Author's notes – Sorry about this chapter taking so long, I been writing exams again, plus this chapter just did not want to be written. Well there you go I'm not that horrid, if I were I wouldn't have posted for another month or two! I can't remember when last I did personal bits, but I know I didn't last time. (Author smiles sheepishly)

Anyway I'm far too happy not to post today, I've just finished writing exams, again, and I don't have any more until the end of October, I don't really care how I've done I've got into the course I want to do, and been accepted into a residence, I heard this week, so I'm really happy. Anyway on with the story... Oh, I almost forgot sorry about the language, as I didn't live a thousand years ago it is a little hard to write as if I did!

And thanks to my beta reader thedreamer for knowing me better then I know myself!

-Chapter Seventeen-

The Eyes of the Heirs

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right'
Because their words have forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night,

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night,

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Dylan Thomas - Do not go gentle into that good night.

"Exactly, and you said that you were feeling trapped and wanted to get out," Dumbledore prompted. Harry could not remember saying all that, but he nodded. Dumbledore stood up, taking Harry by surprise; he took a dusty black book down from a shelf. He started wiping the dust off, as he sat down again.

"How much do you know about your mother's family?"

Harry stared; whatever he had expected, it was not that.

"Not much, my aunt is my mum's sister." Harry fell silent, realising for the first time how little he knew about his mother. All that he had found out about his parents, since coming to Hogwarts, was about his dad and his dad's friends. He knew next to nothing about his mother. "She was Head Girl, and her maiden name was Evans, but that's all," Harry said sadly, and that was all, except that she had hated his dad at one point.

"You don't know anything about her family?"

"No, my aunt doesn't talk about them, nor my mum." Harry paused deep in thought, "Although she did mention them once, the day Hagrid gave me my letter. She said something like they were proud to have a witch in the family. The Dursleys have never mentioned my grandparents."

Dumbledore sighed heavily.

"But sir, what's this got to do with how I and Hermione got to the Ministry?"

"Everything." Dumbledore opened the book in his hands. "You want to know how you Apparated out of the castle? The answer to that, I think, lies in two places: your mother's family, and Sirius."

Harry felt sure that Dumbledore had finally lost it. What did his mum have to do with any of this?

"You could Apparate because you wanted to see Sirius." Dumbledore paged through the book, and then stopped. "But you were able to Apparate because of you mother's family."

"What do you mean sir?" Harry was even more confused than before.

"You said that you had been discussing what happened at the end of last year?" said Dumbledore ignoring Harry's question.

Harry just nodded; he could not trust himself to speak.

The headmaster observed him for several seconds, before speaking again. "What was the last thing you remember talking about, before you arrived at the Ministry?"

Dumbledore was calm, his voice was low.

Harry looked up sharply. It was almost as if Dumbledore knew, but no, he could not.

"Neville," Harry said stumbling over the name, "had just finished telling the others what had happened in that room ... in the Death Chamber."

Dumbledore moved as if to grip Harry's arm, but stopped himself halfway through.

"Was Sirius mentioned?"

"Not by name," Harry said flatly, trying not to look at Dumbledore. Sirius. Harry's last thoughts had been of Sirius, before he had found himself in the last place he had ever seen Sirius.

"So I Apparated," Harry began slowly, "to where I saw Sirius last? How is that even possible?"

Dumbledore was looking older than Harry had ever seen him look before. It disturbed him slightly to see Dumbledore looking so human.

"I'm not initially sure of that myself, however from what you have told me, I surmise that your rooted longing to see Sirius again made you unconsciously wish to return to the last place you saw him. That combined with your desire to leave the castle, so you managed to accidentally Apparate." At the word 'desire', Harry saw something he had never seen in the headmaster's face before: despair.

The bit about Sirius made sense, but somewhere in his head a small voice, which sounded just like Hermione, was saying, 'but you can't Apparate or Disapparate in Hogwarts.'

"But Professor you, I can't, in Hogwarts."

"I wondered if you would remember that Harry, and you're right of course." Dumbledore said calmly as ever. "I can't Apparate or Disapparate inside Hogwarts."

Harry had always thought Dumbledore was slightly odd, but now he knew that he had lost all his marbles a long time ago.

"But you can," Dumbledore said gently.

It made no sense, if Dumbledore could not than how could he? Moreover, if he could, then why couldn't Dumbledore?

Dumbledore was looking down at the book resting front of him. He, however, answered Harry's unasked question.

"You were and are able to Disapparate inside this castle because of your mother's family. It has long been rumoured that the heirs of the four founders could Apparate inside the castle just as the founders themselves could. And you, Harry have just proved that theory."

Harry stared. Had Dumbledore just said what he thought he had; did it mean what he thought? He stared and he gaped, but for the moment he was silent.

Dumbledore appeared not to notice Harry's dilemma for he continued. "As you can imagine there always has been a great deal of interest in the families and descendants of the four founders. However records that old are hard to come by in both the wizarding and the Muggle worlds."

"But sir, what's this got to do with-"

Dumbledore continued before Harry could finish asking his question. "Although the immediate descendants of the founders are well documented, the years and generation that come after are not. You know of course that Salazar Slytherin's only remaining descendant and heir is Lord Voldemort, although that fact is known by very few. The other founders are trickier. Helga Hufflepuff is reported to have had two sons, one of whom died before the age of 10. The other is believed to have gone abroad shortly after his mother's death, and did not come back." Dumbledore was still looking down at the dusty book; he turned the page. "What became of him no one knows for sure. Rowena Ravenclaw is easier to trace, for awhile at least. She had a daughter, Rosalie, who became Headmistress of Hogwarts. The line continues for several generations. Rosalie had a daughter, Rosalind; Rosalind a son, Rowan. Rowan had a son Regen and a daughter Raine, who was killed when she was sixteen by a Behir."

"A Behir?" Harry asked confused, but Dumbledore just waved off the question.

"Regen, Rowan's son was a squib. He left the wizarding world after his sister's death, his father and mother being killed many years before in a giant uprising. Therefore, the Ravenclaw line disappears into the Muggle world, and to the best of my knowledge neither the Ravenclaw nor Hufflepuff lines have re-entered the wizarding world. Godric Gryffindor's line disappeared almost immediately into the Muggle world. Gryffindor married a Muggle called Elena. Incidentally this is the reason Slytherin left the school. They had only one child, a daughter, Gwen, who was also a squib. Do you not see?"

For the first time Dumbledore looked up from the dusty book at Harry, who had become so interested in what Dumbledore was saying that he had forgotten the reason for it.

"Perhaps not," Dumbledore said more to himself than Harry, before continuing with his narrative. "'Godric Gryffindor died defending the castle from a Goblin rebellion. Goblins believed, or rather believe that Hogwarts was build on an ancient site very important to Goblin culture, but that is something else entirely which we must not go into now." Dumbledore looked down at the book again and began to read aloud. " 'The noble Lord Gryffindor stood without help or aid on the steps of beloved Hogwarts where he denied Wee Jas' Goblins passage, who were trying to force entry to the ancient site where their Goddess met her untimely end. Alas mighty Gryffindor shared her dark fate that day.' It goes on to describe the battle between Gryffindor and the Goblins. I'll spare you the details; it will suffice to know that the Goblins fled before Gryffindor fell. His wife Elena left the wizarding world after that day, taking Gwen with her. There is, however another passage, that is of interest to us. Before his death, Gryffindor was carried into the Great Hall. This account was given by an eyewitness."

Dumbledore turned the page before continuing, "'Thus lay the Lord Gryffindor on a table in yonder Great Hall, that beareth his name. He just but lived, which before the half hour was out, served as his death bed. Brilliant green fire that blazed within thine eyes was not so bright as prior. Two green emeralds set within a white marble mask. His lips move, he speaks but his words are lost in the roar of the chamber, for his words sound strange upon mine ear. The brilliant green flames rage more terrible, then mine eyes deceive me not, that flame dies with the Lord's words. Innocent child of his, doth on his death weep, weeps by his side. Tears from eyes as brilliant green as his own, mingles with his blood, as the child, Lady Gwen, weeps at her departed father's side.'"

At this point Dumbledore closed the book, rose to his feet again, this time returning with the sword that Harry had pulled out of the Sorting Hat in his second year, before sitting down again. He did not speak; Harry too was deep in thought and it was a long moment before he spoke.

"What does any of this have to do with me?" He was almost too scared to ask in case he received the answer he feared

Dumbledore ignored Harry's question, and asked one of his own, "Would you please describe what happened the first time you held your wand?"

"Yeah sure," Harry said slightly uncertainly. He did not have a clue where this was leading. "My arm felt warm, and red and gold sparks came out of the end when I waved it, that's all." He said rather lamely, "But I still don't see what- oh!" An idea had occurred to him, an inconceivable idea; Dumbledore could not mean, no, he did not mean that. But what did he mean then?

"Although Elena and Gwen left the wizarding world that night, public interest was kept on them for several generations." As Dumbledore spoke his eyes were fitted on the sword in his hands. He set it down and looked Harry in the eyes.

"You noticed that the author of that piece mentions many times the colour of Gryffindor's eyes, and the colour of his daughter's eyes. That they both had brilliant green eyes, that a flame seemed the burn within them?"

Harry could think of nothing to say in reply to that so he did not speak.

"It is even more interesting when other reports of the Gryffindor line are considered. It is noted that one member of each generation had brilliant green eyes, in a direct line. Gwen's third son Gilbert was the only one of her children to have Gryffindor's brilliant green eyes. Gilbert had identical twin girls, Alice and Annabel, who could only be told apart by their eyes. Alice had Gryffindor's, while Annabel had blue. And so it goes on, as far as I have been able to trace through the generations of the descendants of Godric Gryffindor, one and only one per generation inherited Gryffindor's brilliant green eyes." Dumbledore had not moved his eyes from Harry's face.

"As you can imagine Muggle records are not the best, especially for ones such a long time ago." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled, "But then again I can't really complain; wizarding records are in just as bad a state as their Muggle counterparts. We don't even know what year this school was started in. But I digress. I have long known that the heirs of Gryffindor were out there and that one day they would show themselves in the wizarding world by their brilliant green eyes. All I had to do was to wait for the line to reappear in the wizarding world, which I was sure it would."

Dumbledore sighed heavily. "When I first become aware of this, every time a green eyed student came to Hogwarts, I would try to discover if they were the heir of Gryffindor; each time I was disappointed. I soon realised that green eyed students were only too common. I had to find something else, I considered narrowing the search down to Muggleborns, but I soon disregarded that; many witches and wizards have married Muggles, and I don't want to miss the Heir of Gryffindor. It would be a full time job in itself to research every green eyed student's family tree to see whether they had green eye or not. So I waited, and I thought. I had been going about it the wrong way. Both Gryffindor's eyes and those of his daughter were describe as a brilliant green, with a flame within that burned, that narrowed down the search considerably. And then there was the fact that only one person per generation had such eyes; that narrowed down the search even more."

Dumbledore paused, lost in thought. The office was completely silent, even the portraits had abandoned their pretended slumber; they were all waiting for Dumbledore to continue. And at length he did.

"Your mother was the first I had suspected for a long time and even more so when I saw you for the first time, but I still didn't know, I wasn't sure. But now-" Dumbledore held his hand up, palms to the ceiling, "I know."

Author's notes – Have you noticed when someone sends you a really horrid review where they just bad mouth you, not constructive criticism, that they are always anonymous, not that I mind anonymous reviews or anything, but they aren't brave enough to put their name to it!

I'll try and get the next chapter up before I have to start writing exams again, but after the end of November I am totally free until the end of Feb...! so it's not that bad!

A little bird told me – Sweet name, thank you!

aalikane – Thanks for your reviews all err – four of them. It interesting see people's reactions to the story chapter by chapter, I'm sorry the Weasley twin aren't the DADA teacher, I should write about what you are up too more. Quite a few people have written stories where Dudley goes to Hogwarts, there is a very long one where Dudley goes in third year ends up being friends with Cedric. (Author shacks head in wonder) Anyway thanks for reviewing.

Aishwarya – I'll take that as a complement, thanks for reviewing ï