Chapter 9

Two weeks past with no news. Harry was certain that they had missed the opportunity, but Emily assured him that if a unicorn had been taken in the forbidden forest, they'd, at the very least, know of the act.

"What if she found a different location?"

"Not possible, Harry. She wouldn't risk long distance transportation with a fresh organ. The potential for deterioration is too high with apparition, getting exposed to the magical flame of floo powder would be too damaging, and a portkey moves too violently. No, she is certain to hunt here."

Harry was pacing restlessly, and Emily couldn't comprehend why. He had no reason to be so strung up by the current circumstances, all they had to do was remain patient and wait.

"What if she just abandons Bellatrix then? What if she is alone?"

"Not possible."

Harry stopped. "How can you be sure? She isn't you, Emily. She is capable of throwing others away."

Emily nodded in agreement with him. "And I am not? She is not me, to be certain, because I am able to toss people to the wayside. She however, is a cheap imitation that has grown apart from who I am."

"Simplify what you're trying to say to me here, Emily. I understand what you're saying, but I am not getting the point."

"She lacks my weakness, the power that you have in spades. Though I overcame that weakness in a single case, she won't burdened with it at all. As her body and soul formed, she matched the person I was at that current time, a being capable of love. Therefore, she is capable of receiving and reciprocating love. Its a bond I am completely certain she has formed with Bella, even if she is unaware."

Harry sat down on the chair behind him. The two were seated in the dining room, having just finished supper. Evening was fading into night and the last rays of dwindling amber light shone through the window. The rays illuminated half of Harry's face and Emily was tempted to turn on the light for a more proper conversation, but enjoyed the unique view of Harry too much to ruin it.

"I'm not sure I follow your reasoning, but whatever. So, she won't abandon her. I can't really make any good comparison, but if it were me, I would be chewing at the bit to help you, Emily. So how can Voldemort be so patient?"

Emily shrugged, uncertain herself. She too would have plowed her way through any potential obstacles in order to fix Harry. She agreed that Voldemort almost passive approach did seem to go against her theory, but she was certain nonetheless. Despite the differences, Voldemort was her horcrux, and somethings from Emily would be retained by her. If the original had learned to love, or been forced to feel it through a soul bond, then she was certain that her other self would mold to match. And Voldemort had no one, save Bellatrix.

Choosing to ignore the question she had no answer to, she continued her lecture on souls. "You're understanding of soul magic is simply lacking. Souls hold incredible power and are oh so very fragile. They imprint easily and are flimsy enough to tear apart outside of their mortal coil. Its a thing I have poured countless hours of research into."

"How on earth do you know anything about a soul once its left the body? Doesn't a soul move on at that point?"

"Of course, unless its trapped."

Harry stared at her, thinking hard, trying to recall what she might be talking about. "You... in the past you said you did some really questionable experiments with dementors. Is that what your talking about?"

Emily nodded, impressed that he remembered that detail. She hadn't gone out of her way to go to an in depth description of her cooperation with dementors. It was certain, however, that the dementors had furthered her research by leaps and bounds, offering her the emaciated dregs of souls that they had consumed for her promise to free them from the shackles of Azkaban. She was possibly the only human being living today that had directly manipulated a soul outside of a body. After all, Dementors didn't share their food freely.

"Surprising that you remembered that. I don't recall writing more than a few sentences about the subject in our correspondence over that Christmas break. There were several things I didn't branch into deeply because of their abhorrent nature."

"I read your words so many times those two weeks that I am certain I remember everything. And I'm not shocked to hear you withheld some of the more distressing bits. What was the point of your experiments?"

"I wished to see if a dementor could consume my horcrux. After all, would that not be perfect? To store a part of my soul inside an amortal being? Then it could never be destroyed."

Harry's eyes widened, clearly he had not thought of that. "I assume you never got past the hypothetical?"

Emily shook her head, "Oh no, I got far beyond just the hypothetical. I was knee deep in practical attempts before I realized it wasn't possible. The soul fragments weren't strong enough, breaking apart inside of the dementor over time. Only a fully formed soul can survive instrumentality."

Harry nodded, all this made sense, but he didn't understand her last word. "Instrumentality?"

"Yes, human instrumentality. Its a subject that is studied somewhere in the department of mysteries. I am not certain as to how they study it, or even how they have their knowledge, but the basic premise of instrumentality is as follows: Souls without individuality will merge into one primordial being without a will of its own. It exists for the soul purpose of existing." Emily could feel the confusion coming from the boy, and decided to make it simple. "Souls that do not move onto another plane, will eventually break down and cease to exist as a person. The pieces converge on a certain unknown point and simply remain."

"Uh huh, I get the gist of it, even if I don't understand the mechanics."

Emily smirked at him. "I'd be happy to give you a lecture on id, ego and super-ego and how individuality manifests itself as the human soul. Sigmund Freud was the first wizard to ever dissect a human soul, though many dispute that he was a hack who spoke a bunch of nonsense."

Harry shook his head. "No, I'm good. Psychology never interested me."

"Oh, so you've heard the name? Impressive."

"He was popular with muggles. I only know that its related to psychology, though, not much else."

"Yes, he was shunned enough in the wizarding world that he went to the muggle world and shared his findings there. I hear he abandoned magic altogether later in life, choosing to live as a muggle. He died believing there were no inherent differences between the minds of magicals and muggles. Brutally mistaken he ended up being at the end of his time, but his early work was rather brilliant."

Harry scoffed, knowing that he shouldn't even bother trying to challenge her belief. "So, back to Voldemort."

"Yes, I suppose we did go off on a tangent." Emily didn't get any further as the two heard a voice calling from the fireplace.

"Mr. Potter!" The voice was so familiar to Harry he almost flinched at the stern tone. Rushing to the fireplace, he greeted his old head of house. Emily arrived behind him only a moment later.

"Hello, Professor McGonagall, what can we do for you tonight?"

The newly appointed head of Hogwarts pursed her lips. "I'm not certain as to what trouble you've been involving yourself outside the walls of Hogwarts Mr. Potter, but Rubeus asked me to pass along a rather vague message to you. He said it was rather urgent, so I apologize for contacting the two of you so late. Despite the urgency, I fear the message was vague. 'It's happened'. I assume you will know what it means."

Harry nodded, "Yes, professor, thank you for passing it along. My wife and I appreciate it."

McGonagall looked at him shrewdly. "Mr. Potter, though you are now a fully qualified wizard, I am going to have to insist that you not bring any mischief to my school. I found you to be a relatively enjoyable student, but you did have a penchant for danger and trouble, and to be honest, I have been able to breathe easier this year than any of the other past six years."

"We won't be making trouble, just taking care of the trouble that's already about. Just a poacher in the forest that Emily has been trying to track down."

This statement did little to soothe the older woman's features. "First You-know-who and now poachers. Your wife has her own odd tendencies I see, and they seem to run as parallel to danger that yours do."

Harry couldn't help but show a slight smile. "Come on, professor. You know I never went looking for trouble, it always found me."

"A matter of perspective, I suppose. You may not understand now, Potter, you are still young, but you tend to meddle. You have the best intentions, of course, but that doesn't change the outcome of your actions. After all, your break-in of the ministry in your fifth year, and subsequent time on the run was a clear result of that."

The conversation veered far closer to the subject that should have been obscured by the forgetfulness potion. Though Harry knew Emily would rather Harry not poke at the metaphorical bear, Harry was curious as to what story McGonagall had in her head about what happened two years ago.

"Yeah, thankfully I had Emily with me, so things didn't turn out too bad." Harry controlled the sudden contortion of his face as Emily sharply pinched his backside. The words were already out, though and Harry waited with baited breath to her his professor's response.

"Yes, well, perhaps had Mrs. Potter not convinced you to break into the department of mysteries in the first place, then maybe you'd have attended Hogwarts the following year."

Emily gave a shy smile, inserting herself into the conversation, attempting to close it. "Yes, I admit I may not have been thinking too clearly at that time. I do apologize, my actions must have made things difficult. I-"

McGonagall cut her off. "Oh, please Mrs. Potter, I have no interest in hearing your excuses. You didn't bludgeon my head that badly that night. As a teacher, you should not have been fooling around with a student, especially one so much younger than yourself." Her tones were clipped as she dressed down Emily. Emily, not wanted to continue the conversation listened without saying a thing, hoping as soon as the woman finished, she'd let the topic die.

"I wish Albus had never spoken to you about that bloody prophecy. As bad as the situation was, with a teacher having liasons with a student, the two of you running off on your own only compounded things. Thank goodness Albus blamed the entire thing on You-know-who." At this McGonagall trailed off, looking pensive. Clearly, she had stumbled upon an inconsistency in her memory caused by the potion. Something that didn't align with what she knew.

"Yes, the late headmaster was quite wise. I was distraught to hear his passing. You must have taken the news hard?" Emily forced the woman's mind off of the dangerous topic and McGonagall followed too easily.

"Yes, his loss affected us hard."

The conversation flowed for a couple short minutes before the headmistress bid the farewell. As soon as the emerald flames faded Emily latched two fingers onto Harry's ear in a vice grip as she pulled him to his feet, with him yelping in pain.

"Owowowow, Emily, let go. Ouch!"

"Your professor is right, you know. You meddle, and you don't care about the consequences of it."

Rubbing his ear gingerly after she released it, he shrugged. "I care. But come on, you can't tell me you weren't curious as to how the facts lie in their heads."

"No, Harry, I'm not curious, as long as they don't remember what I don't want them to remember, then its all right with me."

"It's not like the can reason it out without the counter potion, anyway."

"Exactly, and I'd like for them to not be curious enough about the inconsistencies to chug one on the off chance that it may show results."

"Yeah right, like anyone would do that unless they are certain. The side effects of the counter potion are miserable if you never had forgetfulness potion in the first place. Only one person in Britain is that paranoid and you already missed out on dosing him up anyway."

Emily wanted to deny his point, but he was right. The potion was a nightmare if you didn't actually have an appropriate use for it. Two week of nausea and the worst memories you've ever experienced played back over and over. The memories the brain naturally tries to repress get pulled to the surface over and over until the potion has run its course. Some people assumed that the nausea wasn't even a side effect of the potion, rather it was a physiological response of the mental trauma you experience. Only Mad-Eye Moody was crazy enough to do that on the off chance he'd been slipped a potion.

"Just refrain from doing that in the future. It makes me uncomfortable."

Harry nodded and she let the subject drop, instructing him to get ready, they were moving out immediately.

Harry watched as his breath turned to fog as it left his body. It was a cold evening, and he already was missing the warmth of Hagrid's hut.

"You know, Rubeus, you don't have to come with us. We can certainly handle her on our own."

When the two of them arrive to Hagrid's hut, they found the man ready to set out with them, Fang and crossbow in tow. "I may be a professor now, but I still am the Keeper of Keys and Grounds here at Hogwarts. If there's something out in the forest, them I'm going to help deal with it."

When it was clear that Emily's dissuasion wasn't going to work she let the matter go. Harry knew it was because she wanted to interact with Hagrid as little as possible. Hagrid was one of the few people alive who knew the name of Emily Riddle, though she didn't know if he was aware just who Emily Riddle was. It didn't change the fact that her appearance now was not too different from her appearance when she was fifteen.

Harry spoke to Hagrid as they entered the forest. "So where are we headed?"

"Centaurs. Bane's the one who noticed the presence in the forest. Sent Magorian to let me know."

"I remember Bane, he was unpleasant. Who's Magorian?"

"Just another ruddy stargazer, Harry. They spend more of their time looking upwards than forwards. But Magorian feels the same way Bane does about our kind, Harry, so don't go speaking too much to him. They don't really like talking to me much, but they respect my job, looking after the forest and such. They'll let the two of you through, because of who we are trying to track, but should the two of you come back another time, they won't be happy."

Harry nodded. "We don't plan on making any excursions into the forest after tonight." The three of them continued on for another few minutes before meeting up with what Harry could only describe as a centaur hunting party. Almost twenty tall centaurs stood in a small clearing watching their approach. One, Harry recognized fondly.

"Hello, Firenze." Harry spoke first, happy to see the one centaur he knew held no distaste for human beings.

"Hello Harry. Thank you for the warning you provided us with about this threat. Had we not been wary, we may not have noticed her appearance." Firenze was amicable enough, but several other centaurs snorted snidely at his words. "Bane spied the unicorn fleeing its pursuer about an hour ago to the northwest. We plan on heading to their last location at full speed. We'll herd the unicorn and the abomination back this way, where the three of your will engage. We'll hopefully arrive shortly after and be able to pin down the threat."

Hagrid nodded. "Sounds like a plan then. These two will be doing the majority of the work, I'll be in the back taking potshots with this beauty." He patted the crossbow affectionately. "If you lot catch up behind You-know-who, make sure not to shoot these two. Once we've taken her out, we'll leave the rest of it to you."

Firenze nodded and all at once, the centaurs galloped off. Hagrid turned to the two of them. "Okay you two, listen up. The centaurs are going to run the unicorn straight through this clearing. If we're lucky, You-know-who is already skewered with arrows at this point, if we're not, then she won't be far behind. Don' let her leave the clearing. If she makes it to the trees, she's sure to be able to slip off. I'll do my best to help you both, but I'm not good with a wand, and this crossbow takes a few seconds to reload."

"Not to worry, Hagrid, I've already placed an anti-apparition jinx on the area. I will lay a ward that will render portkey charms ineffective and lay a couple of traps about. Goal one is to ensure the unicorn is safe. Once its through we'll box her in and take her out. She won't be willing to leave without the unicorn, so if we can slow her long enough, she'll be forced to fight her way through rather than trying to slip past."

Hagrid nodded and made his way to the tree line. Emily rolled her shoulders and Harry knew his wife was tense. "What's wrong?"

"I don't like our positioning. Unicorns move through trees like water flowing in a river. If the unicorn is forced to move through this clearing and Voldemort is close enough, she'll have her first clean shot at it. I don't like our odds of taking her out if all she has to do is grab the body and run."

Harry didn't agree. "Then all we need to do is stay between the body and her, and that all hinges on if she even hits the unicorn. As soon as it passes I'll try to get between it and her so I can block any spells behind it."

"A good idea, if the unicorn wouldn't be repelled by you. I don't even think your cloak would hide you from a unicorn's inherent ability to sense impurity. It would instinctually move away from you. Possibly a good way to force it to dodge a curse though, so be quick on your feet. Shame we didn't bring your broom, it would have been useful in this clearing."

"Well, we didn't expect to be in an open area. Either way, we'll take her out, so don't be worried." The two waited for another twenty minutes before they heard the sound of hooves. Either the unicorn or the centaur, and they prepped for both. Harry had asked Emily if he should wear the cloak, but she told him not to bother. Voldemort would know one of them was close if she saw the other, and they wanted to make distance between her and her target here. Two visible targets would make her slow more than a single one.

"Emily! Get out of the clearing!" Harry suddenly yelled at her, and without a moment's hesitation Emily flew up at Harry's warning. She didn't question the order for even a moment, somehow knowing that whatever he knew, it was of dire importance. Emily shot almost twenty meters into the air and saw Harry's form almost to the treeline when the unicorn made its appearance. As soon as it did, the entire clearing erupted. Thick roots from countless trees in the forest had somehow made their way to the seemingly empty plain, and writhed about. The unicorn, to its credit, weaved in and out of the entanglement for half the length of the clearing before getting caught and soon after brought to the ground.

"Avada Kedavra!"

The bright green spell shot straight towards Harry, who was freeing himself from the trap he hadn't quite escaped from. Emily panicked and rocketed down towards him. She needn't have bothered, however, as Harry sent a blasting charm at the base of a thick root which caused it to fly up and intercept the curse. Knowing that Harry was capable of getting himself out of his predicament, Emily refocused on the unicorn, only to see Voldemort already next to the creature.

"Incarcerus!" Ropes violently sprang forth and ensnared her target quickly, only for the robe to fall to the ground as if Voldemort had just performed a cheap disappearing act. Emily made her way to the unicorn to see that it was already dead, but it hadn't been cut open yet. She still had the upper hand.

"Come out, come out wherever you are. You only have minutes before the heart is useless to you, Voldemort. There is no point in hiding."

"Bombarda." Emily threw a shield in front of the charm, but it had not been aimed at her. The charm instead hit a tree root beside her and the resulting explosion flung her back into the air. Annoyed, but unharmed, Emily righted herself, took control of her movement and once again focused on the dead beast. No one was there and she turned to find Harry, seeing him approaching her through the air on a makeshift broom stick. She smiled, happy that she'd thought to show him how to make one.

"Well seeing as its already dead, I couldn't care less about the carcass." With a flick of her wand, Emily set the roots ablaze with fiendfyre, knowing the dark magic next to the unicorn would force Voldemort out in the open. As the flames ran rampant, Emily saw Voldemort rush out of a shadow, making a beeline for the smoking carcass. Emily aimed her wand, already smirking at the simplicity of how things would end before a force slammed into her, causing her magic to fail and herself to fall.

She didn't fall down however, her momentum instead moving west, and she found herself wrapped in her husband's arms. "Damn it, Harry. I was about to kill her, what were you thinking!"

"Sorry." His voice was so soft Emily could barely hear him over the raging inferno. She stared at him closely and when his eyes closed and his body tried to slide of the broom, she realized something was not right. Grabbing him in a firm hold, she began to maneuver the flying contraption to the ground. Gripping him, she saw the reason for his condition. Sticking out of his back was an ebony arrow. Emily pulled back on the dark flames, allowing them to extinguish, knowing that Voldemort was already gone. But Voldemort was the last thing on her mind right now. Emily was already preparing to murder an entire herd of centaurs.

Landing onto the scorched earth, Emily put all of her focus on Harry. She pulled out the arrow and began mending the wound. Thankfully the centaurs were simple hunters and the arrow wasn't poisoned. Hagrid arrived when she was finishing up and when he saw the arrow, he exploded.

"You ruddy bastards!" She could only assume that it was his massive frame, but his roar was deafening. "Which one of you tossers shot Harry? I'll wring your bleeding neck right here!" Emily was almost shocked. She'd known Hagrid to be incredibly gentle with creatures, far more than humans, and yet here he was, just as ready to commit a murder as she was. She didn't know the man had it in him, and she felt a small sliver of respect forming in her heart for the man. Though it probably had more to do with his defense of Harry than his indignation.

Bane stepped forth from the forest, with his head held high and with a proud voice said, "It was my arrow that hit him, Hagrid." Other centaurs slowly followed him from the forest and they all still held their bows in their hands.

Hagrid swung his crossbow quickly to aim at the centaur. In return most of the other centaurs raised their bows to Hagrid. Emily wanted to snort, unless the arrows found an eye, she doubted they do more than poke through the half-giants skin. What little of Hagrid's face that could be seen through his facial hair was beet red and his voice shoot with anger. "And what did you think was going to stop me from returning the favor, Bane?"

Bane's voice turned snide. "It isn't my fault the boy intercepted the arrow. I was aiming for her."

Emily gut twisted. That had been why Harry had slammed into her. He'd taken the arrow for her. "And why, pray tell, did you fire at me?" Her anger was mixing with a sickening nausea and she couldn't fathom a single future in which she'd be allowing this mongrel to leave her sight alive.

"We allowed you into our forest to stop a threat. You then chose to set our forest, our home, on fire. You became a far worse threat than the Dark Lord. I acted to protect our home. You humans are wretched. You give no thought to what you destroy. And now the man you love has paid the price for your actions."

Emily sneered. "Yes, there is always a price to pay, isn't there. But what you seem to fail to understand is that Harry will survive paying my price. Your entire herd, however, will not survive paying yours." With that Emily's wand lashed out and in seconds half of the centaurs were on the ground. All of her spells had been non-lethal as she planned to make them suffer cruelly before killing them. She didn't get much further before she found herself lifted into the air, restrained by the last person she expected to stop her.

"Let me go, Rebeus. I'm not done with them."

Her body, though far stronger than a human, was unable to break free from him. He'd wrapped her up in a bear hug and didn't let her move an inch. "You lot best scamper off, I'm of half a mind to let her continue." Lowering his voice he spoke to her. "Now come down Emily. I know your livid, and so am I, but like you said, Harry's gonna be fine. No need to go wiping out whole herds of centaurs for what amounts to a scratch for a wizard."

Emily seethed. Of course his spine dissolved as soon as he knew Harry was fine. Would it kill the man to hold a damn grudge? "Don't you get it, Hagrid? They cost us our chance at killing Voldemort." Emily's entire body shook at the man's flinch ran through him at the sound of the name. "Now she's going to be stronger than ever and its all because these fools gave her the chance."

"Don't worry too much about You-know-who, Emily. Harry'll take care of her eventually, Dumbledore said it himself."

Emily paused in her thrashing, curious as to what Hagrid knew. She had always wondered if the potion had worked on Rubeus, he'd seemed to resist it the night of their wedding. "Tell me, Hagrid, how do you feel about Harry's and my relationship? Minerva certainly wasn't thrilled."

"Yeah well, she's clearly forgot some things. Everyone has, really."

Shit, he knew. Why hadn't he said anything? Did he oppose her? Or did he still stand beside Harry? She couldn't fathom a scenario where Hagrid wouldn't despise her for what she had done to him in the past.

"They forgot how unhappy Harry always was. Of course, he was well enough here at Hogwarts. He was happy with Ron and Hermione. They took good care of him. But Harry's never been able to just be a lad. He's always been the 'Boy Who Lived' or 'The Chosen One', whatever codswallop the ran through the Prophet that week. And too many people here have treated him differently because of that. Placed expectations on him or judged him. Now I'm not saying I approve of the age difference nor of the circumstances you two found each other, but I've seen Harry finally just be a normal bloke with you. He's needed that. He's wanted that. And you're the one who gave it to him."

Emily felt the last vestiges of anger fade from her. He didn't know who she was, but he certainly did know who Harry was. Perhaps, she had been wrong two years ago. Clearly, other people had seen the holes Harry had in his heart. It had not been only her. She had just been the only one who knew how to fill them. At the very least, Hagrid knew of Harry's pain, and was happy enough to see it end, despite how that end came about.

"Lets get him to your hut, Rubeus. He'll be out for a bit, and a blood replenishing potion from the hospital wing would speed along his recovery."

Hagrid nodded and before Emily could pick Harry up, Hagrid already had the young man in his arms. "Follow me then, Emily. The grounds are this way." Ambling off, Hagrid began to make his way to Hogwarts. Half an hour later saw the three of them in Hagrid's home. Emily was helping Harry swallow the last bit of potion in his unconscious state, while Hagrid busied himself with the kettle to make tea.

When Emily joined Hagrid at his table she took a moment to study the half-giant. In truth, she'd never thought much of him, assuming him to be and idiot half-breed who had a queer attraction to dangerous beasts. Now however, she had to forcibly forgo that impression. "Hagrid, I don't believe we spoke much during my tenure here at Hogwarts, correct."

Hagrid guffawed. "I always was under the impression you didn't like me too much. Not that I held it against you much. Ever since Harry's fourth year when it got around that I was half-giant, there's been a bit of prejudice. A year never went by without some parent owling Dumbledore to sack me. You didn't go out of your way to insult me, so if you were respectful enough to keep your distance, I wasn't going to go out of my way to impose myself on you."

"I won't deny I had some slight prejudice feelings in the past, but in all honesty I interacted with you just as much as the other staff. I am rather reclusive by nature."

Hagrid hummed. "I figured it wasn't too much. Once my probationary period was over, and you told me I had gotten my class back on track, I knew you couldn't be too biased. Otherwise, I'd have been out the castle doors regardless."

Emily nodded. "I will admit that I cut you slightly more slack than I did with Sybill. Harry was rather upset that I had placed you on probation. I remember the afternoon quite well. He tried very hard to pick a fight with me about it. I remained objective about it and told him to ask his friend Hermione about the fifth year syllabus and yearly exams. He let the issue drop once I promised to lay off of you if you followed the course work."

"The first few years were tough." Hagrid said with a laugh. "I just wanted to show everyone all the incredible magical creatures I could. I went a little overboard on the first year, and the majority of the second was taken up by the Triwizard Tournament's pet project. Those critters ended up killing each other off though, which was a shame. They were incredible. The third year was when things started settling down and thanks to you, I remember that the kids had yearly exams they needed to be prepared for."

Emily laughed as well. "I should have been more understanding of your situation. Teaching is not without its own burdens. I found that out myself soon enough."

Hagrid's beady eyes twinkled. "Harry knows it well enough too. Back in his fifth year, he was a bit of a club hopper. Don't really know what got into him, but he'd attend a different club each week and socialize with various people. It was really out of character for him, to be honest. He's a lot like you, reclusive and such. In any case, he went to the dueling club at least once a month, far more often than any other club. He was a bit of a celebrity there, and not just cause of his scar. He'd trounce any seventh year member there and over time spent more time teaching than he did learning. They all adored him there, specially the third-years. The club's only open to third-year's or higher."

"I know Hagrid. I had to approve the club for it to remain open, after all."

"Oh yeah, that's right. I remember Harry griping about that earlier that year. Quidditch teams were disbanded too, right?"

"Yes, every team, club and even study groups were all disbanded. Cornelius wanted them to remain mostly disbanded, but I generally reinstated things rather quickly. I didn't care for his interference here at Hogwarts."

"Yeah, well, Fudge was always a bungler. Makes a mess of everything and then owled Dumbledore everyday asking for advice. Glad they tossed him out last year."

"Indeed, the man was incompetent to an unacceptable degree. I'm not too certain how I feel about Scrimgeour, but he is certainly an improvement."

"Oh, by leagues. One day I figure Harry'll take the office and we'll be in fine hands then."

Emily snorted. "Oh please, Harry has no interest in working for the ministry. Perhaps he might get a job at the auror department, but he'll want to do something more exciting."

Hagrid stroked his beard in thought. "I don't really see Harry sitting at a desk, I suppose. I reckon he'll be the seeker for England's national team 'til he's tired of the sport and then he'll find something else to occupy his time."

"I'd like that for him. He loves quidditch." Emily looked wistful. She truly would love for Harry to find and do something he was passionate about.

It was at this statement that Hagrid launched into the story of Harry's first quidditch game. Emily had been present for it, on the back of Quirrell's head, after all, but Hagrid was so expressive in his description that Emily found herself enraptured either way. In the four hours it took for Harry to regain consciousness, Emily spent the time in Hagrid's hut. Hagrid loved to talk about things he was fond of. Emily loved to listen about Harry. Hagrid was quite fond of Harry and therefore, regaled Emily with stories of Harry's first few years at Hogwarts.

When she left that evening, wishing Hagrid a good night, she whispered to Harry, "I'm coming to find that I enjoy Hagrid's company, Harry."

Harry just stared at her in shock.