--In Memory of Harry Potter--
Author's Notes: My holidays are finally here which means I can spend some serious time getting this fic completed. Thank you so much to everyone who has stuck with me from the beginning because it has been an awful long time. Anyway I'll let you get on with the chapter...
'It has been a long day' Harry thought as he watched as his red haired friend yawned while attempting to focus on the single sentence that he had been trying to read for the past ten minutes. He closed the book and looked up catching Harry's eye.
"This is pointless" He muttered.
The sound of a book snapping shut next to Harry made both Harry and Ron jump slightly their attention turning to the ghost who was midway through a yawn. "For once I agree with him" He said, "I never did like reading"
Harry frowned but he couldn't help but agree. He, Ron and Malfoy had spent the entire day in the Hogwarts library searching for information on the four guardians of Hogwarts, and now that it was nearing dinner time he was not only mentally exhausted, but he was bored out of his mind.
"It'd be all right if they actually made some sort of point" Ron muttered "They just seem to drone on and on about nothing"
Draco looked at Harry, "What are you going to do if the guardian's don't appear?" Malfoy asked making reference to what many of the books seemed to be going on about.
"Fight Voldemort, again" He sighed. "I can't wait to retire."
Malfoy started laughing "You do realise that without Voldemort around you'll be unemployed"
Harry and Ron laughed at the idea. "Nice way of putting it Malfoy" Harry said closing the book he'd been looking at. "You two are right, looking at one more book is only going to drive me insane."
"Of all things, its going to be books that drive you insane!!" Draco cried "It's not as if you haven't had all three unforgivables thrown at you, nor that you've some how managed to live through more battles with Voldemort than should be possible..."
"Not to mention I've had to live with you haunting me for the past five years" Harry added.
"Exactly....HEY!" Malfoy exclaimed loudly as he registered what Harry had said.
"I think I liked it better when neither of you were around" Ron muttered looking as though he was talking to himself. "Peaceful, quiet, and not to mention, Voldemort free".
"Ron said Voldemort!!" Draco cried before being completely taken over by hysterics. Harry couldn't help but laugh at the ghost who was now rolling through the air laughing.
Ron shook his head and joined in laughing. "I can't believe that just came from a Malfoy" He managed to say causing further laughter on Harry and the ghost's behalf.
Harry sighed, "It has been a long time since us three have been together" he said looking at his two friends who he had spent the majority of his final years of Hogwarts with.
"It's also been a long time since Draco and I agreed on something" Ron said
Harry thought about this, "You and Draco never agreed on anything! Actually the words 'Ron', 'Draco', and 'agree' should not even be used in the same sentence." He said.
"No we agreed on something once" Ron said correcting Harry.
"What was that?" Harry asked amazed.
"That both you and Dumbledore are mad" Malfoy said plainly.
Harry rolled his eyes, "I should have known" he said with a grin. "Well I don't know about you Ron, but I'm famished"
Ron looked at his watch, "Everyone should be just about to clear out now if you want to head down to the great hall, Dobby told me earlier that it was roast beef tonight and I've been looking forward to it all day" He said to Harry,
"Insensitive mortals" Malfoy muttered
"Touchy today, aren't we" Harry said slightly amused by Malfoy's annoyance.
"Eat and sleep is all you living people do" He said "We have another five thousand six hundred and forty two books to go before we can possibly say that this library has nothing on the guardians."
Ron stared at Malfoy, "Is that all" he said looking horrified by the thought that he was going to have to read a third of that number.
Harry grinned up at the ghost. "Its a good thing you don't sleep then, because you will need all those extra hours that us "living" waste to look through all those books"
Malfoy's eyes narrowed and Ron laughed. "I love you too Potter" He said
"Oh, how lovely, when's the wedding?" Sirius cried from behind them causing all of them to jump in surprise. Harry turned to find Sirius grinning at him with a look that reminded him of Mrs Weasley when she had found out that Hermione and he were dating in seventh year. Severus who was standing next to him didn't look as nearly as happy, on the contrary he was looking at Sirius with a look of the utter most disgust.
"That is disgusting" Severus said to his old rival.
Sirius rolled his eyes, "You know Snape, I didn't think it was possible but I'm starting to honestly believe that you must be the only person on this planet who doesn't have a single drop of humor in their personality" He said then sighed and turned to Harry, Ron and Malfoy. "We have been sent to tell you that an emergency meeting has been called by Dumbledore, and that you are all required to be in attendance"
"Now?" Ron asked looking as though his day has just been ruined.
"Now" Sirius said.
-o-
When the five turned up on the office Hermione, Dumbledore and Remus were already there. Harry sat down next to his wife. "Who's with Jessica?" He asked her.
"McGonagall at the moment, though it took a lot to convince her to look after her..." Hermione said not really finishing what she was saying. Harry frowned feeling that this may be part of the reason why they were here.
"Now that everyone's here, Miss Granger, what is this about" Dumbledore said causing Harry to close his eyes. This was the third time this week that they had talked about Jessica's protection. He and Hermione could both tell that she was getting restless being followed everywhere but he was certain that they had both talked to her enough about the seriousness of the situation.
"I'm really sorry to do this to you all again, but it's about Jessica's protection. I know we agreed to have her followed everywhere but it's starting to get on her nerves"
"Hermione, I was under the impression that you and Harry had both talked to your daughter and that everything was under control" Severus said coldly.
"Severus" Harry said in a warning tone "We've done as much as we possibly can do, but Jessica is still her own person, and she is getting restless"
"It's getting really serious though" She said, "She ran away from Mundungus three times today, and if he hadn't used a magical trace spell on her in the morning we may have not found her till later this evening, not only that but within minutes of being in Minerva's office only an hour ago she had already tried to run away. This time Minerva's animagus form saved us. She just doesn't like being followed." Hermione said,
Dumbledore was frowning as he thought about what could occur if Jessica was not followed. "Well what is it that you suggest?"
"The only thing I can think of is getting the people to wear invisibility cloaks, or just give Malfoy the full time job"
Malfoy didn't look happy with this idea. "I don't think I'd make a very good baby-sitter..."
"Your meant to be staying invisible anyway," Hermione said accusingly.
"If your talking about the library today, there was no one there but Harry, Ron and I, and Dumbledore told the school not to..."
"That's beside the point Malfoy. This is a school of witchcraft and wizardry remember. The students have other ways of getting around... not to mention many of them spent the day flying around the grounds on their brooms. All it's going to take is for one student to recognize you..."
"OK! I get the idea! Merlin, so what do you want me to do. Follow Jessica around until the end of time, or just until Harry gets rid of Voldemort? You do realise that even if she does get attacked, there won't be much I can do."
"You'll be able to contact someone who can do something about it" Hermione argued.
"And that's going to make a huge difference if that someone is on the other side of the school."
"It's still better than no one knowing what is going on all the time..."
"That's enough" Harry said his eyes flashing their true colour as his power flared up around him. Malfoy shut up instantly looking terrified. "Until the ghost potion is completed, you will have to follow around Jessica Malfoy. There is more than just my daughters life resting on the fact that you are not discovered." He added sending the ghost a look of warning.
Draco just nodded as though saying a word might cause something close to world destruction. "Right, well, I'll just be going then" He said before flying out of the room at top speed.
"That is only going to work temporarily you do realise" Severus said as he watched Malfoy speed straight through the door to Dumbledore's office. "You will have to find another way to keep your daughter safe Potter."
Harry who had relaxed back into his seat after Malfoy's departure looked pensive as he thought about the potion's masters words. Severus, as much as he hated to admit it, was right. It would not be long before Malfoy started to get as restless in his newly required job as his daughter was being followed around. "I'll think about it," He said still looking as though he was lost in thought. "How long until the ghost potion is ready?"
"No longer than a fortnight" Severus answered "It has been quite convenient that it is only a week till the full moon because that is the only night when I can collect many of the finishing ingredients."
"Convenient for you perhaps" Remus muttered under his breath. Sirius looked at Remus sympathetically before looking back at Harry.
"We still have the unresolved issue about what to do about Pettigrew" He said refusing to call his former friend by the nickname they had given him during their time as the Marauders.
Harry sighed, "It's not as easy this time. Voldemort has performed some charm to make it so he is invisible to the Marauders Map. I mean I can feel his presence in the school, and Malfoy can find him after a day searching the school, but other than that we have no real way of keeping track of his where abouts"
"Which is why we had to result to having Jessica stalked" Sirius said, "We know all this already Harry, what I mean is what are we going to do about it. There has to be some way that we can put in place a magical trace charm that gives us an idea of where in the school he is at certain times..."
"If I may" Severus interrupted before Harry could argue, "I'd presume that Voldemort would have already considered that possibility, and made it difficult, if possible at all, for us to do anything of the sort."
"I have to agree with Severus, Sirius" Harry said, "The only reason we know that Pettigrew is still in the school is because Voldemort was counting on me not being here."
"There is no point in us arguing about this all night" Hermione remarked after noticing that Sirius was getting ready to argue his point. "We still have a lot to do to prepare the school for an attack if you haven't all forgotten the discussions we were having last meeting."
Ron sighed, "Not to mention that we all have day jobs to return to tomorrow" He added looking exhausted.
"Meeting adjourned then" Dumbledore said. "The next meeting will be held a week Monday as scheduled unless otherwise notified."
Harry yawned as he walked out of the office with Ron at his side. "Well that was productive" Ron said sarcastically. "You'd think after all the time that we spent in that office that we would have got more done."
"Honestly Ron!" Hermione cried exasperated from behind them. "If you had been paying attention you would have seen that there was more said at that table in an hour than in all our meetings combined."
"Your exaggerating darling" Harry said thinking back to the meetings they had had before he had left the wizarding world.
"Not really" Hermione argued. "While you were away meetings were horrible. We couldn't decide on anything and almost every week there was a different argument about something trivial. We left almost everything up to Dumbledore, which in retrospect wasn't very fair of us as we were meant to be a team."
"I have to admit Harry, since you've come back, the meetings have got better" Ron added agreeing with Hermione. "Those meetings used to be bloody awful, now their just awful which is a huge improvement." He said which resulted in Hermione directing a dirty look at him.
Harry shook his head and laughed as he realised that not everything in this world had changed.
