Chapter 36

The witch checked herself. She had to be careful, an alibi was only an alibi when you hadn't been seen at the other place. The place where you weren't supposed to be.

Her cloak was big and dark and generally considered to be the best kind of disguise. But even so, she wasn't sure: wasn't the best kind of disguise to just be another face in the crowd? and since when did she start having misgivings about her plans? Maybe it was the glass of sherry and the two glasses of mead. Maybe she should just get a good grip of herself.

The plan was going fine, the plan was going brilliantly in fact. She'd set things up perfectly, so perfectly that she'd hardly needed to use the device that nestled even now against her chest. Houses had been turned against houses, friends had been turned against friends, time had even been turned against time – or maybe that was going a little bit too far. Whatever.

It was all about symbols, 'symbology' as that moronic new teacher of theirs would have wrongly called it, that was all you needed. You didn't need a full on war between the houses, just a little symbol. A little pointer toward a prophecy, and everything came tumbling down. That night at the ministry had been especially useful, letting her hear the words as they had been spoken. And now Slytherin had been destroyed by Gryffindor, Hufflepuff torn apart by those two together and all that was needed to complete the set was for the might of Ravenclaw to split Gryffindor's true spirit apart. Should that mean she should kill Harry Potter? She wasn't quite sure yet.

The man was just in front of her, he didn't even know the providence, or the power contained within the object he carried. he thought it a mere trinket, more fool him. The witch paused, she had never managed to complete an Avada Kedavra, it was funny. She didn't have any compunctions about using the curse, or any of the other unforgivables, it was just that she'd... never been able to summon the hatred. She just couldn't feel that strongly about anyone, it was only ever indifference.

She shrugged, and cast her favourite hex – the best witch of her age, with a hundred other spells under her belt, but she had always had a soft spot for this one. Before her, the man's skull ruptured as chiropetra exploded from his face, flying into the night.

Chapter 37

Professor Robert Langdon of Harvard University Hogwarts put down the book with a weary sigh. Its fiendish puzzles had bested him this time, but he knew that he would prevail in the end. He had to. Agent Arthur depended on him.

He looked about him into the tricked-out, no-longer dinginess of his underground rooms. The Jacuzzi bubbled away quietly to itself in the corner, the neon lights that circled the private bar hummed quietly to themselves. It was too quiet, and he had no-one to share the quiet with. It made him sad.

He wanted to call up the headmistress and her deputy, but then again he didn't. He knew that there were things that McGonagall wasn't telling him. She was a truly powerful witch and she hid her secrets well, and he knew that there was something dark in those secrets. Professor Robert Langdon of Harvard University Hogwarts had still been unable to discover the whereabouts of that final book, the one that related to mystery of 'Home Economics' and the oppression of the house elves. A mystery that had been lost in time, and as such, his favourite sort.

Of course, that brought in further complications – the secret society 'the priory of spew,' or it might just have been SPEW – was involved. And then there was that weird girl who led her own private army, the DA they called it. Of course she claimed that she was only the lieutenant, but then everyone knew about lieutenants, how they were all leather and uniforms, sleeping with their commanders even as they plotted to take over command themselves. Actually that was an interesting thought. Professor Robert Langdon of Harvard University Hogwarts decided that the hot-tub was rather a good idea at the moment. All would be revealed soon, he had a close friend visiting soon, flying into Glasgow. Until then, well...

Chapter 38

The dark night slid past the car. Snape stared from the window. The wheels turned. The night rolled on.

Chapter 39

'I thought that you liked me?'

'Well, you were wrong.'

'Then what do you call that? All the things that we did?'

'Look, Dean, just, fucking grow up, ok?'

'I would have done anything for you, you know. Anything you wanted.'

'Well you did. You got me Harry. The boy who doesn't notice anything –except Draco fucking Malfoy – unless its right up there in his face and out of his reach.' Ginny's voice was urgent whisper.

'He noticed Cho Chang.'

'Don't even mention that bitch in front of me, Dean.'

'Or what?'

'You know full well what I could do to you. Now I don't care what you thought you meant to me, or what you thought I meant to you, It was nothing. Now why don't you just go and fuck Parvati or someone and get it out of your system. You're a big strong lad, everyone likes you so get a grip of yourself.'

'Ginny, I don't want anyone else. I want you.'

'Why do you have to do this? Why do you have to be so pathetic.'

'But I was going to take you to see the Hammers, we were gonna meet Steve Harris at the after-game, I thought that you wanted to be a part of that.'

'Then you obviously have no idea of what it is that I want,' Ginny hissed.

'Hey you two,' Harry said, sauntering up. 'What's up Dean. Yo, Ginny. Get down ho.'

'Hello Harry,' Dean said civilly. Very civilly.

'Hey Dean, you'll be up for this. I've heard that 50 Knut's coming over to Britain. He's going to be playing in Glasgow. Do you guys want to bust out and see him? Yo?'

'Actually, I'm not really a fan,' Dean said. 'I find his flow lazy and pedestrian and his lyrics either boring or merely offensive. And that lisp isn't fooling anyone.'

Ginny draped herself pornographically against Harry. 'I'll go and see it with you,' she said. 'I'd love to. Just to be with you.'

Harry's trousers twitched.

Chapter 40

'We're leaving you.'

'What?'

Lucius was firm. 'We're leaving you. I'm sorry, sire, but that's the way it is.'

'But. But-'

'You were getting better?' Lucius said kindly. 'I know.'

'I think that I've really made it, this time,' Voldemort spluttered. He suddenly felt like he was standing on nothing. The world was no longer beneath him, but floating off into space, and Lucius was snipping off his tether with a grin.

'And I'm glad for you,' Lucius was saying, 'I really am. But it's not what the rest of us need. We've supported you in this, helped you to find yourself, but you don't need us anymore. You're strong enough to do it on your own.'

'I, I-'

'Only ever wanted immortality. I know But that's not what the rest of us need. We need stability. A good home for the children. The tools to pass on a system of hereditary privilege and ensure that power stays with us. Always.'

'I only wanted what was best,' Voldemort whimpered, stunned. 'For all of us.'

'My liege, we love you. And that's why we came out here with you, but, you're not like us. You don't understand what its like. To be honest, you're common, and we're not. People think that the upper classes are a different world, and they're right. And we need to rejoin that world, for our own sakes. I wish it were different, but its not. The way is open, the half-blood Snape's constant betrayals have destroyed his plans to sieve control for himself and left him trapped in an nightmare of existentialist angst and now we must re-take our places. It is our duty, a duty of government, noblesse oblige no less. I'm truly sorry that it is so. But you must understand.'

Voldermort stared blankly. 'And Narcissa, and Belly?'

'They're already in the car,' Lucius said. 'They thought that it would be easier this way.'

'And Draco?'

Draco looked up from his copy of Paranoia Magazine (I know, it's a real magazine. For fuck's sake, it's actually beyond parody) at his name. 'Come on son,' Lucius said. 'Say goodbye to uncle Voldie. We're going home.'

'Home?' Draco said, wandering over to give the Dark Lord Voldemort, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, Wizard Bane, The Seven-Souled Master of Evil, a goodbye hug. 'Does that mean I get to see Harry Potter again?'

'Yes, son. It means you get to see Harry Potter again,' Lucius sneered tiredly. Almost out of habit. 'I suppose the boy's at least pretty much a full-blood,' he added to himself as an exasperated afterthought. 'Just you remember the promise that we made to Pansy's parents though.'

They walked out of the motel room and let the door close quietly on Voldemort's mute form. He held it in as long as he could, because he didn't want anyone to see him fall apart.

Chapter 41

Wheels turned. Night churned. Darkness enclosed his mind. Snape stirred, the driver of the car turned to him and said, 'we're just coming up to the hairy part of the St. Bernard.' The clutch engaged. Free-spinning gears caught their teeth together and began to turn, grinding forward, and the Earth span upon its axis.

Chapter 42

'Hey, mudblo-'

Hermione flicked off a bat-bogey hex from the practised tip of her wand and sent Pansy Parkinson pitching headlong to the ground before she could even finish her taunt. Hermione didn't have time for this today.

She found Harry at last in the astronomy tower, contemplating the vast Scottish tundra that surrounded his domain.

'Harry,' she said. 'At last. I've been looking for you for ages. we're losing touch, Harry, we're losing sight of what's important. I, I wanted to talk to you, Harry. Properly.'

'All the time-turners were destroyed, weren't they?' Harry asked.

'What? Yes. Yes they were.' Hermione said. 'But, Harry, listen to me.'

'You hate me, don't you?' Harry continued, his hand gripping the hilt of the sword of Gryffindor.

'I. Err. I. Harry, I don't hate you,' Hermione spluttered.

'I know that you do,' Harry said gently. 'It's ok. You don't have to deny it. Sometimes, when we're sitting around together, the force of it almost floors me. You never say anything, but I can feel it, coming off you in waves.'

Hermione tried to say something, but found that she couldn't. Harry started to pace.

'You think that, once, I was a nice kid with a lot of potential,' he continued. 'A little bit slow, a little bit headstrong but with his heart in the right place. I know I'm right when I say this. But now you think that I've changed. I've become self-seeking and arrogant, unable to accept help and obsessed with sex and power. A mere cipher for my own delusions. You still wonder why I have never mourned my godfather – whether a man like me really has the mental stability to do all the things that I am supposed to do.'

Hermione said nothing. Something calmed deep inside her. Harry closed his eyes and shook his head. 'I know what's going on,' he said. 'I know it all.'

The flash of light was swallowed by the mist and the bright noon sun but the scream rang loud across the glens.

Chapter 43

'It's too much. There's too many things to remember. Too many plots, too many loose ends, just too much story to keep it all in line. I don't know. I just don't know. It's all unravelling and I can't keep it in place. How do you keep it funny? How do you keep it going?'

'So you're actually coming to me for advice then?'

'No, I'm just having a nervous breakdown due to the fact that I'm this close to finishing the thing that has been my life for the last ten years and I just happen to be having it in front of you.'

'That's not funny.'

'I know.'

'But then again, towards the end it never really is. The end is where people start dying, where it stops being funny and starts being important.'

'Is that so?'

Chapter 44

'Go on, Harry,' said Ginny. 'It's turkey time. Gobble, gobble, gobble.'

Chapter 45

'Hello there,' Luna said. 'I came to check on the owls. Apparently, if you send owls out at the right frequency you can control what people are thinking. The CIA do it with electromagnetic radiation all the time of course, but I wanted to check that MI7 weren't doing it with our owls. Are you ok?'

'Harry's gone,' Hermione said. Her eyes were red as if from crying, but her face was set like stone.

'Gone where?' Luna asked.

'Just gone,' Hermione said. 'Gone completely.'

'That's a shame,' said Luna absently. 'I found this shield with a great big 'R' on the front of it in the Ravenclaw common room and I wanted to show it to him. Oh well, I'm sorry about your cat.'

'What about it? What about Crookshanks?'

'Well, it's not a very pretty cat, is it? I thought that that might have been why you were crying. Because it isn't a very pretty cat. Goodbye.'

'Goodbye, Luna.'

Chapter 46

Villiana Redherring sat in the Slytherin common room and rubbed her hands together evilly. Just for show.