The next few days were peaceful at Hogwarts. but rather eventful in the British magical community. Harry's statement had more than a little to do with the chaos.

He framed the discovery of the ritual space as innocently stumbling into a malevolent plot to sacrifice students with muggle parents. With all the subtlety and grace of one with much more political experience, he blamed Dumbledore for covering up the Death Eater activity and suggested Fudge's incompetence was part of the problem.

Fudge found himself unemployed that afternoon. Dumbledore's reputation bought him a hearing and his deep pockets would buy him a trip through the veil rather than to Azkaban. The veil used in the ritual, Harry found out, had been taken from Egypt, though no one knew how. The veil could not be touched magically or physically without consequences.

With Harry's support, and the whisper campaign he'd begun years ago to rally supporters with common folk, Amelia Bones became Minister of Magic in the smoothest surprise election to date. Harry had brought Hermione with him to the election and while she couldn't vote, she found the process fascinating. Each head of house voted on their house's behalf. Those votes counted for more than the votes common magicals could submit from wherever they were in the world. With magic, the whole process took about a half hour.

The great hall buzzed with the news for a week. Krum's mysterious disappearance, which would normally have been front page news, became such a small blip that Hermione didn't even hear about it. When Harry realized that the last time he had been seen had been shortly after Noch went missing for several hours, he confronted the creature.

"Hunting," she said while she preened her feathers.

"You couldn't hunt here?" He indicated the forest in the corner of the living room.

"Prey die before catch. No fun." She cocked her head up at him with as close to a smile as her falcon face could achieve. Noch had been growing rapidly and now stood as high as a lab. He dropped the issue.

Within twelve hours of the boys' debrief, Pomfrey had lifted Hermione's bed rest. She moved back into Harry's suite with glee. Her, Luna, Neville, Draco, Harry, and even Tonks when she took an hour or two off, spent most of their free time in Harry's living room.

"Aaron bloody Elm won't get off my back about the minutiae of night time patrol procedures. What has to be so complicated about walking empty halls with a lit wand?"

"Minutiae, eh?" Harry asked with a crooked grin.

"Yea. I used it right. Right? Hermione used it the other day."

"You did fine Tonks. Don't mind Harry." Hermione said.

"Oh I never do. I suppose when you're that pretty and talented you can get away with being a bit of a twat."

"Oi!"

"Well thats better than 'eh'." Tonks snorted.

"I lived in Canada for eight years," Harry said. "Lay off."

"Will you take me sometime?" Hermione asked.

"Home?"

She nodded. He pulled her onto his lap from where she sat beside him on the couch. Luna didn't seem to mind being left isolated at the other end. Draco and Neville were too preoccupied sneaking glances at each other on the love seat to pay any attention. Tonks however, crinkled her nose in mock disgust.

"Too many couples in here for my liking," she said with a stretch. "Makes a girl feel lonely."

Draco's head snapped up, but before he could protest, Tonks cut him off with a wave as she stood.

"Don't bother," she said. "You look ready to jump each other any minute. "Anyway, I'm off to be in charge again. Uhg. Remind me to hex whoever had the brilliant idea of placing me above these resentful idiots."

Harry chuckled as she left. Hermione burrowed into him.

"Is it that obvious?" Draco's cheeks flamed.

"Not as much in class." Hermione said.

"You're more focused on the material than the professors are," Draco scoffed. "You wouldn't notice if we began snogging."

"There's an idea," Neville said and kissed Draco's neck.

"She's right though," Luna offered. She'd taken the qualifiers to move up to their year and shared many classes with Draco and Neville the past two days. "You're more discreet when there are others watching."

"Well yea."

"Would it be such a bad thing if the rest of the school found out?" Luna asked.

"It would be disaster!"

"Why? "Neville asked. "Whose opinion matters more than our friends?"

Draco paused. "But Slytherin... My family."

"Do you think your mother would think less of you?"

"No."

"No other family matters. When was the last time you hung out with anyone from your house?"

"Your relationship would help us break down the few divides still remaining between the houses," Harry said. "Anything that will foster more unity before I spring the new living arrangements on everyone has my vote."

"This is one of the few times you don't get a vote, my lord," Draco said. "And when has a gay relationship ever 'fostered unity'?" He sucked his lower lip between his teeth.

"Let's go talk, "Neville said. He squeezed his hand. Draco nodded and they left together.

Harry hummed to himself and fiddled with Hermione's fingers in the silence that followed. After a few minutes, Luna spoke.

"It's time," she said with a meaningful look at Hermione.

"Luna," she whined.

"You've put this off too long. It's time."

Hermione huffed.

"Fine."

Luna stood.

"Oh no," Hermione said. "You brought it up. You stay." She took a deep breath.

Harry's stoic patience was worse than concern. His muscles weren't even tense beneath her. That would change. She cringed.

"I told you about Luna and I."

Harry nodded. She stalled.

"We shared everything. There were never any secrets between us." She took another breath and spat the rest out on the exhale before she lost her nerve. "So it only felt natural to tell her about you and I and when I couldn't describe the experience

well enough I showed her in a pensive and we may have got a little too into it and touched ourselves but not each other I swear." She clenched her teeth and let her lungs scream for air as the seconds ticked by.

She broke after a minute and took a gulp of air. Luna still stood in the centre of the room. Finally, Harry set Hermione on her feet. She steeled her nerves and turned to face him. He scrubbed his face with his hands before meeting her sheepish gaze. She took a step back. The bond told her nothing, but his eyes held shock and betrayal.

"Why didn't you just ask?" he barely whispered.

"I don't know. Embarrassment?"

"And you didn't think I'd be embarrassed?"

She risked another glance at his face. Emotions flickered too fast for her to track. Damn it. Luna should have waited another day or two to let whatever residue emotional chaos he was already experiencing die down.

"I'm sorry."

His face went stony.

"You probably think I'm overreacting," he said.

"No. Of course not. I made a mistake."

He nodded once. Brisk. Formal.

"I didn't mean to hurt you or betray your trust."

Blank stare.

"Luna is the closest friend I've ever had. The other girls all gossip about their love lives."

"And you chose this one aspect to be a typical teenage girl about?"

She flinched. "I am a teenage girl. There aren't many times I get to act like one. So yes. I shared a bit too much with my friend."

"Giving a dick length in millimeters is a bit too much information. Hermione, you basically filmed us without my permission and then jacked off with a friend to it."

Tears welled in her eyes. "I'm sorry." She tried and failed to keep her voice from quivering.

"Don't," he said. He grit his teeth. Damn the bond.

His anger gave him an odd sense of clarity. Sincerity, regret, and fear all sung clearly through their link, which made it difficult to hold any sense of betrayal or anger.

On Hermione's part, no malice or even intent had gone into the decision. Her and Luna had been hanging out for the first time since Harry started monopolizing her free time. A question was asked and the logical conclusion had been to share the memory. Her mind screened the explanation toward him while she took his anger and confusion in stride.

He sighed and the shred of will he'd been holding onto the fight with died. If you could call something that short a fight.

"Alright."

Bewilderment widened Hermione's gaze.

"I know you didn't mean anything by it. You couldn't have known. Now you do. I can't say I'm okay with it, but with time I'm sure we'll move past it."

"I'll never do it again."

"I believe you." He turned to Luna, a pleasant smile on his face. "Fair is fair though," he said. "Strip."

"Excuse me?" Hermione said.

"She saw mine. And yours."

With a musical laugh, Luna shrugged off her robes, shimmied out of her jeans, and began to unbutton the sunflower yellow blouse that barely covered her panties. Harry sank back into the couch. It had been an impulsive demand. One he would have dropped as soon as Luna showed any reluctance.

As the last button cleared its hole, her blouse left draped on her shoulder, she took a shy step toward Hermione and pecked her on the lips.

Hermione shot Harry a startled glance, but at his bemused expression, relaxed into and deepened the kiss. Luna's shirt pooled in a silken heap at her feet. Matching bra and panties straddled the line between sexy and innocent in their baby pink lace. As one bra strap slid off her shoulder, Harry adjusted his growing member.

Luna smiled at Harry as she broke the kiss to brush her lips along Hermione's jaw then pressed light kisses down her neck. She shivered, the sensation tickled in a pleasant way.

Before she could lose herself to lust, Hermione unhooked Luna's bra and the girl shimmied out of her underwear.

"You were a virgin?" Harry asked. "How? I got an elf to make a list when the Greengrass sisters dissapeared.

"I asked them to leave me off it. I wanted to surprise you."

"And they listened?"

"That," she said, "was so much more than I imagined sex could be."

Harry chuckled.

After washing every inch of their delightful bodies in the bath, Harry took both girls to his bed. Each had a side to curl into and used his chest as a pillow all night.

As Draco and Neville left the Gryffindor commons, they encountered Daphne Greengrass.

"Daphne? What's wrong? "Draco asked.

"Does anything have to be wrong for me to come find my boyfriend?" She cocked her head to the side.

Draco kept a neutral expression on his face.

"I mean, we are still together, right? I feel like I've got to be in mortal danger to see you these days." She smirked.

"At least he can be counted on for that," Neville smacked his friend on the back and turned. "Catch you later Malfoy, Daphne," he threw her a wave over his shoulder.

Traitor, Draco thought. He pulled his eyes from Nevilles' butt.

"Thank you," Daphne said, her tone serious and sheepish. "I know that we're more political than anything."

"That doesn't mean I would stand by while they... I'm not a monster."

"No," she said, "you're not." Pause. "You really didn't do it, did you?"

He gave her a puzzled look.

"You didn't sell us out to them."

"Of course not!"

"Don't take that tone. A year ago you would have done anything your father asked."

"Not that."

"Are you sure?"

He couldn't hold her gaze.

" I suppose I can't judge. I'm just a show mare my father is looking to sell to the highest bidder."

She examined her flawless nails, but Draco caught the tension below the thin veneer of nonchalance.

"Who knew it would be a price on my life rather than my maiden head?"

Draco flinched. "About that, my father signed a contract with yours."

She started to wave that off, but froze at his next words.

"I believe he used the strict purity clause to check that you were, well, fit for the ritual."

A shiver ran down her spine.

"He's missing. After two weeks I can claim the title in his absence and void the contract. I am so sorry that I got you mixed up in any of this Daphne."

"Did you request me?"

"Why?"

"Was mine the only family he propositioned?"

Draco's eyes widened.

"You don't think...?"

"We better go tell your powerful friend there might be another attempt."

"Even with the new security?"

"What if they go for someone homeschooled? Or even from another country?"

Draco scrubbed at his face. "Come on."

He brought her past the fat lady and through the common room of Gryffindors who had stopped questioning his presence, but regarded Daphne with curiosity.

Harry's door would not let him in.

He tried knocking. No sound.

When he jiggled the handle, a sock appeared in his hand.

"Funny one isn't he." Daphne grabbed his sleeve. "Come on," she said. "I'm all for playing the bad girl normally, but I think it's time to tell that auror."

"Or the headmistress."

"Perhaps both."

Lucius stumbled down a suburban street in the dead of night like a marionette with half his strings cut.

They expressed their displeasure by sending a jolt of pain lancing through his core. He fell to the pavement in a writhing mass of pain.

"Please Master," he screamed. "Please no more."

Lights flicked on in the house nearest and curtains twitched behind the windows of several homes on the block.

"Silence fool," said the dark voice that reminded Lucius of Voldemort the way a black cat reminds one of a panther. This voice pierced his mind like a red hot poker. They were ancient and young, male and female, many and one. They were all. They drove him after they'd driven all rational thought from his mind. Lucius Malfoy ceased to exist. All that remained was Their vessel.

He crawled down the sidewalk on hands and knees that were soon ragged and bloody. The pain barely registered next to the agony they would impose if he slowed. His body lacked the strength to stand. Without any magic left in his core to feed on, They were being sustained off his pathetic excuse for a life force.

After about half an hour, he found it.

The house looked like any other on the street. Pruned bushes, neat flower beds, grass cut to the regulation standard of six centimeters, and a cookie cutter house with whitewashed walls that almost glowed in the dark.

Lucius clambered to his feet and shuffled up the walk. They growled, cheered, and chattered in an inhuman cacophony of joy at being so close to their prize.

At the door, They quieted his steps and swung the door open with magic. Ten minutes later, he stood over the little girl as she slept.

"Into the closet," They said. "This can not look like our doing."

Once he hid, the girl's father entered. As he beat her senseless, Lucius chanted, though the voice that spoke belonged to Them. The runes burned into his chest glowed and the magical core of the dying girl flew to him as she gurgled her last breath.

Power, young and unrefined, flooded through him to feed Them. In return, They healed his battered body. While They could not replace the energy They'd taken from him, They could keep him alive long enough for Them to sap enough of these undiscovered mudbloods to form their own body.

As the father wailed and clutched the bloody corpse, Lucius slipped out of the room and left.

There were more children to find. Their cores called to Them like homing beacons. They used some of Their new energy to apparate the vessel to the next neighborhood.

In the morning, Harry woke to make the girls breakfast. They shared their meal chatting happily about their plans for the day and how Harry's modifications to the library were coming.

After breakfast and bathing together, which lasted a bit over an hour as washing each other proved too tempting for any of them to resist, they rushed out to get to class. In the common room, Neville paced as he waited for them.

"Harry! Draco and I have been trying to reach you since last night. What took you so- Luna?"

The faint blush from both girls and sheepish grin on Harry's face filled in the blanks well enough.

"Right. Well, okay. We've got news." He told them Draco and Daphne's theory as they walked Hermione and Luna to their first class. Luna's schedule matched Hermione's almost exactly after she qualified to skip sixth year. "We've checked in with everyone who's at home for whatever reason and the aurors are setting up their own system for checking that no civilians are missing. So far nothing's turned up."

"Have we warned Durmstrang and Beauxbaton?"

"I think McGonagall did or was planning to."

"What about the magical communities in other countries?"

"I'll check with her."

"Good. I haven't found a way to track the ones who got away, but I'm getting close. If Voldemort, or whatever he is now, is not with any of them I'm not sure there is a way to find it until it does something vile. It will be weak though. The ritual did not go as planned and it will need to gather strength first."

Neville and Harry discussed castle defence and the logistics of saving the world for several minutes until Hermione stopped.

"Mio?" Harry took her hand.

"What if he, it, whatever, is going after muggle borns?"

"That's why it's so important to warn the public."

"No. What if he's going after children born with a magical core but too young to be aware? Or the few muggle borns who are missed by schools and grow up as wildlings?"

Harry and Neville went pale.

"I'm an idiot," Harry said. He kissed her hard. "You're brilliant. Have a good time in class ladies." He turned to leave, thought better of it, and spun back to face the girls.

Luna's small frown melted into a smile against his chaste kiss.

"We have a lot to talk about," he said softly to them both. "Find me when you're free."

"Where are you going? "Hermione called to his receding back.

"To see if I can use your genius to track the dark sludge and perhaps boost enrollment."

Neville shrugged and hurried to catch up. "So, Harry. You have a good night? "Neville grinned.

"Not just me I hope," Harry winked at him. "You and Draco seemed pretty comfortable."

"Daphne came to talk to Draco. Then we were pretty busy."

"You'll get there. Don't rush it."

"I worry that if he has too much time to think that he'll talk himself out of it."

"I'm not sure this is something he can talk himself out of."

At Neville's questioning look, he continued. "Draco has been hiding who he is for a long time. Now that his father is more or less out of the picture and he has an accepting group of friends, he has no solid reason to keep up the charade. He might resist out of habit, but if you're patient and persistent I have no doubt you'll succeed."

"Its all new to me. I never realized before. I suppose if Gran were still around I'd hide it too."

They walked in silence for the next several minutes until Harry knocked at the Headmistress's office door, which swung open to admit them.

"Past time you joined us, Lord Potter."

"I do need a night off now and then."

"Perhaps try to schedule them when we aren't dealing with such a threat."

Harry chuckled. "If I only took time off when everything was light and breezy I would work myself to death."

McGonagall inclined her head. "Well you both look rather excited."

"Harry figured something out." Neville said.

"Hermione figured something out," Harry corrected. "I need access to the hearthstone and for you to pull her out of class to come help."

Neville snickered. "She isn't going to like that."

"No. But I need her and she won't say no to her Headmistress."

With an unamused tut, McGonagall strode to her fireplace and tapped a few specific points in the mantle. The cheery fire winked out, stones shifted, and an elegant if worn rug rolled over the ash and coals. She waved Harry forward.

When Neville made to follow she raised her hand. "Allowing Lord Potter into the heart of the castle is permissible as he owns it. Miss Granger will also be granted entry, but only because he claims it is vital and the situation is unprecedented. However, I can not allow students to traipse in and out as they please. You will have to wait here Mr Longbottom."

"It's alright," Harry said. "Go find Draco and fill him in on what's happening."

McGonagall gave a put upon sigh at even that much, but made no objection as Neville left the office.

"You know," McGonagall said as they walked through the new archway, "most years only the faculty know the hearthstone exists. No student has known about it for over fifty years and to my knowledge no student has ever entered the chamber."

Harry shrugged. "I've already manipulated its bond with multiple people in the school, including you. Is seeing it that big an issue at this point?"

She tsked and threw open the plain wooden door at the end of the short passage. they'd passed through.

The room beyond seemed larger than its fifteen by fifteen feet as the stone walls were obscured in shadow. The only light in the room came from the massive rainbow quartz crystal that glowed in the centre.

Historically, magical homes would hide their hearthstone in the hearth, hence the name. Fire wouldn't harm the magical focus and would sometimes feed more power into them than they would otherwise absorb from the ley lines. While any damage to the floor from installing the stone conveniently lay under ash, the real reason magicals installed the gems there was to hide it from any witch hunters.

These days, most magical homes didn't have a hearthstone. Covens usually had one embedded in the centre of their main ritual space, but not even Harry's coven had a stone even half this powerful.

The crystal rose at least five feet from the centre of the floor and sat easily three feet around, its hexagonal prism coming to a perfect point half a foot below Harry's eye line. When he placed his hands on the smooth, warm surface he could sense that it grew from somewhere deeply in the rock. This crystal had been seeded when the castle was built and continued to grow.

He caressed the living heart of the castle with awe. Every complex ward that had been built over the decade, every bond forged and broken with every teacher that had passed through the halls, every student the stone protected and nourished pulsed below his palms.

"Yes," Harry breathed, "seeing it in person is a very big deal."

McGonagall wore a self-satisfied grin that Harry was far too enraptured to see.

Only Hermione's gasp on entering tore his eyes away from the stone. The jade cat who had led her here sat prim at McGonagall's feet and began to bath itself with an oddly musical rasp of jade tongue against smooth paws.

"This is gorgeous." Hermione came to stand beside Harry, fingertips a breath from the stone. "It's alive."

"You can see that?"

Nod.

"What else do you see?"

"Intricate layers of magic. The stone organizes them. No. That's not quite right."

Harry took her hand and pressed her palm to the warm surface. She shuddered and snapped her eyes shut. Melodic birdsong filled the room. It took Harry a full minute to realize Hermione made the sound in her throat.

As she began to glow in the same rhythmic pulses as the hearthstone, McGonagall took a step forward. Harry waved her back, but didn't dare speak, lest he disturb whatever process the two were undergoing. The bond gave him an idea of what was going on, but the complexity of even so small a glimpse was beyond explanation.

They began to pulse in time to the song. As the pitch rose to inhuman heights, Hermione and the stone flared, then dimed.

"What do you need, Champion?" Hermione spoke with the same grace and musical lilt she'd sang with a moment before.

"A way to find children like her. Like Hermione. Children with magical cores born to parents without. Magical children lost in the non-magical world."

"Your government already finds children like her and brings them to us."

"Only if they perform accidental magic. We need to find the ones the ministry misses. They could be in danger."

Hermione's brow furrowed. The stone dimmed. "We must protect the children. Bring a book of power. We will craft a way to find them."

With that, Hermione's eyes fluttered closed and Harry caught her as she crumpled to the floor.