As the sun peeked over the horizon, the crew was arranging themselves in the Weasley's kitchen.

As Harry came down the stairs, he became aware of all the stuff Lorelei had laid out of then kitchen table. A large cauldron, something that looked like Aunt Petunia's herb rack, a variety of potion materials, bags of potting soil, small ceramic pots, and several large, dusty books and crumbly ancient scrolls.

"I hope you don't think you're taking all of that." Harry said haughtily. "We're walking. You might want to travel light."

"Thanks for the tip, Captain" Lorelei said with a laugh and salute, as she double counted to see that she had everything she needed.

Harry disliked being disrespected like that. "I suppose you're just going to bewitch the cauldron follow behind us, dancing a jig."

Lorelei looked up at him and said, "Well, as whimsical as that sounds, I was thinking more along the lines of a reduction spell." She held up her rucksack and continued in the voice of a Muggle magician. "And for my next trick, I shall stuff the entire contents of this table into this humble rucksack. My wand please." Hermione did her best beautiful assistant imitation and handed over the wand. Lorelei presented the wand to her audience, indicated the table and the rucksack again and with a flourish, "Reducto!" The cauldron shrank to no bigger then a teacup; the bags of potting soil looked like pillows for a dollhouse. And not amazingly, all of it fit easily into the humble rucksack.

Harry suddenly had the sensation that someone was screaming into a cave to hear the echo, except the cave was his head and the echo reverberated "Now quit being a brat!". He looked to Lorelei, who talking with Mrs. Weasley.

"Now dears, I've packed your food supply in one of those new "Never-Empty Knapsacks". It should keep you fed for months, if need be. God forbid, but if does take that long at least I will be satisfied that you're eating well." Molly said. Harry thought she had never looked more like a roosting hen then this morning.

She moved around the room and kissed all the members of the party on the forehead. She paused to hug her two sons extra hard then declared, "Now off with you! Get busy saving the world."

As they set off in the direction of Godric's Hollow, they were fairly sure they heard Mrs. Weasley wailing to Mr. Weasley, "Oh its too HORRIBLE!"

Charlie laughed. "Mum's always been a little overdramatic."

Lorelei tried to catch up with Harry. "Harry?" She ventured.

"What?" he said rather crossly.

"I was just wondering if you had all this worked out or if I could offer some suggestions." She said softly.

Defiantly Harry turned to her. "For your information, I can organize my troops without your help."

"Oh, I really have no doubt you are a very charismatic leader. I just wanted to solidify times in the schedule for your "special training". That and several of the things I've packed in my backpack need to be started and that just can't happen at a brisk canter." Lorelei explained breezily.

Harry eyed her. She didn't seem to be trying to make him do anything he didn't want to do. "I don't know if I can trust her yet." He thought. "But how will I know I can if I don't give her a chance to prove herself?"

"I suppose we could stop at some point and train. When would you like to make camp?"

"Aye." She said. "Well I was thinking that it might be best to travel by night and sleep and brew during the day. Keeping a low profile and all. So whenever you want to stop is fine with me."

Harry mulled over her advice. It made sense so he turned to group and said, "We're gonna walk for another couple of hours and then rest and sleep. Lorelei has suggested, and I agree, that we should be traveling by night."

Ron grumbled. "Since when is she running this expedition?"

Charlie patted him on the back. "Don't worry little brother. I really can't think of better witch to lead us. I knew she'd make something of herself after I left Hogwarts. I was just holding her back."

Hermione tilted her head. "What do you mean 'holding her back'? Were you involved?"

"Involved?" Charlie snorted. "Is that what they're calling it now? Back in my day, we just 'went out' together. And yes, Lorelei and I went out for two years and then I broke up with her when I went to Romania. I didn't want a long distance relationship to interfere with her studies."

"Yes but he didn't really think that one through," Lorelei interjected. "Heartbreak interfered with my studies." She gave Charlie look that clearly said she hadn't really forgiven him for that. Charlie bit his lips and then paid undue attention to his shoes.

Ron was amazed. He'd never seen his most gregarious brother this awkward.

"Hey, why didn't I even know about this?" Ron said indignantly.

"Charlie had already left Hogwarts and I was a Gryffindor prefect. I wasn't about to go crying to a first year. Though I think I did snap at you a couple of time. I think it had something to do with your hair." Lorelei explained.

Harry laughed. "I remember you now. Ron thought you had some sort of personal vendetta against him."

"Not him, just the red hair." laughed Lorelei. "And for the snapping, I apologize, Ron. It was wrong of me."

Ron puffed himself up in mock pride and said, "I suppose I shall forgive you."

The group laughed as they amble along. After a while, Lorelei introduced a new subject.

"Do you wanna start training in Telemetry?" She asked brightly.

Hermione eyed her. "How does one 'train' for Telemetry. It seems a bit like a gift, like the Second Sight."

"Nah. Pretty much anybody can do it." Lorelei replied. "It's a little rough at the beginning but the frustration actually helps."

Ron made a face. "How can frustration help anything?"

"Well, I remember when Dumbledore was first teaching me, he would just talk incessantly inside my skill. It got exceeding annoying. And I couldn't tell him to stop…at least not vocally. So at one point, I was about to go crazy and I just pictured telling him to 'BE QUIET! BE QUIET! BE QUIET!' And the annoying little voice in my head just said, 'Alright'. It's really just a matter of visualization. If you can see the person in your minds eye" Hermione snorted. "you can talk to them. Or at least talk in their head."

Hermione still looked skeptical. "So either you master it or lose your wits?"

"Basically" Lorelei laughed. Harry was intrigued by the warmth and clarity of her laugh. It was so inviting and friendly. He could definitely see why Charming Charlie had been into her – she was really quite beautiful with that mischievous sparkle in her eyes.

Ron shrugged. "What the hell…I expect to go completely nutters sometime soon anyway."

As the group walked, Lorelei asked them questions that rolled around in their heads like marbles.

"What is your favorite vegetable?"

"Is the sky blue?"

"What are the major exports of Borneo?"

"How does a walrus chew his food without impaling himself?"

After about an hour of absurd questions, only Hermione and Charlie had managed to answer without opening their mouths. Neville had managed a bloodcurdling scream that made Lorelei nearly fall to the ground, but he couldn't manage to form articulate speech.

Lorelei shook her head. "We'll try again tomorrow. I think we've all had enough for today."

Silence fell over the expedition as they trudged on.

"Couldn't we just Apparate to a certain point and continue from there?" Neville whined wearily.

Harry sighed. "Neville, you and I don't have our licenses. And the Ministry isn't exactly keen on me at the moment. They'll be looking for any excuse to bring me in, blackmailing me into being their poster boy. We're just not going to give them that opportunity."

Everyone nodded in agreement and kept walking.

About mid-day Harry motioned to a small wooded area off the road a bit.

"How 'bout we camp there for a couple of hours. Maybe get some sleep and then pick back up after dark?"

"Good idea Harry." Charlie said. "I'll break out the 'Never-Empty Knapsack' and we'll have a small snack."

"Forget small," Ron declared. "I'm famished."

They lounged around the comfortable fire Charlie and Harry had managed to prepare for them.

"Charlie used to rave about his mother's cooking and I never really believed it could be as good as he rhapsodized." Lorelei said, as she picked bits of chicken from the bones. "No wonder he thought I was a horrible cook." She added with a giggle.

"Yeah…for all your book learning, the art of cooking always eluded you." Charlie said with a twinkle in his eye.

"I never said I was a world class chef." Defended Lorelei. "And you should have known anyway. Anything that involved the mixing and mashing of ingredients together was out of my league. Potions always was my worst subject."

"If you were the best witch of your age, how could your potions be weak?" Hermione queried suspiciously.

"Aye, well, I started my wizarding education in America at Thistlethorn. Their Potions Master had accidentally drowned in a vat of Liquid Bee Sting. They think he may have been allergic. As great Potions Masters are a dying breed, my first two years of school, we had a really shoddy substitute. After I transferred to Hogwarts, Snape wasn't exactly forgiving towards my lack of basic knowledge or training and gave me a hard time for the next five years.

"Sounds like Snape." Harry said bitterly.

"Well I never really though was he evil." Lorelei said. "He just seemed stuck in adolescence. Like the current students represented the students that plagued him so many years before. After a while it just seemed sad."

"I never though he was pitiful. He was just vindictive." Replied Harry, with hatred dripping from every word.

"I supposed he was particularly cruel to, because of James." Lorelei conceded.

"How do you know about my father?" Harry questioned, rather loudly.

Lorelei looked slightly uncomfortable. Charlie answered for her quickly. "Lorelei's parents knew your parents, Harry. They too were cut down in Voldemort's wake."

Ron gave a shudder at the mention of the Dark Lord's name. "Ron really." Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Did you ever meet my parents?" Harry asked hopefully.

Lorelei stared at him, close to tears. "Yes. I knew them well. I lost my parents and yours in quick succession. It was truly devastating. Even more so when Dumbledore shipped me off to America." Charlie leaned in and used his thumb to wipe away the fat tear that was traveling down her cheek.

"Why don't we go to bed now?" Hermione said to the rest of them. "We've still got a long walk ahead of us.