Author's Note: This will be the last installment until after the holidays! I hope everyone has a great holiday and I will see you back here on Friday, January 5.

Chapter 51

"How did this happen?" Harry cried tearfully. "She never left the house, never." He looked desperately to Lupin for confirmation.

They were all gathered on the sidewalk in front of the house trying to comfort each other and decide what to do next – all except Severus Snape who was carefully binding the two stunned wizards by the house. No one had approached him since Petunia had died and he seemed reluctant to rejoin the party. Still, Harry could not help but notice that Dumbledore's eyes kept drifting over and lingering on the Potions master.

"Why? Why would she leave?" he looked again to Lupin. "You saw what she was like."

Lupin nodded. "It seems pretty clear that she was lured out of the house."

Harry knitted his brows. He did not understand.

"Professor Lupin's correct," Dumbledore added heavily. "Your aunt was lured out by the one thing greater than her fear, her love for her son."

Hermione looked stricken.

"That Muggle shirt," Dumbledore mused pointing to one of the bound wizards. "Is it familiar to you? Did it belong, perhaps, to your cousin?"

Harry's mind raced. He could barely think to answer the question.

"Yes, I think it's his shirt, sir. Only I can't imagine how the Death Eaters managed to get hold of it."

"Polyjuice then, sir?" Lupin ventured.

"Yes, it's probably so," the old wizard sighed and turned to Harry. "So far as I can surmise, an imposter pretended to be your cousin in some danger. Petunia must have left the house in a valiant attempt to aid him. She was stricken down and as soon as her blood was shed they made an attack on the house."

"Because of me!" Harry cried bitterly. "Because they were trying to kill me."

Lupin hastily stepped in and put a comforting hand on his arm. "Harry, this isn't your fault."

Harry shook his hand off irritably. He was remembering what Ron had said about everyone he knew ending up dead and this was just one more example of it. He felt a crushing sense of hopelessness but everyone's eyes were upon him and he was keen that this tragedy not be about him.

"How did they know to target my aunt?" he asked evenly. After all, Dumbledore had told him previously that only three people were aware of the nature of his protection at Privet Drive. He himself had not been trusted with the information.

Dumbledore stroked his beard thoughtfully. Now there was a distinctly troubled look in his eyes.

"That I cannot say, though it does appear that the attackers must have had some knowledge of the charm. It has not escaped my notice that they chose to use a blood spell on Petunia instead of a more direct killing curse." He paused. "What I find even more puzzling is how these two wizards became stupefied with no other wizards in the area."

They all turned toward where Severus Snape was just finishing securing the two unconscious wizards. They would be questioned later and taken into custody.

Lupin looked perplexed. "They weren't stunned by the protective charm?"

"They shouldn't have been," Came the reply. "But I have no other explanation for it."

"Maybe you should wake them up now, Professor," Hermione ventured. "They might have important information."

"That will not be necessary," said a silky voice.

They all started, not realizing that Snape had finally left Petunia's side. He still seemed to be on the verge of losing control. Shaking, he absolutely refused to look at Albus Dumbledore.

"It is not necessary because Petunia Dursley was carrying this!" Snape held up a worn wooden wand and stared at it with disbelief. Lupin's eyes softened as if it held some special significance to him as well. Dumbledore merely gave a knowing nod while Harry and Hermione exchanged blank looks.

"If I'm not mistaken, that was your mother's wand," Lupin stated.

"It was!" Snape interjected sharply.

His mother's wand! Harry could not believe it. His aunt Petunia had kept it all these years, kept it in spite of her feelings about magic. He had so many questions.

Dumbledore, however, suddenly seemed keen to be moving on. He admitted to leaving the wand with Petunia as a family memento and postulated that the dire circumstances had somehow produced some untapped magic in Harry's aunt but with a wary eye on Snape he was disinclined to discuss it any further.

"Harry is no longer safe here," he reminded them all. "I do think it's prudent to return him to Hogwarts immediately. Professor Lupin, if you would be so kind as to escort Miss Granger back to her residence."

"Certainly."

"I can apparate," Hermione told them.

"I know you can but for tonight I think it is best if you do not travel alone," the old wizard said kindly.

Harry approached Snape intending to ask for his mother's wand but something in the way Snape was eyeing it caused him to pause. Whatever he had been through this evening seemed somehow more significant than Harry's own claim to the wand. After all, it was he who had comforted his dying aunt and who was even now soaked in her blood. Whatever the circumstances, Harry could not bring himself to take it from Snape tonight.

After contemplating the pair silently for a time, Dumbledore beckoned Harry to his side.

"Severus," he said gently. "You must not be seen here."

Snape did not speak but carefully stowed away Lily Potter's wand. Turning, his chin up, he closed his eyes and vanished before their eyes.

"How did he disapparate with the wall still in place?" Hermione marveled.

"Professor Snape is a very powerful wizard," Lupin replied. "Far more than most."

Dumbledore nodded in agreement. "It's a mistake to underestimate Severus Snape – or Professor Snape as Professor Lupin quite properly addressed him."

"Professor," Harry called warily. "Did you hear that? I think someone's coming."

Dumbledore cocked his head to the side. "Quite right, Harry. Wands out. You and Hermione stay close to us."

They all tensed and pointed their wands toward the source of the sound.

"Oy!" cried a voice from inside the smoke. "I'm looking to sell a Godric Gryffindor card. Does anyone need one to complete their collection?"

"Ah, the Resistance," Dumbledore murmured. "How fortuitous."

"I need one!" Harry cried excitedly. "I was looking to spend 2 galleons and 3 knuts."

"Then Lana Lovelorn's got a deal for you!" a female voice giggled.

Harry smiled. "It's Luna," he told Hermione. "Luna Lovegood."

No sooner had he said this than Luna, wearing a plaid beret, stepped through the barrier with her father, the leader of the Civilian Resistance.

"The Ministry knows what happened," he told Dumbledore urgently. "They know Potter's alive and they are on their way!"

Dumbledore failed to look overly concerned. "We are on our way back to Hogwarts now."

"You don't understand. They are coming for him. They want to take him in for questioning."

"I'll be glad to help the investigation," Harry declared earnestly. "I'll answer whatever they ask."

"No, Harry," Dumbledore explained; now appearing rather sober. "It's a ploy. The Ministry has been trying to get you into custody for months."

"And once they've succeeded, it's only a matter of time before one of our fine Ministry officials gives you up to You-Know-Who," Mr. Lovegood added cynically.

Harry felt a shiver of fear.

"Not everyone involved in the Ministry is corrupt!" Hermione declared stubbornly.

"But enough of them are!" Luna retorted.

They looked back at Dumbledore who seemed at a momentary loss. "I certainly can not take him back to Hogwarts now. They'll come for him and I can't fight the Ministry of Magic. But he's not safe here anymore."

"Let him come with us," Mr. Lovegood relied. "We'll take him to one of our hideouts. Not one of our safe houses has ever been taken by the enemy. The Resistance can protect him."

"Voldemort will never stop hunting him," Dumbledore warned.

"We don't shrink from danger," Luna asserted. "Especially not when it's in the service of the right."

Luna's father beamed at her and tousled her beret affectionately.

Dumbledore thanked them, both for the warning and for offering to hide Harry Potter. He then pulled Harry aside to remind him about keeping his mind closed. Failure to do so could allow Voldemort access to the location of Resistance Headquarters.

But Harry had no intention of putting the Lovegoods into the same danger the Dursleys had been in.

"I'm not going," he announced.

"But, Harry, you have to," Hermione insisted.

He shook his head. "How many people have to die in order to protect me? I won't allow it any longer. It's time I fended for myself."

"Harry," Dumbledore started.

"No! There is a war going on and it's time I took my place in it," he said resolutely.

Lupin stepped in. "What's happened here is not your fault. You need to listen to Dumbledore. It's not your responsibility to fight Voldemort and his Death Eaters."

Harry rounded on him, looking him directly in the eye. "With all due respect, Sir, I think it is. There are wizards my age already fighting for the Ministry and Luna's been a member of the Resistance since Christmas. I've just as much right, duty, to stand against Voldemort as you have."

He fully expected further argument but Lupin did not say anything at first. He held Harry's gaze for a time and it suddenly seemed to Harry that there was something different in those gray eyes. It was as if Remus Lupin was suddenly seeing him in a new light.

"Spoken just like your father." He placed a firm hand on Harry's shoulder and grinned mischievously. "We're the last of the Marauders, you and I – so let's get up to no good!"

Harry felt a sudden burst of pride. Finally, Lupin was seeing him as an adult. Even Dumbledore seemed to acknowledge that he should take a more active role in the war, proposing again that he go with the Resistance, not just for protection but to do real work for the war effort.

"Can you use me?" Harry asked Luna's father.

"We have a place for all enemies of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."

"Then I'm coming with you."

Mr. Lovegood extended his hand for Harry to shake. "Welcome to the cause, my boy. Luna. Will you take him to Headquarters?"

"Wait!" Hermione interjected. "Harry's right. I want to join too."

Dumbledore eyed her solemnly. "Are you certain about your decision, Hermione? You do understand that it is a crime to associate with the Resistance and if you choose to go with them you will be effectively living as an outlaw? It is an irrevocable choice."

Hermione nodded. "I understand, sir. I think I knew it would come to this one day."

They said their goodbyes. Dumbledore promised to contact them as soon as it was safe to do so. Luna soon led them out of the smoke and pulled off her beret to reveal a crimson quill twisted in her hair.

"A portkey!" she exclaimed rather proudly. "I made it to match my hat."

"It's er very nice," Hermione said politely as she grasped part of the plume.

Harry, too, reached for it but stopped short. A sudden sadness had crept upon him. He sighed.

"I always thought if this day came that Ron would be with us."

Hermione's face clouded. "Me, too, Harry but, you know, I have a feeling he'll be with us again before the end."

He could only hope she was right. Harry grasped the quill and felt a strong but familiar tug. It seemed as if he were not only leaving Privet Drive but his whole life behind him and whatever lay ahead was as unfamiliar as the shaded lane they were now headed for.