Chapter 10: To Live and Let Luck
The next day Harry could not get the dream out of his head. He knew that the dream wasn't real, but it had made him think. The only reason that Ginny would have to defend their child is if he were dead. He could never let that happen. The promise he made Ginny was burning in his mind, he was going to anything he could to be safe. As he sat in Potions class an idea came to him. He hung back when the class ended to talk to Slughorn, Ginny gave him a quizzical look but he kindly motioned for her to keep going and she obliged. Harry walked back towards Slughorn who was standing at the front of the room.
"Ah hello Harry, nice to see you my boy," said Slughorn jovially, "I was so pleased that you chose to announce your engagement at my little party."
"Yeah… it seemed appropriate." said Harry with a smile, he might have said something quite different on another occasion but he needed Slughorn to be in a good move.
"Professor, I was wondering if you could help me with something." said Harry carefully.
"That depends my boy, but I can't imagine you could ask me for anything too unsuitable." said Slughorn with a smirk.
Harry thought about it, he needed to do this right. Slughorn was rather easy to persuade, but Harry would have to word things carefully.
"You see Professor; the ministry has asked me, Ron, and Hermione to help them with a mission. It could potentially be very dangerous, and I promised Ginny that I would do anything to come home to her safely. I never want to leave her alone again." said Harry.
Slughorn's face softened. Harry had purposefully mentioned Ginny because he knew her resemblance to Harry's mother made Slughorn rather fond of her.
"Of course Harry… she was so very lost without you last year. I'd hate to see her in that pain again, and of course I don't want any harm to come to you either my boy… But what can I do?" said Slughorn quietly.
"Could you make me some Felix Felicis?" asked Harry slowly.
"Felix? How might that help?" Slughorn said.
"I know I'd feel better if we had a bit of extra luck to protect us." said Harry.
"Yes…" said Slughorn, "That just might be the ticket… you are always so keen Harry…just like your mother. When would you need it?"
"I would need it at the beginning of February, and I would need enough for three… no four people, for about 4 hours." Harry was feeling more hopeful.
"That's not very long… it takes a full month for the potion to mature." said Slughorn.
"Well… I'm sure an adept potion maker like you can make a few adjustments." said Harry, he knew he was pressing his luck, but he was desperate.
Slughorn smiled and shook his head.
"Right you are boy, come back in three weeks and I will have your potion, and Harry please be careful." Slughorn said kindly.
Harry smiled at him in thanks and then headed out of the room, feeling much better about his upcoming mission.
Harry met up with Hermione and Ginny outside Defense Against the Dark Arts, and they filled Hermione in on what had happened the previous night. She was shocked and disturbed as they had suspected but her opinion tended to be along the same lines as Ginny's
"I really think that it was just a dream Harry. You aren't connected to R-r-riddle anymore because he's dead. I'm sure it must have been horrible, but I don't think it's anything to be too worried about."
She patted his arm encouragingly as the three of them entered the Defense Against the Dark Arts Classroom. To Harry's disappointment the room was set up in the conventional style with desks and chairs, which meant they would not be having a practical lesson today. Harry had really been hoping for something that would take his mind off everything. Hermione on the other hand looked positively ecstatic; Harry knew she was much more comfortable studying a book than trying to master a spell. When they all took their seats Bill began a lecture on nonverbal spells. He explained that while they all knew how to use nonverbal spells, there was another aspect to them that needed to be studied, each spell had a specific motion that was used in performing it, by memorizing these motions, they would be able to predict their opponent's movements without having to rely on incantations. Harry groaned inwardly, he knew that this was going to require great amounts of tedious memorizing and he had no desire whatsoever to even attempt it with everything else that was going on. At the end of class Bill stopped Harry and Hermione on their way out.
"I wanted to inform you two, that I would like you to come and practice your dueling in here each evening along with Ron for a few hours. I am aware of what you three have agreed to do, and while I think it is completely foolish, I want to make sure that if you are going to do it that you are adequately prepared." said Bill coolly.
Harry and Hermione nodded in agreement. While they didn't like the idea of having to practice every evening, they also wanted to be prepared, and they didn't want to make Bill any angrier by disagreeing. Harry had a feeling that they there were plenty more people who were going to be angry with them by the time this whole thing was over.
The next few weeks were some of the hardest that Harry had endured over the past eight months. He felt the all too familiar weight in his stomach as the days counted down, moving them closer and closer to their mission. As promised Ron, Hermione and Harry had begun nightly dueling sessions in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. Harry was glad for them after a few days because it was painfully obvious that all three of them were very out of practice. Harry worried the most about Hermione, she was never particularly good at dueling to begin with, and she tended to get flustered very easily in high stress situations. On more than one occasion he and Ron had tried to convince her that it might be safer for her to stay behind, but she was adamant that if they were going she was going, and they knew that they would not change her mind, so they settled for trying to train her as thoroughly as possible.
In the last week of January Draco showed up at the school, to discuss plans with them. His presence brought a fair bit of murmuring from the people who remembered him but he didn't seem to mind that much. He informed them that the plan was set to take place the following Friday, at two o'clock in the morning. They had picked the late hour hoping to have the element of surprise. Draco would arrive at Hogwarts at one thirty and then the four of them would Apparate back to the Ministry to meet the rest of the team. Then they would all be Apparating to Germany. The plan sounded simple enough, break into the castle, scare away or stun all the younger followers. Either take into custody or kill all the Death Eaters, Draco estimated that with the older of the new recruits, there were probably about ten of them. That was a number that the Aurors should be able to dispose of quickly, but somehow Harry couldn't shake the feeling that it wouldn't be that simple.
On the evening of Thursday February 3, they all sat in Harry's little living room area rather somberly. Neville and Luna had joined them, as they usually did. They had of course told them what they were going to be doing weeks ago, but now they all sat in relative silence knowing that this was not any other night. At around ten o'clock Hermione finally got up and announced she wanted to go to bed so that she would be able to wake up at one, Ron followed her after giving his little sister a quick hug goodbye. Ginny announced that she was going to go take a shower, and she said goodnight to Luna and Neville. As the two of them were getting ready to leave Harry grabbed Neville's arm and pulled him back for a moment.
"Neville… I need to ask something of you." He said solemnly.
"Of course Harry, what's up?" said Neville.
Harry took a deep breathe. He desperately did not want to have to think about what he was about to say to Neville, he had been denying it, and pushing it out of his head for weeks, but he knew he had to face it eventually. At least face the possibility.
"Neville, if for some reason, none of us make it out of this thing… I need you to promise me that you will take care of Ginny. That you and Luna will help her heal, help her move on." He said, and his voice almost cracked with emotion.
"Oh Harry… please don't even think like that!" said Neville sadly, "Everything's going to turn out fine."
"I know it is." Said Harry, his voice was surer this time, "but I can't leave her without knowing that no matter what happens, she'll be taken care of."
Neville put a reassuring hand on Harry's shoulder.
"She will be Harry." he said, "I promise she will be."
With that Harry gave his friend a hug and then watched as he walked out through the portrait hole to meet Luna. A moment later Ginny came out of the bathroom in her robe, her wet hair was clinging to her face and she walked unwaveringly to Harry and began to kiss him. He was caught off guard for a moment, she was kissing him with a surprising amount of passion, it was almost desperate the way she clung to him, and then suddenly he realized what she was doing and he pulled away.
"No…" he said softly.
"No?" she repeated questioningly, "you don't want to?"
"Of course I want to..." said Harry with a slight role of his eyes, "but I'm not going to let you sleep with me, like you're saying goodbye or something. I'm coming back, I'll be sleeping in that bed next to you tomorrow night, and the night after that, and the one after that… for the rest of our lives."
He pulled her close and kissed her again, and then he pulled away and rested his forehead on hers. He reached into his pocket and pulled out one of the four small bottles of gold potion he'd picked up from Slughorn earlier that day.
"You see this? It's Felix Felicis, liquid luck." he whispered, "I'm keeping my promise, I'm going to be as careful as I can, I'm coming home to you. Believe it, trust it, and trust me."
He picked her up and carried her over to the bed, she snuggled herself closely against him and he knew that no matter what he would find a way to come back here to her.
A few hours later Harry silently slid out of bed and got dressed. He put on a dark sweater over his shirt, because he knew it would help give him stealth while they were in the castle. He met Ron and Hermione in the entrance Hall where they were already waiting for him with Draco.
"You ready?" said Draco importantly.
Harry nodded and they all set off down the lawn towards the front gates. They didn't speak to each other as they walked, but Harry noticed that Ron was squeezing Hermione's hand rather tightly. They stopped just outside the gate and each took their wand out to Apparate to the Ministry.
"Hang on." said Harry, and he pulled out the four little bottles of gold liquid, he handed one to each of them.
"Felix…" said Hermione breathlessly.
"We're not taking chances," said Harry, "it'll be enough to get us through the night."
They all took a bottle and drank its contents, and then they stood together and spun into the darkness. They arrived in the Atrium to find it completely deserted. Harry was reminded of the last time he had been in the Ministry this late, it had been the night of Sirius's death, the night Dumbledore had fought Voldemort, and then Voldemort had tried to posses Harry. Harry's mind was brought back to the present by a flickering light in the distance, as his eye's adjusted he recognized Kingsley accompanied by what looked like twenty other witches and wizards, the group was making it's way towards them by the light of Kingsley's wand. When they arrived Kingsley greeted them all in a business like manner.
"It's good to see you all. These are my Aurors some of them you may know, that's Dawlish, Cabbert, and Jameson." He motioned to a few of the wizards to his immediate right and then continued, "Right well we all know why we're here, before we head out I would like to let Mr. Malfoy go over our plan and some of the basic rules."
"Right," said Malfoy, "the first thing we have to remember is that a lot of the people we will encounter will be young and the will be scared. The Death Eater's have been bringing them in at very young ages, some even as young as fourteen, and trying to brainwash them. Most of the people you encounter will be barely of age, but don't be fooled. Fear can make your opponent unpredictable, and therefore in some ways even more dangerous. For this reason the most important part of the plan is that we keep these three" he motioned at Harry, Ron, and Hermione, "visible at all times. I have heard the stories being whispered in that castle first hand. Many of the younger recruits think that these three have some kind of great powers that no one understands, that goes especially for Harry. While I'm fairly certain they will be more likely to run than fight at the sight of Harry Potter and his companions, we want to take every precautionary measure. There will be three people assigned to the protection of each of them, Kingsley, Jameson, and Burbrich will be protecting Harry. Myself, Cabbert, and Lauten will be protecting Hermione, and Dawlish, Franklin, and Roberts will be protecting Ron. The rest of you will be the offensive. I encourage you to take any who surrender into custody, these are mostly children who do not understand the gravity of their choices. That being said, once we reach the Inner Sanctum, as they like to call it, things will get much more difficult. By that point the Death Eaters will be aware of our presence. There are only five of the original Death eaters left, my father, Crabbe and Goyle, Alecto Carrow, and Knott, but they have each been training their own protégé's that they have welcomed into the fold, so the final count is ten highly skilled Death Eaters. When we encounter them I implore you to use extra caution, we will be fighting on their turf, so they will have the advantage. Do not underestimate them." With that Malfoy was finished, the Aurors took their positions by their respective person, and they all got ready to Apparate.
Having never been to the castle before Harry, Ron, and Hermione needed to go by Side-Along Apparation. Kingsley held out his arm to Harry and Malfoy did the same to Hermione, but not before motioning to Ron for his approval. Ron gave it, and he looked rather pleased with Malfoy as he took hold of Dawlish's arm and they all spun into pressing darkness. A moment later they were standing on a hill in the middle of a blizzard. The bitter cold wind was biting at their faces and it was hard to make out anything through the swirling snow.
"The castle is just down there," said Malfoy pointing towards a large dark shape that was at the bottom of the hill.
"Right so we'll head in together. Aurors remember who you're guarding and be sure to keep them out front where they can be seen. Ok let's move out." said Kingsley.
As the moved slowly and quietly down the hill Harry felt his heart pounding in his chest. He could not remember the last time he had been this scared. As they approached the main entrance to the castle they saw that there were two young wizards, who couldn't have been more than sixteen guarding the gate. As they approached it quietly one of the wizards jumped up and peered out into the darkness.
"Who's there?" he said sharply, "State your business here!"
Kingsley gave Harry and encouraging look that he took to mean he was supposed to step forward. He stepped away from the group but as he did all the Aurors filled in behind him with their wands at the ready incase the boy attacked.
"My name is Harry Potter." Said Harry as he stepped closer so the boy could see his face, "and I've come to arrest you all."
Just as Malfoy had suspected the boys face froze in terror but the next moment he shouted stupefy! But before the jet of red light could even reach Harry ten more bolts of red light shot out from behind him not only deflecting the spell but Stunning the poor guard boy so thoroughly he was lifted off the ground several inches before he crumpled. The second boy was staring at Harry as if he had somehow caused this to happen all by himself. He turned and ran back into the building without a second glance.
"Oh now we've got to be quick." Said Draco, "He's undoubtedly going to tell the others."
They rushed to open the castle doors which the guard had left unlocked. The main entrance hall was thankfully deserted and Draco led them quickly down the hall and to the right, they were running down a corridor and about to make another right when a jet of red light came around the corner. Draco grabbed Hermione's arm and yanked her out of the way just in time.
'Thanks!" she said appreciatively.
"No problem," he said and then he turned to Harry, "you can always tell the young one's cause the try to stun first, once we get to the Death Eaters… they kill first ask questions later.
Harry nodded his head grimly. He had enough experience with Death Eaters to know that they showed no mercy, and he knew that when they met up with them, that one well placed spell was all it took for one of them to be gone. His mind involuntarily went to Fred, who had died of a Killing Curse with a smile still on his face. Harry was quickly brought back to the battle as another stunning spell went soaring past his head. He dove behind a statue and started sending his own spell at their opponents. Within minutes time they had stunned or incapacitated all five of the young ones who were fighting them at the end of the hall. They went down and began to sit them up to talk to them.
"We do not want to hurt you." Said Draco to them calmly, "all you have to do is surrender and we will take you outside this castle when this battle is over and we will set you free."
"And what will happen if we choose not to surrender?" said a surly looking boy who seemed to be the leader of the little group.
"You will be arrested and sentenced to a life sentence in Azkaban prison." Said Kingsley sternly.
They big boy seemed to wilt at those words and he looked around at his compatriots who were all looking back at him their eyes round with fear.
"We'll surrender." He said, "Just promise not to do anything to them..." he motioned towards the other four who sat next to him.
"You have my word that nothing will befall them." Said Kingsley, and with that they bound the children and told them they would come back for them on the way out.
They were about to leave when suddenly Draco turned and went back to the bigger boy.
"The password for the Inner Sanctum, what is it?" he asked.
"It's Salazar this week..." said the boy glumly, and they all took off running down the hall again.
As they continued on they ran into a few more scraps but nothing they couldn't handle, as Draco had predicted most of the younger followers ran away in fear when they saw Ron, Hermione, and Harry, and even the ones who tried to stand and fight were no match for the Aurors. Harry was almost beginning to believe that this was too easy but he wouldn't let himself rest, not quite yet. They hadn't gotten to the Death Eaters yet, and Harry knew that they would not run away.
They ran down a much larger corridor now, Harry could see the ornate carving's of golden snakes that ran the length of the walls, and at the end of the hall was a set of large stone doors with intricate engravings on them.
"This is it!" said Malfoy, "Everyone get ready!" he faced the doors and shouted 'Salazar' at them and they opened slowly. Everyone stood facing the doors with their wands at the ready, but when the doors opened there was no one there.
They were looking into a large circular room, with dark stone walls and chairs that almost looked like thrones set up at intervals around the room. Harry noticed that five of the chairs were large, golden, gaudy things with jewels embedded, while five of them were smaller silver chairs that seemed simpler, and the chairs alternated in a circle around the room. One for each Death Eater and one for their apprentice, thought Harry. Yet the room was completely empty.
"We've been set up…" said Malfoy, "They've trapped us."
From behind them at the other end of the hall they heard a soft musical laugh. They all turned their wands to face the unknown enemy and found themselves looking at a girl of remarkable beauty. She looked to be about the same age as Hermione, Ron, and Harry. Her hair was corn silk blond and fell in a shiny sheet down her back. Her features were soft and supple, but they seemed strangely distorted by the evil smile that was playing on her lips as she slowly moved towards them.
"Hello Rosaline." Said Draco, he was forcing his voice to be calm but Harry could tell that they were backed into a very tight spot.
'Nice to see you again Draco," said Rosaline in her soft musical voice, "you left me for quite a long time... I was rather put out..."
"I left because this place is vile… and you have absolutely no more use for me so let's get to the point." said Draco curtly as he raised his wand.
"Very well then." Said Rosaline, there was no hint of softness in her voice now.
As she spoke her counterparts came out of the hallway behind her and stood by her side. There were four of them, all boys who looked about them same age as her, and they all eyed the group with a hungry expression. The Aurors pushed Ron, Hermione, Harry, and Draco to the back of the group instinctively as they began to retreat. Suddenly, just at the four of them had been pushed over the threshold and back into the Inner Sanctum the ground gave an almighty lurch and that sent everyone flying. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Draco landed in the middle of the circular room, and Harry looked up just in time to see that all the Aurors had been thrown out of it. Harry felt fear ripple through his body as he realized what was happening. He made eye contact with Dawlish who was the closest to the room, and in that second Dawlish registered the situation and took a great leap landing inside the stone doors just before the crashed shut.
"We're trapped." Said Harry to the others, "They were trying to distract the Aurors, to split us up so they could get us alone."
'Well it didn't work now did it!" said Dawlish gruffly and he gave Harry an encouraging look.
Harry gave him an appreciative look back but he also knew that one Auror would probably not stand up very long against whatever was about to attack them. Then they were there. They appeared in their thrones as if they were some kind of ghastly ghosts. Harry didn't even hesitate when he saw them.
"RUN!!!!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, and each of them dove behind one of the silver thrones.
"Oh come now Potter… let's not make this messier than it has to be." said the cold voice of Lucius Malfoy.
He began to move towards the throne Harry was hiding behind, but as soon as he did Hermione screamed stupefy! From behind him and he whirled around and sent a Killing Curse in her direction. Ron let out a howl of rage and sent another stunning spell at him which he barely dodged.
"Enough!" he yelled and all the Death Eaters, formed a circle in the middle of the room so they could keep their eyes on all the silver thrones at once.
"Just like old times eh Potter?" said Lucius, "except this time you have no prophecy to bargain with. So you and your friends will die."
As he spoke Dawlish sent one of the golden thrones flying at them and it knocked them over like bowling pins. From that point a really fight began, each of them seemed to be lock in a duel with a Death Eater. Harry was fighting against Alecto Carrow who was sending Killing Curses at him right and left but she didn't seem to have very precise aim. After about five minutes worth of dodging her curses he sent a well aimed Body Bind Curse in her direction, and saw her go stiff and fall to the floor. He jumped up to try and help whoever else needed it. He saw that Ron was battling Goyle while Hermione was battling Crabbe, both of them seemed to be doing fine, but he noticed Draco was getting dangerously close to being pinned into a corner by his father. Harry started sending hexes in Lucius direction but he deflected them easily. He turned back to his son and leered.
'Look at you, you filthy coward!" he sneered fighting with them, 'I've never seen such a disgrace."
"I'll take that as a highest compliment coming from you!" shouted Draco almost gleefully as he sent a well aimed hex at his father that made him go on the retreat.
Just then Crabbe got in a nice shot that almost hit Hermione, and Ron jumped out of his hiding place to send a spell at him. The minute Ron exposed himself Goyle sent Killing curse right for him, but Harry quickly sent a stunning spell that collided with it the mid air.
"Ha ha! Take that you git!" yelled Ron, but then suddenly several things happened at once. One of the beams of the deflected spell hit the wall above Ron and sent a shower of rocks and dust all over the room, at the same moment Lucius Malfoy had aimed a Killing Curse at Ron in annoyance.
Harry watched in horror as the green bolt of light flew towards his friend and he crumpled. He stood there completely numb, his legs wouldn't move his brain refused to work. Ron… it couldn't be, he refused to believe it. He saw things happening but it was almost as if he were underwater, everything was in slow motion. Crabbe was distracted by Hermione's desperate scream, and Dawlish took advantage of the moment to stun him. Everything was going black, pain was taking over and he couldn't resist. Somewhere in the distance Harry heard someone screaming in agony, he thought as he was coming back to his senses that it must be Hermione, but then he realized it was a man's voice. He looked around and saw Lucius Malfoy writhing on the floor screaming, Hermione was standing over him with her wand pointed at his chest. Realization dawned in Harry and he ran across the room as fast as he could.
"No Hermione!!" he yelled, he got to her and pulled her wand away from Lucius who stopped screaming immediately. Harry quickly put him in a full body bind and then turned to Hermione who was shaking from head to toe. He looked into her face and he tried to embrace her.
"Hermione…" he began but she pushed him away and ran across the room.
Hermione ran to the place where Ron was laying and fell to her knees beside him. She scooped him up as best she could in her arms.
"Ronald Weasley you wake up right now!!" she pleaded her voice rising with panic, "Do you hear me!! Wake up!! You can't leave me!! You can't!! Wake up! I'm not going to let you die! I need you! Ron!! Please!"
Harry walked slowly over to where Ron lay in Hermione's arms, he didn't move. Harry couldn't breath, he couldn't move, he could do nothing. He had never felt such pain in his life, not with Dumbledore, or Sirius, it didn't even compare. This was Ron; Harry felt his whole world falling to pieces around him. Ron couldn't be dead.
"Harry!" gasped Hermione hysterically, "He can't be dead! Please Harry he can't be dead."
Harry finally broke. He fell to his knees and he cried, he could not control it, he howled in pain; he pounded his fists into the ground until they bled, and his anguished cries mingled with Hermione's.
Hermione wake shaking Ron's limp body and sobbing when Dawlish and Draco got to them. Dawlish dropped on his knees next to them and began to look Ron over.
"Hermione…" he said, but she paid him no notice, he took her by the shoulder and gave her a firm shake, "Hermione!" he said again.
She came out of her stupor and looked at him in sorrow.
"Hermione he's not dead." Said Dawlish gently.
"What??" she gasped, and Harry felt as if his heart had just been re-inflated like a balloon. He began to shake uncontrollably; there were simply too many emotions for his body to handle.
"Look at this," said Dawlish, and he turned Ron's head gently to the side.
There was a long nasty gash on the back of Ron's head that had already oozed ample amounts of blood onto the stone floor.
'It looks as though one of those chunks of rock knocked him unconscious just in the knick of time. That killing spell must have missed him by seconds… It's a miracle." explained Dawlish.
"It's Felix…" Harry said quietly thanking the heavens that he had thought to get them the potion.
"Here Hermione," said Dawlish gently, and he took her hand and pressed it to Ron's chest, "feel his heart beat? He's alive."
Hermione began crying hysterically again when she felt it, but this time it was from relief and joy. A few moments later Ron began to stir and he moaned.
"Oh Bloody hell! What happened to me? Ohhh… my head." He tried to sit up but fell back.
"You shouldn't try to sit up right now Ron… you've lost a lot of blood." said Dawlish.
Hermione threw her arms around him and began smothering him with kisses. In any other situation Harry would have found this utterly disgusting, but in this situation he felt that it was probably appropriate.
"Hermione…" said Ron, "ouch... be careful of my head...Hermione... it's ok… I'm going to be fine."
"Harry, Draco, would you mind helping round up these prisoners and getting those doors open?" asked Dawlish.
"Not at all." said Harry, and they all left Ron and Hermione to have a private moment.
They went and collected all three of the remaining Death Eaters, Goyle had been killed by the rebound of his curse, and Knott had been killed by a piece of falling rock. As Harry drug Lucius Malfoy to his feet the man turned to give his son a disgusted sneer.
"You are a waste. You know that? You are a disgrace to your family and to your kind." He snapped at his son.
"No…" said Draco looking him square in the face, "I am a disgrace to YOUR kind, and I'm very proud to say, I do not belong to that world any longer."
Lucuis Malfoy spat in his sons face. Draco simply siphoned off the spittle with his wand, and then smiled at Harry. Harry knew that his father's outright disgust with him was the last thing that Draco needed to be truly free.
"Goodbye father." He said serenely, and then he turned to open the doors so that they could lead the prisoners out of the castle.
A few hours later Harry was standing in the hall at St. Mungo's. There had amazingly been no deaths in the raid, save the two Death Eaters, but there had been many casualties. Ron had actually gotten off quite easy. One of the Aurors had lost three of her fingers. The Healers at St. Mungo's had patched Ron up in a matter of minutes, but they wanted to keep him for twenty four hours, because he had lost so much blood.
Harry peeked his head in the door to Ron's room. Ron was fast asleep in the hospital bed and Hermione was asleep in the chair beside him. Her head was resting on the edge of the bed, and her hand was in his. Harry smiled appreciatively at his best friends and then quietly closed the door.
"How is he Harry?" said Kingsley who had walked up behind him.
"He's fine…" said Harry, "They patched him up in no time, they just want to keep him here for observation. Though if Dawlish hadn't managed to get in there, he'd probably be dead, we probably all would be."
"Yes I've put in for him to receive and Order of Merlin first class for that." said Kingsley, "we're all very thankful that he had such quick reactions."
Harry took a deep breath; there was something he needed to tell Kingsley. Something that he had been thinking about ever since Dawlish had said that Ron was alive. He just didn't want Kingsley to be upset with him.
'Minister there's something I need to tell you." said Harry.
"Yes what is it Harry?" said Kingsley with mild curiosity.
"I want you to keep Ron and Hermione out of these things from now one. If you still need my help then I can accept that, and I will do my best to do whatever you need, but the fact is that they have given enough already. I'm the one who wants to become an Auror not them, I'm the one who should be helping you with this stuff. I thought that I had lost my best friend today; I thought that he was dead, and I couldn't bear for that to happen. So they're done, as of today."
Kingsley looked at him appraisingly, but Harry started right back. He was not going to back down.
"Very well Harry, I understand where you are coming from. It is my sincerest hope that I will never have to ask anything like this from any of you ever again. But if that need should arise, you have my word that I will only involve you, and not your friends." Kingsley gave him a respectful nod.
"Thank you." said Harry.
"HARRY!" gasped a breathless voice and suddenly he was attacked by a small red headed person, who he hugged fiercely.
"Are you ok?" said Ginny, her voice thick with emotion.
"I'm perfectly fine… not a scratch." He said soothingly.
"Ron?" she asked fretfully.
"He's fine too… he's sleeping right now." Harry assured her.
Just then Mr. and Mrs. Weasley came hurrying down the hall.
"Harry! oh Harry thank goodness you're alright! Where's Ron, is going to be alright?" Mrs. Weasley sounded positively frantic.
"Everything's ok Mum…" said Harry, "Ron's sleeping. The doctors say he's fine, and he can go home tomorrow morning."
"Oh thank goodness…" said Mrs. Weasley as she put her hand to her heart and sank into the nearest chair.
Ginny leaned against Harry's chest and he put his arms around her and rested his chin on the top of her head.
'I told you I'd be home today." He said softly, and she cuddled tighter against him.