Oh god guys. I am so utterly sorry about the lateness of this. I've had SO much going on. Looking at colleges, AS levels, National School's Regatta, personal statement writing, planning out the novel I want to write, being in hospital (nothing serious, painful, but not serious), the list goes on. BUT! Bittersweet news. There will only be two more chapters of this story after this one. Then I have other things waiting in the wings. They may be a bit more serious than this though. (though sometimes my madness seeps in anyway) I'm attempting to write more in character.

Anyhow enough of this rambling! Onto the story!

...Riyan...

"Harry," Pomfrey said, looking up from the sixth year Hufflepuff she was treating for concussion.

"Yeah, uh, hi… I uh… need to talk to you," he said, looking significantly down at his stomach.

"Right, I'll be right there. Please wait in my office. Mr Malfoy you may go with him." Both boys nodded and headed towards the closed door in the corner of the room which opened as they approached it.

Once inside, Harry sat on an armchair by the fire which was crackling in merrily in the grate. The door closed itself and Draco came over and sat on the arm of Harry's chair.

"Are you sure this is what you want to do?" he asked. Harry nodded.

"I don't want to go through the pain only to give birth to a horcrux." He frowned as he said it. "How does male birth even work?" Draco shrugged.

"I dunno. I didn't exactly ask my dad about details of Great Grandfather Levi's labour period. I didn't really want to know." Harry smiled humourlessly.

"I'm quite glad I don't have to find out. At least not just yet. Maybe later, when it's an actual baby that I want."

"I'm sure there are books on it somewhere."

"I think I'll pass." They were interrupted at this point by Madame Pomfrey bustling in.

"Right then Harry. What can I do for you?" she asked.

"Er… this is going to sound strange, but could we abort my child?" Whatever Pomfrey had been expecting, it was not this. She walked carefully over to the seat opposite Harry and sat down slowly, not once taking her eyes off of him.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"Yes," said Harry firmly.

"Could I possibly ask why? I mean, this is a very important decision to make."

"My baby is a horcrux."

"Oh." There was a pause. "What is a horcrux?" she asked.

"Uh. A way of keeping Voldemort alive," Harry said, as gently as he could. He knew it would be a shock.

"Oh."

"Yeah." They were interrupted at this point by a knock on the door.

"Come in!" Pomfrey called, sounding relieved to have been rescued from the conversation. The door opened to reveal Dumbledore and a tall, dark stranger with a beard.

"Ah, Poppy, I was hoping to talk to Harry." Madame Pomfrey motioned for them to come in. "Ah, alone if that's alright."

"Oh! Right, of course!" she stood and left the room, her eyes wide. Dumbledore took her seat and conjured a char for the stranger.

"This, Harry, is Mr Braithwaite. Roy Braithwaite. He's an American Auror who has been working on the case of Voldemort for almost twenty five years now. He's been hunting down and destroying Voldemort's Horcruxes from the time he knew they existed, which was seventeen years ago, when Voldemort didn't die. He believes you have found another one for him. The last one. Have you?" Harry nodded.

"Where is it, boy?" Roy asked, speaking for the first time. His voice was gravely and low.

"Inside me."

"Shit. That was a damn clever-"

"Wait! Let me explain!" Harry interrupted.

"Go on."

"I mean, I'm… er… pregnant with it. I was just here to get an abortion so we could kill it." Roy's face lit up.

"Clever boy! Did you… ah… do that," he pointed at Harry's stomach, "on purpose?"

"No, the Elkas did it."

"Heh. How clever of them. Well, that's a relief. It means I don't have to kill you or perform invasive surgery… the muggle way." Draco gasped. Harry almost laughed. He had half forgotten Draco was there.

"But you wouldn't kill me anyway, would you?" Harry asked nervously. "I mean, I have to kill Voldemort!"

"No you don't. That's for the Longbottom boy to do."

"What?" This was Draco again. "Neville? Kill Voldemort? Are you insane? The boy can hardly perform a summoning charm, let alone a killing curse!"

"Draco!" Harry shouted. "Don't say that about Neville! He's come a long way in the past few years! You just haven't noticed! He used to be one of the best students in the DA." Draco looked at his feet, ashamed.

"Thank you, Harry," Roy said. "Yes. Longbottom will be the one to kill the Dark Lord. But you must help him, Harry. You must distract the Dark Lord as he thinks you will be the one to kill him and it is you he fears. Fight him, and while you do, Longbottom can get him from behind. When the time comes at least." Harry nodded. "In the meantime. Let's get that baby out of you." He pulled out his wand. "Stupefy!" And Harry knew no more.

…………………………………………………………….

When he woke up again, he was in his room, with Ron peering at him concernedly.

"You okay mate?" he asked. Harry blinked groggily and sat up, swaying slightly. "Did you get drunk on fire whisky again?"

"No. I… had… an abortion." The words seemed to roll around in his mouth.

"Oh. Fair enough," Ron said. Harry blinked slowly.

"Just, oh fair enough?"

"Yeah. The pregnancy was the bit that scared me."

"Heh. You don't know the half of it. My baby was a horcrux."

"Damn."

"Yeah. But it's gone now. R-R-Ray? A man took it away. I can't remember his name. He was… not British. And important." Harry struggled to remember for a moment but soon gave up after realising it was useless. "Oh never mind. He doesn't matter. All that matters is it's gone."

"Sounds like they gave you half a memory charm. Enough memory in order to not be freaked out, but not enough to remember details."

"Yeah," Harry said vaguely. He was still confused. He sighed and lay back down on the bed. "Ron, do you think you could do me a favour?"

"Yeah, sure, what do you need?"

"Could you get Draco to come here?"

"Uh. I guess. But some of the other Gryffindors might not like seeing him in our common room…"

"Tell them I sent for him. They should be fine with that." Ron nodded.

"Okay, I'll be back as soon as I can," he said and hurried away.

Harry rolled over and groaned. His head hurt. Bloody memory thing. He closed his eyes and tried to block out the world. He snuggled down into his duvet, pulling it up to his ears and turning on his side. He shivered and hugged the comforter around him harder. He wanted Draco to be there, to warm him up. Well, Ron was fetching him. He'd be here soon.

And with that thought, Harry fell into an uneasy sleep.

………

He was woken half an hour later by a rather irritated blonde pouncing on him.

"Mmmf," he said. "Ow. What was that for?"

"For dragging me out of my bed to come alllll the way here."

"Oh." Harry sat up. Draco was sitting on the side of his bed now.

"Yeah."

"Sorry," Harry said rather sheepishly.

"It's okay. Why did you want me?" Draco asked.

"Uh, to keep me company." He grinned. "Oh and so I could ask you what they did to me."

"Well, budge up then." Harry moved slightly to his left. "You don't mind, do you?" Draco asked the other Gryffindor boys.

"Nah, mate," Seamus said. "Just no sex." He grinned.

"I promise. There will be nothing of the sort. Just cuddling. Are we allowed to cuddle?"

"I think that can be allowed. And maybe a bit of suppressed flirtation, but nothing beyond that. No canoodling. Snuggling is okay though." Harry giggled, but Seamus kept a straight face while he was saying it.

"Right. I promise to obey those rules," Draco said and clambered into Harry's bed. Harry closed the curtains.

"This is really odd," Draco whispered.

"Yeah, I know. It is, isn't it? Very surreal," Harry agreed. "So, uh, what did they do to me?"

"I don't know. They knocked me out too."

"Bugger."

"Why?"

"Well, I was curious!"

"Hmm. Fair enough." Silence fell and they lay that way for a while, just staring up at the ceiling of the four poster bed.

"Draco," Harry said, breaking the silence. "Do you think he planned this?"

"Who, God?"

"No, silly, Voldemort! Well, not as in planned, but you know when I thought I'd killed him, he threatened to kill me. He must have known I was one of his horcruxes… He wouldn't have actually killed me, would he? And he just used me as bait to get you? Maybe?"

"Nah. I don't think Freak knows the others have been destroyed, so killing you wouldn't have mattered."

"Oh."

"It would have mattered to me of course! Which is why I went through all this, but I don't think it would have stopped him killing you."

"Damn. But wait!" Harry sat up, suddenly excited. "I have a plan!"

"A plan?"

"Of how to kill him!"

"A better plan than last time?"

"Yes. Much better." And Harry proceeded to tell the blonde the plan that had just come into his mind. (A/N I'm not telling you now. Sorry! But yes, I do know what it is. This isn't just an excuse to buy me time to make one up!)

"Harry, that's brilliant! I could bloody kiss you!" Draco said.

"No! Kissing is not allowed," came Seamus's voice from the other side of the curtains. "But yes. Bloody good idea."

……………………………………………………………

As it turned out, all the Gryffindor boys had been listening to their conversation, for no other reason than that they were bored and couldn't fall asleep. Neville was full of trepidation, but Ron, Seamus and Dean were all keen to help out. In fact Ron had gone so far as to get out a piece of parchment and a quill and had started writing ideas down on it. No one seemed to care that it was bed time any more. This was much more important than sleep.

"Where should we do it?" Ron asked.

"I don't know. My house? The grounds are big enough," Draco offered.

"Yeah!" cried Seamus, sitting up a little straighter. They were all sitting in a circle on the floor now, discussing ideas. "That would make sense, you've had Harry to your house before. We could all sneak in the back, if you gave us copies of the keys to the gate or something."

"Or we could dig under the fence with spoons!" Dean exclaimed.

"Uh. No. Shovels, maybe."

"We could fly over," suggested Ron.

"I don't have a broom," Neville said meekly. "My gran thinks I'll somehow kill myself with one."

"We could borrow one from the broom shed. I'm sure Dumbledore would let us," Ron said.

"I still don't see why I have to go," Neville said. "I could stay here, and wait for you guys! Make sure you don't get in trouble at school!" He nodded enthusiastically.

"Uh, Neville," Harry said gently. "I'm not sure how to break this to you, but… You are going to be the person who kills Voldemort."

"Me?" Neville's eyes were wide in his round face.

"It's in the prophecy."

"But… you're Harry Potter. You have to do it!"

"No, Neville. You do." Silence fell. All that could be heard were a few gasping breaths from Neville, everyone else was still.

"But I can't," he said after a while.

"Why not?" Draco asked, gently. "I don't see any reason why not. From what I've heard, you were one of the best wizards in Dumbledore's Army."

"Really Harry?"

"Yes." There was another long silence where Neville nervously twisted the sleeves of his pyjamas in his hands.

"Okay. I'll try," he said at long last, sounding a lot braver than he felt. He was still unconvinced that he was the right person for the job. He could think of countless other people who were stronger or braver than him. But he supposed, if he had to do it, he would. And it didn't look like they were giving him any choice in the matter.

"So when should we do this thing?" Seamus asked. No one said anything. All of them looked at Harry who shrugged, eyes wide.

"Well, I guess I should ask Daddy when Freak will next be at the house," Draco said matter of factly. "And then we'll go from there."

"Right-o Draco," Dean said. Draco nodded curtly and the circle began to break up of its own accord as the boys drifted back to their respective beds, suddenly very tired. Draco followed Harry back to his bed.

"'Night you," he mumbled, pecking Harry lightly on the cheek as he lay beside him.

"G'night," Harry replied, putting an arm around Draco. And one by one, the boys in the Gryffindor Tower fell asleep, all still thinking about The Plan.

Ohoho! What is this plan I hear you ask? Well, you'll have to wait and see! I have no idea how long it will take to go up. I will get it written and up as soon as I can. Have a bunch of work to catch up on from my hospital stay though. Coursework and stuff. Oh well. I will try. I'll fight the ever growing mound of THINGS I have to do. Gah. Anyhow. Hope you are all well! Er. Yes. runs away to bed now

...Riyan...