Disclaimer: J.k. Rowling owns Harry Potter and that's not my name.
A month later the thestral drawn carriages pulled away from the castle carrying all of the students. Hermione watched from the icy window remembering how she used ride away from the school excited about the vacation. The door opened behind her and she turned away from the glass to see who was there. Harry and Ron were pulling off their gloves, their cheeks pink and snow on their cloaks and in their hair.
"Hey Hermione," Ron said putting his hands over the fire.
"Hi, where have you two been?" she asked going over to sit with them around the flames.
"Helping Hagrid with the thestrals," Harry explained.
"Oh." Hermione and Ron had decided to stay at Hogwarts in case they were ever needed. Hermione had a room next to her friends' so she could have her privacy. "Want some tea?" she gestured to the tea pot on the table. Harry and Ron nodded and she poured them all some. As they sat sipping their drinks they started talking.
"What do guys want to do later?" Harry asked.
"We could go down to Hogsmeade. Everyone knows you're staying near there anyway," Ron answered.
"Yeah, ok."
"And Voldemort shouldn't be attacking anyplace soon because he just lost 150 Death Eaters.," Hermione added.
"What's going to happen to them?" Ron wondered.
"Let's just say the dementors are going to be full," Harry said shuddering.
"Most of them have already got the kiss, but the others are getting it today or tomorrow," Hermione said.
"Let's talk about something pleasant," the red head offered. They did and after ten minutes Harry put down his cup.
"C'mon then, let's go to Hogsmeade." They all got up, and Hermione went to her room to get her cloak while the two men found dry ones. Soon they were walking away from the castle, the snow crunching under their feet. They reached the village in a matter of minutes. The three friends wandered around for a while, with people watching after Harry. They decided to go to the Three Broomsticks for some butterbeers. When they entered wizards and witches glanced at them and merely nodded at Harry. The excitement of him being in Hogsmeade had died down and now he was treated just like he was four years ago.
"Three butterbeers, please," he said to Madam Rosmerta as they all sat down at the bar. She nodded and walked away, her shoes clicking on the wood floor.
"Here you go," she said when she came back "That's ten sickles." Harry handed over the silver and took his butterbeer.
"Is there anywhere you want to go, or are we just going to wander around all day?" he asked.
"We could go to Diagon Alley and visit Fred and George," Ron said brightly.
"Yeah, all right," his friends agreed. Once they were done with their butterbeers they walked outside. Snow was coming down in tufts, making it hard to see. Harry, Ron, and Hermione Apparated into the Leaky Cauldron startling Tom.
"Sorry, it's a blizzard out there," Hermione said cleaning up the pile of snow they had brought with them.
"S'ok," said Tom and went back to cleaning a table. Harry led the other two out back and tapped the bricks with his wand. Instantly they moved aside letting the three young people pass.
There weren't many people in Diagon Alley because of the storm. Ron ran ahead trying to find his brothers' shop but he couldn't see very well and the storm was getting worse. After what seemed like ages, he found it and they all scrambled inside. Fred came out of the back room to see who it was.
"Ronniekins!" he shouted. "What a pleasant surprise!" Ron scowled but said,
"Hey Fred. Where's George?"
"Right here little bro'," answered a grinning George coming out of the other wing of the shop. "What brings you three here?"
"We just thought we'd stop by," Harry said shrugging and immediately hurried away to look at the twins' pranking items.
"How are you?" Hermione asked, watching Ron trying looking at some sort of purple ball.
"We're fine," Fred answered also looking at his younger brother. Hermione frowned slightly.
"What exactly does that do?" she asked. Before anyone had a chance to answer her Ron disappeared. Fred and George smiled.
"Perfect!" they exclaimed.
"What happened?" asked Harry coming out of the other room with a bag bulging with dungbombs and canary creams, and various other pranking items. Hermione looked at the floor and saw a bowl of grapes. Harry saw it too. "Why is there a bowl of grapes on the ground?" he asked. Fred picked it up.
"Try one," he said. Hermione gasped.
"That's disgusting! Harry, don't eat it, it's Ron!" Harry looked amused.
"Only one of them is," George said. Fred pushed the bowl towards the black haired man.
"Go on then. You most likely won't get Ron," he said. Harry picked up a grape and inspected it. Then he popped it in his mouth and gagged.
"I think I chose the wrong one," he said, swallowing and spitting afterwards. "Oh well. Hermione are you ready to go?"
"What about Ron?"
"He'll always be with us. Or at least with me," Harry said patting his stomach. Hermione was horrified.
"Harry!" she shouted. Suddenly Ron appeared instead of the bowl of grapes. He was laughing hysterically and trying to get up.
"That…was…so…funny," he gasped. Hermione was surprised at first, but then she scowled and smacked Harry upside the head. He grinned and Fred and George high fived each other.
"That was awesome!" they exclaimed.
"What was that?" Ron asked, finally managing to stop laughing and get up.
"Spying Solutions. You press the button on one of them and you turn into a bowl of whatever fruit is the same color of the ball for the amount of time it says on the package," George explained. "Great for spying; I just wish we'd thought of it at school. Homework would have been so much easier."
"What if there's more than one fruit of that color?" Harry asked.
"They're all a shade darker or lighter than the other one's of that color and it says what fruit the ball represents on the box," Fred said.
"What if someone eats you while you're in fruit form?" Hermione asked.
"They won't because whenever they reach for you they'll automatically take different one and once you're the last fruit they just don't notice you. It's a simple charm, really," said George.
"Brilliant!" Harry proceeded to get one of each of the balls on the shelf. Then he brought his bag to the counter while Ron browsed. After he had stocked up on Nosebleed Nougats, Tweeting Tangos, and, of course, the Spying Solutions, they sat and talked with his brothers for a while.
At noon Harry, Ron, and Hermione decided they better go. Once they said their goodbyes, Hermione dragged her friends to the book store. The snow was still coming down but not as hard, so the street was slowly filling up with people. They were right at the door when she looked at her watch and gasped.
"Oh my God! We've got to be at the Ministry in fifteen minutes!" she shrieked.
"Why do we have to be at the Ministry in fifteen minutes?" Ron inquired.
"We have to get the awards!" she explained and pulled the two men to the brick wall.
"Um, awards?" Ron asked.
"For the spell!" Hermione said exasperatedly. They had told Fudge everything about the spell, and he was holding an award ceremony for them.
"I thought that was tomorrow," Harry said.
"No it's today and we still have to change and get past security and everything. I can't believe I forgot!" Once they were inside the Leaky Cauldron they Apparated to Hogsmeade and ran to Hogwarts. It took the three of them five minutes to get dressed and five more to run to Hogsmeade again. "Oh no, we're late!" Hermione was yelling as they Apparated to the phone box.
"Two, four, another four, and two," Harry muttered, dialing the numbers.
"Welcome to the Ministry of Magic," said a woman's voice from the phone "Please state your name and business"
"Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger here for an award ceremony," Harry said. Three tags slipped out and once the three adults put them on, the floor began to descend. When they were in the hallway they began running to the golden gates. The security wizard let them through quickly. Hermione pulled the other two to the elevator and pressed the button for level three, and they began to go down. After the doors had opened Hermione led them down one hallway, then took a right, went through a door, took another right, went down another hallway, and finally stopped in front of a silver door with two gargoyle statues on either side. She had obviously been the only one who'd received directions.
"Ok, this is the place." She straightened her robes and pushed the door open. The big clock on the wall told them they were ten minutes late.
"Where have you been?" they heard a woman shriek. She came stomping towards them, and when she got closer they noticed her fiery red hair.
"Hey mum," Ron said weakly.
"You're ten minutes late! Don't 'hey mum' me. Now where are Fred and George?" she sighed in frustration when she didn't see the two and pushed them all through the crowd of people to a big curtain.
"You were supposed to be here ten minutes ago!" cried a second voice. The Minister of Magic came walking quickly over to them. "Where were you?" he shouted, and not waiting for an answer composed himself and shook their hands.
"Hello Minister," Hermione greeted him. Ron and Harry did the same. Cornelius Fudge nodded.
"Someone will come and tell you when to go through the curtain. Be ready," he barked and rushed off with Mrs. Weasley behind him. Ron slumped against the wall.
"If we weren't getting the awards I bet mum would have hexed us into next week for being late to something like this." The others agreed. Soon they heard the chattering on the other side of the curtain die down as someone walked onto the stage.
"Ladies and gentleman," The Minister of Magic's voice began. He sounded strange, as if he was forcing himself to sound cheerful. "Thank you all for coming here today. As you all know, we are here to honor three of my best aurors for doing a great thing. They have found the defense spell for the killing curse, Avada Kedavra." He paused while some people gasped, then continued. "The spell isn't for everyone, but I am not the person to tell you about why and who it works for. For that, please welcome Hermione Granger, Ronald Weasley, and Harry Potter!" An elderly wizard gestured for the three to go through the curtain. On the other side they were dazzled by bright lights, and were deafened by applause. As soon as they got used to the lights they saw about thirty or forty people sitting in front of the stage, all cheering and clapping, and Fudge was applauding politely from his seat near the aurors being awarded. He looked a little distant. Harry, Ron, and Hermione waved and smiled, then took their places at the podium. Backstage they had planned the order in which they would speak and what each of them would say.
"Thank you," Hermione began "We are very honored to be here today. Now, I'm sure you all want to here about how we made up the spell, and how it works, so I'll tell you.
"We started looking in the library for useful information. We didn't really find anything and soon we got attacked by dementors and were in the hospital for a couple of weeks. When we got out we started looking again and one day Harry's scar began to hurt. That's when I realized how to make the counter curse. Harry survived because his mother sacrificed herself for him, and her love protected him. We needed a spell that would protect the conjurer using love. Expecto Patronum means something along the lines of expecting a guardian, or protector. So we looked up the Latin word for love and put it in front of Patronum. The result was Amoris Patronum. How it works is a red wall springs up in front of the person who cast the spell, and Avada Kedavra bounces off and becomes a blue light, then hits the person who conjured the killing curse and knocks them out.
"We were confused about this and then Ron realized what happened. So here he is to tell you about it," she concluded and turned to Ron, clapping along with everyone else. Fudge was looking incredibly interested.
"Thanks Hermione. To comprehend what I'm about to say, you have to understand that Avada Kedavra is the worst spell in the world and Amoris Patronum is most likely the best because it saves a person from the worst. When they combine, the defense weakens the killing curse's power, and the killing curse weakens the defense spell's. When the killing curse is weakened it still does damage, but it doesn't kill. When the defense is weakened it doesn't stop harm from coming to somebody but it doesn't let it go too far. Basically the two spells compromise, forming a stunning spell. Since Avada Kedavra bounces off of its counter, it turns into a stunning spell and hits the witch or wizard who conjured it.
"This spell works very well in most cases, but not always. Harry is the one who will tell you about this," Ron said and Harry took his place near his friends and cleared his throat.
"Like Ron said, the spell doesn't work for everyone. The only ones it works for are people who are loved and capable of love themselves. Anyone who is not capable of love is heartless, and to be heartless you have to be a murderer or at least someone who doesn't care about killing someone. For example, Lucius and Draco Malfoy were killed with the killing curse. The last spell their wands had performed had been an unidentified spell, but it let out a red mist. They had made an attempt at Amoris Patronum but they had nobody to love them, and they were incapable of love, so the spell didn't work for them and they ended up dead."
"Why would You-Know-Who kill them? I heard they were right in his inner circle!" someone called out.
"Because they told him about the defense spell but when he tried it on them it didn't work. He thought they were lying to him and decided they needed to be killed."
"How do you know?" someone else asked. Harry grimaced.
"I have my ways," he answered. Then Fudge stood up.
"Now it's time for the awards!" he said, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione went to sit down at the back of the stage. "To Ms. Hermione Granger, for taking part in finding the counter curse for Avada Kedavra, Order of Merlin, second class." Everyone applauded and Hermione beamed as she went up to get the piece of paper. Then she sat back down and waited. "To Mr. Ronald Weasley, for taking part in finding the counter curse for Avada Kedavra, Order of Merlin, second class." Everyone was puzzled because Fudge never presented awards by saying the same thing for more than one of the people, but clapped anyway. Once Ron was seated the Minister continued. "And to Mr. Harry Potter, for taking part in finding the counter curse for Avada Kedavra, Order of Merlin, second class." Again everyone was surprised but put their hands together for Harry. Once the awards were awarded, Fudge disappeared, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione went to talk to their friends.
"Congratulations!" Mrs. Weasley cried, hugging each of them. Fred and George were behind her, along with Ginny, Percy, Charlie, and Bill.
"Thanks Molly," Harry said grinning. They talked for a bit and then he went to talk to Neville. "Hey Neville."
"Hi Harry. Congratulations, I can't believe you three found the counter curse!"
"Thanks. How are things with you?"
"Oh, I'm fine. What are you going to do now that you've finished the assignment?" Neville asked.
"We were going to ask Fudge for another one but he's disappeared," Harry answered frowning.
"Yeah, I wonder where he went. He's acting a little strange."
"I've noticed too. But he's had a lot to do lately, and he's really stressed. I guess he had a meeting or something."
"Probably," Neville agreed.
"So are you seeing anyone?" Harry asked, smiling mischievously. Neville blushed.
"Parvati Patil," he said.
"Really? She wasn't too fond of you in school."
"Well, when I actually began to be able to do magic properly," Harry laughed. "She began talking to me a lot, and after graduation we started seeing each other."
"That's great Neville!"
"Thanks. How about you?"
"No, I've been busy, what with disappearing for four years and the assignment and all." Neville chuckled. "Well good luck with Parvati, Neville. She's actually coming over here now." Harry winked and walked away.
He was pouring himself some punch from the refreshments table when someone called his name. Ginny ran over to him.
"Harry!" she called.
"Hi Ginny."
"Can you believe Ron got Order of Merlin, second class?" she exclaimed.
"I always knew he had it in him," Harry said. Ginny grinned.
"Still, it's amazing! And he got a money reward!" That was true. Harry and Ron and Hermione had gotten 2000 galleons for the spell.
"Yes, it's great," said Harry sipping his punch. Just then his scar started burning. He dropped his glass and clutched his head. Thankfully the pain wasn't too bad and there was no blood. The crash of the glass had attracted everyone's attention, though, and they were all staring at Harry. Soon the pain went away and he waved his wand, cleaning up the glass. "Nothing to worry about," he told them "I just suddenly got a really bad headache." After a moment they all went back to whatever they were doing earlier.
"Harry, what happened?" Hermione asked, pulling him away from the crowd.
"He's mad that we really did find a counter curse, and he's frustrated because he doesn't understand why it didn't work for the Malfoys. He is also annoyed, because it's us that found it and he couldn't do anything to stop us. But he's forming a plan, and he's not so angry anymore." Ron looked worried.
"That's not good. But how could he possibly know? Only Fudge and this crowd know about it so far."
"I don't know," Harry said shaking his head.
"We can't do anything right now, so let's forget about it for today," Hermione said and the other two nodded.
Soon the party was over and everyone went home. Harry, Ron, and Hermione Apparated to Hogsmeade and walked back to Hogwarts, discussing what they were going to do with their money. Dumbledore joined them, as he had been at the celebration as well. Harry explained to the old man about what happened with his scar and he said the same thing as Hermione. That there's nothing they can do and not to worry about it for now.
"Just be alert," he told them as they entered the castle and went their separate ways.