"Bill, son… Fred's dead, remember? He died at Hogwarts." Arthur whispered.
"Oh, god, you don't know… Fred… he didn't die. Almost but Madam Pomfrey was able to pull him through." Bill closed his eyes with the imagined pain that his father must have felt.
"What?" Arthur gasped. "Why didn't she tell us?"
"I asked her not to." A new voice said and Arthur turned around to see the twins standing together in the doorway.
"And a damn good thing he did. Mum was at me within minutes of being told Fred was dead, to sign the shop over to her and Percy." George added and the only reason Arthur thought it was George, was that he had called the other, Fred. Not that this was any guarantee, but…?
"Fred… George…" Arthur whispered.
Narcissa let her wand hand fall to her side. "The children are most definitely Harry's, in fact, they are far more Harry's than they are Ginevra's."
"Thank Merlin for that." Ron sighed.
"How is that possible, Sissy?" Sirius asked.
"She used the Widow's Boon." Narcissa replied. "It's an ancient potion, used to continue a bloodline after a lord's death. It uses blood and hair and is one of the vilest potions to brew. Fast but vile. Less than ten minutes from start to finish, but the intent of the brewer is one of the strongest ingredients. This potion requires someone of mastery levels to brew it. Neither Ginevra nor Molly have the skill needed."
"We believe that Filberta Weasley may have been the brewer." Kingsley agreed.
"Yes, I can't see many others capable, but even then… she's good but not that good. It's probably why the children are more Harry's than Ginevra's." Narcissa said.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked, a bundle of blue in his arms.
"Filberta must have been so focused on you as the parent that Ginevra was only an afterthought." Narcissa replied. "And with the Widow's Boon, that makes a difference. In times past, if a bearer was injured or had other medical issues, it was possible to swap an unborn child from the body of a bearer, to that of a witch related to either parent, and allow her to carry the child to term. Due to you being a carrier, we may be able to add Charles as the children's father, this would only be possible because Charles is of the same blood as Ginevra, a requirement of the Boon potion."
"Narcissa? What would happen if I were to disown Ginny? At this distance?" Arthur asked.
"As far as we can work out… Nothing." Narcissa answered.
"How do you figure that?" Bill asked.
"Think about it. Sirius went into the veil in June 1996. Lady Magic allowed his Will to become active, with Harry inheriting everything. Yet, Sirius was here, alive. The only way those two statements agree is if Sirius is considered dead by Lady Magic, on Earth, but alive here on Arda." Narcissa said and paused until Arthur nodded. "That being the case, you cannot disown someone on Earth, as Lady Magic considers you to be death there."
"Ah, I see. Thank you." Arthur gave her a smile.
"The only thing it would do, dad, is remove her from your family, here. None of us would consider her our sister anymore." Bill added.
"But…" Narcissa cut in before Arthur could react. "I wouldn't do anything until after we have made Charles the children's father. We would need to alter the parent base from, Ginevra as mother and Harry as father, to… Harry as bearer, Charles as father with Ginevra as proxy-bearer."
"Yeah, let's do that." Ron sneered. "She doesn't deserve the mention."
"Agreed." Charlie nodded sharply.
"What's involved in making Charlie their father?" Harry asked.
"Another potion. Patris Meus. Commonly used by adulterous women, to adopt children of dubious parentage, into their husband's family. It alters the child's magical heritage to the chosen father's lineage. In Harry and Charles' case… Harry is a bearer and recognised as a parent of the children, that means that Charles will be recognised as their father and Harry as their bearer. That will leave Ginevra as only the proxy-bearer, nothing more."
"That would remove Ginny as their mother?" Arthur asked.
"It would." Narcissa nodded.
"Alright, set it up." Charlie ordered.
"While we do that, you might want to think about names for the boys." Narcissa suggested. "Neither of them are named, as yet."
"Good." Harry snorted. "Ginny would likely have called one of them James and the other Sirius."
"No. Sorry, but no." Charlie objected. "One Sirius is enough."
"Agreed." Severus nodded.
Harry and Charlie looked at each other and when Harry raised a brow, Charlie nodded.
"Ralston and Regulus." Harry said.
Narcissa thought about that for a moment and nodded. "Yes, they will work well. Middle names?"
The two men huddled together and muttered for a few minutes.
"Ralston Oakley and Regulus Orrin." Charlie said when they turned back to face Narcissa and the others.
The next morning Bill escorted Ron, Arthur and Kingsley to the newly completed Great Hall and reintroduced them to the Hogwarts contingent. After a simple but filling breakfast, Ron grinned as Harry strapped a baby to each side of his chest and grabbed Ron's arm.
"Come on, Mione's going to meet us on what will be the astronomy tower. Once we finish the observation deck's dome, that is."
Ron frowned. "Is it safe? If the dome isn't finished, I mean."
"Yeah, it's safe, we haven't really started yet, so it's just a platform." Harry replied.
"Oh, okay." The two followed a path that was very familiar, even if Ron was surprised that things were a bit closer of lower than he expected. "What's different? Something's different here." Ron frowned when they emerged onto the platform.
"We altered the scale, a bit." Hermione said, coming over to hug Ron and coo over Harry's sons.
"The tower itself is shorter, but we kept the width the same." Harry added. "Eventually, we'll get around to putting up the arches and the roof, but…? We're not in that much of a hurry."
"Oh…" Ron looked around, settling the differences in his mind and accepting them. Hogwarts was Hogwarts, it changed if it wanted to, everyone knew that.
After four hours of listening to Harry and Hermione fill in details that Lee hadn't told him, Ron tilted his head back in what Harry called his 'chess-Master' pose.
"What?" Harry asked.
"What did we miss?" Hermione sighed.
"You never mentioned the necromancer again, or the ring thing." Ron said.
Hermione and Harry looked at each other and as they thought through the past few years, horror bloomed on their faces.
"Oh, bollocks…" Harry whispered.
"We forgot…" Hermione added.
"We have to…"
"We need to…" they said together.
"We have to deal with it." Harry finished.
"You talk to Thorin and Bilbo, Harry. Ron, get Bill to round everyone up. I'll talk to Legolas and Bard. We'll meet in the Great Hall in an hour."
Bilbo looked at Harry in horror. "What do you mean… we forgot about it?!" He screeched. "I never forgot about it, I thought it was part of your plan… to wait this long!"
"Ah… no, not really." Harry grimaced.
"But we're also in a better position to deal with it now, than we were immediately after the reclamation." Hermione added.
"So, it's not really a problem? That we forgot?" Thorin asked.
"No, not really." Hermione replied.
"So…?" Kingsley asked. "What is this ring?"
Everyone turned to Hermione for that answer.
"Kingsley, you worked with the muggles. Did you ever read books called Fellowship of the ring, the Two Towers or Return of the King?" The self-proclaimed bookworm asked.
"I did. Why?" The former-Minister for Magic asked.
"Well, let's see…" Hermione huffed. "Bilbo is Frodo Baggins' cousin-slash-Uncle-slash-mentor. That redhead dwarf you met at lunch, is Gloín, Gimli's father. That cannonball-looking thing on the table contains the One Ring."
"The… One… Ring? The one that Frodo carried to Mordor? That Gollum tried to steal? The ring that the Nazgul hunted? That Ring?" Kingsley half whispered, half moaned.
"That Ring." Hermione confirmed.
"Oh, bollocks." Kingsley groaned before sitting up and pinning the young woman with a hard stare. "And what do you plan to do with it?"
"Pretty much the same as Frodo." Hermione said. "We've tried everything that would normally kill a horcrux, but so far, we've had no success."
"What have you tried?"
"Fiendfyre, killing curse, basilisk venom, phoenix tears, even an exorcism." Hermione sighed. "Nothing worked."
Harry leant forward. "We sent a returnable Patronus to Gandalf, he's out west at the Grey Havens. There's a terminal an hour or so north of there, so I sent Oliver to meet with him, taking one of our communication mirrors. I'm hoping the old meddler can provide a bit more information." He sighed. "We need to know what type of magic this necromancer used when he created it."
"Why?"
"Our research into Horcruxes during the war, leads us to believe there are three types of horcrux." Hermione said.
"Three types?" Kingsley muttered. "I wasn't even aware of one."
"No, so far we can identify three types." Hermione assured him. "One. The type Voldemort predominantly favoured. Can be pretty much anything item, just not a living one. Can only be destroyed by destroying the container. Fiendfyre and basilisk venom work well. In Harry's case we assume that the killing curse confounded Voldemort's intention and instead of a type one horcrux, he became a type two. However, Nagini is clearly a type two. Mostly used by the ancient Egyptians. Usually a young and attractive person, often unwilling or unknowing. When the originator dies, the two parts of their soul reattach themselves, taking over the body of the horcrux and ejecting the body's original soul. Kill the body, kill the Horcruxe. Not exactly our preferred choice. The third type are the worst. The being whose horcrux it is, has to physically make the item that is to hold the horcrux, they don't have to kill to create a horcrux, they only have to have enough conviction to sustain a soul-split long enough to encase one part of their soul in the container. Usually they can only be destroyed in the same place that they were created."
"Bollocks." Kingsley muttered again.
"Yes, definitely." Hermione nodded. "Based on Tolkien's writings, we believe that," she nodded at the cannonball, "to be a type three horcrux, but we aren't certain. Gandalf did send Frodo off to Mordor with 'toss it in the fires from whence it came' as a direction. But that could just as easily be a Gandalf thing."
"Ah…" Kingsley sighed.
"So, what do you plan to do, assuming it is a type three?" Ron asked.
"Assuming it's a type three, we have to find out where it was made and return it there, before we can destroy it." Hermione said. "How we destroy it is unknown, Gandalf may know more than us, but it's entirely possible that just returning it, may be enough to actually destroy it. We just don't know enough about it."
"So, assuming that we have to take it… somewhere… Who goes and how?" Kingsley asked and was quite surprised when everyone present, including dwarves and elves, all turned to Harry.
"Until we know, we can't be certain." Harry started. "But we can't let it be known what we are doing, so as far as I am concerned, we need to have a completely obvious reason for going in the basic direction. And cover it by taking a large group." He held up a hand when people started to object. "We can't possibly be on some secret mission to some unknown citadel in enemy held territory, if we are a large group of people that include women and children. Now can we?"
"Hide in plain sight?" Kingsley asked.
"Pretty much." Harry nodded.
A sharp buzzing noise was heard and a handheld mirror that was laying on the table, began to vibrate and shake.
"Harry Potter-Weasley." Oliver's voice came from the mirror.
"Oliver Potter-Wood." Harry responded and quickly an image formed. Oliver stood beside an older man that bore an uncanny resemblance to Albus Dumbledore. "Hey, Ollie. I see you found him."
"I did, Harry. Thankfully, he didn't make it hard."
"Great. Good afternoon, Gandalf."
"Lord Potter. What can an old man do for you? Hmm?" Gandalf twinkled, much like Dumbledore did.
"Headley and Kíli are almost finished their NEWT studies, and we were discussing the Dark Arts and their defence. One of the subjects under discussion are horcruxes and their destruction." Harry replied.
"Horcruxes? I'm not familiar with the term, what exactly are horcruxes and how do you believe I can be of assistance?" Gandalf wore a puzzled expression.
"A horcrux is a container that some idiot uses to store a part of their soul, in an attempt to avoid death." Harry explained. "What we're interested in are the tales of the One Ring. It sounds suspiciously like a horcrux to us."
"The One Ring?" Gone was the bumbling old man and in his place a wizened wizard with millennia of knowledge. "What do you know of it?"
Harry smirked and turned the mirror to face the cannonball. "It's inside that."
"What did you do to it?!" The old man screeched.
"We locked it up. No-one can touch it, no-one can use it." Hermione answered.
"I do believe that we need to discuss this face to face. I shall leave here immediately, please do not do anything until I get to Erebor." Gandalf turned from the mirror and began frantically packing up his campsite.
"Oliver? Can you bring him side-along?" Harry asked.
"Not that far but I do have that portkey to the hospital courtyard. I could use that, if Snape or McGonagall will redo it for me." Oliver replied.
"Excellent, bring him, someone will replace it." Harry ordered.
"Got it, see you in a few." Oliver deactivated the mirror.
"Now, we wait." Harry sighed.
"Well, while we're waiting, let's get some plans in place, so that we can act quickly." Hermione said.
"Alright, who do we take? And who stays behind?" Sirius asked.
"Hermione and I have to be part of this mission, we're the ones that enchanted the thing, and we tied the encapsulation of it, to our magical signatures, only if we're dead can anyone else take our place." Severus said.
"And Harry has to go, he's got the most familiarity to horcrux magics, we need him to warn us of imminent attack." Hermione added.
"And Bilbo, as it's being stored in his pouch in a pocket that he can't access, Hermione made it so that only she and I can open the pocket, but only Bilbo can open the pouch." Harry put in. "After that, those coming are more for emotional support and camouflage than anything else."
"Alright, so let's work our way out from there." Kingsley said.
"Harry, Hermione, Severus and Bilbo." Arthur said. "Harry means, Charlie and the boys."
"And me." Headley said. "I'm young, still a kid to most, Harry bringing me and the twins says that he's not doing anything underhanded."
Kingsley nodded. "That's true."
"In that case, Remus, me and our Horde had best go, too." Sirius said.
"And Hermione, means me and ours, too." Draco said.
"We're going to need a medi-healer, just in case." Hermione added.
"We can't take everyone." Kingsley objected.
"Why not?" Harry asked. "I could make a case for it."
"Harry, you have classes starting here, in little more than a month. You need teachers here." Kingsley argued. "That means that Minerva, Severus, Bill, Remus and Oliver either need to find a replacement or stay here."
"I shall remain here." McGonagall said.
"Same here." Bill said. "Fleur's pregnant and with her and Narcissa being our only medi-healers, it would be easier and better if Narcissa was to go with you, especially as Severus is already going."
"Yes, it would." Severus nodded.
A clatter on the tiles of the hallway alerted the gathered of the impending arrival of Oliver and Gandalf. Sure enough, only a few seconds passed and Oliver lead the old wizard into the Hall.
"Hey, we're here." Oliver flopped down beside Colin. "Where are we at?"
"Discussing who's going and who's staying here." The younger wizard told his adopted brother.
"Ooh, that's not nice." Oliver mock-glared at Harry.
"Why?" Colin asked.
"It's my turn to be Hogwarts' liaison, I can't go." Oliver crossed his arms and slumped in his seat.
"Ah, sorry, Ollie." Harry said. "I didn't plan for this to happen now… actually, I didn't plan for this to happen at all, and that's the issue."
"In what, Lord Potter?" Gandalf asked.
"Harry, call me Harry. My grandfather was Lord Potter, dad and I preferred our names over our titles." Harry argued.
"Very well… Harry. What exactly is the issue?" Gandalf repeated.
"Hermione? Would bring Gandalf up to speed on horcruxes, please? Then we can go on from there."
"Of course, Harry." Hermione turned to the Istari. "Horcruxes are…"
Six hours later and the Hall was silent, all except for Harry's quiet voice.
"You mean to tell us, that this Sauron, was once a maia called Mairon, a wizard like yourself, that joined Melkor, also known as Morgoth, who was a demi-god that the other demi-gods were forced to imprison in the Void, due to the destruction he was raining down on this world." Harry paced back and forth across the Hall. "He used a disguise and was the one to convince the elves to create these Rings of Power, but at the same time he secretly forged a 'Master' ring, the One Ring, a type three horcrux, in the belly of Mount Doom." He paused. "Who names these places? The Lonely Mountain is a solitary volcanic peak, some fifty mile from the nearest range. And Mount Doom? For an evil lord's lair, it's kind of cliché, isn't it?" He shook his head. "Never mind. So after creating the One Ring, he went on to try and subjugate the entire world and got cranky when someone stood up to him? A prince of Gondor got in a lucky strike and sliced of his hand, breaking the physical link between he and his horcrux, causing a magical backlash that destroyed his body, leaving him little more than a wraith. Said prince kept the Ring, calling an heirloom of his people, until it, being like all other horcruxes, was semi-aware and decided that Prince Isildur wasn't bad enough for its liking and abandoned him. It was lost from history, for centuries, until a hobbit called Déagol found it, his cousin Sméagol, killed him for it and it's been keeping the poor thing alive for over five hundred years, when hobbits usually only live for a hundred or so. Sméagol lost himself in the mountains and over time he lost his mind to the Ring, reasoning that the voice in his mind was another part of him, not the Ring, and became Gollum." He turned to face Gandalf. "Am I right, so far?"
"You are." Gandalf nodded from his window perch, a lit pipe smouldering away between his lips.
"You convince Thorin that now is a good time to recover Erebor and set up poor Bilbo to have his house invaded by a small Horde of unknown dwarves. Bilbo joins them as they tromp halfway across the continent to the afore mentioned solitary volcanic mountain. As they cross the Misty Mountains… and I'm back to stupid names for places… they accidentally enter a goblin enclave inside the stupidly named mountains. Bilbo picks the Ring up off the ground, plays a game with Sméagol and escapes at, coincidentally, pretty much the same time as the dwarves and re-joins the Company. Orcs attack and Bilbo kills his first warg and his first orc to keep Thorin alive. This is where Sirius joins you, fighting alongside Bilbo. You call the Giant Eagle,s who come and rescue the lot of you. They drop you all at the Carrock, Sirius conjures up a cushion and offers everyone tea and healing potions before bringing everyone down off the Carrock by broom. You mention Beorn as someone who might help and that's where we all meet. Is that about right?" Harry's voice was calm, quiet and thoughtful, something that was making Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Sirius and Remus a little nervous.
"It is." Gandalf nodded again.
"Good. I just wanted to be certain." Harry said before sighing. "I need everyone to decide. Do I step up and do this? This is bad, like Voldemort and Dumbledore working together, bad. I'm going to take a walk. You lot decide who's in charge of this clusterfuck." Harry shook his head at Charlie's raised brow and left the Hall.
"Oh, shit." Draco sighed. "We're back to horcruxes again."
"It appears that we are." Gandalf said. "Bilbo will need to-"
"Stop." Headley's voice was hard and strong. "That's not how this works. We decide as a group. I had no involvement in the Voldemort war. I will abide by the majority decision, will you accept me as Chair?"
"What? Chair? What do you mean?" Gandalf asked at the same time as a round of yeses filled the room.
"Hogwarts has spoken." McGonagall said. "Headley is Chair."
"Thank you, Professor McGonagall." Headley said before turning to Gandalf. "The Chair is the person who mediates or Chairs a meeting. Like everyone else here, you get a vote in what is decided. Once a decision is reached it is final, not appeals, no dissention, no rebellion. Final. Understand?"
"Well, I'm not sure that-"
"Gandalf, you are here as a guest, us giving you a vote is a courtesy." Headley cut him off. "We are not bound by the maia's laws, nor are we bound by your White Council. We will take your comments into consideration but we will not blindly follow anyone. Hogwarts did that once and thousands of people died. Every one of us here, lost someone in the Voldemort war because the wizarding world blindly followed a man that didn't really know what he was doing and was too stubborn to admit it. We will not do that." Headley pointed to chair at one end of the long table. "I suggest you put your pipe out and sit at the table like a civilized being."
Gandalf blinked and without saying a word, did as Headley said.
"Thank you." Headley nodded his acknowledgement. "The subject is the Horcrux of Sauron and its destruction." Those seated at the table nodded. "Very well. We have determined that the Ring is a type three horcrux and as such can only be destroyed by…"
Little more than an hour later, Harry re-entered the Hall, having returned at the request of Headley's Patronus.
"Thanks for returning, Harry." Headley said as Harry stood in the middle of the Hall. "We have reached a consensus." Harry said nothing, but nodded, waiting. "You will lead a team to Mount Doom, to destroy the One Ring. To camouflage the expedition, you will be accompanied by a large group, whose public reason for going, will be diplomatic relations with Rohan and Minis Tirith."
"Who's going?" Harry asked.
"It's more a case of who's not." Headley warned. "Fleur, Bill and their family are staying. Professor McGonagall, Oliver, Kingsley and Ollivander will deal with classes, if we're not back in time. The rest of Hogwarts is going. Erebor will send Thorin, Fíli, Kíli and their families. Also Balin, Ori, Gimli and Gimli's sister, Gimris. The Haerham are sending Legolas, Kressian and Tauriel. Dean and Lendalen will apparate Tauriel, Luna and Neville to Lothlorien to inquire about envoys from Lothlorien joining us."
"Oh, great… Hogwarts is on the move… again…" Harry sighed.