A Magical Life:

By Tumblequ
With love

Ancient times were the youth of the world

- Francis Bacon, De Dignitate et Augmentis Scientiarum

Chapter THREE

The Beads

As the days wore on, a daily routine was established between the three friends and the rest of the household. Breakfast was a joint meal and held at seven am sharp. Tonks and Remus often came around quite early in the morning to discuss things with Mr and Mrs Weasley, and invariably decided to stay for breakfast.

On these occasions Tonks was often ensorcelled away to 'play' with the three seventeen year olds. Play time consisted of barrages of spells flying, depending on the day, both at and away from Tonks. The bright and bubbly auror had commented on how proud she was at the rate of improvement the three had.

After her third visit Tonks found herself commenting on how fast the three were progressing.

"You seem to be putting a lot of effort into this, Harry. You do know that He isn't your responsibility, don't you?" Tonks said softly enough so that the three teens could hear her crystal clearly. Harry's movements stopped immediately, and he stared at Tonks with such wide eyes that for a moment the woman found herself doubting her own words.

There was silence as Ron and Hermione waited to see how Harry would react. Previous experience told them it would not be well, but a deeper instinct was informing them that Harry had in fact changed a great deal, even since the beginning of the previous school year.

Neither of them wanted to reflect for too long on the reason for this change.

"It's important to me, Tonks. You have to understand that if it wasn't personal before now…" Harry didn't finish the sentence, and to be honest; he didn't need to.

The auror nodded her understanding. Revenge was a good enough reason for anything in her profession. Anything that motivated the aurors was blindly encouraged by the senior staff members, who were always on the look out for potentially strong members of the force.

If it got you fighting well enough to save your own arse, then it was good enough motivation.

There wasn't much time to comment, as Remus opened the door to the room they had been practicing in with a smile at Tonks and the other three.

"Ready to go?" he asked with a secretive smile at Tonks, before turning to Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"You three have been working Tonks too hard, she's always exhausted when she comes out. I think you're taking this 'coming of age' thing a little seriously, Harry" Remus said with a smile, before waving at the trio and beckoning Tonks to follow him.

"I just wanted to make a quick stop in with Mad-eye before we…" his voice trailed off as they walked down the hallway, leaving the trio behind.

Ron sat down with a sigh of relief and Hermione followed him slowly, perching on the back of a solid diamond chair. Harry leaned against the closest wall with a small smirk playing across his lips. As she looked up and saw him, Hermione couldn't hold the giggle in.

Harry straightened with a look of confusion and mild hurt.

"What?"

"Oh, honestly Harry! You looked like one of those bad-guy people from the movies" Hermione said, and promptly began imitating him, complete with overdone evil-but-hot look and superior 'glare', even throwing in a fake cigarette puff. Ron laughed and nodded while Harry blushed violently.

"Can I help it if that's who I am?" Harry asked defensively, attempting to keep a straight face as his friends fell in bouts of giggles to the floor.

After an appropriate time of watching his friends laugh at him, Harry sat down and glowered at them. A few more seconds past before they realised that Harry was getting bored of the 'joke'

They rearranged themselves so that they were seated in a three-person circle. Sharing significant looks they quietened down until Harry's future profession as a Movie Star was forgotten and they were focusing on a much closer future.

Hermione put her hand into her pocket, before pulling out a shiny gold galleon.

"We need to call the DA" she said firmly. Harry nodded his agreement and Ron looked like he and Hermione had already discussed the subject, and he was in complete agreement with the bushy brunette.

"I think that it was a mistake last year, not continuing. And we need to speak to the senior members about going back to school" Harry said as he toyed with his own galleon, not ready to meet Hermione and Ron's eyes.

It had been his fault they had not continued with the DA last year, and the fact that had there been more reinforcements to help them stop Malfoy had been plaguing his conscience.

Hermione pulled out her wand.

"I was thinking how we could do it – the galleons only show a date. We can't exactly meed up in the room of requirement so how would they know where to come? I also thought that surely some of their families would be in hiding and we may not be able to find them at all, unless we already have an existing link, like the galleons. The only problem is, I can't change the settings on the galleons unless I have them all here, so I can't name a place." Hermione finished with an expectant look at the two boys.

"What about asking the adults?" Ron asked unenthusiastically, seemingly already knowing his suggestion was not the answer to their problem.

Hermione shook her head smugly.

"So we can't contact them?" again, Ron's voice sounded incredulous, and somewhat annoyed.

Hermione gave him a mischievous look.

"Now, I didn't say that"

Harry rolled his eyes at their banter and nudged Hermione to explain, curious about what she had planned.

"Well, I'll admit it, for a while I was a little down about it. After all, why wouldn't they go back? They each understand the need to learn everything they can for this war, and nothing their parents say will stop them, whatever the adults think" Hermione paused, and Ron and Harry nodded agreement, understanding where she was coming from.

"But then I thought, if Hogwarts is reopening then that means school letters. And school letters means they have to be delivered to each of the seventh years. And that means that we can hijack them" she finished victoriously, looking to Harry and Ron for their reactions.

Ron looked slightly confused, and Harry was frowning.

"Hermione, if we can hijack the owls, what is it that's stopping Voldemort from hijacking them?" Harry asked, concern showing clearly in his voice. Ron too had spotted the obvious problem and was frowning, trying to figure out the answer (if there was one) to Harry's question.

Hermione nodded her agreement, before tapping one finger against her nose.

"Contacts. We can't ask the adult a la direct, but we can say 'oh we have some friends we have letters for, do you think we could send them with the school owls…?' and they say 'yes, of course dear, missing your friends…'" Hermione trailed off suggestively.

Harry was grinning, but Ron was still looking concerned.

"And if they check the letters we send?" he asked.

Hermione smiled again, stood up and walked over to her bag, producing an enormous book entitled: The Art of Trickery and Deceit in Publishing.

The two boys traded identical looks of disbelief and surprise.

"You want us the read that?" Harry asked, the disbelief flowing from him. Hermione gave him a disapproving look.

"No. I already have, and I've market the spells that we're going to need. As well as the potions… Harry, I was wondering though… do you still have The Princes… or Snape's, really… book?" Hermione asked, her voice lowering at the end of the question. Harry's face clouded over with absolute loathing, and both Ron and Hermione were afraid that he was going to spit at the sound of the name.

But he nodded, quite reluctantly.

Hermione sighed in relief.

"Thank god, the potions are complicated and… well… I can't help thinking that Snape really is very good at potions, even if he isn't good at… well… life" Hermione said, certainly sounding relieved, but possibly more at the fact that Harry (who was becoming extremely good at blasting hex's) had not blown her head off for even asking.

With a quick nod to Ron and Hermione, Harry sped upstairs to where his trunk lay, completely back to normal and grabbed the aforementioned book. He was back in a matter of minutes.

As he returned Hermione looked up expectantly and smiled as she saw the battered textbook in his hands. She indicated the page the Trickery and Deceit book was on and Harry walked over to have a look at the spell.

He read over it three times before groaning out loud and turning to Hermione once more.

"Do we have to use such advanced charms? These are going to be very hard to learn if we have to send them before our Hogwarts letters are due to arrive…" Harry paused suddenly, a look of horror washing across his features as he realised something "come to think of it: shouldn't our letters have arrived already? They're never normally this late! Do you think they've already been sent out? And we didn't get any because we have the Order to tell us what's happening?" Harry finished breathlessly, but Hermione's look of scepticism hadn't changed.

"I asked Mrs Weasley about that, actually, and she said there was a delay because of something about the quill that writes the letters having been lost in all the confusion. She sounded quite… disturbed actually, and if I didn't know better, I'd almost think they think that the quill has been stolen" Hermione sighed, but shrugged "at least that buy's us some more time, but not too much. We need to ask Mrs Weasley, or better: McGonagall, this evening at dinner – I can't help thinking that the deadline may have been delayed, but it's not infinite"

Harry scowled good-naturedly, trust Hermione to speak to the adults before she even suggested – well – speaking to them. Although the thing about the quill sure did sound… off.

"What would the Death Eaters want with a quill though? It's not any real, well, dangerous magic is it?" he asked, suddenly realising Ron was not in the room and looking around to see if he had missed the red-head (as unlikely as the idea seemed).

Hermione nodded eagerly to his question.

"Well, I happened to overhear McGonagall talking to Mr Weasley, of all people, about it. She said that it was enchanted to give the exact location of every child who was attending Hogwarts this year" at Harry's shocked gasp she nodded gravely.

"But the thing is, Professor McGonagall was saying that it won't work outside her room, because apparently the spell isn't on the actual quill – it's on the room. Fascinating, isn't it?" Hermione certainly seemed intrigued, but Harry was less than thrilled.

"And if someone copied the spell? Or is still in the room?" he asked, obviously thinking that the second the quill was found it had to be destroyed, as something as powerful as that could not be allowed to continue on.

Hermione gave him a bland look as Ron finally re-entered the room, his arms full of Potion ingredients, as well as a tiny cauldron. All of which he dumped in a heap in front of Hermione.

The brunette gave him a disgruntled look before turning back to Harry to answer his question.

"Not only does the person who stole it, if anyone stole it, not know it can't work outside the room, they don't know the spell that makes it work inside the room. As well as that the spell that makes it work is very complicated, and it has a signature. Only the spell, cast by McGonagall, in the next" she consulted her wristwatch "oh… I don't know… eighty-four hours? Will be able to work. And it quite literally can't be in the room as not only the wards say it isn't, but the spell that makes it work says it isn't, and that cannot be tricked or fooled, especially since no-one but, McGonagall, Mr Weasley and us three know of it's existence" she finished smartly with a swish of her wand to organise the ingredients piled in front of her.

Harry and Ron exchanged startled looks, before grinning at each other.

An hour later found the threesome clustered around a bubbling cauldron looking dubiously at the potion inside.

Two books lay open next to the cauldron; one where they had found the initial recipe for the 'Can't-see-me' (figuarita) potion, a thick tomb that looked as if it could be a bed-side dresser it was so tall, and a tatty old textbook open to a page that looked as though there was no writing at the very back of the book.

The potion in the small cauldron was bubbling quietly, looking almost good enough to eat. It was transparent like water, but clouded with orange so that it looked like diluted fanta. There was no smell, and none of them had been brave enough to taste it after the recipe book had informed them they would fall into a coma for the next twenty-hours for each sip they took.

A stack of prepared letters stood silently near-by, phrases leaping out at them whenever they glanced over.

"I think it's done" Hermione muttered softly, looking at the potion gleefully.

The two boys nodded equally as eagerly, but stayed quiet – not wanting to call any adults to the room and blow their cover.

"Right you two, one drop per sheet of paper. No more, otherwise the next person to touch it will be invisible for a day. And I don't think the adults'll miss that one" Hermione said as she scooped us a small amount of the potion and handed them two miniature ladles.

There were seventeen letters in total, all saying the exact same thing (with only a few personalised touches for their closer friends) and the boys split them in half while Hermione bottled the remainder of the potion in tiny, tiny bottles no bigger than half of Harry's pinkie's finger nail.

As soon as Harry dropped one drop on Luna's letter, the small globule spread until the paper looked as if there was nothing written on it at all. As Harry watched however, his own handwriting began to start out, writing a completely different (and innocent) letter.

When they had all completed their separate tasks they regrouped, Hermione holding a handful of small glass beads, Ron and Harry a stack of letters each.

Hermione beamed at them and distributed the beads.

"Unbreakable charm on them. Which means they won't break" she said happily as Ron and Harry exchanged annoyed looks. "Small enough that they won't be noticed. If you're in trouble and you want to be unconscious, just take a swig of one" a small, devious smile curled around her lips "you'll look like you're dead. There are no indications, as this isn't the proper use of this potion, not even Snape will know why you've suddenly 'died'"

The fact that Hermione was thinking about possible capture – planning on possible capture sapped the room of victory, and Harry sat down heavily.

"And how do we hide them?" he asked gravely.

Hermione nodded at his tone, apparently finding it the best suiting. She pulled out a simple chain from her pocket.

"I can make mine into jewellery, but I figured you two wouldn't like that. And guys" she waited for them to look back up at her "there will be more of them: different potions, for different things. Alright?" the gravity of the situation seemed to have sunk into all three as Ron and Harry nodded slowly, obviously trying to turn their own minds to the problem.

"For now" Hermione continued "you can keep them in the hems of your robes, or even in your pockets. But as we make more you'll need a proper hiding spot, okay?" again the boys nodded slowly.

"Right. Are you ready then?" more nods.

Harry was examining the small glass bead. It really was no bigger than 5mm by 5mm, and was perfectly round. It didn't look like it could hold more than, at the maximum, four drops of any potion. Harry thought back to his potions class with reluctance and tried to think of potions that could be so potent as to only need one or two drops. In total, he came up with three. But deciding Hermione must know what she was doing, he followed his two best friends downstairs.

As he arrived he was surprised to see Hermione speaking with Professor McGonagall and traded startled looks with Ron, who was looking as if they had suddenly had a very close call.

"Ah! Hermione, I thought you had changed your mind about sending those letters, I was just about to post the school ones off" Professor McGonagall said with a gentle smile at the young witch as she rushed forward to present a bundle of parchment.

"Oh no! I'm glad we caught you! We didn't think they'd be sent off today… It's lucky the boys weren't lazy and put them off until tomorrow!"

As Hermione handed them to her, Minerva noticed that her hands seemed to be tinged strangely orange.

"Whatever happened to your hands, Miss Granger?" she asked, curiously picking up Hermione's hands to inspect them. "They do rather seem to be orange" there was something… nagging at the back of her mind that told her Hermione's hands should definitely not be orange because… she simply couldn't place it.

Hermione was blushing prettily, obviously embarrassed to have been caught at some wrong by her professor.

"Oh, Harry was practicing a distortion spell on me, and he didn't get it quite right" Hermione said, shooting Harry, who had walked into the room straight after, her an apologetic look. It was true… in some ways. Harry had been practicing distortion spells on her – except they had all gone perfectly.

Professor McGonagall was giving Harry a stern look.

"Mr Potter, perhaps in the future you might want to make sure you are efficient in using a spell before you cause potential damage to your friends" she turned back to Hermione "I will have to check your letters before I send them, but I am sure they will all be fine. Well, I shall be off; I was leaving just as you three arrived – just in the nick of time" she gave them all a warm, if still stern smile and swept out of the room.

The three gave each other furtivly pleased looks and fell together in an attempt at a group high-five that just ended in a knot of hands.

Ron's voice could be heard over the giggling.

"We did it!"

"Let's hope it works" was Hermione's soft reminder.

"Well, we'll know tomorow" Harry put in, his eyes connecting meaninfully with both of his friends.

They nodded their solumn agreement.

To be continued…