In the following weeks, Hermione threw herself into her studies, including the Ranger training, so that she wouldn't have time to dwell on her thoughts about Ron and his messed up personal life (except a little voice in the back of her head kept pointing out that it wasn't really about Ron, was it?).
"Ginny, can you hold up a minute?" Hermione asked as the group was breaking up after their regular Tuesday night session, "Can you help me with flying?"
"Sure," Ginny was always up for more broom time, "I don't know how good of an instructor I am, but let's give it a shot."
They spent the next half hour with Ginny giving tips to Hermione. The older girl really didn't have any intuition for the sport, the way the Weasley did, but she memorized everything that Ginny said and slowly built up a repertoire of skills she could draw on in tricky situations.
"So what motivated the change?"
"Harry wants us all to be able to fly. I feel like I would be letting him down if I can't handle a broom."
"You like Harry?"
"As a friend." Hermione replied immediately, before adding "And as a leader. He's always trying to help people, and he expects us to be the same. I want to live up to that expectation. I want to be somebody he can rely on." A small unconscious smile graced her lips.
Ginny nodded, not certain she was satisfied with that answer.
\*/
Ron frowned, "Why do I have to get the memory from Slughorn? We know Voldemort has several of the Horcrux things. We just need the Ministry to come up with a spell that will kill him despite them. Maybe cut off the Horcrux connection, like cutting a kite's string, or something," Ron stared sullenly at the headmaster. They were in Dumbledore's office, and Ron was (again) arguing with him. Dumbledore kept treating him like a child, giving him pointless, make work errands instead of letting him help fight Voldemort. 'The Minister is right – he's going senile. He's too old to do anything.' Dumbledore certainly looked a lot older than when Ron had first seen him, as a first year.
Dumbledore sighed. This was not going how he had hoped. "Because that would first involve revealing the existence of Horcruxes to the general public, and it is not a magic that I want other dark wizards attempting to duplicate. But more importantly, because you can't just 'wish' a spell into existence. It takes years of research to create a new spell, but how would we even go about doing that without a Horcrux to experiment on?" Though Dumbledore's fear was that the department of Mysteries actually WOULD create a Horcrux – the researchers in there were very dedicated, but also very detached from reality – they didn't understand the concept of the greater good. It would be just like them to do more harm than good.
"Whatever. Fine. I'll talk to Professor Slughorn," Ron stomped out the door. 'This is so stupid. Why can't Dumbledore dose him with veritaserum & then ask him.' If it was so important, the Ministry would be fine with it. And it wasn't like Dumbledore had to follow the law – he was Dumbledore!
\*/
Harry staggered back into the Gryffindor dorms, mentally exhausted but happy. He had spent the last hour in apparition class, but he had finally gotten it! By the end, he was popping back and forth reliably.
He dropped into an easy chair – he would start on his homework in a few minutes, after he soaked in the heat of the fire. Winters in Scotland were brutal, and even some of the corridors in the castle were chilly. "Hey, you look tired."
He turned to see Ginny sit down next to him, handing him a butterbeer.
"Where's that from?"
"I stole it from my brother – it's his birthday, and his horde of admirers gave him so much junk food than not even the bottomless stomach can eat it all."
Harry nodded his appreciation before looking back at Ginny. He opened his mouth to say something before closing it, not certain how to enunciate it. Finally he tried again, "I don't think I've ever seen you in a dress before."
"Well, I am a woman. Why shouldn't I wear dresses sometimes?" Ginny shrugged self consciously. 'Why do I feel so self conscious?' In the past she would have threatened to punch anybody who dared comment on her clothing choices. Except now she wanted them to be noticed, at least by Harry. Enough so that she was willing to change her behaviour. Nevertheless, a small voice in the back of her head still insisted: 'Besides, I can wear whatever the hell I want, and it's nobody's business!'
"I'm just saying that I like the new you. I don't mean the clothing – that's none of my business – but you seem.. I don't know..." Harry wasn't certain what he wanted to say with all this, except that it was nice having Ginny bringing him a Butterbear when he was tired.
"What, that I'm not getting a detention every other week?" Ginny attempted to lighten the mood as her heart hammered away. Without noticing it, she had leaned in very close, so that their heads were almost touching as they talked.
"That too, but you're just a lot nicer. Not that you weren't nice before, but I don't know, you're more considerate now." Harry floundered ahead, desperately hoping that he'd figure out where he was going before he got there, but before he could he was interrupted by a crash from the other side of the room as Ron toppled over onto Romilda, moaning.
Both Harry and Ginny shot up. "Ron!"
"Oh my gawd! Oh, my gawd" Romilda was hyperventilating as she was supporting a semi-conscious Ron.
"What happened?" Ginny streaked in like a comet, demanding answers. Seeing the guilty look on the other girl's face, she demanded, "What did you do to my brother?"
Harry and Hermione were helping Ron back to his feet when he bent over and vomited on the floor. They quickly steered him for the door and out to the nurses office.
"I… I mixed a little love potion into his cupcakes! As a birthday surprise!" Except maybe it wasn't just 'a little'. Black market potions didn't come with instructions.
There was a shocked silence, which was broken when Lavender stormed over and slapped Romilda, screaming at her. Parvati raced over to pull her friend back before she could hit the younger girl again, at which point Lavender burst into tears and ran out the door after Ron.
Ginny turned to Neville, who had just come down from the boys dorm, a half written letter in his hand. "I'm so confused. I thought Ron and Romilda were already dating. Why did she potion him NOW?"
Neville just shrugged. "Just because they're shagging doesn't mean that they're dating."
"Or maybe she's always been dosing him," Seamus added darkly as he watched Romilda trail out the door after Lavender.
Neville nodded halfheartedly, carefully folding up the letter he had been trying to write and hid it in his pocket. 'I'm glad that I don't have this sort of drama.'
\*/
Time passed, and Ron recuperated, back to his normal self. As spring approached Dumbledore arranged the memories that he had shared with Ron into little flasks, labeling each. This year had been one tragedy after the next. First Tom's return, then his own foolish choice to go after Slytherin's ring by himself. He glanced at the cursed arm – it was progressing up his body much faster than he or Severus had expected. And then there was Ron. He had become a great disappointment as well, poisoned by the toxic fame of being 'The Boy Who Lived'. 'Maybe I should have encouraged Arthur to leave the wizarding world.' But Arthur was a pureblood. What would he have done, out amongst the muggles?
Maybe getting Ronald personally involved in the quest would finally fire his desire to help, and not just be a poster boy for the Ministry. He put the last memory into a flask and put the lot into a small box in his desk drawer. This way Ron could revisit them, but more attentively, once he finally became inspired. Dumbledore struggled out of his chair and downed a strengthening potion and a pepper up potion, followed by a quick spell to hide his sallow skin and hollow eyes.
Though Ron would most likely have to revisit them alone.
"Pandy, can you please ask Ronald Weasley to come to my office?" He called out to his preferred House Elf. They would go down to the cave tonight.
\*/
Harry and Neville were working on their charms paper. Or they had been, until Neville had pulled out a deck of cards, and they got side-tracked. The Griff's common room was quiet: with Ron out running some errands for Dumbeldore, his sycophants were busy catching up on their own homework.
Which was interrupted by a sudden pounding on the portrait door. The two Potters exchanged glances. Neville glanced to the picture frame that the Fat Lady used when she wanted to speak to somebody inside the Gryffindor dorms, but it was empty.
The two were just getting up when the Fat Lady bustled in, looking put out. "Mr Potter, there is a young lady out there insisting that she needs to speak with you immediately. I have to say, she is displaying atrocious manners, why, in my day..." She began as Harry walked briskly towards the door, his wand drawn, just in case.
As soon as the door was open, Daphne flew in, "Neville! Something is happening – I was just in the Slytherin dorms when Draco and all of his followers trooped out. Zambini warned everybody else to stay inside and not open the door for anybody, no matter what they hear!"
The two boys exchanged glances. This did not sound good. "Do you know where he went?"
Daphne shook her head before replying, "I know he's been spending most of his free time this year up in the the Come and Go room, up on the seventh floor."
Harry took a deep breath and drew himself up to his full stature before turning to face the rest of the Common room, "Hermione, organize a defense of the dorm, in case something happens. Nobody is to go out, and the best Dueling club members should stay down here by the door." He turned and looked at all the Gryffindors, especially the upper years. "Follow Hermione's instructions – she's trained for this sort of thing, and you haven't. She's in charge." He then turned to the remaining member of the Rangers, "Go to the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs and warn Terry and Ernie. Tell them to keep everybody inside."
Ginny nodded and was about to run off when Harry grabbed her arm "And be careful. Don't take any unnecessary risks!"
Ginny swallowed nervously before pulling Harry into a hug. She let go and raced out the door.
"Let's go find out what's going on," Harry and Nevlle jogged out into the corridor.
The two boys were on the third floor corridor heading for the stairs up to the seventh when they hard somebody coming the other way. Fortunately, this corridor was lined with suits of armor every twenty feet, so Neville hid behind one of those while Harry flattened himself in a doorway nook across the way. A moment later, a pair of adults entered the corridor, coming down from stairwell.
They were dressed as Death Eaters, and had their wands out.
Neville glanced over at Harry, not certain what to do. Despite their robes, the intruders hadn't actually DONE anything yet.
Harry didn't have any such qualms. He gave a small motion of his wand, and the suit of armor that the two men had just passed drew and swung its sword, catching one of them in the back of the neck. The sword was rusted and blunt with age, but it hit with enough force that the man was flung forwards, landing in an unmoving pile on the floor. As his companion shied away from the animated armor, Neville stunned and Incarcerous'ed the him as well.
"What if they weren't actually death Eaters?"
"Then they are wannabe Death Eaters. You don't wear that getup unless you're up to no good." Harry replied coldly.
Neville swallowed and nodded. Ever since his near death, there was a hard edge to Harry sometimes. Like death didn't bother him anymore.
There as a sudden flash of light and explosion from the window at the far end of the hallway. "I'm going to go see what's going on outside."
Neville nodded. "I think I've seen enough – I'm going to go back to the dorms." As Harry turned towards the window, Neville quickly added, "Before you go, disillusion yourself."
Harry did so, mostly fading from view – he wasn't an expert with this spell, but in the dark it should suffice. He pulled his broom out of his pocket and enlarged it as he ran for the window, while behind him Neville filled the corridor with scattered copies of the armors. Some stood in the middle of the corridor, while others toppled, creating loose debris on the floor. Within moments the corridor was impassible. At least not at anything faster than a snails pace.
Harry leaped out of window, pulling the broom between his legs as he fell before swooping back up and out towards where the explosion came from. A column of smoke was rising from one of the towers, and before Harry's eyes it transforms into the Dark Mark.
A cold fury seizes Harry. This was his home. How dare Voldemort defile it! He swoops down. A group of younger students are fleeing from a pair of Death Eaters, while a lone seventh year tried to hold them back.
The Death Eaters were so focused on their prey that they don't notice the ground under their feet momentarily turn to liquid. The first Death Eater dropped all the way up to his neck before the ground resolidied. The other was on the edge of the spell, and only had his foot caught. He staggered to a halt. But before he could free his leg he was hit with a powerful disarming curse which sent his wand flying up to Harry and flung his body the other way. Or it would have if his leg was free. Instead it ripped his knee apart as he was twisted around and thrown to the ground.
"Who.. Who are you?" Stuttered the seventh year Hufflepuff who had been expecting to die at any moment defending the younger students.
The barely seen figure hovered above him for a moment before casting Sonorous, "I am Entil'Zha.."
Before he could add anything else, he was interrupted by a pair of Werewolves bounding out from the bushes mere feet from the Hufflepuff.
Harry remembered Sirius's lecture on Werewolves from last year - there were very few spells that would have much effect on these creatures when they were transformed due to their prodigious regeneration ability.
From above Harry made a slashing motion, casting the most powerful spell in his repertoire - an overpowered Diffendo - that took the lead Were's head clean off. As the second leaped for the fleeing Hufflepuff, Harry hit it with an Incarcerous spell. Even as the ropes finished winding around it, Harry followed up with a transfiguration, turning the ropes into razor wire. The jagged edges bit into the Werewolf's flesh, which healed around the wire, sealing it in place. 'That should hold it for a little while.'
As Harry was finishing up, he saw a flash of magic on his right. He dropped down under his broom to avoid getting hit by the attack – the spell whized by right where his body had been a moment ago – but as he clutched at the broom with his right hand to keep from falling off he dropped his wand. Whoever had attacked him followed up with another pair of spells.
The danger of learning on your own was that you didn't have access to institutional wisdom: The reason Aruros rarely fought on brooms was because it made them too much of a target when they were hovering in place.
\*/
Ron supported the staggering headmaster as they portkeyed back to his office. Dumbledore was breathing in small gasps, and did not look at all well. 'And after all that, the locket was a fake', Ron scowled. He had known that chasing after the Horcrux was a dumb idea.
As they landed, there was the sound of yelling from outside and the flash of spell fire.
"What's going on?" Dumbledore asked querulously.
"That's what I want to know," Ron was turning to look out the window when the door to the study opened to reveal Draco with his wand drawn. "Time, to die, Dumbledore!" He pronounced and held his wand menacingly. His eyes were huge with fear, and his posture was hunched, like he was ready to turn and run at any moment, but Dumbledore just slid to the ground.
Instead Ron leaped forward, "Stupefy!" He had always known that Draco was trouble, yet nobody had every believed him. Dumbledore had insisted on always giving him another chance, no matter what he did. Well, now he was here to kill the Headmaster!
As Draco shielded against the stunner, Ron cast another, trying to hammer down Malfoy's defenses. 'Now I'll show Dumbledore how its done.'
But this time Draco side stepped the spell and countered with an Expelliarmus. The disarming spell clipped Ron, forcing him to clutch at his wand as it tried to squirm free. As the Gryffindor was distracted the Slytherin boy cast a piercing hex at him, but his wand motion was off so it just skidded along Ron's ribs.
Draco swore and closed the distance, to make sure that he wouldn't miss a second time. He barely had time to cast a protego as Ron managed to get a bombarda off as he clutched his side.
At such close quarters the spell reflected, knocking Ron off of his feet at the same time as Draco's shield failed and the remains of the spell knocked him to the floor as well. As Draco got back up, Ron lunged at him, pushing the smaller Slytherin backwards until they were both stopped by the wall. Draco tried to get his wand up, but Ron just slammed his fist into the blond boy. Ron didn't know much about pugilism, but he was bigger and stronger than Draco, He kept hammering at him with sloppy punches, sending both boys tumbling down the winding staircase that led up to the headmaster's office.
\*/
Harry swooped to to avoid the second spell, steering his broom while hanging underneath.
The advantage of learning on your own was that you didn't have access to institutional wisdom: few Aurors were also elite quidditch players, and they couldn't steer their brooms with their knees, almost by instinct.
Harry pulled down with the leg that was still looped over the broom and pushed up with his hand, forcing his Nimbus 2001 to nose up and accelerate. As he got close to the castle wall, he yanked back down, steering sideways so as not to overshoot and be illuminated against the night sky.
Whoever his attacker was couldn't target him anymore, as his disillusionment worked better with a solid object behind him. A few random spells flew past, far off their mark, before the attacker went for easier targets. 'I need to call for help,' Harry swooped up to the headmaster's office, intent on using his floo.
He was shocked to find the office in disarray, with the headmaster laying on the floor, ashen.
"Professor! Professor Dumbledore. Are you ok?" Harry leaped off of his broom and ran over to the headmaster.
"I'm.." The headmaster coughed, "It's my time, Harry." He took a ragged breath. "I've been living under a curse for these past 10 months, and I don't think I will last out the night."
"What should I do?" Harry asked, desperate to help. Dumbledore was part of Hogwarts. As much as he hated the Death Eaters desecrating it, he couldn't imagine the school without the headmaster.
"In my desk drawer there is a box of memories. Take them. Watch them. They will teach you about Voldemort – Tom Riddle." Dumbledore coughed. Maybe…. Maybe this boy would be willing to take up the mantle that Ronald had refused, at least in part. And then guide The Boy Who Lived to his destiny. "And about his horcuxes." He took another rasping breath. And then another. And then no more.
At the same time, a powerful magic activated in the ring that Dumbeldore was wearing. To Harry's sight, it 'glowed' a black so dark that he could see the outline of something inside it.
Harry looked around, uncertain what to do. Uncertain what he COULD do – he didn't even have a wand. Except.. Dumbledore's wand was right next to him. 'I'll borrow it just for a bit.' He slipped it into his holster. And on impulse, he slipped off the oddly magical ring. It had stopped glowing, but there was still something about it that tickled his memory. He had just put it into his pocket when Severus Snape came running up the stairs.
"Is the headmaster..?" It took him a moment to recognize Harry under the tattered remnants of the disillusionment.
"He's dead." Harry's voice was toneless, shocked.
Severus lowered his wand and froze momentarily before pulling himself back together. "Go. You should hide in your common room.. I've called the Order, and they should be arriving as we speak."
Harry nodded, but instead of walking down the the stairs, he turned and leaped out the window, swooping down. He could now see flashes of spell fire as the Death Eaters were being pushed back by newcomers. With the amount of magic that they were all throwing around, they almost glowed to Harry's special eyes, making them all easily visible. The whole situation was so surreal that harry wasn't really able to process it. His mind shut down and he operated on instinct, leaning on the hours of drills first at the Potter home and then in the Chamber of Secrets.
Harry cast mid-flight as he swooped past Sirius, who was fighting a pair of large Death Eaters, hitting one of them with a Bombarda that shattered the man's Protego and send him staggering into this partner. Before he could recover, Sirius hit the pair with his own Reducto. The one who was still standing managed to get a Protego up in time so that he was only knocked off of his feet, but his partner exploded into red goo. As the Death Eater turned to run in a panic – nobody had told him he would be fighting Aurors! - Sirius followed up with a stunner.
But by then Harry was gone, strafing a werewolf that was stalking Bill Weasley. The repeated cutting spells did no harm to the monster, but it gave Bill time to activate a ward stone and throw it at the wolf's snout. As soon as it made contact, the werewolf was trapped in a 6 foot tall ruby prism, unable to break free.
'I need to check on the Gryffindor common room.' Seeing the Order taking control helped Harry calm down and let him think more rationally.
Along the way he flew past a dual between a Death Eater and pair of Order members. He cast a quick pair of banishers, knocking the dark wizard into a tree.
But before he could turn back to continue on his way, he saw the flash of somebody casting a spell at him. This time, he was paying attention and he swooped low to the ground, skimming along bare inches above the grass, his body almost prone so that he was just a black blur against the dark ground as he headed for the source of the attack. He had learned his lesson about not free-flying during a battle.
One of the Death Eater snipers peered over the side of the gallery that they were shooting from to see if they could spot Harry, only to rear back with a cry as Harry fired a blinding hex as he raced along the wall. "I can't see! Finite the curse!"
"Give me a minute – I got spots in my eyes." His partner was still blinking and trying to see his companion well enough to dispel the curse when James Potter stunned them both from the far end of the gallery.
Harry looked around to orient himself – the gallery he was flying along led to a cross-corridor that ended at the Gryffindor dorms. Butterflies settled into his stomach, 'If the Death Eaters are there..' He turned and flew into the gallery as he raced for the dorms. He flew at breakneck speed down the narrow corridor, avoiding the statues that constricted it in laces.
As he swooped around the corner he could see that the portrait was still sealed tight, with the Fat Lady hunkered behind her overstuffed chair, an horned helmet perched incongruously on her head and a huge flail dangling from her meaty hand.
Harry landed for a moment to gather his wits.
"Deary, are you ok?" She called out as she squinted, trying to identify the barely seen form, "What's your name?"
Harry just shook his head, otherwise ignoring her. 'Dumbledore's wand is very powerful' At that range, the blinding hex he had cast shouldn't have done more than distract one of the Death Eater, not blind one and almost the second as well. And that Bombarda had punched through a Protego despite him using most of his concentration to fly. 'Or maybe I'm just really attuned to it?' Olivander was always going on how having a wand that matched the person would 'let more magic out'.
'Enough,' Harry couldn't afford to lose focus now, or he would completely fall apart. All that was keeping him from a nervous breakdown was momentum. 'I should check on the Hufflepuffs.' Of all the Rangers, Ernie was the one that he had the least faith in – despite the stereotypes of 'Puffs, he just wasn't very good at following instructions.
As Harry approached their dorms, he heard spell fire and shouted spells. He peered carefully around the corner – a trio of Death Eaters were trying to fight their way into the dorms. One of them had lost his mask, and Harry was shocked to see that it was Marcus Flint. "Kill them! We have to kill at least one apiece!" He yelled. If they didn't, Voldemort would punish them.
The door to the Hufflepuff dorms was shattered like a glass window, but the bottom half of the doorway was barricaded with a sofa and at least two wands were defending the opening.
Harry took a deep breath and let it out slowly, sending his magic out as he made the wand motions for transfiguration.
Without any warning, the floor in the corridor buckled up like it was made of rubber, slamming all three Death eaters into the ceiling. When it dropped back down, Harry Incarcerous'ed all three with a single motion of his wand. Harry looked down at his wand in shock. He had known to expect more power than from his Holly wand, but this… The amount of power it had channeled was phenomenal! He had expected to struggle to cast anything close to that power level, but it had come out easily. And the amount of magic had almost blinded him.
"Who's there?" Came a yell from inside the Hufflepuff dorms.
"Entil'Zha," Harry replied, lifting his fist in victory. He wasn't certain why he said that, but this didn't feel like the sort of thing that 'Harry Potter' did. Harry didn't go around blasting Death Eaters like some maniac. This as somebody else.
He turned and ran. 'I think I need to get back to the dorm.' He was beginning to shake as the reaction to the adrenaline set in. It was all beginning to be too much.
"Who is it.. Harry!" This time, the Fat Lady recognized him as his disillusionment had completely collapsed. She quickly opened the door a crack to let him slip inside. As Harry shuffled in he was almost stupefied by Neville. "Hey, are you ok?"
"Yeah, just tired." He slid to the floor right there in the entryway.
"Get him to a couch," Ginny commanded, "He's not ok." She grabbed him under one shoulder and staggered up. Despite her small size, she was surprisingly strong. She had already gotten him most of the way to the couch before one of the fourth years managed to gather himself and helped him the rest of the way. Neville stayed at his guard post by the door, but he kept glancing distractedly towards his brother.
"I'm ok. Really. And I thought you would be down with the Ravenclaws – you shouldn't have come back up!"
"Don't be stupid," Ginny replied, "I'm a Gryffindor. I'm not going to leave my mates alone."
Just them Hermione came flying down the stairs from the girls dorms, lunging desperately and enveloping Harry in a bone crushing hug, ending half draped across him.
But before Harry's shock-addled mind could decide what to do, she pushed herself upright and pointed back upstairs. "I heard your voice.. But, um, I need to keep watch, to make sure that none of the Death Eaters think to use a broom." She turned to Neville and demanded: "Keep Harry safe!" And ran back up to the sixth floor window.
'What..'
Ginny took Hermione's place before Harry could process the appropriate response, taking Harry's hand. "I was so scared. I thought you were going to die!"
"I.. Dumbledore's dead," Harry finally found his voice. He was too exhausted to talk, but they had to know.
\*/
The funeral for Dumbledore was three days later. After Harry's return to the Gryffindor dorms, the fighting had quickly ended, and all that had been left was the clean up, much of which Harry slept through. Now, the castle was filled with parents of students as well as many former students, former co-workers of the Headmaster and dignitaries from all walks of life.
Harry managed to escape from his parents – mostly his mother, who was in a panic about her boys – and made his way over to the Weasleys.
"Ron, got a minute?" Ron had been talking quietly with George, but he came when Harry asked.
"Yeah?"
"Dumbledore said something about searching for Horcruxes. What are they?"
"Shh!" Ron shushed Harry before looking around – thankfully nobody was paying attention. "They are soul anchors that Dumbledore thinks keep Voldemort from dying permanently. I can't tell you any more than that."
Harry nodded as he considered the implications, "Are you going to go looking for them?"
"No. Where would I even start? The Minister of Magic will come up with some way to kill Voldemort, Horcruxes or no." And teach it to him. It was his job to stop Voldemort, after all.
Harry nodded. Ron's response didn't surprise him – Ron had never been one to take initiative. "Ok. I'll see you at the funeral." Which was starting in about an hour, so that gave him plenty of time.
Harry was just heading down the corridor that lead to the stairs up to the headmaster's study when he realized that Ginny was trailing after him.
"Hi. How are you doing?"
"Could be better." She sighed and forced a smile. "But at least nobody else died. I mean except the Death Eaters." She watched to see how Harry would respond to that, but he just nodded. "It was all over the Prophet." She pulled out a copy, showing him the headline. It proclaimed in huge type that took up half the page:
"Entill'Zha – the new Dumbeldore!"
The article went on to recount how this mysterious wizard had single handedly driven back the invaders.
"That was you, wasn't it?" Ginny wasn't certain how to feel about that. According to the article, Harry had killed several people.
Harry shook is head. "I didn't do that much. I just helped a couple of people out."
"But you were the Entil'Zha"
"Yeah," Harry saw no reason to deny it – all of the Rangers knew who Entil'Za was. Besides, that wasn't what bothered him about the headline. "They couldn't even wait until he was buried before christening themselves a new Dumbledore?"
"Did you kill those Death Eaters?"
Harry was silent for a minute before replying quietly, "the only one that I killed last night was a werewolf. But it doesn't really change anything – I was out there fighting to protect Hogwarts. The spells I was using could have killed, if the situation had been different."
Ginny swallowed and and gave him an awkward hug. "If you need to talk about that, any of that, I'm here for you, ok?" Everything had changed overnight. Harry was still a friend, and a good person, but Ginny wasn't certain if she would be comfortable dating somebody like that. Somebody who could take a life.
Harry nodded and went up the stairs. By good luck, the headmaster's office was empty, so Harry was able to open the desk drawer and take out the small wooden box holding the flasks of memories. Harry examined them. 'I'll need a pensive to view these'. On the bottom shelf next to the desk, amongst all the sneakascopes and other odds an ends, sat Dumbledore's pensive. Harry shrank it with a word and put it into his pocket, next to the box.
Now it was time to pay his last respects to Dumbledore.