When Harry pulled himself together enough to speak he managed to relate some of what had happened in Hogsmeade. They listened to him in silence until Harry told them about what Dumbledore had said about Tonks and Flitwick; Hermione and Ginny had both started crying silently and Ron looked like he might at any moment. The four sat together… trying to understand what had happened. Harry did not know how long they had sat there before the portrait hole had opened and a disheveled and red-eyed Professor McGonagall came into the common room. She looked at Harry and let out a sigh of relief.

"We didn't know where you'd got to Potter! We were afraid… never mind. The Headmaster would like to see you in his office."

Harry stood up and looked at the others who silently got up with him. Ginny took his hand in her smaller one and Ron put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Let's go." Ron said in a voice of force calm.

McGonagall looked like she was about to tell the others to stay but Harry shook his head and walked out. The walk up to the Headmaster's office was done in silence. When they reached the gargoyle Harry muttered the password and they moved up the stairs to the Headmaster's door.

Dumbledore surveyed them from behind his desk, his demeanor downcast. "Please have a seat." He paused while they all sat. "Harry I am glad that you are safe. When you disapparated we… well we were unsure of where you had gone. Much to my amazement you somehow ended up in Gryffindor Tower."

Hermione turned to look at Harry, her eyes wide. "You can apparate onto Hogwarts grounds?"

Harry shrugged. He honestly didn't know what he'd done and at that moment he was not even sure that he cared. He looked up at the Headmaster only to find those piercing blue eyes gazing back at him over the rim of his half moon spectacles. "Harry," Dumbledore said and Harry could hear the sorrow in his voice. "I heard several interesting accounts from three of the Aurors present about your Patronus and your duels with the various Death Eaters. I am sorry that I missed it. Would you please tell me what happened?"

Harry nodded and started to tell the Headmaster every thing that he could remember. He talked for about fifteen minutes and by the time he was done he felt drained. Ginny was gripping his hand so fiercely that he thought she might break bones. He looked at her and saw that her eyes were closed. He got up from his chair and kneeled in front of her, taking her in his arms. She felt stiff and she did not move for several seconds. Slowly she slid her arms around him and relaxed a little. He whispered a few words of comfort to her before letting go and moving back to his own chair.

She wiped her eyes and half laughed but it came out as more of a sob. "It's a good thing you came back safely Potter… I'd hate to have to kill you."

Harry tried to smile but could not manage it. He grasped her hand again and looked up at the Headmaster.

"Harry what did you think about when you conjured your Patronus?

"I thought about Ginny telling me that she loved me."

"How extraordinary. The Dementors that were hit by your Patronus are wounded somehow. They cannot inflict harm anymore, although we do not know exactly what was done to them. I would also like to mention that Bellatrix Lestrange is incapacitated. She lost a lot of blood and it would seem that every bone in her body was broken. She was still alive when she was transported to St. Mungo's and I will let you know of her status when it becomes available." Dumbledore sat up straight. "I believe that you had a D.A. meeting scheduled for tonight and I would ask you to hold it but open it to everyone and have a time for everyone to talk about the attack. Many are hurting from the attack at the Leaky Cauldron on Friday night and the loss of a beloved professor and Ms. Tonks today is going to affect us all. Ms. Granger I would ask you to please run the meeting and give everyone a chance to share." Hermione nodded but did not speak. "I believe that you were also going to set up a system to keep several of the Pureblood sixth and seventh years safe, am I correct?" Harry looked at the Headmaster surprised. Did he really know everything? "I would like you to explain why it is needed at the meeting as well. I believe that Ms. Bones may not be the only young lady we lose if the problem is not impeded soon. I will make sure that all students are aware that the meeting tonight is still going to be held by announcing it at dinner tonight."

They all got up. It was already dinnertime so they headed down to the Great Hall. They met several other students on their way down but no one spoke. When they were all seated Dumbledore arose from his chair and addressed to students. "Today we have suffered the loss of Professor Flitwick and Ms. Tonks. It bereaves me to also inform you that forty-three residence of Hogsmeade are also gone… some lost to death and others to a Dementor's kiss. I am saddened to inform you that due to the threat of Dementors Quidditch has been cancelled for the rest of the year and all Care of Magical Creatures classes will be moved into the castle. NO student will be allowed to leave the castle for any reason without being accompanied by a professor." Dumbledore paused to look around. "These times that we are living in are difficult and we must stick together if we are to come through in the end. We have lost many… family, friends, acquaintances and we will lose more before the war is over. I am canceling classes for tomorrow and Wednesday to give each of you a chance to reflect and grieve. If you are having difficulties please see any professor and they will gladly talk to you. I also need to inform you that on my request Mr. Potter will be holding the D.A. meeting tonight in the Room of Requirements right after dinner. He and the Head Girl need to discuss a grave situation with you and we would also like to give everyone a chance to talk about how the recent events have affected you. Professor McGonagall will be in attendance should she be needed. That is all." He sat down and food appeared.

Harry picked at his food as he not really hungry. An image of Tonks laughing as they sparred last Friday kept flitting into his head. She had been laughing and joking with him, giving him a hard time about Ginny and now she was gone. She was too young to die! Harry felt angry tears come to his eyes but he held them back. Another imagine, one of Professor Flitwick commending him on his Summoning Charm after the first task of the Triwizard Tournament… NO he wouldn't think about it right now. He had to hold himself together if he was going to get through the rest of the evening. Harry looked down at his half eaten plate and got up. "I'm done so I'm going to head up and get things ready." Ginny, Ron and Hermione got up as well. Harry could see that they had not eaten much either.

They walked out of the hall silently up to the Room of Requirements together. Hermione walked back and forth in front of the blank wall until a door appeared. They walked in to find a huge room roughly the size of the Great Hall and many different colored beanbag chairs spread all around the room. Harry looked around and saw a small raised platform to his left next to the wall. There was a podium on it but nothing else. He also saw that there were boxes of tissues spread around and up against the wall to his right was a long table that had about thirty pitchers of water and stacks of cups. "Good job Hermione." Harry commented and looked over to see Ron examining one of the beanbag chairs.

"What exactly is this Hermione?" Ron asked her, bending down to poke at it with his finger.

"It's called a beanbag chair. You sit in them." She showed him by sitting down in one of them. Ron looked dubiously at it but sat down as well.

Ginny walked over to Harry and into his arms. "How are you holding up Harry?"

"Not too well." He admitted honestly. He felt no need to hide his feelings from her. "If I can make it through tonight then I'll let myself go but I want to…" He couldn't put it into words.

"It's all right Harry, I think I understand. You saw a lot of really horrible things today and you still have a meeting to lead. You can't break down yet but you probably really want to. The four of us will stay after the meeting and talk." Ginny put her hands on the sides of his face and gently pulled him down for a kiss. "You can do this Harry."

Harry felt better. Ginny's faith in him was like that. His insecurities would melt away when she was smiling at him. He looked up and the sound of the door opening to see Professor McGonagall walking into the room.

"I am just here to make sure that order is kept and that no students try and disrupt you. I will sit in the back and observe." She walked over to the back of the room and looked down at one of the pink beanbag chairs with a raised eyebrow. It promptly turned itself into a wooden armchair and she sat neatly in it. More people filed in and after looking at Ron and Hermione seated in the unusual chairs, they all found seats.

Harry was surprised at the number of people there. He saw all of the original D.A. members whom had not graduated plus the fifty new ones that had joined in the past year and a half. What surprised him most was the number of Slytherins that were there. He saw five Slytherin sixth and seventh year girls come in together. They looked around nervously and sat together in the back. He saw the two other Slytherins that he had expected because they were a part of the D.A. Harry had been surprised when the two fifth years had shown up at the beginning of the year and asked to join. He knew that they lied to their housemates about joining the D.A. One of the boys, Malcolm Flint, had informed him that Draco Malfoy had made a speech in the common room at the beginning of the year telling everyone that if they sided with Potter they would be dead.

Harry was brought out of his thoughts by Ginny poking him in the chest. "I think everyone is here, why don't you get started?"

Harry nodded and walked over to the podium. "Thank you for coming everyone. I am sad that we have to meet like this. I want to get business done with first so that there will be plenty of time for us to talk about the losses that we have suffered recently." He heard a few sniffs from the audience when he paused. "I would like for our Head Girl to come up and explain what we might be facing."

Hermione got up and walked towards the podium. "Thank you Harry. I am sure that everyone has read in the Daily Prophet about the atrocities that the Death Eaters have been committing in the past month. They have been killing and torturing people all along but now they have started to rape women. Specifically they are targeting women who are Purebloods and are what a Death Eater would consider a blood traitor. The Head Boy and I talked with each sixth and seventh year girl who is a pureblood and asked them to be here tonight so that we could arrange for their safety and we are asking for all of your help with that. If you are one of the people that we spoke to would you please stand up?" Harry saw about thirty girls stand up, including Ginny and the group of Slytherin girls. "Please take a look around, especially if you are in sixth and seventh year. If you can walk these girls to classes or to meals please do; the larger the groups, the better. We wanted to meet earlier to discuss this but I was waiting for an owl from someone, confirming my suspicions and asking for her permission to share her story with you. I only received that owl on Friday… we have already lost one of our numbers to rape and a subsequent pregnancy and we don't want to lose anymore." Harry heard several people gasp. "I'm sure that the rumors have spread about Susan Bones having to leave school because she is pregnant and I am sorry to say that the rumors are true in this case but I am very confident that Susan did not choose this for herself."

Harry looked over at Justin Finch-Fletchley and saw that the boy had gone very pale. He remembered that Hermione had said that they were dating. He cleared his throat. "Hermione can you talk about more about how this is going to affect us?"

She nodded. "We know that the Death Eaters are trying to impregnate pureblood women but for what purpose, we do not know. What I do know is this," she paused, taking a deep breath. "If you have been raped then you are probably hurting and feeling ashamed. I need you to come to myself, any professor or go to Madam Pomfrey if you have been raped. It is imperative that you seek help. Please remember that it is not your fault and that none of us will blame you." Hermione looked like she was about to cry so Harry took over.

"I will ask that all the sixth and seventh years who will be affected by this to please stay after… if you are willing to help and you are in classes with one of the girls, please stay as well. Now I would like to open the floor up to talk about Professor Flitwick and Tonks."

For the next hour students talked amongst themselves and some got up and made speeches. Harry hoped that it was a time of healing but he knew that the process was likely to take longer. At eight o'clock Professor McGonagall told the students who were not asked to stay behind to head back to their dorms. When the room was cleared of everyone but the thirty girls and about thirty-five others, most of whom were part of the D.A. Harry asked them to form a circle with the beanbags and sat with them, next to Ginny.

Justin was the first to speak. "Why didn't Susan tell us that she was…?" He stopped and got choked up.

Hermione gave him a compassionate look. "She is probably really hurt and she may think that no one would understand. I know that you two were together and that you have probably gotten a lot of hateful comments about you being the father but I never believed that you were." Harry saw Justin give a short nod. "Susan probably does not know anymore about her attacker than we do. He was probably wearing a mask when he did it and she almost certainly feels ashamed of it." She looked at Justin until he looked up at her. "If you can accept that this is not her fault then I think there is still hope for you two."

Justin gulped and seemed to consider what Hermione had said. "I know it's not her fault. I'll owl her tonight. Now, how do we stop this from happening to anyone else?"

They spent an hour planning ways for the girls to be escorted everywhere. The five Slytherins were afraid of being seen with anyone from another house to which Colin Creavey suggested that they just go everywhere together and that if they were traveling from class to class with any of their 'guards' that they could walk a few feet in front of them so as to appear to not be together.

Harry told the new people that they could join the D.A. meetings whenever they liked and Hermione gave them each a fake Galleon and explained how they worked. Everyone else left except for Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione. McGonagall told them not to be out late and left, closing the door after her. Ginny moved closer to Harry and leaned against him. They sat in silence for several minutes until Hermione let out a small sob.

"I'm so gl…glad that Justin was un...understanding! I just keep thinking about my mum and dad and… and I don't want Susan to be alone. I hope it works out for them." She buried her head into Ron's shoulder. "Susan didn't respond for several weeks and I thought maybe she wouldn't at all."

The others could only nod. Hermione had not told anyone that she was going to write to Susan. For some reason Harry was not surprised that she had kept quiet about writing to Susan. He knew that this was a tough subject for Hermione because of all her mother had been through and he knew she would try and help Susan, if she could. That was just how Hermione was. Harry pulled Ginny onto his lap and held her close. He could not imagine his life without her anymore and he wanted to do everything that he could to make sure she was safe. She had flat out refused Harry's offer to walk her to all her classes. She claimed that Colin was good enough and she was with him all day, anyway. Harry was uneasy though. He remembered what Malfoy had said to them back before Christmas and if anyone was a target, he was and by proxy Ginny. He tightened his arms and kissed her neck. "I love you." He said softly in her ear.

"I love you too."

They sat talking quietly for another few hours. They talked about Tonks and Flitwick first but they also reminisced about Sirius, Charlie, Mr. and Mrs. Granger and Percy. By the time they got to bed that night each of them had cried and laughed and felt the pain of loss. They went back to the tower near midnight and said 'goodnight' to each other. As Harry climbed into his four-poster he had to fight the tears again. His last thought before losing the battle with sleep was 'I've got to end this! The sooner, the better.'