Author's Note: You guys are amazing! I never dreamed you'd keep the reviews coming, but I was proven completely wrong. A promise is a promise -- here's the next chapter. It's a very long, very important one, so buckle up!

The Antemorphean Charm worked just as Hermione had said it would, though it took an hour and multiple tries by everyone to get it to revert to its 1946 state. Since it was a reference book, it was not allowed out of the library; we took turns keeping watch for Madam Pince while we struggled with the difficult spell.

It was, of course, Hermione who got it in the end. When the title on the front finally changed from "Great Britain Floo Directory, 1997" to "Domestic Floo Connexions in the British Isles, 1946," we all hissed our approval.

Harry grabbed it first and flipped open to the white pages. I saw him run his finger down a page about two-thirds of the way through the volume. "Ribon, Rice, Rickhart . . . Riddle. There. 'Riddle, T. Floo Port #310887. 1610 Queen Maeve Way, No. 3B, London.'"

"I know where that is!" Ron burst in. "My parents took me to the Museum of Wizarding Government once, and it's on the same street."

"That's right," Ginny said. "Bloody boring museum, too. Good to know it was good for something."

To my surprise, Harry eyed me and said, "Well, Susan? Any ideas about the best time to go?"

I closed my eyes and thought back to the story Hermione had told me about the Hufflepuff Horcrux. They were in for a lot, but there was nothing I could do about it. "No," I said. "Just go on a weekend; don't miss class if you don't have to."

Ron laughed. "You're like the sister Hermione never had."

I blushed. I wanted to say, "More like the daughter she helped raise," but I bit my tongue for the umpteenth time. "I mean, I See that you might need a day or two to recover afterwards."

Hermione looked nervous. "I don't want to miss any classes if I can help it. Can we do it on Friday night?"

Ginny suddenly looked disappointed, and Harry shot a glance at her before saying, "If that seems like the best idea, then that's when we'll do it."

My stomach growled. "Have you eaten at all today?" Hermione asked sharply.

Ginny looked chagrined. "I brought her straight to the seventh floor when she woke up."

Hermione glanced at her watch. "Susan, you should be able to catch the tail end of lunch if you hurry. Go on; we understand."

I waved goodbye to the lot of them and hightailed it to the Great Hall, where plates of food, though much depleted, were still sitting on the tables. I spotted Neville, grinned, and went to sit beside him.

"Afternoon, sir," I said, taking a turkey sandwich from a pile.

"Hello, milady," he said, placing a hand on the small of my back as I took my seat. "You weren't at breakfast. I was afraid you were making me a list of reasons why last night was a horrid mistake."

"Not at all," I said, sliding closer to him to underline the point. "Just consulting with the local heroes."

"Ah," he said. "Seer work. Go on, Miss Seer, tell me my future."

I smiled beatifically up at him. "I See that you'll be involved with a younger woman."

"Brilliant!" he cried. "Lead me to her."

I took a swipe at him, missed, and contented myself with eating my lunch.

After lunch, the two of us went out to Greenhouse Two, where our wandtree resided. I sat on one of the worktables, kicking my legs back and forth, while Neville stood before me. "I think we ought to name our tree Rowena," he said. "Rowena the Rowen Tree."

"Blasphemy!" I cried. "We're GRYFFINDORS, Neville. Let the Ravenclaws name their tree that."

"Do you have a better idea?" he demanded.

"We should call her something Gryffindorish, y'know, House pride and all. How about . . . Leonora?"

He rolled his eyes. "Why not just paint her gold and red?"

So I raised my wand, did a tricky little manuever, and aimed straight at Leonora. In a moment, her trunk was striped in the Gryffindor colors. "Righto," I said calmly.

"Susan!" he cried. "Now she'll never let anyone from any other House use wands made with her wood."

I stuck my nose in the air. "So much the better," I said, affecting an upper-class accent.

"You weren't even SORTED," he said exasperatedly. "How do you know you're really a Gryffindor?"

"I'll show you," I said, and, before he could register what I'd said, I leaned forward, caught him around the neck, and pressed my lips against his.

He was too surprised to respond for a moment, but before long he'd tilted his head in acquiescence. I was feeling brave -- reckless, almost -- and I ran my tongue along his lower lip.

He opened his mouth immediately, and we began to dart in and out of each other's mouths. I wondered at the inner workings of everything: how was it that we didn't have to be taught these things? It was true that our kissing at the moment was neither very expert nor entirely passionate, but while we still had a lot to learn, we were making progress in leaps and bounds. There was no book to read, no class to take. It was just this: me sitting on a dirty table under the pale November sun; my new boyfriend half-standing, half-leaning against me; a blank slate upon which we were now both writing.

When we broke apart, I stroked his cheek and smiled. "Now do you believe I'm a Gryffindor?" I asked sweetly.

He pushed my tomato-red hair behind my ear. "I'd believe you were the Head of the Wizengamot if it meant you'd keep kissing me like that."

I kissed his forehead. "I don't think you have to worry about that."

We spent a good portion of the afternoon in the Greenhouse, alternating between bonding with Leonora, working on an Herbology assigment (which was to identify and mark the primary branches of our tree that might provide the best quality wand wood later in her -- its, really -- life), and practicing our newfound ability to kiss. By dinnertime, my lips were bruised, and Leonora had a Conjured bauble hanging off her every branch.

I smiled all through dinner, though no one remarked on my and Neville's sudden, inexplicable happiness. For some reason, I didn't care to tell my parents' crew about Neville and me. Perhaps it was because if I thought about it too hard, it became obvious that I was headed for disappointment; I couldn't stay in this time, I knew that much.

The week passed swiftly; as the Christmas holiday was fast approaching, the work seemed to be piling on. It was nothing like my previous year, with all the revision for the O.W.L.s, but it was still quite a load. The seventh years had more on their plates in preparing for the N.E.W.T.s, but Neville still found time to spend with me in the library, in the common room, and in our Greenhouse. We made sure that no one ever actually saw us kissing -- for some reason, without a word, Neville had conformed to my tacit secrecy -- but by Friday we'd actually gotten quite good at snogging.

On Friday afternoon, I was coming back from Charms when I saw Ron, Hermione, and Harry darting out of the portrait-hole. They were looking about furtively, and it was obvious what they were about to go do.

They smiled as I approached, but I beckoned them to follow me down a side corridor. When they did, I pressed a vine from the Tenacious Tethering plant from Greenhouse Three into Hermione's hand. "You're going to need this," I said.

Hermione frowned at it. "A Tenacious Tethering vine? Whyever would we?"

I shook my head. "I can't See exactly. I know one of you must stay outside the obstacles and moor the other two to the real world. This vine is one of the few tools able to do the job, and it happens to be the one you can get your hands on easily at Hogwarts."

Harry looked at me intently. "Will they be all right?" he asked quietly, almost too quietly to hear.

I nodded. "Don't worry." Then I looked at Ron and Hermione, who looked a bit relieved. "I have to tell you all one last thing: don't believe the worst."

Now they all frowned quizzically, but I simply said, "Good luck," and went back to the main corridor to go back to my common room and work on my Defense homework.

By bedtime, they still hadn't returned. I wasn't too worried, but Ginny was pacing our dorm and wringing her hands. "WHY doesn't he let me go WITH him?" she cried to no one in particular.

"You know the answer to that," I said absently from my spot on my bed, flicking through my Charms textbook.

"Tonight we were supposed to have a date. A real date." I looked up at her. "Yeah, we . . . we go to the Room of Requirement, and it turns into a sunny day outside with a picnic basket, or a Muggle filmhouse, or whatever. Harry usually picks."

I smiled. "That's sweet."

"It is." She fixed me with a look. "Aren't you WORRIED about them at all?"

I shook my head. "Ginny, I know what I know. They'll be all right."

She looked at the ceiling in exasperation. "Where do you think they'll come back to? The common room, or the Hospital Wing?"

I thought about it. "Er. Hospital Wing."

Ginny wheeled around and leaned over to shout in my face. I didn't take it personally. "You SAID they'd be 'all right'!"

"They will be," I maintained. I snapped my Charms textbook shut. "Ginny, you know Madam Pomfrey won't let you in to see them until daylight. And Hermione will come and sleep here."

"In this dorm?" Ginny asked incredulously. "That makes no --"

A loud knock interrupted her. Ginny looked at me, and her expression was scared. But she flew to the door and opened it to find Hermione, her hair a bird's nest, her face splotchy from crying.

"C-c-can I sleep here tonight?" she sobbed.

Luckily, our dormmates were still down in the common room playing a raucus game of Exploding Snap, so it was just the three of us in our room. Ginny took Hermione by the waist and led her to her bed. "Hermione, tell us what happened," she said urgently.

"It was so awful," she said. "They made me stay. They made me be the anchor."

"Of course they did," Ginny said. "Are they alive?"

Shocked, Hermione stared at her through tears. "Of course they are!"

"Hurt?" Ginny continued.

"A little," Hermione sniffed. "They'd've been more hurt if Susan hadn't warned us."

Ginny looked at me sharply. "What d'you mean?"

"I told them not to believe the worst," I said simply.

"Hermione? How did that help?"

Hermione let out a huge breath, and visibly pulled herself together. "We Apparated right there. It wasn't at all hard to find. It was quite a nice building, actually. Pleasant neighborhood. But on the third floor, on the right side where there should've been a door to the flat, there were just large notices that it was under inspection by the Ministry of Magic." She scoffed. "Ministry my arse. I bet no one's set foot in that place in forty years. If the Ministry would just keep a watch list of --"

"Hermione!" Ginny said. "Really, now is not the time."

She closed her eyes. "Right then. Well, we just barged in, naturally. There was a silver line about a foot from the entranceway, so you had to step over it to go any farther. Then the rest of the flat was obscured by this silver mist.

"So Harry said, 'Right, well, Hermione, you're holding the vine. Stand behind the line; Ron and I will tie the vine on our wrists.' And I didn't want to be the one left behind again, but what choice did I have? Harry just looked like his mind was made up, and Ron was giving me a look like -- well." She blushed and looked away from Ginny's face. "Anyway.

"They each tied the vine around their left wrist, and then they went barging into the flat. And I couldn't see them at all. I thought everything was all right, but after a couple minutes, I heard . . . scuffling." Ginny put her hands to her mouth; Hermione continued. "I called to them, but they didn't answer.

"After fifteen seconds of that, I heard Ron shout . . . ." Hermione closed her eyes and breathed deeply. "I heard him shout, 'You killed Hermione!'"

Ginny gasped, and her eyes filled with tears. "No . . . ."

"Yes. And I screamed, I yelled, 'I'm here! I'm fine!' But they didn't answer me. Then I heard Harry yelling, 'No, you betrayed us all to Voldemort!'"

It was my turn to gasp. I had known it was coming, but this time it didn't lessen the impact.

Hermione kept talking, though she was crying freely now. "I saw little flashes of light -- I knew they were shooting hexes at each other. So I took the vine and yanked hard, as hard as I could, and then I heard them both hit the floor. Then Harry yelled, 'Ron, WAIT! "Don't believe the worst," remember? This is all Voldemort's little game!'

"Then I heard quick footsteps, and Harry called, 'I got it! I got the cup!' But then -- but then he said, 'Hermione! Quick, we have to keep it from Ron!'

"And then Ron screamed, 'You bloody bastard, are you TAUNTING me? You KILLED Hermione!'"

"Hermione," Ginny said, but Hermione waved her off.

"Let me finish. I was afraid they'd kill each other, so I pulled the vine really hard again, and as soon as I heard them hit the floor, I Stunned them. I Stunned them both, and I cast Tractus on the vine so it would pull itself back to the doorway.

"When I saw them . . . they were both in a bad way. Ron's face was all bloody, and Harry's ankle looked broken. Their robes were all torn up. They'd been hexing each other; Ron's whole body was covered in nasty-looking boils, and his left leg had been turned to jelly. Harry's mouth was full of slugs, and his left hand had been Vanished." Ginny shrieked, but Hermione smiled at her. "I know it sounds scary, but it's not permanent, Gin. That's the one good thing -- neither of them is very good at Dark magic, so their jinxes are only moderately harmful.

"Anyway. Harry was still holding the cup tight in his hand, so I took it from him. I bound them up with ropes and floated them out the building with Mobilicorpus. The thing was, we'd Apparated there; I had no way of getting them back. I didn't trust myself to do Side-Along Apparition with both of them, especially having never practiced it before. So I took them out to the street, and I . . . I Transfigured them both into cats."

"Hermione!" cried Ginny. "That's very advanced, and you could've done them both a good deal of damage!"

"Don't you think I know that?" Hermione shouted. "What was I supposed to do? I had no idea if that mist had lasting effects; I couldn't very well wake them up. And what wizard in his right mind would've let me shove them through his Floo port?" She breathed heavily. "I didn't have a choice. I Transfigured them, and I Conjured up a carrier, and I put the two of them into it. Then I hailed the Knight Bus."

"Clever," I said approvingly.

"Thank you. I told the driver to take me to Hogsmeade, and I walked up to the castle. I took the carrier to the Hospital Wing, told Madam Pomfrey what I'd done, and ran back here."

"You don't think you'll get in trouble, do you?" I asked.

"I hope not," she said. "I'll explain it to Professor McGonagall; maybe she can help me."

"Where's the cup, then?" Ginny asked.

Hermione reached into a pocket of her robes and drew it out. The gold of the cup shone with an unnatural sheen. I took it from her and admired the fine engraving.

"However will we destroy it?" whispered Hermione. "Harry had the knife last time; we don't have anything like that now."

I frowned. "We need to fill it with a liquid that is purely good."

Hermione got a faraway look in her eyes. "Well . . . ."

Ginny looked at her. "Yes?"

"There's only one thing I can think of, but it's pretty much impossible," she said.

"I want that thing destroyed, Hermione," Ginny hissed, surprising both of us. "My brother and my -- and Harry almost killed each other over it. Susan, get dressed. We're going to destroy it tonight. Hermione, what's the plan?"

She looked shocked, but swiftly recovered. "Well, the only thing I can think of would be something from a unicorn."

Ginny started. "What, you mean, like, blood? Killing a unicorn --"

"But why would we have to kill it?" Hermione asked, almost pleadingly. "Just a little cut would do it."

"We'll ask for their help," I said authoritatively as I put on a school robe over my pajamas. "They'll give it."

"You think it'll work, Susan?" Hermione said desperately.

I shrugged. "I think it's the best plan we've got, and I think it's best for the three of us to do it. Unicorns won't let men get near them." I looked at both of them shrewdly. "You're both virgins," I said. It wasn't a question.

They both flushed, but nodded. "Well, so'm I. Let's get this over with."

It was nearly midnight by the time we went out to the Forbidden Forest. We all had Shield Charms up and wands at the ready. The moon was nowhere near full, so we at least didn't have to worry about werewolves.

Before long, we started to see flashes of gold, silver, and white at the edges of our vision. "Unicorn territory," Hermione said in a carrying whisper.

"Shh," I said, and stopped. "Unicorns!" I cried. "We beg your assistance. Please, for the love of all that is good, come to our aid."

Nothing stirred in the forest, not even a leaf in the breeze. I dropped to my knees, and I heard the two other girls follow suit behind me. "We lay down our weapons," I called, and placed my wand on the ground before me. "We are defenseless. We require your help to vanquish the evil that has haunted this wood in the past."

There was a long silence, and I let my eyes dart about, trying to see if I was having any effect. After a couple minutes, I called out one last time: "You smell fear and death on us. It is true; we are human, and we all carry the seed of evil in our hearts. But we three maidens are following the good in our natures. We beseech you for the help only you can give."

My heart beat once, twice, three times. Still there was only silence.

Then, without warning, a huge male unicorn stepped out from behind a nearby tree and stalked over to where I knelt. He was bigger than the biggest stallion I'd ever beheld, and pure, pure white, from his single spiralled horn to the four hooves that trod the ground so close to me.

I looked up into his eyes and was ashamed of my own nature, of all the times I'd shouted at my mother, of the times I'd lied to my professors, of the times I'd been jealous of Polly Wellek. My eyes filled with tears. This creature knew every evil deed I'd ever committed.

I held the gaze, though, and after some indefinable period of time, the good I'd done rose to the front of my mind. I saw myself cradling my mother as she wept, working diligently on an Arithmancy problem set, caressing Neville's cheek. There was good in me, and it was strong.

As soon as that thought crossed my mind, the unicorn bent its head and touched its horn to my forehead, ever so gently, so that the point didn't break the skin on my face. I knew I had his permission to ask of him what I must.

Then it trotted off past me to test Ginny and Hermione. Ginny held her chin up and stared straight at the unicorn without fear, almost challenging him. He regarded her for a long moment, then touched his horn to her forehead.

Hermione was still crying, and it seemed to me that the unicorn's demeanor was gentler as he tested her. When he touched his horn to her, she wiped the tears from her face and gave him a watery smile.

He came back over to me, and I rose to meet him, taking my wand from the ground as I did so. I picked up the cup. "I need this to be destroyed, and I believe your blood can do it." I put the cup down on the ground again and laid a hand on his great neck. "But I don't believe I can harm you without incurring a horrible curse."

He pawed the ground a few times, and another unicorn sprang out from behind the trees. This one was female and a little younger, as there was still some silver in the coat. I thought it was his mate, but I could have been wrong.

They seemed to communicate in silence. After a few moments, the female lowered her head to the male's right flank and tossed her head. Then she stepped back, and the three of us rushed over.

"Goodness!" Hermione cried, and she sounded profoundly upset. The cut was long, but not too deep. He was oozing silver blood.

"Ginny, quickly, the cup," I said, and she grabbed it from its spot on the ground.

"Wait," said Hermione. "I'm not sure we should touch the cup to the unicorn. It just seems . . . wrong."

We paused a moment. It seemed wrong to me, too.

"Let me," Hermione said, and hissed, "Tergeo." The blood stopped dripping down the unicorn's flank and flew over to her wand. At the last moment before it was absorbed by her wand, she made a slashing motion toward the cup, and it splashed into the cup in Ginny's hand.

The effect was immediate. The cup began hissing and folding in on itself. Ginny dropped it hurriedly, and it shriveled up to a blackened husk atop the fall leaves.

"Hermione, can you do anything to heal the poor beast?" I asked.

She wrung her hands for a moment. "Healing magic is all Potions and things. But --" She waved her wand and Conjured up a poultice. "This should help, at least a bit."

I took it from her and held it against the cut. "Are you all right?" I asked him quietly.

He fixed me with a look that somehow both reminded me that he had volunteered for the injury, and also thanked me for my concern.

I held the poultice to his flank until he tossed his head and bucked sideways away from me. "We thank you most earnestly for your assistance," I said, looking into his eyes.

"Really we do!" Hermione cried, and I smiled.

The unicorn regarded us all another moment, then looked down at the black skeleton of the cup. With utter disdain, he stood over the object and urinated. I laughed at the unexpectedness of it, then clasped my hands in appreciation as the husk melted away to black ashes, which blew away with the next breeze.

"Thank you," I said. "Thank you so much."

He lowered his head to my forehead one last time, this time causing a tiny scratch on my forehead, then galloped away into the trees.