a/n: there's dancing, maybe an electric slide and the robot. feel free to join in as i am celebrating 800 reviews! YAY! And it is all thanks to you my wonderful, awesome, beautiful, fantastic readers. thank you, thank you, thank you for all of your wonderful support. and i'm gushing but i don't care cause i have 800 reviews. lol. let me know what you think of this chap. read. enjoy. celebrate. Here it is the big 3 double O. there'll be more in the next chapter.

Chapter 30

When Harry returned from his morning run Ally was just starting to stir. He walked silently over to the bed and leant over her, pressing kisses up the length of her exposed arm. He kissed every part of her that he could reach and then placed his hand on her stomach. His baby girl was already up and awake, he could feel her moving about. Ally shot up in bed suddenly with a yelp and started shoving him away.

'Cold hands! Very cold hands!'

Harry fell off the bed with a laugh while Ally massaged her belly to bring some warmth back.

'Happy birthday, Als.'

Harry got to his feet and crawled onto the bed to kiss her properly. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer only to screw up her nose and push him away slightly.

'You're all sweaty.'

'Wanna be sweaty too?'

Ally grinned and pulled him back down beside her, she missed having him lying over her but the huge bump sort of got in the way. They lay together kissing for a good hour before Ally pulled away suddenly and frowned.

'This isn't my present, right?'

Harry chuckled lightly and got off the bed to retrieve her gift from his bag. Her eyes lit up and Harry fought the urge to roll his eyes when he handed over the carefully wrapped package. So carefully wrapped that it was obvious he hadn't done the wrapping himself.

'Tilly?'

'The things she does with wrapping paper and tape,' Harry murmured with a grin.

Ally laughed and began to unwrap the decent sized rectangular box. Inside she found a black leather bound folio style book tied closed with a blue ribbon. Her name was stamped in gold leaf on the cover. Frowning, she opened it up to reveal a letter from Harry.

Ally,

This would be the moment I wrote something beautiful and possibly romantic but that's not me. I spent ages wondering what to get the girl who has everything, three hundred years is a long time to amass everything you could ever really need. So I give you this, I give you my heart, my soul and promise to love you always. Now look in the book.

Love always and forever,

Harry

'And you said you weren't romantic.'

This time Harry really did roll his eyes. 'Just open it.'

She lifted out the parchment Harry's letter was written on and found a series of letters her mother and father had exchanged stuck on the pages of the folio book. The yellowing parchment was secured to the page with a simple adhesive charm. They were love letters from her mother to her father before she was born; form before they'd even been married. She had no idea where Harry had managed to find them.

'Oh, Harry!'

'Keep going,' he instructed her.

She did as she was told and turned the rather heavy page and found similar letters on the next page. These were letters written between her aunt and mother that covered everything from the silly little things sisters talked about to her fears about her pregnancy. Ally was astounded. She turned the page again and found her Hogwarts acceptance letter. Each page was filled with something of great significance in her life. Awards from Hogwarts, letters addressed to her from her teachers praising her for her good work.

After her days at Hogwarts the letters changed to those from people she had known and loved throughout her life. There was a childish drawing of Ally and three little girls she had been governess to in her thirties. There were extracts from diaries she had kept about her life from different years. The further she got through the book the more there was. A picture painted on the back of an old students' essay of a phoenix and a little boy with shocking blue hair.

'Where on earth did you find all of this?' Ally could barely get the words out; she was struggling so hard to keep from crying. The most important people in her life were represented here.

'Some of it came from your vaults, others Ruby and I had to track down through their descendents.'

'I don't know what to say,' Ally told him honestly. 'This is the best gift anyone has ever given me.'

'It gets better,' he assured her.

He reached back into his bag and produced a small wooden box, the size of a shoe box. The box was covered in gold runes but Ally wasn't paying enough attention to make out what they were. He handed her the box and she slid it open. Inside were two dozen glass vials filled with a misty vapor.

'These memories go with the later entries in the book.'

Ally was so impressed, so awed by the gift Harry had given her. She was holding in her hands an account of all of the best moments in her life, all of the people she'd loved and eventually lost. Some she had lost under happy circumstances (old age was a good way to go) and some under bad ones. That didn't matter to her though because everything in this book, everything Harry had worked to gather for her, was perfect. She could feel the tears beginning to escape and she threw herself on Harry, raining kisses on him.

'Thank you, Harry, its perfect.'

Harry was deep in conversation with Ginny and Ron about his plans for the day as they walked down to breakfast. He'd left Ally soaking in a bath and said he'd meet her after breakfast. Then he'd run up to the Gryffindor common room to meet his friends. That had taken a while as Crookshanks had been hunting during the night and, much to the disgust of most of Gryffindor; a slaughter of mice had taken place in the common room. Apparently the massacre occurred after the house elves had done their nightly tidy up. It wasn't a pretty sight and poor Hermione had needed quite a few cleaning spells to get rid of the mess.

'So, you think you can do it?' Harry asked Ron as they stepped off the stairs and made their way across the entrance hall.

'I can do it,' Ron assured him.

'Good beca-'

Out of nowhere a short, slim blonde crashed into his side, throwing him off balance and sending him tumbling to the flagstone floor. The blonde stumbled down on top of him with a yelp and a giggle. Lying on the floor on his back Harry spat out a mouthful of long hair and groaned.

'Morning, Ruby,' he greeted the petite figure sprawled on top of him.

'Hiya, Harry!' He didn't need to see her face to know she was grinning cheekily.

'Get off me, you fat lump.'

'Oh that's real nice,' Ruby huffed, clambering to her feet.

'Oh, come on, you know I love you.'

'Try showing it,' she muttered.

Harry rolled his eyes but swept Ruby up in a hug. It had been a while since the two had seen each other and the tackle like hug she'd just hit him with didn't stop him from missing her. She attempted to squeeze the air out of his lungs and then got distracted by the sight of Ron and Ginny.

'Oh!' she gushed. 'You must be Ron and Ginny.'

And she pulled them both into a hug that had their heads dangerously close to banging together. Then she released them suddenly and grinned sheepishly.

'And you have no idea who I am.'

'I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you're the infamous Ruby Reid,' Ginny said.

'Infamous?' Ruby asked, turning to Harry. 'What have you been saying about me?'

'Bad things,' Harry assured her. 'Lots and lots of bad things.'

She poked her tongue out at him and linked her arm through his; ignoring the curious glances she was receiving from the students passing them as they walked toward the Great Hall for breakfast.

'She in there?'

Harry tilted his head to the side for a moment and then nodded.

'Excellent.' She snapped her fingers and suddenly she and Harry were wearing flashing party hats that had Happy Birthday written in bright neon colors. Harry wrinkled his nose and snapped his fingers, vanishing the hats and shooting Ruby a glare.

'No hats.'

Ruby gave an aggrieved sigh. 'The things I put up with for Ally.'

'I'm hurt,' Harry pouted. 'And here I thought you liked me.'

'It's all pretend,' deadpanned Ruby.

Behind them Ginny and Ron sniggered, you couldn't help liking Ruby, something about her drew you in. Hermione arrived on the scene looking flustered and extremely confused. She glanced between the two Weasley's and Harry and the mystery woman with raised eyebrows.

'What's going on?'

'Ruby Reid,' Ron answered, as though that explained everything. It sort of did for those who knew who Ruby was. Even Professor Flitwick would have merely nodded his agreement to that one.

'Harry's contact at the ministry?'

Both Ron and Ginny turned surprised looks on Hermione. As far as either could remember Ruby's name had come up exactly once in conversation and that was months ago when they were still staying at Grimmauld Place. How on earth did she remember something like that?

'Sometimes you scare me,' Ron informed her.

Hermione glared at him and Harry glanced over his shoulder at the three of them.

'You coming or what?' he called to them.

Ruby almost skipped through the Great Hall, dragging Harry behind her. Most heads turned to watch their progress and Dumbledore half rose from his seat as though expecting Ruby to be bearing some form of news from the Ministry. He may not have had a clue who Ally Martin was but he definitely knew Ruby Reid. She walked right up to the staff table and struck a pose in front of Ally as though to say, yes that's right, I'm here. She pulled her wand from the holster on her leg and shot a spell into the air. Confetti rained down on the staff table and the words Happy Birthday fluttered in the air.

'Surprise!'

Harry and Ruby were good but they weren't that good. Ally had known that Ruby would be visiting for her birthday almost as long as Harry had, not that it changed anything. She stood and hurried around the table, pulling Ruby into a tight hug and causing Ruby to receive a sharp kick from a suddenly squished baby.

'You're here!'

'Like you're actually surprised,' Ruby laughed.

'Hey, I could be!'

'Yeah, sure,' Ruby scoffed. 'Harry, keep a secret from you?'

'Yeah, you're right.'

'Hey!' Harry protested indignantly, albeit halfheartedly. 'It's been known to happen!'

'Sure honey.' Ruby offered him a patronizing pat on the shoulder.

He glared at her but before he could say anything more Dumbledore had risen from his seat at the table and come around to see what all the fuss was about. Though if he were to take a guess he would say it was his newest professor's birthday and her friend, Ruby Reid, had come to help celebrate. He tried not to shudder at the mere thought of Ruby's name, she'd put the Weasley twins to shame when she was at school and now she was, or so he'd heard, one of the Ministry's top Unspeakables.

'Miss Reid, to what do we owe the pleasure of your company?' Dumbledore tried not to notice the tightening of McGonagall's lips or Flitwick's squeak that suggested Ruby's company was very rarely a pleasure.

'Morning, Dumbledore,' Ruby greeted brightly. 'Thought I'd stop by and wish Ally a happy birthday.'

'Indeed. Perhaps in the future you could let a member of staff know you are coming, it doesn't hurt to be too,' he paused to search for the right word. He felt almost sure that Harry would not associate himself with someone who did not believe Voldemort was back. 'Cautious,' he settled on.

Ruby waved him off. 'I did tell Harry I was stopping by.'

'Slipped my mind,' Harry added. 'Now get lost you two, you're interrupting my breakfast.'

'Harry,' Dumbledore scolded but he was ignored.

Ruby grabbed Martin by the arm and started dragging her out of the Great Hall, pausing as she passed Harry only to kiss him quickly on the cheek and offer him some parting words.

'Don't wait up.'

'For you, Ruby, I'll be sure to sleep like the dead.' Harry looked back and found Dumbledore frowning at him. 'What?'

When Dumbledore failed to do more than look at Harry sadly, he shrugged and wandered back along the Gryffindor table to join his friends for breakfast. Ron was beginning to look strangely green and had barely touched his food. Harry glared at Ginny wondering what on earth she could have said to make him so bloody nervous in the handful of minutes he'd been gone.

'What did you do?'

She grimaced. 'I remembered the twins have DADA today.'

Harry winced; maybe things wouldn't work out as well as they'd hoped. As it turned out, Harry didn't have anything to worry about. They had Defense Against the Dark Arts first and Hermione wouldn't stop complaining about their professor disappearing the whole way there.

'This is our OWL year!' she insisted. 'How can she just run off even if it is her birthday? How can Dumbledore let this happen?'

Harry sighed and grabbed her elbow to stop her from making a wrong turn, so lost was she in her angry tirade. 'Look, its not like she just up and left without making sure someone was there to cover her class,' Harry reasoned. 'I told you she arranged with McGonagall for me to help out.'

Hermione gave him a look that told him she wasn't at all impressed. 'You have an impressive knowledge of Defense Harry but you're not good enough to teach a proper class.'

'I guess it's a good thing I'm not taking it then, huh?' he asked, taking a seat beside her.

'What?' Hermione looked around in confusion and her mouth dropped open. Standing in front of Professor Martin's desk was their substitute teacher. And it was Ron.

Ron was taking their DADA class. RON! Had the world gone mad? Hermione gaped at Ron, words failing her. She looked to Harry for some kind of explanation and found him shaking with silent laughter at her reaction. She turned back to Ron who was shifting from foot to foot uneasily as he waited for the last student to take a seat. Dean closed the door behind him and slipped into a seat beside Seamus. Ron took a step forward and just like that the nervous demeanor was gone. Standing before the fifth year Gryffindors was a Ron few got to see. He waved his wand and the sound of paper settling on desks filled the room.

'In front of you is a map of Hogwarts,' Ron said. 'On it you will find all of the rooms and corridors of this school and several key features. Today I expect you to pair up and devise a strategy to protect Hogwarts from outside attack.' He let that sink in and then smiled to himself at the confused looks he received. 'This school represents one of the greatest targets for Voldemort; it's the shining light of each generation. If he manages to take this school it's likely he'll have damn near won the war, I mean the Ministry's already lost.'

'Ron!' Hermione hissed, scandalized.

He just waved a dismissive hand at her. 'If we wish to hold on to this castle then we need to know how to protect it. I want you and you partner to mark on your map every strong defensible location, any location you think would need to be heavily guarded and places where Death Eaters would find it easier to enter the castle. I suggest you take this seriously as you will be marked on it.'

'You're joking, right?' Lavender demanded. 'You can't give us a test!'

'Actually, I can,' Ron informed her. 'Professor Martin asked me to do this so I am. I can tell you that there are seven weak points in Hogwarts' defenses and thirty two places that should provide easily defensible positions. Now get to work.'

Hermione walked out of that DADA class an hour later in a complete daze. Ron had given them thirty minutes to find what they could on the map and then led them through the mistakes they made, both the obvious and the not so obvious. The worst part was that she couldn't fault him in any way. Ron had only insightful suggestions to make and had been helpful and thorough when he made his explanations. He had displayed a truly spectacular knowledge of military tactics that had left the entire Gryffindor fifth year completely gob smacked.

For the first time Hermione could truly understand what Harry had meant when he had tried to explain to her just how good Ron was. She'd brushed it off, felt hurt that he hadn't thought her good enough but when compared to Ron what did she have to offer? She told Harry this as they waited for Ron to gather up the maps of Hogwarts he had been using for his demonstration.

'Well I did tell you.'

'I know,' Hermione admitted, her eyes never leaving Ron. She watched him gathering his things together, trying to figure out when he had developed such a unique and useful skill.

'Think you can try and see what we see in Luna now?'

Hermione laughed, although it wasn't as steady as she would have liked. If this was what Ron was capable of, creating excellent strategies to defend Hogwarts against attack, then what was Luna capable of? The thought was honestly a little terrifying and Hermione promised herself she would at least try to see what Harry saw in Luna. She was pulled from her thoughts when Harry tapped her arm to alert her to the fact that Ron was finally ready to go.

'That was a wonderful lesson, Ron.'

Ron, taken completely off guard by a compliment on his skills by Hermione, nearly tripped over his own feet. A compliment from Hermione was almost as good as a new broom.

'Thanks, Hermione.'

Hermione beamed under Ron's smile but her happiness wilted slightly when his gaze shifted to something, or rather someone, over her shoulder and that smile she'd been so taken with became even brighter. If that were possible. She turned around to see what he was looking at just as Daphne stopped next to Harry.

'How'd it go?'

'It was bloody brilliant!' Ron answered excitedly. Then he was off, telling Daphne all about his lesson as they made their way to their shared Potions class.

Hermione fell behind and Harry fell in step with her. She barely noticed as her attention was focused intently on the interaction between Ron and the Slytherin girl. A sudden tightening in her chest went ignored as she refused to admit that perhaps she'd been a little too late in realizing Ron's potential.