A week later Edward was still in the hospital wing trying to convince Mme. Pomfrey to let him attend the Quidditch match. He was still not interested in the game itself, but he wanted to be present during Luna Lovegood's first match commentary. But no matter how much he begged, tried to get away, attempted bribing the nurse and even tried to resort to blackmail, the strict healer refused to let Edward out until the next day. His friends were keen to console him, Hermione even kindly suggesting that he put on a listening spell so that he didn't miss any of Luna's comments. Ed had eventually accepted this stopgap solution and let the others go to the stadium.

Harry, meanwhile, stayed a little while longer to take stock of Malfoy's coming and going on the map and continuing to mysteriously disappear from it. Edward asked him if there were any rooms the Marauders hadn't listed and Harry mentioned Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets. He vowed to check it out after the match in case Malfoy had found a way to get in without resorting to Parseltongue. Then, seeing the time, he left to find his team. But along the way, he ran into Malfoy: the Slytherin was accompanied by two little girls who looked as intelligent as Crabbe and Goyle judging by the silly laughter that came out of their mouths. Unfortunately, Harry didn't have time to follow them or Ginny was going to slaughter him. Either way, he would check his hypothesis after the game.

The Hufflepuff team were strong but the Weasley duo were there and well put together, especially against Zacharias Smith. The latter did not manage to keep the Quaffle more than once thanks to the good teamwork of Ron and Ginny. The youngest Weasley son had gained confidence now. And if he glanced frequently towards the Gryffindor gallery and more particularly towards Hermione, it did not prevent him from making very good saves, sometimes acrobatically enough to elicit cries of admiration from the spectators.

The commentary of the match was indeed provided by Luna Lovegood, and you couldn't complain about her having a visceral hatred for the Gryffindor team like Smith. On the other hand, she lacked concentration on the game itself. She lost interest in things as material as the score and instead noticed the shape of a cloud or wondered about the possibility that Smith had a mysterious illness, 'Loser's Lurgy'. However, we couldn't blame her for her lack of observation because she was the first to notice a butterfly flying next to a golden ball…

Harry who was listening intently at the moment- unlike the Hufflepuff seeker who was denigrating her out loud- rushed towards the unfortunate insect which fled faster than the golden ball. Soon Harry landed triumphantly on the field holding the snitch in his right hand. Unfortunately, McLaggen was determined, despite the brilliant victory of Gryffindor (two hundred and ten to forty), to belittle the players and Peakes in particular. He even grabbed his bat (which didn't matter because the Gryffindor Beater was more inclined to throw hands) and whirled it around like a baboon. The bat slipped from his hand and landed on Harry's skull.

Curtains.

When Harry emerged from the black pit he seemed to have fallen into, the first thing he saw were Edward's golden hair and eyes, who was gazing at him with a slight smile:

"It's nice of you to come see me, but I wasn't that lonely!"

Harry looked out the window and gave up all hope of cornering Malfoy that evening: the sun had already set and the match must have ended hours ago. He asked, "Who won? What happened?"

"Fractured skull and slight amnesia as well as slightly confused priorities. Nothing serious for Quidditch freaks. I've arranged everything but I'll keep you for the night. You shouldn't overwork yourself for a few hours." Mme. Pomfrey replied as she ran to her favorite patient.

"No way!" Harry growled, his fist still clenched and his memory slowly coming back, "I'm going to go find McLaggen and kill him."

"I'm afraid that's a form of overwork," said the healer in an icy voice. "If you really want to know who won, I suggest you open your hand. I haven't been able to open it in the last few hours. Now stay there and don't you dare try to sneak out, Potter, or I'll call the Headmaster."

When Harry opened his hand, the Golden Snitch flew miserably towards Edward, its wings crumpled from its time in the Seeker's clenched fist. Ed grabbed it gently and smiled again:

"The whole team came to see you. Ron had some great ideas for comeuppance but Ginny's were the most inventive and ruthless. I fear that by now McLaggen has become, temporarily or not, a eunuch. She vowed vengeance for you and in my opinion you better never upset her like that again. Oh, and Ron and Hermione are finally together! Thanks to them, Luna and I have just won a nice little jackpot."

"No way, tell me everything! Harry demanded, this time wide awake.

"Ron had made a promise to himself that if you won then he would ask Hermione if he could be her boyfriend. He did it in front of the whole team, including Ginny. Everyone was laughing, he wasn't really super articulate about it but apparently Hermione didn't care because she interrupted him by kissing him. That was a memory to put in a Pensieve! When Neville asked Ron when he would have made his request if by some misfortune you lost, he replied that it would never have happened, of course… "

Harry now had a broad smile:

"And I missed it? One more reason to blame McLaggen!"

And maybe now that his best friend was in a relationship with his girlfriend, he would let Ginny choose who she wanted as her boyfriend… hoping he was the lucky one involved. But oddly enough, he wasn't too worried: Edward kept making remarks to him about the way Ginny was looking at him and urging him to confess his love, Luna predicting had told him that the Nargles said that they were made for each other and… wait a minute… a nice jackpot?

"Are you betting on our love life?!" He roared after taking care to cast Muffliato. "How many and who have bet on me?"

"Let's say you must be the last person to hear about it, even Ron bet, even if he was totally wrong about the girl…" said Edward shrugging his shoulders. "As for why, you're the Chosen One, a celebrity and apart from discussing the war, or classes, people have nothing better to do than bet on the love lives of others, so..."

"And I thought you guys were my friends…" Harry grumbled.

"You have to get used to it! Do you think people don't bet on my own love life? Not that they're going to ever get it right..."

"Is it Luna?" Harry asked immediately, convinced he was right.

"No. She had an attraction for me for a while, it's true and it was almost mutual. But we talked and I told her that I couldn't love two girls at the same time. It's not in my nature and she replied that she already knew it but that she was already happy to have me as a friend. I think now she's starting to see Neville's crush on her. Actually, her commentary was great, right? Loser's Lurgy! I'll have to use that on Smith next time I see him!"

"In the meantime, this is the third time that I've found myself in the infirmary: once because of the dementors and twice because of incompetents, although Dobby was doing it for a good reason the first time and- of course! The House Elves! Kreacher!"

There was a resounding crack (thankfully muffled by the muffliato cast earlier) and Edward and Harry saw not one but two elves fighting in a ball of violence. Edward recognized Dobby, the house elf who was a fan of Harry Potter and the other was Kreacher. There was another crack and this time it was Peeves who appeared, still drawn to the chaos. Harry got rid of him by locklang discovered in the Prince's book and with Ed, tried to separate the two elves who were doing wrestling takes which could have been comical if the matter was not so serious. Eventually Harry decided to use his authority as Kreacher 's master to order him not to fight Dobby and the latter only quit because he revered Harry Potter.

Harry explained to them what he expected of them: stick Malfoy like a barnacle to his rock without being seen and report back to him. Having assimilated the incident last year which had tragically resulted in the death of Sirius, Harry forbade Kreacher from coming into contact with Malfoy, taking great precautions so that the elf didn't find any loopholes.

The next day when the duo finally got out of the infirmary, they headed for their classroom, repairing a scale that a first year had knocked over in the hall. Harry explained to Ron and Hermione his intention to go to the Chamber of Secrets to see if Malfoy had found a way to get in. They met Luna in passing who gave Harry a scroll from Dumbledore with the date of his next appointment (tonight) while Ron and Edward congratulated the girl on her commentary during the match. The Ravenclaw knew her friends weren't laughing at her and responded with a beaming smile saying that most hadn't appreciated it.

The whole school seemed to know that Ron and Hermione were together and while some gave them caustic comments (mostly Slytherins) others congratulated them, mainly the Gryffindor Quidditch team. But Ron and Hermione didn't seem to notice as they were together on their little cloud, whispering sweet words to each other and holding hands. Harry would have loved to be at that point with Ginny and he vowed to find the courage to ask her soon.

When evening came, Harry went to his meeting with Professor Dumbledore and bumped into Professor Trelawney, much to his annoyance. The divination teacher seemed to be arguing with the principal about sharing her working hours with Firenze, but luckily she was soon fired. Professor Dumbledore began by inquiring about the memory of Slughorn and Harry had to use all his argumentative skills and all of his Slytherin side to convince him of his willingness to collect the damn memory and avoid the reprimand:

"I've made my first attempt; he didn't want to answer me and after that he became very suspicious and difficult to approach, so I gave him a few weeks to make him believe everything was back to normal. I wanted to try again, taking advantage of the moment when Ron got dosed with that Love Potion. Ed and I had thought about giving him a drink to get him in good shape but this poisoning case kept me from doing it and after that he has become as paranoid as Moody."

Dumbledore looked disappointed, which didn't hurt Harry as badly as it had in his first four years at Hogwarts. Being with Edward had taught him to be more detached and, while he wanted to collect this memory from Slughorn, it was more for the sake of the war than to please his Headmaster. However, when Dumbledore reaffirmed the importance of this memory to him, Harry vowed to make another attempt as soon as he could and especially when Slughorn would agree to leave his office for something other than meals or lessons.

The next memory was of a house elf named Hokey but before that Dumbledore revealed to Harry that Voldemort had sought to teach at Hogwarts for many reasons: the Dark Mage's attachment to the school, the fact that the castle is a powerful reserve of magic and finally the fact that he would thus have had a lot of power and authority over the younger generations of wizards, who would thus have become a breeding ground for Voldemort's own future recruits. But thanks to Dumbledore, Riddle hadn't gotten the job because the former Transfiguration teacher had felt profoundly uneasy about him. After that, the two wizards dived into the Pensieve to observe Mrs. Hepzibah Smith flirting with Voldemort and showing him her two priceless items: Helga Hufflepuff's cup and Salazar Slytherin's locket. Again it seemed to Harry to have seen one of them before but he couldn't remember where. Harry then learned that two days later the old lady was dead and the two family heirlooms were gone. Adding insult to injury, Voldemort had had the hapless old house elf blamed, which the Ministry took for granted.

The second memory came from Dumbledore and showed Voldemort, ten years later, his features ravaged by dark magic, trying to get a Defense Against the Dark Arts job although he seemed, according to the Headmaster, to have come for something else. The post was of course refused and so Harry had the explanation of the curse hanging over the DADA position.

The next day Harry, true to his promise to find Slughorn's memory, began to leaf through the Prince's book again to find a quick fix to their problem. However, Edward and Hermione agreed on one fact: Harry should not force Slughorn to give him his memory but convince him, persuading him with feelings to offer him his vital memory for the war. And for that, the Prince could not help him according to them. What it would take was charm, emotional blackmail, a good dose of conviction and sentimental persuasion. Harry wasn't sure he had enough of all of these qualities to do this.

Meanwhile, the sixth-year students around them were stressed about Apparition: indeed, they had found a notice announcing that the Apparition permit exams for those aged seventeen and over would be on April 21 and that any additional lessons would be held in Hogsmeade under strict Ministry control. None of the Circle really cared: Hermione had, after Edward, been the first to Apparate perfectly (except she landed in her hoop). Since then, all her attempts had been so successful that Tycross seemed to revere her. Harry had done it twice, Ron and Neville had done it once, which had amply satisfied them, knowing that Neville and Harry couldn't take the exam until their birthday. As for Edward, he was still Apparating out of his hoop but Harry suspected it was out of spite rather than incompetence.

In the meantime, in addition to all these problems, there was also the question of homework. Edward and Hermione had helped Harry present his thesis on how to fight dementors so that it did not conflict with Snape's, and Ron had just found out to his horror that all the words from his homework had been misspelled.

Fortunately, he had said, he was the boyfriend of the brightest witch in Hogwarts, which earned him a small kiss on the lips. A real diplomat, this one…

Turning away from this touching scene, Ed and Harry were about to use a spell found in the Half-Blood Prince, the sectumsempra that had the odd note "for enemies". Seeing the incantation, Edward had had a very bad feeling and insisted that they try it on a mannequin, made by Ed thanks to some quick alchemy, in an empty room.

When Harry cast the spell, deep lacerations appeared on the fake body and Hermione and Ron abruptly interrupted their sweet moment with a shout. Hermione exclaimed, half shaking:

"I knew this Prince was shady! He's crossed the line, Harry! Imagine if you used that spell on Malfoy or someone else for fun?! That would have happened to them!"

"Hermione, calm down. We're testing the Prince's spells precisely to avoid this kind of accident. But it is now certain, Harry, your Prince was not a commendable person in his sixth year and I would very much like to know if there is a counter-spell to this curse…" Edward said calmly, although he was a little shocked at the extent of damage his model had suffered.

"Yes, wait, I think I saw it on one of the pages on treating wounds. On the other hand, it is rather long- it's downright a song." Harry said, still a little pale.

"Good. Try to erase this curse from your memory and learn the counter-curse by heart. Hermione, this could be taken as a warning and some sort of punishment for Harry and in return he can continue to use Prince's advice in Potions. So far, he's been pretty good at that."

"Okay, but I want to find out who this person is." Hermione said in a firm voice.

"Right now, getting Slughorn's memory and watching Malfoy to prevent him from killing someone else are our priorities." Harry declared.

The house elves must have had good timing as Kreacher and Dobby appeared just then to report. The latter hadn't slept all week watching Malfoy and Harry hastened to straighten it out before SPEW (led by Hermione) came over and tugged at his ears telling them both that they could sleep. Then came the actual report with all of Malfoy's deeds and actions; he spent a lot of time on the seventh floor, in the hallway leading to the…

"The Room of Requirement!" Ed and Harry exclaimed, happy to finally have the answer to the mystery.

Harry hastened to unfold the Marauder's Map and saw that this Hall was unplottable and therefore did not appear on the map. Unfortunately, the two house elves hadn't made it into the room so they didn't know what Malfoy was up to in there. Besides, Edward doubted they could get in too without knowing what the Slytherin was up to. On the other hand, what surprised him was the presence of various other students, especially the girls. But Malfoy was only known to hang out with Crabbe and Goyle… at this point, Ed and Harry hit their foreheads simultaneously exclaiming, once again at the same time: "The Polyjuice Potion from Slughorn's first class!"

"It's so simple! Malfoy must have taken a bit during the first lesson and nobody saw anything because we were so busy with our potions!" Edward explained.

"Then he has Crabbe and Goyle turn into girls to keep watch while he's in the room. That's why the room is so busy lately! And that explains why they're so clumsy: they're warning Malfoy not to come out!" Harry exclaimed.

"That also must be the reason why those two haven't looked happy lately…" Ron laughed before resuming seriously: "But if Malfoy bears the Dark Mark, they have no choice but to obey."

"In the meantime, Peeves is coming. If we don't want to get caught by Filch, we'd better get out." Harry stated, his eyes fixed on the Marauder's map.

The next day, Edward rushed to his friends: Hermione was telling Harry that he would need to persuade Slughorn and not pour some magic potion into his glass to miraculously give him his memory, then she snapped open the newspaper and scanned the headlines:

"You'll be satisfied, Harry, Mundungus Fletcher was sent to Azkaban for impersonating an Inferius during a burglary."

"Hopefully that will stop him from wanting to steal all the time," Harry, who still hadn't forgiven the scoundrel for the way he had stolen Sirius' possessions, grumbled.

"A certain Octavius Pepper is missing… Oh, that's horrible! A nine-year-old boy has been arrested for trying to kill his grandparents. It is believed that he was under the imperius." Hermione described as she closed her paper on this depressing news.

While she and Edward went to runes class, Harry spent an hour in front of the Room of Requirement trying to ask it what Malfoy was looking for here but to no avail. Finally, he gave up and went to his Defense class which he arrived just before Hermione and Ed, both loaded with books stacked so high they had to levitate them. Professor Snape picked up their homework and then was questioned by a particularly brave Seamus about the Inferi and their differences from a living being. Snape then asked:

"If you had read the article, you would know it was not an Inferius but a despicable man named Mundungus Fletcher. Would anyone know, other than Mr. Finnigan, the difference between a human and an Inferius? Potter?"

"An Inferius is a body without a soul or spirit- a corpse revived and controlled by black magic, while a human being still has their soul and spirit." Harry replied, crossing his fingers. He remembered what Dumbledore had told him on the subject and especially the reaction their mention had elicited in Ed.

"An exact definition, one point for Gryffindor. Who can tell me the difference between a ghost and an Inferius? Elric? And no full thesis on this, please." Snape asked.

"A ghost is the traces that the soul has left on the spirit and it can therefore be considered as the remnants of the deceased on Earth. We cannot harm them except through magical rituals of great complexity. For example, a ghost will not fear fire which is not the case with an Inferius." Explained Edward, who had thoroughly researched the subject.

"Correct. One point for Ravenclaw. Now let's continue with the Cruciatus Curse, page 213."

Shortly after exiting Snape's class, the three boys walked to the bathroom where they could hear Moaning Myrtle sobbing. Edward, who had already tried to talk with this ghost for his thesis on spirits, had a great desire to leave. Apparently, Myrtle was feeling lonely and wanted to see the crying boy again. Not knowing who she was talking about, Ed tried to get a hint out of her to see if he could help this student but to no great effect.

Coming out of the bathroom, Ron told Hermione:

"I think I'll pass my Apparition test after taking those extra lessons they talked about… I know you don't need it but do you want to go anyway? We can go to the Three Broomsticks after to drink a butterbeer. What do you say?"

Hermione's dazzling smile was an answer in itself.

The following Saturday they left hand in hand as Harry looked at them with a hint of jealousy. There were only two things left for him to do: either try to see Slughorn (which hadn't worked for the past week) or see what Malfoy was doing. After finding the door to Slughorn's office double-locked, he made up his mind to go upstairs to see what Malfoy was up to. He frightened Crabbe or Goyle by pretending to be a ghost; then he tried to open the door but this was in vain. It wasn't long before Edward joined him and advised him to think about something more neutral than "I wish to see where Malfoy is hiding." But before they could make another attempt, they met Tonks who seemed to be fighting back tears.

Edward, who knew the young woman was worried about the love of her life, Remus, tried to comfort her without showing Harry that he knew much about Tonks' emotional turmoil. The young Gryffindor still believed that Tonks felt sorry for the loss of Sirius and it was best not to disabuse him. After all, Edward had made a promise (in a seedy bar after swallowing a considerable amount of alcohol) but even he was able to keep a drunken promise. He wouldn't reveal what Tonks was hiding, especially since he fully supported this love affair. Edward had had a soft spot for romance ever since he had been separated from Winry and then it wasn't like he had anything better to do… Although…

When Edward came back with the other Circle members, he asked them to come to the Room of Requirement. Unfortunately, the latter must have still been occupied by Malfoy because it refused to open. Edward turned to Harry and asked him:

"You mentioned two weeks ago a completely unplottable Chamber of Secrets… Maybe we could practice in it?"

"Train for what?" Hermione asked excitedly.

"Wandless magic!" Edward said happily.

There was a mixture of 'Really?!', 'Wahoo, Fred and George won't believe their eyes!', 'I'm excited to start!', 'How does it work?', and 'You think I could do it?'. So Edward had to ask for silence. The Circle rushed into the girls' bathroom, politely asking Moaning Myrtle permission to put her in a good mood, which was not difficult. Apparently she liked to see handsome boys come into her domain. Soon Harry ushered them into the Chamber of Secrets, for the first time for most of them. There were loud exclamations, comments that Slytherin had to be compensating for something with making such a large statue, and other similar remarks.

They all sat in a circle and all listened religiously to Edward who began by trying to be as clear and as short as possible, to prevent the same thing from happening as during Binns' lessons:

"The truth is, anyone can do wandless magic. I think you all remember episodes of accidental magic when you were a kid, right?"

There were nods among all the members of the Circle and Hermione, true to her habit, raised her hand:

"Sounds like what you told us about the Animagus, that it was one of the wandless forms of magic. Does that mean that we will have to tap into our magical heart?"

"Indeed, only, I discovered, during my research to use magic, that there are three forms of using magic: the first, the one that you instinctively use during childhood is that of the magical heart that all wizards have. I haven't been able to determine which DNA sequence is affected yet but-"

"Edward," Harry interrupted, "you're going to lose them…"

"Oops. So the first form of magic is that of the magical heart. It is directly attached to your soul through your mind. Becoming an Animagus depends on this first form of magic because, as I have already explained to you, the Anima, which by the way means soul in Latin, is just the transposition of your soul into animal form. Thus the transformation into Animagus depends on your magical heart and can therefore be done without a wand."

"The second form of magic is that of telluric energy. Basically, it comes from energy lines that run across the Earth. It is said that the ancient druids used them during their rituals but today, they have practically ceased to be used except when it concerns the construction of houses or magical buildings, or during runic rituals. Hogwarts, Diagon Alley, and the Ministry of Magic are at the junction points of these energy lines. Even the old wizarding houses seek to place themselves along these lines because they have the advantage of camouflaging the magic inside these mansions." Edward stated.

"Wait, you mean if I had wanted to I could have used magic all those years when I was at the Burrow on vacation and the Ministry wouldn't have noticed?" Ron asked, who understood the implications of what Edward had just said.

"Hm, yes, in theory… Anyway, you're of legal age, so- Okay, let's get back on topic. There is a third and most powerful form of magic- that of Life itself. All magical beings, including wizards, can use it, except that for this form, wizards need a wand with an element in it from a very powerful magical creature. In any case, that's the hypothesis that I described to Garrick Ollivanders in a thesis that I wrote to him…"

"When does he have the time to sleep?" Neville asked sotto voce.

"Wizards are the only magical beings who really need an intermediary to gain access to this source of magic. Other creatures can have direct access to it. Now I am going to reveal a secret to you. Unlike wizards, I can directly feel this source of magical power without needing a middleman like a wand. In fact, I can tap into it effortlessly. This explains why I have trouble adjusting my magic."

"So in theory you use magic like a magical creature, like house elves, for example…" Hermione said thoughtfully before exclaiming, "Oh! But of course! In the book you gave me for my birthday, you wrote a whole chapter about the source of the magic the elves used! I can't believe I didn't think about it sooner."

"There is something else that worries me. The last time I dreamed about Voldemort, you told me about a book that Rookwood had stolen that would allow Voldemort to control everything, including Magic. Is it this third form you're talking about?" Harry asked, mortally worried. "But if he takes it, he'll become invincible!"

"There is indeed a risk. So, we have to beat him before he gets to that." Edward volunteered. "And for that, you have to be able to use the magic of your magical heart as if you were using a wand. We'll start right away with the Patronus-"

"What? But Edward, it's a high level spell. We all know how to do it with a wand, but couldn't we start with something easier?" Hermione asked in a slightly worried voice.

"If you can do hard spells you can do easy ones." Ed said confidently, "Plus you might have less trouble with the Patronus as it is an act of magic that depends directly on the soul and your spiritual strength which, I assure you, is strong enough for each of you since you all knew how to launch the Patronus before you were seventeen. So, paradoxically, you'll have less trouble casting it without a wand. Now put down your wands and let's get started!"

There was a general grumbling but everyone did and started the exercise. And, to everyone's surprise, it wasn't a deer that came out of Harry's hands that first night, but a silver doe...

Original author's note:

I want to tell you that it was very difficult for me to decide if Luna and Edward were going to be an item. I weighed the question for a long time before deciding not to, for the reasons explained by Edward himself. There are many forms of love and that of friendship is no less beautiful than a romantic relationship. Plus, I've always loved seeing Luna and Neville together.

I hope my explanation of Wandless Magic is clear enough. Since it's been a long time since I worked on this story, I hope that I did not write any contradictory nonsense.

And yes, Harry's patronus has changed. As a result of his discussion with Sirius (regarding James) but also after his discussion with Snape regarding the sacrifice, he has come to regard his mother as the moral role model he prefers to follow. The Patronus will most certainly still evolve because sooner or later, we end up detaching ourselves from the idealized image that we have of our parents.