermione roared with laughter. "What utter bollocks!" Harry spat contemptuously. "It was done with the sole purpose of making it impossible for me to leave before the Blood wards came down. In short, it was meant to work in Voldemort's favour, not mine. So, we were left with only one recourse: flying. The plan was simple: The Seven Potters. Six people would take a dose of Polyjuice with my hair in it, transform into a version of me and be escorted away by a member of the Order. Misdirection, plain and simple."
Hermione smiled warmly. "I was one of those who'd be transformed into a fake Harry. Let me just say, it felt very odd to be Harry." She smirked at him. "Very odd to be on the other side of that equation."
Rolling his eyes, Harry just shook his head. "Alastor Moody, may he rest in peace, also told me something very curious. He told me about 'the trace', which apparently is how the Ministry of Magic tracks underage magic. Weasley, any comment?"
Percy frowned for a moment. "What exactly are you asking?"
"Is the trace real?"
"Of course." Percy sounded mildly offended by the question.
"Well, it's utter bollocks, Percy. There's no such thing as 'the trace'. It's all a fabrication from the Ministry. The truth of tracking underage magic is actually done by the registration book. As soon as a magical person is born, their name is written in the book. There are two copies of the Registrar. One is held here at Hogwarts. The other is held by the Ministry. As soon as a magical person is detected, a series of detection wards are placed by Ministry warders to notify the Ministry of any instances of underage magic. That's how, when Dobby cast that spell in my second year, that the Ministry noticed it. If there truly was some kind of 'Trace', it would never have happened. So, why was Moody telling me about something that doesn't exist?"
Percy said nothing.
"Could it perhaps be that the Ministry had placed a special charm on my husband, Mr. Weasley?" Hermione asked, ice in her tone. "Perhaps they felt the need to hold him to a higher standard than anyone else, especially considering that he was so politically inconvenient?" Hermione glared at Percy for a moment, before shaking her head. "It doesn't matter anymore, does it?"
"So, we split up." Harry said. "I was with Hagrid on the back of Sirius' motorbike. Moody had six cages, with stuffed owls in them for effect. Of course, I had no desire to subject Hedwig to a mad dash across the country in her cage. Hell, no. Instead, I'd already released her, and Moody made me another stuffed owl. Hedwig was gone and safe." (1)
"During that frenzied escape, a huge group of Death Eaters chased after all seven Harry Potters. However, while I was fighting my way to freedom, which oddly enough, never generated a letter from the Improper Use of Magic Office, I showed my hand by using an Expelliarmus instead of a deadly spell. Voldemort came, attacking us. Hagrid tried to outrun him, but we were simply outclassed. My wand fought on it's own, sending a blast of golden flames at Voldemort, taking him out of the fight. Unfortunately, the motorbike had taken heavy damage during the fighting and the sidecar, where I was sitting, sheared off. My bag was in there, my owl cage and my broom."
"Not quite, dear." Hermione said. "The Firebolt from Sirius was at my place, along with my own. I'd already packed them away for our field trip. What he had was a transfigured broom, like the one Dee had confiscated during his fifth year. Why take the chance of having such a precious gift destroyed? No, it was safe. Harry managed to grab his bag before the sidecar fell, and Hagrid hoisted him off the bike. When Harry told me about that, I had the silliest image of Terminator 2." She looked at the blank expressions on the audiences' faces. "Muggle thing. Never mind."
"While the sidecar was falling to the ground, I cast a Confringo curse, making it explode and giving us some cover as we ran. Fortunately, we were able to make it to the Tonks house before the bike crapped out on us. We portkeyed to the Burrow and we were safe."
"Eventually, most of us made it there safe and sound. George Weasley had lost an ear to Snape's Sectusempra, but other than that, we were okay."
Snape cleared his throat. "I had to make it believable, didn't I? Plus, it was a Weasley."
Harry winced at that last comment, but said nothing. "Eventually, most people made it back. Unfortunately, Mad-Eye Moody fell in battle." Harry stood, raising his nearly-empty glass of Butterbeer. "Moody!" He roared, swallowing the drink. He sat back down, taking his wife's hand again.
"However, things at the Burrow were... uncomfortable. It was while we were packing that we began to get an idea of just how uncomfortable..."
Flashback: The Burrow, Ottery St. Catchpole, Devonshire
Tuesday, 29th July, 1997
Harry sighed as he looked at the immense collection of books that he and Hermione had obtained over the last six years. He knew they couldn't take them with him. He'd need some kind of... of dimensionally transcendental space to carry them all. They'd have to leave some behind. But which ones? What the hell books do you take with you when you're being chased by a homicidal madman and his band of merry masked lunatics?
Hermione had already begun sorting through them, leaving behind the more obviously useless tomes. Ron's collection of Gilderoy Lockhart books had been happily banished to the bottom of the wardrobe (since their copies had fuelled a barbecue four years ago... and that was a very enjoyable bonfire.) The early Herbology textbooks would be left behind, as would Ron's entire collection of Quidditch books. Everything that they'd received from Dumbledore (which was most of his private collection) had been packed already, as well as a couple of very dark books from the Restriction Section. The entire Black Family library had been transmuted into a single indexed book, weighing nearly five kilos, but containing over two hundred books. That would be useful.
Other subjects, the early potions, charms and transfiguration textbooks, the OWL-level Arithmancy book and everything they had on Astronomy would also be left behind in Harry's trunk. The Ancient Runes books would be coming with them, since they had no idea if they'd need anything on wards or breaking them.
The other subjects they'd studied, the non-curriculum subjects, had already been packed, since neither Harry nor Hermione had any inclination to let the Weasleys see the truth depth of their knowledge or skills.
Hermione came into the room, scowling lightly, Crookshanks hot on her heels.
"Problem?" Harry asked, looking up at his wife with concern.
"Ron." Hermione said in answer. And really, what more did she need to say?
"What did he do this time?" Harry asked, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"He was telling me that we shouldn't let this mission get in the way of our relationship." Hermione said bitterly. "He was saying that maybe it would be better if we were to stay behind and let the Order take care of the mission."
Harry chuckled. "So, he's afraid."
"That's no excuse, Harry." Hermione said sternly. "I'm afraid and I'm not gonna let that stop me. I said I'd stand with you. Everything that I am, remember?"
Harry grinned goofily. "Yeah, I remember."
She smirked at the silly expression on his face. "Stop grinning, you fool. You'll give the game away." After Harry had sobered up, Hermione looked back at the books. "Molly's still trying it, you know."
Harry sighed. He'd been cornered by the Weasley matriarch on several occasions, some of them rather obscure, in the hope of making him spill his secrets. "What did she try this time? Did she burst into tears yet?"
"No, that was last time." Hermione said with a sigh.
Ron came bustling into the bedroom, staring at Harry sitting entirely too close to Hermione for his comfort. "So, how's it going?" He said in a fake jaunty voice.
"It's fine, Ron." Hermione said, getting back to sorting out the books, Crookshanks working his way around the pile. "Any news on Mad-Eye yet?"
"No, nothing yet." Ron said with a sigh. "Remus and Bill both went out to look for him, but they couldn't find him. The Death Eaters probably cleared up after themselves."
Harry glanced at Hermione, finding that comment accurate, but in pretty bad taste. "Possibly. I mean... they transfigured old Crouch into a bone, didn't they?"
"Don't!" Hermione winked at Harry before she burst into fake tears. He'd seen her crying at Dumbledore's funeral, and knew fake from real.
Ron bolted from his bed, aiming to get to Hermione and comfort her. He pulled a dirty rag from his pocket, cleaning it with a Tergeo, before handing it to Hermione. He knelt down next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.
Suppressing a growl, Harry watched the scene coolly. "You know what Mad-Eye would be shouting if he were here." He said in a voice of ice.
"'Constant Vigilance'." Ron quoted.
No, he'd be telling you to get the fuck away from my wife, Weasley! Harry snarled mentally, nodding slowly. "Yeah. Let's practice a little of that while we sort through the rest of these books. Ron, I think I saw one of the Arithmancy books down in the living room. Could you grab that, mate?"
Ron didn't even look up. "Why don't you get it?"
Confundus! Harry cast, his wand flashing into his hand. The spell hit Ron square in the back. "So, it's by the fireplace."
Nodding blankly, Ron stood up, stumbling to the door.
"Harry." Hermione said sternly, before looking up at him. "Thanks, Harry. I don't like him that close to me."
"I know." Harry sighed. "But, we have to make it believable. We have to keep up the fucking charade until the mission's over."
"Language, Harry." Hermione said. "I still hate it, though. I hate being here. I hate the fact that Ron's using cheesy moves from a bloody book about how to woo me. Does he think that I'll be impressed by him studying? Enough to excuse the fact? Gormless wanker."
Harry chuckled. "I know. It's tacky, isn't it? Anyway, I don't think... shite, he's coming back." As Ron entered the room, Harry skilfully changed the subject. "So, they're both safe, then?"
Hermione instantly knew what he was talking about. "Yes. They've been conditioned."
Ron grimaced as he realised what they were talking about. "I know it's painful, Hermione." He said supportively. Or what he thought was supportively, anyway.
Grimacing, Hermione nodded. The truth of the matter was, Daniel and Emma Granger had indeed been moved to Australia. Hermione had loaded them onto the plane herself... with her husband at her side. The foursome had flown to Australia, where Hermione had set up a set of mental shields over the couple. If Voldemort or the Death Eaters attempted to read their minds for information about Harry or Hermione, or even administered any magical substance or spell, a piece of conditioning would kick in.
All knowledge of Hermione Potter, Harry Potter, Hogwarts and magic would be suppressed, leaving a pair of fake personalities in control of the bodies. Wendell and Monica Wilkins would be born of Daniel and Emma Granger, with no knowledge of a daughter. Neither Dan nor Emma had wanted to go along with the idea, but a visit from Professor McGonagall, Remus and Tonks had them sufficiently informed. Neither of them wanted Hermione to go, but they never said a word. They knew they couldn't stop her. She'd agreed to stand by Harry, and by Merlin, she would!
Her parents protected and safe, Hermione had flown back to England while Harry used the Portkey function on his communicator to head straight back to Privet Drive. The mission was carried out perfectly, and no-one was any the wiser.
Ron sighed. "We'll get them back. You'll see."
Hermione nodded. "Thanks, Ron." She looked at Harry, who nodded, making her feel much better.
Harry smiled at Ron's angry look. "Yes. We would get her parents back. Safe and sound. And they are, if anyone's interested. Back at home. They enjoyed their sojourn to Oz, but they're glad to be back."
Hermione took over the story. "Molly was still getting in the bloody way of our planning. She kept giving us chores, hoping that if we were all kept busy and away from each other, we wouldn't be able to plan our mission."
"Of course, the great Hermione Potter would never let anything so insignificant as chores get in the way of her planning." Harry said, smiling as he said her name. Her real name. "My good wife had packed an emergency bag, which contained pretty much everything we'd need. We had the tent that we'd used for the Quidditch World Cup back in '94, all packed and ready. We had food, supplies and various other necessities. We were about as ready as we could be for a long term field assignment."
Hermione leaned over the side of her chair, grabbing a bottle of Butterbeer from the cooler she'd stashed there earlier, passing it over to Harry before she grabbed another one for herself. "So, Harry's birthday was next."
"I woke up on the 31st, and I was giddy. I could do magic, whenever I wanted, however I wanted! It was brilliant. I admit I was a big kid and played with everything. Then, Ron handed me my birthday present. A book. Ron Weasley had bought me a book!" Harry pretended to swoon for a moment. "Of course, when I opened it, I was very disappointed. It was my own copy of Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charms Witches. And personally, I thought this was in really bad taste. I mean... as far as he was concerned, I was into his sister. And he was giving me a book on wooing witches?
"I got a couple of useful presents. A Sneakoscope from Hermione, an enchanted razor from Bill and Fleur, which was nice, 'cause my Mach 3 was dying, and I didn't need to replace it now. The Weasleys gave me a fob watch, since it's apparently a family custom. I kept that in my trunk. I had no desire to damage it, and I knew that the mission would be hazardous.
"Later on, at my birthday party, Hagrid gave me a mokeskin bag. The great thing about a mokeskin bag is that only the owner can take anything out of it. So, my Firebolt, my invisibility cloak, the Marauders' map, a number of my books, all were put into this bag, so that if something were to happen and we lost Hermione's emergency bag, we wouldn't be out of it. I also had a bundle of cash in there, just in case we needed it."
"My seventeenth birthday was curious for two reasons; Ginny and Scrimgeour. While I was taking my presents up to my room, Ginny asked to speak to me..."
Flashback: The Burrow, Ottery St. Catchpole, Devonshire
Thursday, 31st July, 1997 - 10:12
"Harry, will you come in here for a moment?" Ginny asked, standing in her bedroom doorway.
Harry could almost feel his wife's eyes narrow at the request, but she said nothing. She took the presents out of Harry's arms and nodded slightly, the message that she had his back if he needed it. With an inaudible sigh, Harry stepped into Ginny's bedroom, swallowing nervously when the shut the door firmly.
"Happy seventeenth." Ginny said softly.
"Thanks." Harry replied, looking round the room. At least Ginny had better taste in decorations than Ron did. Instead of the migraine-inducing orange of Chudley Cannons posters, she had the deep purple of the Holyhead Harpies. It made the room seem much more soothing... which wasn't really doing anything for him at the moment. He gestured to the window. "Nice view."
Ginny ignored him, controlling the flash of irritation she felt at his casual dismissal of her. "I couldn't think what to get you for a present." She said finally. "So, I pondered what I could give you to remind you of me."
Please say she's not gonna try and shag me. Harry thought, unconsciously taking a small step back. "You didn't have to get me anything, Ginny." Although, you still seem to think that I should get you something.
"I didn't know what would be useful to you on your... quest." She said. "Obviously, it can't be too big, 'cause you wouldn't be able to take it with you."
Probably wouldn't want to, either. "Ginny, it's fine. I... I appreciate the thought." I'm never gonna get into heaven the amount of lying I've been doing lately.
She took a step closer to him, making his palms sweaty. Hermione, dearest... I need you!
"I wanted to make sure that you wouldn't forget me while you're gone."
No chance of that. You've been stalking me for years. I still have nightmares about you. "I don't think I could forget you, Ginny." And I've tried, believe me.
She stepped closer, wrapping her arms around his neck. "I don't want you to find someone else while you're away. I want you to come back to me, Harry." She leaned up and kissed him. Unable to control himself, he pushed her back, spitting on the floor. His wand was in hand and a memory charm cast before he blinked. Ron opened the door, seeing his sister dazed and blinking and immediately leapt to the right conclusion. Fortunately, Hermione was directly behind him, casting another memory charm.
"Ron, you walked in on Harry and Ginny..." Hermione barely contained the urge to gag, "kissing passionately. As soon as they saw you, they sprang apart, embarrassed. Ginny, you and Harry enjoyed a very passionate snog, but you're bloody annoyed at Ron for breaking it up." Hermione clicked her fingers, then suppressed a grin when Ginny glared coldly at her brother.
"Ron!"
Harry took the chance to get the hell out of dodge while Ginny began to berate her brother. While they were bickering, Harry headed straight to the bathroom, taking the toothbrush Hermione offered him and beginning to scrub his mouth out.
Harry had to stop grinning as Molly, Ron and Ginny all glared at him on the stage. He wasn't fazed by their annoyance at all. After all, he'd just completed his mission. There probably wasn't a wizard alive who could take him. The only person who had a chance was sitting beside him, and would never raise a wand to him in anger.
"Later in the day, during my birthday dinner, the Minister of Magic turned up. And that was curious..."
Flashback: The Burrow, Ottery St. Catchpole, Devonshire
Thursday, 31st July, 1997 - 17:51
Harry led the procession into the living room, Scrimgeour stomping in after them. Harry sat on the couch, Hermione right by his side, leaving Ron and Scrimgeour to take an armchair each. Harry noticed the glare that Ron gave them, but ignored it for the moment. Right now, he had to deal with someone who was a lot more threatening than an irate redhead.
Scrimgeour took a moment to stare at the three, hoping that he could unnerve them. It worked well on the Weasley kid, but both Potter and Granger simply stared back, completely unimpressed. "I am here, as I'm sure you know, because of Albus Dumbledore's will."
Harry shook his head. "I didn't know that, actually, Minister. Forgive me for seeming rude, but what does Dumbledore's will have to do with any of us? I'd imagine everything he has either went to the school or to his brother."
"You'd think that, Mr. Potter." Scrimgeour said, enjoying being able to tell the brat he was wrong. "And you'd be correct for the most part. However, Dumbledore left a bequest for the three of you."
Harry's eyebrow shot up. "Dumbledore left us something? Why?" Of course, Dumbledore had already passed across most of the things he wanted to. He and Hermione had been the recipients of all of valuable magical books, leaving only the routine books to be donated to the school.
"I was hoping you could tell me, Potter." Scrimgeour said. "Why would Dumbledore leave you something?"
"I don't... hang on. Why are we only being told about this now?" Harry asked. "He died almost six weeks ago. His will should have been read within a fortnight. What have you been doing for the last month?"
Scrimgeour's eyes narrowed. "If you'd stop interrupting and answer my questions, I'd tell you." He snapped.
"It's obvious, Harry." Hermione said bitterly. "They wanted a chance to pick through whatever he left us. To ignore common decency and interfere in things they have no right to look at."
"Watch your mouth!" Scrimgeour snapped. "The Ministry has the right to inspect anything of this nature. The Decree for Justifiable Confiscation-"
"Has been abused!" Hermione snapped. "You have no right to invoke the decree for Dumbledore. That Decree was designed to stop Dark artefacts being passed on to people. It does not give the Ministry carte blanche to interfere!"
"You say potato..." Scrimgeour said, dismissing Hermione's entirely valid protests as irrelevant. "Mr. Weasley, I shall begin with you." He reached into his pocket, pulling out Dumbledore's Deluminator. "This was your bequest." He handed it across. "Do you know why Dumbledore left that to you? It's a highly valuable piece of equipment. Almost certainly one of Dumbledore's inventions. Why would he leave this to you?"
Harry caught Hermione's eye, and winced slightly. He knew why. He knew that it contained a tracking signal. Dumbledore had told him about it at the end of first year, about how it was one of the tools Dumbledore used to keep him safe. Although he agreed with it in principal, he had no desire to have the device in Ron's hands.
"I don't know." Ron said. "I mean... I know what it does, but I don't know why he'd give it to me."
"Dumbledore was the headmaster of Hogwarts for over forty years, Mr. Weasley. He was a teacher for nearly twenty years before that. Why do you think he left that item to you, when you three were the only people listed by name?"
Ron just shrugged. "I don't know, Minister."
Scrimgeour scowled, before turning to Hermione. "For you, he left a copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard."
"A book?" Hermione's face lit up. "He left me a book? Cool!"
With another scowl, Scrimgeour passed the battered tome over. Hermione took it and opened the cover, reading the contents page, before she turned to the first chapter.
"Why do you think Dumbledore left that to you, Miss Granger?" Scrimgeour demanded, eyeing Hermione closely.
"Because I'm a bookworm, Minister." Hermione said, not looking up. "He must have known that I hadn't read this one." She smiled warmly at him, her eyes twinkling in an oh-so-familiar manner. "I'll certainly enjoy this, sir. Thanks for delivering it." She oozed sarcasm, which wasn't lost on Harry or the Minister.
"Did you ever discuss codes or any means of passing secret messages?" Scrimgeour demanded.
"No, sir. Never." Hermione said innocently. And it was true; Professor Snape had taught them that useful little skill, with Tonks adding her two pence worth.
Scrimgeour grunted before turning to Harry. "There's two things for you, Potter. The first is this." He reached into a pocket, pulling out a small golden ball, about the size of a walnut. "In his will, he said, 'I leave the snitch he caught in his first Quidditch match at Hogwarts, as a reminder of the rewards of perseverance and skill'."
Harry smiled. "Cool! I was wondering what happened to that. I read in Quidditch through the Ages that seekers get to keep the snitches they catch. I always wondered why I never got that one."
"Why did Dumbledore leave you this snitch?" Scrimgeour asked angrily. This meeting was not going the way he wanted it to.
Harry blinked. "Didn't he say in the will? 'A reminder of the rewards of perseverance and skill'." He looked at Hermione. "That's what the Minister just told us, isn't it?"
"Yep."
"You think this is just a keepsake?"
Harry frowned. "What else could it be? It's a snitch. As far as I know, it's just a snitch." He paused, looking suspicious. "Do you think it could be something else, Minister?"
"I'm the one asking the questions!" Scrimgeour roared. "And you will answer mine, boy!"
"Ah-ah." Harry said patronisingly. "I'm of-age now. You have to call me 'man'. Not boy."
Scrimgeour ignored the rebuke. "I noticed your birthday cake is in the shape of a snitch. Coincidence?"
Harry chuckled, and looked at Hermione and Ron. "Aren't I a bit of a Quidditch buff?" Both Ron and Hermione nodded. "Seeker?" More nods. "And wasn't I something like the youngest seeker in a century?" Again, they nodded. Harry turned back to the Minister. "I really don't know, Minister. Personally, I think it's some kind of secret code."
"It could be." Scrimgeour said thoughtfully. "You know, a snitch is just big enough to hold a small item, Potter. Is Dumbledore passing something to you?"
"Other than the snitch, not that I'm aware of." Harry said thoughtfully. "Except he wants me to remember the rewards of perseverance and skill."
"Are you referring to the fact that a snitch has a flesh memory, Minister?" Hermione asked, not looking up from her book. "I'm sure that's what you're insinuating. Harry, you should take hold of it. It won't do anything, of course, but the Minister won't trust you..." She trailed off as she turned a page. "Ah... yeah, the Minister won't trust you until you touch it."
Harry shrugged and took the snitch, tossing it up and down. "Nope, doesn't seem to be anything but a snitch, Minister." Harry put the snitch into his pocket, feeling it's tired wings fluttering lightly. "You said that Dumbledore left me two things. What was the other?"
Scrimgeour's eyes narrowed. Harry and Hermione could tell he was disappointed by the lack of response from the snitch. "The final item was the sword of Godric Gryffindor. However, we are not allowing that bequest to be honoured."
Hermione looked up, one eyebrow cocked delicately. "Oh, this'll be good."
"The sword is an important historical artefact, and it has never belonged to Dumbledore. The Ministry has confiscated that item." Scrimgeour leaned back in his chair. "I'm curious, though, as to why he left it to you."
"Perhaps Dumbledore felt that I should have another reminder about the rewards of perseverance and skill, sir. I did, after all, kill a basilisk with that blade in my second year." Harry said nonchalantly. Inside, however, he knew the real reason, and he knew that the Ministry confiscating the sword was a blow against their quest.
"I believe there to be another reason, Potter." Scrimgeour said. "I think that Dumbledore believed only the sword of Godric Gryffindor, wielded by the Chosen One, can kill the Heir of Slytherin. Is that true?"
Harry shrugged. "Here's an idea; why don't you send an Auror to poke Voldemort with a sword and see what happens. If he keels over, I'll volunteer to go and poke him with Godric's sword. How's that?"
"You try my patience, Potter!" Scrimgeour snarled.
"You've already exceeded mine!" Harry snarled back. "You're supposed to be the Minister of Magic, for fuck's sake! You're supposed to be leading the country! And what are you doing with your 'valuable' time? You're picking over Dumbledore's bones! Looking for some quick way out!" Harry allowed himself to calm down. "I think we've finished here, Minister. Thank you for delivering our bequests. I'm sure you can see yourself out."
At that moment, Arthur and Molly rushed into the living room...
"Scrimgeour had spent the previous month working on that snitch, the book and the Deluminator. He hadn't planned any new campaigns against Voldemort. He had made a lick of difference in the war. All he'd done was pore over those three items." Harry sighed. "No wonder we were bloody losing. Our leaders had no sense of priority at all."
Hermione let out a soft snort. "Still, we now had these items. Scrimgeour had no choice but to hand them over, since the Decree for Justifiable Confiscation only gave him thirty-one days to check them out. The book was useful, not that Scrimgeour could ever find that out. The Deluminator would give Ron the ability to track us, something neither of us was particularly thrilled about, to be honest. And the snitch? Well, the snitch... I leave that 'til later."
The audience groaned slightly, prompting Harry and Hermione to smile. Harry leaned over his shoulder to look at Dumbledore. "Would you care to tell them, sir?"
Dumbledore's portrait shook his head. "Far be it from me to interrupt such a fascinating tale, Harry, my boy. You're telling this better than I ever could." Dumbledore twinkled at the audience, before looking back at Harry, who was again facing front.
"I'll say one thing about the snitch. There was a short message inscribed on the snitch, telling me when to use it. It stated 'I open at the close'. Moving on, Bill and Fleur's wedding was next. Bill had pretty much healed from the attack by Greyback, although his face was scarred. As Fleur said in the Hospital Wing on that night, she's pretty enough for both of them. They got married without a hitch... well, with a hitch, actually. Ow!" Harry scowled, rubbing his now-bruised arm, Hermione looking innocently at him.
"After the wedding, we saw several people milling about. Xenophilius Lovegood, Luna's father was there, wearing an odd symbol on a chain around his neck. That symbol is important later in the story. Krum attended the wedding after Fleur invited him, and he noticed the symbol. Said it was Grindelwald's mark. He didn't like Xeno wearing it.
"During the reception, I sat with Elphias Doge, and I congratulated him on his tasteful obituary in the Prophet. Of course, Ron's Great Aunt Muriel turned up, and started on about those bloody articles from Rita Skeeter in the paper. Talking about Kendra Dumbledore."
"Ah, mother." Dumbledore said cheerfully. "A lovely woman. You'd have liked her, Harry. In many ways, Lily, and indeed Hermione, remind me of her. A Muggleborn, bright, beautiful... a true delight to know."
"The subject of Arianna Dumbledore came up. I didn't know who she was. I didn't know that the Dumbledores lived and died in Godric's Hollow. Of course, I knew my parents were there, but I'd never gathered up the courage to go and see them."
Hermione squeezed his hand as he spoke.
"Albus never told people about his sister. He had his reasons for doing that, and we shall cover them in due time. So... where was I? Ah, yes. Muriel badmouthing Dumbledore, Viktor Krum glaring at Xenophilius Lovegood because of the symbol he was wearing, which was Grindelwald's, and people were drinking, dancing and having fun.
"And then Shacklebolt ruined it. Or rather, his message ruined it. I still remember it, even now. It was short, it was simple and it was horrifying. Shack, you remember what it was?"
In the crowd, Shacklebolt shrugged. "Not really, Harry. It was a difficult time."
"Yes. Yes, it was." Harry said. "It was a mere ten words, but they were scary as hell. The message was: 'The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming.'" The way Harry said it made several people get goosebumps, cold shivers racing up and down spines. "And they were coming. In fact, by the time we realised what the bloody hell was going on, they'd arrived. Death Eaters crashed the wedding.
"Hermione grabbed Ron, sadly, and disapparated the three of us out of there. We appeared in Muggle London, and headed into a café. While we were there, three Death Eaters attacked us. We disabled them, memory charmed them, and left, heading to our last refuge. Grimmauld Place. The Ancient and Noble Shithouse of Black."
"Fortunately, I'd kept hold of my emergency bag." Hermione smoothly took up the monologue. "And Harry still had that mokeskin pouch round his neck. We still had all our gear. Despite our... abrupt departure, we were able to carry on with our mission."
"I had another vision while we were at Grimmauld Place." Harry said. "Which is to say I had a great splitting migraine with pictures. Voldemort was pissed that we weren't all killed or captured at the wedding. Poor Rowle was being tortured. Of course, since he was a murdering psychopath, neither myself nor Hermione really felt that bad for him.
"Also, that evening, a Patronus arrived from Arthur. He basically told us that the Weasleys had gotten out safely, but they were being watched. We couldn't go back, but at least they were alive and well. That was enough for us at that moment.
"We prowled around Grimmauld Place, seeing if there was anything we could use. I found a stash of letters and stuff in Sirius' room. Letters from my parents, describing Bathilda Bagshot. More and more things were pressing us to go to Godric's Hollow. But why? What was in Godric's Hollow that was so important? And why would all this information about Dumbledore's past be coming up now? How was it relevant, now that the man was dead? So many questions, and nowhere near enough answers."
"When I woke up to find Harry missing, I admit, I panicked." Hermione said softly. "I ran through the house looking for him, just in case he'd passed out or had another vision. I found him in Sirius' room, and he showed me the letter. I, too, was curious. It seemed we were being pushed."
"One other thing while we were wandering through the house. We found the name 'Regulus Arcturus Black'. 'RAB'. The initials on the note inside the fake Horcrux. During the summer after our fourth year, while we were waging war against Grimmauld Place, we'd come across this dirty old locket that none of us could open. When looking at Dumbledore's memories of Tom Riddle's past, both me and Hermione got that little flash, telling us we should recognise it, but we didn't. It never occurred to us that both of us had held one of Tom's bloody Horcruxes in our hands. Personally, I think the Horcrux had some charms on it that made us forgot. A bit like a notice-me-not charm."
Hermione nodded. "Yes... both me and Harry have nearly perfect recall. We should have recognised it, but we just blanked. It must have been a spell."
"But now we knew. We knew who'd taken the locket. Regulus Black. A Death Eater who'd turned. And Regulus' most faithful servant was still around. Kreacher!" Harry called out, summoning the ancient elf to him. With a crack, Kreacher appeared on the stage, staring balefully at the audience.
"How're you doing, Kreacher?" Hermione asked softly.
"Mistress asks after Kreacher's health?" The elf asked. "Mistress is too kind. Kreacher is well, thank you, Mistress."
In his portrait, Sirius blinked. "He's... nice?"
"Padfoot." Harry said sternly, before looking at the elf. "Kreacher, we were just discussing what happened when we arrived at Grimmauld Place in August of last year. We'd appreciate any contributions you could make."
"As master requests." Kreacher said, bowing slightly. As he leaned forward, a shiny gold locket could be seen hanging round his neck.
"While we were searching Regulus' rooms, Hermione remembered the locket that we'd seen had been at Grimmauld. I remembered, too. I'll admit, I felt like a bloody fool for not remembering it sooner. I immediately called Kreacher, who appeared."
Kreacher nodded, his ears flapping slightly. "Master asked Kreacher where Master Regulus' locket had gone. Kreacher told him the dirty shambling man stole it."
Harry chuckled. "He means Mundungus Fletcher. That rotten scoundrel had stolen one of the most important artefacts in the Wizarding world. If Voldemort had gotten wind that he had it, he'd have been dead instantly. Kreacher then explained that Voldemort had requested the service with an elf. Of course, at that time, Regulus was a loyal Death Eater, and immediately volunteered Kreacher for the duty."
Kreacher nodded again. "Kreacher was taken by the Dark Lord to a cave by the sea. Beyond the cave was a cavern and a boat. There... there was a cauldron full of shiny green potion. The Dark Lord made Kreacher drink the potion..."
Dumbledore's portrait gasped. "Kreacher, I'm so sorry."
"Kreacher thanks Master Dumbly-door." Kreacher said solemnly. "Kreacher did not like shiny green potion. After Kreacher finished potion, and burned and writhed while Dark Lord laughed, he dropped a locket into the cauldron, and put more shiny green potion inside. Then the Dark Lord sailed away, leaving Kreacher to die in cave."
Several of the more moderate people in the audience (mainly Muggleborns) gasped at the cruelty, while the bigoted purebloods nodded in satisfaction. It was all the elves were good for, really. Of course, thanks to the new laws, those bigoted purebloods would soon be receiving a swift kick in the proverbial nuts if they tried anything like that.
Harry cleared his throat. "Then, Kreacher told us that he apparated out of the cave. Since Voldemort thought that House Elves were basically vermin, he never considered the need to create anti-apparition wards that would stop an elf. This gave us a possible avenue of attack. We weren't sure what'd be needed, though."
"Master then gave me Master Regulus' locket." Kreacher said, turning and half-bowing to Harry. "Kreacher was honoured at the gift, and left to find dirty shambling man."
"We expected Kreacher would be back within a few hours." Hermione said. "After all, House Elves can go pretty much anywhere, and they're very powerful. But, Kreacher didn't come back for several days. While we were waiting, a pair of Death Eaters took up station in the grassy square outside Grimmauld Place. They didn't try to come into the house, which we found curious. Surely the death of Dumbledore had weakened the secret."
Harry smirked. "Ron believed that Professor Snape would have given the address up to Voldemort. Of course, we knew better than that. The only reason Professor Snape would give up the address is if we told him to."
Snape's portrait nodded slowly.
"We even managed to send him a communiqué, just a short one. He explained that the Death Eaters were moving slowly, gathering in the shadows. Voldemort's paranoia was at full power, so he wasn't sharing his plans with anyone, except those who needed to know."
"Then, we had a visitor..."
Flashback: The Black Family Manor, #12 Grimmauld Place, London
Friday, 22nd August, 1997
Harry was headed into the kitchen when he heard one of the jinxes that Moody had placed activate. "Severus Snape?"
An oh-so-familiar voice called out gently, "It was not I who killed you, Albus." The dust golem dissolved again.
"Identify yourself!" Harry snapped, his wand in hand.
"I am Remus John Lupin, otherwise known as 'Mr. Moony'. I am the proud husband of Nymphadora 'Don't-Call-Me-Nymphadora!' Tonks. I was your DADA teacher for your third year, and I and one other introduced you to Mr. Patronus Prongs."
Harry lowered his wand, not seeing Ron and Hermione stood behind him as he threw himself forward, wrapping his unofficial godfather in a hug. "Hey, Moony." Harry felt a pair of impossibly strong arms wrap round him ribs, but he wasn't worried.
"Hey, cub." Remus said thickly. "Been a while. You okay?"
Harry could tell what Remus was asking. "Yeah... there hasn't been any more attempts. We're all okay, Moony."
Remus pulled off his cloak, revealing his shabby robes. "Still no sign of Severus, then?" He managed to produce a suitably nasty snarl and sneer. "Shame..."
"No. I don't think we'll have one, to be honest." Harry said, reaching up to brush his hair back, and flashing his watch, a single finger extended. "I wouldn't mind a word with him."
Remus reached up to scratch his nose, using two fingers. Harry nodded imperceptibly. "I don't think you're the only one who wants a word, Harry." With a sigh, Remus led the trio into the kitchen, sitting in front of the fire. "There's a lot to tell you."
After garnering suitable refreshments, the foursome sat to speak. "First of all, everyone is being watched by Death Eaters. These Death Eaters now include a number of Ministry Aurors, who now had funky new tattoos to go with their Auror robes."
Harry nodded, sighing angrily. "How much of the Ministry does Voldemort control?"
"The whole shebang, Harry." Remus said. "Did you three come here straight after the wedding?"
Hermione shook her head. "Nah. Had to lose of couple of Death Eaters on Tottenham Court Road. Ron thinks that Harry may still have the trace on him."
Remus scoffed. He knew the trace was bollocks, but he realised that they needed to keep up the act around the youngest male Weasley. "That's impossible. The 'trace' disappears on your seventeenth birthday. And even if it hadn't, the pair of Death Eaters outside would undoubtedly be using it to come in here and capture you. No, there must be another reason."
"Yeah, we spotted them." Harry said, making Remus nod his head, awarding him a point. He knew from experience that Harry and Hermione's magical detection was at least on a par with Dumbledore's. For them to miss a pair of Death Eaters... nah, it was too ludicrous to even mention.
"After the wedding..." Remus began slowly, "most of the people had disapparated. A group of 'Ministry personnel', which were a combination of Aurors and 'Specialists', read: Death Eaters, arrived, and searched the Burrow, looking for the three of you. Of course, since you weren't there, and they were still acting as though they're Ministry, they couldn't do anything. According to the scuttlebutt, the Death Eaters tortured Scrimgeour to find your location. He didn't give you up."
Harry's eyebrow shot in genuine shock. He honestly thought Scrimgeour was more self-serving than that. For him to protect Harry... He shook his head, bringing himself back on topic. "So, they searched the Burrow, and they probably questioned everyone there. It's fortunate I was in disguise."
"True." Remus nodded. "At the same time as they crashed the wedding, other groups hit the home of every known Order member. No fatalities, but there was some... unpleasantness. Nym's parents were tortured by the Cruciatus, but they're okay."
Ron blinked, before he began growling. "What about all the protection charms?"
"With the full support of the Ministry?" Hermione asked bitterly. "With Aurors working alongside the Death Eaters? They could bulldoze their way in. Why would the Aurors go along with this, though. Even the ones that haven't gone over have to know that this is pushing the line."
Remus nodded, reaching into his pocket. "Yeah... there's something else." With a quick flash, Remus had cast a sleeping spell on Ron, guaranteeing the some privacy and intelligent conversation.
"So, what's happening, Moony." Harry said, sitting up and getting down to business.
"I've spoken to Severus twice. Unfortunately, even though he's pretty much Voldemort's number one at the moment, he's being kept outside the loop. All the Death Eaters are, so there's not a lot of news from that angle.
"The Prophet has launched a series of articles, insinuating you're responsible for Dumbledore's death. Oh, they're not coming out and saying that directly. You're merely wanted for questioning about it. But, they will stop at nothing to get you. Ron and Hermione are both fair game, and they'll be used as bait to get you."
Harry resisted the urge to say 'they can have Ron'. "Prophet acting on their own, or are they back under the tender mercies of the Ministry?"
"Ministry, far as we can tell." Remus said. "Doesn't matter, though. They're stirring up the country against you. It seems the plan is for anyone to see you to subdue you and call the Death Aurors. Scrimgeour hasn't been assassinated. He's 'retired'."
"That's one way to describe it." Harry muttered.
"The guy who's replaced him is Pius Thicknesse." Remus advised gently.
"Ah, the man who decided to keep me locked in Privet Drive." Harry noted. "Bloody marvellous? Is he an Eater, or under Imperius?"
"Imperius." Remus replied. "But it doesn't matter. There's far more happening. Voldemort is effectively ruling the country. There's a new Muggleborn register being implemented. Any and all Muggleborns are being rounded up for 'stealing magic'."
Hermione gasped, before her face settled back into impassiveness. "An impressive stroke. Eliminate everyone but the purebloods. Camps or exterminations?"
"We don't know yet." Remus replied, running his hands through his hair. "What we do know is that all Muggleborns are 'invited' to register. Anyone who doesn't will no doubt be facing a visit from the Death Aurors."
Hermione nodded slowly. "I think we need to get in contact with Umbridge."
"Received a letter from her two days ago." Remus replied. "Her words; 'she's taking care of it'. I trust her, Harry."
"As do I." Harry said.
"Me, too." Hermione added. "She'll keep the Muggleborns safe. So, that's one thing we don't need to worry about, anyway."
Remus nodded, before he sighed. "Hogwarts has now become mandatory for all witches and wizards. Obviously not the Muggleborns, but everyone else has to attend. The tuition has been removed, and funding is being drawn directly from the Ministry."
"So, Voldemort's keeping a firm hand over the kids and making sure he can begin training an army. I bet the Slytherins are coming in their pants from this one."
"Probably." Remus said. "Even though I hate it, it's a smart plan. By keeping all children in Hogwarts, the parents can't really make a move against Voldemort without the risk being passed onto their children. By doing this, he's effectively neutralised a good seventy percent of the adult Wizarding population."
Harry had to have a grudging respect for Voldemort. He certainly wasn't a fool. "Agreed. The bigots won't give a shit, but the moderates and half-bloods have been taken off the game table." He sighed. "Anything else? Any more bombshells?"
"Tonks is pregnant." Remus said after a moment. "I will admit, I'm... concerned about it."
"Remus, stop it." Harry said tiredly. "You know you love her, you know she loves you. And you know that any kid will be lucky to have two brilliant people like you as parents."
"She's with her parents at the moment." Remus said slowly. "As you can probably understand, they're not happy about their only daughter marrying a werewolf."
"Oh, they can blow it out their arse!" Hermione snapped. "You're a ravening bloodthirsty beast for less than twelve hours a month, Moony. Tonks is worse, and we all know that. You're a good man."
Remus squeaked when Harry and Hermione launched themselves from their chairs, wrapping him up in a tight hug. "Besides," Harry said, "he'll have big brother Harry and big sister Hermione teaching him to play pranks. What more could he ask for?"
With a sigh, Remus hugged the two back. "Actually, that was something Tonks and I wanted to speak to you two about. We don't want you to be big brother and sister to him."
"O-Oh..." Hermione said quietly.
"No, we'd like you to be godmother and godfather to him." Remus said, pulling them closer. He groaned as he received the full force of Hermione Potter's hug, with Harry matching her.
"Of course." They said together. "But, it won't come to that, Moony." Harry said. "I won't let you die. If you do, I'll hunt you down and kill you myself. Your kid's gonna have a great daddy."
"Thanks, Harry." Remus said tearfully, before he released them, scrubbing his eyes free of tears. "I-If it does happen... you'll take care of him?"
"'Him'? It's a boy?" Harry asked.
"Yeah. He's only a few months along, but we know."
"Of course we will, Moony. But it won't come to that." Harry repeated. "You'll see. One day, we'll look back at this solemn conversation and laugh like hyenas."
Remus sighed. "I hope so, Harry... I hope so."
Harry looked over his shoulder at the communication mirror, where Remus and Tonks sat watching the show. "I told you that it was a silly conversation, Moony."
"Yes, cub, you did." Remus sighed. "You were right. I was wrong. You rule all."
"Excellent." Harry turned back to the audience. "Moony modified Ron's memory so that he'd think we'd argued and Moony had stomped out in anger. Ron kept trying to comfort Hermione about the argument, which both of us found pretty funny." Harry sniggered, Hermione joining him after glaring at the irate redhead.
"We were still waiting for Kreacher to come back with Mundungus Fletcher." Harry continued, then gestured at the little elf who'd been stood silent.
"Kreacher managed to find dirty shambling man," He said proudly, "and he brought him back to Master. Master was generous in allowing Kreacher to persuade dirty thief to talk."
Hermione smirked. "What Kreacher means is that he was able to whack Mundungus on the head with a saucepan. Which, I admit, is far less than I would have done."
"Same here." Harry said. "Fletcher admitted that he didn't have the locket anymore. He'd been hocking his stolen goods in Diagon Alley, and a member of the Ministry came up to him. And that member was correct; you need a licence to trade in magical artefacts. That Ministry official took the locket from him. And then Mundungus described her.
"Kreacher, what did he say?"
Kreacher frowned in concentration as he tried to remember. "Dirty thief said 'Little woman. Bow on top of 'er head. Looked like a toad.'" Kreacher quoted.
"Indeed." Hermione said, nodding appreciatively at Kreacher, who blushed green under the praise. "So, we knew that Dee was still alive and active. And even more importantly, she'd managed to gain possession of one of the Horcruxes we needed." With a nod, Kreacher apparated out, going back to... whatever he was doing.
Flashback: The Black Family Manor, #12 Grimmauld Place, London
Monday, 1st September, 1997
Harry materialised on the top step, barely managing to keep the happy whistle out of his mouth. The Death Eaters had been gathering to watch Grimmauld Place more and more, but none had tried to breach the house. He let himself in, being chastised mildly by Kreacher for walking through the house in his shoes, before meeting Hermione and Ron in the kitchen.
"So, what's the news?" Ron asked, taking a huge slurp of his soup, spilling half of it down his robes, making Hermione wrinkle her nose.
Harry sat down, thanking Kreacher for his bowl, before eating with a touch more grace. "I got a copy of the Prophet." He said slowly. "And there's news." He pulled it out of his pocket, flattening it slightly before passing it across the table to Hermione.
There, in large bold print across the top was the Headline, 'Severus Snape confirmed as Hogwarts Headmaster!'. For a fraction of a second, Hermione had a grin on her face, but it was quickly banished. This was indeed good news for their side.
Ron spat out a mouthful of soup as he read the article. "This... this... this is an outrage!" He roared. He slumped forward as Kreacher clicked his fingers behind him, neatly knocking the redhead out.
"Thanks, Kreacher." Hermione said tenderly.
"You're welcome, Mistress." Kreacher said, before popping out.
"This is brilliant!" Hermione said brightly. "Severus will be able to do a lot of good there."
As if on cue, Harry's watch vibrated. "Huh..."
"Snape to Potter."
Harry grinned. "Sevvie!"
"Don't call me that." Came Snape's tired voice. "Every bloody time, Harry."
"I know... Headmaster."
"Ah. You've heard then."
"Kinda hard not to." Hermione said. "It's plastered all over the front page of the Daily Prophet. Congratulations, sir."
"I thank you, but I have to say I don't want to be Headmaster. I want Dumbledore back and Voldemort gone. Bastard..."
"I think we all do, sir." Harry said supportively. "But, under the circumstances, I think this is probably for the best."
"I hate paperwork." Snape grumbled. "And I hate the Carrows. Have you seen the other staff appointments? Alecto Carrow, who was that little bitch who was supporting Draco on the Astronomy Tower, teaching Muggle Studies? The only thing she could teach about Muggles is how to kill, rape, maim and torture. She couldn't tell you how to e-mail someone, or how to get fish and chips. And Amycus teaching DADA? That one pissed me off. Dark Arts, maybe. Defence... no. Useless. Utterly useless."
Harry just let Snape get it off his chest.
"That reminds me, where's Weasley?"
"Unconscious." Hermione said smugly.
"Ah. Well, whoever did that has my congratulations and my thanks."
"We'll pass that along to Kreacher, sir." Harry said. "I know McGonagall's in the know about you, sir, but what about the other teachers?"
McGonagall's voice came over the communicator. "They're aware that things have changed, Harry. Unfortunately, none of them have any Occlumency skills, with the possible exception of Horace Slughorn, and there's little we can do to prepare them. As such, they're still out of the loop. However, we know that our first duty and responsibility is to the children. Not a single staff member will leave."
"That's good." Hermione said. "The Express should be arriving soon, shouldn't it?"
There was a pause. "About another hour, hour and a half." Snape said after a moment. "We were hoping for an update on your hunt, Harry. Things here are getting worse. There's little we can do openly."
Harry nodded, even though they couldn't really see him. "We've got a lead on one already, sir. The locket. According to Mundungus Fletcher, who stole it, it's been confiscated by a Ministry official."
"Shit." McGonagall said bluntly. "That's a problem."
"Delores Umbridge."
"That's less of a problem." McGonagall said after a moment. "Will she relinquish it?"
"We believe that she will." Hermione said. "She's like you and Severus; working within the system to bring Voldemort down."
"Good. What about other leads?" Snape asked.
"Nothing yet. We've been focussing on this one, and gathering up some supplies." Harry said. "We should be ready to go soon. Unfortunately, we've managed to pick up some surveillance."
"Ah, yes." Snape said silkily. "It's because of Sirius' will. It became public record in the Ministry archives, and since Voldemort controls the Ministry..."
"We know." Harry said. "Remus stopped by a few days ago. Tonks is pregnant, you know."
"Is she?" McGonagall asked, and Harry and Hermione could almost hear her becoming broody. "I'll have to have a chat with her later."
"Actually, Severus, I was wondering something." Hermione said. "Can Lycanthropy be passed on through reproduction?"
"I don't know." Snape said after a few moments. "It's not something that's routinely checked. To my knowledge, there are no born werewolves, just turned. The Ministry has strict laws regarding werewolves having children. If both parents are Lycanthropes, I would imagine that the illness would be passed on. With only one... we have to remember that Tonks is a Metamorphagus, and that magic might win out. Until the child is born and a few tests are carried out, we simply won't know."
"And when you say 'tests', you mean..." Hermione trailed off, hoping that the next words out of Snape's mouth weren't 'dissection'.
"A routine blood screening, primarily." Snape said casually. "Perhaps a small skin sample could be subjected to silver. If the skin burns, then it's certainly possible that the babe will be at least partially afflicted by Lycanthropy."
Harry looked at Hermione who shrugged. "Seems simple enough." She sighed. "Anything else we need to know?"
"At the moment, do not attempt to contact us." Snape said. "We simply don't know when we'll be secure. It would be better for us if we were to contact you."
"Understood and acknowledged." Harry said. "Take care of yourselves, you hear me?"
"Yes, sir!" Snape and McGonagall said in crisp military fashion.
"Pair of funny buggers, aren't you?" Harry moaned softly. "I'm serious."
"We know." They said, again in unison. "You make sure you and Hermione take care of yourselves." Snape said passionately. "The last thing I want to see is my niece and nephew getting hurt."
"We'll be careful." Hermione said. "After all, we've got Ron with us... what could possibly go wrong?"
"I won't dignify that with an answer." Snape sniffed disdainfully.
After the call ended, Hermione refilled both of their soup bowls, and with a sigh, woke Ron up. He blinked for a moment, before grabbing his spoon and continuing to shovel soup into his mouth.
Hermione was pretending to reread the article, quoting bits and pieces. Ron was nodding along absently as he continued to eat.
"Later that evening, I had another vision." Harry said. "I saw Voldemort torturing a family, looking for information about Gregorovitch. Ron was stood right there, so Hermione had to bollock me for not practicing Occlumency."
"I hated that bloody connection." Hermione said bitterly. "Even Occlumency couldn't block it, since it was, in effect, a hole in Harry's mind. He couldn't block it, no matter what. It simply wasn't possible."
"So, we knew that the locket was in the Ministry," Harry continued, "and we believed that the Sword of Gryffindor was, as well. After all, Scrimgeour had confiscated it, and we never thought to ask Severus or Minerva." He chuckled self-depreciatively. "I wish we had."
"Outside the Ministry, we stunned a couple of people and nicked some hair for Polyjuice potion. We snuck inside, splitting up to find our targets..."
Flashback: Ministry of Magic, London
Tuesday, 2nd September, 1997
Ron had gone off, Polyjuiced as the repairman, to fix someone's office, leaving Hermione, Polyjuiced as Mafalda Hopkirk, and Harry stood together in the atrium, staring at the god-awful statue that had replaced the Fountain of Magical Brethren. It was, frankly, an abomination, enough to make Harry want to blast the obscenity into smithereens. Soon... He told himself.
They headed to the lift, heading up to the first level. Neither he nor Hermione really knew where they were supposed to go, but they'd wing it until the situation changed.
As the lift door opened, Harry's heart leapt into his chest. Stood before him was the very woman he wanted to see, talking with a long-haired wizard, clad in black and gold. Harry remembered, from his 'detentions' in fifth year, that this was Pius Thicknesse, the man who had replaced Scrimgeour as the Minister.
He glanced over at Hermione, sending a silent message. She nodded slightly, before straightening up. Umbridge and the Minister came into the lift, leaving the two people who were talking with them behind.
The instant the door shut, Harry's wand flicked, stopping the lift, while Hermione's wand rendered the Minister unconscious. Umbridge span round, her wand appearing in hand far faster than her portly frame would allow.
"I solemnly swear I'm up to no good." Harry said, smiling at Umbridge. "And I solemnly swear you are not ugly."
Umbridge's face split into a wide grin. "Harry Potter, as I live and breathe!" She tucked her wand into her pocket, wrapping him into a tight hug. "Damn, Harry, it's good to see you!" She looked over at Hopkirk!Hermione. "Miss Granger, I presume?"
Hermione nodded. "It's actually Mrs. Potter, now, Dee." She accepted the hug. "And I agree with Harry; it's bloody good to see you."
Dee looked at her clipboard. "I assume that you're under Polyjuice? Glamours don't work too well in here." She pulled back her sleeve, revealing the glamour gauntlet she wore. Hermione's practiced eyes could see the upgrades since fifth year, providing more power. "Had to boost this twice..."
"Yeah. We've got about another fifty minutes." Harry said, deciding to get down to business. "We're actually here to see you. You confiscated a locket from Mundungus Fletcher..."
Dee was already pulling the locket from around her neck. "Yes... it's not... it's not exactly normal, Harry. I put a stasis charm round it. I started feeling really weird when I wore it. I just... I knew you'd want it." She handed it over. "I didn't think you'd be around so soon. There's a price on your head, you know?"
Harry nodded, putting the locket round his own neck, tucking it under his robes. "Yeah. A mere ten thousand galleons. I'm upset about that. I thought I'd be worth more."
"You are to me." Hermione said softly.
Dee grinned at the utter 'in-love' feeling she got from the couple in front of her, even under Polyjuice. "Since time is limited, we'll get to it. What do you know about what's happening in the Ministry?"
"Voldemort's taken over. Your cover as a blood-head allowed you to keep your position." Hermione recited instantly.
"Indeed." Dee nodded. She knew they'd be on the ball. "Now, the Ministry has been rounding up the Muggleborns, stating that they must have 'stolen' their magic. Imbeciles... I'm the one who is responsible for dealing with them."
"Oh?"
"Yes. I've been sending them to camps, where they'll be out of the way."
"And the truth?" Harry asked.
Dee sighed. "I've been sending them to Butlins in Minehead, Somerset, where the last group of real Aurors are working for their protection. Their wands are confiscated before they're sent away, and the Aurors deliver them back when they get to the camp."
Hermione laughed. "Oh, the irony."
Dee shrugged, looking a little embarrassed. "It was about the only thing I could think of. No-one, not even the Muggle government, would notice a lot of people arriving at a holiday camp."
"No, it's brilliant!" Harry said, sniggering. "Only you, Dee."
Dee glanced at her watch. "I'm actually off to one of the 'hearings' now. Harry, I suggest you make a quick circuit of the Ministry. Find anyone you need to speak to quickly. You're currently undesirable number one, and they will want to catch you."
Harry nodded. "Is Arthur Weasley still here?"
"He is." Dee confirmed. "But he's being tracked. All the Weasleys are. Be very careful in here, Harry. The walls have eyes and ears. In some cases, that's literal." She turned to Hermione. "I'll need you to come with me. A group of Muggleborns are having their hearing this morning." She sighed. "Unfortunately, I have to be a bitch to them. Can you help me get them out?"
Hermione nodded.
"Now, we don't have much time. We'll need to wake the Minister up, and get back. Time is not on our side."
Harry levitated the Minister back to his feet, propping him up before Hermione woke him. The instant that he blinked, Harry released the levitation, flicking his wand to set the lift in motion...
Harry grinned at the audience, who were looking at him in utter shock. "So, Umbridge didn't lie. She did send the Muggleborns to camps, to get them out of the way of the purebloods. Of course, what she failed to mention was that they were Muggle holiday camps, under the protection of the Aurors. Still, the Death Eaters didn't need that little piece of information."
Hermione sniggered as she saw Arthur's face drop in shock. "Did you really think that we'd allow them to do that sort of thing? Yeah, we were keeping a low profile, but we wouldn't let the Ministry, even one that was being run by Voldemort, do that sort of thing. No chance in hell."
"Dee was working on the inside." Harry said. "And she'd given us the Horcrux we desperately wanted. It was so easy, it was a bit troubling." He shrugged. "Still, we weren't complaining too much. We were a step closer to our goals."
"During our escape from the Ministry, after Death Eater Yaxley had figured out that we were impostors, we disapparated. Unfortunately, Yaxley grabbed my arm when we apparated to Grimmauld Place. I managed to knock him back, but I'd already taken him inside the boundaries. He'd be able to go back, and possibly take some friends with him. For the foreseeable future, Grimmauld Place was no longer an option."
"Fortunately, we'd planned for this eventuality. Inside Hermione's bottomless handbag was the tent that we'd used during the Quidditch world cup. We managed to apparate there, but Ron was splinched during the escape, and bleeding out.
"She managed to heal his injury, but he'd need time to rest and recover. So, we set the tent up in the woods, putting up a few enchantments and protections."
Hermione snorted. "'A few'? Gringotts would have been jealous of our protections. While we were inside the boundaries, we simply didn't exist. I didn't just protect the site; I removed us from reality. Or near enough, anyway."
"After the tent was put up, we began talking about Voldemort. Ron was coming round, and snapped at us to not say the name. That we had to respect him." Harry snorted. "The day I respected Voldemort is the day that Satan will be going to work in a snow plough." He sighed when he saw the lost looks on the audiences' faces. "The day that Hell freezes over." As the crowd nodded in understanding, he carried on.
"We carried Ron into the tent, dumped him on a bunk, then took a look at the Horcrux. I could tell, just by being near it, that it was still active, and it hadn't been destroyed. We knew that destroying the vile thing would have to become a priority. Ginny Weasley couldn't control herself when she had Voldemort's diary, the compulsion was that high on it. We knew the locket would be the same. Luckily, me and Hermione were both perfect Occlumens, so we knew we'd be able to control ourselves."
Ron was flushing beet-red in the audience. He knew that he'd never mastered Occlumency, and that the Horcrux had affected him badly while wearing it. He knew the final reckoning between Potter and his bitch would be coming, and decided to brace himself for that.
"While I was on guard duty that evening, I had another Voldemort vision. He was torturing Gregorovitch, the wand-maker, to find out about another wand. Gregorovitch told Voldemort that the wand had been stolen years ago, and Voldemort killed him over that little nugget of information."
He sighed, then looked at his wife, asking if they should reveal what wand. She shook her head slightly, telling him to wait a little longer. He nodded slightly, before turning back.
"We left the woods, not wanting to stay in one place for too long. We knew that the Ministry would be bringing the magical tag net to bear on us, and staying for any length of time would be inviting them to come and capture us. We moved around, filching fresh food from farms and leaving them money for it. We still had a reasonable supply of gold that I'd got from my vault. We agreed to each wear the Horcrux, since it was seeping out negative feelings. I was having problems casting my Patronus while wearing it. Even though I'm a fairly proficient Occlumens, the Horcrux was a leech. Every time I cast magic while wearing it, it would steal a portion of that energy, trying to power itself back up."
Hermione cleared her throat. "I took the next shift wearing it, and I knew instantly what Harry meant about it being a leech. It was... horrible. Truly horrible. It was battering on my mental shields each time I raised my wand. Powerful, but unfocussed."
"We went to the Orphanage that Voldemort was raised in, performing a brief search. We didn't go too in-depth, because we knew that Professor Dumbledore had already searched it. However, by carrying a Horcrux with us, we'd have a better chance to locate on. There was nothing there."
Hermione grinned. "Now, this is where it gets a little more interesting. Mr. Weasley, would you release the silencing charm on Ron for a moment, please?" After Arthur flicked his wand at his son, Hermione asked a question. "Ron, for those weeks while we were trailing all over the country, what were we doing?"
"Looking for another Horcrux." Ron said sulkily.
"And did we find any?"
"No."
"Thank you, Mr. Weasley." Hermione said, nodding to Arthur. After Ron was once again silenced, going even more red in the face, Hermione looked at the audience. "I'm afraid that Ron is mistaken. We were having success in our mission. At each of the locations we went to, we found a Horcrux. Old Horcruxes, from figures all throughout history. Some of them thousands of years old."
Dumbledore blinked in his portrait. "You mean..."
Harry nodded. "We found every Horcrux in the British Isles. There were quite a few. Based on that, we can see how Tom Riddle found out about them. In the end, I think the number we collected was... Hermione?"
"Forty-seven." She said, matter-of-factly. "Forty-seven different witches and wizards had made Horcruxes. Forty-seven immortal witches and wizards. With the right spells and components, that would be forty-seven other Dark Lords and Ladies. Naturally, we didn't want to allow this to happen."
"We collected all of them, putting them in the little mokeskin bag Hagrid had given me. Each time we found one, we Obliviated Ron."
Percy Weasley was again scribbling down notes, a small smile on his face. Hermione stared at him for a moment, before stifling a grin. She leaned closer to Harry. "His thoughts are; 'I've got them now!'."
"He's in for a rude awakening." Harry whispered back. "So, we were hoovering up various people's immortality. We were still looking for Voldemort's Horcruxes, but also performing a public service, as well. However, we could tell that Ron was getting both bored and annoyed with the mission. He probably thought it was going to be like our previous adventures at Hogwarts, where we had warm beds and three big meals a day. Sitting in a cold tent while roaming around the country was certainly not to his liking."
Remus spoke up from the communications mirror. "I'd like to add that while they were roaming the country, the Order of the Phoenix had effectively been hobbled. Each and every one of us was being watched continuously by the Death Aurors. If we even attempted to act, as Mad-Eye Moody had done, we would be executed. So, we weren't able to do anything but research."
"Remus and Tonks were a big help." Hermione said, looking over her shoulder and winking at them. "Each time we found a Horcrux, we'd test it, finding out who it belonged to." She shuddered slightly as she turned back to the audience. "We learned more about Dark witches and wizards during those months than we ever did during History class."
"With the exception of Tom Riddle, no-one in history had ever made more than one Horcrux." Harry said. "They knew that splitting the soul more than once was far too dangerous. It caused... complications."
"Such as madness, paranoia, massively repressed emotions." Hermione lectured gently. "They knew that immortality was a curse, not a blessing. They wanted to live, true, but they wanted to keep a fraction of their selves. Riddle lost that. He became nothing more than a madman.
"One evening, about a month, six weeks after our Ministry mission, we were having dinner." Hermione continued the tale. "Ron was complaining about my cooking. I wasn't bothered. I know I can't be brilliant at everything. Harry's the cook, not me."
"During the argument, I told them both to shut up. I could hear someone outside the tent. More than one someone, too." Harry smoothly took over the monologue. "We listened into the conversation, listening it. It was several Goblins and several Muggleborns, who'd run from the Muggleborn Registration Act."
Hermione nodded. "Dean Thomas, Ted Tonks, Dirk Cresswell, Griphook and Gornuk. The goblins were telling the wizards that there refused to get involved in what was, essentially, a Wizards' war. Dean didn't know if he was a Muggleborn or a half-blood, since his father had left when he was a baby. He didn't want to take a chance, since the Prophet had told people that Muggleborns were being removed. I don't blame him, really."
"We overheard a conversation about the Sword of Gryffindor, something that we knew we needed. Professor Snape had caught several people trying to steal the sword from his office at Hogwarts. One of the attempted thieves was Ginny Weasley. So, Professor Snape tried to take the sword to Gringotts, where it would be safe."
"However, Griphook revealed that the Sword of Gryffindor that Professor Snape tried to deposit was a Wizarding-made fake, and that the original was crafted by the Goblins."
Snape's portrait cleared his throat. "I, of course, knew it was a fake... since I was the one who made it. Thanks to Albus, I knew that the Sword of Gryffindor would be needed by the 'Chosen One', and I had no intention of letting Voldemort have it."
Harry grinned at the dumbfounded looks on several faces. "Please!" He scoffed. "We told you that Professor Snape was a good man, on our side. He wasn't working for Voldemort. We've explained why he joined the Death Eaters, and we've explained why he left. We've told you all the help he gave us in preparing for the war... why do you look surprised?"
He sighed, shook his head, and carried on. "Griphook thought he was being clever by not telling Severus that it was a forgery. We also overheard that the attempted thieves were punished cruelly by Snape for having the audacity to try and steal from him." Harry looked at Ginny, who didn't look like she'd been punished cruelly. "Then we learned that Xeno Lovegood had been using the Quibbler to print the truth about the situation. The Ministry's descent into tyranny, the disappearances... all of it.
"Hermione had a flash of inspiration; while we were at Grimmauld Place, we nicked a painting from the wall. It was off Phineas Nigellus Black, one of the former Headmasters. Since he was a Black, there was a second portrait of himself, and he could travel between them. It was an exceptional way of communication between Grimmauld Place and Hogwarts, in case the mirrors weren't available.
"She drew it out of that bottomless handbag, and cast a spell to seal him inside his frame and blindfold him. We didn't want anyone to know where we were or to see who was with us. The portraits at Hogwarts are all bound to assist the Headmaster, but they were also well known to be bloody loudmouths and would blurt out information."
Dumbledore's portrait cleared his throat. "Not all of us, Harry. And Phineas was a Black, first and foremost."
"So was Bella." Harry reminded him, not looking back. "And she had no loyalty."
Hermione continued the tale. "We found out that Ginny, Neville and Luna were the thieves who'd tried to steal the Sword of Gryffindor. So, Snape assigned them detention with Hagrid in the Forbidden Forest. Now, remember the deal that Dee made with the Centaurs back in fifth year? Four squads of Aurors were living in the forest, and they would protect them. Also, Hagrid was forever loyal to Dumbledore. What better way to 'punish' students than to send them into the Forest, where the Aurors, Centaurs and Hagrid would keep them safe?" She sniggered. "They probably all got drunk on Centaurian Ale and had a sleep out."
Ginny blushed. That was what had happened, although the three of them had agreed to never tell anyone.
"Professor Black told us that Professor Dumbledore had wanted to keep the sword available in the event that something happened. We knew the sword would have the power of basilisk venom thanks to the 'adventure' in the Chamber of Secrets. Dumbledore would never have let the Ministry have it. That was when we realised that Scrimgeour not releasing the sword after the will reading wasn't a major problem. However, that did raise another? Where the hell was the Sword of Gryffindor?"
"And then..." Hermione said, with a grin on her face, "something truly amazing happened..."
Flashback: The Forest, Somewhere in Britain
Sunday, 30th November, 1997
Ron was pacing up and down the tent, ranting about Harry having no idea about the mission. Harry had been calmly countering the accusations with fact, something which was completely lost on the redhead.
(2a)"So why are you still here?" Harry asked Ron.
"Search me," said Ron.
"Go home then." said Harry.
"Yeah, maybe I will!" shouted Ron, and he took several steps toward Harry, who did not back away. "Didn't you hear what they said about my sister? But you don't give a rat's fart, do you, it's only the Forbidden Forest, Harry I've-Faced-Worse Potter doesn't care what happened to her in there! Well, I do, all right? Giant spiders and mental stuff-"
"I was only saying... she was with the others, they were with Hagrid-"
"Yeah, I get it, you don't care! And what about the rest of my family, 'the Weasleys don't need another kid injured,' did you hear that?"
"Yeah, I-"
"Not bothered what it meant, though?"
"Ron!" said Hermione, forcing her way between them. "I don't think it means anything new has happened, anything we don't know about; think, Ron, Bill's already scared, plenty of people must have seen that George has lost an ear by now, and you're supposed to be on your deathbed with spattergroit, I'm sure that's all he meant-"
"Oh, you're sure, are you? Right then, well, I won't bother myself about them. It's all right for you, isn't it, with your parents safely out of the way-"
"My parents are dead!" Harry bellowed.
"And mine could be going the same way!" yelled Ron.
"Then go!" roared Harry. "Go back to them, pretend you've got over your spattergroit and Mummy'll be able to feed you up and-"
Ron made a sudden movement: Harry reacted, but before either wand was clear of its owner's pocket, Hermione had raised her own.
"Protego!" she cried, and an invisible shield expanded between her and Harry on the one side and Ron on the other; all of them were forced backward a few steps by the strength of the spell, and Harry and Ron glared from either side of the transparent barrier as though they were seeing each other clearly for the first time. Harry felt a corrosive hatred toward Ron: Something had broken between them.
"Leave the Horcrux." Harry said.
Ron wrenched the chain from over his head and cast the locket into a nearby chair. He turned to Hermione.
"What are you doing?"
"What do you mean?"
"Are you staying, or what?"
"I..." She looked anguished. "Yes... yes, I'm staying. Ron, we said we'd go with Harry, we said we'd help-"
"I get it. You choose him."
"Ron, no... please... come back, come back!"
She was impeded by her own Shield Charm; by the time she had removed it he had already stormed into the night. Harry stood quite still and silent, listening to her sobbing and calling Ron's name amongst the trees.
After a few minutes she returned, her sopping hair plastered to her face.
"He's g-g-gone! Disapparated!"
She threw herself into a chair, curled up, and started to cry.(2b) After thirty seconds, she looked up, her eyes dry, as no tears had actually passed through. "He's gone..." She leapt up, her hands pumped into fists. "Yes!"
Harry stared at her, bemused. "What?"
"Don't you get it, Harry? The fucking waste of blood and organs has gone!" Hermione was gleeful, then started tugging at her shirt. "For months we've had to tone down the affection. Now, get your kit off, Potter. I want the mother of all shags tonight."
Chuckling, Harry started to unbutton his shirt. "Don't I get to play with you first?"
Hermione was down to knickers, which quickly flew into the kitchen. "Not a chance. I want to ride my basilisk. Foreplay can wait." She pounced, pushing Harry onto the bed, kissing him harshly. She pulled back slightly. "Why aren't you naked yet?"
Harry suddenly pushed her, rolling so she was underneath. "Probably because you're such a naughty witch, you didn't give me a chance." He leaned down and kissed her again.
Hermione reached down, unbuttoning his jeans and pushing them down. "Come on... Harry..." She said between kisses. "I need you..."
"Hang on..." Harry bent his arms and pushed back, clambering off the bed, kicking off his shoes, and pulling his jeans off. Hermione quickly grabbed hold of Harry's Hampton, sucking harshly to make sure he was up enough.
"Okay, Potter. Get over here and fuck me." She commanded. She squeaked when Harry pushed her back onto the bed, knelt between her legs and sheathed himself in one smooth stroke.
"That's what I want..." She gasped, sighing happily as Harry began jack-hammering into her...
After their immediate needs had been sated (which took nearly three hours), Harry and Hermione snuggled in bed together. For the moment, everything was all right with the world. "He won't be able to come back." Hermione said as she cuddled closer.
"'Tis a dreadful shame." Harry agreed. "I don't know what we'll do without Ron hear belly-aching every two minutes, eating all the food... It's just... tragic."
Hermione sighed in satisfaction. "You know, we should really contact Professor Snape. We have questions for him."
"Yeah." Harry glanced about for his watch, which had gone flying as they began to make love. "Oh, bollocks to it." He clicked his fingers, summoning the watch wandlessly. As it landed nearly in his hand, he pressed his finger against it. "Potter to Snape."
It took a few moments for a response. "I'm here, Harry." He whispered. "Give me a minute." They heard a door shut before the click of a lock. A brief Muffliato later, Snape spoke up. "Okay, I'm here. This is dangerous, my friend, so please, be quick."
"Sword of Gryffindor, Professor. Students in the Forbidden Forest." Harry said quickly.
"Sword's a fake. Real one's hidden. I'll get it to you... somehow. The students were with Hagrid and perfectly safe." Snape replied, equally quickly. "Things here are okay. Several of the students, mainly Longbottom and Lovegood, are trying to reinstate Dumbledore's Army. They keep getting bloody caught, too. I've had to invoke Umbridge's decree about groups of students. None of them are subtle enough to protect themselves against Death Eaters."
Harry nodded. "Yeah, Neville's got a heart of gold, but he's all Gryffindor. Any other problems?"
"Nothing we can't handle, Harry. Minerva's been coming closer and closer to transfiguring the Death Eaters into something useful. I suggested toilets. I think crapping on them would be very therapeutic."
Hermione burst out giggling. "I think we'll need to remember that one." She said through her giggles.
"Other than that, I'm doing my best to protect the students." Snape said, sighing. "Most of them don't realise that playing along with the Death Eaters would be best for the moment. I daren't tell them, since none of them are Occlumens, and both Carrows are reasonable at Legilimency. If some students suddenly couldn't be scanned, they'd be hell to pay."
Harry nodded absently. "Okay, we understand that. Are you okay, Severus? No punishments from Voldemort?"
Snape scoffed. "Are you kidding? The Dark Tosser seems to think I'm his number one man at the moment." His voice turned bitter. "After all, I'm the man who killed Albus Dumbledore. No-one would dare touch me." The bitterness disappeared, to be replaced by friendly warmth. "I won't ask where you two are, but I will ask, are you safe?"
"We're okay, Professor." Harry said. "We've managed to complete the second stage of Professor Dumbledore's mission, gathering up other Horcruxes, but we've only managed to grab one of Tom's. The locket. Soon as we get the sword, we'll destroy it."
"As I said, I'll get it to you, somehow." Snape paused for a moment. "Oh, I've changed my Patronus. I think having a werewolf would be a little conspicuous at the moment. It's now... it's now a doe."
"You honour Mrs. Prongs." Hermione said sombrely, smiling at Harry. "I'm sure Miss Tiger-Lily would be proud."
"I hope so..." Snape sighed. "Anyway, enough introspection. Is there anything else you need? I'm hiding in a toilet cubicle at the moment, so I need to be quick."
"No, that's everything. Keep in touch, Professor." Harry said, before ending the call. "So... we follow the silver doe."
Hermione grinned. "Yes... it was terrible when Ron left us. We were both so sad... Yeah, right! We had the best sex ever that night. 11 inches and nineteen orgasms..." She moaned softly to herself in remembrance. "That was so good... for so long, we had to hide our true selves from the gormless prat. When he ran... god, it was brilliant!"
She sobered up slightly. "So, we knew that Snape would be passing the sword to us so we could destroy the Horcruxes. We knew that everyone at Hogwarts would be safe with Professor Snape protecting them. While we were travelling without Ron, we kept up with our studies. After all, we had no plans to stop learning more. After a particularly trying evening of Ancient Runes, I decided to flick back to the book that Albus had left me, The Tales of Beedle the Bard. While flicking through, I saw something I hadn't seen before; an odd triangular symbol.
"Harry told me that it was on the necklace that Luna's father was wearing at the Weasley wedding, and that it was Grindelwald's mark. Several questions were raised; why was Xeno wearing that? Why was it in this copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard?"
"All good questions." Harry took over. "And we had some answers. Grindelwald's mark was famous for more than Grindelwald, and it was far older than him, too. It was a mark from history. A mark that every Wizarding child had heard of." He could see several people leaning forward, eager to hear more about it. Harry smiled smugly as he disappointed them. "But, I'll leave that part 'til later. After another few weeks of searching, myself and Hermione decided to go to Godric's Hollow. We'd collected the secondary Horcruxes, but it was time for us to 'get back on the road' with defeating Tom."
"It was Christmas Eve when we got there." Hermione said fondly. "We used Polyjuice to turn into a pair of ordinary Muggles, hoping that the anonymity would help us." Hermione sat up slightly straighter in her chair. "For those of you who've read A History of Magic, you'll know that Godric's Hollow is one of the small Wizarding hamlets that exist in Muggle areas. Lots of witches and wizards come from there, including Gryffindor himself.
"When we got there, we headed for the graveyard. We saw lots of names we knew. The Abbots, for example. I admit, I froze up when I saw the grave markers for Kendra and Arianna Dumbledore. I didn't know that they came from Godric's Hollow."
Dumbledore sniffed in his portrait, before reaching into a pocket and drawing out a huge handkerchief. He rubbed his eyes briefly. "Yes," He said after a moment of gathering his wits, "the Dumbledores resided in Godric's Hollow. My mother and sister both died and were buried there."
Harry nodded at Dumbledore before looking back at the audience. "While we were looking for the Potter graves, Hermione spotted that strange triangular symbol on one of the graves. It was marked as a man called 'Ignotus'. We couldn't make out a surname.
"And I found... I found my parents' gravestones. I'll admit, I choked up. I'd never been before. In a way, I didn't want to. Although I was well aware that they were dead, visiting their graves would make it... make it real." He hesitated. "I... I was afraid."
Hermione took over the monologue, letting Harry gather himself. "As we were leaving the graveyard, we noticed someone watching us. They were excellently concealed, but myself and my husband are experts at magical detection. We quickly tracked the interloper down, finding the very woman we wanted to."
"Bathilda Bagshot. The author of A History of Magic, family friend of the Dumbledores, and long-time resident of Godric's Hollow. We followed her back to her house, but she was silent. It was curious. Why was she looking for us, spotting us as Polyjuiced people, and inviting us back to her house?" Harry asked.
"When we got there, both myself and Hermione noticed something curious. The house had a smell to it. A smell both of us were quite familiar with."
"The smell of death." Hermione intoned in a soft voice, sending shivers down several spines. "Something had died in that house... and was beginning to decompose. Neither of us assumed it was Bathilda. After all, she was walking and talking. And our senses were telling us that the being in front of us was magical." She snorted. "We should have known..."
Harry nodded. "I followed her to another room, where she whispered to me. Since I'm a Parselmouth, I didn't hear any hissing. Because Hermione also shares my gift, she wouldn't have heard anything either. However... Bathilda's head fell off, and a rather large snake poured out of the body. It was Nagini, Voldemort's familiar. She hadn't spoken in front of Hermione, because it's not known that Hermione's a Parselmouth. Based on that, they thought that if Bathilsa spoke to me, Hermione would immediately identify it as hissing, and the game would be up."
"We figured out that Nagini had been waiting in Godric's Hollow since the summer, pretending to be Bagshot." Hermione carried on. "Nagini attacked Harry, while sending out a mental distress call. We knew Voldemort was coming, and that retreat was our best option. Sure, the two of us could probably hold our own against him, but with his Horcruxes intact, that wasn't anything we could really do. So, we ran." She winced.
"My faithful holly and phoenix feather wand got destroyed by Nagini." Harry said. "You can't really repair a wand if it's been broken. You can use the core, but once the wood's broken, it's pretty much useless. Our new priority was to locate a suitable holly branch, so that I could be armed. It was way too dangerous to be running round the country without any protection. As soon as I could, I found a holly tree, and used Hermione's wand to sever a branch."
"I whittled it down for Harry," Hermione said, "while he extracted the core from his old wand. We managed to recreate the wand, but it was... well, it was a bit of a lash-up, really. He couldn't use it except in emergencies, since we're both too powerful to use a wand." She reached into her robes, pulling out her own vinewood wand. The tip was blackened and slightly cracked.
Harry followed suit, pulling a pale stick from his pocket. While it was a rudimentary wand, it looked unfinished. Like Hermione's the tip was blackened, as though it had been poked into a fire. "It still works, but it's... unrefined."
Tucking her wand away, Hermione continued the tale. "During the escape from Bagshot's house, I grabbed a book from her coffee table. The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore... by Rita Skeeter."
In her chair, Skeeter flinched, and tried to slither lower.
"It was a fascinating book." Hermione said. "And released remarkably quickly after his death, too. Course, she wouldn't have the courage to print a book like that while Dumbledore was alive. I started reading it, naturally, and was utterly engrossed.
"One of the first sections was about Dumbledore's youth. Not his Hogwarts career, not in-depth, anyway, but his friends when he was younger. Specifically, a man by the name of Gellert Grindelwald."
Gasps filled the audience. Dumbledore was friends with Grindelwald? The Dark wizard he'd defeated in the forties? How? Why?
Dumbledore calmly looked out from his portrait. "Yes, Gellert was my friend when I was a youth. Back then, he was a charming, powerful wizard. Both of us had graduated from our respective schools, and were looking forward to what came next. We were on the precipice of a grand adventure."
"But, the truth or lies about Dumbledore can wait." Harry said. "That'll be one of the things we'll explain later. After the fateful attack by Nagini in Godric's Hollow, we kept moving, eventually ending up in the Forest of Dean. While we were there, we spotted something moving in the snow. Naturally, we were concerned. Was someone following us? Was there something capable of tracking or breaking through Hermione's charms?"
"The 'something' came closer, and we saw that it was a Patronus. A silver doe." Hermione grinned. "Courtesy of Professor... no, Headmaster Severus Snape. It was leading us to a pool in the middle of nowhere. Of course, since Hermione's charms effectively took us out of reality, he had no way of coming to see us in person. He'd left us the Sword of Gryffindor. Unfortunately, it was in the bottom of an icy pond. It was January, after all."
Snape blushed. "I... I admit, I was in a hurry when I left it. I had planned to leave it on the ice, but it fell in. I was being followed by one of the Carrows and had to leave quickly. I sent the Patronus with orders to guide you to the sword, wherever you were. I'd managed to track your communicator to the Forest of Dean, but it's a fairly big place."
"Don't worry about it, Severus." Harry said. "You delivered it, which was the important thing. All I had to do was get the sword out." He sighed. "Unfortunately, the sword has a mind of it's own, and wanted to be picked up in a 'worthy' way. Since the hallmark of Gryffindors is their bravery and their 'fools rush in' gesture, I'd have to leap into the frozen pond to collect the damned thing." He sighed again. "I nearly died.
"While I was under water, the Horcrux, which I'd been wearing all the time, decided to start playing silly buggers with me. While I was struggling to get out, the chain of the locket began to tighten on my neck. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your point a view, someone else had turned up and pulled me out.
"That someone was Ron Weasley."
Flashback: The Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire
Saturday, 10th January, 1998
Harry felt his body automatically respond to being submerged in ice water. His metabolism sped up to produce warmth, while his magic began casting low-level heating and drying charms. He didn't look up at his saviour, knowing that only Hermione could really be the one who could find them. He knew she was physically strong enough to pull him out of the pond (some of their more interesting bedroom encounters leapt into the forefront of his mind). However, he got a shock when that saviour spoke.
"Are... you... mental?"
Shit. It was Ron. Somehow, Ron had managed to come back. How the hell did he find us? Oh, the Deluminator, of course! And I'm outside the protections. Damn it, if he'd passed that to the Death Eaters, I'd be royally fucked now.
"Why didn't you take the Horcrux off before you went in?"
Oh, I don't know... Maybe I was thinking it's been behaving itself and couldn't contract the bloody chain. Harry thought viciously. "Dunno." He grunted, still shivering but no longer in danger of getting pneumonia. "Come on. Let's get back to the tent."
As they walked, Ron glanced at the sword in Harry's hand. "You reckon that's the real one?" He asked.
It is. Harry could feel it. "There's only one way to find out, Ron." He quickly sourced a tree stump, placing the locket onto it.
"Shouldn't I do it?" Ron asked, puffing up his chest slightly. "After all, I got the sword out of the pond."
Harry chuckled. "If you want to try, Ron, I won't stop you." His hand was reluctant to let the sword go, but he managed to pass it across. "I'll tell the locket to open, you stab it, okay?"
Ron nodded, hefting the sword, but Harry could tell he was scared, especially when the locket was pulled out from under Harry's collar.
"What's up?"
"I... that thing's bad for me, Harry." He said. "Maybe it should be you."
"No. You've got the sword." Harry faced the locket. §Open!§ He hissed. The locket opened smoothly with a click. "Stab it." He said calmly, watching the malevolent object scan the two wizards close to it. Naturally, it picked Ron as he had no mental defences, and it could scan his mind easier.
A voice erupted from the Horcrux, smooth, silky and utterly charming. The voice of Voldemort. "I can see your heart, boy. You are my tool, to wield as I will."
Harry rolled his eyes. He'd felt the evil little thing trying to scan him and fail. "Stab it, Ron."
"I see your dreams, I see your fears... you are delicious, boy."
"Stab it, Ron." Harry said, exasperated.
"You know that you are loved least by your family. Your mother, who wanted you to be a daughter. The girl, who prefers your best friend..."
Considering she's my bloody wife, I hope so. Harry thought. "In your own time, Ron."
An image rose from the locket, revealing an image of Harry and Hermione kissing passionately. The image expanded, showing Harry and Hermione caressing, nibbling and loving each other. Harry couldn't help but stare at the image lustfully. I think I'll have to have a brief word with Hermione later... "Stab it, Ron. Now."
Ron snarled as he raised the sword, aiming at Harry instead of the Horcrux.
"Oh, for fuck's sake." He said, raising his wand. "Stupefy." Once Ron was knocked out, Harry took the sword. "Hey, Riddle. Fancy taking me on?"
The locket twitched on the stump. "Who are you, boy?"
"Death." Harry spat as he swung the sword, shattering the locket completely. With a casual flick of his wand, he grabbed the pieces, tucking them into his pocket, before he cast a memory charm at Ron, making the redhead think that he'd destroyed the locket while saving Harry. He also removed the memory of the sword swing at Harry. The task complete, he woke Ron up.
"You okay, man?" Harry asked. "You were blasted back when you destroyed the locket."
"Yeah..." Ron slurred for a moment. "Yeah. What happened?"
"You broke the locket, and there was a magical backlash. You did it, mate. You destroyed the Horcrux." I'm getting really good at lying to Weasleys. Harry noted with amusement. And it's gonna get better when we get back to the tent. Hermione's really gonna beat the shit out of him. He snorted before leading Ron back.
Once back at the tent, Harry dashed inside, managing a quick "Ron's back," before the redhead stepped into the tent. With a roar, Hermione rushed forward, intent on battering Ron to within an inch of his life. She punched, kicked and spat at him, before finally being hauled off by Harry.
"What the bloody hell was that for?" Ron asked, as annoyingly clueless as ever.
"You utter fucktard!" Hermione roared. "You left us! You just ran away! I ran after you and everything! What do you want now?"
"I came back to help." Ron said.
"It's been almost two months, Ron!" Hermione spat. "Why now? Why, after all the danger we've been in, did you come back now?"
"You've been in danger?" Ron shouted back. "I was almost captured by bloody Snatchers! Don't go talking to me about danger! You have no idea what kind of danger I've been in!"
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Right..."
"What're 'Snatchers'?" Harry asked.
"Bounty Hunters." Ron replied, still glaring at Hermione. She'd need another dose of Amortentia immediately. He wouldn't tolerate being attacked by his property, hell no! "They go around capturing blood traitors and Muggleborns for cash. Five of them cornered me just after I disapparated."
Both Harry and Hermione snorted at the word 'five'. Each of them could piss all over a mere five witches and wizards. "So, how did you escape?" Hermione asked mockingly.
"I managed to elbow one, grab my wand and escape. I got splinched again, though." He said, holding up a hand with two missing fingernails.
"Ah..." Hermione nodded, still thoroughly pissed with the redhead. "It's okay, then. I'm sorry, Ron. I didn't realise just how much danger you were in. After all, we had to deal with Nagini and Voldemort attacking us, but you were picked on by five people. Sorry. We'll remember that our troubles aren't the same as yours."
Ron nodded, happily accepting her apology and missing the sarcasm completely. "Anyway, I found you 'cause of Dumbledore's Deluminator. I heard your voices on Christmas Day. The Deluminator started glowing, and I just knew where to come."
"Right." Harry nodded, before raising his wand. Somnus! The sleeping spell hit Ron, making him collapse to the floor of the tent.
"Oh, bollocks!" Hermione snapped. "I really wish he hadn't come back. Now we'll have to go back to sleeping in different beds. Can't we just leave him behind? Without the Deluminator?"
"I wish we could. You never know, Hermione, he might come in useful." Even Harry didn't sound convinced. "Even if it's only as cannon fodder."
She snorted. "You got the sword, at least."
"Yeah. It was in a bloody pond, though. Damn thing wanted to make me work for it." Harry passed the sword to Hermione, and pulled the mokeskin bag from his neck. "Now we've got it, and Ron's out of the way, we'd better get these ones destroyed, too."
A half hour later and forty-seven swings of the sword of Gryffindor, the job was complete. Hermione snuggled up to Harry as they sat on an armchair. "I modified his memory. He tried to attack me with the sword. The Horcrux showed him an image of me and you doing naughty things to each other and he attacked. I knocked him out, destroyed the Horcrux and modified. So, he'll probably start bragging to you about it."
She nodded. "We'd better contact Remus about these 'Snatchers'." She said. "This is information we'll need."
Harry agreed, and raised his watch. "Potter to Lupin."
A whispered "Code Seven!" sounded through the communicator, making Harry mute it. They heard Lupin speaking. "...ingsley. The Taboo almost caught Hestia. I hate to admit it, but we'll have to find a way to send Harry a message, somehow."
Kingsley's deep voice spoke up. "You really think he's still alive, Remus? How do we know he hasn't run off?"
"Harry wouldn't do that, Shack." Remus said firmly. "I know him. He'll be out there, working for the Dark Lord's downfall. But, we have to find someway of telling him that if he says You-Know-Who's real name, it'll trigger the taboo, and he'll be up to his arse in the Death Aurors immediately."
Harry looked at Hermione, who looked a little puzzled, but nodded. "Must be something to do with the Ministry." She whispered.
"I know." Shacklebolt said. "But how? His owl, the only creature that could find him, was killed during the escape from Privet Drive. He must be under some kind of wards since no post owl will take a letter. We can't risk sending people out to find him... I'm at a loss, Remus."
"If I know Harry, he'll find out, Shack. Trust me on this. Harry's a lot smarter than people realise."
"I hope so." Shacklebolt said with a sigh. "I must go." There was a pop, before Remus spoke again. "Harry?"
Unmuting the communicator, Harry smiled. "Hey, Moony. How's things?"
"They could be better, Harry. Things are getting worse here. More and more people are going missing. The Muggleborns have all pretty much been sent to the camps. We're falling behind..." He trailed off. "We're losing this war, Harry."
Hermione slapped her forehead. "How could we have forgotten to tell you, Remus? The Muggleborns are all safe. Umbridge has been sending them to holiday camps in Somerset. They're not in Azkaban, or anything like that."
Remus' sigh of relief was audible. "Thank god. I was wondering about her. I thought she may be under the Imperius."
"No. She gave us the locket Horcrux. She confiscated it from Mundungus. Snape delivered the real Sword of Gryffindor to us, and we've destroyed the locket. We also got the secondary objective completed, too. The only Horcruxes left in Britain are Voldemort's. We're still working on that."
"Are you both safe? I heard that Ron Weasley had left you."
Hermione frowned. "How'd you hear that?"
"He's staying with his brother in Shell Cottage." Remus said.
"Oh... so, while we were fighting for our bloody lives, he was living in a warm house with good food and protection?" Hermione asked. "Bloody marvellous. He seems to think that we should be grateful he's back."
"I have to go, cub. Tonks is getting more and more hormonal. If I'm not home, she starts attacking me with a frying pan."
"Take care, Remus." Harry said. "Don't... don't take any chances. I can't lose you."
"Same to you, cub." And for the first time, Remus verbalised the relationship between the two of them. "I love you, cub. Don't make me attend your funeral. I... I couldn't bear that."
"The same with you, Moony." Harry said, feeling Hermione wrap her arms tighter around him. "Give our love to Tonks."
"Will do. Lupin out."
Hermione rested her head on Harry's shoulder. "So, there's still some fight in the country. We'll have to be careful, Harry. I don't know just how well that tag net can penetrate our defences. I'd rather not find out." She scowled. "Looks like we'll have to do what the cowards do. Say 'You-Know-Who' and 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named'."
"We'll cope." Harry said, snuggling closer to his wife.
Harry scowled at the audience. "Now, that really annoyed me. I'd never feared saying Voldemort before. Now, I had to worry about the Death Aurors coming after us." He sighed. "Anyway, we woke Ron up, and carried on with the mission."
"The day after Ron's 'triumphant return'," the sarcasm in Hermione's voice was plainly evident, "we set off to the Lovegoods' place. The mark of Grindelwald kept appearing. On Xenophilius' chain at the Weasley wedding, in the copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, the gravestone in Godric's Hollow... we knew we needed to know more about it. Professor Dumbledore had only covered it briefly during our lessons in sixth year."
"I couldn't reveal more." Dumbledore said. "That is part of the power of the Mark. Only those who seek it can understand it. I knew about it, but was under a sort of taboo of my own."
Harry nodded. "So, since it was the end of the school holidays, and they were longer than ever before, probably Voldemort's minions trying to make it seem that things were better with him in charge instead of Dumbledore, we headed to Ottery St. Catchpole, where the Weasleys and the Lovegoods live.
"When we got there, we found the Lovegood house almost immediately. It was a black tower. Once inside, Xeno let us in, but he was a bit pissed that 'Undesirable Number One' was knocking at his door." Harry chuckled.
"Once we got inside, we asked Xeno about the mark he was wearing. And Xeno said, 'Are you referring to the sign of the Deathly Hallows?'"
Silence reigned in the Great Hall. Most of the purebloods and half-bloods knew of the old Wizarding fairy tale. The Deathly Hallows were indeed a myth, but even the possibility that they existed...
"During that conversation, Hermione read The Tale of Three Brothers aloud. I'll assume that not everyone knows it, so I'll sum it up. Three brothers try to cross a river. Death appears to them, telling them that they've won a prize for evading him and not drowning. The oldest brother, who's an arrogant prick, asks for the most powerful wand in the world. Death creates a wand from an Elder tree. The middle brother wants to humiliate Death, asks for a way to bring others back to life. So, Death gives him a rock, which he calls the Resurrection stone. The youngest brother, being considerably wiser and more humble, asks for a way to avoid being followed by Death. Death hands over his own Invisibility cloak.
"The three brothers go their own way after completing their journey. The first brother went and picked a fight, using the Elder wand. He won, but was attacked in bed that night and had this throat slit. Death took the first brother. The middle brother used the stone to pull someone from beyond, and that person suffered. Maddened by grief, the middle brother killed himself. Death two, brothers nil. After decades of searching, Death admitted that he couldn't find the youngest brother, until he took off the cloak to pass to his son. When Death found the youngest brother, they departed the world together as equals. Three objects, three Hallows. The Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone and the Cloak of True Invisibility."
Hermione smirked. "Of course, this is just a fairy tale, right?" The audience was still utterly silent. "So, after Xeno told us about the holders of the original holders of the Hallows. Antioch, Cadmus and... Ignotus. The Peverall brothers. And Ignotus was the name we saw on the grave in Godric's Hollow."
"Of course, the Elder Wand's been described throughout history, occasionally being called something different. 'The Wand of Destiny'. 'The Deathstick'... people have always been looking for it. The only thing all three of these tales confirms is that in order to master the wand, you must defeat the current holder. That's it. The wand then becomes yours." He smirked. "But more on that later.
"While Xeno was cooking dinner, I took a look round the house. My spider-sense was tingling while we were there, but we thought we would be safe because Xeno was printing the truth... until a copy of the Quibbler got spat out from the press, loudly proclaiming me as Undesirable Number One. He'd switched sides."
"We didn't blame him, though." Hermione continued. "Voldemort's Ministry had taken Luna hostage, and was forcing him to capitulate. While he was cooking, he was sending the Ministry a message, telling them we'd turned up. His job was to hold us there until the Death Aurors could come and capture us. We managed to escape by blasting a hole in the floor and disapparating out during the cave-in."
"Had it been anyone by Xeno Lovegood who was holding us, we'd have simply killed him and destroyed the house." Harry said firmly. "But, he hadn't really done anything wrong. He was doing everything he could to save his daughter. We couldn't hurt him."
Hermione sighed. "After we left Ottery St. Catchpole, we were back to the 'move-to-new-area-daily' routine. We did this for months as we were hunting for Horcruxes. As we apparated to each area, we'd do a sweep, looking for the Horcruxes. When we couldn't find anything, we'd move on.
"Ron told us about Potterwatch, a radio program that was hosted by Lee Jordan. It was a pirate broadcast, detailing the things that the Prophet and the Quibbler wouldn't say. We learned that Ted Tonks, Dirk Cresswell and Gornuk had been killed. They were three of the five people we listened in to before Ron ran off. Dean Thomas and Griphook had managed to escape, although we had no idea where they were."
"Then..." Harry paused. "I did something stupid. Utterly stupid. I said Voldemort, not remembering the taboo. Instantly, a group of Snatchers turned up, inside the protections. We didn't have time to recast them. We couldn't disapparate from inside the tent. We were caught." He dropped his head, making Hermione look up at the audience.
"Would you excuse us for a few moments?" She cast a Muffliato, so the audience wouldn't be able to hear their conversation, then turned to her husband. "Harry, please don't do this again."
"I agree, Harry." Dumbledore said softly. "I always told you to speak the name. 'There's nothing to fear in a name', that's what I said. I never realised that he could put a taboo on it. You didn't do anything wrong."
Harry sighed. "I got us caught, Albus. Just by being bloody stupid and speaking before thinking. For years, I'd trained myself to not do that, and in a slip of a tongue, I got us captured."
"You know I don't blame you, Harry." Hermione said. "I haven't forgiven you because there's nothing to forgive! Please, love. Don't do this to yourself. It wasn't your fault. Christ, I nearly did it four times before we got caught."
Harry nodded again.
"Harry." James' portrait cleared his throat. "You know that it was almost impossible to avoid the Death Eaters, don't you? They were everywhere, and with bands of Bounty Hunters trailing all over the countryside, it was inevitable that you'd have to fight. Don't blame yourself."
"I'll be okay." Harry said slowly. "I just... you don't know what they did to Hermione, Dad. You didn't see it... you didn't hear it. Locked in a cell, hearing them torture my wife, and being powerless to do anything..."
James sighed, looking at Lily, who nodded. "Yes, I do."
Harry's head shot up. "You do?"
"Me and Lily were captured in 1979. Held hostage at Malfoy Manor. They did the same thing to us that they did to you. Lily was tortured while I was made to watch. Fortunately, when Voldemort turned up, we managed to escape. I believe that was one of the 'have thrice defied him' parts of the prophecy."
"I understand that you're upset, Harry, but like I didn't blame James, I don't blame you." Lily said softly. "Now, put this self-pity away, and get back to being a hero." She grinned at him, making him chuckle.
"Okay, Mum." He smiled softly at his parents. "Thank you."
"No problem." They replied together.
Harry turned back to Hermione, leaning forward and pressing a chaste kiss to her lips. "And thank you, too."
"No problem." Hermione, squeezing his hand tightly. She dropped the Muffliato, and carried on with the tale. "Sorry about that, folks.
"While the Snatchers were waiting outside the tent, we quickly bundled up everything we'd need. Wands, supplies... all of it went into Harry's mokeskin bag, which we then disillusioned. The most important supplies were safe. We accepted that we'd lost the tent. Even my little handbag went into Harry's bag. All the books and clothes were safe.
"Of course, they Snatchers realised that they'd capture Harry Potter and his little 'Mudblood'." Hermione said bitterly. "The Snatchers knew that if they took us to the Ministry, then they'd try and take the credit. The lead Snatcher, Fenrir Greyback, suggested that they take us directly to Voldemort."
"The problem was the Sword of Gryffindor." Harry smoothly continued. "Voldemort wanted the sword. It scared him. The Snatchers had it. We possibly could have escaped the situation, but things were too dangerous. Too much chance of injury. We'd have to go with them and hope an opportunity arose."
"We were taken to Malfoy Manor, where they asked Draco to positively identify us. Bellatrix LeStrange, Narcissa Malfoy's sister, was there, and when she saw the sword, she went bananas. She ordered us taken to the dungeons, where we found Luna Lovegood and Mr. Ollivander... what the hell's his first name, anyway?" Hermione asked.
"No idea." Harry said. "H-Hermione was taken away and questioned..." He closed his eyes. "They tortured her... we could hear her screams..."
Hermione squeezed his hand again. "Harry later told me that while I was being interrogated," she didn't want to say 'tortured', since Harry still felt bloody rotten about that, "Ron was stomping around the cellar, screaming my name. Not looking for a way out, or working on a battle plan. Simply screaming my name. At least Harry was working on a plan of escape. He still had our wands in his bag, along with the other important items. I told Bellatrix that the sword we were carrying was a copy."
"Griphook, the goblin who'd managed to avoid Gronuk's fate, had been captured and was in the basement. I begged him to tell LeStrange that the sword we were captured with was a fake. He was dragged out of the cell to be questioned." Harry said. "Then, a miracle happened; Dobby the House Elf, who we'd last seen at Hogwarts, apparated into the basement. He took Dean, Luna and Ollivander out of the dungeons."
"While we were being entertained by the Malfoys, we found out that Voldemort was out of the country. As it happened, he was in Nurmengard, in Germany. Specifically, the cell of Gellert Grindelwald. He was questioning him about the Elder Wand. Of course, Grindelwald never held the wand, and Voldemort now knew that. After defeating Draco Malfoy and nicking his wand, we escaped and apparated away from Malfoy Manor." Hermione said.
"But... there was a price for our escape." Harry said solemnly. "Dobby was killed by Bellatrix LeStrange as we left." Harry lowered his head for a moment, silence for a fallen friend. "I dug him a grave, then I went to see Griphook..."
Flashback: Shell Cottage, Ottery St. Standard, Devonshire
Friday, 3rd April, 1998
Harry entered Griphook's room, Ron and Hermione behind him. She was still weak from her torture, but she was a strong woman, and would soon regain that strength.
Griphook was lying on his bed, clutching the Sword of Gryffindor firmly.
As soon as the trio sat down, Harry's wand, recovered from his mokeskin pouch, flicked, sending the redhead to sleep. "Are you feeling better?" He asked.
"A little." Griphook said. "You buried the elf."
"I did." Harry said. "He was my friend. His species doesn't matter. Never did."
"You're an unusual wizard. You dug the grave."
"I did. Griphook, I'll cut to the chase. We need your help."
"You rescued a goblin." Griphook said, ignoring the comment. "You saved me. Why?"
Harry sighed impatiently. "I don't see why anyone, regardless of species, should be left to the less-than-tender mercies of the Death Eaters."
Griphook nodded. "My help?"
"Yes. We need to break into the LeStrange vault. Voldemort's using Horcruxes. One of them's in there. We need to get it and destroy it."
"Impossible." Griphook said instantly. "Our security-"
"Can be breached." Hermione said, her voice harsh from her earlier screaming. "It's happened before. Back in 1991. Griphook, we know that you're an employee of Gringotts and have your oaths to consider, but we need your help. In order to destroy Voldemort, we'll need that Horcrux."
"What you ask, Harry Potter... is difficult." Griphook said slowly. "You ask that I allow a basic tenant to be breached."
"To save us all." Harry said. "Either way, Griphook, we're gonna be going in. It'll be easer with your help, but we'll go without, if we have to. And we'll be taking the sword with us."
Griphook's eyes narrowed. "I shall consider what you have said, Harry Potter."
Harry and Hermione left the room, leaving Ron snoring on the bed, and headed for Ollivander's room. Inside, the old man looked dreadful. Harry still wasn't in the mood to beat around the bush.
"Mr. Ollivander, is Voldemort looking for the Elder Wand?"
Ollivander blinked in shock, before nodding.
"You told him that our wands share brother cores, didn't you?" He asked, making certain not to sound accusing. "After the incident in the graveyard, he would have wanted to know why. You told him they're brother cores."
"I did." Ollivander said slowly. "I was tortured, Mr. Potter. I had no choice."
"I'm not accusing you, Mr. Ollivander." Harry said kindly. "You've been held by them for nearly a year. I understand that. However, we need some information and assistance."
"Very well."
Harry reached up to his neck, pulling off the mokeskin bag. He drew out Hermione's handbag, passing it across. "Wands. Ours have been damaged recently." He held out the lash-up he'd made to repair his wand. "As you can see from the blackened tips, both me and Hermione are just too powerful for a conventional wand."
Ollivander took Hermione's vinewood wand, seeing the scoring. "You should have had this replaced with a stave, Miss Granger."
"Mrs. Potter." Hermione corrected gently. "And I know. Unfortunately, by the time the problem became evident, you'd already been captured. We didn't have much of a choice. We've already located suitable replacements for a stave, but we need some help with the prep and creation of them."
Ollivander nodded, grateful for the opportunity of a project. "Good... good. The wands will work for you, such as they are. However, rapid use of high-powered spells will eventually burn out the wand's core. You should only use this sparingly."
While they began the work, drawing out the branches and components that they'd collected, they carried on talking.
"The Elder Wand is real." Ollivander said suddenly, after he'd finished stripping down the two branches of Wych Elm, and grabbed the Box branch. "It is recorded as appearing throughout history. However, it is a unique wand, needing to have it's master beaten. For the most part, simply possessing the wand, regardless of how you managed to obtain it, will allow you to use it."
Harry nodded, putting is ingredients in order on the bed. "That explains how Sirius was able to use Snape's wand back in the Shrieking Shack in third year." He said. "But why do people say that in order to use a wand, you have to defeat the previous owner?"
Ollivander chuckled. "That was started by my great-grandfather, Mr. Potter. Is was a rumour designed to prevent wands being stolen. After all, if it was revealed that anyone could use almost any other wand, people would be stealing them all the time. Instead, the Ollivander family began that rumour. It worked, too."
"Oh..." Harry looked at Hermione, who shrugged.
"Now..." Ollivander stood up, holding the four branches, two of Wych Elm, one for each stave, a branch of Box, the second wood for Harry's staff, and a branch of Hornbeam, Hermione's secondary wood. "You picked excellent wood, Mr. Potter. How did you know what was suitable?"
"Bowtruckles live in trees which are wand quality." Hermione said. "We had to fight them for it, but we managed to get the branches. Everything else we've collected on our own."
Ollivander nodded absently as he pawed through the two collections. "Excellent. All of this is indeed wand quality... Although, you wouldn't normally find these ingredients working together. You'll need something to stabilise the reactants."
"Blood." Hermione said. "By using our blood, we'll bind them to us, and each component will then have something in common."
Ollivander nodded. "You are aware that blood cores are frowned up."
"It's not a blood core, though." Hermione pointed out. "It's a binding, which is perfectly acceptable according to Ministry wand-making laws."
"True." Ollivander shrugged. "Now, may I borrow a wand to do the work? I'm afraid my own was taken from me, and I have not been able to procure another one."
Both Harry and Hermione offered their wands. Ollivander took Harry's, since it was 'newer', and more likely to work with him since it didn't have any of the enchantments. He quickly began work...
"So, Mr. Ollivander told us about the Elder Wand, although it was pretty much nothing more than we already knew. It was the only wand in the world that needed to be 'won' in order to work. During that work, I received another vision. Voldemort had found out who last held the Elder Wand, and had managed to obtain it."
Harry looked at the audience, seeing them riveted. "The last master of the Elder Wand... was Albus Dumbledore."
Everyone gasped. Harry looked at Hermione, leaning close. "Doesn't that always seem weird when everyone gasps at once?" He whispered.
"Yep." Hermione whispered back, before clearing her throat. "Voldemort had come to Hogwarts to break into Professor Dumbledore's tomb. Unfortunately, there was nothing Professor Snape could do to stop him. If he even tried, he risked death. So, Voldemort now possessed the Elder Wand... the Wand of Destiny... the Deathstick."
"Even though we knew this, it didn't make a difference to us." Harry said. "We had our mission. We needed to destroy the Horcruxes. That was our priority. After Ron woke up, with a suitable memory modification, of course, and I'd put our staves into the mokeskin bag, Griphook asked to speak with us. He told us that he'd help us break into Gringotts in return for a price."
"He wanted Gryffindor's sword." Hermione said. "He told us that it was actually a Goblin blade that Gryffindor had stolen from Ragnuk the First. Ron was arguing that we should swap the sword of Gryffindor with the fake sword in the vault, or that we should just lie to him. Hermione told him that it was a really bad idea to do so. So, I proposed a compromise; we would allow Griphook to take the sword after we'd used it to destroy the Horcruxes."
"Ron believed that we were going to double-cross him, again, thanks to a memory charm. However, the agreement I made with Griphook was specific; I would hand over the Sword of Gryffindor to the Goblin people when all of the Horcruxes made by Tom Marvolo Riddle, the man who called himself Voldemort, had been destroyed. We shook on it."
Hermione stood up. "Bill, can you stand up?"
In the crowd, Bill Weasley blushed, but climbed to his feet. "Yes, Hermione?"
"Could you please tell us about Goblins? Specifically, regarding Goblin-made objects?" Hermione requested reasonably.
"Well..." Bill's voice went squeaky, so he cleared his throat. "As far as Goblins are concerned, the person who owns a goblin-made piece, such as jewellery, armour or a weapon is the maker, not the purchaser. So, if Goblins made the Sword of Gryffindor, then when Gryffindor died, it should have been returned to them. They consider the price the purchaser pays to be rent until death. The tiara that my Great-Aunt Muriel owns has caused me a few problems at work, because the goblins believe that it is theirs, not Muriel's. They consider wizards who pass a goblin-made object along to their offspring thieves." At Hermione's nod, he sat down.
"So, we were going to break into Gringotts with a being who believed that we were thieves, and who believed that he was rightfully the wielder of the Sword of Gryffindor." Harry sighed. "Still, we need that Horcrux. So we went. We got into Gringotts okay, and down to the vault. Once inside, we managed to find the cup, even though there were dozens of fakes. We knew how to detect Horcruxes." Harry's face turned bitter. "Of course, Griphook lied to us. He stole the Sword and ran, shouting that there were thieves in Gringotts."
Hermione chuckled evilly. "Of course, we were in the shit, but Griphook even more so. That's not really relevant at the moment, but keep it in mind."
"We had to find a way to escape..."
Flashback: LeStrange Family Vault, Lowest Level, Gringotts, Diagon Alley, London
Thursday, 10th April, 1998
Harry looked around, watching Griphook dart into the crowd of security goblins. There will be a reckoning. He thought viciously. He glanced at Hermione, who nodded. Without a word, Harry stunned Ron, while Hermione transfigured him into a block of wood. They needed their full powers and abilities to get out of the vaults, and Ron would only be a hindrance. Harry had already summoned their staves from his mokeskin bag, passing Hermione's straight over.
She grinned as she felt the stave almost sing in her hands. "Shall we dance, husband?" She asked.
"Let's be careful, but let's get it done!" Harry snarled. Instantly, a wave of red shot from his wand like a missile, slamming against the lead Goblin and creating an explosion of spell energy. The nearest five goblins collapsed from the stunner, prompting more to fill in the space.
"You cast, I'll shield!" Hermione called out, knowing that Harry was marginally faster at spellcasting that she was.
Spell after spell shot out from the end of Harry's staff, decimating the goblin ranks. He wouldn't kill them (tempting as it was) but he was putting them out of action. They needed the goodwill of the goblins for when everything was complete.
After the tunnel was clear, Hermione lowered the ridiculously-powered Protego. "We're clear for the moment, Harry, but we're gonna have a bloody tough time getting out."
Harry looked around the doorway, spotting the dragon, and got a ridiculous idea. "Hermione..."
"No."
"It's the only way."
"No." Her tone turned pleading. "Harry..."
"Hermione, you know that if we fly the dragon out, we'll have protection from the goblins. It's the only way to get out."
"Fine." She said, resigned. "If I fall and die, I'll blame you. Brooms are one thing, Harry, but a living creature? No, thank you."
"You got Ron safe?" He asked.
"Yes, the little blockhead is safely in my pocket." She said with a grin. It really was an accurate description. Hermione casually waved her staff at the chains holding the dragon in place, while Harry looped one round it's neck in a crude parody of reins, before clambering up onto it's back. Hermione clambered on, and began aiming her staff at the ceiling. "Defodio!" She incanted, the boring spell vaporising a great chunk of rock.
Harry began casting the spell, giving the chains a sharp tuck. The dragon rose, extending it's great leathery wings. Slowly, the dragon took flight, smashing it's way though the rock as it made a break for freedom. A good potion of Gringotts would never be the same, but it didn't matter to Harry and Hermione. They needed to escape, and this was the only real way to get out without having to fight a good potion of the goblin nation.
The dragon escaped, before swooping over London...
"When we were in the countryside, we jumped off the dragon into a lake, restoring Ron on the way down and modifying his memory. The sharp shock of the cold water would be enough to confuse him. So, we had another Horcrux. Let's just recap those, shall we?"
"The Diary of Voldemort." Hermione recited. "The Ring of Marvolo Gaunt. The Locket of Salazar Slytherin. All destroyed. The Cup of Helga Hufflepuff. Captured, but without the sword, which Griphook had stolen, we had no way of destroying it. We were still two missing, so we thought, and then Voldemort himself."
"While we were lying on that little stretch of muddy beach, I got another vision. The goblins had informed Voldemort about our break-in. He was... well, he was about pissing himself in fear, to be honest."
Hermione leaned back. "I could do with a drink." Instantly, Kreacher appeared next to her chair, holding a tray with a large pot of tea and two delicate china mugs. "Kreacher, you really are a marvel, do you know that?"
"Mistress is far too kind to Kreacher." The elf mumbled as he poured the drinks.
"No, I'm not." Hermione said softly. "You do good work, you deserve the appropriate praise. Thank you." After passing across the drinks, Kreacher vanished with the faintest 'pop'.
Harry clinked cups with Hermione, before taking a drink. "He really is excellent." He commented to no-one, before carrying on with the tale. "Now, this is where it starts to get interesting. Voldemort was beginning to become paranoid. A part of his mind was screaming at him to check the Horcruxes, immediately. However, another part of his mind, conveniently the one that was connected to mine, was telling him not to."
"It was a mental battle that my husband was more than up to." Hermione said proudly. "This gave us some time. We had to research a way of destroying Horcruxes without the sword. So, we bought a tent in Muggle Manchester and set it up in a remote part of the Highlands. We still had our full library, and we began to research."
Ron was scowling in the audience. He'd hated that part.
"While me and Ron were researching a suitable magical alternative, Harry was looking at Muggle means. Would hydrochloric acid be enough to destroy a Horcrux? Could we throw them into a nuclear reactor and melt them?" She smirked. "Would we have to make a quest to Mount Doom in Mordor?"
Harry chuckled as he saw the lost looks. "You lot need to read more, you really do."
Skeeter stood up. "I have a question, if I may?"
"You may." Hermione said in a voice of ice.
"Both of you had time-turners, didn't you? Why didn't you use them to escape Gringotts?"
Harry nodded. "That's actually a good question, Rita. Yes, we still had time-turners, but we also had a Ministry of Magic with a country-wide tag net. Any attempt to manipulate time would result in us being up to our arses in Death Aurors before we'd finished spinning the damn thing. We simply couldn't use it. The Ministry's always been able to detect time-turners. Only a specific set of wards, which Hogwarts has, can block their chronometric signature. No, we were grounded in time."
Skeeter nodded and sat down.
"So, more research and book-learning." Hermione said. "We spent two months doing that, and we'd entered July."
"Because of the visions, I became aware of two more Horcruxes; one at Hogwarts and Nagini as the other. So, we had to go to Hogwarts. Nagini would have to be the last one, just before we took on Voldemort himself." Harry said. "We apparated to Hogsmeade, which instantly set off a Caterwauling charm." He wrinkled his nose. "Lovely it was, too. A pair of arms grabbed me and Hermione and hauled us into the Hog's Head tavern."
"Does anyone know who the landlord of the Hog's Head is?" Hermione asked suddenly.
Most of the occupants of the Great Hall shook their heads.
"He was generally known as 'Abe'." Hermione said. "However, that was short for 'Aberforth'... Dumbledore. Albus' brother."
"And a better brother could not be found." Dumbledore's portrait said firmly.
"So, after telling the Death Eaters that it was him who'd set off the Caterwauling charm, he led us back to his chambers..."
Flashback: The Hog's Head Tavern, Hogsmeade, Scotland
Friday, 3rd July, 1998
Aberforth sat down in an old armchair, leaning back slightly. "Well... Harry Potter has come to Hogsmeade. I hope you know what you're doing, lad. Lot of people want to catch you."
With a practiced flick, Ron was asleep, Hermione tucking her wand back into her robes.
"Yeah, Al said you were lugging around some dead weight." Aberforth said with a small laugh. "I'd have dropped him a while ago."
"It's tempting." Hermione said. "But not yet."
"Okay. What can I do for the legendary Potters?" Abe asked.
"We need to get into Hogwarts."
Abe groaned. "Please tell me he hasn't hidden one of his bloody gizmos in there."
Harry's eyebrow shot up. "Professor Dumbledore told you about them?"
"No." Abe said. "But I'm bloody good at snooping, and Severus is a regular customer of mine."
"Ah." Harry and Hermione nodded, before Harry spoke again. "Yeah, we think one of the last ones is there. Unfortunately, Voldemort knows what we're doing, so time is of the essence. We have to get in, locate it and get out before he can catch us."
Abe sucked air through his teeth. "That's a tall order, lad. Hogwarts has a pair of rather nasty Death Eaters in residence, not to mention all those oh-so-helpful Slytherins who embrace Riddle's philosophy. You're gonna have a hell of a time."
"No choice." Harry said helplessly. "We need the Horcruxes, and this is the only way. We also need a way to destroy them."
"What about that sword?"
"The goblins stole it." Harry replied bitterly. "In the middle of a bloody fight, too."
"Yes, we've heard about your break-out of Gringotts." Abe said with a smile. "That was an interesting episode of Potterwatch. Quite a few people cheering your name during that."
"These are the same people who won't get off their arses and fight." Hermione snapped. "If everyone rose up, the Death Eaters wouldn't have a chance."
"No, they probably wouldn't, but wizards are generally lazy and selfish." Abe said, equally bitterly. "I see it all the time. No, they're waiting for you to do the dirty work, lad and lass, before they come out and show their support." He sighed. "I'm not public, but I'm helping people in Hogwarts. A group of the students have had to go underground, and I'm feeding them. A few medical spells here and there."
Hermione suddenly stood up, heading over to the fireplace. "Is this Arianna?"
Abe looked up, his eyes narrowing slightly. "It is. May I assume you've read Skeeter's bloody book?"
"We have." Hermione said. "But we didn't believe it. We knew Dumbledore. He didn't discuss his sister, but we know that the rubbish Skeeter printed is false."
"Good." Abe said, sounding relieved. "Far too many people have been in my pub bitching and moaning about Albus and Arianna. Nearly attacked a couple of 'em."
Harry leaned forward. "Sir... what happened with Arianna?"
"It's a long story, lad, and not one I want to tell at the moment. Come back and see me when it's all done, I'll buy you a beer and tell you."
Harry nodded. "Good enough, sir."
"Is there anything else you need, apart from Horcruxes and a way to destroy them?" Abe asked.
"Just a way into Hogwarts, sir."
"Not 'sir'." Abe said. "Never 'sir'. Just Abe will do."
"Okay."
Abe reached into a pocket, pulling out a suspiciously familiar coin. "I've just sent for one of the 'undesirables' at Hogwarts. He'll be coming down a secret tunnel from the school. It'll take him a couple minutes." He pointed at the sleeping Ron. "Shouldn't you wake the dead weight up?"
With two flicks of his wand, Harry had woken Ron and given him a memory of an angry confrontation with Aberforth. A section of the wall opened, revealing...
"Neville Franklin Longbottom." Hermione completed smoothly. "He'd been continuing the fight inside Hogwarts, within limits, of course."
"Neville led us into a room inside Hogwarts that we knew very well; the Room of Requirement." Harry said. "We knew that Voldemort was coming. I could feel it in my scar. We had limited time, and we still needed to find that elusive bloody Horcrux. By now, we were convinced it was Ravenclaw's diadem. As we said earlier, we knew that it wasn't the battlestaff, since that had been destroyed, and the security for the battle-bow had never been breached. So, that only left the diadem. And it was somewhere inside this school.
"Once we got into the Room of Requirement, pretty much the whole of Dumbledore's Army, which we established in fifth year, had gathered. Even the alumni of the school turned up. This is when it started. More and more witches and wizards began to trickle in when news of my arrival spread."
Both Harry and Hermione took a few moments to ponder the next thoughts. McGonagall stood up, clearing her throat. At Hermione's nod, she began to speak. "While Harry, Hermione and the dead weight were toiling their way around the country, myself and the other faculty members were doing our best to protect the students. The Carrows believed that the Cruciatus was an acceptable form of discipline within the school, and even taught the children to cast the hateful thing.
"We'd done our best... but only I, of the faculty, was aware of Severus' true allegiance. We'd discussed many times revealing his secret to the other staff members, but the possibility of the information leaking out was deemed too risky."
"Yes." Snape said. "I was evil and greasy, working tirelessly for Voldemort." He said in a monotone. "I torture old women and eat babies."
"Severus protected these children more than anyone. He'd wipe memories, heal injuries... he was a true hero." McGonagall concluded, sitting down.
Harry smiled at his Grantabby, before speaking. "So, the Order was beginning to assemble for the first time in nearly a year. Dumbledore's Army was gathering for the fight. We knocked out the Carrows and sealed the school. It wouldn't be enough to stop Voldemort, but it was enough to hold him back, giving us precious time to search the school."
"Professor Snape had to run, to make it seem that he was still loyal." Hermione said. "That, and he wanted a crack at Voldemort himself. Professor McGonagall assembled the children into the Great Hall to prepare to evacuate them.
"Some of the people who gathered really did surprise us." Hermione said. "Molly Weasley was arguing with Ginny, telling her that since she was underage, she had to leave. Ginny looked pleadingly at Harry to be allowed to stay, but Harry shook his head. He didn't want her getting in the bloody way."
"Percy Weasley turned up." Harry said, his tone one of wonder. "And that confused me. I honestly thought he'd stand with Voldemort."
There was a gasp in the audience at Percy shot to his feet, his notes flying everywhere. "How dare you?" He snapped angrily.
"Sit down, little man." Harry said in an authoritative voice. Percy sat meekly, trying to gather his notes. No-one helped.
"Remus showed us a picture of his son to try and break the tension." Hermione said. "And little Ripples is gorgeous!" She stood up, grabbing the mirror from it's easel. "Come on, Moony."
Both the adult Lupins vanished as a small baby was held up. Predictably, the women in the audience all went 'aw!' Harry rolled his eyes as Hermione put the mirror back.
Remus reappeared in the mirror. "Yeah... I arrived at Hogwarts, scared, but ready to do my part. Nym was still at her mother's, taking care of little Teddy." He sniggered. "It was funny when Percy apologised to his family. He's never been any bloody good at anything."
"True." Harry nodded. "The people gathered, in preparation for the fight."
"Meanwhile, while Harry was preparing the troops, I snuck off. I had a sudden brain wave. The Sword of Gryffindor was useful because it had been imbued with basilisk venom in the Chamber of Secrets. The same chamber that was beneath the very school we were now stood in. So, I snuck away, with Ron following me like a bloody puppy." She finished with a snarl. "I didn't really want to let him know that I could speak Parseltongue, but time was of the essence. We had a chance here to break the Horcruxes."
"The faculty and the Order quickly began working on a battle plan, while Voldemort managed to access the school's intercom, telling them to give me up and they'd live. Course, half the Slytherins immediately thought that was a great plan. The Hufflepuffs, showing their loyalty, the Ravenclaws, showing their intelligence and the Gryffindors, showing their bravery, stood between me and the Slytherins, giving me the chance to flee from the Great Hall while I looked for that bastard Horcrux."
"Meanwhile, I'd gone down into the Chamber of Secrets, grabbing a basilisk fang. I stabbed the goblet and melted it. The Horcrux was destroyed." Hermione reported proudly. "Unfortunately, Ron got all pissy when I spoke to the sink in the bathroom, so I had to modify his memory, again, so that he thought he'd done it." She snorted. "As if you can learn a magical language like Parseltongue just by listening to a Parselmouth speaking and hissing. Gormless git."
Harry chuckled. "So, we had a fang, venom, and only two Horcruxes left. While Hermione was dealing with the cup, I was looking for the diadem. I spoke to the Grey Lady, the Ravenclaw ghost, who told me that Tom Riddle sought the diadem, and hid it when he came looking for a job in the sixties. He hid it... in the Room of Requirement. I was on my way up there, and saw Tonks."
In the communication mirror, Tonks blushed. "I was an Auror, Harry. I couldn't let my husband, the father of my baby, fight on his own."
Hermione nodded. "I don't blame you, Tonks. I wouldn't let Harry fight without me, either." She squeezed Harry's hand. "Ron then made a comment that he was extremely proud of. He said that we should warn the House Elves so they could escape."
Ron leapt to his feet, mouthing wildly. With a contemptuous flick of her wand, Hermione cancelled the silencing charm. "You kissed me!"
"As if!" Hermione snorted. "Why would I kiss you? At your best moment, you irritate the shit out of me, Ron. Plus, my husband, who's ten times the man you are, was stood right there. No... I'm afraid you were the victim of yet another memory charm." Another flick silenced Ron again, while Arthur pulled him back into his seat.
"While in the Room of Requirement, Draco Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle came in after us. We fought, they lost, but Crabbe had somehow managed to learn how to cast FiendFyre."
Again, the audience gasped, making Harry and Hermione smirk. "Unfortunately, Crabbe didn't know everything. FiendFyre's bloody dangerous stuff if you can't control it. Naturally, he couldn't control it. So, he'd started a fire that you can't put out inside a room full of burnable objects. One of which we wanted to grab."
"But, FiendFyre is also one of the methods of destroying a Horcrux." Hermione said bossily. "Crabbe, the bloody idiot, had managed to destroy the one of the last Horcruxes. We were winning!"
"It was at that point that we thought Fred had been killed." Harry continued. "He was outside the remnants of the Room of Requirement. Fortunately for the Weasleys, he was only knocked out, not killed. He'd managed to partially shield himself. He was only an inch from death, but he was still hanging in there. I created a Portkey that sent him immediately to St. Mungo's."
He paused for a moment. "We fought our way outside. Voldemort was in the Shrieking Shack with Nagini. The smug little wanker knew that we were after Horcruxes, and we'd need to kill Nagini, but there wasn't any other option. Me and Hermione had to get to the Shrieking Shack..."
Flashback: The grounds of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Saturday, 4th July, 1998
Harry led Hermione and Ron down the passage underneath the Whomping Willow. He knew that this was undoubtedly a trap, but there really wasn't any other option.
He crept to the very end of the tunnel, hearing voices coming from the room above. He held up his hand, making Hermione and Ron stop. Both Harry and Hermione cast silencing charms on themselves, Ron quickly following suit.
"...a problem, Severus." Voldemort's smooth, silky tones filled the air.
"My Lord?" Snape asked.
"Why doesn't the Elder Wand work for me, Severus?"
Harry glanced at Hermione, who nodded slightly, mouthing 'Draco'. Harry nodded back.
"My lord... I have you seen you perform extraordinary magic with that wand."
"No. I am extraordinary, as is my magic. The wand, however, is just a wand. This is no Wand of Destiny. Can you tell me why?"
There was a pause, and when Snape spoke again, Harry could detect the revulsion in his voice. Snape clearly knew that it was his time. "As it happens, Tom, I can."
Another pause, before, "What did you call me?" Voldemort asked in a whisper.
"I called you Tom." Snape replied casually. "We both know that you're going to kill me. I know that I'm not powerful or skilled enough to defeat you, Tom, so I'm gonna go out properly, you silly bastard."
Voldemort's chuckles filled the air. "Such words, Severus... you sound like a Gryffindor."
"I'm something better than a Gryffindor." Snape said proudly. "I'm Dumbledore's man, through and through."
"Dumbledore is dead!" Voldemort roared. "His legacy lies as ashes at my feet! There is none who can stop me!"
"There is one who can, Tom." Snape said, sounding remarkably unconcerned. "Harry Potter, another of Dumbledore's people. I know him, Tom, and I know you. Even with the Elder Wand, you cannot hope to defeat Harry Potter."
Another pause. "You are as delusional as Dumbledore. Do you truly believe that Potter, an underpowered, undertrained child can defeat me?"
"I've been one of the ones helping and training the boy ever since he arrived in the Wizarding world. He's more powerful than you, Tom. You couldn't possibly hope to beat him. More to the point, you will never understand why you'll lose."
"Ah, yes. Dumbledore's vaunted 'love'. I have won, Severus. Once I kill you, I shall be the master of the Elder Wand, unbeatable in battle."
Now it was Snape's turn to chuckle. "Do you really believe that? You're even more foolish than I thought. You've lost, Tom! Your Horcruxes are destroyed, and a fully-trained wizard and witch are coming for you! You're going to die. I won't be there to see it, I know that, but when I'm in my next great adventure, I shall piss on the tattered remains of your soul with a smile on my face and a song in my heart."
"Then you must die, Severus." Voldemort said, then paused. "For how long have you betrayed me?"
"Oh, since... about 1979." Snape said. "That snippet of prophecy you managed to steal from my mind turned the tables. I knew that you'd try and kill that person. I honestly thought that you'd be good for the country. Overturning the pureblood dogma that ran rampant. Instead, you proved yourself to be a lying, cheating murderer. I have done everything in my power to help bring you down."
"Then die, Severus." §Kill!§
All three of the youths in the tunnel could hear the whoosh of death magic in the air. Harry closed his eyes, mourning for his fallen friend. He heard the 'pop' of apparition and near-leapt into the room. On the floor, Severus was still moving slightly. Since he had been killed by Parselmagic, instead of a standard AK, he was still alive, although dying by inches every second.
His eyes locked on Harry, and his face softened. "Take it..." He gurgled. Out of his right ear, a thick white substance began to flow. Harry gasped as he conjured a large bottle, placing it under the white substance. It took almost a minute to fill the bottle, but the flow tapered off. Harry capped the bottle, casting an unbreakable charm on it and thrusting it into his robes.
"What was that?" Ron asked, looking confused.
"Snape's memories." Harry said softly. "He basically emptied his mind of everything. Everything that Snape knew, remembered and experienced is now in this bottle. His entire life."
Harry had heard of the practice, but never thought he'd live to see it. As part of his Occlumency training, starting all the way back in second year, Harry had learned about memory strands. This had been reinforced when he'd seen Dumbledore using the Pensieve. He'd heard how it was theoretically possible for a wizard to empty their entire memories in a download, but it had never been done. Snape had done it.
"Something else he'll be famous for." Harry said softly, standing up. "Let's go. Need to find that fucking snake."
Harry sighed as he looked out. "Professor Snape... traitor, coward, villain... protector, mentor, guide, hero... friend. He gave me everything that made him who he was. Every memory was preserved. He was dying, and he went out proudly. He stood against the Darkness, and he refused to be broken."
"I did what I always did." Snape said proudly from his portrait. "I stood and fought."
"Severus Snape was a great man." Hermione said. "His accomplishments will live on. We won't allow them to be forgotten or 'interpreted' by the Ministry." She glared at Percy, who was sitting meekly.
"Now, this is where things begin to unravel. After leaving the Shrieking Shack, Voldemort made a loud announcement, stating that I had an hour to give myself up, to save the others. I knew that I'd have to go out there. I didn't have a choice. I headed into the Great Hall, and froze. Lying on the floor were Remus and Tonks. I was devastated..."
"Until we gave him a call." Tonks said. "Remus still had his communicator. During the fighting, I was hit by a bad curse. I was dying. Remus transfigured some debris into our bodies and Portkeyed me out of there. We ended up here, in the Villa, and he set to work healing me. Did he do a cowardly thing?" She asked rhetorically.
"Again, we'd do the same." Harry said. "If Hermione was dying, I'd Portkey her out to safety, the fight be damned. If you're lucky enough to be married to such an incredible person, nothing else matters. They become your all. I agree with Remus' decision. I thought he was dead for about... two minutes. After that, knowing that my unofficial godfather and unofficial big sister were okay, I felt better.
"However... I knew it was time. If I didn't surrender myself to Voldemort, then he'd attack. And no-one but me could stop him. The Prophecy was coming into play." Harry sat up slightly straighter in his chair. "Hermione came with me on a short walk. She also knew what was needed. Dumbledore had prepared us well. Ever since we began talking about Horcruxes, I knew what had to be done.
"I sought out Neville, knowing that while I was going into the Forest to face Voldemort, someone had to defeat Nagini. Both Hermione and Ron knew about it, but I thought Neville might have a better chance. After all, he was the other potential child of the prophecy."
"But, if I saw that little snake bitch," Hermione snarled, "I'd have 'er! Yes, I knew what Harry had to do. Dumbledore had told him, and we'd discussed it on numerous occasions. Do you have any idea what it's like to know that your husband is walking out to death?"
Harry cleared his throat, getting his emotions under control. "Do you remember I told you all earlier about the snitch I'd been bequested in Dumbledore's will? I still had it. Carrying it in my mokeskin bag all that time. I knew I'd need it. The inscription, 'I open at the close'?" He sighed. "The item contained within could only be used by someone who wanted to touch death, touch it, but not command it or try and abuse it."
Hermione squeezed his hand again, comforting him. "I walked out with Harry a little way, knowing that he'd have to go a good portion of the way on his own. But... when you said that..." Hermione's eyes became a little shiny as tears welled up.
"'I open at the close'." Harry quoted. "So, I gave the countersign. I told the snitch..."
Flashback: The grounds of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Saturday, 4th July, 1998
"I am about to die." Harry said to the snitch. Instantly, the walnut-sized ball opened, revealing, as Dumbledore had told him, the fabled Resurrection Stone.
"It's time, Hermione." He said, looking up at his wife.
"I know." She said simply. "I don't want you to go, Harry. What if something goes wrong?"
He smiled gently at her. "Then I'll go to my grave as the luckiest man in the world for having you as my wife, Hermione."
She wrapped him in the tightest hug he'd ever received, putting several greenbreak fractures into his ribs. "I love you, you silly man." She mumbled into his neck.
"I love you too, wife." Harry said into her hair. "I will always love you. It's always been you, Hermione. You know that. If... if I don't make it back, take care of Remus and Tonks for me. Make sure they're safe and protected. Kidnap McGonagall if you have to. I... I couldn't bear to lose anyone else."
"I will. But, you're coming back to me, Harry. I won't accept anything less. If I have to, I'll break into heaven to get you back."
"You would at that." Harry said softly. "I wish there was more time..."
"Never enough time." Hermione whispered bitterly. "Never enough." She fed her arm through his, and began to stroll towards the forest. "You'd better use that thing."
Harry turned the stone over in his hand three times, thinking desperately about the people who meant the most to him. He was disappointed when Dumbledore didn't appear with Sirius, Severus, James and Lily.
"Hello, son." James said.
"Harry!" Hermione said in awe. "I can see them, too!"
"Of course, my dear daughter-in-law." Lily said warmly. "You are two halves of the same soul. Not literally, of course, but the two of you share a connection."
Severus stepped forward, smiling. "Damn, Harry, you've done so well. I'm so very proud of you."
"Me, too." James, Sirius and Lily said quickly.
"I... I wish I had more time to speak with you." Harry said. "But time is limited."
Hermione stopped. "I... I can't go any further, Harry. I have to go back." She hauled his face down for the most intense kiss of their lives. "You come back!" She sobbed, before turning and running towards the castle.
Sirius grinned. "You really did pick a good woman, pup. She's truly exceptional."
Nodding absently, Harry continued walking solemnly. "D-Does it hurt?" He asked, the childish question falling from his lips before he could stop it.
"No, son." All four said together, and Harry realised at that moment, it was true. He had four, possibly five parents. Two of the body, but three of the heart. Severus had been there ever since Harry's first day at Hogwarts, and indeed, ever since a scared-five year old had been visited by dreams. Sirius had stepped up to the plate in third year after escaping from Azkaban, filling the need young Harry desperately needed. Remus was still around to fill that role, with Tonks giving him the sibling he wanted.
"I... I love you all." Harry said. "I wish we could have had more time together."
"One day, we'll have eternity." James offered. "But, I hope that won't be for a long time yet."
Harry reached the tree-line, taking a deep breath before entering the forest. "Where's Albus?"
"He... he knows something." James said. "I think he's waiting at the crossroads for you, Harry. You will see him, I promise you."
Harry passed through the boundary of Dementors, not even feeling the cold effects from the vile creatures. He passed the sentries, willing himself to not be noticed, his magic making it happen unconsciously. He came upon the camp, seeing the Death Eaters milling around. Voldemort stood by a fire, looking for all the world like a decadent prince, waiting to claim his throne.
"The hour draws to a close." Bellatrix said. "It seems that Potter is not coming, My Lord."
Voldemort didn't look up from the flames. "There is still time, Bella. Maybe his courage is failing. Maybe he's truly afraid of me."
"Maybe you're an arrogant wanker with delusions of adequacy." Harry said, dropping the Resurrection Stone on the floor. Since he now wanted to be noticed, the subtle notice-me-not charm faded.
The Death Eaters all roared, grabbing their wands as they suddenly noticed Harry. On the far side of the clearing, tied to a tree was Hagrid, who began roaring at Harry, telling him to run.
"Stop, Hagrid." Harry said serenely, before turning back to Voldemort. "We both know why I'm here, Tom. Kill me, but leave the others alone."
Voldemort looked up, clutching the Deathstick. "I'm afraid that won't be possible, Harry. You see, they have dared to stand against me, and for that, they must be exterminated like the vermin they are." He snorted as he raised his wand. "The 'Boy-Who-Lived'... no more."
With a flash of green, Harry died.
He opened his eyes, seeing a never-ending expanse of white. He could hear nothing but the comforting thump of a heartbeat. He was warm, and comfortable. It was perfect.
It was wrong. He sat up, getting to his feet. Christ, I hope this worked. He looked around, searching for anything that could be of use to him. Glancing down, he noticed he was naked. Rolling his eyes, he imagined creating a set of robes on the floor in front of him. They appeared, instantly. Pulling them on, Harry heard a whimper. A few feet (feet? Inches? Miles? Light years? What was distance in death?) was a pathetic, huddling figure.
Instantly, Harry knew what this was, and felt no sympathy.
"Harry James Potter." A voice called as the whiteness began to coalesce into colours.
Without pause, Harry threw himself forwards, wrapping Albus Dumbledore into the tightest hug he could manage. "Grandpappy Firebird!" He proclaimed, crying into Dumbledore's beard.
"You wonderful young man, you." Dumbledore said, wrapping his arms around Harry. "I knew that you had the power, Harry. I knew it."
Harry stood for a moment (hours? Days? Who knew?) hugging Dumbledore, sharing his feelings about the old man. Finally, he pulled back sniffing and rubbing his eyes. "Hi, sir." He said brightly.
Dumbledore chuckled. "It's good to see you, Harry. I honestly hoped this wasn't necessary."
Shaking his head, Harry held up his hand. "We both knew it was, Professor. We knew that I'd have to die to remove that bloody Horcrux."
"No-one should be asked to sacrifice themselves, Harry." Dumbledore said as he sat down on a bench. Around them, the colours had turned into a perfect replica of King's Cross station. Harry sat down next to him.
"Sir, ever since we had the conversation about Horcruxes in my sixth year, we knew that I was one. We knew that I was carrying a piece of that utter bastard's soul. And we knew that Voldemort killing me was the only way to remove it."
"Still..."
"Sir, if you'd hidden this from me, or tried to manipulate me into it, I'd have been pissed at you." Harry said firmly. "Now stop it. You didn't ask me to die. You told me that it was the only possible chance. And now..." He looked over his shoulder at the huddling figure. "That's the Horcrux, isn't it?"
"Yes." Dumbledore said, glaring at the figure. "Tom fears death more than anything. Even that small fragment of his soul is terrified. It doesn't know what to do. It doesn't know how to process anything in this realm. You and I, Harry, not fearing death, truly have nothing to worry about."
"Oh. Cool." Harry nodded. "I have questions, sir. Things, odd things have happened since you passed on."
Dumbledore nodded. "Your wand. Yes, I was watching."
"You can see the living?"
"Of course, my boy, of course." Dumbledore nodded. "When you left Privet Drive, your wand was able to act on it's own, something that no-one has ever heard of. Fortunately, the afterlife contains a wide multitude of people. I was able to ask a few people and beings some questions, and have managed to find the answer."
"Do tell, sir."
"The being I spoke to gave his name simply as 'Adam'. He's a phoenix. Or rather, he was the very first phoenix."
Harry whistled through his teeth.
"Quite." Dumbledore agreed with a smile. "As you are aware, phoenixes are immortal. However, they understand the true burden of immortality, and they occasionally choose to pass on. As Adam did. He told me about the wands."
"So, what was it?"
"The statement that Ollivander makes about 'the wand chooses the wizard' is accurate, to a degree, but it's not really a consciousness that chooses. The magic of the wand, which is partly from the core, but also an infusion from the maker. Indeed, it's because of this very phenomenon that Muggles created the phrase 'a hand-made gift is much more personal'. We each put a little of ourselves into an item we make with our own two hands. Those two magicks combined in a wand.
"Now, when you and Voldemort duelled in the Little Hangleton graveyards, the stakes were more than either you or Voldemort realised. You were fighting for your life, true, but you were also fighting for dominance in the wands. Because of your truly impressive power, your cast-iron will and your utter love for your wife, family and friends, the core of your wand was able to dominate the core of Voldemort's wand. Whenever they would battle, your wand would make Voldemort's wand submit. Since the core of a wand is infused with a wizard's magic whenever they cast a spell, your wand was able to fight Voldemort, even though he wasn't using the brother wand."
Harry blinked. "So... because of that one incident, my wand was forever able to defeat Voldemort?"
"In a word, yes. Your wand knew that Voldemort's magic would be submissive to it."
"Huh..." That explains things rather neatly. Harry thought. "Okay... How exactly am I gonna wake up, though, sir? I mean... as of now, I'm dead."
"Not dead, Harry." Dumbledore said quickly. "But not living. You are stood on the edge of a cliff. You can either jump off, or step back. The choice is yours, my boy. However, I know you, and I know that you will go back to Hermione."
"Damn straight." Harry replied, equally quickly. "Someone still needs to give Tom a good killing, and it'll be me."
Dumbledore nodded. "There is something else you wish to ask of me, Harry."
"Yeah." Harry sighed. "The Deathly Hallows."
"Ah." Dumbledore leaned back on the bench, stroking his beard thoughtfully. "Yes. I thought you'd want to know about that."
Harry sighed. "You told me about the Hallows. I didn't know that other people knew about them, though."
"It's an old legend, Harry. Most people treat it as they would the revelations in a copy of the Quibbler. Fanciful tales. But the Hallows would provide a second layer of protection for you, should you need them."
"Sir... I don't know about the Hallows. I don't think they should be allowed to exist. Is there anyway I can destroy them?"
Dumbledore nodded. "Yes. And in an amusing twist of irony, the items must die. Melt the stone in FiendFyre. Throw the wand through the Veil. Without them, the Cloak of True Invisibility will be just a cloak, but an eternal cloak. It is the only safe Hallow, Harry."
"I understand." Harry nodded.
"I will admit to a moment of weakness, Harry. I tried to use the Resurrection stone, to see my sister and my mother. I wanted to see them, just one more time before I passed on. I couldn't do it. I knew the lure of the Deathly Hallows. I was the master of the wand, I had the Resurrection stone... and had access to the final one, your cloak. I could have become the Master of Death. And that thought terrified me."
"You wouldn't have gone over, Albus." Harry said comfortingly. "You're the most decent man I've ever met. You would have stood, and you would have fought."
"I thank you, Harry, but I can't believe you. The lure..." He shook his head. "The only reason I was able to tame the wand was because of my desire. I would not kill, and I would not boast. The wand, like the Flamels all those years ago, was looking forward to Death. Had I died, undefeated, the wand would have become just a wand. No more 'Deathstick'. Unfortunately, I was defeated by Draco Malfoy, and the wand passed."
Harry nodded, then blinked. "Hang on a sec..."
"Yes, Harry. You defeated the Master of the Elder Wand. You possess the Resurrection Stone and the Cloak of True Invisibility. You're the Master of Death. You have both layers of protection."
With a groan, Harry leaned back. "It's too much."
"I understand. You're one of only two people I would truly trust with such power, Harry. The other is your wife. I give you one final mission; destroy the Hallows, Harry."
Harry nodded. "We did what you asked. I collected most of Voldemort's Horcruxes. There's only one left now. Nagini. Ron, Neville and Hermione all know that she must die before Voldemort goes. We also found every other Horcrux in Britain. They're gone, too."
Dumbledore shook his head. "My boy, you are, without a doubt, the most exceptional young man I've ever met. I'm proud to have known you, and truly honoured that you allowed me into your life."
"It's time, isn't it?" Harry asked, standing up, extending a hand to help Dumbledore to his feet. "I have to go back."
"I'll see you again, Harry." Dumbledore said, wrapping Harry into a hug. "But not for a long time, I think."
"I look forward to it, Grandpappy Firebird." Harry said, making Dumbledore smile. "I think one of things I'll do when I get back is write the real story of your life. Put some fact about you out there. Thinking that you killed Arianna..."
Dumbledore nodded. "Thank you. Aberforth will be able to tell you the tale. Tell him that I'm sorry I couldn't do more for him."
"I will, sir." Harry said, standing back and closing his eyes. "Just one more thing, sir... is this real, or is it happening inside my head?"
"My dear boy!" Dumbledore said. "Why can't it be both?"
With a grin, Harry soared upwards, heading back to his body and battle.
Harry felt his consciousness reconnect with his body. He took a quick inventory, not daring to move a muscle. He could almost feel the people stood around him, watching with awe.
"My lord..." Bella was saying relevant.
"Enough!" Voldemort snapped. "Is the boy dead? Someone check him?"
A moment later, a figure was stood over Harry, jabbing two fingers into his carotid artery. "Is Draco alive?" Narcissa Malfoy hissed.
"Yes." Harry whispered back, not knowing whether that was still true.
Narcissa pulled her fingers away. "The brat is dead, my lord."
Harry could feel Voldemort smiled. "The 'Boy-Who-Lived' is no more, dead by my hand!" He levitated Harry into the air, waving him around like a rag doll in a dog's mouth. "You, oaf... pick the boy up. You shall carry him back to Hogwarts, proof of my victory."
Harry was picked up tenderly by a pair of immensely strong arms, and he knew that Hagrid was carrying him back. He could hear Hagrid crying openly as he was being lifted, but he didn't dare reveal himself. It was too soon.
The walk back to Hogwarts was one of the longest that Harry had ever experienced. He heard Voldemort use a Sonorous charm.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are!" He sing-songed, sounding eerily like Luna Lovegood. "Defenders of Hogwarts, your time has come. You are outnumbered, bloodied, and the 'Boy-Who-Lived' is no more. Come out and surrender. Kneel to me and I shall wash your sins away. Resist... and I shall exterminate you all."
Harry heard the large main door of the castle open, the rustle of cloth, footfalls on the stone floor. He heard Minerva McGonagall scream out 'No!', sounding utterly heartbroken. He wanted to send her a signal, something to let her know that he still lived, but he didn't dare. Not yet. It didn't feel right.
"Drop the boy at my feet, oaf." Voldemort command. "Let him lay among the mud where he belongs."
Harry was placed gently on the ground, and allow his body to slump convincingly.
"Now you see the truth. Even the 'Boy-Who-Lived' could not stand up to my might. Do you see now where your still little resistance has gotten you?"
The sound of a single pair of footfalls, nearly inaudible on the grass, made Harry tilt his head infinitesimally.
"You're a coward and a bully!" Hermione screamed at Voldemort. "You lie about everything."
Another figure stepped next to Hermione, closing the distance to Voldemort. "You're going to pay... Riddle."
"And who is either brave enough or stupid enough to call me by that filthy name?" Voldemort asked silkily.
"It's Neville Longbottom." Bella crowed. "The son of the Aurors I sent to St. Mungo's."
"A pureblood." Voldemort said approvingly. "It's not too late for you, Longbottom. You still have the chance to join the Death Eaters."
"I'd rather die." Neville said bluntly.
"That, too, can be arranged." Voldemort said, raising his wand. "But before I do send you to your death like a coward, I think you might like to see this." A quick summoning charm brought the Sorting Hat soaring from the Headmaster's office.
However, before Voldemort could catch it, Neville reached up, his eyes glowing a deep red, as he snatched the hat out of the air and thrust him arm in. "You cannot stand against us, Tom." Neville intoned, his voice having three distinct tones, all familiar to McGonagall. She glanced at Hermione, who's eyes were locked on Neville, her lips moving in sync with him, then at Harry, who's mouth was moving, barely. She swallowed back a shout of pleasure as she watched the drama unfold.
"You have not won, and you do not have the power you think." Neville pulled the Sword of Gryffindor from the hat, the blade choosing to come to a worthy Gryffindor who needed it. The fact that it was Harry and Hermione working through Neville tilted the decision. With a single smooth stroke, Neville removed Nagini's head, leaping backward as blood spurted.
Silence reigned. Voldemort stood in shock, staring at Neville, who's eyes had faded back to their normal brown. He was looking at the sword in awe. Voldemort's musing was cut short when a pair of boots slammed into his chest, knocking him back onto his arse. With fear and horror, he watched the body of Harry Potter vanish with a pop, only to reappear next to the Mudblood.
Hermione stood next to her husband, knowing that this was not the time to rape his mouth. That time would be soon. She watched in pride as Harry tugged on the bottom of his jumper, straightening it as he looked at Voldemort. He tilted his head from side to side, making grim cracking noises.
"Rumours of my death..." Harry stated, smiling at Voldemort. He looked at Hermione, sharing a warm, private smile, before he looked at the crowd of people behind him. "Are you guys ready?"
"Ready!" The crowd roared, pulling their wands.
Harry summoned his stave, Hermione matching his movements. "Let's be careful... but let's get it done!" He threw the first curse, a drastically overpowered Reducto curse that blasted Lucius Malfoy thirty feet backwards. Acting as though Harry's curse was a starting pistol, every person began firing curses.
The battle quickly changed into confusion as both Order, student and Death Eater charged forward. Harry and Hermione lost sight of Voldemort for a moment as a wave of black overcame them. The battle moved into the school itself, the Centaurs launching themselves from the forest as they joined the battle. Everywhere Harry looked, he saw his friends fighting.
Harry ran into the Great Hall, hearing Voldemort casting Killing Curse after Killing Curse. He casually ducked an AK, smirking as it hit a Death Eater. He watched as Yaxley was triple-teamed by Fred, George and Lee Jordan. Hagrid picked up Walden McNair, snapped his neck and threw him into the wall. Ron and Neville were casting a vicious-looking Silver Dart curse on Fenrir Greyback, ending the werewolf forever.
Narcissa Malfoy was tearing through the battle, looking for her lost son. Harry was tempted to kill the bitch, but he had bigger fish to fry. Besides, he kinda liked the idea of prim, proper pureblood princess Narcissa Malfoy clanging a tin cup against the bars of Azkaban. Shaking his head, he looked for a target.
Bellatrix LeStrange was cackling madly as she managed to kill a sixth-year Hufflepuff, smirking as the girl fell. She turned, looking for another target, spotting a familiar little redhead witch...
"Not my daughter, you mad bitch!" Molly Weasley roared, flicking her wand madly and knocking the madwoman down. She stalked forward, projecting an air of hated and power that made even Voldemort himself pause. Molly proceeded to take Bellatrix apart piece by piece. People came up to Molly, trying to help, only to be knocked aside. "She's mine!" Molly snapped, aiming to kill her opponent.
Voldemort himself was battling McGonagall, Slughorn and Shacklebolt, and holding his own. Harry knew that Voldemort had to be the one he'd fight. He stepped forward, not noticing the smaller duels stopping as he passed. Molly and Bellatrix were both too mad to bother stopping, each intent on destroying the other.
"Oh, Thomas!" Harry sing-songed. "Don't you think it's time?"
"What are you doing, Harry?" Shacklebolt panted. "This is not the time for a hero!"
"No." Harry said. "Not a hero. A single man, doing what he must. After all... prophecy calls for it, doesn't it, Tom."
"You know of the prophecy, Potter?" Voldemort asked, moving into a defensive stance. "I was given to understand... of course. Severus was your man, not mine. No wonder he never reported that you knew it."
"There was no point. But, in the interest of fairness, I'll tell you. '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.' That's me, in case you didn't understand. 'The Dark Lord will mark him as his equal,' that's this funky scar, 'but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not', and I do know it, and you don't, 'and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives...'" Harry smiled coldly. "You ready to die, Tom?"
Voldemort took a step back. "It doesn't say you'll win, boy. Only that one of us will die."
"True." Harry said. "Very true. But, I've decided that it'll be you who dies, Tom. You've spent nearly twenty years trying to fuck up my life, and I've had enough of it."
With a smirk, Voldemort stepped forward. "I don't think so, boy. I think you're afraid, even now. Tell me, which of your friends will you sacrifice this time?"
"I won't. I give you this chance. Remorse, Tom. It's the only thing that will save you from damnation."
"I feel no remorse." He smirked. "I have the wand, Potter. I cannot be beaten."
Harry shook his head. "You're wrong. You have the wand, yes. But you are not it's master." Harry gave a cold smile. "I am."
"Impossible!" Voldemort screamed. "Snape killed Dumbledore. I killed Snape. I am the master!"
"Nope." Harry said jauntily. "Draco Malfoy was the master. He disarmed Dumbledore. I disarmed Malfoy." Harry stopped as he heard Molly Weasley scream out a curse. All through the conversation, the two had been fighting, and now...
"Diffindo!" Molly screamed, a bright silver curse neatly severing Bellatrix's head.
"Fuck this." Harry said, raising his staff. Instead of muttering a spell, he allowed a blast of his magic to erupt, forming the same golden flames that had saved him when he and Hagrid were fleeing Privet Drive.
Voldemort tried to fight, sending "Avada Kedavra!" at Harry, but Harry was too strong, too fast, too good to be beaten. The Elder Wand recognised it's true master, flying from Voldemort's hand into Harry's.
The instant the golden flames hit Voldemort, it was over. The flames were pure, and burnt away anything in Riddle that wasn't natural. His mangled soul, a crime against nature, was destroyed. The magicks powering his body were dissipated, leaving it to collapse back to the floor. It was over.
Harry glanced around the hall, watching people stare at him with shock and horror. "I'm sorry about this." Harry said, raising the Elder Wand. "But it's for 'the greater good'." A memory charm erupted from the wand, lashing out across the whole of the Hogwarts' grounds. He had such control with the wand that he managed to spare Hermione and McGonagall from the spell, but everyone else fell victim to it. No-one would ever remember anything about the Hallows.
Harry sighed as he completed the story of the battle. "And that was it. Voldemort was defeated and dead."
Hermione snuggled as close as she could, considering they were in separate chairs, and rested her head on her husband's shoulder. "A big fight. Death, life... All amazing stuff. But, there was still more we had to do."
(1) I refuse to accept that Hedwig dies such an ignoble death. She lives. SHE LIVES!
(2a-2b) Quoted directly from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I don't own it (apart from the copy I bought at Asda for a fiver, which I consider a tremendous waste of money), never have, never will. I know I said this in the disclaimer, but I just thought I'd remind you all.
