A/N: I had to make a correction to last chapter. I wanted the end of last chapter to take place at the end of February, not the end of January, as was originally posted. I have edited the previous chapter accordingly, but thought that I'd call attention to the change here to preempt any confusion.

Chapter 25

The Disappearance of Lucy Smith

As March began, Harry continued to progress with his occlumency and legilimancy skills, keeping with the schedule that Dumbledore had set for him. His other lessons were going well as well, even potions with McGonogall. He was still maintaining an Exceeds Expectations level minimum, and sometimes would manage to scrape together a potion which McGonogall considered to be truly "outstanding." She was giving him some freedom in the class and was allowing him to pick potions that he wanted to attempt off of a list of potions commonly found on the N.E.W.T.s. Each time he would pick a potion, he would be given a supplementary essay to write on its properties, uses, peculiarities of its ingredients, and so on. Overall, it was infinitely more pleasant than potions with Snape had ever been, and Harry also was pretty sure that he would be coming out of the class with the skills he would need to pass his Potions N.E.W.T. at the end of the next year.

By the end of the first full week in March, Harry was able to look forward almost optimistically to the future. He was constantly progressing in his Defense Against the Dark Arts, The Order of the Phoenix seemed to be keeping Voldemort from getting too strong (there were still news reports of occasional attacks in the muggle world as well as some assassinations within the wizarding world, but overall, things were better than expected), and it seemed quite possible that the next time he faced Voldemort might be the time when he actually beat him.

However, this optimstic mood was destined to be tested by a conversation with none other than Neville Longbottom. On Friday night, Harry was practicing a complex transfiguration charm after mostly everybody had gone to bed. Of course, he didn't usually work on homework late on Friday nights, but he had scheduled an intensive Quidditch practice for the next day (Harry was determined not to lose the next match, with the Quidditch cup so firmly within Gryffindor's sights now) and had a lot of homework that needed to be done for the next week, so he figured he'd get a head-start.

Harry and Neville were the last two people in the common room, and it took a while before Harry realized that Neville was looking at him intently.

"What's going on?" asked Harry, concerned at the look on Neville's face.

"Well, I was..." Neville trailed off.

"What is it?" asked Harry, again. He could somehow sense that Neville wanted to talk about something, but felt uncomfortable about bringing it up. Harry supposed Neville didn't really have too many people to go to at school when he wanted to talk about something. Harry always had Ron and Hermione, and now Ginny as well. He had never really thought about who exactly it was that Neville hung around with.

"Well... It's stupid, it's just... Today's my mum's birthday, and it just, you know, it got me thinking," he said quickly, as if he wanted to get it out before he stopped himself.

"That's not stupid at all," said Harry frowning. "There's not a day that goes by when I don't think of my parents. And now it's the same with Sirius. And it makes sense that it would be especially hard on a day when you should be celebrating her life. There's nothing stupid about the way you're feeling, but sometimes it really does help to talk about it. I'm still amazed that it took so long before you discussed this with anyone here."

Neville was silent for a bit. "D'you reckon I've improved at dueling this year? Be honest," he added hastily, as if assuming that Harry would simply tell him what he thought he wanted to hear.

So, in order to really do what Neville wanted, and be honest with him, Harry took a moment and thought back to the Dueling Club meetings and the Defense Against the Dark arts lessons that had also sometimes featured dueling.

"Yeah," said Harry after giving the question the proper amount of consideration, "I think that you definitely have. It's only natural, now we've finally got a proper Defense Against the Dark Arts' Teacher again."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," said Neville doubtfully. "It is only natural. But... well... I was kind of hoping to improve more than was, you know, only natural. I... I want to be able to duel properly if I ever get to the point where I meet up with a dark wizard again."

Harry was somewhat relieved to hear that he wasn't the only one who was thinking along the lines of preparing for the next battle. And then he thought that it was actually really sad that his generation was being forced to think about stuff like this at an age where their biggest concern should have been who would win the house cup at the end of the term. "I'm sure you'll be ready if you ever encounter one again. I mean, it's not as if we expect there to be another battle tomorrow or anything, do we?" asked Harry, in a voice which tried but failed to sound convincing. If he was honest with himself, he had to admit that he would not be confident in ruling out the possibility of having another encounter with deatheaters soon. He had, in fact, already had two during this school year.

"I'm not so sure about that," said Neville, hesitantly, as if reluctant to challenge Harry's position. "And besides, it could never hurt to be more prepared. I was just wondering..." And then Neville's courage seemed to falter, and it seemed he would not continue.

"What is it, Neville?" asked Harry. Part of him was growing impatient with Neville for not simply getting to the point, but the rest of him was more sympathetic.

"Well, I was just wondering whether you would mind giving me a little bit of extra help with dueling or something?" asked Neville, flushing slightly.

"Sure," said Harry, after some consideration. It would mean extra work, and he already had quite a bit of homework, as well as the extra occlumency lessons with Snape, and the Dueling club, but he still wasn't quite as stressed out as he had been at the beginning of fifth year, and it was impossible to deny that Neville's request was a sound one. It would not hurt at all to practice against the Dark Arts a little more. "Why don't I see if Hermione, Ron, and Ginny want to do some extra practice as well, and we'll check with Dumbledore to see if we can use the room of Requirement some night during the week?"

Neville nodded. "I just want to make sure that I can win in a duel if I ever have the chance. I kind of hope I get a go at Bellatrix Lestrange some day. I know-" Neville hesitated again, then continued, "I know my parents would want me to avenge them."

In that moment, looking at the determined look on Neville's face, Harry couldn't help but hope with Neville that Neville would someday meet Lestrange in a duel. And Harry knew at that moment that he would have to do everything within his power to make sure that Neville was prepared if the moment ever came.

That night, as Neville and Harry had this quiet conversation in the warmth of the dying fire, part of Harry tried to hold on to the belief that such talk was unnecessarily morbid. After all, there was still the possibility that Voldemort might be kept contained. Even if Harry was the only one who could actually kill Voldemort, according to the prophecy, wasn't there still a chance that aurors could capture Voldemort and bring him to justice? Although the prospect seemed unlikely, it seems as if there's something about human nature that makes us want to hold out hope for the best until we are proven wrong in a rather conclusive way.

As it happened, for Harry, this conclusive rebuttal would come three nights later, in the form of a speech from Dumbledore in the Great Hall during the evening meal. After McGonnogal hurried over to him and whispered something in his ear, he rose gravely from his seat, and began to make a short impromptu speech.

"Students, I regret to inform you all that we will now have a need once again for stricter security measures within this school of the type that have not been exercised since the opening of the Chamber of Secrets four years ago. One of your fellow students has recently gone missing. While there is no definitive cause for panic at this early stage, considering that she has been gone for only 24 hours, I think that it would be best to play on the side of caution. We have already conducted a search of the castle, and have not been able to find her. The student in question is the Ravenclaw student Lucy Smith. Of course, if anyone knows anything about her whereabouts, it would be very much appreciated if you would tell someone in a position of authority everything you know immediately," finished Dumbledore, looking rather worn out and tired.

However, by the time Dumbledore and Harry met once again for their next Occlumency training session, no progress had been made in the attempts to locate the missing girl. When Harry asked Dumbledore what steps were being taken, Dumbledore thought for a moment, and then said, "I suppose that there is no reason not to allow you to know this, even though it is not usually information that would be divulged to a student. After all, you have already shown that you are not one who takes kindly to being kept in ignorance about things, an admirable sentiment, I might add. And I suppose that at this point, there is really no point in continuing to pretend that you are simply a student like any other. So, I shall reveal to you that we have searched the entire castle, as well as the grounds, have posted guards all around the grounds and castle to make sure that nobody will be able to enter the grounds to kidnap anybody else, and we have also been calling the Ravenclaws to the hospital wing one by one to keep them under observation for an hour each, to make sure that none of them are under the influence of poly-juice. We had thought it possible that someone whom she thought was in her own house had lured her away, which is why there were no obvious signs of any resistance in the castle, nor any reports of screaming or anything else that would indicate a struggle." Dumbledore looked at Harry for a moment, and then seemed to decide that if he was going to tell Harry things like this, he might as well make the most of it, because the next thing that he said was, "Can you, perhaps, think of anything that we may have missed?"

Harry thought for a moment. "You don't think it might be Malfoy, do you?" asked Harry, slowly.

"The thought has crossed my mind, but there is no way that we can prove it," answered Dumbledore. "At this point, all we can do is make sure that all students are accompanied at all times so that if Draco Malfoy is the source of the problems, he will not be able to pick anyone else off."

"But, couldn't you read his mind or something to make sure it wasn't him?" asked Harry.

"I don't think it would be wise at this point for me to go around reading students' minds. Doing so would make it seem as if I have no regard for people's natural rights. While I agree that at some points, disregard for people's personal privacy is well founded, I do not think that we have yet reached that point. Hogwarts is still the safest place on the planet for anyone to be, as has been acknowledged in most of the letters I have received since news of this unfortunate disappearance made it to the presses. If we began to disregard people's rights here, it seems as if it would be quite possible for the whole country to go into a state of panic. So, unless things get worse, which I sincerely hope they do not, we shall stand by the old caveat, 'Innocent until proven guilty,' especially as I find it very unlikely that a young girl like Lucy Smith would be wandering around by herself in the castle at night in order to give Malfoy a chance to attack her."

So, Dumbledore thought that the culprit was not Malfoy, but this really didn't help matters at all. That simply meant that there was an unknown enemy on the grounds who was not above kidnapping first year students. It seemed as if Neville's worries of encountering a death-eater in the near future may have been well-founded after all.

A/N: All right, that's it for this chapter... Sorry it took so long to update. I'm now thinking that I can probably wrap this story up in 3 or 4 chapters, depending on how things go, so it still looks like I'll be able to finish this before the sixth book comes out. Anyway, any reviews would be greatly appreciated. By the way, I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank those of you who have been reviewing regularly lately, so thanks to seekerchic, andymay, mearas, and phoenix3790. Also, thanks to EvilLadyofDarkness, your review was very encouraging, it's nice to know what I'm doing right. :)