"But they did, Professor." Luna said. "Not alive, it's true, but they did return. Helena Ravenclaw became the Grey Lady and Baron Fothergill became the Bloody Baron."

"And you think she might know where Riddle hid the diadem?" Harry frowned.

"Perhaps." Luna said.

"It's worth looking into, anyway." Sirius said.

"We'll go to Hogwarts, tomorrow." Harry said, he had full confidence in Luna's suggestion.

The Grey Lady looked at Harry steadily. "It's here… in the castle… in the place where everything is hidden." She floated backwards away from Harry. "If you have to ask, you'll never know… If you know, you need only ask…"

Harry's mind spun. "Thank you." He gave her a bow and watched as she faded from sight.

"Well that was a bust." Sirius muttered.

"No. No, I know where it is." Harry grinned.

"Oh, of course." Hermione smacked her palm to her forehead. "Why didn't we think of that, earlier?"

"Uh…?" Sirius grunted.

"Come on, we have a bit of a climb." Neville said.

"A climb?" Remus asked.

"Seventh floor." Luna said from behind them.

"You know where she meant?" Sirius looked from one teen to another.

"Yeah." Neville headed for the Grand Tower and started to climb its steps.

"Care to share?" Bucky asked.

"The Room of Requirement." Harry said.

"It's where we held the D.A. all year." Neville said.

"The D.A.?" Bucky asked.

"Depending on who was asking, it was either the Defence Association or Dumbledore's Army." Hermione answered.

"Why the difference?" Bucky linked his fingers through Sirius' and grinned as the Animagus looked up the centre of the Tower and groaned, even as he started to climb.

"Umbitch and the Ministry were convinced that the Headmaster was creating an army, so he could take over the Ministry." Hermione shook her head. "And that's what we called ourselves amongst ourselves, but if we were in public, we called it the D.A. or the Defence Association. Just to avoid attention, you understand. Certain words or phrases draw more attention than others and the Minister was paranoid that Dumbledore wanted his position."

"As if." Neville snorted. "The Headmaster's got more brains than to willing put himself in that nest of vipers."

"You don't have a very high opinion of the Ministry, do you?" Bucky asked.

"Nope." Neville shook his head and sneered. "Bunch of useless toadies for the most part."

"There's very few in the Ministry that do the job that they're paid to do." Hermione added. "Those that do are pretty much neutered by those that don't."

Tonks laughed. "You got that right."

"It might be a bit different now that Bones, Moody and the Headmaster are the ones backing Fudge, not Malfoy." Neville shrugged. "With Malfoy literally caught in the act, I'd hope that he's going to Azkaban."

"Oh, he is." Tonks laughed. "His trial was swift and behind closed doors, the Minister wasn't giving the ponce the chance to drag him down with him."

"Robards and Moody are transferring him, this afternoon." Kingsley added.

"Oh, good." Neville grinned. "I just wish the bitch had been caught."

"I'd rather think that you'd want to take her down yourself, Neville." Sirius commented.

"Nah, I think mum wants first go at her." Neville countered.

They continued to chat among themselves as they climbed.

"Is that Barnabas the Barmy?" Sirius asked, pointing at a nearby tapestry.

"Yes." Hermione stopped and watched as Harry stepped forward. "Hang back, let Harry open the door."

"Door?" Sirius asked. "There's nothing there."

"Just wait." Neville grinned.

"See…?" Luna nodded as a large door faded into being.

"Wha…?" Sirius gasped.

"Where the hell did that come from?" Bucky asked.

"It's the Room of Requirement." Hermione said. "Harry 'required' it to have a door for us to use."

"It's a little more involved than that," Neville corrected, "basically, it's the heart… and the magic… of the school. How it came into being we're not sure, not even it can provide that information."

"Really?" Remus was curious.

"It's a wicked space." Neville said enthusiastically. "There's two aspects to the space. The Room of Lost Things and the Room of Requirement. The Room of Requirement can change to match whatever the person that called the Room into being, wants. If they want a summer's day at the beach in January, that's what they get. If they want a massive library with every book ever written, that's what it is. If they want a bathroom, they get a bathroom."

"Wait." Harry frowned at Neville. "If I wanted a room with just the diadem, I'd get a room with just the diadem?"

"Yeah…" Neville trailed off. "Oh, we are idiots, aren't we?"

"What'd we miss?" Bucky asked.

"Everybody out." Harry ordered before they're even really go in the door. "I'm going to change the room." He pushed and shoved until Sirius and Bucky were back in the hallway, before pacing up and down until a smaller door appeared. "I need that fang, Sirius." He opened the door and looked into the room. "Excellent."

When the others looked over his shoulder, they saw a small room, maybe half the size of a classroom, with a stone pedestal in the middle of the room. On the pedestal sat a white metal tiara-like piece of jewellery.

"Here." Sirius held out a box lined with acromantula silk and on that silk lay a pair of large fangs, larger than what Harry had used in the chamber to destroy the diary. "All yours, pup."

Harry grinned at his godfather and after pulling on a glove, stabbed a fang's point down into the diadem's main blue gem. He quickly stepped back, leaving the fang embedded in the stone. He didn't want to be too close when the venom reached the actual horcrux buried inside the gem. He'd just reached the safety of Remus and Sirius' shields, when the diadem exploded. The gem shattered and tiny fragments went in every direction, while the horcrux itself screamed and erupted in a cloud of greasy black-green smoke, the echo of Riddle's face appearing in each plume. A screeching sound filled the room and all the spectators winced at the volume.

In the few seconds it took for the smoke to clear and the screeching to die away, the reality of what they were facing hit Bucky in the chest. "That shit is worse than HYDRA." He gasped.

"Yes. It has the potential to be way worse, if we can't stop Riddle." Sirius said. "He doesn't want to rule the world, like Schmidt, he wants to destroy it, or at least, all the muggles in it."

"Don't forget the muggleborns and half-bloods." Remus said.

"Leaving him with only the purebloods." Sirius said.

"But not just the purebloods." Tonks added. "He's only interested in the purebloods that will follow him, everyone else he considers blood traitors and only worth killing."

"Or using to teach his purebloods how to use the cruciatus." Neville said, thinking of the curse that was used on his parents and very mindful that someone had to be the victim while Riddle taught the Lestranges and Crouch jnr, the torture curse.

Bucky smirked. "I wonder what his reaction would be to face a Void, like me?"

Sirius blinked and began to snicker. "Oh, the horror… the confusion… his face…" He laughed.

"Other than the fact that he's so unpredictable, I'd almost suggest letting you face him." Remus chuckled.

"Alright, we done, here?" Dum-dum asked.

"Nope, I want to try something." Harry said. He turned to face a wall and squinted his eyes at it, thinking hard.

A tiny painting appeared and over the course of a minute or so, it enlarged to cover most of one wall. The image started a dirty grey that slowly bled into a swirl of colour before settling into a clear picture.

"Harry?" Hermione asked.

"I wanted to see where the snake was." Harry answered. "I have an idea but if the snake is too close to Riddle it won't work."

"And what's your idea?" Hermione narrowed her eyes at the teen.

"Have the Room bring it here, stunned or immobilised somehow." Harry answered. "We stab it then have the Room put it back where it was.

Hermione tilted her head as she thought it through. "That might work, it depends on whether the Room will bring thatsnake or just one like it."

"I'll ask for Riddle's snake with the horcrux still attached." Harry assured her.

"Try it." Bucky ordered. "If it doesn't work, we're no worse off."

As the entire group, plus Alice and Frank, made themselves comfortable at the massive table in the ballroom, it was clear that breakthrough's had happened in more places than just Hogwarts.

"Right… First?" Falsworth studied his notes. "Frank and Alice, welcome to the table." He smiled at the recovering invalids. "We're glad to have you with us."

"Thank you for having us, for removing us from St. Mungo's and for healing us." Frank looked around the table as he spoke.

"You're very welcome." Falsworth replied. "Oh, and Neville's released from training for tomorrow. Have some family bonding time, catch up with everything that he's been involved in, over the past thirteen-and-a-half years."

"Thank you, Mr Falsworth." Alice gave the Howlie a small smile.

"Call me, Jim, it's easier." Falsworth suggested. "Andi? You want to brief us on their condition or would you prefer that they do that?"

"They're good." Andi said. "Not quite back to 100% but not far off it. By the time we head into the next dilation, they'll be able to participate in some of the lighter sessions, by the time we come out of that same dilation, they'll be back to duty levels. They'll tire quicker to start with but that should ease off over the next week to ten days or the equivalent. Their mental faculties are pretty much right where they should be, however Frank has a tendency to get distracted and want to try out some of the more esoteric spells instead of sticking with the recommended ones."

"Nope." Alice cut in. "That's just Frank, he was like that before." She turned to her husband. "I've said it before and I'll say it again. You need to stop that, you were getting a reputation for it before, that's why it was only the three Lestranges and Crouch jnr, that came after us. You know what happened there. Play with them in your downtime, not in our training sessions, not in public and most importantly… not in battle." Her soft voice went hard. "Not again."

"No, dear." Frank ducked his head and looked suitably apologetic.

"Perhaps Frank and I can have a few sessions to see if his spells will actually work in a duel situation?" Flitwick offered. "If they do, maybe we can incorporate some into our regular sessions, but if they don't…?"

"If they don't, I'll drop them, Professor." Frank assured him. "I just… Some of the descriptions and arithmancy say they should. And the few that I tried…? They worked, I just didn't… I wasn't familiar enough with them to cast them quickly enough to matter."

"Jim?" Flitwick looked to Falsworth. "Put some time each day, aside for us to work on it."

"If Professor Flitwick says they're no good, you'll stop whinging." Alice offered. "If he says they're good, I'll stop complaining."

"Deal." Frank leant down and kissed his wife's cheek.

"Excellent." Dumbledore smiled.

"Next is…?" Falsworth looked to Moody.

"Yeah, I'll go next." Moody answered. "We have an update from the DMLE on the Weasleys. We found Pettigrew's magical signature all over the Burrow, once we had his apparition scan to check against. It's also all over Molly, Arthur, Percy, the twins, Ron and Ginny. Bill, you need to go to St. Mungo's. Your brother, Charlie, has been called into St. Damien's in Bucharest, he'll be there for a few days, we guess. There's also the probability that they'll transfer him to St. Mungo's, as they're the ones dealing with the majority of this. Pettigrew is a nasty piece of work and from what we can work out, he used the entire family as his sexual toys. Molly, Arthur and Percy's scans all show that they were raped within the first week of November 1981. He started in on the twins in 1983 but gave up on them within weeks and stopped abusing Percy, when he started on Ron in 1985. Ginny is… worse. Ginny isn't Arthur's child, she's Pettigrew's and he started on her early, sometime in 1985." He took a swig of whatever was in his hipflask and continued. "In-depth scans show that Pettigrew has also been playing with the younger kids' magic to… manipulate… their minds." He looked to Hermione. "A form of brainwashing, the healers called it. Molly has been under a variant of the imperious curse since Pettigrew confundus-ed Percy into claiming him as a pet. The twins were to be pranksters, our profiler thinks it was to draw Harry towards the family. Ron was to be the best mate and Ginny was to be the sex interest. While we've only got the profiler's guesses, so far they make sense."

The look of horror on Bill's face said it all and he excused himself to head out, immediately.

"Pettigrew…" Harry said. "He… he was in our dorm. Loose in the dorm. How do we know that he didn't… r- r-… attack us?" He couldn't even say the word.

"You four are fine." Andi said. "It's part of my standard tests when I'm taking on a new underage patient. But the others? I don't know."

"Oh, god…" McGonagall held her hands to her chest, as though trying to steady her shuddering heart.

"We're putting out a call to the families of those with children in Gryffindor, during the years that Percy had Pettigrew and when Ron had him." Moody said. "In addition to the sexual abuse, we found other issues with Ron and Ginny." He pulled a sheet of parchment from a pocket. "Ron received a major brain trauma, the healers say that it happened just after he turned twelve, we're guessing it was part of the confrontation with Riddle at the end of your first year. Unfortunately, this was exacerbated by an incident roughly a year later, what occurred we're not certain but he suffering from a type of battle fatigue from it. Add to that, the incident with the Brains in the DoM and he's got mental problems. In Ginny's case, Pettigrew's manipulations have stunted a part of her brain and the multiple possessions by a horcrux have exacerbated the problem. It's… it's a combination of that and Molly always giving her whatever she wanted. The healers call it the 'I want, I get' syndrome. She's literally not able to think about what other people want, only what she wants."

"If there anything that can be done to help her?" Hermione asked.

"To help any of them?" Harry added.

"Yes, there is." Moody said. "But given the severity of their cases? And Molly and Arthur's reactions to everything our investigation has turned up so far? We're going to have to go to extremes."

"How bad?" Andi asked.

"Bad." Moody sighed. "We're going to do both partial and complete obliviates and de-age them all, some permanent, some temporary."

"Who gets what?" Andi was clearly in healer mode.

"Bill, Charlie and twins are likely to only be temporary." Moody answered. "Arthur, Molly, Percy, Ron and Ginny are going to be permanent." He consulted his parchment. "The temporaries will be temporarily de-aged with only partial obliviates where needed or requested. We may not need both, it depends on how they cope. The permanents? That's different. Molly and Arthur will be de-aged to about thirty and their memories of the time since then obliviated. Percy and Ron will be de-aged to whatever they were in October 1981, with anything since then obliviated. Plus, all of them will have selected things removed. Mostly Bill, Charlie and the twins. Ginny will be de-aged to a few days old and be given blood treatments that will make her Arthur's child. And her memory will be completely removed."

"And that's to be irreversible?" Andi asked.

"Yes." Moody answered. "Molly and Arthur insisted. Molly nearly went catatonic when she was told and Arthur wasn't much better. Initially, we wanted to only de-age the kids and leave Molly and Arthur be, but neither of them were… they said that Bill, Charlie and the twins were quite capable of looking after themselves but that Percy, Ron and Ginny weren't and neither Molly nor Arthur were physically capable of caring for young children at their current age. It was Molly that suggested that she and Arthur be de-aged, to match the children."

"How are the older boys going to handle it?" Remus asked. "For that matter, what about Percy, Ron and Ginny?"

Moody grimaced. "Percy wanted to obliviate himself and only agreed to not try, when Molly told him what we were offering. Ron was sick and kept saying 'kill me, just kill me' over and over. Ginny just sat and rocked backwards and forwards in shock. She hasn't said a word since she was told."

"Oh, dear…" Hermione had tears running down her face.

"And the potions?" Sirius was staring blankly across the table.

"Pettigrew's idea." Moody said. "He confundus-ed Molly into indoctrinating Ginny to want Harry and imperius-ed Molly into brewing the potions and to 'encourage' the kids into dosing Potter and Granger. The doses were only to be minor until you pair left school, after that it was to increase until you'd both reached the saturation point and it was irreversible."

"Was that why Madam Pomfrey gave us the treatment, she did?" Harry asked.

"Yes." Moody nodded. "It purged any remnants of the potion from your system, negating everything Pettigrew was working towards."