Brooklyn was quite glad when the holiday vacation started. For he, Griff and Harry were going to spend Christmas at the Burrow (Brooklyn somewhat apologized to Ron for what he had been up to with his pranks), and even Sirius was invited.

On the train, the trio discussed what the brothers had seen with the conversation between Malfoy and Snape.

"This definitely proves it now that Malfoy is a Death Eater," Harry said in a triumphant voice.

"Possibly, but, what is an Unbreakable Vow? And why would Snape even do something that crazy?" Brooklyn asked.

Ron looked over at Brooklyn with a serious expression. "Well, you can't break it, which is why it is called that. But you only do it under extreme circumstances, for you die if you break the Unbreakable Vow."

Brooklyn felt his face go pale at this. He now knew that he would never do something like that. Ever.

"Narcissa probably had to do a lot of begging and kissing up to Snape to have him make it, but perhaps he's just playing along, to spy for Dumbledore," he muttered, with Harry nodding in agreement. Brooklyn still wondered if Malfoy had been the one who cursed Katie, but he wasn't going to jump to conclusions and get revenge until the right moment comes along wrapped in a bow.

But Ron folded his arms. "I still say that Snape making an Unbreakable Vow proves that Malfoy's a Death Eater!" He snapped, making the brothers roll their eyes.

"But we can't be for sure, unless some kind of hint shows, mate," Griff protested. Sure, Malfoy was a brat, but he didn't want to jump on him either like Brooklyn yet.

At last they arrived at the Burrow, greeted by many armed hugs from their families and friends, Harry hugging Sirius tightly. As Brooklyn hugged both Leo and Una, he had asked if his Clan had responded to Una's message, but the Lion gargoyle had shook his head, making Brooklyn feel disappointed, but still was looking forward to seeing them again hopefully soon!

It was quite a merry gathering, even without Percy there, Sirius and King Arthur both sang Christmas Carols together again, helping Fleur with decorations, while Una helped out Mrs. Weasley with cooking.

Dinner (that tasted wonderful with Una's Magic), caroling, and eve presents came, with everybody including Brooklyn having a good time, even with Katie still healing at St. Mungos he found himself having a delightful Christmas Eve with his new family and brother.

They had a laugh over a present Ron got from Lavender: a gold heart locket that said My Sweetheart that made Brooklyn want to throw up, leading the Twins to mock Ron into putting it on.

Brooklyn had eventually stepped up to Ron privately and asked him about Lavender before going to bed.

"Tell me truthfully, Ronald." Ron gulped at the serious look in his eyes. "Do you really love Lavender? Have you actually talked with her? Or is it just mindless kissing for the pair of you?"

He flinched, before giving a moan of defeat.

"To be honest, Brook, she's a complete nightmare, all Lav wants to do is snog me, especially in front of crowds," he said in a miserable tone. Brooklyn huffed, rolling his eyes, not at least feeling sorry.

"Then it was your own fault that you're with your 'sweetheart'. You need to tell her directly that you don't want to see her anymore!"

But Ron shook his head. "She's too over dramatic to accept a sudden split up, I'm sure that a solution would come along, guess I need to bear with it till then." Brooklyn decided then to just go along with what he said. It could teach Ron a thing or two about assertion.

Outside, the family were unaware of eyes watching their every move.

Later after they opened the rest of their presents Harry and Brooklyn were both called to talk to Mr. Weasley, who Harry had written to a while ago about Malfoy and Dumbledore.

"If Dumbledore is traveling, then that is news to the Ministry, but perhaps that's the way Dumbledore wants it. And as for Draco Malfoy, I know a bit more."

"Then what?" Brooklyn demanded, so wanting information.

"What you and the others saw at Borgin and Burke's that Draco Malfoy is so interested in is a Vanishing Cabinet." Mr. Weasley replied. Brooklyn's brow raised. "Vanishing Cabinet?"

Mr. Weasley nodded as he explained. "Those were all the rage when Voldemort first rose to power. How to use one, a person just needs to slip inside and disappear for an hour or two. Can transport you pretty much anywhere, but almost as tricky as Apparation, temperamental."

Brooklyn narrowed his eyes as he recalled the Twins shoving Montague into one last year, and when Nearly Headless Nick had Peeves break it to get Harry out of trouble for Detention in the second year. If Malfoy was trying to fix the Vanishing Cabinet, that could be trouble for everybody at Hogwarts. Death Eaters could march right in anytime they wanted to.

"What happened to the Cabinet at Borgin and Burke's? Harry suddenly asked. "Nothing, it is still there," Mr. Weasley replied.

After Christmas Day dinner, Tonks and Lupin had to leave, much to the persistence of Mrs. Weasley. Brooklyn shook Lupin's hand, until a familiar scent hit his nose, and not a good one. He cast his eyes around, growling softly.

Lupin noticed, drawing his wand, as Tonks looked worried for them. Harry appeared, a hand on Brooklyn's arm. "What's wrong?"

The gargoyle tensed up, eyes glowing. "Somebody's here who shouldn't be," he growled. As if on cue, flames suddenly spurred up around the Burrow, and then two people appeared, Bellatrix and-

"Demona!" Hissed Brooklyn savagely, wings spread out, as she gave a cruel chuckle.

"Always such a pleasure to see you again, Brooklyn dear," she purred maliciously, while Bellatrix cackled and ran on her way through the flames. Harry narrowed his eyes and raced out after the one who almost killed Sirius, even though Brooklyn tried pulling him back. Even Ginny had gone after Harry, too.

"What are you doing here?" Brooklyn demanded furiously, hands balled, but she didn't respond right away, but simply chuckled evilly, backing up near the spot near the fire that wasn't aflame.

"Try to catch me, if you can!" She taunted, gliding into the air, giving her banshee screech. Brooklyn felt his heart aflame with anger, and was about to charge out after her but Lupin had a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't, she wants you to follow, obviously to lead you into a trap." He said. Brooklyn's eyes stopped glowing as he found that Lupin said could be true. He had to plan a strategy, it's what a second in command had to do. Harry had already rushed after Bellatrix, and he needed to get him back.

That's when an idea hit him, "Remus, Tonks, Griff, Sirius, follow me, I'm gonna go get my brother, while you four try to surround the Death Eaters," he ordered. They nodded, a proud looking smile on Lupin's lips.

And with that, the team charged, Brooklyn in the lead on all fours, as they all leaped through the flames safely, running through the tall grass.

He could suddenly hear spells being shot, and Brooklyn growled as he saw Harry and Ginny shooting spells in different directions in a clearing. Then the gargoyle was slammed into before he could even get to Harry, and was pinned painfully to the ground by Demona again.

"You can't stop us in our mission, Brooklyn. He won't rest until your precious brother and Hogwarts is gone forever!" Demona taunted in his ear, delivering harsh blows at Brooklyn. He wouldn't scream in front of her, though, as he gritted his teeth.

"No, we-we won't be intimidated by you!" He gasped painfully, trying to fight against her, but her grip was fierce and painful, then in a frightening move she twisted his right arm in a chicken's wing hold and pulled hard. Fiery pain wracked his arm as it felt like it was gonna snap. Brooklyn couldn't hold it in as he cried in agony for release as she laughed mercilessly.

Suddenly there was a roar as Griff flew down, tackling Demona and getting her off his friend, who trembled slightly from the release from the chicken wing hold, as Griff threw Demona away into the reeds, where she hissed at him then ran to join her Death Eater friends.

Brooklyn's head spun and his arm was a little sore but his wounds didn't feel critical, nodding over to Griff and managed to get to Harry, and got him and Ginny to safety. The rest of the team tried to surround the Death Eaters, but they were able to evade them, taking off into the air.

Meanwhile, at the Burrow, Bellatrix and Greyback were about to set fire to the house, but Una with her quick thinking and magic shot a protective shield, covering the whole house, deflecting the fire spells completely.

The group returned, as the two Death Eaters and Demona stood in front of them all, eyes glowing red and fangs bared.

"If our attack hadn't intimidated everybody, our completed mission will!" Threatened Demona, as they all left, leaving Brooklyn glaring after the demented gargess, wondering when all this madness would end.

Everybody felt rather shaken from the attack, but okay, as they went back inside to rest since the kids, Brooklyn and Griff have to return to Hogwarts in the next week. The Weasleys were rather grateful to Una for her saving the Burrow.


On the day they had to return, Scrimgeour had come for a visit, requesting of Harry and Brooklyn if they were going to stand with the Ministry, and act like things were normal. He even demanded to know where Dumbledore had been going. This infuriated Brooklyn since they were just attacked a week ago.

"We can't go parading around with your uptight ministry, saying things are just peachy when the Weasley's house was almost destroyed! Thanks but, no thanks! And it is none of your business to know where Dumbledore's going!" He growled at Scrimgeour. He had been willing to give the new Minister a chance, but forcing them to pretend everything is okay when it wasn't, and that ticked him off enormously, causing Scrimgeour to tell them to rethink his proposition and just left the two brothers looking angry.

Back at Hogwarts, Harry and Brooklyn were happy to see Hermione again who told them about her vacation with her parents, and getting a letter from Dumbledore who had returned, saying their next lesson was at 8:00 pm.

Hagrid had invited them over for tea that afternoon, and he looked pretty upset about his spider Aragog being sick and dying, that he actually asked Harry and Brooklyn to be at his funeral if he didn't get better. Brooklyn didn't feel like attending the funeral of a spider that tried sending his kids to kill them, but Aragog was Hagrid's friend, and he couldn't say no, so they agreed.

The brothers went for Dumbledore's office that evening, where he greeted them enthusiastically, before then showing them two memories, one of Morfin and Tom, who both spoke in Parseltongue that had Brooklyn shudder a little again, still uncomfortable that he still had that language inside him. From what he learned, Tom had stolen Morfin's black diamond stone ring and his wand for his own personal use, but unsure of what for yet.

The next memory was of Slughorn and Tom, which was a most important one for Dumbledore. Slughorn definitely looked much younger. It at first played out smoothly, showing a party that Slughorn hosted with several boys and Tom. After the boys left, Tom asked a question:

"Sir, what do you know about Hor…" the gargoyle was somewhat startled by this cut off word, wondering what he was gonna say.

But suddenly everything had gone foggy again, with Slughorn yelling "I've never heard of such nonsense and if I did, I wouldn't tell you, you will go wrong, my boy. Now get out of here!"

Brooklyn gasped as he pulled his face out of the Pensive, still confused like the last memory that too had gone black. Harry looked just as confused as he did.

"What was that? Why did this one go black, too?" He had asked somewhat breathlessly. Dumbledore answered. "This memory had been tampered with, by Slughorn himself."

"But why, though?" Harry asked.

"I suspect he's ashamed of it. and deeply regrets revealing that kind of information to Tom. That is why, Harry and Brooklyn, I wish for you to try and endulge Slughorn's true memory, one he wouldn't give up easily. It is an important memory for our future lesson," he said. Brooklyn tensed.

"This is why you wanted Slughorn to collect Harry, isn't it?" He asked, and Dumbledore nodded.

"Yes, if I can trust the both of you to succeed in getting the memory for me?"

Harry and Brooklyn glanced at one another, before ending up nodding. Anything to defeat Voldemort and Demona, and put things back to normal for them.

But it wasn't as easy as they thought, Slughorn Harry himself couldn't even get a minute alone with him and Brooklyn always found himself caught in crowds of students whenever he tried. And to add along with their frustrations, the brothers tried tracking Malfoy with their handy Marauders map that Sirius had allowed Harry to keep, but the boy's name kept disappearing off the side of it.


Apparation tests had been announced in March, and Brooklyn was quite glad that he didn't have to participate. Harry asked if he wanted to watch, but replied no, preferring to hang back in the common room. Harry nodded and left. While wandering about, he took the liberty to flip through the Half Blood Prince's book. He found the spells they read about before:

Levicorpus

Sectumsempra

Brooklyn stroked his chin thoughtfully at these new spells. Levicorpus looked somewhat familiar from D.A. Lessons, but he'd never heard of Sectumsempra before when he first saw this with Harry. Perhaps the spell could be useful whenever he got the chance to try it out.

Ron's birthday eventually came around, where they planned to celebrate over a butterbeer and open his presents in Hogsmeade. But when they were about to leave, Ron wasn't joining them, but just sitting on the couch, a weird smile on his face.

Brooklyn waved his hand in front of his face. "Uh, Ron? You in there? Birthday party, remember?" Ron still had that smile on his features as he looked up at Brooklyn.

"You go ahead. I want to just stay here," he replied in a dazy sounding voice that unnerved Brooklyn. Something seemed off about him.

Harry laughed sarcastically. "Okay, very funny Ron, seriously, what's up with you?"

Ron stood, stepping pretty close to Harry. "I-I think I'm in love with her, Harry!" He gasped breathlessly.

Brooklyn made a face. "You kidding? You just admitted Lavender was a nightmare last Christmas!" He snapped heatedly. But Ron's smile then turned into a confused look.

"What? Lavender? I don't care about her, I love somebody better, Romilda Vane! Her black hair is so silky, and her eyes sparkle so heavenly like a goddess!" He said in a wistful tone, sitting down on the couch again, hugging the heart shaped box in his arms.

Seriously? Is he for real? Brooklyn thought to himself, wondering what had caused him to change girlfriends in mere seconds.

"Okay, yeah, very funny Ron, let's go!" Harry snapped. Ron glared, throwing the box at Harry's shoulder.

"Hey! What was that for!" Roared Brooklyn, grabbing Ron's arm sharply. "Harry insulted her! He said I didn't love her!"

Brooklyn kept a tight hold. "You aren't yourself, Ron! Where did you get that box?" He demanded sharply, now realizing it was a box of Cauldron Cakes.

"It was a birthday present!" Huffed Ron, trying to pry away from the gargoyle's grip.

Harry shook his head. "You're really stupid! They were mine, and you just picked them off the floor! Romilda had given them to me yesterday as a gift and those cakes had Love Potion!" Brooklyn glared at this, she dared make a move behind his back! He knew that he would eventually discuss this with Romilda later, for certain!

Ron, though, reacted to Romilda's name right away, his stupid smile back. "Romilda...can you two introduce me?" He asked, sitting back down on the couch again, Brooklyn letting go now that he wasn't violent anymore. He turned to Harry.

"You think Slughorn could have a remedy for this?" He murmured silently. Harry's eyes sparked at the idea, and he nodded, going over to Ron.

Harry coaxed him to his feet. "Come, we're gonna take you to meet Romilda Vane, she takes Remedial Potions with Slughorn," he said rather awkwardly, pulling Ron to his feet. Brooklyn folded his arms, frowning. That had to be the lamest story he'd ever heard, but Harry mouthed 'just play along'. Rolling his eyes, he followed them out to the office.

Upon arriving, Slughorn answered to Harry's knocking, looking rather surprised.

"Harry, m'boy! It's the weekend! What's going on?"

Brooklyn made a head gesture to Ron, who's eyes were in a daze from the Love Potion, and Slughorn got the message, letting them in, where he made a remedy.

Ron drank it, and his smile turned to a frown, the potion wearing off, and Brooklyn heaved a sigh of relief that it was over.

"Bloody Hell, did I really say I loved Romilda? What was wrong with me?" He croaked. Harry laughed a little. "Don't worry about it, mate, it's over," he said. Slughorn chuckled too, pulling out a bottle of mead. "And I say this calls for a toast. I got this oak matured mead. Meant to give it to Dumbledore as a Christmas Present, but why not just enjoy a glass now? I'm sure he wouldn't miss it!" He said, handing out three glasses.

They made a toast, but Ron had downed all his, making him gasp and choke, collapsing to the floor, twitching with frothing bubbles at his lips, face turning blue. Brooklyn felt the color drain from his face, realizing now the mead had poison! He threw his glass away, kneeling down next to their friend. "Ron!" He screamed, while Harry frantically dug through the cupboards. Slughorn was watching with wide scared eyes, staring back and forth from the bottle to Ron, who's face now was turning a sickly green.

Eventually Harry found a bezoar, a cure for poisons, thrusting it into Ron's mouth. Brooklyn felt himself breathing shakily from nerves. If Ron died…

Ron suddenly managed to swallow the black stone, a little color returning to his face, but had fainted. They didn't linger though as Brooklyn took their friend to the Hospital Wing right away.

The Weasleys got the news of their youngest son being poisoned, and all of them except Percy showed to check on him, along with Hermione. Brooklyn felt like a dark cloud was hovering above him. First Katie with the necklace, now Ron and the poisoned mead. Dumbledore had been mentioned twice around them when his friends were hurt. But who would want to murder him?

Lavender suddenly burst in. "Where is he? Where's my Won-Won? Why haven't anybody told me he had been poisoned? I'm his girlfriend! And what is she doing here?!" She yelled dramatically. Brooklyn gave a low growl while Hermione folded her arms.

"I'm his friend. I have to be here," she bit back at her. Ron suddenly shifted, groaning a little, and Lavender gasped. "Ah, see? He senses my presence! Don't worry, Won-Won! I'm here! I'm here."

What happened next surprised everybody. Ron took Hermione's hand, who was sitting on the bed next to him, and he murmured her name softly. Lavender backed away, eyes filling with tears, and she fled from the hospital wing. Brooklyn didn't feel any sympathy, she had been too over possessive of Ron in his eyes. He now hoped that things would finally get better between Ron and Hermione.