Harry felt ready to be done with the exams.

Unfortunately, the exams were not done with him.

Still, at the moment, he felt as if, if he looked at his Transfiguration notes one more time, he would go crazy, and so he decided to do something else at least for a little while.

It was relatively cold outside, but sunny, and so he let himself be lured by the promise of a nice summer day, exited the castle and headed to the lake. There, he found the Slytherins sitting on the bank and popped down in the grass next to them. „I just did Astronomy," he said without preamble, only nodding in response to their greetings, „and I swear, I never want to see a constellation ever again."

„Have strength," Daphne muttered, „only one more day to go!"

"Where's the rest of your cohort?" Draco asked.

"Went to study. But I swear, if I don't get a break, my head will explode."

"Yeah, we kinda felt the same way."

"Some of us did," Theo corrected, rising his head from a pile of parchment that seemed to be his notes.

"Okay, those of us who aren't secretly Ravenclaw," Draco amended, his tone the equivalent of sticking out his tongue.

"Seems to me you have a lot of torn loyalties in your house," Harry said with a grin. "Daphne is half Gryffindor, really, Theo is half a Ravenclaw..."

"Well, it is true: I am the only true and pure Slytherin among this lot!" Draco said with mock pomp.

"Or," Daphne suggested with a grin, "you're half Hufflepuff."

Draco tried to throw her in the lake.

When the laughter subsided, Harry asked: "Where is the rest of your cohort? Studying, too?"

"Or pretending to, at any rate. Don't tell me you miss Pansy?"

"No, but still, she's mostly around you these days, ever since her noble apology to me. Is that related, by the way?"

Draco and Theo both gave him looks that seemed to indicate his enormous stupidity, and Daphne snorted.

"'Cause Draco stopped telling her she should," Greg answered for them.

Harry gave his friend a surprised look, and Draco looked extremely uncomfortable. "Well, you know," he said. "A chance to nag Pansy. Who could pass up?"

Harry hadn't really expected Draco to join in with Pansy's tirades – he was too well-mannered for that, if nothing else – but going as far as encouraging her to stop...well. Who would have thought? He smiled.

"I can't disagree with you there, mate. I wanted to say that I felt sorry for the poor souls staring into Transfiguration books once again, but since it's Pansy, that makes me less inclined to pity. Tracey and Millicent have my sympathy, though."

"Oh, Tracey isn't studying," Daphne said with a laugh and a grimace. "She's chatting up some fourth-year in our common room."

"So it's started for you too! I'm a little relieved."

Daphne frowned in incomprehension. "It?"

"You know...everybody suddenly wanting to date."

Daphne suddenly looked a little uncomfortable. "Well, I don't know if all of us do..."

Harry waved his hand. "No, yeah, I mean, it was an exaggeration. Not all of us do either, but Lavender already dates McLaggen, or dated, anyway, and at least some of the guys look more than ready."

"Do you think," Theo asked in what passed as a loud voice for him, "McGonnagal will want all of the theory she taught us?"

Harry gave him a surprised look. "Yeah," he said, "she always does. At least this year it seems to be mostly repetition of what we did last year – only the spells got more complicated – so..."

"Mostly repetition?" Daphne asked in outrage that Harry suspected was only partly in jest. "Are you even listening to yourself? Gah! If this is your approach, maybe you should have gone studying with the rest of Gryffindor."

"Hit a sore spot, didn't I?" Harry asked with a grin.

"Yeah, Daphne is a touch sensitive about her fave." Theo grinned. "Come on, Daph, you must know he's basically right..."

Daphne took a deep breath, and Draco gave a theatrical sigh. "Now we will not escape the lecture," he said. "And it was shaping up to be such a nice afternoon, too..."

Perhaps, Harry thought as he listened to her go on, it'll at least help me pass the exam.

-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-

Alduin called his transcendental friends once again, and as they all gathered, he explained the situation they were currently in. "So," he summarized, "we need a way to destroy the Horcrux without destroying the cup, since I'm not ruining the legendary surviving artifact of a Hogwarts founder just because some upstart Dark Lord decided to hide a piece of his soul in it. Any tips?"

"The basilisk venom you still have from the diary?" Muhammad suggested.

"I thought about it...but it would destroy the surface of the cup at least, melt it, if not the whole cup. And we have no idea if destroying the surface would destroy the magical properties Hufflepuff put in there or not. No way to find out either, since with the Horcrux inside, any detection spells aimed at the original cup are useless. The Dark magic overshadows everything. But we need something that would only destroy the soul fragment, and nothing else."

There was a silence as they considered this tall order, then Mrs. Gerard said: "The Veil just might do it."

Sarabeth blinked. "Yes!" She said.

"It...just might," Alduin agreed. "I hope it will only work on the soul. Damn it, we shouldn't have destroyed the diary and kept it for experiments. No one cares about that being destroyed."

"We couldn't have known the other Horcruxes would be priceless heirlooms," Muhammad pointed out reasonably. "Riddle's just being a right bastard."

"True, but still, I'd...rather like to have a confirmation before we just try it." Alduin supposed he'd be willing to just destroy the cup if it was an emergency, but he found the thought extremely distasteful and would do anything in his power to prevent that from happening.

"We can try sticking in an ordinary object first," Sarabeth suggested, "see what happens to that."

"It'll need preparation," Mrs. Gerard warned. "You can't just stick it in by hand."

Alduin nodded. "If you could attend to that then, please?" He said. "And...damn, none of us really have much clue what will happen, do we?"

"I know how the Veil works," Mrs. Gerard said. "Very exactly. But even though I have read a lot about Horcruxes since this was discovered, it still isn't my field, and..."

Alduin nodded in understanding. "It's none of ours, that's the problem. Not even bringing Valerius Prince in would help in this – not that I'm considering it – because while he might be useful for Harry's situation, this is further from minds and souls, and more into the realm of..." Of course. This should have occurred to him ages ago. He couldn't think why it didn't. "I'll consult Theodore on the suitability of this as a Horcrux destruction method," he said. "It's high time we pulled him in."

"Theodore…?" Muhammad asked, seemingly unsure.

"Burke. Alexandra's brother."

"Oh, of course. He's in Dark Arts, isn't he?"

"Precisely."

"Is he...trustworthy?" Sarabeth asked carefully. "I don't really know him, but I know his father, and..."

"Believe me, I completely share your reservations about Mr. Tacitus, but his son is different in this. He is not so...his mind is not so one-track, so to speak, and he is capable of actually evaluating risks and taking a measured approach."

"His mother's influence?" Mrs. Gerard suggested, and Muhammad and Sarabeth both began to cough.

"One thing no one could ever accuse Clarissa of," Sarabeth said then, "is being calm and measured. Do not be fooled by her ability to pretend so for short periods of time."

"Well," Muhammad said in consideration, "out of the three siblings..."

"Everyone is more measured that Leopold was," Sarabeth said with a wave of her hand.

"I think it was growing up during the war that made Theodore more cautious," Alduin said quietly. "Him and his sister both. He was six when it started, and he began Hogwarts just around the time it got truly heated. He is not that much younger than me. It shaped us all, you know. Being at school during that time...you could not speak openly or act without thinking, not unless you were my cousin and wanted to paint as large a target as possible on your forehead."

"It wasn't that what killed them," Muhammad pointed out mildly.

"No," Alduin agreed, "but it was that what led them to defying Riddle three times." He shook his head. "It doesn't matter. Many others died who did their best to keep their heads down, so maybe James was right in his approach after all."

Sometimes, Alduin really wished his wounds from the war were not so much more fresh than everyone's around him.

-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-

"So, how do you think you did, overly?" Harry asked Neville as they trotted down to breakfast the first day after the exams. Neville couldn't find his left shoe, and so they stayed a bit behind the others. Harry was happy for this opportunity – Ron, Sophie and Dean pronounced a general ban on discussing the exams once they were over, but he wanted to know how his best friends felt about them.

"Well, I'm pretty sure I got everything right in Herbology..." Neville started hesitatingly.

Harry laughed. "Neville, mate, you had a hundred on that test last year, and that was before you were running a Herbology club. Yeah, I think you can be pretty damn sure."

"I'm not running the club," Neville objected, "Clement is."

"Officially, yes. But we both know how it is." With his prefect duties (no to mention his time spent snogging Horatio, but Harry did his best not to think about that), Clement didn't have as much time for it, and he only agreed to be the official president if Neville did most of the work.

"Still. There's a lot I don't know," Neville insisted.

"Well, we're second years. I'd be suspicious if we knew everything already, wouldn't it?" Harry pointed out.

"I guess." Neville still seemed more inclined to think it was suspicious that he, in particular, should be good at anything. Harry could understand his friend's low confidence in some departments, but Herbology, where he was clearly a star? That was beyond him.

"So, anyway, what about your other subjects?" Harry asked.

"I dread Potions. Snape is bound to have given me a terrible mark," Neville said in a desolate tone of voice.

Harry shrugged. "Snape will be Snape. At least he doesn't harass you during classes anymore, or not so much at least."

"Yeah, thank Merlin for that!" Neville said with a quick smile of thanks. "So, Potions are gonna be my worst...along with Transfiguration I expect."

"So like last year," Harry remembered.

"Yeah. And like last year, I think I did decently in Charms, too, and Defense I guess. History and Astronomy, I really can't tell." Neville paused. "What about you?"

"You know, the usual too. I probably aced Defense, I probably barely got through Astronomy. And I'm never sure how Binns grades my work, since I don't think I mention what he says in class at all, but somehow it worked last year."

"Well, he should mark you according to how well you know the subject, right? Not according to how well you repeat what he said."

"He should also be a good teacher," Harry pointed out. "If things were always as they should be, I wouldn't have to train for Riddle encounters all the time," he added in a lower tone. He had a break from his sessions with Snape for two weeks before the exams, but now they were about to start again until he left Hogwarts for the summer. He couldn't exactly say he'd missed them.

Neville grimaced. "Does it bother you a lot?"

Harry considered. "Not a lot, no, but...well, Snape's not exactly pleasant during them, and while training with Alduin's fine, it does put a bit of a damper on summer high spirits, you know? Of course, getting killed by Riddle would have put even more of a damper on them so...like I said, it's not that much of an issue. And it is interesting."

"I wish someone would train me too," Neville murmured right before they entered the Entrance Hall.

Harry stopped, surprised by that remark. "Why? You think the...the Prophecy could be about you after all?"

Neville shook his head. "No, not that. But I've been thinking...well, if Riddle comes back, he'll at least try to get his followers out of Azkaban, right? And if the Lestranges ever get out...I want to be ready."

"You think they'll come after you?" Harry asked, alarmed.

"No...I wanna go after them," Neville said grimly.

Harry was startled. "Neville...they're really powerful wizards, aren't they?"

"And a witch. Yeah. That's why I wish I had some kind of training."

Harry considered. He could try to convince Alduin to let Neville join them, but the problem was, he didn't think his cousin would be very willing, once he heard the reason why Neville wanted to train.

"We have decent Defense teachers now, for most of the year at least," he said aloud. "So you have some basis, and maybe once you're older, I could convince my cousin to let you join our sessions. For now, I really don't think he'd agree."

"Yeah, well, once we're older, you'd have too much of a head start for it to make sense to have lessons together," Neville pointed out. "But maybe you could teach me? You did say you could teach first years, after all."

"You're hardly a first year."

"That's not what I meant. Just...you could pass on what your cousin teaches you, couldn't you?"

Harry was very uncomfortable about that idea, for more than one reason. "I dunno," he said. "Maybe when I feel like I'm more than 'not completely terrible', as Snape says?"

It looked like Neville was about to respond, when they heard raised voices in a corridor branching from the one they were in. They stopped to listen in interest, and when they identified one of the voices as Hermione's, they decided to follow the noise.

They found Hermione, her hands on her hips, staring down two first-year girls, while the blonde one Harry had noticed at the Sorting was standing to the side with a dreamy look on her face – and, Harry noticed, no shoes on her feet.

"You are a disgrace to your House," Hermione was saying, her voice raised. "If Rowena Ravenclaw could see you, she'd personally escort you out."

"It's her who's the disgrace," one of the girls said defiantly. "Have you heard the stuff she believes?"

"Oh, and of course the best way to prove your intellectual superiority is to steal someone's shoes?" Hermione asked mockingly. "Well, you've really impressed me, I'm sure you're about to follow in my footsteps of being the best in your year with this track record."

"They actually stole her shoes?" Harry asked incredulously.

Hermione turned, seeming to only now notice him there. "Hello, Harry," she said. "Yes, they did."

"You're Harry Potter!" One of the girls exclaimed excitedly.

Harry gave her a disgusted look. "And you're a sorry excuse for a human being," he said, then turned to the blonde girl. "What's your name?"

"Luna Lovegood," she replied.

"Well, Luna, let us walk you back to Revenclaw to find a different pair of shoes. I'm sure these losers will get bored eventually and give them back." Of course, Dudley usually threw the stuff he took from Harry in the trash, but Harry wanted to believe these girls weren't as bad as all that.

Luna gave a serene nod and then headed upstairs, leaving behind two embarrassed Ravenclaw girls.