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Chapter 25

The new year in the school started with every teacher giving another lecture on just how close their O.W.L. exams were now. Hermione piled on the pressure when she handed Harry a study schedule and told him she expected him to pass every subject this time around with at least five Outstandings – as this was Harry's second time through, he needed to improve on what he got last time. When Harry asked if that meant that Hermione was looking to get straight Outstandings this time, she just smiled and told him, "Why not? That's what I was aiming for last time." Harry realised that Hermione had a point; they may have been focused on dealing with Voldemort, but the fact that they had a second chance with their O.W.L.s and a head start on their N.E.W.T.s was a chance that they should grab with both hands, as their results here would stay with them long after they had finished dealing with Voldemort.

Luckily, Hermione's schedule had plenty of free time in it for Harry to play Quidditch, and Hermione had the time they spent helping Suzanne doubled up as their revision of the first year material. That had apparently been Professor McGonagall's input when Hermione had spoken to her, according to her one of the best ways to improve your understanding of the basics is try to teach them to others, as you find yourself re-examining and understanding the topics with the experience you have gained since then. Hermione had considered trying to set up study groups to help second and third years as well but Harry had talked her out of it. It was one thing to help Suzanne and a couple of her friends, but they didn't want to overcommit to anything, especially when they still had the cup and the scar in Harry's head to deal with.

They had theorised that it would be OK to leave the soul fragment in his scar once they had dealt with the last Horcrux, but that didn't mean that they weren't still looking into how to remove it. Hermione's theory that that the soul fragment was less bound to Harry than it would be in a true Horcrux had proven to be true when Hermione broke down the arithmancy behind the rituals, but still the only known ritual to remove a soul fragment from a Horcrux was for the person who had made it to reabsorb the fragment into themselves. However, the main potion of Voldemort's soul had been turned into a Dementor snack, and they didn't even know if the fragment in the cup could merge with the fragment in Harry's head, even if it wanted to and could be trusted to do so. Needless to say, that solution was completely off the table.

With nearly every Death Eater who Voldemort and LeStrange could trust in Azkaban after the World Cup, the terror that the two could cause was severely limited. Places like Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley, Azkaban, and the Ministry were all too well defended for one body to attack on their own, and despite the craziness of both LeStrange and Riddle, Riddle still had a sharp mind and avoided those places. They continued to attack homes, but most places had wards that took at least ten minutes for even someone as powerful as LeStrange and Voldemort combined to break in. Also, the Aurors had gotten skilled at getting to a property quickly. They hadn't gotten close to catching the possessed bitch yet, but the rate of deaths from LeStrange had dropped sharply.

They also finally found out why LeStrange and Voldemort were targeting random people. It turned out that a message had been sent to both the Ministry and the Daily Prophet demanding the release of the marked death eaters, and that the killings would continue until they were released. The Ministry had put a gag order on the Prophet preventing them from printing the ultimatum, and the Prophet had of course challenged the ruling in the Wizengamot, citing freedom of the press. The Wizengamot had upheld the gag order on the Prophet, declaring they didn't want the public demanding the release of Death Eaters who would undoubtedly make everything worse. What didn't make sense, however, was that the same Wizengamot members who had decided to uphold the gag order then went and gossiped about it to their families, who told their friends and so on. In wizarding Britain, which only had a population of about 100'000 witches, wizards, squibs, etc., that rumour spread extremely quickly until the gag order fell apart and the Ministry was forced to release a statement.

It turned out the Ministry's fears that people would call for the release of the Death Eaters were misplaced. While some were in fact calling for the release of the Death Eaters (mostly people who were already supporters of pureblood supremacy), after an opinion piece that was penned by Rita Skeeter came out, the much bigger call was for the Ministry to respond by executing death eaters in response. That the Ministry couldn't do that by law actually helped Fudge stay in office, as after people started calling for the executions he went on record saying he wished he could but the law prevented him from doing so. Combined with the fact that Fudge had executed the three who were caught at the end of the Triwizard Tournament meant that the public believed him and began to see Fudge as someone fighting for them who was constrained by the law. The politician that Fudge was, he drank in the adulation and loved every second of it, but to maintain that image that was doing so much for him politically, Fudge actually started putting out policies that helped that image. One big thing Harry approved of was extra funding to the D.M.L.E. for them to increase their auror recruitment.

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Harry and Hermione were walking around the school together after curfew when all students had to at least be back in their common rooms. Well, almost all the stuff – the metal badges that gleamed on the chests of each of their robes granting them the right to be out later than most of the other students. A pity it was only so that they could find those other students who were out after curfew and send them back to their common rooms.

Harry pulled out the Marauders' Map and after a quick look around to check that he and Hermione were the only ones in the corridor, he tapped the map with his wand and uttered the phrase to activate it. "You know my dad is probably rolling in his grave that you convinced me to use a Marauders' tool to help stop rule breaking," Harry grinned at his girlfriend.

Hermione grinned back up at him. "And what do you think your mum's doing?"

"Probably laughing her ass off, if Remus's stories are to be believed," Harry admitted. "But the map was made by my dad. It seems more like a dad thing."

"Well the sooner we clear our part of the castle of any students the more time we will have for other things," Hermione teased Harry, reminding him of the deal she had made with him.

Harry opened up the map and took a look at who was in their section of the castle. Apart from them there were eight people. One they could ignore, it was Professor McGonagall going from her office towards her rooms near Gryffindor Tower as she turned in for the night. There were three pairs of people and one person who was sneaking around on their own. The nearest was a couple in a broom cupboard, and this one was going to be kind of awkward considering who it was.

Harry let Hermione take the lead on this one as he pulled open the door, revealing Ginny Weasley and Dean Thomas, both busy trying to inspect the other's tonsils with their tongues. The fact that Ginny's bra was on the floor and Dean's hand was inside her robes only made it more awkward for Harry given the history he remembered with Ginny, though he was happy that he only felt awkwardness and none of the jealousy that he feared he would feel.

"OK you two, break it up," Hermione told the two who were suddenly trying to right their clothes and mussed up hair. "Hurry up and get back to the common room, and Harry and I will forget we saw anything."

Just as the two were leaving Harry remembered two of the other people he had seen on the map and called after them. "I suggest that if anyone asks,you two say that Dean was helping Ginny with practising her Transfiguration and lost track of time."

Hermione looked at Harry questioningly and he whispered, "The girl has three older brothers in the school, two of which are Fred and George. Do you want to be the one to try and deal with the fallout if they get protective?"

Hermione admitted that that was a fair point before they made for their next couple. Technically the ones closest to them were Fred and George, but the two prefects decided to skip them for now and give Ginny and Dean time to be back in the common room before sending the twins their way.

The next couple were in for some teasing from Harry, as he felt a lot less awkward about them. He opened the door to an old unused office and smiled when he saw two fourth years snogging, though this time only one was a Gryffindor. Harry saw the camera that was set aside on the old writing desk and grinned to himself as he put a finger to his lips indicating to Hermione to be quiet. He picked up the camera and silently Disillusioned himself before he stepped into the room moving around Luna Lovegood and Colin Creevey until he had a good angle. Harry was glad that Luna and Colin, while enjoying each other's company, were not as handsy as Ginny and Dean, so he thought the photo he was about to take with Colin's camera would be a cute memory and nothing inappropriate.

The flash went off, startling Colin, but Luna only smiled and said, "Hello Harry," while looking directly at him despite the fact that Harry was disillusioned.

Harry dropped the disillusionment and watched Colin relax as he saw who it was that had caught him and Luna. He held out the camera to Colin and the boy took it. "So Luna, you and Colin, hm? How long has this been going on?" Harry was smiling, nonverbally telling them that he approved even if he had to stop them at the moment.

"Oh, Colin and I first danced together the night after the first task of the Triwizard Tournament, after I pushed you and Hermione to dance together," Luna stated matter of factly. "I had to put it in your head that Hermione was a good person to dance with before they announced the Yule Ball, after all. And Colin here is cute, so I decided to claim him for myself."

Harry was a little surprised by what Luna said and he tried to remember the party that Gryffindor had thrown after the first task. He remembered Luna drawing him and Hermione onto the dance floor and then disappearing, leaving him dancing with Hermione. Had that affected his decision to ask Hermione to be his date to the Yule ball? Probably, he mused. He wondered if he would have even gotten together with Hermione without Luna's little push and decided that he would give her the benefit of the doubt. "Luna, you are by far the best wingman ever." He leaned in and gave the girl a quick side hug, not unlike the ones he had seen the Weasley twins give Ginny on occasion. "Now the two of you need to get back to your common rooms, before Hermione and I are forced to actually do something." The two smiled and gave each other a quick peck before scurrying off to their own common rooms.

"So Luna pushed us towards each other then?" Hermione asked.

"Looks like it," Harry admitted, curious where Hermione would go with this.

"Remind me that I really need to do something to thank her then," Hermione said before she gave him a quick chaste kiss that wouldn't have been inappropriate to any professor except perhaps Snape, before they went off in search of their next victim.

They ran into Fred and George as they were on their way to find the lone person who was skulking around, so they had to deal with them first. However, Harry still had the Marauders' Map out, and the twins recognised it.

"Hey how did you get your hands on our map?" The first twin demanded.

"Yeah, it was stolen from us a few years ago!" The second twin jumped in when the first took a breath.

"And we would like it back now, if you please." Back to the first twin.

They both held out their hands as if they expected Harry to hand over the map just like that. However, he just blanked the map and put it in his pocket. The twins looked mutinous at Harry's actions but he spoke before they said or did anything. "As the son of Prongs and the heir of Padfoot, I have more of a claim to the map than anyone." His tone, while not unfriendly, left no misunderstanding that he could be moved on this topic. He liked the twins and got on well with them, but the map was one of the only things Harry had of his father and he wasn't going to give it up if he had a choice

"You're the son of Prongs? So you're the one who stole the map!" Twin one started off again sounding shocked.

"Prongs was James Potter?" Twin two asked, just as surprised as his twin.

"Who were the others?"

"Do you know?"

"You must know who Padfoot is if you are his heir."

Harry rubbed at his head while Hermione answered them, the ping-pong speech giving him a headache. "Yes, James Potter was Prongs before he died. Padfoot is Harry's godfather Sirius Black. Moony is Professor Lupin and Wormtail is Peter Pettigrew, the man who betrayed the Potters to Voldemort."

Both of the twins got disgusted when Hermione mentioned Pettigrew, as it was their family that was tricked into hiding the criminal for over a decade. In the end the twins agreed that the map was Harry's by right, but they took heart in finding out that their Defence Professor was one of their heroes, so it was a much hopeful pair of twins who made their way back to the common room. Harry and Hermione examined the corridor that Fred and George had come from, looking for whatever prank the Weasley twins had been setting up, but they couldn't find anything so they both made a mental note to avoid the place for a few days.

The last person on their round was Pansy Parkinson. They approached her cautiously; they had learned that two students together usually meant hormonal teens letting off some of their frustrations. A person on their own, though, was usually up to no good.

They found Parkinson sitting on her own in an unused classroom crying. A part of Harry wanted to just say he didn't care and send the girl to her common room and report her to her head of house, but something stopped him. Before he could decide what to do, Hermione made the decision for him and asked the girl if everything was okay.

It turned out that her father was one of the Death Eaters who was arrested at the World Cup, and with the losses that the blood purists outside Hogwarts had suffered it had an effect in the Slytherin common room. Now there was a large group who were calling for the executions of the captured Death Eaters. One of the more vocal, who apparently grew up near one of the families Bellatrix had targeted, had cornered Pansy in the middle of their common room and had gone on a tirade against her father, saying the world would be better off if the man was dead. Add to that the loss of Draco and she was feeling rather vulnerable.

Hermione helped the girl for a few minutes before sending her back to her common room. When Harry asked Hermione why she was nice to Parkinson when the girl had always looked down on her, his girlfriend just said, "Sometimes all a girl needs is a little kindness when she's crying to change her whole life, and even Parkinson deserves that opportunity."

Once they had dealt with Parkinson, Harry checked the map again and found that there were no more students anywhere near the parts of the castle they were set to patrol. Grinning, Harry showed Hermione and then picked her up bridal style and ducked into an unused classroom. A quick flick of his wand had the desk clear of any dust and he sat a giggling Hermione on the desk.

"And just what are you planning, Harry?" Hermione's tone was more teasing than questioning.

"Well, I was thinking I might just act like a massive hypocrite," Harry told her, the smile on his face mirroring hers. He leant forward and pressed his lips to hers, and Hermione kissed him back eagerly, her arms encircling him, pulling him in tightly, and increasing the pressure on their lips. She started to suck on Harry's lip in a way that drove him wild, and soon Harry's tongue was probing the inside of Hermione's mouth. Hermione sucked at him, her tongue caressing his and silently encouraging Harry to go further.

Harry felt Hermione start to unbutton his robes a little, and her hands slid in and under the jumper he was wearing to ward off the chill, caressing his chest as she moaned in pleasure as she felt up the thin wiry muscles. He mirrored Hermione and his own hands made quick work of buttons of her robes. Harry was surprised to find that Hermione wasn't wearing any top under her robes at all, apart from a Gryffindor scarlet bra that looked frilly and absolutely gorgeous on her. The bra had a clasp in the front, and Harry fumbled with it for a few seconds before Hermione withdrew one of her hand from his chest and popped open the clasp herself, then grabbed Harry's hand and placed it on her boob so that Harry was palming her hard nipple, before she snaked her hand back inside his jumper.

Harry absolutely loved seeing Hermione like this when she wasn't worried about homework, exams or wars when they could just relax and let down all her barriers and just exist in the pleasure of the moment. The two soon lost themselves for the rest of the evening, only stumbling back into the Gryffindor common room just before the Prefects' curfew.

-ϟϟϟ-

It was early February when they got the next bit of information on Bellatrix/Voldemort. Unfortunately it came as a Daily Prophet headline.

Bellatrix LeStrange attacks sister!

At first, Harry and Hermione were worried that Andromeda and her husband Ted Tonks had been attacked. After all, Ted was a muggleborn and that was just the kind of target the Death Eaters liked, second only to muggle civilians with no way to fight back. However, the article revealed that Bellatrix LeStrange nee Black had attacked her other sister, Narcissa Malfoy nee Black. Narcissa had survived, as had Draco who wasn't in the house at the time, but Narcissa was recovering in St. Mungo's and Malfoy Manor now had a bunch of new holes in it.

"Why would LeStrange or Voldemort want to attack Narcissa?" Harry asked once they had left breakfast and found a private classroom where they could talk.

"Maybe he, she, whatever, maybe it needs money. The Malfoys were always big funders," Hermione suggested.

"No, I don't think so. Narcissa would have just given them the money. She wasn't exactly unwilling to help Voldemort in the past. And her sister would probably have an easier time convincing her to part with gold. Plus, I think the LeStrange vaults weren't hurting for gold either, and you know the goblins are like Switzerland; they stay neutral and will bank with anyone," Harry was more thinking out loud than answering Hermione.

"Then why would LeStrange or Voldemort go to the Malfoys, what do they have that they could want?"

"Maybe they just wanted sanctuary? A warm bed and a hot meal would be inviting if they haven't had it for a while…no, Narcissa would have even less of a problem providing that than gold." Harry was pacing back and forth as he thought it through. "No, the Malfoys must have had something Narcissa refused to give up." Harry suddenly stopped moving. "Or couldn't give them, because she didn't have it anymore. He was looking for the diary Horcrux!" Harry half shouted as he realised just what Voldemort was looking for.

"Wait, if he is looking for his soul fragments then he is going to go to all the places that they were hidden. His mother's house, the cave, Malfoy Manor. He has the cup, his snake Is dead, and the last one was here."

"Well the castle will probably be the last place he looks. He is afraid of Dumbledore and quite probably me as well…fuck, the locket in the cave!"

"What about it? It's a fake, we don't need to worry about it." Hermione was confused by Harry's sudden intensity.

"But it still has the note from Regulus in it. That note will send Voldemort straight to Grimmauld Place. Straight to Sirius! We need to get there now."