And to all those readers under house arrest because of Convid-19, sending across prayers, courage and warm wishes to keep your spirits high.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, but my thoughts of AU and OC, the rest all belong to J K Rowling.

Chapter 46

To the unseen spirits of the world, the scenario of the Shell Cottage could neatly be divided into three groups. Two living and one undead. Of the two living, one group had itself arranged around a warm well-lit living room. And the other had sequestered itself in Bill and Fleur Weasley's study.

Ginny peeped inside the couple's bedroom and came down with watery eyes. When Harry received his emotional wife in the study, she started sobbing in his chest, "Don't mind me, Fleur had made sure the kids would sleep through all this mess. It was beautiful, all three kids, Victoire, Ted and Dominique snuggled around Fleur. She had fallen asleep with a storybook open on top of her." Harry simply kissed her brow and helped her ease down on an armchair.

Draco and Blaise had been pouring over the open tome, that Zabini had brought along with him, the very one Snape asked all of them to read through. They saw Ginny enter the room but spared the couple to have their private moment. Neville was sitting on another armchair, with Luna situating herself on one of its wooden arms. Before leaving the room the Ravenclaw girl had delivered a letter to the Headmaster of Hogwarts, whispering to him, "It is good to see you well Sir. Professor Flitwick sends his best regards." The girl also had another letter in her pocket, which she was debated when to deliver to Potter.

The door of the study burst open and both Seamus Finnigan and George Weasley walked in. "Blimey, I thought you all forgot about us, mates aren't we on the same team?"

Draco arched his brow and drawled, "Which would that be, Finnigan?"

Puffing his chest, the Irish man declared, "Team Snape, you ferret!"

Zabini butted in," Hey, no name-calling now, as you said, Team Snape, and we are all into this."

Seamus mock-saluted the Slytherins when Harry enquired, "Any news of Hermione?"

"Nothing much, she sleeps, though there had been a spike in the magic fields in The Circle, Healer Norman says the entire spectrum is breaking and again rebuilding itself or something like that, but all I understood, she is safe."

Luna's singsong voice called out, "And the Rogue Magic?"

"That shit is still there, that's what Liza told me."

"Liza?"

Draco supplied without even looking up from the book, scaling the contents with his finger, and turning a page after some time, his brows scrunched up, his hair out of place," Liza, Elizabeth Hornbill, half veela healer apprentice, working under Healer Norman, are your sweet on her Finnigan, I would say suits you."

Blaise yelled suddenly, pointing his finger over a paragraph, "There, this one, I am sorry, I didn't remember marking it up…"

Draco mumbled, "That fine mate, as long as we know what to read."

George spoke up, "Mum shoved both of us in this room, won't even say what's up, good thing Harry you got the Headmaster, soaked to his insides really, but it's sad, Mione knew all this while, and never said a word of it, trust me, mate, that did hurt, I mean we always considered her a sis, just like Gin here, Merlin! To be related to Snape! That's like fireworks like that's an armour of its own!"

Despite the situation all the others in the room chuckled.

Clearly his throat, Seamus added," But those knights, creepy aren't they, freezes my bones, honestly, auror or not, I won't wish to be around them."

Blaise spoke addressing everyone in the room, "Funny you saying that Finnigan when those undead knights are related to Hogwarts itself when we all have seen them on a daily basis throughout our tenure at Hogwarts."

Nevile straightened up in his chair, his voice shaky, "They come from Hogwarts, bloody hell, these ghosts walk around us, good thing we don't see them, are they related to Sir Nicolas, or the Baron?"

"Nope, not them," turning back to the book, Draco prepared himself to read aloud so that all the gathered wizards and witches could hear him out clearly.

"There again, he is at it, just like Mione, they both would look sweet," George muttered to Seamus, who elbowed him.

"According to this, the soldiers or the knights of the undead, are the ones who had vowed to serve the blood of Búir na mara. "roar of the sea". These had been fierce soldiers in their lifetime and could take out a score of enemies one at a time. Their swords acted like their wands; some say their wands were embedded in their swords. Their words lived even after their body perished, and they would live to serve in spirits all those whose magic favours the "roar of the lion" and" the roar of the sea." Stabbing his finger on the paragraph he had just read, Draco excitedly carried on, "This, this is what got me thinking!" Turning to Longbottom he had pressed on, "Try to remember Neville, when you had pulled out the sword of Gryffindor, how did it look like."

"Jeeze, Malfoy, that was not the time to marvel at the sword!" Nevile retorted. But Harry interrupted, "Medieval piece of art, heavy, you need to hold your arm out to give it a good swing, the hilt had a piece of leather and something else wrapped around it, there were some inscriptions over the blade as well, but I couldn't get them…"

Draco solemnly added, "I forgot, you three had seen it as well."

Leaning forward Harry asked, "But why do you want to know,now?"

Blaise declared, "Because Potter those Knights outside this cottage carry the same sword, no not the sword of Gryffindor, but exactly the same model, even their armors and their helmets belong to the founder's time." The Italian walked up to the only window in the room, his eyes locked with the soldiers standing still outside," that book otherwise just goes on rumbling about medieval artifacts, and wizarding armies, during those days, muggles and wizards lived together…but many had started forming their own establishments, villages, and towns, and many of their fiefs and chieftains employed such heroic band of swordsmen who could not be killed according to the legends."

It was Luna who spoke this time," But I had heard that the sword of Gryffindor was goblin made…how then?"

Slamming the tome shut, letting a column of dust simmer in the air, Draco flung himself in the desk chair, rubbing his forehead in frustration, "And the is exactly what we are knocking our heads about, Lovegood, the real mystery…no…every blood thing is getting mysterious with the passing hour. Severus better make a head or tail of this, then we can have a head start."

Seamus joined Blaise beside the window, peering at the human-like apparitions hovering above the ground. "Creepy, they have been dead that long, blimey, they do look familiar like I have seen them."

Blaise quiet voice that reverberated through the study, "Yes we all have, in all the corridors of the castle, outside the Great Hall, the Soldiers of Hogwarts, we have hidden behind them, we have passed by them to our classes, and we have watched them guard Hogwarts at the Final Battle, but what surprises my the most, there has not been one single incident after from the Battle itself when these were walking about, then why did they all of a sudden, appear?"

Neville also added from behind them, "Honestly Zabini this whole thing gets weirder, I mean, every day I make it a point to just stare around the entrance to the Great Hall and simply marvel at all those stone soldiers who had fought in the Battle along with us. As a practice, before coming here, I had patrolled around the castle, and I saw each one of them in place. So, if you say these ghostly soldiers are them, then what are those still standing in those many catacombs outside the Great Hall?"

A/N: Thought and views are needed to keep me afloat.