Seventh Year Part 1

A/N: Hey guys, WOW 129 followers! I could kiss you all! Your reviews have been awesome and so helpful and encouraging that I promise to make it my priority to get these final chapters as soon as possible, I know you've been waiting a long time. Here we go, seventh year, just like before, anything that Harry did not personally witness or could not be possible for any of them to know will not be featured. ENJOY R&R PLZ!

The next morning, Hermione sat up in bed and stretched. She glanced out the window and enjoyed the sight and warmth of the light streaming through. The last book, the last time she'd had to be the ultimate bearer of bad news and then they could start working out how to fix it. Not that it would be easy, in fact that task was truly more daunting than just sitting and listening, but the idea that they could actually DO something and there was action they could take, made it a far more comforting thought. She opted for shorts and a tank top, putting her hair up in a messy ponytail. Along with the final folder, she gathered the last of the pictures and letters that weren't strictly a part of the story. The absence of correspondence in the last year was no mistake, everyone wanted to wait until the final year to have their say. She heard a light cry and went into Harry's room to find the infant up and standing with the assistance of his crib. "Hey there Har-bear," Hermione giggled using the nickname, Sirius and Remus ought to have used it in their time. "Ready to get up?" The baby reached for her and she gladly picked him up and got him ready for the day. Then she and the littlest Potter went downstairs and began to work on breakfast. Being with the infant never failed to remind her of Teddy and by extension Remus and Tonks, it was going to be positively cruel to raise Remus's hopes for a family and happiness and then tell him that he and his wife died before they really got to enjoy it. As she made the toast, thoughts about Remus and love brought up what he had said last night, of all the idiotic things… She set out a plate for the first slices, bracing her hands on the counter she let her mind tentatively explore that idea. It wouldn't be so bad, under different circumstances of course, Sirius was quite intelligent, witty, funny, brave, kind, and let's not forget impossibly handsome. The toaster relinquished the bread and she sighed, alas it was not meant to be, there was just too much going on with the situation. You could argue she and Ron were no longer together but there was the small matter of her disappearing into the nothingness of time in about three days. Oddly, she wasn't worried about that part. She wasn't killing herself but she was changing the essence of her personality so when the time comes she'll merge with herself and assume those circumstances which is why she won't remember anything. At least that is how she understood it. Talk about being cruel, developing feelings and having a relationship with someone only to abandon them and have it be like their love never existed. Hermione shook her head, she couldn't do that Sirius. "MYA!" Lily's voice called. "Do you have Harry?"

"Yes he's here," Hermione replied. With all her musing, she did not notice that the other occupants had awoken and started to get ready.

"Oh good," Lily walked in pulling her hair into a bun. She had chosen jeans and a loose blouse and took a cup of coffee from Mya. "Thanks, you got the toast done and coffee. I think waffles would make a nice change from all the scrambled eggs." Lily made them and Hermione set the table, still mulling over everything.

"You ok there Mya?" Lily looked her shoulder.

"Just thinking," Hermione said simply.

"You know," Lily ventured. "I may have heard some your conversation with Remus."

"That wasn't a conversation," Hermione answered tartly. "That was a certain werewolf proving why he was crazy enough to be considered a member of the marauders."

Lily bit her lip, "Well I consider myself quite sane and I didn't hear a 'no' from you either."

"Not you too," Hermione wailed.

"I won't meddle," Lily placated her. "This is between you and Sirius."

"Lily it just wouldn't be fair!" Hermione insisted. "How selfish would I be if I allowed myself to do something like that?"

"Allowed?" Lily raised an eyebrow. "So then it's not a matter of whether or not you like Sirius but whether or not you're going to do something about it."

Mya opened her mouth but had to close it. "You and the werewolf have been colluding," she grumbled finally and Lily smiled just a bit.

"Perhaps," Lily shrugged.

"My ears are burning," Remus announced as he entered the kitchen. "Who's been talking about me?"

"No one, I hid silver in your pillow," Hermione muttered prompting Lily to snort.

Of course Remus heard her but he only smiled widely, "Ah Mya, doesn't sound like you slept well. Something or someone keep you awake?"

"To the contrary Remus," Hermione denied sweetly, in complete contrast to her slamming the bottle of syrup on to the table. "I had the most wonderful dream last night about medieval werewolf hunts, it was inspiring." Remus just held up his hands and turned to the coffee pot on the stove. Just when she thought things couldn't get worse, guess who walked in.

"What's got Mya all ornery this fine morning?" Sirius took in her stiff posture and new-found tendency to slam innocent objects; he even winced for the poor sugar pot.

"Frustrated," Remus responded coolly with a sly look.

Sirius immediately smelt trouble and hissed, "What did you do?!"

"I?" Remus arched a single eyebrow. "I did nothing." This was followed up by cunning look at Lily that she returned.

"Both of you now?" Sirius attempted to keep his voice low. "Lay off!"

"It's your choice," boy did Sirius wish he could wipe that look off Moony's face, "we're just informing you of your options."

"What options?!" Sirius demanded no longer bothering to quiet. "She is LEAVING, there is no choice." Hermione nodded stoutly although both refused to acknowledge that small pang at the very thought.

"Yes but what you going to do BEFORE that," Remus countered. "That's all you." Just then James appeared, somehow having gotten stuck in his own shirt and effectively capturing everyone's attention and both Sirius and Hermione breathed an internal sigh of relief. But apparently the antics weren't about to end. Clearly Lily and Remus had planned this out because they managed to get Sirius and Hermione to sit together and entertained themselves with double-sided remarks with surreptitious winks.

"Just ignore them," Hermione could not believe this was happening.

"I'm trying but they are sitting right in front of us." Sirius's mouth twitched, "Have to admit though, that last one was good."

"Sirius," Hermione admonished. "Don't encourage them!"

"What? Who would've thought Lily of all people could come up with such an interesting spin on 'pass me the syrup'?"

Very much against her will, Hermione laughed. "Remus was the best, you looked like a beet when he started listing off all your 'choices' to make your 'waffle' better 'while you have it'."

Sirius face-palmed, "I always knew that Moony could be mischievous when he tried, I just didn't realise his target would be me."

"I have to say I am impressed, they couldn't have had more than a couple hours to work this out."

"Yeah bloody bunch of geniuses," Sirius muttered.

All too soon, but not soon enough for Hermione and Sirius, it was time to get back to work. The professors arrived, they took their seats, Harry was claimed by Sirius so he sat between him and Remus with a stuffed animal for extra company, and it was time to start.

Hermione massaged her neck a bit, "Well here it is everyone, the final of year. Now as you remember from the last chapter, Harry made the decision to leave school and go on the Horcrux hunt."

"Never completed his education properly," Lily rubbed her forehead. "He would've been safer at school too."

"Actually Lily, you'll come to find out that wouldn't have been the case but we'll get there. So Harry sorted through his things, deciding what he needed to take, including the newspaper carrying Dumbledore's obiturary written by Elphias Doge. It was a touching piece."

"That was kind of him," Dumbledore smiled sadly.

"Unfortunately not everyone was being so nice. Rita Skeeter also decided to write something on Dumbledore, an entire book called The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore. She reportedly had located a source that was close to the Dumbledores and told all, particularly about his family, and she had done it in just four weeks following his funeral."

"Has that woman no respect for anything?" McGonagall huffed.

"Professor I'm so sorry that harpy went after you," Lily said sympathetically.

Dumbledore shook it off, "I am dead and laid in grave, as is, unfortunately, most of my family. Only Aberforth would be left and I doubt very much he'd care what anyone had to say."

"Speaking of families, it's time to address the Dursleys for the last time."

"Last time meaning…" Lily said cautiously.

"As in the last time Harry had contact with them for that year," Hermione answered her unspoken question. "Despite being told by Harry and the Order that it was for their own safety to leave and go into hiding they refused to go. Harry explained it just one more time, reminding Vernon of the last time he tried to outrun wizards, and that it was important that they leave. Finally it was Dudley who spoke up and said he was willing to go with the Order after being reminded of the dementors. With that, Vernon and Petunia also gave in and they left with Hestia and Dedalus."

"Did they ever see each other again?" James asked.

"After the war ended, Harry went back to Privet Drive once to see its condition when his aunt and uncle returned. The death eaters wrecked the place, as in it was just a shell of a house. Harry and some of the Order members who'd gone with him set the place right and left the Dursleys on relatively good terms but they do not keep in touch although he has some cordial contact with his cousin."

"Best I could hope for I guess," Lily said wearily, her sister would never change.

"Anyway after the Dursleys left, Harry's guard arrived to escort him to his own safe house. Lily's charm would only break under two conditions; one, when Harry becomes of age or two, when he no longer called Privet Drive his home. The Order was definitely not going to wait till Harry turned seventeen so the original plan had been to simply side-apparate with Mad-Eye but there had to be a change in the plan. Pius Thicknesse, the head of Magical Law Enforcement, had been placed under the Imperious and was forced to work for the death eaters."

"Damn," Sirius grimaced. "That is a huge loss."

"Doesn't stop there. Thicknesse decided to make it illegal to do basically anything that would remove Harry from the house by magical means. Stupid really, the charm did that. Still, no floo, no apparition, nothing."

"But that means you have to move out in the open, where anyone could attack," James protested.

"Sadly yes, but we had a trick up our sleeves, Polyjuice Potion. Myself, Ron, Fleur, Fred, George, and Mundungus all took the potion to become Harry's look-alikes. Then we were given protectors who would see us to different safe houses, then – if all went right – we were to take Portkeys back to the Burrow. We leaked false information to the ministry with a different move date. Mad-Eye took Mundungus, George was with Arthur, Fred with Remus, I went with Kingsley, Ron went with Tonks – OOPS sorry I mean Mrs. Lupin…"

Remus's jaw didn't just go unhinged, it flopped around like all the bones had been taken out of it. "I – I –you – she – what – MRS – we -"

"I think what Moony is trying to say is, 'WE GOT MARRIED?!'" Sirius imitated Remus's voice to a T. Remus made odd gestures, still not able to control his jaw, as if to say 'yeah that'.

"Yup," Mya beamed. "It was a very small, quiet ceremony, given the state of things. Most of us weren't there. It was just Tonks' parents and a few Order members."

"Well just won't do," James said faux-pompously. "Come what may, you are having a proper wedding young man." Remus finally managed to regain his composure and rolled his eyes.

Hermione just knew to keep going, "So Ron went with Mrs. Lupin, Fleur with Bill, and the real Harry with Hagrid. They were supposed to go to Tonks' house but from the moment we took off there was trouble. Death eaters surrounded us and gave chase. Hagrid and Harry were using Sirius's old motorbike that had had some improvements put on it. Unfortunately that didn't prevent Hedwig from getting caught in the crossfire and killed."

"Harry had that owl since he was eleven, his first real birthday present," Lily frowned.

"And his only company at the Dursleys," Hermione reminded her. "He took the loss hard afterwards but at the time they were still being attacked. Harry was...um…reluctant to kill or even Stun at such a height so when one of the hoods of the Death Eaters fell off revealing an Imperioused Stan Shunpike, he disarmed him and gave himself away."

"Oh Harry why would you do that?" James groaned.

"Because he is young and afraid," Lily looked at her husband. "He is no killer."

"So then Stun!"

"At that height what difference would it have made?"

"It's his life or theirs," James raked his hair.

"James he isn't even seventeen and you expect him to be able to kill or cause someone's death," Lily said icily. "We all know Harry is strong and capable but who, other than Voldemort who we know did, could've taken a life, especially at that age?" No one answered her. "That's what I thought, please continue Mya."

"The death eaters were quick to spot the gaffe and retreated only to have Voldemort himself show up. He can fly on his own apparently and he tried to attack but Harry's wand acted on its own, shooting golden flames and holding him and death eaters off long enough to get under the protection of Tonks' house. The bike had been badly damaged in the fight and they ultimately crashed in the back garden but they both survived. Ted, Tonks' father, and Andromeda, Tonks' mother, patched them up and they caught their portkey back to the Burrow."

"Oh thank god," Lily clasped her hands and rested her head on them.

"Did everyone else make it back?" Remus decided to be one to ask.

"Harry and Hagrid were the first back. Then George and Remus appeared, George had lost an ear thanks to Snape." No one had it in them for a comment. "Remus checked Harry to make sure he wasn't an imposter, clearly we'd been compromised. Kingsley and I came next, followed by Ron and Tonks."

"Thank you," Remus murmured.

"Bill and Fleur after that and they told us Mad-Eye had died in battle," Hermione hung her head and the others did the same. Head bowed Hermione kept talking, "Voldemort had come after him and Dung first. Mundungus freaked out and left so Mad-Eye was blasted right in the face."

"Bloody coward," Sirius gnashed his teeth.

"It's the way Mad-Eye would've wanted to go," James said hollowly. "In the heat of battle, in the middle of some crazy plan. I bet he was a bit smug Voldemort did go after them first as proof their plan had worked."

"We toasted him and debated who could've leaked the ruse but Harry refused to believe any of his friends would betray him."

"At one time I would've been with you Har," James's mouth turned down and Lily hugged him.

"Then some went to look for Mad-Eye's body and Harry had a vision of Voldemort torturing Ollivander wanting to know why the borrowed wand Voldemort apparently used had been snapped by Harry in the golden flames but the wandmaker had no answer."

"So he's trying to overcome the twin connections," Sirius nodded. "Makes sense, but if a borrowed wand could not work, then what?"

"You'll see," Hermione said wryly. "As if we didn't have enough to worry about, Mrs. Weasley had gotten wind that we were not returning to school and decided to put a stop to it by any means necessary. When dissuading failed, she used work to keep us separated and therefore unable to make any arrangements. Little did she know, we'd already made them. I wiped my parents' memories completely and sent them to Australia under new aliases. Ron and his brothers and Arthur transfigured the family ghoul to look like him inflicted with Spattergroit so that if anyone came looking they'd find the ghoul and stay away because the disease is so contagious. Also I had managed to get a hold of books with information on Horcruxes. Previously the Hogwarts Library held nothing on the subject but then I was alone in the dormitory when it occurred to me to just summon them so I tried and they flew straight from Dumbledore's office."

"Really? It was that easy?" Sirius cocked his head.

"Simple but effective," Dumbledore chuckled. "If no one had thought about it in my entire time as a teacher then I'd call it a success wouldn't you?"

"So what did you find out?" Remus poised his quill on the parchment expectantly.

"It was really awful magic but for our purposes, the first thing was that we needed to put these objects beyond magical repair. Harry stabbed the diary with a basilisk fang and the poison is really rare with only one cure which is even rarer, phoenix tears. The second thing that we really addressed was the possibility of Voldemort putting his soul back together."

Already knowing the answer to that one Sirius snorted, "I doubt that." McGonagall made disbelieving sound as well.

Dumbledore knew too, "I would have to agree with Mr. Black, the probability is very low."

"Remorse," Hermione said to the others' confused looks. "You really have to feel what you did, the pain could kill you anyway so I didn't see Voldemort trying it."

"Yeah that'll be the day," James said sarcastically.

"The day before the wedding was Harry's seventeenth birthday but with all the wedding preparations Harry was just fine with a simple dinner and a few guests."

"Did anyone give him a watch?" James looked at his own wrist bearing his father's one.

"Mrs. Weasley gave him one that had belonged to her brother Fabian. Remus, Tonks, and Hagrid all came to see Harry for his birthday but then we got another, uninvited guest, the Minister of Magic himself."

"I don't suppose he came to wish my son a happy birthday and that would be it," Lily's mouth twisted in displeasure.

"No, he came because Dumbledore's will had been read and the headmaster left us some things."

"And they were only giving it to you NOW? They're only supposed to hold will contents on the suspicion of dark magic, did they really think that Dumbledore would pass on something evil or could be put to dark uses?" McGonagall bristled.

"That was their cover. He left Ron the Deluminator, he gave me an original copy of the Tales of Beedle the Bard, and he left Harry the snitch he'd caught in his very first game. He also left Harry the sword of Godric Gryffindor but Scrimgeour claimed that wasn't Dumbledore's to give away and so he did not get it." Dumbledore listened to the list carefully, he did not understand the snitch or the sword, he could partially understand the Deluminator as it did have other uses that maybe the Weasley boy would find helpful, and as for the book, he knew for certain now that the truth was going to come out. The others didn't know what to make of the list and it would be pointless to ask Dumbledore so no one said anything and Hermione moved on, "Scrimgeour tried to get information out of us but he and Harry ended up in a shouting match then the minister stormed off. We couldn't figure out why Dumbledore would leave us these of all things. Remember Harry didn't actually catch the snitch with his hand, he nearly swallowed it so when he put it to his mouth writing appeared. I am open at the close."

"As clear as mud," James tapped his head frustrated. "Was it really necessary to keep up with the puzzles?"

"Well the next day we got a few answers. We polyjuiced Harry to look like one of the Weasleys so no one knew it was him but he did run into a few people. Starting with Viktor Krum, Fleur invited him and he and Harry spoke. Krum was upset over a symbol that Xenophilius Lovegood was wearing around his neck, something he identified as being as sign of Grindelwald. It was triangle with a circle and line in the center. Grindelwald allegedly carved it into the walls at Durmstrang, Krum was certain of it."

Remus frowned, "I doubt old Xeno is a dark wizard, an eccentric one gods yes, but not a dark one."

"Well that's what Krum said but during the course of conversation Harry was reminded of something else. For some time the Dark Lord had been brooding over a name, Gregorovitch, Harry vaguely recognized it but then he remembered. Gregorovitch was a wand maker, the one who'd made Krum's wand. Harry knew this from the wand weighing ceremony during the Tournament. Then Krum left and Harry met with Elphias Doge and unfortunately Great Aunt Muriel decided to join in to talk about that book Rita was going publish on Dumbledore. Doge was firm that Skeeter had concocted nothing but lies but Muriel wasn't so certain. She'd heard the rumours about the Dumbledore family including Arianna." Dumbledore's hand tightened, he did not appreciate his sister's name being treated like a piece of scandalous gossip. They knew nothing of what she went through. "Harry was of course shocked by what he heard but then the worst happened. We received a patronus from Kingsley warning us that the Ministry had fallen, the Minister was dead and the death eaters were coming."

"Damn," James hissed. "I think the second war is far worse than this one."

"We managed to get together and got out of there as fast as we could, just as the death eaters were showing up," Hermione shuddered. "I took the boys to Tottenham Court Road, the first place I thought of, then thanks to my bag which I had placed an Undetectable Extension Charm on, we had everything we needed to change and some money to slip into a nearby coffee shop."

"You mean the bag you showed us in the beginning…" Lily recalled seeing the beaded bag when Mya first arrived.

"The very same one," Hermione confirmed. "It's technically a war relic but I think it still has its uses. That bag was our other best friend while we were on the run."

"On the run?" Remus repeated.

"Yes we couldn't go back to the Burrow and my parents' place would be empty but also obvious. Privet Drive was definitely not going work so we were basically stranded with no method of communication that wouldn't tip off people to where we were. We were at a coffee shop, discussing our options when Harry noticed two men that we thought were workmen had wands pointed at us. It was the death eaters! Dolohov and Rowle duelled us right there in a muggle place but we got them. We cleaned up the place and wiped their memories then Harry suggested we go to Grimmauld Place."

"Oh yeah," Sirius bobbed his head. "The headquarters should be safe enough. Never thought I'd say that about that place."

"It wasn't really," Hermione made a face. "Since Dumbledore had died, the people to whom he told the Headquarters' location to became secret keepers in turn. That meant twenty something people including Snape could get in and bring others with him. The only thing that made us feel better was that Mad-Eye had supposedly set up jinxes and traps that would prevent Snape from talking about the place if he came back. We got there and we saw that Mad-Eye had set up this zombie-like Dumbledore to rise from the carpet and scare anyone who comes in and also ties their tongues. We were in the drawing room when we got a patronus from Mr. Weasley telling us that the family was safe and not to contact because they were being watched. Harry also got a vision of the death eaters being tortured by Draco on Voldemort's command over losing us."

"At least it wasn't a complete success for the Dark side," Lily tried to say hopefully.

"They have the entire Ministry on their side Lilyflower," Sirius said dismally. "This means they can pretty much do what they want. People's hands will be tied, no one wants to take on the Ministry, especially in times like that when you don't know who to trust. They'll go into survival mode and do or go along with whatever they need to just to live."

"They are still some willing to fight," Hermione asserted calmly. "As we learned when Harry decided to explore the house the next morning. The place was ransacked, Snape had obviously been there and searched the whole house. He went to Sirius's bedroom and found a letter from Lily and half a picture from his first birthday."

"Don't tell them what I got Harry," Sirius covered the baby's ears. "I don't want to spoil the surprise."

Hermione nodded conspiratorially, "Your secret is safe. Harry and Ron told me to tell you that you earned their admiration for having the nerve to put up those swimsuit model posters, muggle ones no less."

Sirius smiled smugly, "According to what I could glean from her ranting, Mother had tried to take them down all year and no luck. She ended up just locking the door and forbidding my brother to ever enter that 'cesspit'."

"Speaking of your brother, we also made another discovery while we were up there. The identity of the mysterious R.A.B. was none other than Regulus who we knew joined the death eaters and would have had access to Voldemort. We looked through his room but we couldn't find the locket or anything about where he might've hidden it. That's when I remembered something from two summers ago. When we were cleaning out the drawing room we came across a locket that nobody could open and just tossed it away in the garbage."

"Oh dear god no!" Lily gasped.

"Harry immediately thought of Kreacher and his habit of stealing things back so he went to the elf's cupboard but it wasn't there. Harry summoned Kreacher and asked him if he stole it. The elf admitted he did take it back but Mungdungus had stolen it from him when he was nicking things from the house to sell."

"But how did Reg get it in the first place?" Sirius sat straight up.

"A good question with a not so good answer," Hermione took a few breaths. "Sirius you might want to prepare yourself." Sirius's blood froze, he could tell he was about to hear how his little brother died and they couldn't even do anything for him. Remus held his shoulder and James got up to sit on his other side. Even little Harry put his head on Sirius's lap, clutching his stuffed rabbit. Sirius gave Hermione the go ahead and the time traveller's words wove the scene in his head. "After about a year in the Dark Lord's service Regulus came to Kreacher because Voldemort said he needed an elf. Obviously Regulus volunteered him and the order was clear, do whatever the madman wanted then come home. Voldemort took Kreacher to the cave and made him drink the potion so that he could hide the Horcrux there then left the elf to be taken by the Inferi of the lake. Kreacher would've been killed then and there but he'd been told to come home so he did. Voldemort didn't think to take into account that Kreacher would be capable of apparating out of the cave like how the house-elves can in Hogwarts. When Kreacher told Regulus, he became worried in Kreacher's words and told Kreacher to stay out of sight until he came for him. Later that night, Regulus made Kreacher take him to the cave. Regulus drank the potion, swapped the necklaces then made Kreacher leave him and swear never to tell anyone in the family what happened. And…I think you know what happened next." Sirius hung his head, Reg should have come to him! He didn't have to martyr himself, why would he do something stupid?! He viciously wiped away the angry moisture on his face. They should have been closer given the way they grew up but it just didn't work out that way. Still, Reg was supposed to know that his big brother would always be there for him. He was supposed to simply know that no matter how many fights they had, no matter what the disagreements were, his brother was still around and willing to help. The onslaught of images in his mind was horrid, Reg being attacked by Inferi, being dragged into the water to die. Why Reg? Why did you do it? He didn't even realise that he'd broken down until he felt Lily brushing the tears away.

"I'm fine," he tried to reassure everyone.

"Sirius we can stop…" Hermione offered.

Sirius shook his head doggedly, "I wish he'd come to me but there's nothing we can do now. My brother died a hero and a good man and that's enough for me. He did outwit Voldemort after all."

Remus suddenly snorted, "Some impenetrable defences, he lost the locket within hours and never even knew about it. Still won't, more than seventeen years later."

James smirked a little, "When you put it like that, yeah you'd think he'd want to check on his most prized possessions."

"Arrogance and idiocy can be very close friends," Dumbledore stated.

"What about the locket?" Lily asked.

"Harry managed to earn Kreacher's loyalty by giving him the fake locket and ordered the elf to track down Mungdungus and bring him back to Grimmauld Place. But that needed some time and while we were waiting, we got a visitor - Remus." Oh boy they are NOT going to like this, Hermione flipped the page. "He assured us that most of the guests were able to get away and the ones that remained were interrogated about our whereabouts but since we had disappeared they didn't have anything to give them but still they were being tailed. Remus had to shake off his own before coming to see us and needed to apparate right on the top step to avoid detection. The ministry had radically changed in the last few days including some new policies. A major one being a muggle-born registration because, according to the Department of Mysteries, magic could only be passed from witches and wizards in the family. So basically every muggle-born had to present themselves for questioning and prove their magical heritage or else be called a thief and lose their wands."

"That makes absolutely no sense, you can't steal magic. That just defies common sense!" McGonagall said indignantly.

"It didn't stop there either professor, Hogwarts attendance was now mandatory and students needed blood status to go so even the young muggle-borns were being targeted."

"That is sick, just sick," Sirius spat.

"There was also a manhunt for Harry and guess what the excuse for that was?"

Lily groaned, "I'm almost afraid to ask but what?"

"Wanted in connection to murder of Albus Dumbledore."

"Jeez this just keeps getting better," Remus gripped his head.

"Then we told Remus what happened at the coffee shop but he had no idea on how they found us. He also had a proposition for us." Hermione bit her lip leaving no doubt in anyone's mind that this was not going to end well. "He wanted to come and help on our mission even if we couldn't tell him what we were doing."

"That's not so bad," James shrugged. "Never hurts to have another wand around."

"No James," Lily pursed her lips. "You're forgetting he has a wife now, he should be with her."

"Hey that's right, what about my baby cousin?" Sirius demanded. Lupin made a face and opened his hands as if to say, why are you asking me?

"Well Harry asked that too and he said Tonks was going to be staying at her mother's place but something was definitely off. Turns out Tonks was pregnant." Just as quickly James and Sirius opened their mouths to congratulate him they realised what he was doing and ended up glaring at the werewolf instead.

Lily drummed her fingers on her leg, "Mind explaining to me why you are leaving your wife and unborn child?"

"I don't know," Remus cried. "None of this has happened yet."

"He was worried about what his presence was doing to Tonks and going to do to their child. He really hadn't gotten over his pessimism so he thought him being around would only hurt his family socially. To be fair, werewolves were getting a lot of scrutiny at the time."

"That's no excuse for attempting to walk out on your family," James said menacingly.

Remus's face burned, "Can we please remember that this hasn't happened yet and now that I've been enlightened, I WON'T be making that mistake."

"We'll see," James scrunched his face distastefully.

"Harry of course didn't like that idea at all. They had a row right there in the kitchen that culminated in Remus storming out. We didn't have much time to dwell on it because Kreacher had returned with Mundungus. He even bashed Dung on the head with a pot when he wasn't cooperating."

"I can't believe I'm starting to like Kreacher," Sirius chuckled.

"In terms of the locket, Dung had given it away to some ministry witch when she noted that he was selling in Diagon Alley without a license. That ministry witch just so happened to look an awful lot like a toad although I have been recently reliably informed that she could also be considered a parrot." The whole room groaned, this was not happened.

"Dear lord this locket has changed hands," Lily rubbed her temple.

"And such charming owners," McGonagall sniffed.

"Allow me to guess the next part," James said dryly. "You lot are going to break into the Ministry of Magic to get the locket back. A wanted man, a muggle-born, and a blood traitor, perfect things to be during a war like this."

"Well we didn't just go off and storm the place. We staked out the entrance to the ministry for weeks learning everything we could. Including what happened to Snape, he was named Headmaster of Hogwarts."

"WHAT?!" Hermione knew she didn't really need to repeat herself.

"How did he get named Headmaster?" James gagged.

"Sitting in the office of a man he murdered, Dumbledore's portrait right there," Sirius spat. Lily said nothing, sitting in stony silence.

"What's more, Amycus Carrow was named Defence Against the Darks Arts professor while his sister Alecto was appointed to Muggle Studies. Both of them were also on the Astronomy Tower that night."

"What's a death eater doing as a muggle studies professor?" Sirius's eyebrows knitted together.

"I would've thought that if death eaters took over, they'd just ban the subject," Remus frowned.

"It all depends on what they are teaching gentlemen," McGonagall informed them. "Just because they're calling it Muggle Studies doesn't mean it's necessarily the Muggle Studies that you're thinking of."

"We'll get back to them and Snape. From our eavesdropping, we were able to figure out where Umbridge's office might be and some potential people whose identities we could take. But planning is one thing, doing is another. We managed to get our new identities no problem and we got in too but that's when things started to go awry. Ron had taken on the appearance of someone in Magical Maintenance whose wife was being interrogated for the muggle-born registration. Yaxley, a death eater who was heading the interrogations, said his office was raining and if Ron didn't take care of it then the wife's status would be in more trouble so he left. After that, we ran into the toad herself and I got roped into helping with the trials leaving Harry by himself to search for the office under the invisibility cloak. He found it and saw a bunch of people making anti-muggle pamphlets but worst of all, the door had Mad-Eye's eye stuck to the front of it."

"Ugh I'm going to be sick," Lily covered her mouth and turned away.

"Harry caused a diversion and slipped in. He found files on everyone, namely Arthur, and discovered that he was now being called Undesirable No. 1, she had a little note on his wanted poster – to be punished. Still the necklace wasn't there so he left, taking Mad-Eye's eye with him, and went to find me. I was in the courtrooms, listening Magical Maintenance's wife being questioned. It was awful, really awful, they were calling her a thief and were going to send her to Azkaban. Harry came in under the cloak and saw that the locket was on her neck, Umbridge was using it to boost her own blood purity. There was nothing for it. Harry Stunned Umbridge and I stunned Yaxley nearby, took the locket, and tried to free the prisoners but they knew the Ministry had been infiltrated because of the missing eye. Still we managed to find Ron and got the muggle-borns to safety before apparating away although a death eater caught on to my robe as we were going so as soon as we got to the house, we had to leave again and we couldn't use Grimmauld Place anymore."

"Now where are you going to go?" Sirius's shoulders slumped.

"We apparated to the Quidditch Cup grounds but Ron got splinched in the process. I wouldn't dare try to put him completely right, I'd never done that before so I put Dittany on the wound then we set up camp. I had a tent and everything in my bag and we placed protective charms all around. We still couldn't open the locket so Harry decided to wear it to keep it close. Then Harry had another vision of Voldemort finally finding Gregorovitch but whatever he had that Voldemort wanted it was stolen by a young man that no one recognized."

"Well if Gregorovitch is a wand maker, it only stands to reason that he's after a wand," Remus commented. "It would make sense if you think about his earlier wand problems."

"But he has Ollivander," James reminded his friend. "He could have him make a different wand for him."

"Maybe he's looking for a specific one," Sirius suggested. "Like the Wand of Destiny or the Deathstick."

"Sirius you don't honestly believe in that story," Lily asked derisively. "It's was just some wizard trying ot show off for everyone to believe he was all big and powerful. Besides, the Deathstick was supposedly lost by Loxias. No one even knows who took him down, I would've just snapped the damn thing"

"I don't know about you Lil but if I thought I had a super powerful wand I wouldn't snap it," Sirius shrugged.

"Moving on," James said over them. "How was being on the run?"

"Not something I'd recommend," Hermione vividly recalled. "We were constantly changing locations, barely had any food, except for some berries and mushrooms. One time we got lucky and came across a farm and got some eggs and bread. Plus there were dementors swarming around and that's how we learned how the Horcrux could affect us. Harry didn't want to take the chance of losing the locket so we took turns wearing it which only aggravated us more. Things really came to a head one night when we were camping near a river and we heard some people outside. Don't worry, we put charms up but we could still hear them and it was a couple of goblins, Dirk Cresswell, Ted Tonks, and our friend Dean Thomas. They were discussing a number of things most importantly the sword of Gryffindor. Apparantly Ginny and some others had tried to steal it from Snape's office. Snape then had it moved but the goblin who moved it, he was among the group, decided to omit some information; the sword is fake. Whatever sword the death eaters had in their possession it wasn't the real one. That gave us an idea. When we found out about Snape's appointment I had taken down the portrait of Phineas Nigellus, Sirius's relative and former headmaster, so that he couldn't spy on us and put it in my bag. I pulled it out and we managed to get him to talk to us. The last time the sword was taken down was by Dumbledore to destroy the ring."

"That's why he left it to Harry," Lily nodded.

"Exactly, goblin metal only imbibes what strengthens it and remember Harry used it to stab the basilisk, so it had Basilisk venom in it and that is one of the substances that could destroy horcruxes. Ginny, along with Neville and Luna, were sent to do work with Hagrid in the forest as punishment for the theft. But there was one person who wasn't exactly pleased with this turn of events, Ron. The lack of food, the Horcrux, everything had been getting to him and he finally snapped. He and Harry fought then Ron stormed off and I tried to go after him but he just apparated away."

"That is just wrong," Sirius fumed. "How could he walk out on Hermione and Harry like that? They're friends and he betrayed them."

"It could've been worse," James said quietly, reminding them of their own problems.

"Yeah seems like we don't know our friends," Lily added grimly.

"I guess you guys still had to keep going," Remus looked at Mya.

"Yes but we're weren't coming with up anything. We didn't have any leads on Horcruxes or the sword so Harry had another idea. He wanted to come here, to visit your…graves."

Lily shook her head, "He shouldn't come. The Death Eaters are probably staking out the place, it isn't safe."

"We still came, under the guise of Polyjuice Potion, and saw your graves. It was around Christmas and there was a big statue of the three of you like a memorial. The house was also preserved in your memory just as it was that night he came. There is more but I think we should stop now." Hermione's chest shook just thinking about it. The others shared uneasy looks, slowly moving from their seats unsure what they would come back to.