The occupants of Safe House Four, formerly known as 12 Grimmauld Place, fell into a sort of routine after that night. No matter what time Harry got home, Ron joined him in the front room with a bottle of Fred's Finest. A few times, Gabrielle and Hermione joined them and on one strange occasion, even Malfoy joined in their silent celebration of another day on the Earth.
But for the most part, it was just the two of them. On most nights, they said almost nothing and even on the few occasions that they spoke, the conversations never lasted very long.
Still, Harry appreciated those moments more than anything, especially as work at the Ministry got even more taxing. Every day, Harry started by reviewing the previous day's efforts with his Aurors before breaking the Office down into a number of teams, each of them tasked with exploring different parts of the country, searching for signs of intense magical power. The Department of Mysteries had even been kind enough (read: been told rather forcibly by the Minister himself) to provide magical sensors, small magical devices that were designed to detect spikes in magical energy. Considering the amount of power that Legion put out, Harry was hopeful that they would pan out and eventually, they would be able to locate Legion's hiding place.
At the same time, Harry continued to fight with Kingsley. Harry now understood that he had been wrong to keep the information about Legion from the public. Even if they didn't give the public every detail, Harry now firmly believed that they needed to be informed. Unfortunately, while Kingsley was just as determined to track down Legion as Harry, he was not interested in authorizing Harry or any other Ministry official from briefing the public on the threat that Legion posed.
In the end, Harry knew that it largely wouldn't matter. Harry even hoped that they would be able to capture Legion without a lot of public mess. But if things went awry (as they normally did), and Legion's presence became known to the public from any source other than the Ministry, things could turn on them all very quickly. Harry had already determined that if that did happen, he would do everything in his power to ensure that Kingsley himself was the one to fall on that particular sword.
He wanted to resign anyway. There was no reason that anyone else needed to be taken down with him.
Progress on the Arch and the ritual was slow, but steady. In the last week, Bill had already reported that they had finally broken down the runes on the Arch. That meant that all they needed to do was work out the appropriate order and the timing for activating each rune and the Arch should be fully operational once more.
The only concern they had was that the timing seemed to be essential to the operation of the Arch. If they were wrong by even a second, it could ruin the whole process and force them to start over again, time they might not have when dealing with a depowered Legion.
As for undoing the ritual that made Legion into what it was, Hermione had pulled every resource at her disposal in an effort to find a ritual that would give someone Legion-like powers. The only theory they currently had to go on was that it was likely some form of medieval Dark ritual, similar enough in nature to the body restoration ritual that Riddle used to return to his body. This meant that it was less likely to be a series of spells and more likely to be a precise series of instructions, followed to the letter to ensure that the magical circumstances all lined up in such a way to create the desired effect.
In Riddle's case, that had been restoring his body.
In Legion's, that was accessing magic at a level unknown to any other human. According to the basic information that the Department of Mysteries had provided them about Legion, there were theories that his power was the result of a massive uptick in the amount of magic that he could access at any given time. In their estimation, this was likely due to the ritual that transformed him from a man to Legion, a ritual that likely drained other magical beings of their magic, infusing Legion with a level of magical power that allowed him to access abilities otherwise inaccessible to even the most powerful of magical beings, such as Apparating beyond wards, easily reading the minds of others, and the general manipulation of magic at a level far exceeding that of a normal wizard.
Unfortunately, after weeks of searching, they were no closer to discovering the actual ritual itself, which meant that they were no closer to finding any countermeasure for it. As work on the Arch reached its final stages, progress on the ritual became the first priority and almost everyone who was living in the Safe Houses was working on it in some way, shape, or form.
Everyone except for Harry himself, who helped Hermione coordinate progress between the Houses but was so busy organizing the Aurors that he had already spent two nights in the last two weeks in his office rather than waste time going home when he would only return to his office in a few hours.
Thankfully, he was a rather gifted wizard, which allowed him to Transfigure his desk into a bed and then back again in the morning.
As the weeks passed into early November, Legion once again remained an enigma. Harry noticed that this seemed to be a pattern of some kind. It would attack and then disappear for weeks on end. At first, he had believed that this was a ploy, a way to keep Harry guessing and to force him to constantly be on edge.
But now, Harry wondered if there wasn't something else to it. Was it possible that Legion used a great deal of energy when it changed forms? Was it possible that Legion was hiding somewhere out there, weakened by the effort of its reign of terror, only resurfacing when its power had been fully restored? It was an outlandish theory, one that Harry knew had little backing in the facts that he had seen.
Yet, he still couldn't believe that Legion would choose to wait so long every time. By all accounts, Legion had Harry on the ropes already. He had nearly killed Harry and nearly killed Teddy. In the days following Harry waking up from his coma at St. Mungo's, he had been as agitated and on edge as he had ever been, reacting to the smallest noises and waking up screaming his godson's name in the middle of the night.
If Legion had really wanted to capitalize on that terror, it would have attacked right away. Instead, it had already been nearly five weeks since Legion took Teddy and there had been no sign of it anywhere. Based on that fact alone, Harry went searching for an explanation and the only one that truly seemed viable was the idea that while Legion did possess massive reserves of magic, allowing him to perform feats of magic that seemed impossible, these efforts took a great deal out of it, forcing it to hide while its reserves were restored.
If it was true, then it meant that there was a window of opportunity that they could exploit. Of course, that also meant waiting for another attack, which made it an inviable option.
These thoughts flooded Harry's mind constantly, even when he was trying to focus on his work.
"Sir?"
Harry turned up to see Abbi Edison standing in the doorway. Clearly, she had been trying to talk to him for quite some time now, especially if she had simply decided to open the door. That likely meant that she had knocked several times and Harry had not answered.
Now, she stared at him in concern, clearly worried that Harry was slipping.
"Yes?" Harry said stupidly, trying to cover for the fact that she had likely watched him stare at the wall for the last minute.
"Hermione asked me to pass a message to you," Abbi said as she dropped a small scroll onto his desk. "Apparently, there was some sort of magical explosion in Greenland."
"Greenland?" Harry asked, wondering if that was some sort of code that Harry had forgotten. When he opened the message, he saw that it was not a code. There had apparently been some sort of magical explosion in Greenland, exactly as Abbi had said.
"That's what she said," Abbi replied. "Apparently, the Danish government wants us to send a couple Aurors to check it out."
"Why us?" Harry asked. "Why not Iceland or, you know, the Danish? Why would we need to send Aurors in the first place?"
"According to Hermione, Denmark only has two Aurors assigned to Greenland and they're both on assignment back in Denmark today."
"And Iceland?"
"Today is Friday," Abbi replied simply.
"So?"
"The Icelandic Ministry of Magic is closed on Fridays."
What it must be like to run such a small Ministry that you could afford to close the Ministry any day of the week, let alone a work day. Still, Harry knew that the request from Hermione wasn't really a request.
That really only left him with one choice.
"Send Law and one of his Junior Aurors."
Abbi chuckled. "Is this a bit banal for a Senior Auror?"
"Normally, yes, but Collin spent all day yesterday bragging about his new wizarding wireless that can pick up a signal from France."
"So you are sending him to Greenland because he annoyed you?"
"He's lucky I didn't fire him," Harry said under his breath. "He'll be gone a day. Tell him and then get back to work."
Abbi chuckled at Harry's moderate abuse of power but nodded sharply and left Harry alone. Unfortunately, his solitude only lasted a few seconds. Just as the door closed, there was a knock on the other side. At the same time, Harry's magical mirror began vibrating loudly on his desk.
"Come in!" Harry shouted as he picked up the mirror and put it in front of his face. In less than a second, his image disappeared, replaced by the visage of Susan Finch-Fletchley. Just as Susan opened her mouth to speak, the door opened and Harry was face-to-face with Draco Malfoy. Malfoy stepped into the room, slammed the door behind him, and then turned back to Harry before doing the strangest thing.
He smiled.
"What the hell is the matter with you?" Harry asked, uncertain whether this face was more or less unsettling than his usual sneer.
"The Arch. It works."
Harry stood, not certain that he trusted his ears to work at the moment.
"What did you say?"
"Bill and I just tested it," Malfoy said, grinning ear to ear. "It's still as eerie as it was before. But without Legion inside of it, there are no voices."
"And you're certain it will work?" Harry questioned.
"We've thrown a number of objects into the Arch in the last hour. None of them have come back out."
The Arch was working. Whether it would contain Legion was still a matter of speculation, but the fact that Bill and Malfoy, with the assistance of nearly a dozen other people, had finally managed to get it operational again was certainly something to celebrate.
"That's amazing," Harry said, happier than he had been for quite awhile. "Tell Bill that I'll be down to see it in a moment."
"HARRY!"
At first, Harry was uncertain who had shouted his name. Then, he looked down and saw Susan looking back at him from his desk. In light of the news that the Arch had been restored, Harry had completely forgotten that Susan had called him.
"Sorry, Susan," Harry said before looking back up at Malfoy. "Give me ten minutes."
"Right, I'll see you down there," Malfoy said, still grinning like a fool as he walked out the door. Once he was gone, Harry sat down at his desk and took the mirror in his hand, euphoria still washing over him.
"Sorry about that. Now, what can I do for you?" Harry asked. Then, Harry really looked at Susan's face and noticed something. She was crying. Not only was she crying, but she looked terrified.
Immediately, the sense of joy that Harry had felt just moments earlier was swept away, replaced by something far more nefarious.
"What is it?"
Susan was doing her best to compose herself. Unfortunately, she was largely failing. When she spoke, only three words truly came out through her tears.
"...Neville…..greenhouse….gone….."
Neville.
Greenhouse.
Gone.
While it didn't take a genius to piece the meaning of those words together given the current climate, Harry wanted to be sure.
"Susan, I need you to take a deep breath and say that again."
Fighting through the tears and panic, Susan did just as Harry asked and barely managed to get out the following sentence.
"Neville missed a class. He should be in Greenhouse One. He's gone missing."
Immediately, Harry's heart sank deep into his stomach. Neville wasn't missing. He had been taken. There was no doubt in Harry's mind that this was another phase of Legion's plan to torture Harry.
"How long has he been gone?" Harry asked.
"An hour? Maybe two?" Susan replied. "Luna said that he left the safe house around seven this morning. She was working from their house when she got a letter from McGonagall asking when Neville was going to show up for work."
Immediately, Harry started moving as he spoke, throwing his jacket over his shoulders and sprinting out the door. On his way to the Apparition point, Harry momentarily stopped in Elaina's office.
"I need the entire Auror Office on standby in five minutes," Harry ordered. "Call Collin and tell him that I'm cancelling his trip to Greenland."
"He was going to Greenland?" Elaina asked.
"Yes. Now, Neville Longbottom has likely been taken by Legion. I am going on ahead to Hogsmeade. Once the Aurors are ready, I want you to bring every one of them to Hogsmeade and we'll begin searching the area."
Thankfully, Elaina immediately understood the nature of the moment. She didn't answer any other questions. She just stood and raced out of her office towards the bullpen. As Harry ran towards the Atrium, he could hear her voice echoing behind him.
"Has anyone else seen Neville?" Harry asked as he pulled the phone back up to his face. "How did you find out about it?"
"No, no one has seen him as far as I know, but I have only asked his neighbors. I was supposed to have lunch with Luna today. She had just received the letter when I walked in the door."
This wasn't a good sign. It was quite possible that Legion had been watching Neville and Luna for weeks. Legion must have guessed that Minerva would send Neville a letter relatively shortly after he missed his first lesson, a letter that would arrive at just about the same time that Susan, an Auror, would show up.
It wasn't the most diabolical of plans, but what it lacked in complexity, it made up for in efficiency. Legion knew that Susan's first call would be to Harry. Now, it was all simply a race against time. Sometime in the last two hours, Legion had taken Neville.
How long would it take Harry to find him?
"Stay with Luna. I'll be there in a minute," Harry said before ending the connection. As Harry stepped into the Apparition point, he used the mirror to contact Hermione, who answered almost immediately. Before Hermione had the chance to talk, Harry spoke up.
"Neville's been taken. Get Ron and come to Hogsmeade."
Harry immediately ended the connection as he walked up to Neville's front door. Normally, he would have been patient and polite. Today, he simply pulled the door open and marched inside to find Susan and Luna standing in the foyer. Immediately, Luna raced over to Harry, wrapping her arms around Harry.
Harry had seen many sides of Luna Lovegood over the years, but never before had he seen her like this. She was sobbing and barely able to hold herself up. Harry guided her to a couch in the closest living room, sitting her down before ordering Susan to get her a glass of water.
"You'll find him, won't you?"
"You know I will," Harry said firmly. He rarely made promises these days, because he was too afraid of breaking them. But he knew that he would rather die than break a promise to someone as pure as Luna Lovegood.
"I believe in you, Harry."
"It won't just be me, but I appreciate it," Harry said, smiling despite the horror of the situation. "Why were you here?"
"I was picking up some work to take back to the Safe House before I met Susan for lunch," Luna replied. "I was only here for twenty minutes when I got the message.
"Before you moved into the safe house, did you notice anyone loitering around the house? Anyone watching you?"
Luna thought for a moment before shaking her head confidently.
"No, I didn't see anyone. Hogsmeade is a small town. We would know if there was someone strange watching us."
Harry didn't feel like now was the appropriate time to remind her that Legion could change shape. For all they knew, Legion had already killed one of their neighbors and taken their form to watch Neville and Luna.
Again, not information he needed to share with Luna at the moment.
Just then, Hermione and Ron raced in the front door with Hermione immediately sitting down on the other side of Luna.
"The Aurors are waiting for you outside," Ron said as he stopped in front of the two of them.
"Good," Harry said before looking up at Susan. "I want a team of four Rookie Aurors in here now. Get them and take Luna back to her safe house. Lock yourselves in and you only come out when you get confirmation from me that it is safe. If you do not hear from me by five this afternoon, then you take Luna and you go to the Ministry itself."
"You got it, sir," Susan said before running out of the house. Once she was gone, Harry turned back to Luna.
"Luna, I'm going to get him back," Harry said defiantly. "He's already taken Andromeda. He's not taking Neville."
"Please, just bring him back safe."
"You have my word," Harry replied just as Susan and four Rookies came running in the door. "They're going to take care of you."
"Come with us, Luna," Susan said as she took Luna by the arm, pulling her to her feet. Luna managed to keep herself upright long enough to get moving towards the door.
As Susan escorted Luna out of the room, Harry stood and motioned for Ron and Hermione to follow him. Once he was outside, he saw that the rest of the Aurors had lined up in front of Neville's house, waiting for orders.
"We believe that Neville Longbottom has been taken by Legion at some point in the last two hours," Harry barked. "I'm placing Hogwarts and Hogsmeade on a lockdown. Abbigail, I want you and your team to search the town. Make sure everyone stays inside their house until I lift the lockdown."
"Collin, your team will be in charge of searching the school. Take half the Rookie Aurors with you. Search the place top to bottom. I highly doubt that Legion would take him there but you never know."
"Morgan, Paul, Elaina, and the rest of the Rookie Aurors, you are with me. We're scanning the grounds, the greenhouses. If you see anything that even remotely looks like it could be a clue where or when Neville Longbottom was taken, you send up green sparks. If you are attacked, red. Are we all clear on our orders?"
All at once, the Aurors shouted in unison.
"Yes, sir!"
"Then move!" Harry barked.
All at once, the entire Auror Office mobilized with each team sprinting to where it needed to go to begin its duties. As he had said, Harry, along with Ron and Hermione, marched towards the grounds of the school. If there was anywhere that they were likely to find a clue, it would be there.
Based on the fact that Minerva sent Neville a letter, Neville had never made it to breakfast, which meant that he likely disappeared somewhere between his home and the school.
"What happens if we find out that he's fine?" Hermione asked. "What if he just fell asleep in the Greenhouse or something?"
"Do you honestly think that's what happened?" Ron asked.
"No, but if we mobilize the entire Auror Office because Neville didn't show up for one class, then-"
"Then I will be sure that someone who has been threatened by Legion is safe," Harry countered as they reached the edge of the Hogwarts grounds. "That's my job: ensure public safety. If the public has a problem with the way I reacted, then they can go jump off a bridge."
And that put that matter firmly to rest.
Just as the Trio reached the entrance to the school, the doors opened to reveal none other than Minerva McGonagall, who looked as if she was ready to murder someone, with a cadre of professors behind her.. Unfortunately, that look didn't change when she locked eyes with Harry.
"Mr. Potter, I certainly hope you have a good explanation for why I have a team of Aurors racing about the halls of my school," McGonagall snapped in a tone that very much made Harry feel like he was eleven years old again. In the ten years since Harry had been Minerva McGonagall's student, Harry had been yelled at by Head Aurors, Department Heads, and, on one notable occasion, the Minister of Magic himself. Still, none of them managed to put Harry in his place quite as well as his former Head of House.
Thankfully, Harry was prepared for McGonagall's barbed tone and matched it with his own.
"Headmistress, you are aware that Neville didn't show up for his class. I believe that he was taken by Legion."
Immediately, McGonagall's demeanor changed, dropping any edge that might have carried. Now, only concern crossed her face.
"What can we do?" McGonagall asked desperately.
"My Aurors will keep your students safe. I need as many professors as you can spare to help search the grounds. They know the land better than anyone."
"Of course," McGonagall said before turning back to Professor Bell. "Get Hagrid."
Immediately, the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor went sprinting off in the direction of Hagrid's Hut while the rest of them took direction from McGonagall and then from Harry himself, organizing them to search every inch of the grounds. Harry highly doubted that there would be much to find, unless Legion very much wanted them to find it. Still, the more people that were out looking for a potential clue, the more likely they were to come across it.
For nearly four hours, the Professors of Hogwarts combined with the Aurors of the Ministry of Magic to search for any clue, anything that could lead them to Neville Longbottom. Unfortunately, there was nothing to be found. The grounds were massive, but not so large that they couldn't be walked in a reasonable amount of time and with nearly fifty people walking them, every inch could be covered with ease, meaning that any clue should have turned up.
But by the time the last group of professors came back from the gates, the furthest location on the grounds from the castle, with nothing to show for their efforts, hope quickly began to dwindle and fear spread rapidly in its place. For the professors of the school, not only had one of their own been taken, but likely from school grounds. For years, the adage had been that there was no safer place than Hogwarts. While Harry had never personally experienced any consistent level of safety while in the castle (although that likely had more to do with Harry than the castle), others still believed it to be a refuge for the dangers of the outside world.
In fact, in the entire history of the castle, there had only been two instances of true, castle-wide danger, The Battle of the Lightning-Struck Tower and The Battle of Hogwarts. Only the two times that the Chambers of Secrets had been opened rivaled those days. For a castle that had stood for over a thousand years across hundreds of different political systems and revolutions, Hogwarts had a record of protecting its inhabitants.
It was made worse by the fact that for the students of Hogwarts, this was the first time something like this had ever happened to them. Even the seventh years were only seven years old when something of this magnitude happened. To them, The Battle of Hogwarts was a story that their parents told.
At the same time, most of the professors had been at the Battle of Hogwarts. They thought that the days of Hogwarts being threatened by monsters was finally over.
"There's got to be something we missed," Harry barked as he paced back and forth in the Entrance Hall of Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. Hermione and Ron stood on either side of his path while McGonagall and Filius Flitwick stood at either end of the line that Harry was tracing into the floor.
"Mate, we had people scour every bit of the castle, Hogsmeade, and the grounds," Ron countered. "I don't know where else we could have possibly looked."
"We even checked the Forest as well as we could," Hermione added. "But once you get inside the Forest, there's simply too much for any amount of people to search. We could get every person at the Ministry out here and it would still take us days to search it."
"Days we don't have," Harry whispered to himself, doing his best to bury the fear that he felt rising in his chest. "Are we certain that we checked everywhere? The Quidditch Pitch? The Willow? Everywhere?"
"Mr. Potter, I sent two Professors into the Shrieking Shack," McGonagall replied. "We have searched everywhere. You said that when this Legion took Teddy Lupin, he sent you a letter."
"It sent me a letter, yes," Harry grunted. "I doubt that it's going to go with that same trick again."
Harry strongly believed that in order to get Neville back, he was going to have to truly outhink Legion this time. There would be no hints, no timer. At any given moment, once Legion had truly had its fill of torturing Neville, it would kill the Herbology professor without warning. Of course, it desperately wanted Harry to find Neville. It wanted to put on another performance before trying to kill one of Harry's friends.
But it would be perfectly satisfied if Harry never found Neville. Hell, that might even be preferable. It would force Harry to wonder about what kind of horror Neville had experienced before he died. Maybe Neville wasn't even dead? Maybe Harry would give up and Neville would be kept in some dungeon in one of the holes that Legion hid in, allowing him to feed off Neville's fear until Neville's body finally gave out.
"Harry?"
Harry turned around to see Hermione, who stood in the middle of the empty hall, a familiar look on her face: she had found a thread to pull.
"What?"
"When was the first time you had been to Neville's house?" Hermione asked.
"Uh...my birthday?" Harry responded in bewilderment. "Why?"
"Well, much of Legion's planning seems to be based around the memories that he stole from you. But he stole those memories months ago. He doesn't have some sort of constant surveillance on you, does he?"
"No, he doesn't," Harry replied, still uncertain why Hermione was mentioning this.
"So Legion only knew that Neville lived in Hogsmeade, but it wouldn't know which house, right?"
"Hermione, he wasn't even staying in Hogsmeade."
"No, but he was Apparating to his house and then going to the school," Hermione explained. "I suppose it is possible that Legion watched Neville come home. Still, that would be at least moderately difficult because the greenhouses are out in the middle of the grounds. Neville would clearly notice if someone was watching him."
"Legion can't turn invisible, can it?" Ron asked.
"Not as far as we know," Harry replied, interested to see where Hermione's train of thought was taking her. "Not anymore than any of us anyway."
"Then wouldn't it just be easier to take him from the greenhouses?"
Immediately, Harry realized that Ron was onto something. That was it. That had to be it. They had spent all of their time assuming that Neville had been taken on his way to the greenhouses. But no one even bothered to think that Neville may have been taken from the greenhouse itself.
"Professor, did anyone check the greenhouses?" Harry asked as he started to walk towards the front gate.
"I believe that a couple of Aurors went through it and said that they didn't notice anything out of place."
Of course they wouldn't. While it had been a nice thought that having dozens of people scanning the grounds was going to be helpful, the truth was that the hint was likely only going to be identified by Harry himself. It was going to be something small, a breadcrumb that would lead him to the next clue, much like the hair had been for Teddy.
Harry sprinted out of the front of the castle, Ron and Hermione hot on his heels, as he raced down the sloping grass towards the greenhouses. Neville's office was actually in the back of Greenhouse One, the larger and safer of the two greenhouses at Hogwarts.
That would be the first place that Harry searched. As he reached the door, he pulled and nothing happened. The door didn't even bother moving even the smallest amount. Harry drew his wand and whipped it across the door, searching for wards. However, before Harry could even begin processing the wards, McGonagall shoved him out of the way and with three quick stabs of her wands, the wards fell.
With the wards gone, Harry ripped the door open and raced inside, his eyes immediately darting from left to right. Surprisingly, Neville's office was relatively normal. Harry had expected to see large plants or some kind of magical flora. Instead, he saw a normal office with some small flowers planted in small window planters.
Other than that, it was your standard office, looking remarkably similar to the ones inside the castle, especially when you considered that on the other side of the far wall was a greenhouse.
"Look around. Tell me if you see anything out of the ordinary."
Harry immediately went to the desk and began tearing drawers open. He searched through file after file, finding nothing that looked like a letter from Legion, although Harry had expected that. The next drawer contained a small bottle of firewhiskey and two glasses, suggesting that Neville drank a bit while at work, but gave no hints to Neville's location.
Harry was in the process of opening another drawer when he heard Ron gasp behind him. Turning around, Harry saw Ron pull a small stone out of the corner of one of the bookshelves. But this was no ordinary stone. It was small, black as night, and had a triangle with a line and a circle etched in the center of it: the sign of the Deathly Hallow.
"Harry, it's…"
"It's the Resurrection Stone," Harry said as he took the Stone from Ron. It had been just over ten years since Harry had last seen the stone. Just before he entered the clearing to confront Riddle, he had let it slip out of his hand. Now, it sat in his hand once more, completely clean.
Meaning that someone had found it and cleaned it off before intentionally putting it in Neville's office.
That someone, of course, being Legion.
"I need everyone but Hermione and Ron out of the room," Harry muttered, his eyes still fixed on the Stone.
As expected, McGonagall did not take that well.
"Excuse me, Mr. Potter?" McGonagall replied, stepping in front of Harry.
Harry, for his part, didn't bat an eye.
"I need to speak with Hermione and Ron, Professor. I'm asking you and your professors to clear the room."
"Need I remind you, Potter, that this is my school and it is my professor that has been taken-"
"And I'm telling you to leave," Harry replied coldly. "Headmistress, know that I have more respect for you than arguably anyone else on this planet. That being said, I have a job to do and unfortunately for you, Head Auror outranks Headmistress, even at Hogwarts."
McGonagall's mouth hung open, clearly shocked at Harry pulling rank on her. For a moment, she stood there, mouth agape, uncertain how to proceed. Then, she closed her mouth and composed herself, her hands folding into the sleeves of her robes. Harry didn't think he had ever seen her look more cross than she was currently.
Of course, none of her former students had ever put her in her place quite so indelicately before.
"Very well, Head Auror Potter. My professors and I will give you room to do your work. We will wait outside."
Harry breathed a sigh of relief. The last thing he wanted was a war with Minerva McGonagall in the middle of all this.
"Thank you, Headmistress. I appreciate it and I will do everything in my power to find Neville."
"See that you do."
With that, McGonagall turned on her heel and pointed for the other professors to leave. McGonagall was the last one out the door and when it closed, it slammed with all the force that Minerva McGonagall could muster.
"Merlin, Harry, I thought she was going to murder you on the spot," Ron said, slightly in awe of the performance that Harry had just put on.
"You're going to have to apologize to her once all of this is over," Hermione commented.
"I won't have to," Harry replied. "I will, but she understands. She doesn't like it and it's rare that someone can ever truly be in a position to supersede her, but she understands."
"You'll do it anyway," Hermione said and Harry noted that it was more of a command than a request.
"Yes, ma'am," Harry replied before holding the Stone up. "I know where Neville is."
"Didn't you drop that in the Forest?" Ron asked.
"He did," Hermione said, a look of concern crossing her face quickly. "Are you sure?"
"There's no other place it could be. We have to go there."
Ron, who had done an amazing job of keeping up with everything thus far, finally reverted to type as he looked at Harry and Hermione in confusion.
"I dropped it right before I faced Riddle. Before he hit me with the Killing Curse."
That cleared Ron's confusion up rather quickly.
"Oh, right," Ron said. He opened his mouth to say something else, but apparently couldn't find something else to say and instead opted to shrug sheepishly.
"Listen, I know that I'm not talking either of you out of coming with me," Harry said. "I know that no matter what I do, you'll figure out a way to follow me."
"What else is new?" Ron replied. "We've been following you into stupid situations for twenty years. Why stop now?"
Despite the weight of the situation, Harry couldn't help but smile. That was something that Ron would have said until the end of July when their relationship had come crashing to the ground. To hear something like that come from him now meant quite a lot. It meant that the work that Harry had put into rebuilding his relationship with Ron was working.
"In any case," Harry pressed on, fighting through a small fit of laughter in response to Ron's comment, "I am not going to stop either of you, but I am going to keep anyone else from entering the area. I'm telling them that I got a message that Legion wants to see the three of us. The Aurors will follow and create a perimeter, nothing more."
"You honestly think that they'll do that?" Ron asked.
Harry opened his mouth to answer, but Hermione spoke in his place.
"The Aurors will follow Harry. There are a lot of things that I doubt right now, but Harry's ability to inspire faith and trust in others is not one of them."
Harry smiled at Hermione for the comment. Harry's answer likely would have satisfied Ron, but it was nice hearing that kind of faith from someone else. First, it made Harry appear arrogant. Second, it came from Hermione, which always made it better.
"Blimey, yes, I know the two of you are dating now," Ron said, rolling his eyes. "It doesn't mean that you get to be gross in public now."
"We're not in public," Harry replied. "It's just the three of us."
"That's one too many people for me," Ron replied.
Both Harry and Hermione laughed nervously at that before noticing the small smile on Ron's face, letting them know that he was, in fact, joking. Relieved, Harry opened the door to the office and walked out. He was not at all surprised that almost all of the Aurors and Professors, outside of those assigned to protect the students, were standing outside the office door, waiting for news.
Harry subtly drew his wand and stuck it behind his back, conjuring an envelope in his other hand, an envelope that he immediately held in the air.
"Legion left me another letter," Harry announced. "He wants to speak with myself, Hermione, and Ron in the Forest. No one else is permitted to be in the area. Hogwarts staff, if you can please return to the school and await further instruction. Aurors, you'll form a perimeter around the area at my direction. Not a single one of you steps closer than I tell you."
Harry turned to walk towards the Forest when he felt a hand on his arm. Turning around, he saw McGonagall facing him, a strange look on her face.
"He didn't leave you a letter, Harry," McGonagall said knowingly. "He left you that stone."
Thankfully, in all the commotion, no one seemed to notice the two of them speaking. Harry looked around to confirm that no one had heard her. When he was satisfied that no one was looking, he turned back to the Headmistress.
"Stone turned into a letter, just like Teddy's hair," Harry replied flippantly, holding the envelope up. McGonagall instantly grabbed the envelope out of Harry's hand and immediately noticed that it was sealed shut. She paused for a moment, clearly considering what to do, before gently lowering the envelope back into Harry's hand.
"Why is it always you three?" McGonagall asked softly, clearly understanding what they were doing.
"Unfortunately, Professor, I believe that my friend here answered that question about twelve years ago," Harry replied, tilting his head towards Ron as he spoke. "Get the professors back to the castle, Professor. We'll take it from here."
McGonagall reached up and gently placed a hand on Harry's cheek. Harry had never known the love of a grandmother, but for a moment, he could just imagine what it would be like.
He imagined it would be something like this.
"We couldn't be in better hands."
With that, McGonagall dropped her hand down to Harry's shoulder, grabbing it firmly before releasing him. Without wasting a moment, she turned on her heel and strode back to the school, shouting for her professors to follow her.
She never looked back the whole way up to the castle.
Once she was far enough away, Harry turned back to Ron and Hermione.
"You ready?" Harry asked the two of them.
"Yes," Hermione replied.
"As I'll ever be," Ron added.
Their answers were exactly what he would have expected from either of them. Harry immediately sought out his Senior Aurors, giving each of them exact orders for how far into the Forest their teams were supposed to go before threatening each of them with immediate termination if they deviated by those orders by more than a foot.
Once he was certain that they understood his order, Harry, Ron, and Hermione marched into the Forest. For several minutes, they walked in silence, Harry in between Ron and Hermione. Harry didn't know what was going on in the minds of his oldest friends, but for Harry, the closer they got to their destination, the more his heart pounded.
There were plenty of places in the world that Harry didn't want to visit for a second time. Malfoy Manor had been on that list up until a few months ago as had The Riddle House. If he never had to go to The Chamber of Secrets again, it would be too soon and he really wished that he never had to return to The Department of Mysteries after they defeated Legion and after all these years, Harry had never again visited the Astronomy Tower.
But if there was one place that Harry had truly never wanted to visit again, it was the small grove deep in the Forbidden Forest.
The place where he thought he was going to die.
From the moment that Harry had fallen out of the Penseive until he had seen that green flash of light, Harry had been gripped by fear. Even if he had pushed his way through it, helped by his father's Invisibility Cloak, that fear had still been there, pounding in his chest, the same way that it was pounding now.
He had been afraid. There was no doubt of that. He knew that his death was essential. He knew that there was no way around it and that one final death would serve to finally destabilize everything that Riddle had fought so long to gain.
Now, ten years later, he walked the same path and that same fear gripped him. Still, as Harry had done dozens of times before, he pressed on, knowing that if he did not, then no one else would.
And even if they would, it didn't matter to Legion. It would simply keep coming after Harry long after Harry had given up.
Whether it was her own fear or if she sensed Harry's trepidation, Hermione reached out and gently took Harry's hand. Even just the slightest touch made Harry feel better, made him feel less alone. In response, Harry took his other hand and held it out to Ron.
Ron, seeing the hand, stopped walking, his eyes locked onto the hand.
"You should have told me about your relationship years ago," Ron said, finally looking up at Harry.
"I know...We know," Harry replied.
"I don't mean for me," Ron countered. "Yes, I'm still mad that you lied to me. But I can't believe that the two of you wasted so many good years with each other because you were worried about what I would think."
Ron reached out and took Harry's hand and then with his other grabbed Hermione's.
"I don't know if the two of you want to get married or if you want to have kids or whatever. To be honest, that's none of my business. Just be with each other. Proudly. Publicly. Stop hiding behind excuses. You're not too famous and you're not too important to love each other. You're just making excuses and I'm fucking tired of excuses. I've had enough excuses to last me a lifetime."
To hear Ron speak bluntly was not a surprise to either of them. But to hear Ron to succinctly support them moving forward, it was not something that he ever expected Ron to say, even years from now if things went back to normal.
Well, whatever normal meant for the three of them.
Ron smiled at the two of them and then released Hermione's hand.
"Let's go," Ron said, leading them onward into the forest, hand in hand with Harry, who walked hand in hand with both of them. And so the trio marched onward, led by the one that everyone, even Harry and Hermione themselves, had always underestimated. Just like the last time Harry had walked this path, he had others to guide him, to support him.
They held onto each other all the way up until they reached the edge of the clearing. Immediately, Harry knew that they had arrived at the place.
"I've been here before," Ron whispered before turning to Harry. "This was Aragog's lair."
"It was," Harry said as he finally let go of Hermione and Ron and then stepped into the clearing. "After Aragog died, it lay empty for the next year until Riddle took shelter here during the Battle."
"It's why the Acromantulas attacked," Hermione said. "He forced them from their home."
In the ten years since Harry's sacrifice at this exact spot, the Forest had reclaimed it with grass finally regrowing on the ground and vines taking control of the trees in the area. While no new trees had grown, it looked as if the Forest had reclaimed the area.
All except for a single spot.
Almost exactly in the middle of the clearing was a spot where nothing grew, a spot that was dead and lifeless. Even the dirt there was black and foul.
"Is that…"
"Yes, that is where the magnificent Harry Potter laid down his life to save the world."
Immediately, the air chilled and Harry was suddenly frozen in place as Legion, still using the image of Andromeda Tonks, drifted into view. Clearly, it had been waiting somewhere in the woods, watching them as they approached.
However, that was not the only thing that appeared. Just as Legion appeared, a form appeared on a tree near them, his arms strapped to the branches that were attached to the trunk at odd angles. That alone looked painful and the cuts and bruises that covered his nearly naked body told Harry that simply being strapped to a tree was not all that Neville had endured over the last several hours.
"The Boy Who Lived and The Boy Who Could Have Been," Legion mused as it stepped in front of Neville, its eyes at the level of Neville's feet. "Did you know that, Neville Longbottom?"
Neville was barely awake, but there was clearly confusion in his eyes as he looked from Legion to Harry and then back to Legion.
"You never told the poor boy?" Legion said mockingly. "You never told him how if Lord Voldemort had valued him a bit more, then it might have been him who was the Boy Who Lived? You see, Neville Longbottom, the prophecy that was made prior to your birth, the one that set the entire events of Harry Potter's life and, in turn, the events of your life in motion didn't explicitly state that Harry Potter was the Chosen One."
"Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies. That's what it said. Voldemort took it to mean Harry Potter, who was a halfblood like himself. But that applies to you, too, doesn't it, Neville Longbottom?"
Harry found that he was suddenly able to move and instantly attempted to fire a curse that Legion. However, before he could fire off the Killing Curse and grab Neville, he was frozen once again.
"I've learned, Harry Potter, from my previous mistakes. You see, I realized that it took you quite some time to free yourself the last time. So, I'll release you and freeze you again and again. You'll never be frozen long enough to get free and never free long enough to do any harm to me."
Legion's awful frozen smile lingered on Harry for just a moment before turning back to Neville.
"That could be you down there, Neville Longbottom. You could have been the famous orphan with famous friends. One choice, one unconscious decision, changed everything for you two. Instead, you are exactly what you have always been: second best. You loved Hermione Granger for most of your life. Who did she choose? Harry Potter. You loved Ginny Weasley before her. Who did she choose? Harry Potter. You even fear that your Luna would give you up if she knew that she had a chance with Harry Potter."
"And who could blame her?" Legion said, throwing its hand out towards Neville, causing Neville to scream in agony. "You are a decent enough looking man, an average wizard. For most, you would be quite satisfactory. But you are nothing compared to the legend of Harry Potter."
Finally, Legion looked back to Harry.
"And Harry Potter is just a man, which makes you less than a man."
Suddenly, Neville flew across the clearing, landing at Harry's feet with a grunt. Just as Neville landed, Harry felt himself go free again. Desperately, Harry aimed at Legion before being frozen yet again.
"You really are nothing more than a blunt instrument, aren't you, Harry Potter?" Legion mocked as it sauntered towards him. "I already told you that you wouldn't be able to curse me and yet you try the exact same thing again with the same results. I believe, Mr. Potter, that is the definition of insanity."
"I'm not the insane one," Harry grunted, desperately trying to force the magic in his body into his hand. Unfortunately, it was simply not efficient enough to do it as quickly as Harry needed.
"I'm not insane, Harry Potter. I may appear that way to you, but that's because playing an entirely different game. I am a giant in a world of ants and in that world, there is no reason for me to be concerned with the lives of the ants."
"But I do find myself in need of the ants to sustain myself. So, I'm going to give you a choice, Harry Potter."
Again, Harry found himself free but Legion reached up and grabbed Harry's arm, which immediately caused Harry's entire body to feel as if it had been plunged into the depths of the Black Lake in the middle of winter.
"Here's the deal, Harry Potter: kill Neville Longbottom and the three of you walk free. Refuse and I kill Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley. Attempt to kill me and I kill all three of them."
With that, Legion simply let Harry go. As Harry stood over Neville, Legion retreated to the edge of the clearing and sat upon a rotting trunk, watching Harry with a vicious smile.
Harry looked down at Neville, who was frozen in place at his knees. Neville was at his mercy, thanks to Legion. All Harry had to do was fire the curse and Harry, Ron, and Hermione would walk out of the Forest alive. Legion had never lied to Harry. Everything that it had said it would do, it had done. He had no doubt that if he murdered Nevile Longbottom, his classmate and one of his oldest friends, in cold blood, then his partner and his best friend would walk out of the Forest, alongside Harry, unharmed.
For a moment, the thought crossed Harry's mind and it immediately made Harry want to vomit. While Ron and Hermione remained frozen, he knew that they would never want him to do something like that. This was all a game to Legion, a game that was impossible for Harry to win.
So Harry did the one thing he could do.
"I refuse," Harry said as he threw his wand at his feet.
Of all the things that Harry could have done, Legion had clearly not anticipated this option. Immediately, it stood and the smile disappeared from its awful face.
"You can't refuse," it said as it marched towards Harry. "Kill the spare or your closest friends will die."
"You're bluffing," Harry replied, ignoring Legion's attempt to invoke Harry's memories of Riddle's transformation. "If you kill Ron and Hermione now, then the game is over for you. There's nothing left for me."
"Nothing left?" Legion growled angrily. "If I kill a million Muggles in your name, that would be nothing? What if I found and killed your godson this time? Or even his temporary guardians, Molly and Arthur Weasley?"
"You think that you are strong, Harry Potter, but you are made weak by the very nature of who you are. You care. You care so much about so many people. So many points of weakness. You even care about those people that you've never met. I found myself a perfect target, Harry Potter. I could kill everyone on Earth and each of those deaths would weigh on your soul like they were your family."
"But they wouldn't be my family," Harry snapped back. "You kill Ron and Hermione and you may as well kill me now, because you'll never get me to go any lower than that."
"Well, let's see about that."
Suddenly, Hermione flew across the clearing, slamming into the tree where Neville had previously been suspended, crying out in pain as he hit the three. Harry moved to raise his wand, only to forget that he had dropped it.
In the time it took for Harry to reach down and grab his wand, Legion froze him again.
"Now, kill Neville Longbottom or I will remove her head."
Harry could feel the rage radiating off of Legion. For the first time, it seemed like Legion was something more than just an entity. It seemed real, like it truly had feelings, emotion.
And it was furious.
Harry looked up at Hermione, whose arms were stretched too far back to the point where they might almost break, and then back down at Neville. Just as Harry looked down, both Harry and Neville were unfrozen, allowing Harry to move and Neville to drop to the ground.
"Do it, Potter. Take the life of your friend to save her."
That's when Neville finally spoke up.
"Do it, Harry."
Harry froze, not because Legion had forced him, but because that was the last thing that he had ever expected to come out of the mouth of Neville Longbottom. Neville, the one who had inspired them all to fight at the Battle of Hogwarts, even when the battle was lost. Neville, who had always been the sign of optimism and hope that Harry could never have been.
Neville Longbottom, the true hero of the Battle of Hogwarts, was lying in the middle of the Forbidden Forest, telling Harry Potter to kill him to save Hermione Granger.
"Neville, I can't," Harry said, his wand shaking as tears began to cloud his vision. He looked down at Neville and back to Hermione. Back and forth he looked and he did nothing. How could he? He loved Hermione more than life itself, but he knew that she would be furious if he sacrificed Neville for her.
But Neville, who looked at him not with anger, but with pity, would certainly feel the same way. He knew how Harry felt about Hermione. He, just like everyone, knew that Hermione was the person in the world who made him feel right. How could he not kill Neville if it meant saving her?
"Time is wasting, Potter. Do it now."
The last word came from Legion's mouth. It was that same voice, or voices rather. The voices of every person that he had ever taken magic from. It sounded like a thousand voices in agony, all of them experiencing the end of their lives as their magic was drained from their very body, their soul disappearing along with it into this monster.
"Do it, Harry," Neville said as he climbed up onto one knee. Harry's wand was aimed at Neville's head. Even in his emotional state, Harry was a powerful wizard. It would take only the slightest amount of effort to kill Neville. He didn't even need to use the Killing Curse to do it. While that would have been cleaner, Harry knew a dozen different ways to kill someone without it.
Harry's wand twitched just a bit, but before Harry could pull it back further, something unexpected happened. Neville reached out and grabbed the wand from Harry, rolling onto his back and fired.
"Stupefy!"
Unfortunately, not only did Neville not have the power to cast a Stunner powerful enough to knock Legion out, his spell missed Legion entirely, floating several inches over his head. Still, it was enough to infuriate Legion, who reached out and with a single flick of his right index finger, removed Neville's left arm at the elbow.
Instantly, blood spurted everywhere, covering Neville, Harry, and Legion in the warm liquid as Neville cried out in pain. He dropped to the ground and attempted to stem the bleeding with his robes, but was frozen in place by Legion. Within moments, the flow of blood began to slow and Neville slipped into unconsciousness.
At the same time, Legion reached out and grabbed both Hermione and Ron, dragging them towards him so that they floated on either side of him.
"You've condemned Neville Longbottom to death, Harry Potter, because you were too weak to make one decision," Legion said, its awful voice bouncing off the trees. "Now, two people will die today instead of one. You will make a decision, Harry Potter: Ronald Weasley or Hermione Granger?"
"Put them down!" Harry pleaded, knowing that it would do no good.
"This is your doing. I gave you a chance to save two of them. Now, choose!"
Harry's worst nightmare was playing out in front of his very eyes. How many times had he worried about this very thing? His inability to take a life causing the death of the ones that he loved?
Now, Hermione and Ron's lives were at stake and Harry saw no way of fixing it.
"Harry, do it!" Hermione pleaded with her eyes closed. "It's okay. You can do it."
Harry attempted to raise his wand, but only managed to get it halfway up before he lowered it again. He couldn't do it. He knew that there was never a chance that he would kill her.
"It's okay, Harry."
Ron had never sounded so calm in his entire life. Looking up through the tears that were pouring down his face, Harry's eyes met Ron's.
"You know what choice you have to make," Ron said, smiling sadly at him. "You're the one who specializes at making hard choices. Now, do it. It'll be okay."
"Ron...I can't…"
"Yes, you can," Ron said, fighting back tears as he spoke. "Yes, you can, because you are the strongest person that I know. You always have been."
"I wasn't strong. I lied to you for years," Harry cried.
"We all make mistakes, Harry. All we can do is learn from them," Ron replied. "Listen, The world needs you and the world needs her."
"We need you."
"And you'll always have me. But ever since you were eleven years old, you've always been the one to make the sacrifice. When it came time for someone to give something up, you were always the first one in line. You've sacrificed enough, Harry. Now, it's my turn."
"I can't."
Ron, who had apparently been released from his bond, reached down and shook Harry.
"Yes, you can! You do this and then you stop Legion."
"I grow tired of waiting, Potter," Legion barked. "Make your choice!"
Harry looked up at Ron who nodded at him. Harry, who felt as if he had the world suspended on his arm, slowly raised his wand until it was level with Ron's eyes.
"Do your worst, Potter," Ron said, a sly grin on his face.
If Ron had remained silent, there was a chance, albeit a small one, that Harry may have actually been able to go through with it. But that one comment, the kind of thing that only someone as brash and as brave as Ronald Weasley would say when quite literally looking death in the face, broke him.
His fingers lost any sensation and his wand slipped from his hand as he collapsed to the ground. He didn't know what else to do. He just knew that he couldn't kill his best friend for his other best friend. Hermione was the most important person in his life, but even for her, he couldn't kill his best friend.
"You lack the will to be the man that the world believes you to be," Legion said, mocking Harry as he circled behind him. "You thought that you were strong because you defeated Voldemort. He was a simpleton, a blunt force object. Too foolish to see the countless mistakes that he made and too confident in himself to change his tactics when they failed."
"I am not the same, Harry Potter. I know you better than you know yourself."
Suddenly, Legion stepped out from behind Harry, his hand held up towards Hermione.
"I know your mind. I know how much you love her. And I know how much it will kill you to watch her die, knowing that you could have stopped it."
Legion pulled his hand back, clearly readying to attack Hermione. Harry desperately tried to reach out, tried to stop him, but he was too slow. However, at the same time, Ron, freed from the irate Legion, took a step to his right, blocking Legion's path to Hermione.
Just as Legion's hand thrust forward, Ron's chest burst open, spraying blood and bone over Legion and Harry.
"NOOOO!" Harry cried, throwing himself towards Ron, the weight in his body suddenly gone as he caught Ron's body before it hit the ground. As Harry sank to the ground, he noticed the massive hole in the center of Ron's chest. It was pulsating, spraying blood everywhere, as Ron's face quickly lost any color.
"Harry…" Ron whispered, blood spraying from his mouth as he spoke.
"Be quiet, Ron," Harry said as he reached over and grabbed his wand. Harry was no Healer and his grasp of Healing spells was rudimentary at best, but he was not about to let Ron die. On the other side of him, Hermione sprinted to Neville, who had passed out on the ground, hoping to stop the bleeding.
Meanwhile, Legion stood over all them, a smile on his face, clearly pleased with the carnage he had wrought.
"Your weakness is the reason they are dead, Harry Potter. You are the reason they are dead. If only you had been stronger…"
With that, Legion disappeared, leaving Harry and Hermione holding Ron and Neville respectively.
"How is he doing?" Harry asked Hermione over his shoulder.
"...he's gone," Hermione replied, fighting back tears, as Harry began casting healing charms over the wound in Ron's chest. However, nothing he could do would slow down the bleeding enough to truly heal it.
"...it's...okay…." Ron whispered softly, his eyes already slipping out of focus, as he reached up and grabbed Harry's hand, preventing him from casting any further spells.
"Ron, I can heal you," Harry cried, his hands shaking as he tried to pull away. Despite the fact that Ron was clearly slipping away, his grip was strong.
"Not….your fault…."
"Yes, it is," Harry said, taking Ron's hands in his. "Yes, it is."
"Legion…..fault…..only Legion…." Ron said, the breaks in his voice explained by the air rapidly escaping his chest and the blood in his mouth. As he spoke, his eyes fluttered open and shut rapidly, the blood loss already taking him. "...Get him…..then...be…...happy…..toge-"
Ron's final word was cut off as one last breath slipped from his mouth. Then, his head rolled backwards before rotating towards Harry so that his eyes, still open, stared at Harry.
"No," Harry sobbed softly as he pulled Ron's still body up to him, holding him close, embracing the first friend that he had ever made for the last time. Hermione wrapped her arms around the both of them, her own sobs shaking Harry's body.
Ron Weasley was dead. He was dead and, no matter what Ron said, Harry knew that it was his fault.
