Chapter 25: Deathly Hallows.
Everyone was staring, wide-eyed at Hermione as if she had grown a third head. Nobody yet wanted to even think about the possibility of their baby Harry and his friends running around the country alone looking for bits of Voldemort.
"I'm guessing you didn't tell anybody you were going either. But people at Hogwarts would notice you were missing." Lily pointed out.
"Well, Harry couldn't exactly go back, it was too dangerous for him to be out in the open. With Professor Dumbledore dead, Voldemort could move into the open." Hermione told them, sniffling at the mention of her headmaster's death. "And I couldn't go back because I'm muggleborn. They started properly rounding up muggle-borns that year. Ron did have to tell his dad and brothers. They helped him transfigure the ghoul in the attic of their house so it looked like he had spattergroit."
"Impressive." James whistled.
"Harry did have to go back to Privet Drive to begin with. The plan was to transport him to the Burrow just before his seventeenth which is when the protective charm would break. While he was there he unpacked his trunk and sorted out all the things he would need to take on our journey. He did take the Map, cloak and other bits and pieces. There was an article in the paper about Rita Skeeter's new book the Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore."
"She what?" McGonagall cried. Dumbledore looked pensive and the young adults all looked outraged.
"That's ridiculous." Lily snorted.
"How can she? Voldemort is about and moving openly, and she is busy slandering the only man he ever feared." Remus growled. Dumbledore looked touched.
"Harry wasn't much happier about it." Hermione assured them. "While emptying his trunk, Harry found a shard of the mirror Sirius had given him. He thought he saw an eye in it, and then dismissed it as imagination."
"An eye? That's impossible. Unless Remus found the mirror or something." Sirius said.
"The plan to move Harry was that the Dursleys would be taken to a safe place at exactly the same time Harry was transported to a safe house himself. Thus the charm would break at a moment of the order's choosing."
"More than they deserve." James muttered bitterly, too quietly for Lily to hear.
"Vernon had been changing his mind about accepting wizarding help every hour or so, packing and unpacking the car. Harry had to explain yet again exactly why they needed protection. In the end, Dudley wanted to take the help so his parents obviously would go with him."
"Wow. Even Dudley has more sense than his parents." Sirius rolled his eyes.
"As they were leaving, Dudley admitted to thinking Harry wasn't a waste of space and they parted on reasonable terms. Petunia and Vernon merely said goodbye and nothing more. Hestia Jones and Dedalus Diggle were taking them to their safe place."
"I don't envy them." Sirius whispered to James and Remus. They smirked.
"Originally the plan to remove Harry was to have Mad-eye come and take him by side-along apparition. Then Voldemort infiltrated the ministry and so all magical ways of transportation were being watched. Since Harry was still under age he had the trace on him so no one could use magic around him without the Ministry knowing."
"Damn." James swore.
"The only way out would be to fly." Remus sighed. "And leave Harry out in the open."
"Very bad idea." Lily groaned. "But still the only way. Nothing is easy with you is it?" She demanded on baby Harry in exasperation. He just gurgled and clapped his hands.
"Then everyone arrived. Tonks told Harry that her and Remus had gotten married, although it was a quiet affair."
"Go Moony." James wolf whistled. Remus looked stunned.
"She could do worse." Sirius said with a shrug. James snickered.
"They planned to have six other people take Polyjuice potion and transform into Harry. Each Harry would have a protector and each pair would make their way to a different safe house which had been given every protection possible."
"Nice plan." James nodded approvingly.
"Harry was assigned to Hagrid who was going to be taking Sirius' motorcycle."
"Oh yeah!" Sirius beamed. "I can't wait to actually get the thing." Lily and the teachers frowned slightly.
"I was with Kingsley by Thestral and Ron went with Tonks by broom."
"You've all got great protectors. Who were the others with you?" Remus asked.
"Remus you were protecting George Weasley. Mr Weasley was with Fred. Bill was protecting Fleur, they went on a Thestral too. Mundungus was with Mad-eye."
"Dung was one of those ones pretending to be Harry? Well that's a disaster waiting to happen." James groaned.
"Wasn't he the one who left Harry unprotected to go and buy stolen cauldrons just before Harry met those Dementors?" Lily asked in worry. Hermione nodded. They all narrowed their eyes.
"As we took off we were surrounded by Death Eaters. Someone had leaked the plan, well part of it, they weren't expecting so many Harrys. Hedwig got killed and he lost his firebolt."
"NO! Not poor Hedwig." James moaned.
"That poor owl." Lily cried.
"Harry will be devastated." Sirius sighed.
"He was. The Death Eaters split up to chase all of us. Kingsley and I made it to our safe place ok. We were chased plenty but then they disappeared so we got there alive."
"Good." Sirius breathed a sigh of relief.
"Two down. Twelve more people to worry about." McGonagall groaned, burying her face in her hands. This tale has aged me twenty years and it's not even at the worst part yet."
"Ooh, don't say that." Lily whimpered, clutching baby Harry to her tighter.
"Harry and Hagrid were going ok until Harry tried to disarm Stan Shunpike instead of stunning him."
"Why would that be a problem?" James asked.
"Because Harry always tries to disarm. In that graveyard he tried to disarm Voldemort. Not exactly a normal move and nobody but Harry would try it. So the Death Eaters must work out that it's him." Remus sighed. James and Lily paled.
"Voldemort himself came after them, but Harry's wand performed some magic without Harry being aware of doing it and broke the wand Voldemort was using. It wasn't his own, he had borrowed someone else's because of the twin cores. That held him off long enough to get past the protective barriers. Hagrid had fallen off the bike."
"Oh no! Not Hagrid too!" Sirius shouted.
"He was fine. They had been going to Tonks' parents who fixed them both up. They then used a portkey to get to the Burrow."
"Two more down." Flitwick breathed.
"Harry was the first back. Harry had to explain to Mrs Weasley what had happened." The Marauders all winced. "Then Remus and George arrived. George was unconscious because Snape had used Sectumsempra and cursed his ear off."
"That…" James yelled, unable to think of a curse bad enough to describe Snape. Lily was shell shocked. She knew shouldn't be. He had killed Dumbledore after all. What had happened to her friend? A sob escaped her and James pulled her into a hug.
"Remus was ok though?" Sirius asked urgently. Hermione nodded. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief.
"Remus made sure Harry was the real Harry and then both of them explained what had happened to them. Mrs Weasley was tending to George. Then Kingsley and I arrived. Next back were Mr Weasley and Fred.. George woke up and began making awful jokes about it. Then Ron and Tonks made it back."
Remus felt a little tension ease out of him.
"They were late because they had missed the portkey, not because anything bad happened." Hermione assured Remus. "Then Bill and Fleur finally got back. They told us that Voldemort had gone straight after Mad-eye. Dung had disapparated, proving he wasn't the real Harry, and Mad-eye was killed."
There was silence. How many more people they knew had to die before the monster finally died? Nobody said a word so Hermione continued.
"Everybody shared their stories and then Remus went with Bill to get Mad-eye's body. Harry wanted to leave as well so nobody else would get hurt,"
"No Harry. You have to stay there." Lily pleaded, as if he could hear her.
"We convinced him to stay. He went upstairs on his own and had a vision of Voldemort torturing Ollivander. He was trying to make him explain what had happened with Harry's wand. He had thought that using a wand without a twin core would be enough but Harry's wand broke Lucius Malfoy's anyway."
"He got Ollivander?" James asked incredulously. Dumbledore looked furious.
"Harry explained what he had seen, but I told him to try and block it out. We spent the next few days preparing for Bill and Fleur's wedding. Mrs Weasley had been trying to get me andRon to tell her what we would be doing. We both hadn't told her. Then she questioned Harry and tried to convince him not to go."
"Pointless, but I appreciate her effort." Lily sighed.
"She decided that if she could keep us ridiculously busy with wedding chores, then we couldn't get together and make plans." Hermione rolled her eyes affectionately. The boys all snickered.
"We did finally get some time together. I was busy working out what books to take with me. I had put an undetectable extension charm on my bag so I could take as many as necessary. In preparation I had modified my parents memories so they had a new name and no daughter." Hermione's voice trailed off.
"Oh 'Mione." Sirius sighed, holding her close and stroking her hair. She steeled herself and carried on.
"Ron then showed us the Ghoul. Then we had to discuss how to actually destroy Horcruxes. I had summoned some books from Dumbledore's study." She threw the professor in question an apologetic half smile.
"Don't worry Miss Granger. It's for a good cause." He smiled gently down at her. She nodded.
"The books said that you have to destroy the object beyond magical repair. Harry had destroyed the diary with basilisk venom, but we didn't exactly have any of that handy. The Professor had never mentioned how he destroyed the Gaunt ring."
"Albus!" McGonagall groaned.
"Then Mrs Weasley came in and assigned us more chores. Fleur's family were coming to stay the day after. They were actually quite nice. Then it was Harry's seventeenth."
"Awww. My little boy is all grown up." Lily cooed to the baby. James looked at them both with both love and sadness. They should be there to celebrate his coming of age. It was great he had such wonderful friends, but it should still be him and Lily with him for that day.
"Mrs Weasley made a great dinner. Remus and Tonks came, along with Hagrid."
"I wouldn't miss it for the world." Remus vowed, tickling the baby in Lily's arms.
"Well, Mr Weasley sent a patronus ahead to say he was bringing the Minister home. Remus and Tonks had to leave." James and Sirius growled.
"Stupid, prejudice, pathetic…" The hissed in unison. Remus smiled fondly at his closest friends.
"Scrimgeour wanted to talk to Harry, Ron and myself. The will of Professor Dumbledore had only just been released. The Ministry had kept it."
"They had no right!" McGonagall said in outrage. "They can only keep the objects in his will if they suspect dark objects will be handed down."
"Minerva, enough." Dumbledore said gently, placing his hand on her arm. She subsided, glowering at the floor.
"He left Ron his Deluminator." Everyone looked startled. "To me, he left his copy of Tales of Beedle the Bard." Dumbledore looked up sharply. He gripped his wand and thought of his lifelong dream. To unite the Hallows. "He left Harry the snitch he caught in his first Quidditch match, and Gryffindor's sword."
"You left him a sword?" Everybody asked in astonishment.
"You left him his own snitch?" James asked excitedly.
"Why?" Lily asked, looking confused.
"The sword was the one Harry killed the basilisk with. It must be coated with Basilisk venom and I have left it to him to aid his destruction of Horcruxes." Dumbledore explained. Everyone nodded.
"The Ministry wouldn't give it to Harry, claiming it wasn't Dumbledore's to give."
"You would think the Ministry want to help Voldemort." James spluttered in disgust.
"They wouldn't know what it was for. And leaving a sword, let alone one of the famous artifacts of the founder's, is a bit strange." Lily pointed out.
"What about the snitch?" Sirius asked.
"It was the one Harry caught in his mouth. Snitches have flesh memories and so would remember Harry." James put in before Hermione could explain. Everyone turned to stare at him. "What? I remember all my son's Quidditch triumphs." He grinned.
"Scrimgeour thought Dumbledore would have hidden a small object in the snitch, but nothing happened when Harry touched it."
"Good or he would have seen the secret too." Sirius said.
"We refused to tell him anything and he left in a temper. We then explained to the Weasley's what had happened. That night we discussed everything that Scrimgeour had said and examined the things we had been left. Harry tried putting the snitch in his mouth and wording appeared on it. 'I open at the close'."
"What on earth does that mean?" James asked. Dumbledore gasped sharply and everyone turned to look at him.
"I think I must have put the resurrection stone in the snitch." He explained.
"From that story in Beedle's book?" SIrius asked, eyebrow raised. Dumbledore nodded. "But that's just a story. A kid's fairy tale." He scoffed.
"It is not Mr Black." Dumbledore said. All three objects do exist. The Cloak, I have come to believe, is in this very house."
"My Cloak?" James gasped. Dumbledore nodded.
"I must suspect so in the future too, which is why I would ask to borrow it, to confirm."
"The day of the wedding arrived." Hermione continued, when nobody spoke. "Harry was to take Polyjuice potion and be disguised as a muggle and introduced as a distant Weasley. We all helped guests to their seats. It was a really beautiful wedding. The party afterwards was fun too. I danced with Ron and the twins." Sirius did his best not to scowl. "Harry spoke briefly to Krum who was a guest of Fleur's."
"Anything interesting to say?" James asked eagerly, slightly jealous his son got to meet and be on good terms with such a talented Quidditch star.
"Well Harry had been having dreams about Gregorovitch and that Voldemort was hunting him. He realised that he was a wand maker and had made Krum's wand."
"But if he has Ollivander, why does he need someone else?" Sirius asked. Everybody shrugged.
"Then he had a conversation with Elphias Doge." Dumbledore now smiled fondly. "They had a conversation with Ron's aunt Muriel about Skeeter's book and what it revealed about the Professor's younger years and family." Dumbledore's smile vanished immediately. He buried his face in his hands. The last thing he wanted was the public to find out what he had done in his youth.
"Evil woman. Probably a whole bunch of made up lies." James cried hotly. Everyone nodded in agreement.
"Just then Kingsley's patronus burst into the pavilion and announced Scrimgeour was dead and the Ministry had fallen."
"Oh god." Lily moaned.
"Let's take a break." Hermione announced. Everyone agreed, albeit reluctantly.