Reaching Maturity

Disclaimer: not mine. Am borrowing and will return.

A/N: many many MANY thanks to riob for the Latin translation ( – 'mensa' meaning table)

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Chapter 22: Changing

When the four seventh-years arrived in Dumbledore's office at eight o'clock, the five teachers and Sirius were already there. All but Sirius were sat on chairs; he was sitting cross-legged on the floor, his back to the fire. Dumbledore rose as they entered, from where he had been sitting behind his desk. Four chairs, unoccupied at present, sat in the middle of the room. The four students stood by the door.

"Welcome, welcome," Dumbledore warmly greeted them. He extended a hand towards the four chairs. "Please, sit down." They did so, and he noticed how Hannah and Draco immediately sat together, hands intertwined, and also how Harry and Hermione sat as close together as was possible. "Pleased that your exams are over?" His eyes twinkled.

"Definitely," said Harry fervently. The others nodded in agreement.

"On to business," said Dumbledore briskly. "Once tomorrow's Quidditch match is over, you begin your intensive training." His gaze flickered momentarily in Draco's direction, noting with concern the colourless cheeks and black smudges under his eyes, and the way he leaned against Hannah, an overwhelming aura of weariness about him. "I do not want any of you overdoing it – Miss Granger, that includes you. I can only divulge a little information to you four, but I can tell you that we must act swiftly." He reached behind his desk. "You four will be removed from the rest of the school for precisely this reason."

"Where will we go?" asked Harry, pushing his glasses up his nose.

"You will remain within the school – it is not safe for you to be anywhere else – but you will join Mr. Malfoy in the hospital wing so that you can work together, away from the distraction of the rest of the school – and their curiosity. You will move in after the Quidditch match tomorrow."

He pulled out the two objects that he had been concealing behind his desk and placed them on the desk. The four gave a collective gasp. Harry instantly recognised the sword with the rubies set into the hilt as being that of Godric Gryffindor. The other item was the old, patched Sorting Hat.

Dumbledore handed the sword to Harry. "You know what this is. Take great care of it; it is my belief that you will need it soon." He picked up the Sorting Hat and handed it to Draco.

"What's this for?" asked Draco, bewildered. "I've been Sorted, at the start of first year! I'm about to leave!"

"Put it on and you shall see."

Draco eyed the Hat sceptically, but nevertheless out it on. He was extremely surprised when the Hat chose to keep its musings to itself, and was just contemplating removing it when something hit the top of his head. "Ouch!"

"Problem, Mr. Malfoy?" inquired Dumbledore mildly.

Draco removed the Hat from his head and stared in amazement at the emerald-encrusted hilt of the sword that emerged from the Hat. "What the…?"

"That belonged to Salazar Slytherin," Dumbledore informed him. "Use it wisely and use it well." Draco could only nod.

"Miss Granger," Dumbledore prompted.

Hermione took the Hat and obligingly placed it on her head, having various ideas about what to expect. It did not really surprise her when a sword, a little smaller than Harry and Draco's, and more feminine in style, encrusted with sapphires, emerged from the Hat. "Rowena Ravenclaw's?" she queried. Dumbledore nodded, smiling, and Hermione gave the Hat to Hannah.

Hannah took it and moments later a sword, much like Ravenclaw's that was now in the possession of Hermione, only with bright yellow citrines set into the hilt rather than sapphires.

"I am sure that I need not tell you, Miss Abbott, that that sword originally belonged to Helga Hufflepuff. I believe that this one, out of the four, was used least. It remains to be seen whether it will remain so." He took the Hat from Hannah and placed it back on its shelf, surveying them four gravely. "It is almost inevitable that you will use these at some point soon. Take care of them for as long as you hold them in your possession –"

"How long will that be?" interrupted Hermione.

"You are the Founders' Assembly. They will pass out of your possession and will return to the safety of the Sorting Hat once you die – when the first of the Assembly passes from this world. Keep them on you at all times.

"Minerva and Sirius will join you at nine am on Monday. Apparition and the Animagus transformation. You will have Potions with Severus at eleven. An hour and a half for each. Then you will have lunch followed by Defence Against the Dark Arts with Remus and Arabella for two hours. I'm sure that your background will come in useful, Mr. Malfoy."

Draco stiffened and stared at his hands.

"It isn't necessarily a bad thing, Draco," said Snape softly from where he sat. "You can use your knowledge to help the other three." He received a half-smile from Draco.

"I have arranged for all of your belongings to be taken up to the hospital wing during the Quidditch match," continued Dumbledore. After that, you will eat with your houses and then go to the hospital wing. You may have visitors, although I would prefer it if you did not, for security reasons – the less that is known about your significance, the better.

"Now, any questions?"

"What do we do on Sunday?" asked Harry.

"Rest. You will need your strength."

"What do we tell our friends?" Hannah wanted to know.

"Nothing," said McGonagall immediately. "Tell them nothing unless you must. If that is the case, say that you are seeing Poppy for counselling after the exams. No more questions? Then I'll see you tomorrow. And Potter?"

"Yes?"

"Win that match tomorrow."

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"This is the last chance for four of us. We can do it, as long as we stay calm and focused. I have absolute faith in you; you are all excellent." Harry paused, then shrugged. "I can't think of anything else to say to you except go out there and do your absolute best. Oh, and win that Cup for Gryffindor." He picked up his broom. "Let's go."

And go they did. After only fifteen minutes they were 70-0 up, not letting Ravenclaw's Chasers anywhere near the Quaffle. Ron in goal had absolutely nothing to do.

And then Harry spotted a small glint of gold near Ron. Within moments the Snitch was in his fingers, struggling to get free. He held it aloft in triumphant celebration before landing – and promptly being mobbed by his overjoyed teammates and fellow Gryffindors. Hermione gave him a tight hug and kissed him delightedly. It was a while before the crowds drifted back to the stands to allow the presentation of the Cup to take place.

Dumbledore handed the much-coveted Cup to Harry, who held it high in the air in triumph. They had done it! He scanned the crowds as he passed the Cup to Theresa in a daze. Hannah was grinning and clapping hard with her fellow Hufflepuffs, her best friend Susan Bones standing next to her. Harry caught Draco's eye as the Slytherin stood at the back of a crowd of his silent, glowering housemates. He gave Harry a brief, reluctant half-smile.

And there was Hermione – his Hermione – screaming and cheering, jumping up and down and waving a huge Gryffindor banner, the most undignified he'd ever seen her. This sight brought an even bigger grin to his face. Her hair was all over the place and her robes – red and gold especially for the occasion – were completely askew, yet she didn't seem to care. She met his eyes and grinned even wider.

Harry wanted to stay there forever, not wanting to lose this moment. Never again would he stand up here and raise the Quidditch Cup in triumph. The next time Gryffindor won the Cup, it would be someone else holding the Cup aloft. It seemed like no time at all had passed before they were all changing out of their Quidditch robes, four of them for the last time ever. Harry clambered onto the top of the bench, using the rail of pegs for support.

He cleared his throat to get the team's attention. "I just want to say thank you to every one of you. Well done. Everyone," he said, years glistening in his eyes, much to his annoyance. He'd been trying to keep the emotions out of this, but it didn't look like he was going to win that battle. Colin Creevey, having taken numerous photographs of the team during the match and afterwards with the Cup, had departed amidst promises to get copies for everyone. Harry took a deep breath to regain his composure. "Ginny, I want you to take over as captain for next year. You'll do a fine job. I know you will. Find us some good players."

He clambered down and was promptly enveloped in a huge bear hug by Ginny who, by the sound of things, was giving in to her emotions. "Thanks, Harry," she whispered through her sniffles. "I – I'll do my best."

"I know you will. Good luck. I'll see you in a bit at the feast." He withdrew from her hug, to be confronted by Theresa and Dai. Hugging them, and afterwards his fellow seventh-years, he then gathered up his robes and left the changing room.

The feast, especially the Gryffindor table (understandably so), was a very loud affair, and the table of the victorious house was abuzz with plans for a celebration party that evening in the common room. Harry and Hermione spoke to McGonagall before she left the Great Hall and were able to secure permission to go to the party, on the grounds that it would be highly conspicuous and suspicious if they were not there. McGonagall smiled at them and informed them that she might "pop along" herself at some point.

And "pop along" she did, along with Lupin, who grinned conspiratorially at Harry and Hermione when he saw the large quantities of sweets and Butterbeer available. These had been obtained from Hogsmeade by the sixth- and seventh-year boys, despite restrictions, as well as other food acquired from the school kitchens, courtesy of the girls.

At one-thirty the following morning, McGonagall ordered them off to bed, and Harry and Hermione quietly slipped off to the hospital wing. They were not on the main ward, but rather in a side-room that contained four beds, two of which were occupied by the sleeping forms of Hannah and Draco.

"I shall see you on Monday," the deputy head whispered to her two students before she left them. They fell into bed, exhausted from the day's excitements, too tired to even think about what the coming days and weeks would bring them. They were asleep before their heads hit their pillows.

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Hannah was the first to wake on Sunday morning, and she glanced at her watch, which revealed that it was just after nine o'clock. Looking round the room, she noticed Hermione stirring, while the two boys remained steadfastly asleep, Draco under the influence of a sleeping potion. "Morning," Hannah greeted the Head Girl, suppressing a smile as she realised the Gryffindor was still fully clothed.

Hermione rolled over to face her, screwing up her eyes as the sunlight hit her full in the face from the partially open curtains. "What time is it?" she asked through a yawn, forcing herself into a sitting position so she could look at Hannah properly.

"Just past nine," Hannah replied. "I doubt those two will be up anytime soon. When did you and Harry get up here last night?"

"You mean this morning," Hermione corrected wryly. "Quarter to two. McGonagall and Lupin came and joined the party. I think they stayed until the end. McGonagall certainly did; she was the one who ended it." She yawned again.

"Lupin went just after midnight," Harry informed them from across the room.

"And a good morning to you," shot back Hermione. "What do we do now?" She hated not having a plan.

"Get dressed?" suggested Harry, pointedly looking at himself and Hermione, still in the clothes they had worn the previous day. "Should we wake Draco?"

"No; it's best to let him sleep. He needs it," said Hannah, getting out of bed. "I'm having a shower. See you in a few minutes." She grabbed some clothes, washbag and a towel, and went into the girls' bathroom.

"S'pose I should as well," remarked Harry.

"Yes," agreed Hermione. "While it's free." She watched him go and then wandered over to the window at the end of the room. She could see some of the first-years running around outside, clearly playing some kind of Tag, and smiled sadly down at them. They were so young and carefree, so innocent, without the awareness of Voldemort's impending attack, not having anyone's expectations resting on their shoulders. She wondered if Draco would ever be able to do something like play Tag again.

She idly glanced across at the foot of the four beds. Hers and Hannah's were on one side of the room, and Harry and Draco's were on the other side, with their trunks at the foot of their beds. She let her gaze rest on each of the four swords, currently in their scabbards. A chill went down her spine as she recalled Dumbledore's words from Friday evening.

She couldn't fight. She didn't even want to, yet she'd been thrown into this without any warning or get-out clause. The same went for the other three as well. Her heart went out to Hannah in particular; she was a Hufflepuff – a gentle-souled, peace-loving Hufflepuff. It was on the four of them alone to defeat the dark forces of evil.

"But what if we fail?" she whispered to herself. "What if we're not strong enough?" Her gaze fell upon Draco's thin, white, drawn face that was troubled even in sleep, and thin body under the covers, wondering what would happen if he were unable to fight with the rest of the Assembly. He isn't in any fit state to be fighting! What does Dumbledore think he's doing?

"Bathroom's free," announced Hannah, breaking into Hermione's thoughts. The Hufflepuff, joining her, followed her gaze and lowered her voice. "He'll come through for us, Hermione. He'll come through." She laid a comforting hand on the Head Girl's arm. "Have faith."

"I suppose…" said Hermione, unconvinced. "I still can't help worrying, though. And if it were Harry…" She shuddered, pushing away unwelcome images from her mind. "I don't envy you, Hannah. You've got it worse."

"Perhaps. But Draco doesn't have the burden of the one expected to defeat the most evil and most powerful Dark Lord of recent times."

Hermione nodded, silent for a moment before collecting her things and going into the shower, still deep in thought.

Hannah sat down on Draco's bed, gently brushing his blond hair off his face. He slept on, oblivious, and did was not aware when Hannah leaned forward and lightly kissed his forehead. She sat back and stayed on the bed for a long time, her hand over Draco's, barely acknowledging the return of first Harry and then Hermione.

"Morning, everyone," said Madam Pomfrey loudly, making her presence known. The three students that were awake jumped, startled, as she pushed a trolley laden with breakfast into the room. "Are you ready for breakfast?"

"Definitely!" exclaimed Harry enthusiastically, leaping to his feet and eyeing the food hungrily.

"Get the table then," ordered Pomfrey. "It's just outside. One of you girls help him."

Hermione went. Pointing her wand at the table, she said, "Mobilimensa." Harry did the same, and together they floated the table into the room, gently setting it down in the centre. It was not long before they and Hannah had also brought the chairs in.

"Nicely done," said Pomfrey approvingly. "Sit down. I'll wake Mr. Malfoy."

He woke at her gentle shaking and immediately pulled on the thick green dressing-gown that the mediwitch handed to him. "Morning," he said wearily, slowly getting out of bed and making his way over to the table. He dropped into the final seat with a heavy thud.

"I want to see you eating for once, Draco," Pomfrey said sternly. "I'm not having you just picking at it like you normally do – yes, I know you do. Severus is reporting back to me, so don't deny it. It's for your own good. You need your strength."

Draco stared at the full English breakfast that the other three were tucking into enthusiastically, and swallowed hard. "I – I can't eat all that!" he whispered in protest. He looked up at her in horror. "I can't!"

"Yes you can. Take your time, if you need to."

He nodded reluctantly, but Harry was quick to engage him in an intense discussion about Quidditch – Madam Pomfrey's tactics – which prevented Draco from focusing one what he was eating. Before he realised it, he had eaten everything on his plate.

"What did I tell you?" said Pomfrey, eyes twinkling. "You don't have to eat anything else if you don't want to. That's a huge improvement on the last four months."

Draco shrugged.

"Just see that you keep it up," added Pomfrey firmly. "You three, keep an eye on him." She bustled out to see to a Ravenclaw third-year that had been violently attacked by one of Peeves' pranks.

"Anyone want a game of chess?" asked Harry.

"Me," said Hannah. "Black or white?"

"I'll go with black." He got out his chess set and set it up on the floor. It was a Muggle chess set – Harry disliked the wizarding chess pieces shouting at him all the time. "You move first."

Hermione sat down on the floor to watch and Draco slipped off to get washed and dressed. Lupin wandered in after a while, dark circles under his eyes from a late night (courtesy of the party), and sat on one of the chairs to oversee the game. Harry finally lost, and he and Hannah looked up to register Lupin's presence for the first time.

"Every time I see you playing chess," commented Lupin teasingly, "you lose."

Harry stuck his tongue out at him. "I beat Hermione once."

"That's only because I had Percy telling me what to do!" retorted Hermione. "I haven't played you since."

"So I'll play you now."

Hermione paused, then sighed. "Oh, go on, then. "Let's have a tournament, all five of us. I'm sure you'll lose, though."

"Hey!"

When Draco returned, he agreed to join in. The tournament lasted all day, with Lupin the eventual victor, beating all four seventh-years. Draco claimed that Lupin, with twenty more years' experience than them, should not have been allowed to join in. They went to bed early, in preparation for the next day.

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TBC

Author thanks:

TinorialPeredhil: I know a few older people who are adamant that young people these days have far too little patience, so I thought I'd transfer that here. The Marauders weren't 'powerful' in the sense that the Assembly is; they were just popular mischief-makers (and bullies in the cases of James and Sirius). The Marauders have Pettigrew as well – who, let's face it, is hardly powerful. I couldn't resist the bit with Hooch and Quidditch. Kind of reminds me of my school – in my last year we had snow in our area (not much, but a lot for our area) and, listening to the radio, just about every school in my area was shut. Was my school? Was it heck!

I wanted to have a different sport aside from Quidditch, and when you get a group of boys together, it's almost inevitable that, if they have a ball, they'll start a game of football. Harry would have learned at primary school. And I only update once a week or thereabouts. I have lots of things to be doing and also it gives people time to read and review.Lucidity: of course Dumbledore knows more than he's letting on! (Remember the tantrum's Harry's thrown in the past because of this?) He knows far, far more. And you'll have to wait and see if anything is officially diagnosed with Draco or not. Do you think I've finished torturing him yet? ;)

Samhaincat: the whole Assembly thing just developed out of nowhere – as did most of this story. It was originally intended to be a 3- or 4-chapter Draco angst-fest. It's turned into much, much more than that. I might do an aside to this specifically about the Founders' Assembly. You need the four different people with the different skills and abilities to balance and strengthen each other. It'll all be in the fic about the Assembly when I get round to writing it. I suspect you're not the only one here who wants to know more about it, and I intend to remedy that situation at some point.Rebell: right. Football. Yes, it's what you would call soccer. No offence, but I really don't see why American football is called football – from what I've seen of it, the ball hardly ever comes into contact with feet. Maybe that's because I'm British, but it seems a pretty stupid name for the sport. You'll hopefully have other fics of mine to look forward to in the future, and there's also the other fics I've written prior to this that you could investigate…nudge nudge wink wink. There's Lupin's 18th birthday that I've just this afternoon started writing. Plus there's a really angsty Draco fic that I'm in the middle of writing, and if you're into Pirates of the Caribbean, I've just finished a 3-chapter fic for that, which I'll be posting when Reaching Maturity is finished.

Rebell: right. Football. Yes, it's what you would call soccer. No offence, but I really don't see why American football is called – from what I've seen of it, the ball hardly ever comes into contact with feet. Maybe that's because I'm British, but it seems a pretty stupid name for the sport. You'll hopefully have other fics of mine to look forward to in the future, and there's also the other fics I've written prior to this that you could investigate…nudge nudge wink wink. There's Lupin's 18th birthday that I've just this afternoon started writing. Plus there's a really angsty Draco fic that I'm in the middle of writing, and if you're into Pirates of the Caribbean, I've just finished a 3-chapter fic for that, which I'll be posting when Reaching Maturity is finished.

CloudofDreams: did the boiler man come and did he sort it out? I'm assuming that's why you couldn't come round today? Ah well. I'll see you Wednesday and then we'll meet up over summer. Narcissa could be on the Light side…or there's an equal chance that she could be with the Dark side! (Well, that's actually a lie, because I've written which side she's on – I'm just not telling you!) As I've told samhaincat, I'm planning to write a one-shot about the Founders' Assembly for you all and post it after this. I've also just written another PotC fic, which will also go up, July or August, I expect.

TheArtDisarray: ooooh, new reviewer! Yay! Hope you enjoy the rest of this!Xared: glad you're liking!

Dark Borg Drone: hannon le for reviewing!