One minor outcome of AU-Hermione spending only three days of Summer 1996 at the New Burrow (see Chapters 8 through 10), as opposed to all summer like in canon, is that now AU-Hermione is free to obtain a provisional driver's license and to be taught how to drive by her parents. However, she will not be able to earn a regular driver's license, under UK law, until she is seventeen.

In this chapter, AU-Harry sings part of the song "Celebration," which is part of the 1980 album of the same name by Kool & The Gang.

Chapter 14
The Obliviators' Mystery: Solved

Afternoon Wednesday, 17th July
Obliviator Headquarters, the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes

The receptionist-witch, who was in her thirties, smiled. "Ooh, a challenge! But I think we can handle it. May I have your name, sir?"

"Erm, I'm Harry—I mean, Lord Black-Potter."

The witch gasped, and her eyes went to his forehead.

"Hello, Lord Black-Potter, I'm Heather Tidwell." Which Harry recognised as not a wizarding-family name.

"Pleased to meet you," Harry said, and kissed her knuckles. Heather giggled.

Heather the receptionist said to Harry, "You're friends with Hermione Granger, the mundane-born, right?"

"I am," Harry said, grinning. "She's known in school as 'the brightest witch of her age.' She just scored a basketful of O's for her O.W.L. exams, and I'm sure she'll be handed another basketful, once she takes her N.E.W.T.'s."

"I wish her well," Heather said, "but N.E.W.T. exams really aren't important if you're mundane-born." Heather's mouth was smiling, but her eyes were boring into Harry's, determined to send him a message.

Harry said, "Once Voldy is dead, hopefully the discrimination against mundane-borns won't be a problem much longer."

"Hopefully," Heather said, not sounding optimistic.

Seconds later

Heather walked Harry into a large room, which had sixteen desks, a large table, and an umbrella-stand by the door. On the wall above the umbrella-stand, someone had sticky-charmed a handwritten sign: "If you forget your umbrella, don't blame the Obliviators." Only one Obliviator was sitting at a desk: an older witch who was writing on a one-foot-long, pre-printed parchment. At the big table, seven witches and wizards were playing Exploding Snap.

Harry asked, "What am I seeing?"

Heather said, "B-Team is out. A-Team is idle for now, but this could change at any moment."

The witch with a parchment looked up. "I'm not idle, because there's always parchment-work to be filled out."

Heather led Harry over to the other witch. "Lord Black-Potter, this is Auror First Class Salemia Johnson, A-Team's Head Obliviator. Auror Johnson, this is Lord Black-Potter, otherwise known as Harry Potter."

Harry started to bend down to kiss Auror Johnson's knuckles, but she rotated her hand, then shook Harry's hand. Johnson explained, "When Aurors are working, you shake witch-Aurors' hands, just like wizard-Aurors' hands."

Harry, blushing, said, "Good to know."

Auror Johnson looked at Harry and, in a voice lacking warmth, asked, "Is there anything I can help you with, Lord Black-Potter?"

Heather said, "Oh no, he's here for a records search; he wants to find out about Muggle aeroplane crashes caused by magic—"

Auror Johnson's eyebrows went up. The card game immediately went silent and still. (Except for cards exploding.)

Heather continued, "Auror Johnson, may I trouble you for a blank Obliviation Report form to show him?"

Auror Johnson opened a desk drawer, pulled out a blank form, and handed it to Heather. As she did so, she growled, "Remember, Miss Tidwell, that you have taken a Vow not to reveal certain information."

A look passed between the two witches.

Heather said to Harry, "Let me walk you through the form. At the top left, printed in green, see the seven-digit number? It's different for every form. At the top right, to the right of the box for 'Date," are three tick-boxes: 'Accident,' 'Catastrophe,' and 'Foolishness.' A 'Catastrophe' is defined as five or more people dead, doesn't matter if they're magicals or mundanes, and/or over ten thousand galleons' worth of property damage; an 'Accident' is not as bad with deaths or property damage. 'Foolishness' means some witch or wizard has less sense than a flobberworm. Anytime the 'Foolishness' box is ticked, someone is facing a stiff fine and/or time in Azkaban; if both the 'Catastrophe' and 'Foolishness' boxes are ticked, somebody is going to Azkaban for life."

Harry asked, "How often has this happened, life in Azkaban for something requiring obliviation?"

Auror Johnson answered, "Since I was transferred here, magicals have been sentenced to a five-year sentence and four ten-year sentences. A wizard in the 1960s got life. Don't know about before. But let me add something: If you act stupid and this kills enough magicals, even if you didn't intend to kill them, you'll be given a look at a Dementor's tonsils."

Harry asked, "What if you accidentally kill a mob of Muggles? Will this get the Kiss too?"

Johnson shrugged. "Probably not."

Harry sighed. "Moving on?" he prompted.

Heather said, "Now you see boxes to fill out: 'Head Obliviator,' 'Names of Magicals Causing Accident or Catastrophe,' 'Location (Apparition Coordinates),' 'Location (Longitude/Latitude),' 'Location (Muggle Description),' 'Number of Magicals Dead,' 'Number of Muggles Dead,' 'Number of Muggles Obliviated,' 'Names of Muggles Obliviated'—"

Harry asked, "Why is the box for 'Names' drawn with thin lines, whilst all the other boxes are drawn with thick lines?"

Auror Johnson answered, "It means I'm not required to fill in the names of Muggles I Obliviate. In fact, I never collect any names. It's dangerous to keep my team around angry or scared Muggles any longer than I need to."

Heather continued, "The rest of the form: 'Property Damage in Galleons,' 'Cause of Accident or Catastrophe,' 'What Obliviated Muggles Have in Common,' and 'Comments.' "

Harry observed, " 'Comments' is another thin-lines box."

Heather said, "Now that you know what's on every form, let's start your search. Follow me, please."

Harry waved the blank form about, and said to Auror Johnson, "May I take this with me? I'll bring it back."

After Heather Tidwell and Harry Potter left the bullpen, one of the A-Team Obliviators put down his cards and asked, "Oi, Johnson. Do you think Harry Potter will figure out the secret, if nobody here breaks their Vow?"

Salemia Johnson said, "Maybe," as she made the rocking-hand gesture. "Look how he handled the Tri-Wizard. He's right smart for his age."

Another Obliviator asked, "If he does figure out the secret, all by himself, will we be ordered to Obliviate him?"

Salemia thought about it, then said, "If somehow the secret helps Harry Potter kill the Dark Lord? No. Otherwise? Yes."

Meanwhile, in the "1927-1996" room in Obliviator Headquarters

Harry gasped when he walked into the room.

The room was crammed full with filing cabinet, plus two things more. The room held a table with five thick legs—the fifth leg was in the middle; and the table looked thick enough to hold the weight of a coiled sixty-foot basilisk. On that sturdy table was a book bigger than Harry had ever imagined: four feet long, three feet wide and over a foot tall. The book was titled Date.

At one end of the table was a stack of blank half-foot parchments. Heather moved the top blank parchment elsewhere on the table, cast a spell on the parchment that Harry did not recognise, then said brightly, "Let's do your search. Tell me the name of a box on the form, and what words you want to find in the box."

Harry said, "Let's try the box 'Cause of Accident or Catastrophe,' looking for 'aeroplane.' "

"Erm...," said Heather. She looked like she was about to say something else. Instead, she cast a spell on the giant book. Its title changed to Cause of Accident or Catastrophe, and the book became thicker.

Heather pointed her wand at the giant book, as she said "Something-something-something-aeroplane-something," then Heather pointed her wand at the blank parchment—

—which stayed blank.

"No match," Heather explained.

Harry said, "Britain hasn't had even one magic-caused aeroplane crash since 1927?"

"No, it isn't that, the 'no match' is because"—Heather coughed and coughed. Suddenly her coughing stopped. "Let's try a different box."

"Okay, 'What Obliviated Muggles have in Common,' look for 'aeroplane' again."

This time, five green report-numbers appeared on the blank parchment.

Harry and Heather tried looking for aeroplane in "Comments," which resulted in two matches (which already were written down on the parchment). They tried looking for airport in "Location (Muggle Description)"; four of the five report-numbers repeated.

Harry was out of ideas then, so Heather pulled the five reports and made copies for him.

None of the five reports mentioned that its aeroplane was in level flight or was landing when the accident happened. Two reports had Comments that said something like "The aeroplane had just risen from its road."

Looking at the five reports, Harry immediately spotted something else—something strange.

"All five reports," Harry said, "under 'Cause of Accident or Catastrophe,' they all say 'Code FW.' Nothing else, that's it. And the parchment inside the box is shiny-smooth—something else was written there, but it's been erased. Several times erased."

Heather looked unhappy. "I can't say anything about what you're asking about."

"So you can't tell me what 'Code FW' means, right?"

"Not even slightly. I'm truly sorry, Lord Black-Potter. I took a Vow, which covers 'Code FW.' "

Harry told the Vow-bound, Muggle-born receptionist that he was not bothered that she was not allowed to tell him a certain secret. Harry did not tell her that he had a strong hunch what the Obliviators' secret was.

Nor did Harry let Heather see him grinning like a fool when, after returning the blank report-form to Auror Johnson, Harry walked out of Obliviator Headquarters. Harry still was grinning when he stepped into the elevator, with five obliviation reports in his hand.

That evening, Wednesday, 17th July
At the home of Ted and Andromeda Tonks

Don't-call-me-Nymphadora Tonks shared her approval of the Order of the Phoenix's new leadership with her parents, who then decided that they also approved of Harry taking over the "do-nothing" Order. Tonks also shared her approval of Harry with Remus Lupin. Remus said that Harry should have waited to take over the Order till he had received "permission" from Dumbledore. Tonks and Remus wound up arguing loudly.

The next morning: 10:00 a.m. Thursday, 18th July
Potter Manor

Neville had been the first to arrive (by floo, at 9:52). He had not shown surprise when Dobby the house-elf had elf-popped Hermione into the Potter Manor foyer. But Neville clearly had been startled when Daphne Greengrass had stepped out of the Floo Fireplace.

Harry had explained to Neville, "Daphne is here because she is the future Lady Black. But also, Daphne, Hermione and I share a Big Secret; and after Bill leaves today, I will share this secret with you."

Hermione had smiled at Neville. "Harry wouldn't think of sharing this big secret with Ron, but you he trusts. Be proud."

Now as Neville and Daphne listened in, Harry handed Hermione a piece of paper that had his handwriting (in pen) on the paper. "These are the dates, and the longitudes/latitudes, of five aeroplane crashes that I'm interested in. Please dig up everything that the Times, the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph have to say about the crashes, especially what the newspapers say were the supposed causes of the crashes. Look for everything that the five crashes have in common. Whatever money you spend, I'll pay you back."

Daphne asked, "What do you mean, the 'supposed' causes of the crashes?"

Harry replied, "Britain has had many more than five aeroplane crashes since 1927; but for these five crashes, Obliviators showed up afterwards and rewrote the memories of the surviving Muggles. Which tells me that magic somehow was involved. But the true cause of those crashes? The Obliviators are keeping this a secret."

Then Harry grinned at his three friends. "But I think I've figured out the Obliviators' secret, and it's juicy."

Hermione promised, "I shall go to the Crawley Library and look up these crashes on microfiche, the first chance I get." Then Hermione grinned. "But now, instead of being driven to the library, I have a provisional license, which means I can drive myself—and a parent—to the library."

Harry said, "How's that working out for you, learning to drive?"

"So-so," Hermione answered. "I've discovered that when I'm behind the wheel and my father is to my left, sweet Dad turns into Professor Snape. Mum is the much easier parent from whom to learn."

Neville asked, "Learning to drive is a big deal with teenage Muggles?"

Harry nodded. "Think 'Apparition license.' "

Both Neville and Daphne nodded, finally understanding.

Pop. House-elf Greyclay told Harry, "You have a redheaded visitor, just beyond the wards." Greyclay pointed out the direction through the wall.

Harry grinned at Neville, Daphne and Hermione. "Nice to know that Bill is like the rest of his tribe: can't be on time to save his life."

Bill Weasley turned out to be handsome, and in his twenties; his red hair was long, and parted in the middle. He had picked up the goblins' time-is-money outlook, so Bill and Harry spent only six sentences on small talk—

"How's Fleur doing?"

"She's fine. I quite like her."

"And the rest of the Weasleys?"

"They're fine too. I haven't told Ron that you've hired me."

—then came the haggling. After Heir Weasley, Heir Longbottom and Heiress Greengrass had exchanged formal greetings, Bill said to Harry, "Whatever this mysterious project is, if you were hiring me through Gringotts, you would be told to either pay a hundred galleons a day or to leave the bank immediately."

Daphne replied, "But after Director Ragnok and the other goblins took their cut, you would receive only forty galleons a day. Which, by an amazing coincidence, is what the Boy Who Lived offers you now: forty galleons a day. Period."

Harry said, "Though I'm unofficially promising a fifty-galleon bonus, paid at the end, if I like your work."

Hermione said to Daphne, "What did I tell you would happen? It just happened."

Daphne growled, "Harry..."

Harry's grin was pure Salazar Slytherin. "But Bill, you're going to take an Unbreakable Vow, swearing on your magic and your life—and you others will have to take the same Vow, ladies and Neville—and this Vow won't be the standard 'I promise not to tell.' In any case, not only will you be banned from telling Joe Wizard and Jane Witch about what happens here and everything you learn here, but you can't ever tell Gringotts, and you can't ever tell Molly, Ron or Ginny—without my in-person permission."

Hermione said, "And Bill, if you haven't heard, Harry and I refuse to set foot in the New Burrow ever again, so long as Ron is there."

Bill whistled. "Harry, you drive a hard bargain."

Harry still wore his sinister grin. "And before any of you can chat these particular secrets, you not only must get my in-person, spoken permission, but you must use the spell that healers and Aurors use, to obtain the Hufflepuff Magical-Signature Text of the person claiming to be me, to confirm that he is me."

Daphne said, "Merlin, Harry, this is a Slytherin-common-room level of paranoia. Especially the 'If I talk, I die' part."

"Yes it is," said Harry, "but once you find out what work we're doing here today, you'll understand why. Trust me, all four of you will want to tell your grandchildren about what we do here—and if not for your Unbreakable Vow, you would tell them, in an instant."

Bill said, "How about you make it forty galleons and a knut a day, so that I can tell the goblins I didn't accept your first offer."

"No problem," Harry said. He and Bill shook hands.

"Let's speak our Vows, then get to work," Bill said.

Harry led the other four people out the kitchen door. Just outside was a wooden box that was four feet tall by four feet long by six feet wide; the top of the box had been charmed a bright red.

Harry said to Bill, "Potter Manor has its own Quidditch pitch, over there." He pointed. "I want you to take this box to about the middle of the pitch, but not exactly the middle. I want you to put a Fidelius on the box, with you as the Secret Keeper, so that nobody else can see the box; and I want you to ward the box so that nobody can walk up to it and touch it. With me so far?"

Bill said, "Sure, but this doesn't sound like something I'll want to tell my grandkids."

"Just you watch, I'm about to get tricky. I want the wards to be effective—everyone gets stopped—but I want them harmless. I'm going to be deliberately bumping up against the wards, whilst on a broom, and I don't want the wards to hurt me or to knock me off my broom."

Hermione said, "Harry, you plan to deliberately hit the wards for this box, over and over? On a broom?"

Daphne laughed. "Harry, if this is your plan, you will prove once and for all, everything that Slytherins have ever said about Gryffindors."

Harry didn't speak at first, he merely grinned at Hermione and Daphne.

After several seconds of Harry's silent grinning, he said to Bill, "After you've finished with the wards and Fidelius charm on the box, bring my friends out to the Quidditch pitch and tell them the Secret of where the box is."

Harry then looked at Neville, Hermione and Daphne. "Your job, once you know exactly where the box is, is to test the wards. Make sure that they work but they're harmless."

Neville said, "So you want us to hit the wards for the box, over and over? Even your Slytherin wife-to-be?"

Daphne stood straight. "I can't be a Gryffindor's wife very well if I'm a coward, can I? I'll match you at testing those wards, Heir Longbottom, hit for hit."

Harry said, "I want to point out, if anyone is nervous but doesn't want to admit it, that you three will be standing on the ground during the entire wards-test. If the wards-wall pushes you back too hard and you fall down, all that'll happen to you is that you'll get a bit of dirt on your clothes."

Bill said, "I know just the ward scheme to use—something I invented to counter-prank the twins. One night, their bedroom door was open, but for some reason, they couldn't walk past the doorway." Bill grinned a George-and-Fred grin.

Neville asked, "You bumping up against Bill's wards, Harry—what are you trying to achieve with this?"

Harry grinned. "Something that everyone 'knows' is impossible. Something you'll want to tell your grandkids that you were here to see."

Later that day

Bill had moved the red-topped wooden box to the Quidditch pitch, had done his warding, and had called Hermione, Daphne and Neville to test the wards. When Harry's friends came into the manor house to tell him that everything was ready for him, all three of them were pink-cheeked and were grinning like firsties after a snowball fight.

Daphne said, "The wards-wall isn't hard like a brick wall. it has a little 'give' to it."

Neville said, "It's like squeezing a plant stalk."

Hermione said, "Or like squeezing a bicycle tyre. Anyway, surrounding your box is an invisible, inflatable cylinder that is great fun to run into! It's like bouncing on a trampoline, but sideways."

Harry said, "Let's find out how fun it is for me to bump up against the invisible, inflatable cylinder, high up on a broom."

Hermione, Neville and Daphne walked over to the Potter Manor Quidditch pitch, with Harry carrying his broom. Even as Hermione was looking directly at the red-topped box—which was set a little to the right of the two-foot-diameter circle in the centre of the oval-shaped pitch—Harry said, "I look about, and I can't see even a hint of the wards, or the box, or anything unusual. To me, the pitch looks the same as it did yesterday. Now to work."

Hermione watched Harry mount his broom, just as she had seen him do many times before, but this time he then flew low to the ground, and flew slowly. Harry's flight followed the edge of the pitch till he was at the far end of the oval's short axis.

Harry turned parallel to the oval's long axis and flew till he reached the pitch's edge (which happened almost immediately). Harry then made a tight U-turn and flew the other direction, again parallel to the oval's long axis. Every time Harry flew over the edge of the pitch, he made another tight U-turn and reversed direction, each time coming just a little closer to the four young magicals who were watching him. Except for Harry flying three feet off the ground, on a broom, his movement over the pitch reminded Hermione of her father mowing the lawn.

About ten minutes later

Hermione was holding her breath, because slow-moving Harry was coming ever closer to where she remembered that the edge of the invisible, cylindrical wards-wall was.

Indeed, the end of Harry's broomstick suddenly was pushed to his right. Harry took his left hand off the broomstick and moved that hand to the left. Abruptly his hand stopped, then shook, as Harry pressed against the invisible wall.

A minute or two later, Harry, by trial and error and much use of his outstretched left hand, had discovered the boundary of the cylindrical wards-wall.

Up till now, Harry had acted sensibly, flying only three feet off the ground; Hermione approved.

Then Harry rose ten feet. He reached out with his left hand and pressed against the invisible, inflatable wall. Hermione was nervous now, because Harry now was higher than Hermione ever willingly flew on a broom. Harry was high enough that if he fell off his broom now, he would break a bone.

Then Harry rose another ten feet.

Many minutes later

Harry was way high up.

When Harry held his left arm down and bent his wrist back, the palm of his outstretched left hand covered Potter Manor.

Harry was high enough off the ground that he could cover half of the 500-foot-long oval Quidditch pitch with his left hand, if he wished. Instead, Harry used his left hand to press against the wards-wall—

—and discovered less resistance than he had come against before.

Harry rose another ten feet and pressed against the invisible wall. This time, the wards-wall's resistance was even weaker.

Two more ten-foot rises later, and Harry's left hand reached for where he expected the invisible wall to be—and found no resistance at all.

Harry moved his broom sideways, away from the maybe-there, maybe-not wards-wall. He rotated his broom a quarter-turn counterclockwise, so that the broomstick was pointed directly towards the wards-wall. Harry slowly, cautiously moved forwards, with both hands gripping the broomstick.

When Harry was sure that he was inside the invisible cylinder, he made himself lean forward and look straight down. He saw a red rectangle almost in the middle of the Quidditch pitch's green oval. Harry now could see the wooden box that had been Fidelius-invisible to him when he had left the ground.

YES! he thought. Yes, yes, yes!

Now Harry began a controlled-speed drop, as though he were riding in an invisible elevator.

Elderly Harry, in his book-letter, had written out a list of helpful Parseltongue spells, explaining that it would be unwise for young Harry to do research in the Chamber of Secrets' library when Dumbledore would know he was there and would demand to know what he had learned. Anyway, one of the Parseltongue spells that elderly Harry had written down was "See Wards"—but this spell would work only when spoken inside the wards. Now it took Harry five tries, because he had not memorised the spell, but eventually he spoke the Parseltongue spell correctly and found himself surrounded by a cylindrical wall of green sparkles.

Harry continued his controlled descent.

Hermione was frightened for Harry. He now was so high up off the ground that he was only a speck against blue sky. Even with a cushioning charm laid on the pitch, if Harry fell off his broom, he would be doomed.

"He's getting bigger," Neville said, a minute later. "He's coming down."

"Quickly or slowly?" Daphne asked.

"Too soon to tell," Neville answered.

Whilst Hermione and the other three on the ground were trying to figure out how fast Harry was dropping, suddenly the wooden box in front of them was hit from above by a purple spell. The entire wooden box instantly changed colour to yellow.

Daphne asked, "Why is Harry hitting the box with the Colour-Change Charm?"

Bill's face had turned white. He said, "Daphne, Harry can see the box! I didn't tell him the Secret, but he can see the box!"

As if to confirm Bill's statement, another colour-change spell hit the wooden box from above; the entire box turned Chudley Cannons orange.

Minutes later, Harry gently landed on the now-avocado-green wooden box. Harry dismounted from his broom, jumped down off the box, and walked out of the cylindrical wards-wall towards his friends.

Harry grinned and sang, "Celebrate good times, come on! It's a celebration. "

Hermione muttered, "Harry, that's parents music!"

Meanwhile, Daphne had strode up to Harry. Now she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulled him close, and kissed him hard. Hermione was annoyed to notice that Harry did not merely let Daphne kiss him, but he kissed her back.

When Harry broke the kiss, Daphne turned her face to smirk at Hermione.

When finally Daphne stepped away from Harry, Hermione made her own strides up to Harry. Hermione grabbed the front of Harry's shirt with both her hands; then she snogged Harry mightily.

Bill said, "Once again, Slytherin and Gryffindor act competitively."

Neville said, "Well, we are on a Quidditch pitch."

Minutes later, in Potter Manor

Whilst five young magicals were drinking celebratory butterbeers, Harry said to Hermione, "I need you to craft a special spell for me, as quickly as you can."

What Harry wanted: When he held his wand and spoke the words of the spell, an artificial voice would speak how many feet the wand was above the ground. But the artificial voice would say the number as digits; ten feet above the ground would be "one-nothing"; eleven feet off the ground would be "one-one."

Hermione grinned, because she liked inventing spells, saying, "If you let me use the un-deadly books in the Potter library, I think I can do this. Two questions, however. When your wand is eleven feet off the ground, why don't I just have the spell say 'eleven'? And is this more important or less important than researching those five aeroplane crashes?"

Bill said in wonder, "Do you even breathe when you ask questions?"

Harry laughed. "Bill, this is nothing. I'm convinced Hermione has a third lung."

Hermione stuck out her tongue at Harry.

Harry said to Hermione, "The reason I want the numbers spoken as digits is because after you build your spell, I plan to translate it into Parseltongue, and snakes can count only to twelve. 'Twenty' is the same as 'one million' to a snake. As for researching the aeroplane crashes—I'd like you to do it within the next week, but this task isn't as important now, since I've sure I've solved the aeroplane mystery."

Hermione perked up. "Mystery?"

Daphne asked, "There's something mysterious about arrow-whatchacallits?"

"Quite mysterious," Harry said. He explained—

A day and a half ago, Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt, who was assigned to work undercover in Prime Minister Major's office, had made a throwaway remark about the prime minister offering an RAF aeroplane to fly over the Dark Lord's house and bomb it "into matchsticks."

Harry had to explain his terms to Muggle-ignorant Neville, Daphne and Bill. An aeroplane was a Muggle machine that could fly. RAF meant Royal Air Force, the branch of Muggle Great Britain's military that used military aeroplanes for war.

Harry continued, "But even as I was turning down the offer, because I thought it was a bad idea to accept any Muggle help in fighting Voldy, I was imagining Shacklebolt's suggestion: an RAF aeroplane flying over Voldy's house and dropping bombs. But then I wondered, 'Could the aeroplane even see the house? I bet Malfoy Manor is under Fidelius. And wouldn't the house's wards stop the aeroplane before the aeroplane flew directly over the house? The crash would be ghastly, because the aeroplane would be flying fast when it ran into an invisible brick wall.' "

Hermione glanced over at Bill. Bill looked worried for some reason.

Harry's voice turned sly. "But then I realised, 'Wouldn't this be happening all the time, aeroplanes in Britain flying into brick walls they couldn't see, being utterly destroyed, and Muggles couldn't explain why?' But crashes like this don't happen, I know. This led to me thinking, 'What if the wards make magical walls, but those magical walls go up only so high, and most of the time, aeroplanes fly higher than those walls and so are unbothered by them?' "

Hermione glanced over at Bill again. He looked sick. Daphne and Neville looked horrified too.

Harry resumed: "So yesterday afternoon, I went to talk to the Obliviators, about aeroplane crashes in Britain that were caused by magic. It turns out that there have been only five such crashes, which is a tiny drop in the bucket compared to how many thousands of commercial flights, military flights and private flights have happened in Britain since 1927. I suspect that those five crashes all happened soon after takeoff. Anyway, once I talked to the Obliviators and they found out what I wanted to research, they acted strangely. An Auror warned the receptionist who was helping me, 'Remember your Vow.' And all five crashes that I was given obliviation reports for, they all listed the 'Cause of Accident or Catastrophe' as the same two words, 'Code FW.' "

" 'Fidelius and wards,' " Bill said. "The aeroplane flew too close to a wizard building that the aeroplane couldn't see, because the building was under the Fidelius charm; then the wards around the building destroyed the aeroplane."

Daphne asked, "But why would the Obliviators make a big secret that five aeroplanes flew into wizarding buildings and were destroyed?"

Hermione answered, "Daphne, the secret they're hiding is not that wards destroy aeroplanes when those aeroplanes try to fly overhead. The secret they're hiding is that, except in quite unusual circumstances, the wards don't destroy aeroplanes. The magical walls go up only so high."

Harry nodded. "This is what I proved today. When I went high enough, the inflatable wards-wall wasn't there anymore, so I was able to move inside where the wards-wall should have been, but wasn't. And, once I was higher than the wards-wall, I was higher than the Fidelius charm's effects too—I could see the red-topped box. Once I dropped low enough that again I was under the power of the wards and the Fidelius charm, neither of them bothered me, because by then I was inside the wards and had already seen the Fidelius-charmed box."

Bill was staring at his bottle of butterbeer. "Merlin, I wish this were firewhisky. Every warded and supposedly-unplottable building in Wizarding Britain is defenceless against attack from above."

"True," said Harry, grinning. "But I'm not interested in knocking shingles off of the New Burrow, or Longbottom Manor or Greengrass Manor. But Voldy, in Malfoy Manor? That no-nose tosser soon is gonna be vanquished."

Harry's mischievous smile reminded Hermione of the smiles that George and Fred wore during their most diabolical plottings.