This is the last chapter for which there will be notes at the beginning. Everyone has far to go and still much to learn — as do we all. They, at least, will have some idea of where they are by the time they have seen "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince".
'Easy, old fellow.'
'Who are you calling easy, Dean Thomas?' quipped Draco as Dean and Seamus helped him into the wheelchair. 'It may once have been true, but no more, I do assure you.'
'Are you sure you want to do this?' Seamus' voice was full of concern as he gazed down at the pain-filled blue eyes, the sweat blooming on the thin face and the once-expressive hands which now lay uselessly in Draco's lap.
'No, but I'm doing it anyway,' he rasped. 'Perhaps your Gryffindor stubbornness is finally rubbing off on me.'
'Oh, don't worry about that, my Slytherin friend, it's already happened,' reassured Dean. 'You've been a stubborn git for years.'
Their laughter rang through the hallway as they proceeded to the staff common-room.
'That sounds promising,' said Lily brightly as she cleared away the remains of a light supper.
Snape huffed. 'It's not as if we can all just wave our wands, Pollyanna.'
'No,' agreed James, 'But we've only got two more nights, according to the number of discs. 'So, let's just try to do the best we can, eh — difficult as that may be.'
'Come on Prof, dear,' encouraged Ginny as she adjusted his blanket and froze. A thin tube snaked out from beneath the nightshirt which hung limply on the skeletal form. 'What's this?'
'What does it look like?' growled Snape. 'To prevent further inane enquiry, they inserted it while I was asleep.'
'Would you mind all going down without us?' asked James. 'I want to have a chat with Severus here.'
Snape scowled. "I am obviously powerless to prevent you.'
Lily, Ginny, Remus and Harry quietly quit the room, exchanging looks of concern.
'Okay, you old misanthrope,' began James. 'For once in your miserable life, you're going to shut up and listen.'
He sank effortfully onto a poof which he'd conjured for the purpose, so that his face was on the level of Snape's in his chair. 'I can see you're absolutely bricking it — no, don't say anything until I've finished — and not just because of the prospect of tonight's disc. Being old and having to cede control to others is no joke: I can see that. But we're all in that boat, to a greater or lesser degree. Take Draco. That lad is in constant pain, the like of which I can't imagine — though I daresay I would have had the chance to experience it first-hand had things continued much longer. I've been growing a tumour for months now, and before you say anything I haven't told my son and I don't intend to. Hermione's got a back that's decided it doesn't love her anymore, hence that bloody stupid walking contraption; old Neville's losing his hearing (though I doubt your very best veritaserum would make him admit it), Lil's heart's gradually giving out …'
'No,' rasped Snape in horror.
James sighed ruefully. 'Sad to say, old chap, she's as mortal as the rest of us. And now our mortality (what's left of it) is finally coming to an end. Am I afraid? Course I bloody am — mainly because I've got no idea what's going to happen, what it'll feel like. I just know that we're all in this together. And that includes you, you old git. Am I getting through?'
Snape did not reply. His mind was currently running like a hamster on a wheel. Lily's dying. Her heart is failing her. Oh, Merlin help us, Lily will cease to be. Lily's dying …' Then the rest of James' diatribe invaded his consciousness. "Our mortality is coming to an end.' So, this purgatorial existence was nearly over. All he had to endure was two or three more days and … tonight's disc. He began to shudder, and felt a large, warm hand on his shoulder.
'It's all right, Severus. Really. We all know what you did and why you did it. We also know tonight is going to be rocky, even if they do get it right which, judging by recent experience is open to conjecture. We're all here for you, you silly old bugger.'
James rose painfully to his feet. 'Let's do this.'
The common-room had changed quite a bit from previous evenings. Cushions of various sizes and fillings littered the floor along with colourful throws and foam squabs, of which Harry, Ginny and Lily were making good use when James propelled his old schoolmate through the door.
'Whoa,' he cried, bringing the wheelchair to a sudden halt. 'Beware the flying Manchester.' A bed pillow brushed Snape's nose as it sailed past, eliciting an exasperated growl.
'Good evening to you, too, Uncle Severus,' said Draco from a low couch.
Seamus was standing beside him with a remote control in his hand.
'Now this,' he announced grandly, 'is the 0g button.'
'Do I really want to know what that is?' enquired Draco.
'It's zero gravity, lummox,' came Hermione's voice from behind James. 'Shift out of the way, please guys. You're blocking the doorway.'
'Oh, right,' huffed Draco. 'That tells me everything I ever wanted to know. Now, what on Merlin's green earth, does it mean?'
'It says it simulates a weightless state, just as if you were in space,' announced Seamus.
'Well, I don't care a flying flobberworm about space,' grimaced Draco, 'but the weightless part sounds eminently appealing. Press the damned button, why don't you.'
'Why don't you use a weightless charm?' demanded Snape as he and James moved into the room proper.
'Because sometimes, Prof, it's easier and more practical just to put your finger on a button,' retorted Hermione. 'Anyone can do that.' She turned towards Draco and her eyes widened in shock.
'Oh, Draco. You look dreadful.'
'I love you too, dear heart,' retorted Draco, his pain lines smoothing out as the weightlessness began to take effect. 'I think there's one of these things with your name on it. You look as if it may be needed. How much pain potion have you taken?'
'Enough for now,' she replied curtly.
'Liar,' returned Draco. 'Get down here this minute. I think you'll find it extremely beneficial.'
Hermione's darting gaze told the old wizard everything he needed to know.
'Ginevra,' he called. 'Would you please help Hermione down onto one of these things before she lands on her face?'
Hermione had tried gamely to move from her position just outside the doorway, but her face had paled considerably, and the walker looked in danger of over-balancing.
'I've got her,' called out Ron, just then appearing over her shoulder. He picked her up as if she were made of Dresden China and carried her over to the massage couch next to Draco, who indicated the remote control with a thing which, only yesterday, had still resembled a hand.
'Bloody stoic Gryffindor,' he teased as the couch next to him began to vibrate. 'You could have really injured yourself. How long have you been like this?'
'Since this morning when I awoke,' replied Hermione, floating a throw featuring bright tropical patterns over to herself.
'Hermione, dear, please don't bring that near me unless you want to see the supper I did not in fact eat,' begged Draco.
'It does not match your eyes.'
'But it's cheerful,' retorted Hermione, selecting another in soft earth tones.
'It takes tack to an entirely new level,' opined Draco.
'You wouldn't want to try one of these couches, would you Prof?' offered Seamus.
'You are correct,' growled Snape. 'I would not.'
'Well, how about a lovely nest, then?' suggested Ginny. 'That's got to be more comfortable than your wheelchair — and easier to transfigure.'
Snape huffed his assent as he was floated gently into a soft nest made of air-filled cells, puffy duvets and a soft throw, all topped off with a warming charm and stabilised beneath by yet another massage couch.
'Hello, Prof,' smiled Hermione as he settled next to her. 'All invalids together, eh?' She winced as she reached out a hand to indicate her proximity.
'What has happened?' he asked, taking it.
'I think my back has finally decided to stage a coup,' she informed him with a casualness she did not feel. 'And how are you faring today?'
'I have a catheter,' he growled.
'Oh, Prof.' She squeezed his hand. 'Things are moving, aren't they?'
He nodded.
'Okay, boys and girls.' Ron's voice jarred against the quiet chatter. 'Harry's been teaching me how to use this thing. I hope I don't lose my place.' He flourished the iPad. 'The original script writer is back and, given his last effort, we should be prepared for anything.'
'That's a bit unfair,' said Lily. 'Didn't he have a different director?'
'Yes,' replied Ron, 'but this film is getting panned almost as much as number four.'
This was greeted with resigned sighs all round.
'For us,' continued Ron, 'this is probably going to be the hardest film of all to watch. Now you all know how the previous discs have treated me and, from what I can glean, this is going to be more of the same: things I said and did either given away, deleted or down-played. If I can sit through it, then you all should too. On the other hand, we need to be ready to comfort each other if or when things get difficult. And that also means that if we're in need, we need to reach out. I only know one Legilimens worth his salt round here,' he looked over in Snape's direction and received a curt nod of acknowledgement 'and we shouldn't have to try and read each other's minds in order to know what's going on. Are we agreed?'
A chorus of yesses followed.
'By Salazar, he's pretty good at this, isn't he,' whispered Draco sotto voce.
'My husband has always had hidden talents,' replied Hermione proudly.
'Okay,' said Harry, taking the disc from its case and popping it into the player. 'This one is called Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.'
Snape could not resist a smirk.
The movie began with the lightning and clouds Warner Brothers shield, a flashback to the Battle of the Department of Mysteries and the media scrum in the aftermath.
'Interesting,' mused Draco as Dumbledore was shown, a protective arm around Harry, and clearly wearing two rings.
As the storm clouds gathered over the Ministry and the Death Eaters swooped into Diagon Alley to kidnap Ollivander, Remus let out an indignant huff.
'Which year was this again?'
'1996,' chorused several voices.
'Thought so,' said Remus triumphantly. 'The Millennium Bridge didn't exist then; sloppy.'
'Harry Potter, you dark horse you,' sneered Draco as teenage Harry was pictured asking a waitress out in a station cafe. 'How tasteless.'
'You ought to know me better than that, Draco,' he shot back. 'I mostly moped around the house all summer. Guess that was too boring to put in a film.'
'Oh no,' he continued as he and Dumbledore left the station. 'If they'd been looking for entertainment, they could have staged the part where he came round Privet Drive, invited himself in and had to conjure drinks because my wonderful relatives were too rude to serve any. They wouldn't drink his drinks, and the glasses kept bonking them on the heads. It was hilarious.'
This was greeted with general snickering.
'I wouldn't have minded seeing that,' smirked Snape. 'Anything to see Tunie Evans discomfited.'
'Bloody hell,' expostulated Ron as Horace Slughorn's ruse was uncovered. 'That stupid old fathead. What the hell was he trying to achieve?'
'Poor old sod,' said Lily fondly. 'He always was too stupid to know what a joke most people considered him.'
The smiles which had been present as everyone watched the Golden Trio have a catch-up in the Burrow faded as the film cut to Spinner's End and the Unbreakable Vow scene with Snape, Bellatrix and Narcissa.
'Ooooh, she is so creepy,' remarked Lily, staring at Helena Bonham Carter.
'Did you really live in a place like that, Prof?' asked Hermione.
Snape offered her a wintry smile. 'No, dear. It was worse.'
Then he began to laugh as the Describer mapped out the next scene outside Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes and identified a toy Dolores Umbridge on a tightrope. 'Very apt.'
'Poor Lavender,' said Harry to Ron as she was shown passing them by on their way back out into the Alley. 'She had it bad, didn't she?'
'No way,' ejaculated Draco as he and his mother were shown furtively checking for observers before slipping into Knocturn Alley. 'These two make me look like a complete idiot. I'd never have taken my mother on an errand like that. We look about as conspicuous as one of Arthur's bloody rubber ducks in a goldfish pond. This is indeed a bad sign, friends and neighbours.'
'Nice touch including Greyback in the scene, though,' commented Hermione. 'He most definitely wasn't there.'
'What? You really did see me?' Draco was outraged.
'And heard you,' put in Ron. 'We used some of Fred and George's extendable ears.'
'I knew that bloody cabinet right away,' said Harry. 'Remember how I mentioned I'd hidden inside it back at the beginning of disc two?'
'That seems a lifetime ago,' sighed Draco, grimacing in pain. Hermione reached out a hand and touched his shoulder. 'And so it was,' she said soothingly. He gave her a wan smile.
'These people clearly don't do prefects,' grumbled Ron as he, Hermione and Harry were shown sitting together in a compartment on the Hogwarts Express.
'They also don't do invisibility cloaks,' added Harry morosely. 'That's at least the second time I can remember that they substituted something else. 'What are they playing at?'
'Bit hard to picture someone in a film, wearing an invisibility cloak, I expect,' said Hermione sarcastically.
'Oh, there's hatchet-face herself,' said Ginny spitefully, clocking Pansy Parkinson in the carriage with Draco.
'Now that,' said Lily severely, 'is not cricket, Draco Malfoy. Did your father never teach you not to keep attacking after you've made your opponent defenceless?'
Harry was pictured lying prone on the floor of a train compartment with blood all over himself.
'Don't worry, Lily,' Draco replied blandly. 'He paid me back with interest. You'll see.'
'Forgive me if this sounds silly,' ventured Remus, 'but Harry gets into the carriage using the darkness powder, then he suddenly and conveniently has the Invisibility Cloak for Draco to hide him. Does that seem like poor continuity to you? And while I'm on the subject, how can he see where he's going inside the compartment after he uses the powder?'
'Good point,' said Draco. 'It was I who bought some of that powder, and a Hand of Glory, so I could actually use the stuff effectively.'
'Pffft,' replied James from beside him. 'Anyone who knows our story must be jumping up and down by now.'
'Darling Luna,' said Hermione fondly as she found Harry on the train, just before it was due to depart for London.
'That was meant to be Tonks,' put in Harry. 'And the Prof came to meet me all by himself. We had a little chat on the way up to the castle. Well, he chatted, and I managed to ignore him.'
'Just as usual, then,' intoned Snape blandly.
'Oh, Godric,' cried Lily, watching Harry following the Prince's book in Slughorn's first potions class. 'That bloody Felix Felicis routine. Did I ever tell you it was me who earned the last one?'
'We're all ears,' invited Remus.
Lily merely gave him a "tell you later" look and continued watching as Harry arrived for his first private meeting with Dumbledore.
'Oh, what?' Harry was outraged as Dumbledore asked him obliquely about his relationship with Hermione. 'This script writer doesn't know Dumbledore at all. He would never have asked me such a thing. And, what's more, that wasn't the first memory,' he continued as they all watched Dumbledore's first meeting with the boy, Tom Riddle. 'I saw the Gaunt hovel, and that — that awful family …' He trailed off as his tv self entered the memory.
'Now that really is sloppy,' he cried as Tom Riddle stated he could make bad things happen to those who were mean to him. 'If memory serves (and I've tried really hard to forget all this, believe me) he said "annoyed". He could make bad things happen to people who annoyed him. It's only one little word but it makes one hell of a difference.'
'Well spotted, Harry,' smiled Snape. 'I seriously doubt anyone tried bullying the child, Tom Riddle.'
James laughed as Dumbledore and Harry discussed the real reason Slughorn had been returned as Potions Master. 'Dumbledore, you sly old fox.'
'Oh, no! Gross me out,' cried Ron as McLaggen tried to get him to introduce Hermione during the Gryffindor team Quidditch try-outs. 'This writer, or director, or whoever, has a bloody one-track mind. That so did not happen.'
'Glad I confunded him, then,' laughed Hermione.
'Who? The director or the writer?' Neville put in.
'Don't be a dunderhead, Neville,' laughed Hermione. 'How could I confund them?'
'Bloody tempting, though,' replied Nevile with an attempt at an evil grin.
'Who are we talking about here?' demanded Draco.
'Stuffed if I know,' replied Dean. 'I thought we were talking about McLaggen. Hermione confunded him so he would miss that last goal.'
'Hermione! You didn't,' laughed Draco. 'How Slytherin of you.'
'Shut up, all of you,' growled Snape. 'Some of us are trying to hear.'
'Glad they left out our visit to Hagrid,' remarked Ron. 'I felt really bad about dropping Magical Creatures.'
'Nice little scene in the common-room they invented there,' replied Hermione. 'Establishes the already growing influence of the Half-Blood Prince's book.'
This was continued as the movie's timeline slipped smoothly from the common-room to the Trio on their way to Hogsmeade, to a scene in the Three Broomsticks where Dean and Ginny were pictured holding hands and kissing, followed by Slughorn inviting Harry and Hermione to his first party — and addressing Ron by an incorrect name. Ron went to say something, but was silenced by Harry, who made cutting and pasting motions with his hands.
'That is pure bollocks,' cried Hermione as Leanne told McGonagall the necklace was meant for Dumbledore. 'We had no idea for whom that thing was meant. Not then.'
Draco nodded. Then he turned a glare on Harry as Harry was pictured accusing him of cursing Katie Bell with the necklace.
'You just knew, Potter, did you?'
Harry gazed steadily back at him. 'No, Draco, I did not just know.' He grabbed the remote and hit pause. 'Firstly, Professor Snape wasn't in the room when we talked with McGonagall about what happened. Secondly, I couldn't very well tell her about what I'd seen and heard in B&B's because they didn't show me seeing it in the film, so they had to come up with an alternative. Even I dared to hope it would be more imaginative than 'I just know." I mean honestly. That just makes me look like a jackass, specially having me say it to Professor Snape. Merlin's knickers.'
Draco sighed. 'I suppose I can give you that, since you turned out to be correct.'
Harry had barely hit play again, watching with satisfaction as his tv self was the last to lower his gaze from Snape's sneering face, when Ginny snatched it from him during the dormitory scene in which Harry and Ron discussed, among other things, the various merits of Ginny's skin.
'Oh, please tell me you didn't actually have that discussion,' she said, glaring at her husband and brother. 'That is truly offensive.'
Harry and Ron merely shook their heads. 'No, we bloody did not,' stated Ron with exaggerated care.
'First he makes me look like a dick, then he makes me seem like a pervert,' complained Harry.
'You know,' said Draco thoughtfully, 'I'm trying to decide with whose spirits this script writer communed when he wrote this? Or was it the director? Currently, I'm wavering between Crabbe and Goyle … or perhaps it was both?'
A deafening silence greeted this sally, until James began to laugh. Hermione followed, then Lily, then Snape, then the whole room simply erupted.
'Nice one, son,' said James, wiping his eyes. 'You're a card and no mistake.'
'I had a first-rate teacher,' replied Draco, turning his head deliberately towards Snape, who smirked and wiped his own eyes.
When Ginny pressed play, the film cut to a little scene with Harry watching the Marauders' Map intently, showing Draco Malfoy disappearing for the first time. It then showed Slughorn's first supper party, in which a series of little interplays between Harry and Ginny, Hermione and McLaggen caused Draco to blanch.
'Did you see that finger? At the supper table! Beyond disgusting! Hermione, dearest, please tell me he didn't actually do that.'
Hermione reached over and lightly touched the driftwood hand. 'No, Draco dear, he did not,' she soothed. 'I didn't think they could make him look even more gross than he was in reality, but they've succeeded.'
'Most of that stuff came out of the luncheon we had on the train,' put in Harry. "Mione wasn't even there for that.'
'By the way,' said Ginny as Slughorn and Harry ended their discussion on Tom Riddle, 'either Slughorn was even more of a fool than I thought, or they made a mistake in casting. Remembering that orphanage scene, did the monster in that kid look to be buried very deeply to you? He sure gave me the creeps.'
'Oh, I think old Dumbledore had that kid's number from day dot, whatever he said,' opined James.
Next up was the first quidditch match of the season, where Luna observed Harry apparently adding something to Ron's drink.
'Oh, Harry, you didn't.' Draco was horrified.
'Shhh,' Hermione placed a finger over her lips. 'Just wait.'
'Why you sly sod,' declared Draco as Harry revealed the unopened vial to Hermione after the match had concluded. 'I shouldn't have thought you had it in you.'
It was Harry's turn to smirk, which slowly morphed into a grimace as Lavender proceeded to snog Ron in front of everyone.
'Yet another lovely piece of charm work, Hermione,' remarked Snape as her charmed birds dive bombed Ron. 'Remind me never to cross you.'
Following a short scene showing Draco cutting a lonely figure at the top of the Astronomy Tower, the film switched to yet another scene to do with relationships and Slughorn's forthcoming Christmas party.
'Oh, yuck,' declared Draco. 'Lav! Is that short for lavatory, by any chance?' He made a face.
'Ah, doesn't she look lovely,' sighed Ginny as Harry and Luna made their way to Slughorn's rooms. 'She was so glad to be invited, Harry.'
Following yet another scene involving a loan Draco, this time fiddling with the vanishing cabinet, the viewers were taken to Slughorn's Christmas party.
'Oh charming,' drawled Lily as McLaggen vomited at Snape's feet. 'I do hope that was your one and only date, Hermione.'
'Yes, but look,' she said as Harry was observed eavesdropping on Draco's and Snape's conversation a few minutes later
'Really,' huffed Snape indignantly. 'Only a rank amateur would hold a conversation like that in the middle of a damned corridor.'
'You're right, Prof,' returned Harry smugly. 'I was under my Invisibility Cloak with my ear against the door of that classroom.'
'Determined little bugger, weren't you?' remarked Draco.
Harry smirked.
The next eight or so minutes, covering Christmas 1996, were all but written off by the residents: from the train ride to the torching of the Burrow. Remus sat silently through it all, merely looking sad as he and Tonks were shown at the Weasley home as a couple — which all of them knew was a fabrication.
'Oh, now, this is just piling insult upon insult,' complained Ginny as the Burrow burned.
'Gratuitous,' agreed Harry.
'Senseless,' spat Snape. 'Foolish in the extreme. Bellatrix was mad, but far from stupid. There is no way she and Greyback would have attempted a rogue mission like that. I don't suppose anything important was omitted here?' he added with a sneer.
'Actually, it was,' replied Harry. 'Percy came round on Christmas Day with Rufus Scrimgeour, who had the temerity to try and make me a poster boy for the Ministry — after everything that happened with Umbridge.'
'Yeah, and we threw mashed parsnip at Perce once we understood he wasn't there to re-join the family,' added Ginny with a grin.
'We also talked about the fact that the werewolves were taking Voldemort's side,' added Remus quietly. 'But I suppose those things were too boring for the writers.'
Everyone nodded.
The film then switched back to Hogwarts, and another little scene featuring Lavender Brown fawning over Ron.
'Why, oh why do they have to keep adding those things in?' moaned the subject himself, his face going beet red as Lavender was seen jumping onto his back.
However, the next scene — in Dumbledore's office with the crucial, altered memory — silenced everyone.
'So what?' enquired Remus. 'Horace actually told Tom about … those things?'
'He did,' replied Harry.
'Fathead,' said Snape tonelessly.
It was hard to tell whether he was speaking of Slughorn or Harry, given the following scene in which Harry clumsily tried to worm the memory out of Slughorn.
'Oh, no,' moaned Ron. 'This was so embarrassing.'
They were watching teenage Ron, who had clearly been at Harry's love-spiked chocolates.
'That'll teach you to eat other people's sweets,' scoffed Hermione.
'Godric, that man was a numpty,' said James as they watched Slughorn just sit there as Harry saved Ron's life with a bezoar, following his accidental poisoning in Slughorn's office.
'Thank Merlin that's over,' opined Draco after the little drama with Lavender at Ron's bedside. 'Perhaps this farce can get back on track.'
Another scene showing a now-desperate young Draco still working on the vanishing cabinet was followed by the Trio in the Great Hall and snow falling from the ceiling.
'Oh Ronald, you really are a gowk,' said his sister, giving him a gentle poke.
Everyone watched with interest as they got a fleeting look at the Half-Blood Prince's book showing the Sectum Sempra spell, the return of Katie Bell and the duel between Draco and Harry in the boys' bathroom.
'By Merlin's hairy old arse!' James' voice rang out over the running water in the flooding bathroom. 'This had better be one of those — those bloody made-up bits, Harry James Potter.'
Harry shook his head mutely.
'Now we did some idiotic things in our time, didn't we Moony?' He glanced in Remus' direction and received a slight nod. 'But that,' continued his father 'is stupidity on the level of seeing a thing labelled "deadly weapon", picking it up and pressing the nice, shiny button just to find out what the hell it does. Good thing Severus arrived, and that he knew the counter-spell.'
'Are you going to tell him now, or make him wait, Prof?' whispered Hermione to Snape.
'What do you think?' he returned easily.
'The Prof here gave me Saturday detention till end of year,' said Harry. 'It doesn't show that, I guess. I missed the quidditch final, which we won anyway.'
'Oooh, interesting,' remarked Draco as Harry and Ginny were shown entering the Room of Requirement, hiding the book and having their first kiss.
'No,' corrected Harry, 'it was completely misleading. Remember where we found Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem?'
'Oh, of course,' cried Draco.
'Yes, well, I hid the book in the Room, and I saw the thing just sitting there on top of a manky old mannequin. I actually kissed Ginny in the common-room in front of everyone after we won the quidditch. They're doing that cut, paste and redecorate thing again.'
'I wish they wouldn't bloody do that,' complained Neville. 'It really messes with my head.'
'Hey, didn't I give you the idea about the Felix?' asked Ron.
Harry nodded. 'And I only used a bit of it.'
'Yes,' put in Ginny. 'You gave the rest to us the night you went on that mission with Dumbledore. I shudder to think what would have happened if we'd been without it.'
Everyone watched with interest as Aragog's funeral, and the aftermath proceeded with the help of Felix Felicis and copious quantities of alcohol.
'What a load of twaddle,' scoffed Lily as Slughorn proceeded to tell Harry about a gift Lily Evans was meant to have given him. 'I kind of like the old bugger, but I never did anything of the kind. Not that I couldn't have if I'd so chosen.'
'Yes,' sneered Harry. 'The reality was far less boring. I told Slughorn every little detail I knew about the night you and dad were killed. I should have thought that'd be far more dramatic.'
They continued to watch intently as Harry and Dumbledore observed Tom Riddle discuss Horcruxes with Slughorn. Then the timeline cut straight to the Astronomy Tower and Harry snatched up the remote control.
'Whoa,' he cried, pressing pause as, on the screen, Snape and Harry met on the stairs of the Astronomy Tower. 'Someone wasn't paying attention. There's been a really important cut here. I'll fill you all in, but first I suggest we might like to have a break, since we're down at the business end of this disc now. Any objections?'
There were none.
'Okay,' said Lily, getting wearily to her feet. 'Who wants what?'
'Are you all right, mother P?' asked Ginny, arising to her own feet with considerably less effort. 'I'll give you a hand.'
'Me too,' volunteered Harry.
The paper aeroplane requests came flying across the room once more, though far more sluggishly than the night before. Hermione had graciously volunteer to do three — for herself, Draco and Snape. However, it took many tries, together with a few choice curse words (which caused Draco to blush and Snape to snicker), before she achieved the charms correctly. Looking around, she found her friends were having similar issues.
'Merlin's knickers! What the hell is happening around here,' she cried in sheer exasperated exhaustion.
From across the room, James (who had only just managed to produce something which vaguely resembled a paper hat) gave her a knowing wink and a sigh.
Just then, Ginny came marching back into the room. 'I'm afraid there'll be a bit of a delay,' she announced, annoyance clear on her face. 'It appears our magic no longer works in that kitchen.'
'It's not doing too bloody well in here anymore either,' confirmed her father-in-law, hauling himself to his feet. 'I suggest all those who can, go and get their own and bring back for those who can't.'
'Erm,' said Hermione with uncharacteristic timidity.
'Don't worry, sis,' reassured Ginny. 'I'll take care of yours.'
'No, it's just that …' Hermione began to blush. 'If we can no longer rely on our magic to help ourselves, I — um — I suspect the three of us here might need some extra assistance, starting with a straw each, I think.'
'Bugger that,' muttered Snape darkly. 'I'd rather go without.'
James glared down at him. 'Not on my bloody watch, you mulish old moron. We've got this and two more discs to get through yet.' And he disappeared into the kitchen with the others.
'Consider yourself well and truly told, Uncle Severus,' smiled Draco.
'He is right, you know,' added Hermione, failing to keep a chuckle out of her own voice.
'What? About him being a moron?' Draco raised an eyebrow in mock outrage.
'No, about his being mulish,' laughed Hermione.
'Have you two quite finished?' sneered Snape. He opened his mouth to continue, but only gave a weary sigh.
'It's really happening, then, isn't it?' said Hermione softly.
'What's really happening,' Draco wanted to know.
'Oh, do use your head, boy,' sighed Snape. 'I appreciate that your pain will be having a deleterious effect on your thought processes but think for a minute. James, Sirius, Lily and I collaborate on a little adventure, which just happens to end up with us having to relive our major life story — more than relive it, in fact — since all our perspectives seem to have been affected and now Sirius has disappeared and we're all falling apart. Must I spell it out?'
Draco gave a resigned sigh. 'No, Uncle. When you lay it out like that …?'
'I, for one, cannot wait,' sighed Snape.
'Wait no more,' said James cheerfully. 'Tea and toast as ordered.'
He, Ron and Seamus moved over to help Snape, Hermione and Draco with their refreshments.
'You are fidgeting,' growled Snape as James held the tray steady so the frail hands of the blind Professor could explore and use its contents without fear of spillage. 'How is your pain level?'
'Perceptive, aren't you?' remarked James conversationally. 'It's acceptable — for now. About five out of ten. Good thing I have access to morphine as well as potion, the way things are going.'
'Oh, James,' whispered Hermione in shock.
'Don't you say a bloody word to Harry,' warned James as he watched her wince as she used her controller to raise her couch just enough to make eating and drinking that little bit easier. 'What about your pain level, girl?'
'Acceptable,' she lied as she concentrated on tucking into the sandwich Ginny had made her.
To her left, Draco was silent as he was being hand-fed by Seamus.
'Oh, Draco, your poor hands,' she said sadly. 'They remind me of driftwood.'
'That's about what they feel like,' he sighed as he finished the soup he'd requested. 'That is, if it was possible to fill driftwood with hot metal and glass shards.'
Hermione and Snape winced in sympathy.
A little later, Dean, Seamus and Ginny were stacking the dish-washer and tidying the kitchen, Ron once again held the iPad and the others were settling down for the last part of the disc.
'Could I come over there and sit with you, Prof,' asked Harry?
'I' — I think you probably should,' replied Snape. 'This will not be easy viewing.'
'I think they get it reasonably right, by the look of the reviews,' announced Ron as Ginny settled herself near Harry. 'They do it a bit differently, but it doesn't seem that there are too many glaring improprieties.'
'Get on with it then,' rasped Snape.
'Hang on,' prompted Harry. 'I said they left an important piece out, and I think I need to fill you in, since I was the only one there.'
Everyone who was able, turned to look at him.
'Some of you will know this,' continued Harry carefully, 'but in case you don't, it was the Prof here who overheard the prophecy about me. He took it straight to Voldemort.'
There were nods from the other Gryffindor schoolmates and Remus, and gasps of horror from Lily, James and Draco.
'I found out while I was on the way up to Dumbledore's office,' said Harry, now employing a "just the facts, Ma'am" tone. 'I bumped into Prof Trelawney trying to hide her sherry bottles in the Room of Requirement.'
'So that's who I threw out,' cried Draco. 'All these years, I've wondered, but never been sure.'
Harry nodded. 'Anyway, she complained about being thrown out, and babbled something about repeatedly seeing a Lightning-Struck Tower in the cards.'
Ginny and Lily gasped.
'Then she started regaling me with her interview for the position of Divination Teacher and said Professor Snape had been the one to overhear her prophesying.'
'I only heard half of it,' corrected Snape. 'Aberforth caught me opening the door to the room.'
'And did you know it was us you were condemning?' asked James sadly.
'Not right away,' replied snape. 'When I did, I went straight to Dumbledore, and so began my double espionage.'
'Godric, Sev,' breathed Lily. 'Why have we never spoken of these things in all the time we've spent together?'
He shook his head. 'I don't know.'
'No wonder the old snake wanted the rest of that prophecy,' said James. 'Bloody hell, Severus. We should have long ago settled all this.'
There was a long silence while each was lost in their own thoughts.
'Are we ready now?' enquired Ron tentatively.
'Yes,' sighed Draco. 'Get on with it before I change my mind.'
On the astronomy Tower, Dumbledore extracted the promise that Harry should obey all orders, no matter how difficult.
'Preposterous,' huffed Snape. 'No one can apparate from Hogwarts' grounds. Not even the Headmaster.'
'You know,' said Hermione with a laugh, 'I don't think a year went by in which I didn't have to say that at least once. It seemed no one else in my year had ever bothered to read "Hogwarts, a History".'
'Course not,' laughed Harry. 'That thing wasn't a brick; it was a bleeding boulder. We apparated from Madam Rosmerta's'
Everyone winced, even Snape, as Dumbledore used some of his blood to pass into the cave.
'Crude in the extreme,' commented Snape.
'That's what Dumbledore said,' confirmed Harry.
No one moved or spoke as the two retrieved the boat and stepped out onto the island.
'I so don't want to see this bit,' protested Harry as Dumbledore again reminded him of his promise.
'Come here, Harry,' ordered Snape. 'Sit here on the edge of this, whatever-it-is.'
Ron saw the movement and pressed pause.
Harry seated himself on the edge of Snape's couch and placed an arm around the frail shoulders. Hermione grabbed Snape's hand on one side and Draco's on the other. Neville came quietly around to Draco's other side and grasped the free hand, while Ginny sat on the floor beside her husband.
Remus, James and Lily moved close together, the two men flanking the anxious Lily.
'Remember,' reminded Remus gently. 'We merely get to watch. They,' he pointed to the gathering around the massage couches, 'get to re-live.'
Everyone held their breath as Ron resumed the disc.
'I can't,' said Harry, trying to cover his eyes with his free hand. Ginny grabbed it and held fast.
'We must watch,' said Snape very softly. 'All of it.'
'But he didn't really get affected until the fourth or fifth draught,' complained Harry as they watched Dumbledore writhe and scream nonsense as Harry coaxed more and more of the liquid into him.
'By Merlin,' whispered Snape as Dumbledore finished the entire draught and revealed the locket. 'That would have felled a lesser man. I wonder what he saw?'
Harry could not speak. He merely watched as his repeated attempts to quench Dumbledore's thirst resulted in his having to enter the lake, causing a visit from the Inferi.
'I don't remember that bit,' said Harry tonelessly as his teenage self was dragged under the water.
Draco stiffened as his teenage counterpart got out of bed and made his way towards the Room of Requirement to let in the Death Eaters.
'I did not do that,' protested Snape as his on-screen self went out into the stormy night. 'The first I knew was when I was summoned by students.'
'Wish we had been able to apparate straight back like that,' mourned Harry as the scene returned to the Astronomy Tower with Harry supporting Dumbledore. 'As it was, we had to borrow a couple of old broomsticks from Rosmerta. Dumbledore could hardly fly and we had to land on the Tower. The Dark Mark was already there. I put on my cloak and went to get you, Prof, as he asked me to do. I was right there. Dumbledore put me under a full body-bind. I was under my cloak; I couldn't move; I had to watch it all.'
'Oh Merlin, Harry, I'm sorry,' whispered Draco.
Hermione and Neville both laid hands on Draco's shoulders, afraid that to do anything more would increase his physical pain. Snape fidgeted until Harry adjusted his position to let him bring an arm around Harry's stiff shoulders as the talk between Draco and Dumbledore went on.
'Hold on, Harry,' encouraged Snape as the Describer announced the arrival of Bellatrix, Greyback and two masked Death Eaters. 'It will soon be over.'
Everyone winced as Bellatrix screamed at Draco and Snape appeared on the upper platform. Everyone held their breath as Snape and Dumbledore locked eyes. Everyone sighed as Snape cast the killing curse and Dumbledore's body was hurled towards the ground, spreadeagled like a broken toy. Then Ron pressed pause.
'My turn this time, Prof,' said Harry, tears streaming down his face as he took Snape into his arms.
Ginny, Dean, Seamus and Ron all gathered around the couches to comfort their schoolmates, while those of Snape— James, Lily and Remus — looked on from across the room, locked in their own private horror.
After some little time, Snape raised his head and simply leant it exhaustedly against Harry's shoulder.
'This next bit's bound to be ugly,' said Harry dully, 'between us, I mean. You don't have to listen.'
'Nonsense,' whispered Snape.
'Okay. Want to stay like this then?' offered Harry in the same dull tone.
Snape nodded.
Ginny came round and put an arm around each of them.
'Everyone ready to go on?' asked Ron.
Most people nodded, and Ron was poised with his finger on the remote when James spoke up.
'Hang on a minute. I saw something that I think we should discuss, particularly as it was too small to be mentioned by the description, so Severus won't have known about it.' Everyone looked askance except Draco, who was currently propped up by Seamus and Dean.
'Are you thinking what I'm thinking, about the killing curse?' asked Draco.
'Yes,' cried James, giving him a thumbs-up. 'It wasn't the right colour; it was a — a sort of blue-green instead of its usual vomitus. At first, I thought it was just another mistake, but then it gave me pause.'
'Go on,' said Harry.
'Well, I think it might be a touch of symbolism,' said James more carefully.
'I think I know where you're going with this,' said Draco, his eyes widening in sudden understanding.
'But his face,' said Lily softly. 'The hatred and revulsion; it was palpable. Is that how you really felt, Sev?'
'Yes,' said Snape simply. 'At that moment, I hated him more than even I dreamed possible … for making me do it to him.' Harry tried to comfort him, but he straightened up as much as he could, leaning more firmly against Harry's shoulder for support. 'I have done a great many regrettable things in my life, but those things I truly regret can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Ending Dumbledore was one of them, and you all know what the others were.'
Everyone nodded.
'Well,' resumed James, 'given that you didn't murder him in cold blood, I'd like to think that, rather than it being another mistake (which I admit is likely, given what we've seen these past nights), the change in the colour of the Avada Kedavra is symbolic of a lack of malice. It's as if he's saying you used just enough power to do the job — and no more. Are you with me?'
A thoughtful silence followed, in which everyone mused.
'Thank you, James,' said Snape after a time. 'I appreciate your raising it — and the sentiment. Shall we continue now?'
Ron resumed the disc, and they were greeted with Bellatrix going on a smashing spree.
'Oh, now that is both tacky and sloppy,' complained Draco. 'Bella wasn't even there that night. That's just cheap drama.'
'Agreed,' said Ginny. 'We fought a right old battle.'
'What?' cried Lily. 'Sev? You're the Half-Blood Prince? You invented that dreadful spell? Who on Merlin's green earth were you planning to use it on?'
'It was insurance,' sighed Snape. 'Not that it matters now.'
'That book was one of the best teachers I ever had,' mourned Harry. 'Ironic, isn't it? At least they didn't show most of our fight.'
Snape huffed.
'No, really,' insisted Harry. 'I'm so, so sorry I called you a coward, Prof. I — I wasn't in possession of all the facts.'
'And that is as it should have been,' said Snape sadly.
'Oh, use the Dark Mark as a piece of art, why don't you,' mocked Draco as Harry lay motionless in the grass, and the clouds form the shape in the sky. 'You needn't have bothered showing it at all.'
Then followed a heart-breaking scene with Harry kneeling beside Dumbledore's body, his head on Ginny's shoulder, while wand after glowing wand in the crowd of students and staff was raised in tribute. Harry looked around to find all eyes glistening. Draco actually had his head on Dean's shoulder, while Snape was doing his best to remain stony-faced — and failing.
Then followed a fill-in scene with Harry in Dumbledore's office, and McGonagall telling him how fond of him Dumbledore had been.
'Well, that was a waste of a few frames of film, or whatever that was,' snapped Hermione. 'I mean … it's not as if Harry didn't already know how Dumbledore felt, is it? Why couldn't they have had Fawkes' Farewell instead?'
'R.A.B.,' mused Snape. 'I know who that is. Regulus Arcturus Black. He was two years behind me at school, and one of Voldemort's minions. Perhaps he should have been sorted into Gryffindor like his big brother Sirius.'
The Trio was shown having a debrief on the Astronomy Tower: Harry making the decision not to return to Hogwarts but to finish what Dumbledore began, the others promising to go with him.
'Ah there he is,' cried Hermione. 'I take it back. What a lovely ending.'
A sigh went up as Fawkes the Phoenix gave a cry and soared into the air, leaving Hogwarts for the last time.
'Hmmm. That was all very interesting,' said Remus quietly. He was seated in a recliner near James and Lily. Now he adjusted it so that he was laid flat, and closed his eyes.
'Yes, it was,' said a voice from the left of the tv screen.
'Hello, you,' cried Ginny, delighted as Luna's smiling face appeared. 'Have you been watching this all along?'
'Course I have,' smiled the blonde girl. 'I just wanted to say congratulations for getting past this hurdle. It was a big one.'
'Luna,' called Draco. 'It appears our magic is failing now. Can you tell us why that might be?'
'Of course, Draco Malfoy,' she said, coming further into the room for the first time. 'You're crossing over. Isn't it exciting? I'd love to hug you all — I mean, really hug you — but Professor Dumbledore says I have to wait until you've gone through two more discs — whatever they are.'
'But why?' put in Neville. 'Why are we having to go through all this?'
Luna turned away, clearly talking to someone they could neither see nor hear.
'It seems I'm allowed to tell you,' she said as she turned back to the room. 'Some of you know, and others have already figured it out.'
She floated over to Remus' recliner and stood beside him.
'Hello, Professor Lupin,' she said cheerfully. 'Have you found any of those Snorgrims yet?'
'No, Luna,' laughed Remus. 'I've been a bit busy.'
'It must be very hard keeping one foot in both camps all this time.'
'What does that mean?' demanded Snape.
Luna directed a laser-beam of a smile at him, which he must have felt because he could not resist responding with a wintry smile of his own.
'Hello, Professor Snape. It's lovely to see you.'
She hopped off the recliner and skipped over to where Snape sat, still propped against Harry.
'Hello, Harry and Ginny Potter.' She kissed each of them on the cheek, including an astonished Snape, before moving around to the other side of his couch and planting herself beside him without so much as a by your leave.
'To answer your question, Professor,' she began, 'Professor Lupin …'
'Remus,' he corrected from his recliner.
'Remus, then,' continued Luna serenely, 'has been torn since he arrived here. Part of him wanted to go on (He does have people waiting for him, you know.) but a bigger part wanted to stay and wait for Harry.'
'So, you're saying all this is my fault?' Harry was dismayed.
'No, silly,' replied Luna. 'You're the reason, not the cause.'
'Of course he is,' sighed Snape resignedly. 'How could it be otherwise?'
Luna ignored him. 'In any case, Professor Remus has been partly crossed over all this time. Actually, I really came here to ask if he wants to come back with me now, or wait till the end.'
Dead silence greeted this statement.
'It's up to you, Moony,' said Lily softly. 'You won't be far ahead of us if you choose to go now.'
As the silence lengthened, a faint, familiar voice was heard to yell,
'Hey, Flower. Are you coming back to finish this game any time soon? I've got a real humdinger of a word for you.'
'Padfoot,' whispered James in wonderment. 'Trust you to gravitate to a pretty lady first chance you get.'
That broke the spell, and everyone laughed heartily.
Shielded by the sound of the laughter, Snape tried to reach for Luna, but found he could only feel a warm, tingling sensation where he thought she was. 'Take me,' he whispered.
'Not yet, Professor dear,' she whispered in his ear. 'I promise I'll give you a welcome hug when you arrive. There won't be any Antipucks to get in your way there. You've been a martyr to them your whole life, you know. It'll be nice to be rid of them, won't it?'
She gave him another quick kiss, and crossed the room to where Remus was getting to his feet.
Everyone fell silent again as he followed Luna toward the corner by the screen.
'I won't say goodbye,' he said, turning slightly. 'There's no need; I'm only next door after all.' Then he and Luna were gone.
'Can someone explain what just happened,' asked Neville almost plaintively. 'I'm horribly confused now.'
'It seems,' said Dean carefully 'That the plan which began with the Old Crowd,' he gestured towards the elder Potters, 'trying to roll young Stevenson, was really a plan for someone (and my money's on Dumbledore) to move us all on from here to whatever comes next. Would that be right so far?'
Everyone nodded. 'And the elaborate ruse to get us to this point? That's — well — has anyone else noticed how things have changed for us around here?' He gestured towards the massage couches. 'Not just personally, but dynamically. We've aired a few grievances and, by the look of things, made a few truces, too.'
'I've still got a grievance,' said Lily suddenly. She crossed the room and stood beside Snape. 'You were pretty vague when I asked about that (What was it?) Sectum Sempra. I can't even conceive of inventing something like that, nor could I conceive of it coming even from you. Please tell me you haven't actually had occasion to use it.'
'Lily, I can't,' he replied calmly, patting the couch beside him.
She sighed heavily and lowered herself onto it.
'It is likely you will see it used in either the next or the final disc. There was a battle and I attempted to take down a Death Eater who was going after Lupin. I missed my aim.'
'And?' Lily's eyes widened in horror.
'It sliced off one of George's ears,' supplied Ron.
'What?' cried Lily, now close to tears. 'One of those lovely twins?'
Everyone nodded.
'When else have you used it then?' she demanded.
'Lily, let it go,' soothed James, crossing to his wife and attempting to put an arm around her stiff body. She pulled away from him and stiffened even further as she proceeded to hold her breath.
'Mum?' Harry and Ginny, the only two close enough to see what was happening were stopped from coming closer by James.
'It's okay; it's okay.' He tried, and failed, to keep the panic from his own voice. 'Her heart goes haywire and this seems to help put it to rights. She'll be okay in a minute.'
Snape reached out a trembling hand, and James grabbed it. 'In a minute, old fellow,' he reassured. 'Then you can pick up where you left off. You do know she won't let this go until she's plumbed the horrible depths.'
Snape tried for a wry smile.
'I haven't crossed over yet, boys,' gasped Lily as she tried to relax her pose.
'Uh oh. Now we're for it,' said James, patting Snape on the shoulder.
'I daresay,' returned the other wryly.
'Want me to leave, darling?' asked James quietly.
'No. You can stay as long as you don't interfere,' his wife replied shortly.
James went to conjure a chair, and a mouse scuttered past his ankle instead. Lily laughed. 'Looks like there'll be no more conjuring for you, James Potter. And I wouldn't try transfiguring that mouse either — not unless you want more unforeseen consequences.' She began to giggle but stopped when she saw the pain bloom on his face.
'Sit on the end of mine, James,' invited Hermione.
James sank gratefully onto the end of Hermione's couch and tried to compose himself.
'Now where were we?' resumed Lily, taking Snape's proffered hand. 'Ah yes. I'd just asked you whether you used that abominable spell at any other time.'
'And I was about to neither confirm nor deny,' replied her childhood friend. 'Please do not press me further on this, because you will lose.'
Lily sighed, conceding defeat but changing tack. 'So, did you teach it to any of the other Death Eaters?'
'Lily Potter! What do you take me for?' Snape was genuinely outraged. 'Can you imagine a spell like that in the hands of Bellatrix? Or Voldemort?'
'Only a few minutes ago, I couldn't even imagine such a spell in your hands,' she replied sadly, her eyes brimming with the tears which had been threatening for some time.
James shifted soundlessly around to the other side of the couch so he could speak quietly with Hermione and Draco. Harry and Ginny, signalling to Ron, arose and made for the kitchen.
'There's some Swiss Miss in there, sweetheart,' said Ron as he passed by his wife's couch. 'Your favourite. Want some?'
'Is the Pope Catholic?' replied Hermione.
That made the younger ones smile. They'd always loved the little sayings she'd often come out with.
'There may even be marshmallows,' continued Ron as he moved away. 'I'll check.'
'Why, Sev?' Lily almost wailed. 'You invented it in (What?) our sixth year? I — I knew you were taking a dark path … but this? This is getting into Unforgiveable Curse territory. Why, in Merlin's name?'
'Because … because I could,' replied Snape, now struggling under the weight of his own emotions. 'I … I proved myself capable of doing it — that I was good enough (at least to myself) — good enough for the D … dar …' But he could not continue. He had disappointed her all over again and he found, to his horror, that it did not hurt any less than the first time around.
This time, however, he felt her arms around him as he let himself be pulled into her embrace, and he returned the gesture, clinging like a drowning man.
'We both made such a mess of things, didn't we?' mourned Lily as the tides of their grief ebbed.
'No,' he corrected. 'That was only me, Daisy''
Lily gave him a poke and a watery laugh. 'Severus Snape. Do you ever forget anything?'
For a response, he began to sing, very softly, into her ear.
'I'll give you a daisy a day dear.
I'll give you a daisy a day.
I'll love you until the rivers run still,
and the four winds we know blow away.'
'Oh, stop it,' she chided. 'You'll start me off again.'
Later, as everyone enjoyed a variety of hot bedtime drinks, Harry cleared his throat.
'Everyone, I've been thinking,' he began somewhat tentatively.
'Congratulations on your achievement, Mr Potter,' said Snape with a smirk and a huge wink.
Harry knew exactly what that was for: the flying car jibe of a few nights ago. He wondered briefly whether the man had an eidetic memory. Everyone else laughed.
'Okay, okay,' he began again. 'It's more feeling than thinking, really, (shut up, Prof).'
More laughter all round.
'I was not going to say a thing,' said Snape innocently.
'Are you thinking what I'm thinking?' asked Ginny. 'That we all ought to stay here together now?'
Harry nodded. 'For one thing, three of us are hors de combat, and more of us are heading that way.' He gave his mother a look. 'It seems impractical for us to go anywhere now we seem to be on the home stretch.'
'For my part,' cut in Draco, 'I don't think it would be worth anyone's while to try and move me — least of all mine.'
'I don't think I could move if you paid me,' added Hermione. 'Not without a deal of undignified protest and a lot of potion — or other things. Personally, I want to avoid opiates if at all possible. I want to be clear-headed for the final go-round.'
'Good thinking, dear heart,' agreed Draco.
'Shouldn't that be good thinking 99?' blurted Harry before he could stop himself.
Snape, Lily, Hermione, Dean and Seamus all laughed, while the others merely looked blank.
'Who the hell is 99?' Draco wanted to know.
'Oh, she was the intelligent, capable sidekick of an idiot male spy on a tv programme from when we were kids,' explained Lily.'
'That sounds awfully familiar,' drawled Draco with a pointed look at Harry.
'Go to sleep, you cheeky bastard,' chided Ron.
'Actually, that's not a bad idea,' put in Harry. 'If we all bunk down now — and there's heaps of stuff in here so that we should all be comfortable without having to transfigure anything — we can start on the final discs when we wake. They're two films which represent the year of the Battle: 1997 to 1998. Any objections?'
There being none, the residents proceeded to construct comfortable places for themselves out of the variety of things left for them.
'Do you think we could try enlarging this couch a bit?' Ron asked his wife tentatively. 'Maybe if we try together?'
'Might I assist?' enquired Snape. 'At the risk of immodesty, I have been adept at non-verbal, wandless magic for a very long time now; I have had to be, since it was my only way to retain a modicum of independence. Perhaps it will serve — at least in the short term.'
Hermione beamed at him. 'Oh, Prof! Would you?'
'Say when, lady and gentleman,' instructed Snape as he concentrated. 'The bed was carefully enlarged to a double, and Ron settled himself next to his wife.
'Thank you, Prof,' said Ron a little shyly.
'Just be sure you do not snore,' admonished Snape.
All four Potters approached Snape's couch. 'Mind if we sleep either side? Asked Harry casually. 'We all want to be beside you for this last bit and — well — this was the best solution.'
Will wonders never cease, thought Snape as he deliberately delayed answering in order to get his whirling thoughts and emotions under control. Even at this late date I am experiencing new things. Now there are people — some of whose company I would, until mere days ago, cheerfully have swapped for a spell in Hades —fighting to be in my proximity. How surreal.
'Of course,' he said finally.
Dean and Seamus took a sofa bed nearby, and Neville created a towering nest from memory foam squabs and cushions, and planted himself near Draco.
'Just give me a yell if you need anything in the night,' he offered sleepily. 'Pain medication, you know.'
Draco nodded gratefully and looked around at the gathering.
'We're the unattached odds and sods,' he remarked ruefully.
'Well, you've got the odd part right at least,' returned Neville.
'That would have earned you at least a pie hex in other circumstances,' quipped Draco.
'Go to sleep, the lot of you,' growled Snape.
'Yes, Headmaster,' chorused the gathering, and their laughter carried them all into dreams.