A/N: English is my second language, so I'm doing the best I can with the automatic correction from the word processor. This chapter wasn't beta.


CHAPTER NINE

"Alright, Harry, what was that?" Hermione rounded his friend as soon as the entire group was back at Hogwarts and settled themselves at the Great Hall. They started to eat a filling lunch offered by the house-elves.

"What are you asking, Hermione?" Harry asked while he was choosing what to eat.

"How you did a wandless and silent shield? I didn't know you could do wandless magic!"

"Calm down, Hermione," Harry took a bite and chewed calmly.

Ron smacked Harry's head lightly. "Prat! Answer her! Nobody wants to live with a Hermione with her knickers in a twist!"

It was Hermione's turn to smack his boyfriend. "That's nothing wrong with my knickers! I just want to know how Harry achieved wandless magic! We were together practically the entire of last year and we never trained it!"

Harry gulped his food down and turned to his friends. "I tried by myself whenever I couldn't sleep. But I also wasn't very sure if it would really work."

"If you weren't sure, why did you use it to defend against Snape?" Remus asked.

"I wanted to make a stand. And, for me, both ways would work. If my wandless shield worked, everything would be ok and I would make a better impression. If didn't work, then everybody would still see what a greasy git Snape was."

"Very interesting in theory, Harry, but you couldn't know what he would use to attack you with. If it was a dark or dangerous curse and it connected, you could be in St.Mungo's right now," Remus said worried.

"Nah… I always could duck." Harry answered, oblivious to the astounded expressions around him.

"Harry!" The high pitch cry from Hermione grabbed Harry's attention. "You can't go around not taking risks seriously! All we been through this last year didn't make any last impression in your thick skull?!"

"Of course it did…"

"It doesn't seem so; mate, with you throwing around, close to Hermione's ears, that you don't care for your safety and health…" Ron said with some humour in his voice.

"Of course I care for my safety…"

"No, you don't!" Hermione exclaimed. "Not when you go with your hair brain plans without even telling us about them!"

"Ookaayyy…" Harry looked around for all the disapproving glances staring at him. "Sorry. I really didn't think much about it. I never thought Snape would be stupid enough to use a truly dark curse in front of all that people, while receiving an award."

"You never think, Potter!" Hermione answered angry. She tried to get out of the table but Harry held her hand, holding her in place.

"I'm really sorry, Hermione. I didn't do it to hurt or worry you. It was just a plan that popped on my mind at the time. A way to get even with the greasy git."

"Ah, Harry," Hermione sniffed. "We worry about you. None of us want to see you hurt. And after this hard year you went and disappear on us, going on to fight Voldemort by yourself…"

"I thought we were past this discussion…" Harry said.

"Not when you keep put yourself in danger without asking for our help, mate." Ron said while embracing his girlfriend, letting Hermione rest her head on his shoulder.

"I always ask for your help, Ron!" Harry seemed really upset now. "I couldn't have done half the things in my life without Hermione's and yours help."

"Maybe they aren't explaining very well, Harry," Remus intervened. "I think they want to say that you never asked for help for the most dangerous parts of your adventures. They help to plan and arrange everything, but they were never there for the really big fight…"

Harry looked around with various heads nodding in agreement with Remus comment.

"It was not supposed to be…" he started.

"What was not supposed to be, Harry?" it was Ginny this time. "You're not supposed to have help? We are not supposed to be in danger?"

"I don't know, ok!" Harry stood up and turned to face the group at the table. He ran a hand over his messy hair. "I just know that, at the end, I'm alone, ok? I don't do it on purpose or anything! It's just how things always are! Merlin, I don't know what more you want from me!" And Harry turned his back to the group and left the Great Hall almost running.

The big room immersed in silence, with the people there astounded by the young man's explosion or even a bit uncomfortable with the entire scene. The group exchanged glances, each trying to prompt the other to do or say something. Finally Lupin started to stand up but Mrs. Weasley held him by his arm.

"No, Remus, I think it's better that we let Harry be for now."

"What?!" Fred exclaimed.

"No advice for a Weasley hug," George continued.

"Or a lecture from Mum?" Fred finished.

"I would love to hug him and pour some advice into his ears," Mrs. Weasley answered smiling. "But I think it's really not the moment. Let him be and he will come back to us when he had the time to clear things in his mind."

"There's been less than a week since he finished off You-Know-Who," Mr. Weasley said.

"And this entire mess has been in his mind for at least three years," Tonks completed.

"He will really need some time to figure out that the focus of his life changed," Kingsley said.

The group still at the table nodded in acceptance and turned to finish their lunch. But most of their thoughts were still with the dark haired and confused young man running outside the castle.

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He was tired. Tired of all the running and fighting of the last years. Tired of his own moody swings. Tired to try to maintain high standards to satisfy everybody else image of a hero. Tired to try to live up to their expectations.

It was high time for him to find out what were his standards and his expectations and then start doing things the way he wanted them instead of trying to please others. He would never win this game. If the adults were satisfy, his friends were not. If the Wizarding public was happy, usually meant he was in a bad situation.

'I did complete the big task set out for me,' Harry though while plumping on the grass nearby the lake. 'I planned and executed, quite well, the final attack against Voldemort. Since this worked, maybe I can plan what to do with my life from now on'.

Harry relaxed under the sun and closed his eyes, letting his mind wander and enjoying the possibility of freedom that he could picture in his future.

It was some splashed water that woke Harry up. He opened his eyes lazily to find his glasses wet and a hazy image of the Giant Squid traveling around the lake. Harry sat up and watched while the creature floated on the water, apparently without destination. Its arms rose lazily, as if making gestures all around.

Harry observed for some time and soon his was laughing out loud. No reason at all, just the overwhelming feeling of happiness and freedom.

'The Giant Squid is right, let the wind take us wherever…' he though then stood up, brushed his robes and walked back to the castle, feeling lighter than any other time he could remember.

The Great Hall was empty when Harry entered it. The houses-elves had already prepared the big table for dinner time, but the meal shouldn't start for at least another couple of hours. Harry thought about climbing to the Gryffindor Tower but decided he preferred to keep his good mood and another "talk" with his friends might not permit that. Since he was really planning in taking the NEWTs, Harry decided that a visit to the library wouldn't go amiss. He walked through the corridors trying to whistle and laughing softly for his feeble attempts.

The library's doors were open and Harry walked in, said a quick hello toward the scowling Madam Pince and went to look for some information about what to expect from the Nearly Exhausting Wizarding Tests.

He was flipping through the list of Potions required of NEWT level, considering how much he wouldn't be able to take that test, when some noise at the entrance of the library brought his attention to the world around him.

Ginny was walking toward him, her stubborn expression firmly on her face. Her chocolate-brown eyes were flashing and the purpose in her steps clued Harry that she was a girl with a mission. A mission she though might encounter some resistance.

'Well, I may be thick-head for a lot of things, but I'm not bonkers to go against that temper,' Harry thought closing the book in front of him and waiting for the witch's approach.

"Harry Potter!" Ginny started. "Those moody swings have to stop! You are of age! You can't go around stomping out of conversations when you don't like what's being said!"

Ginny was just starting to heat up to her rant when a furious "Sshuusshh!" came from the librarian.

Ginny turned to confront the ferocious stare of Madam Pince. "I'm sorry…"

"You should be, young lady. I will not permit this kind of behaviour on my library. If you want to study, you can sit down and do quietly. If you want to talk, do that outside!" and the librarian turned away and walked silently back to her on table. As soon as she was sited, she glared again toward Ginny.

Harry fought to control the laugh in him and stood up, holding Ginny's hand and pulling her out of the place before she earned a detention during the summer holiday.

"I quite agree," Harry said to Ginny, as if their conversation was never interrupted, when they enter the Great Hall.

"What?" Ginny asked confused.

"I agree that I can't go on having temper tantrums anymore."

"Oh…" she said, all the blister blown away.

"I thought a bit when I was outside and I reach a decision too."

"And what that might be, Potter?" Ginny was miffed that she couldn't deliver the entire speech she had prepare for this occasion.

"I will find out what I want and then I will go get it," Harry stated calmly, sitting at the dinner table.

"Oh…" again Ginny was lost in what to say.

"I did what everybody else expected of me. I completed the task I had to. Now I will take some time to figure out what to do next." Harry played with the cutlery over the table. "I think I never really believed this would end well for me… That's why I didn't think too hard about what to do afterwards…"

"Harry," Ginny tried to say but the young man interrupted her.

"Ginny, I really don't know what I should do or what I can do… But I'm starting to figure out some things I don't want to do. Maybe not the best way to go, but if it's what works for me…" he shook his head.

Ginny took a deep breath and boldly reach out to hold Harry's hand over the table.

"And what you don't want to do?"

Their fingers intertwined in an awkward way, but neither of them tried to pull out from the touch.

"I don't want to be an Auror anymore. I have seen enough about that…"

Ginny squeezed his hand to show comfort and support.

"I want to experiment a bit and I don't want to worry about politics or reports…"

"Good luck there, Potter," Ginny smirked but with a smile that took out the malice in the comment.

He returned the smile and played with her fingers in an absent-minded way.

"Uh… And you want to experience with, Harry?" She asked with uncertainty, her eyes glued on their intertwined fingers.

"Well, I'm thinking about trying some curse breaking…"

"Curse-breaking?" Ginny was surprised.

"Yeah, all in all, in this Horcrux hunt, the spells we had to learn and use to get to them were really interesting. And to find out the right way to get to them… It was quite challenging and exciting," Harry said with enthusiasm.

"And what can you tell us about them, Harry?" the question surprised both teens and they separated their hands in a haste move.

They turned around to find the Weasleys boys, minus Ron, Tonks and Kingsley sitting around the table.

"I'm sure Hermione can give more details," Harry started to answer just to be interrupted by George. Harry didn't know how or when he started to be able to tell the twins apart but it was automatic now and he was rarely mistaken.

"Ah, Harry, we don't want a six hours lecture of the arithmancy involved in each spell used in the last 9 months…"

"We just want a general and exciting tale of your adventures in this hunt," Fred completed.

Harry looked around, finding only eager and curious faces turned to him. Kingsley gave a little nod, approving of Harry's tale.

"Okay," Harry acquiesced. "But don't ask for too many details. Hermione was the one taking notes."

Soft chuckles were heard all around and Harry sighed, trying to order his thoughts over all they had done this past year.

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"You lot know about the first two Horcruxes destroyed, right?" with the nods all around, Harry kept going. "The diary was the easiest to deal with because it was the first Tom did. So we could touch it without much trouble," at that Harry shot a glance at Ginny to see how she was dealing with the memories of the first year and the possession her suffer.

Her head was bowed and Bill had an arm over her shoulders but she wasn't crying.

When the silence stretched for to long, Ginny looked up smiled feebly to Harry.

"It's okay. I'm fine. Go on," she prompted him.

He shot another dubious glance toward her but keep on with his tale.

"I finished it with the broken tooth of the basilisk. The venom destroyed the magic in there. Dumbledore went after the Gaunt's ring and destroyed it, along with his own hand," Harry shook his head in dismay.

"I don't know what happened, he never told me, but I think the ring did more than just black his hand. He was… weakened." Now Harry was lost in his thoughts and memories, not paying attention to his surrenders.

"The night Hogwarts was attacked…" he gulped, clearly upset. "We… Dumbledore and me, went to retrieve what we believed at the time, to be the third horcrux, a medallion that belonged to Salazar Slytherin. Dumbledore drank the potion protecting it," Harry paused again.

"I made he drank it. We got the medallion and came back to find the invaders."

"Dumbledore's portrait said that the leftover from the ring's curses were slowly killing him," McGonagall voice interceded.

Harry turned sharply to find out the entire staff and the rest of the Order members still on the castle had joined the dinner table. No food had appeared, the group too intend in hearing the story.

"It was not your fault, Mr. Potter," The headmistress said with firmness.

Harry nodded and continued with the story. "The medallion we found was false. Someone retrieved the original one and put it in the same place to mislead Tom. Of course Hermione was the one who put the clues together and found out who did it."

"R.A.B., the signature on the note inside the false medallion, stood for Regulus Arcturus Black, Sirius's brother," Hermione gave the information.

Harry turned to face his friend, smiling sadly. "Hermione also remembered seeing a medallion a lot alike the fake one when we were cleaning Grimauld Place. We went after Mundungus because he had been…"

"Dung was trying to make some money taking things from Sirius's house," Kingsley said. "We caught him and retrieved almost everything he took, but there wasn't any medallion."

"Kreacher had hidden it," Harry said. "Regulus asked him to keep the medallion safe until he could came back and take it. He never got the chance. Voldemort killed him before he was able to find out a way to destroy it. The irony was that Voldemort never found out what Regulus did. He killed him because he wanted out."

"Sirius would have helped if he knew…" Tonks comment.

"Those were troubled times," Kingsley comment. "Everybody was afraid. Regulus would know his brother was not a Death Eater but he also knew about a traitor in the Order, so he knew that he might put his brother in even more danger. That's probably why he didn't ask for help."

After the group around the table agreed on the assessment, Harry continued.

"So, after some fighting, Kreacher gave me the medallion..."

"He couldn't deny you, Harry, you were his master," Tonks said.

"The fight was between Harry and Hermione," Ron commented trying to hide his laughter.

"I just thought we could do it in a better manner, not intimidating the poor elf!" Hermione tried to defend herself.

"Poor elf?!" Tonks exclaimed. "Are you talking about the same vicious, traitorous, disgusting being?!"

"He couldn't help himself!" Hermione complained.

"Well, if this will revert to a S.P.E.W. discussion, I think I prefer to have dinner," Harry said.

"No!" Bill exclaimed. "I want to know the rest of the story! And everybody knows the truth about that thing. Let Hermione have her egalitarian dreams."

Ron had to embrace his girlfriend to stop her to continue with the discussion. "Not now, Hermione. We all know there is no way anyone will change their minds about it. Let it go."

The girl puffed and pouted but stayed silent. Every body else turned back to Harry, waiting for the rest of the story.

"At that point we already decided that it would be better to gather the Horcruxes and only tried to destroy them when we had enough information so we could avoid a disaster, liking loosing a limb or end up dead."

"And you thought they weren't responsible enough to pull this off," Mr. Weasley commented to his wife. She pushed him with a smile.

"Maybe Ron and I weren't, at the beginning, but Hermione kept us on the narrow and straight road," Harry joked.

"She sure did!" Ron exclaimed and received a light snap on the back of his head from his girlfriend because of his comment.

"I sure tried to teach something to those tow," Hermione said with a righteous attitude.

"I think we teach you something too, Hermione," Harry said.

"I thought she learned about breaking rules and do foolish things from you two on your first year," Fred joked.

"The troll and the Stone?" George remembered.

"That's another story entirely. Let's not go there right now," Ron interrupted.

"Yes, where I would have to explain why I was corned by a Mountain troll on the girls' bathroom," Hermione smirked.

"Back on track, people!" Ginny exclaimed. "I want to know the rest but I'm also getting quite hungry here."

"Ask something to nimble one," Ron suggested and the group around found out why he hadn't complain about the late dinner yet. Ron had a large sandwich half hidden under the table.

"Maybe we should adjourn this story telling until after dinner," McGonagall offered.

"Only if Harry promised to eat really quickly," Charlie suggested. "We can eat normally; he's the one who has to do all the talking."

After the laughter died out, the dinner popped on the table, and the group start eating, exchange comments and information about what they had already hear.

Ginny nudged Harry and pointed to his plate.

"Eat up, Potter, you will the strength."

He smiled and munched around his plate, not really hungry with all the memories so vivid in his mind.

Harry decide quite quickly that he preferred to finish his tale so he could leave all this behind, so he pushed his plate away and ran a hand over his messy hair.

"So after Kreacher released the medallion, Hermione created a sealed jar where we carried it around with us, all the while research a way to destroy it."

The people around kept eating almost like automatons, their attention totally focus on the tale.

"The next one we found was Ravenclaw's brooch, a jewel that was being exposed at the Ministry of Magic itself."

Various 'aahh' and 'oohh' kept in tempo with the story and its high points.

"It was in a display on Scrimegour office and that was a hard one to break. This is something else we own the twins. I think we tested at least five different products on the night we raided his office."

"Oy, that's was a good one! The Polyjuice Balloon became a great success!" George informed.

"When they found out that something was taken from the office, they couldn't trace it back to that invasion," Mr. Weasley chuckled.

"That's not right, Arthur!" Mrs. Weasleys was divided between outrages and proud of their accomplishments.

"Sure, it would have gone really well if we just knocked in his door and asked for it," Ron joked.

"Especially with Scrimegour dying to get a hold on me," Harry agreed.

"Another sealed jar and we felt we were getting a bit above our heads," Hermione comment.

"We were able to find them but we still didn't have any idea how to destroy them," Harry continued. "Between find the medallion and the brooch, we were already into the Christmas hols and getting a bit despaired. We got a good lead to where Huffepuff's cup should be and in the way to its hiding place we met some rogue Dementors."

"What?!" Ginny, Tonks and Mrs. Weasley shouted at the same time.

"I don't remember being informed of this!" Mrs. Weasley complained.

"You knew?!" Tonks asked of Remus.

"No… There was nothing in his letters," Remus was quite pale.

"You lot knew we weren't telling everything! No security in owl posts, remember?" Ron huffed.

"But… Dementors…?"

"It ended up being a good thing, Mrs. Weasley," Harry tried to calm her down.

"How meeting rogue Dementors could be a good thing?!" Ginny exclaimed.

"They took care of Ravenclaw's brooch," Hermione answered.

"What?!"

"How…?!"

"They used it on their robes?"

"I didn't know there were female Dementors…"

"Maybe a gay one to be interesting in jewelery…"

"This is no joke!"

"I knew it was too dangerous!"

The comments and questions and jokes ran around the table and Harry took the time to drink some pumpkin juice to calm down his tiring throat.

"There wasn't so many of them," Ron tried. "Five, I think."

"Nothing close to the hundred Harry dispelled in third year," Hermione informed.

"Another story for another time, Hermione," Harry tried to avert disaster while looking at the thunderous face of Mrs. Weasley.

"How come the Dementors took care of the brooch?" Bill asked, given back the command of the talk to Harry.

"They sucked out the piece of soul in it," Harry said.

"Uow!"

"Merlin's beard!"

"That's…"

Again the comments ran around the group, the surprise evident in everyone's face.

"We were tired and afraid of flare out our position with too much magic, so we tried to hide instead of face them," Harry continued. "But we lost the jar with the brooch then. I think it fell of the knapsack when we ran. The Dementors went berserk. I think it was a juice meal for them. They fought for the jar and when it broke they gripped the brooch and…."

"What?" Bill asked anxiously when Harry stopped.

"Performed the kiss…" he answered.

"It was the most disgusting thing I ever saw," Ron commented.

"I couldn't eat for a couple of days after what I saw," Hermione completed.

"I just kept remembering Sirius…" Harry said with a faraway look.

Once more the silence graced the table and the house-elves took the food away but left some tea pots and juice jars.

Harry breathed deeply and continued. "We used our Patroni to send them away and fled the area. We stayed for a couple of days in a nearby farm. After we calm down we understand that this was a way to destroy the Horcruxe."

"Why not throw them the medallion too?" Fred asked quietly.

"We didn't think of it at the time," Hermione answered.

"And since that band were rogue Dementors walking leisurely in the country, I thought that this would tip our hand to Voldemort," Harry said, ignoring the shudders all around.

"What we didn't know was that Oldy Vorty was already suspecting our travels. He never believed we want some time off of the entire war thing," Ron smirked.

"When we finally reach the place where we believed Hufflepuff's cup was hidden, we found one more guard, a living one this time," Harry said.

"Wormtail…" Remus sneered with a mix of hate and sadness.

"Yeah, the little rat was there to check that Tom's arrangements weren't disturbed," Harry continued. "He didn't know what he was supposed to check, only that it should be undisturbed. We knew we would find a lot of traps, so we approached it with care and were able to find out he was there before he could see us."

"And where it was? The cup?" Charlie asked.

"At Borgin & Burkes," Hermione answered.

"Knockturn Alley?" Tonks exclaimed.

"And nobody ever guessed?" George asked.

"There were so many dark things in that place that I doubt anyone could pinpoint the Horcrux without knowing it was there," Kingsley commented.

"That was a wicked explosion, Harry," Fred congratulated him with a big smile.

"It could have destroyed Diagon Alley!" Mrs. Weasley interfered.

"What were you thinking to destroy that thing in the middle of the shopping area?" McGonagall asked disappointed.

"We didn't plan to destroy it there," Hermione tried to defend themselves.

"It was Wormtail that shred our plans," Ron completed.

"We should just pick the cup and go back to Grimauld Place to rest a bit and research so more," Harry said. "But Wormtail was there and Mr. Borgin was really nervous with all the movement around his store. The Aurors were making weekly visits, the Death Eaters kept coming back asking for dark objects, the man was a wreck."

"We did tried to just take the cup," Hermione said again.

"But Wormtail interfered and I had to do something to prevent him to take the cup back to Voldemort, so I called in the Wizard Debt he owned me for saving his life in my third year," Harry told.

"I went on and tried to put a containment field around the store," Hermione said.

"And I jumped in like a Gryffindor and tried a Banishing Charm on Wormtail while he was holding the cup," Ron said in self-depreciation.

"That didn't go well, I presume," Bill commented.

"Wormtail was garbage, I agree," Fred said.

"But banishing him, Ron?" George asked shaking his head.

"I was in a hurry, tired and hungry!" the young man tried to defend himself.

"Well, that explain everything," Ginny said. "He's usually thick-head, but hungry…" she shook her head in disappointment.

"Oy!" Ron tried to complain in the middle of the laughter that filled the place.

"We never really found out what happened," Harry continued after the laughter died out. "The mixture of all the dark magic around, trying to banish the cup and my request of the fulfilment of the Wizard Oath all mixed together, I believe."

"I tried some arithmancy calculations," Hermione began but was quickly cut out by Fred.

"No lectures! Harry promised us adventure!"

"We can sit together and try to study the phenomenon afterwards, Miss Granger," came the offer from Professor Flitwick.

The young woman pouted again but let it go, so Harry could return to the tale.

"The cup's curses must have activated when feeling the Banishing Cham and magic was trying to make Wormtail give me the cup. I never saw where Mr. Borgin went during the fracas but he must have tried some kind of protection spell too. All of a sudden the place was exploding and on fire and we were alive thanks to the protection field Hermione had raised…"

"I dragged those two out of there as fast as I could, but by then the store was half destroyed and people were panicking in the Alley," Hermione said.

"We did make it to the Apparition point," Ron contributed.

"And we apparated to Hogsmead in the middle of the confusion," Hermione said.

"We apparated in tandem, one helping the other," Harry told. "We were all hurt then."

"I would say!" Madam Pomfrey interfered. "You three crawled from the village to Hogwarts and took me a week to raise your magical levels!"

Mrs. Weasley turned to the nurse. "You didn't call me! You never told me!"

"Calm down, Molly," Mr. Weasley tried.

"I couldn't!" Madam Pomfrey defended herself.

"The Ministry was all over us, Molly," Minerva McGonagall interfered. "If you just popped in Hogwarts when your only child there wasn't sick, they would know about those three and we couldn't allow that to happen."

"We were more tired than really hurt, Mom," Ron tried.

"And the time here did give us the opportunity to find out a way to destroy Slytherin's medallion," Hermione completed.

"Let me get this straight," Bill said. "You did a good detective job to find out where the Horcruxes were and how to get them, but all the destruction was accidental?"

The understanding seemed to drop over everyone around the table and again 'oohhh' and 'aahhs' filled the place.

"Well…" Ron started.

"You could say that," Hermione said with ill-concealed discomfort.

"The truth is that the destruction of only two of the Horcruxes was carefully planned," Harry stated.

"Which two?" Charlie asked.

"Slytherin's medallion and Nagini," Harry answered.

"How so?" it was Bill turn.

"While we were at the Hospital wing we talked about how every other Horcrux was destroyed and what we could learn from the experiences to do something about the medallion. Hermione conjectured about the basilisk venom being a powerful option and I said the corpse of it should still be at the Chamber, so…"

"You went back into the Chambers?" Ginny whispered her question, interrupting Harry's tale.

"Yeah…"

"But the snake was dead…" Fred commented.

"The poison was still in its sacks in her mouth," Hermione explained.

"So you three went back into the Chamber of Secrets," Headmistress McGonagall said with a stern look.

"Technically," Hermione responded. "Harry was the only one to go back. Ron never really went all the way, being trapped by the rock slide. And I was petrified while they were trying to decipher the mystery."

"But you three did go into the Chamber?" Tonks asked in awe and a bit of disgust.

"Amazingly enough, the place was not as bad as my dreams made me believe it was," Ron whispered.

"The basilisk's corpse was almost intact," Hermione said.

"We put the medallion in its open mouth," Harry started.

"You put it there, mate," Ron interrupted. "I didn't get five meters near that thing."

"My brave hero," Hermione joked.

"You saw the size of that?!" Ron complained.

"Oh, yes, I did," Hermione stated.

"Anyway," Harry continued. "I put the medallion in the mouth of the snake and used Gryffindor's sword again to slash the poison's sacks open."

"There's where the sword disappeared to!" The headmistress exclaimed.

"Uh…" Harry mumbled a bit disconcerted. "I asked Dobby to get it for me."

"When I asked the portraits, Dumbledore's just said the sword was needed again and a true Gryffindor had it," McGonagall said with a faraway look.

"The venom spilled and dissolved the medallion," Ron said.

"It was a lot noisier and messier than that," Hermione stated.

"The poison destroyed the Horcrux and the curses in it tried to destroy the basilisk," Harry explained.

"The venom won," Ron informed.

"We were even able to harvest the basilisk for some very interesting and rare potions ingredients," Hermione said.

"You didn't tell us that!" Fred shouted.

"What we could do with some of it," George dreamed.

"Don't you two dare!" Mrs. Weasleys cried.

"We still have it, don't worry," Harry whispered to the dastardly duo.

"So that was one of the planned destructions?" Bill asked again.

"Yeah," Ron confirmed.

"I must say it was well done," Bill nodded.

"Thank you," Hermione said primly, starting a new round of laughter.

"That's when you three were officially back here, preparing for the final confrontation?" Tonks asked.

"Yes," Harry kept on. "The Horcruxes were destroyed, only Nagini was missing. And we already had discussed that we need to destroy her during the attack at Voldemort."

"Then this prat," Ron slapped Harry's head. "Went all by himself to fight out the big bad wizard."

"As I said early," Harry returned the slap over Ron's head. "I thought we had finished this discussion."

"I still didn't get the chance to bash your head in for run of without us," Ron answered.

"You can't attack someone who just received an Order of Merlin award!" Harry joked. "What the public would say?!"

"The infamy!" Fred cried.

"It would look like he didn't deserve it!" George completed.

"Don't worry," Harry said seriously. "I'm not planning in risk my life so reckless anymore."

"As if you ever planned any of it before," Tonks snorted.

"Or if your definition of reckless would meet ours," Mrs. Weasley commented.

"I'm just thinking about NEWTs and what to do after it, I swear!"

"We will see, Mr. Potter," Headmistress McGonagall used her most severe stare at the black-haired young man.

"But how did you find out where to go looking for the Horcruxes?" Bill asked.

"I said I wouldn't go in too many details," Harry answered. "Hermione is the one planning a book about it."

"A book?" Professor Flitwick turned to the young woman.

"Yes. I'm writing an accurate historical account of Voldemort's second rising."

"That's a big plan." Charlie commented.

"And something that can land you with a mastery just after your NEWTs. Really clever, Hermione." Fred smirked.

"I won't deny I did think about that," Hermione answered in the middle of snorts being heard all around. "But I think even more important is to have an accurate account of what really happened."

"As much as we know," Harry said.

"What you mean?"

"We might never know what Dumbledore did with the ring. His portrait isn't talking."

"True."

"And I don't know if is even possible to find out what caused the explosion at Borgin & Burkes."

"Too many unknown elements and variables."

"At least will be much more accurate than anything the Daily Prophet could write."

"Or would!"

"I see plenty of plans," McGonagall commented. "But I think is time we all go to bed. Some rest and fresh heads in the morning may think clearly."

"I don't think you should encourage this lot," Tonks laughed.

"We all need a good night's sleep," Mr. Weasley said.

"You all are more than welcome to stay at Hogwarts," the headmistress said.

"The only dormitory open is Gryffindor Tower," Professor Flitwick said.

"I think we can live with that," Bill joked.

"I would love to see the lion's den"! Tonks exclaimed.

"To bed, children, trot you go!" Mrs. Weasley stood up and gestured as if conduit a herd.

At the doors of the Great Hall the group disperse, the staff going back to their quarters and the rest of the Order members and the young crew climbing up toward Gryffindor Tower and a deserved sleep.


TBC…

A/N 2: I usually know how my stories will go but Harry Potter has a magic of its own and it took complete control over this one. That's the only explanation I have for such a deviation from my original plan.

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