"Are you certain this is the right way?" Collin asked, as the the DA rescuers crowded into the phone booth.

"It's how I went into the Ministry building over the summer. It should work!" Harry activated the entrance to the Ministry of Magic, following the prompts from the telephone.

The teens staggered as the call box spin around and dropped. They found themselves dumped unceremoniously into the Ministry Atrium. As they regained their feet, there was a warble from Harry's Two Way Mirror.

"Yes?"

"Harry! I flooed Dumbledore, and we're going to go check out the Ministry of Magic. You stay where you are."

"I'm already at the Ministry. I'll see you when you get here."

"Wait! Don't do anything rash!" Sirius started when Harry tied the cloth tightly around the mirror. 'I can't take this with me - what if it squawks when I am trying to sneak past some Death Eaters?' With the cloth back on tightly, Harry looked around for a good place to leave the mirror, finally deciding on a shelf next to where the security guard was supposed to be.

"Um, guys, wands out. and stay under cover. There's supposed to be a security guard here."

The Ravenclaws nodded in understanding. "You think he might have joined You Know Who?" asked Ron.

"Maybe, maybe not. But it definitely means the DE's have come through here." Terry replied as he looked at the directory and map printed on the wall. "You said Hermione is in the Department of Mysteries? That's one level down."

"Let's go. Stay in pairs. Ron, you're covering me. Next Luna and Collin, then Nev and Terry are rear guard." They raced for the stairs. 'I wish I had thought to bring some potions or something! I ran out like an idiot with just the clothes on my back!'

As they made their way down, all was quiet. The silence was unnerving. Harry and Ron kept glancing left and right, and they advanced much more slowly than Harry wished. But he had watched enough muggle war movies over the the Dursley's shoulders to know that you only advanced when you had somebody ready to cover you. All of the teens were anxious enough to go along with Harry's crawlingly slow advance, though only Ron bothered to crouch down the way Harry did.

As they were crossing what must have been the waiting room at the bottom of the stairs (it had several plush couches, small tables laden with magazines, and a full tea service), Neville called out "Stupify!"

The red light flashed towards a side door, narrowly missing a masked Death Eater who ducked behind a statue before returning fire.

"Run!" Collin bolted for cover, heading for the door across the room.

"Stupify!" Harry cast from behind a desk, "get under cover!"

But it was too late - the other teens had panicked and were racing for the doors as the Death Eater sent curses after them. 'Shit!' Harry swore under his breath as he started a spell chain, "Protego lumos, reducto" As the half blind Death Eater staggered out of the way of the shrapnel spraying from the reducto'ed wall, Harry edged so that he was between him and the door the others had fled through. 'I have got to follow them. If we get separated, we're history' Harry was starting to panic. This wasn't working the way I should have. His followers weren't following, and they would all end up dead if another Death Eater showed up!

The Death Eater cast a half-hearted curse at Harry as he got his bearings.

"Protego, accio, lumos" Harry cast in quick succession as suppressive fire to give him time to run after his classmates. Behind him the air was filled with papers that he had accio'd up off of the desks, and was illuminated by strobes of light.

The Death eater wasn't prepared for that sort of assault, and batted away at the papers as he tried to see what was going on. Harry was able to get to the exit before he could regain his composure.

Harry found himself in an empty circular room, with a dozen doors all around the periphery. As he slammed the door shut behind him and Colloportus'ed it, the entire room spun around. "What the.."

"I think the rooms just switched places" replied Neville as he fixed his shoe, which had been coated in a fast setting glue - possibly something that had been knocked off of a desk. He was the only one in the room. "Everybody else ran ahead. I'm not certain which door they went through."

The doorknob behind them rattled.

"Shit, this way! We need cover!" Harry dragged Neville through a door on his left. They found themselves in a room filled with clocks of all kinds. Grandfather clocks, wall clocks, hour glasses and more. Harry ducked behind a desk, his wand aimed over the top at the door. Neville took up a position next to him. 'How are we going to find Hermione this way?' Harry glanced at Neville, "Nev, you cover the door, I'm going to see if there are any other exits." He whispered.

Neville nodded, not taking his eyes off the door that they had just come through. His eyes started to itch, because he was too scared to even blink.

Harry quietly moved along the wall, glancing into the first open door way. "It's an office' . He scanned the area quickly - it was a small room, with just enough space for a desk and a bookshelf. He ducked back out and went to the next door. It was closed.

"Colloportus" He whispered, locking it, 'I'll check it later.' He was checking the next office - a slightly messier version of the other- when two things happened at once.

First was that Harry saw a flash of motion in the office - somebody was behind the desk!

At the same time, the door that Neville was watching flung itself open with a bang. Harry whirled around and ducked for cover just as somebody jumped up from behind the desk.

Harry threw himself bodily out of the office as Neville cast a banisher out through the empty doorway.

As Harry picked himself up onto his knees, Hermione latched onto him. "Thank god it's you!" she was shivering with shock.

Spells started to fly into the room, shattering desks and throwing papers into the air.

"Neville! This way!" Harry cast a reducto out the door as he stepped into another room, one filled with shelves and dragged Hermione with him.

"Hermione, pull yourself together! I need help!" He was casting spells through the doorway, so that Neville could run and join them.

Hermione nodded, trying to gather herself. She tentatively cast a stunner through the doorway. That first spell was very dim, barely visible. Hermione took a deep breath and spell chained a series of stunners. Each successive spell was brighter and stronger than the one before, as Hermione regained her composure.

As Neville burst through the doorway, they saw several more Death Eaters enter the Time Room, including a crazed looking woman who must have been Belatrix Lestrange.

Accompanied by Voldemort himself.

"Oh, shit! Run" Harry and Neville took off into the room with the shelves.

"Wait!" Hermione whispered, but followed Harry. The two of them found a spot to hide behind some boxes where the shelves were being rearranged.

"Damn!" Hermione swore for the first time that Harry had ever heard. "There is no other exit from this room" she whispered. "This is the Hall of Prophecies!"

There was a faint crash from some other room, followed by screams, and another crash. Hermione took Harry's hand and squeezed hard. She was still shivering slightly.

Harry gave her a quick hug and then peered over the top of the crate that they were hiding behind. He couldn't tell where Neville had gotten to. Looking down the isle, he could see some motion through the cracks between the shelves. The room was dark, so the only reason he could see that was because the intruders were carrying a light with them. Harry tapped Hermione's shoulder and pointed. She squinted for a moment and then nodded.

They crouched and watched. They could hear some conversation, but it was too soft for them to make it out. When nothing else happened, Harry's eyebrows scrunched up, and he looked around nervously.

He tugged at Hermione's sleeve and motioned for her to follow him."It's too quiet. It's a trap" he mouthed into her ear.

Still crouching low, he turned down one of the aisles and slowly made his way along, feeling his way in the dark. The two teens were half way down when there was a quiet noise from just in front of them. Harry barely made out a blob of greater darkness in the gloom ahead as he lunged forward, knocking a wand aside with his left hand as he slammed the elbow of his wand arm into somebody's chest. At the same time, Hermione silently cast Muffliato.

'I hope this isn't Neville.' Harry palmed them in the face with with his left hand. He needed to incapacitate this person fast and quiet, or the other Death Eaters would come running. That meant no spells.

As his sneaking opponent staggered back, Harry continued the pressure, levering up their wand hand with his own wand arm as he shoved their head towards the floor. The person hit the ground with a quiet "oof". 'He's too big to be Neville'. Harry kneed his opponent in the face. As the Death Eater toppled, Harry slammed the heel of his hand into the man's brow ridge, and then harder, into his temple, and he slumped down.

""Incarcerous" whispered Hermione. The spell went off without any revealing flash off light.

Harry nodded and mouthed into Hermione's ear "thanks for the Muffliato – that was quick thinking!" Hermione swelled at the praise before pulling Harry toward the door.

The two teens were almost to the exit when they heard a scuffle from the next aisle over, followed by a cackling laugh. Harry and Hermione ducked down to look through a crack between the shelves.

"Ah, I see you have flushed out one of the rats." Voldemort preened as a large man dragged Neville over to him. "Good work, McNair. As soon as Goyle find the others we can get on with opening the prophecy".

"I can get it for you now." said one of the Death eaters in a whiny voice.

"No, fool. We stay here, so that the little Hogwarts rats don't realize that a snake is hunting them."

Harry and Hermione glanced at each other. It was only a matter of a few minutes before their would-be assailant (Goyle Senior?) was missed. And when that happened… Harry looked at Neville, half stunned in McNair's grip. "Rennervate Neville" Harry mouthed into Hermione's ear.

Hermione glanced at Harry as she realized that he most likely meant to do something foolish and dangerous. Her lips thinned as she nodded her acknowledgment.

"Accio shelves!" Harry yelled, and gave a yank with his wand. At the same time, Hermione cast "Rennervate!" on Neville. The other boy staggered up and scrambled away as McNair tried to avoid the falling shelves. As the shelves toppled, the prophecy spheres shattered, producing mist figures speaking unintelligibly. Under cover of all this confusion, Neville came racing out. As he did, Harry and Hermione turned to run after him. The were almost to the door when Harry felt something trip him. He hit the floor and rolled off to one side. Unfortunately, his instincts played him false this time and he slammed into a desk, hard enough to jar his wand from his hand. As he scrambled to retrieve his weapon, a Death Eater raced towards him.

"Stupify!"

The Death Eater dropped as Hermione rose from her crouch. Only to duck back down as a green killing curse narrowly missed her.

"Stupify!" Neville cast at the doorway as Harry staggered up. And with Hermione guiding him by the shoulder of his robe, managed to make it to the circular room without getting hit by any other spells.

"Which way?" He gasped.

Hermione looked around, "I don't know which door goes where."

There was a crashing sound, followed by a yell and the sound of spell fire. "That came from over here! Cover me." Harry opened the door before Hermione could protest. He glanced into the room quickly - a masked Death Eater was trying to circle around a tank filled what looked like floating brains with tentacles to get at Luna and Collin. Both parties were able to see each other faintly through the murky liquid. Luna was determinedly keeping him at bay. She had an unusually focused, angry expression as she quickly pelted spell after spell at her attacker. Collin was holding his arm, and not doing much casting.

"Harry!" Hissed Hermione - the door they had just come from was starting to open. Hermione cast another sticking spell on it, but it would only buy them seconds. Neville crouched down behind a plinth with a .. something.. on it, ready to spell anybody that came through

"Reducto!" Harry burst into the brain room. The Death Eater caught a glimpse of Harry out of the corner of his eye and started to dodge, but the spell wasn't aimed at him.

Harry's reducto sent liquid, brains and shards of glass flying at the Death Eater. One of the brains latched onto his arm, causing him to scream in pain.

Harry glanced around the room. "This way" he led the way to the only other door. Hermione spell-locked the door behind them as Neville assisted Luna with Collin, who appeared disoriented.

"Collin got hit on the head by a flying brain," explained Luna as they bolted into a large, auditorium like room. There was an odd veiled archway standing on a low platform in the middle.

"Crap!" Harry exclaimed, "no cover!" He threw something at the door they had just come from and ran for the door at the far side of the room. It was locked. "Put some benches between them and us! Luna, you're with me, casting protegos, Hermione, Neville you flank us and pick your targets while I will do suppressive fire".

Hermione nodded, "Don't touch the veil - I've read about it - it's supposed to literally be Death's Door."

Harry's eyes widened, and he spared the fluttering veil hanging from the arch a moments glance. The teens shoved Collin under a bench before taking their positions – Luna by Harry in the middle of the room, and the other two off to either side, part way to the walls. Just as they did, the door burst open and a pack of Death Eaters rushed in.

"Stupify, lumos, reducto" "Protego," "Stupify", "Stupify" came the four almost simultaneous yells. Harry's stream of spells came so fast that it looked like there were two or three people casting from the in front of the Veil. The concentrated spell fire hit the Death Eaters as they were clustered at the doorway. In the first second, at least two Death Eaters dropped, stupified or knocked unconscious. From their positions, Hermione and Neville were able to sneak spells around the shield spells that the Death Eaters Erected between them and Harry.

But then the enemy casters forced their way into the room under protegos and started to spread out.

"Split up! Don't let them circle us!" Harry darted leftwards, casting as he went.

The Death Eaters were surprised by the fierce resistance from the teens. In addition to the energy and speed of youth, the teens had all the training from the DA, in both dueling and group fighting. And this time, they didn't panic.

But the Death Eaters had greater experience and numbers on their side. So slowly, slowly, they pressed the Hogwarts students back towards the archway.

"AHH!" Luna staggered, holding a hand to her side, where a deep gash had just opened up. Her knees slowly buckled as she gasped in pain.

Blood spread down her side.

"Hermione, cover her! Neville, with me!" Harry yelled. He gathered himself to make an all out attack on the Death Eaters, 'At least I'll take some of them with me. No more running away, like last time.'

"LUMOS. Reducto! Reducto" He moved as he cast, weaving leftwards, to circle the Death Eaters. Neville rose up part way, casting at any Death Eater that slipped past Harry's wand. The ferocious attack forced the enemy to pause and momentary stumble to a halt.

Just as the as the Death Eaters gathered themselves to finish off the two impudent teens, a door off to one side smashed open, and Sirius, Lupin and a pink haired witch that Harry didn't recognize burst in, catching the Death Eaters by surprise.

As the focus of the melee moved away from him, Harry saw his opportunity "Accio tack"

A small something flew across the room and smacked in to the shoulder of a Death Eater between Harry and the door to the Brain room. Moments later, a large goose was flapping about, pummeling those Death Eaters that had been standing too close with its wings.

"honk!"

"Reducto!"

"Stupify"

"HONK!"

The melee quickly degenerated into chaos. Neville had joined up with Lupin and they were working as a team, driving back the now panicking Death Eaters. Harry ran over to Hermione, "Is she ok?" he knelt next to his girlfriend as she cast a healing charm to stop Luna's bleeding. "Are you ok?" added. There was the sound of more fighting coming from elsewhere in the Department of Mysteries as well, but all he could thing about was that Luna had gotten hurt. That brought home the reality that they could die here. He had known it intellectually, but he hadn't understood what that meant, he hadn't FELT it. Until just now. One wrong wand movement, and somebody he cared about could cease to exist.

"Yeah. I stopped Luna's bleeding as best I can. I think the spell only cut through muscle, but a Mediwitch should still be the one to seal it up, just in case.." She gave Harry a quick smile, "Thank you for rescuing me" The smile faltered and faded.

Harry went back to scanning the room for threats. "What's wrong? You did great. I bet you would have gotten away on your own even if we hadn't come." Harry stupified a Death eater that stumbled towards them as he tried to avoid a reducto from the pink haired witch in the tight t-shirt 'Bad Harry, don't get distracted'.

Hermione shook her head as she helped Luna get to the limited cover of the archway's platform "No, it was the ogre in the bathroom all over again. Just like first year, all I could do was hide. I was so scared." There was another crash from the Brain room.

"Hey, you did great after I showed up."

Harry kept looking for any available targets as he talked, but the Death Eaters were now on the ropes. Collin had even managed to cast an expelliarmus up at a Death Eater as he stepped over the bench that he was laying under, catching him in the crotch.

Hermione frowned, "Because I was more embarrassed of being a coward than I was scared."

Harry cast a chain of stupifies, but missed his target, instead almost clipping Remus. He ducked back down to recover, "Welcome to my world" He gave Hermione a quick reassuring smile, "That's my life everyday I.. Oh shit!"

Sirius had been dueling with Belatrix while Remus and the hot pink witch held the remaining two Death Eaters at bay when one of Belatrix's spells smashed through Sirius's protego and threw him at the Veil.

"Accio Sirius!"

The former fugitive was jerked abruptly, changing course so that only his foot caught the veil.

"Stupify reducto stupify!" Hermione cast at Belatrix, to keep the crazy woman from doing anything as Harry caught his godfather. The door to the Brain room burst open, and another Death Eater came running in, pursued by a pair of wizards.

The pink witch managed to take out her opponent and took a moment to see if anybody needed help.

As Harry caught Sirius, the Death Eater ran straight towards them, bounding over the benches and casting desperately as he ran for the door on the wall behind them.

Hermione stood up. "Reducto. Proteg.." she started when the Death Eater made an abrupt slashing motion with his wand, and a great gout of blood burst from Hermione's chest as he raced by.

"Hermione!" Harry let go of Sirius and reached for his girlfriend as she collapsed to the floor.

The pink haired witch dropped to her knees next to Hermione and began casting a healing spell as blood pooled around them. "She needs a blood replenisher!" She jammed a potion into Harry's hand.

Harry pulled the stopper with his teeth and forced the stinking goo down into Hermione's mouth as the witch kept casting, trying to close up the wound. Harry massaged Hermione's throat, getting the potion to go down bit by bit. He wasn't certain how long he was working, getting Hermione to swallow the potion was slow work, but it was some time later that he noticed that the witch had stopped casting.

Harry caste a questioning glance. The plain looking witch in the pink top shook her head. "I'm sorry. She's gone."

Harry looked up, horrified, "No.."

Another door slammed open. "We got Dolohov!" Ron and Terry swaggered in. Ron was bruised, his lip was split wide open and he was holding his arm, but he was also grinning ear to ear - until he saw Harry kneeling next to Hermione's body. "Oh, no. Not again." he ran over and dropped down next to Harry.

"Harry… Harry, if you need anything…"

"Stay here. With her" Harry got up and ran in the direction that the Death Eater, Hermione's murderer, had gone.

*Meta*Meta*

"Reducto!" Harry cast, but his spell was wild, scouring the wall of the corridor but missing his target. The thickset Death Eater dodged, casting a quick reducto over his shoulder. Harry had caught up to Hermione's murderer as he raced for the Atrium and freedom.

When he saw only one teenager following him, he turned around "Avada Kedavra". Harry dropped and rolled under the killing curse. As he came up to his knee he yelled "reducto!".

Again, Harry's anger mangled the spell, and the Death eater was hit by a wash of light that that staggered him, but did no real harm.

"Is that the best you can do, boy?" he growled. his face was gaunt, and his flesh hung loosely on his large frame. "You must be that half breed boy that the Dark Lord keeps talking about."

Harry gathered himself "lumos reducto accio" He didn't bother with a Protego, as his opponent had already shown a willingness to use the Killing Curse. Instead he relied on buffeting the Death Eater and yanking on his wand to foul his aim as he advanced.

The large man grimaced as he tried to get his wand to go where he wanted it. He glanced up at the teen advancing slowly. Harry ducked under the Killing Curse that was sent at him.

The Death Eater had just pulled a knife out from his belt with his left hand when he heard the sound of running feet coming from behind Harry.

Without a word, he turned and ran, almost tripping over a large goose that had been hiding further up the corridor.

Harry swore and ran after him, batting the goose out of his way.

All three of them burst into the Atrium, one after the other. The Death Eater kept running, tearing off towards the floo system fireplaces. Harry came to an an abrupt halt as he watched Voldemort and Dumbledore dueling it out, transfiguring statues, desks and even the floor, as well as casting curses at each other.

"Reducto" Harry yelled, but Voldemort easily blocked his spell. At the same time, the goose flapped by Harry's shoulder. With a flick of Voldemort's wand, the goose exploded into a ball of feathers and gore.

Harry dropped behind a decorative plinth, 'That could have been me.' Harry's rationality started to return, 'I am way out of my league here.' He watched the dual. He wanted to help, but that was VOLDEMORT. Every time he tried to think of something to do, his mind froze at the inescapable fact that the wizard in front of him was Voldemort. a psychotic mass murderer who had more power, more skill, more everything than Harry ever would - the enormity of what he, Harry, was doing came crashing down on him, and he could not force his body to move.

*Meta*Meta*

Harry wasn't certain when the dual between Voldemort and Dumbledore finished, but the next thing he knew, Remus was offering him a piece of chocolate. "Here. This will help." As Harry ate the candy, the former professor helped Harry up, "We need to get you and the other students out of here - Aurors are going to be swarming in any minute, and you don't want to be caught up in that circus.. Dumbledore will take care of any questions"

As Remus guided Harry towards the floo, he called out, "Sirius - take Harry to the Burrow."

Harry glanced up. He was pleased to see that his godfather was ok. Mostly. He was limping and supporting himself on a makeshift cane, as he avoided putting too much weight on the foot that had snagged on the Veil. "Let's go, kiddo. Neither one of us wants to deal with the Ministry parasites." He threw a pinch of floo powder in and the the fire flared green .

As they staggered out of the fireplace into the Weasley's home, Molly Weasleys guided Harry to a chair in the dining room, next to Ron. "Here, dear. I have some chicken soup that I reheated. Eat something, so you don't go into shock. Ron told me what happened."

Harry sat down, a cup of soup in his hands as he stared at the table. Soon, all the Hogwarts students were at the Burrow, and Madame Pomfrey had arrived from Hogwarts with a satchel of supplies. She had already treated Collin and Luna when she made it over over to Harry. Somebody had draped a blanket over his shoulders, but otherwise he had not changed position the whole time.

"Do you want to take a rest?" she asked.

"No" Harry replied in a monotone, "I want to know what happens next."

"It might be some time before we know anything." explained Sirius. He was sitting at Harry's side. Harry blinked. He thought Ron had been there.

"I'll wait."

Sirius nodded and made a shooing motion to Madame Pomfrey.

*Meta*Meta*

It was after midnight when a large black man in Aurors robes flooed over. Molly ran over "What's happening?"

Kingsley Shacklebolt took the proffered cup of tea and sat down with a sigh, "It's been a long night. A team of Aurors arrived shortly after you lot left. After they had verified that the building was secure, Ministry officials began to arrive. Mostly department heads: most junior personal will be told to stay home tomorrow.. Today, I mean. That was about an hour ago. Since then, Dumbledore has been meeting with The Minister of Magic."

He took a sip of his tea. "The tally is ten death eaters captured. Even Fudge can't deny the evidence of his eyes. He still doesn't want to admit that Voldemort has returned, but he's scared. He saw how easily the Death Eaters penetrated the Ministry. If that had happened during the work day, it would have been a massacre. He know it, and his constituents will know it when the morning Prophet comes out. Politically speaking, at this point blaming it on Voldemort is the lesser of two evils." Kingsley stretched and stood back up, "I have to go. There's going to be a lot to do today: Fudge is going to declare that the Ministry is at war."

As he stood up, he turned to Harry, "My condolences, Harry. I heard what happened." Harry nodded to the auror as he returned to the floo.

*Meta*Meta*

"Time to go, Harry"

Harry started awake - he hadn't realized he'd dozed off. Remus was standing by his side. "Where's everybody else?" Harry looked around blearily, but he was the only one at the Weasley's kitchen table.

"All the other students have gone back to Hogwarts. Even Luna - Poppy mobilocorpused her over. Collin's concussion was easier to deal with, and he should be able to go back to class day tomorrow." Remus helped Harry up.

"I spoke to the Grangers. They want to know if you want to say a few words at Hermione's funeral. It's going to be the day after tomorrow."

"I.. I.. no." Harry was never comfortable in the public eye, and now he couldn't deal with it.

"Ok, but you should get some rest anyway.

*Meta*Meta*

"So Voldemort is actually back."

"The ministry just announced that they will do everything in their power to bring his terrorists to justice."

Harry stood quietly and listened. His suit didn't fit right, though many of the other students looked even less comfortable. Neville had somehow dragooned the whole of the DA to attend Hermione's funeral.

"Harry - how are you doing?" Harry looked up to see Fleur looking at him in concern. She was there as part of the French contingent - she had brought along a selection of her coterie as well, to pay their last respects.

"I'm doing better" Harry smiled.

"Good. I am glad that you were able to be close with Hermione. She never really opened up to anybody before. It is sad, but I am happy that she had somebody at least for a little while." Fleur's english vocabulary was apparently not up to expressing the sentiment she wished to impart, as she looked slightly annoyed with herself.

As she stepped aside, Ron came up, "You need anything, talk to me. I've been where you are." He shrugged, embarrassed at opening up and walked off.

"Hey, Harry." Now it was Collin. It seemed like the entire DA was coming by to talk say a couple of words, "I want to say that I think the DA is a great idea, and I want to keep coming and learning, but I can't go on this sort of adventure again. I'm not a hero, I'm just trying to learn how to defend myself and my family."

"Yeah, same here" Harry nodded, "Thank you for your help, though." Collin nodded and moved off.

"Hello. Harry, right?" A middle-aged man came up. "I'm Hermione father. I am glad you were able to come. What you did, what you tried to do.. It is really overwhelming. And seeing all of Hermione's friends." He looked around the small chapel that was filled to overflowing, " I never expected this many to come: she was always such a shy girl. Thank you."

Harry wasn't certain what to say. He had failed, yet here he was being thanked. Harry mumbled a few words and moved off. As he did, he spotted Neville. "Thanks for getting the DA all to come."

Neville nodded, "Yeah. I felt it was the right thing to do. And also, it will remind them what we are fighting for."

"Hmm. How come all of them seem obligated to come up to me? Most of them have spent the past year ignoring me outside of DA."

"I told them to," replied Neville. "They weren't going to come if I told them that it was to teach them why we fight or something like that. Instead I told them that you needed their support, and that it was their due for all the help you gave them." Neville decided not to mention that both reasons were equally true.

"Oh, ok."

The ceremony itself was both longer than Harry expected, but also too short. By lunchtime, he was back at Hogwarts. Classes had been canceled for the day, so he was at a loss as to what to do with himself. As he was pacing the corridors, he spotted a familiar lumbering form.

"Goyle" Harry confronted the DA member.

"Yeah?"

Harry stood there, staring at the larger boy. Greg stared back. "You're father attacked us at the Ministry." Harry said. He wasn't certain where he meant to go with that statement. What he said was no secret - Goyle Sr was one of the Death Eaters that had been arrested.

Goyle nodded slowly. "I know. I'm sorry for that. I'm not real proud of my Da. The people he hangs out with - they are not good people. I don't know what I'm going to do over the summer. Ma is real old fashioned - she won't hear a word against Da." He spoke slowly, sounding genuinely confused. "I was thinking of asking Hannah if I could stay with her, but I don't know if that would be right with her."

Harry shrugged, "I'd offer to have you stay over, but I'm living with the Weasleys. Maybe you could ask Ron? His folks are really nice, and they like having lots of people over. Or ask Nev, but just be careful of his Grandmother - she makes zombies look lively." Harry rubbed his chin as he considered if there were any other options he could offer. Solving other peoples problems let him forget about his own.

"Yeah, ok." Goyle smiled, looking relieved, "Thanks for the ideas."

*Meta*Meta*

"How are you doing, Harry?" Sirius asked. He and Harry were sitting in a muggle fish and chips place - a hole in the wall joint whose only claim to fame was that the food was greasy and the plates were clean. It was on the outskirts of Berwick-upon-Tweed, a small fishing town.

"I want to know who it was," Harry asked intently.

"Ah.." Sirius took a bite of his fish, to give himself time to think. "I don't think I should tell you. Knowing isn't going to make you any happier. And take it from me, revenge isn't the answer either."

"What, you don't think I can take the bastard?" Harry glared at his godfather.

"I don't know. Maybe you can, maybe you can't. He's a killer, but I saw you fight in the DoM. You're good. really good." Sirius sighed, "But that's not what it's about. After I got out of Azkaban, the only thing on my mind was getting Pettigrew. I spent almost a year stalking him, until I finally managed to get that traitor. And you know what? I didn't feel any better. It took me another 6 months to get my head on straight."

"Yeah, and if somebody had told you then what you are telling me now, would you have listened?"

Sirius took a sip of his soda, "No, probably not."

"So, tell me."

"No. Eat your damn lunch." Harry glared at Sirius. The older wizard ran a hand through his hair, "Maybe you'll deal with it better than I did. Maybe you'll get over it."

"And maybe I won't." Harry ripped a chunk of his breaded fish off.

"And maybe you won't. After lunch, let's go watch the seagulls. We can jinx them to crap on the cars."

"Dude. Your sense of fun really juvenile." But despite himself, Harry was smiling.

"And Harry. If you do, accidentally, run into that Death Eater. Call me. I'll help."

*Meta*Meta*

Harry sat, trying to blank his mind. He was practicing occlumency with Professor Lupin. Usually, he could zone out pretty easily, and once his mind was blank, it was pretty easy to use that as a safe zone - whenever he felt Lupin poking at his mind, he would slip back into that blank state, shaking off the mind probe. But today, he was just really upset. He had had a dream about Hermione last night, and now alternated between guilt and anger.

"I can't do it, Professor, not today. All I can think about is that bastard who killed Hermione. I want to kick his ass. And I know I shouldn't, that I should let the Aurors deal with it, but I want to, I want.. Arg!" Harry fingers spasmed like he was clawing at something.

"Harry, use the rage. Inner calm isn't the only touchstone for the occlumency. That is the common eastern way, but you can also use anger to drive it. Feel your anger, whenever I enter your mind, go back to the anger and let it suffuse you. It will repel any mental invasions just as well."

That worked better.

*Meta*Meta*

The rest of the school year passed slowly. While before people had been avoiding Harry because of the Daily Prophet's slander, now they were avoiding him because they were at a loss as to what to say. And Harry didn't make it easy on those that did try to reach out, spending most of his time studying for the OWLs or practicing martial arts with Ron and Neville.

"Harry, we need you for the DA." Ron prompted, "Neville and I can keep the classes going, but we are losing the older students - they aren't excited about it anymore."

Harry sighed. "I think the older students are ditching because the OWLs (or NEWTs) are in a little less than a month. I think we should put the DA on hiatus until next year. I'll help run, I promise."

"Ok, I'll hold you to it."

*Meta*Meta*

Harry sat down in the great hall, along with all the other fifth year student. All except Hermione. It was time to take the Owls, and Harry felt her loss all the more keenly, as this had been the high point of her year. Harry took a look at the thick roll of parchment. 'Only Hermione would look forwards to a test'.

Harry had studied with Terry. After the Department of Mysteries, his classmate had done an about face, and was trying to spend more time with him. Either to make up for the rest of the year, or out of a sense of duty, to provide moral support. Harry didn't ask. Either way was fine.

And there was no way that he would have been able to cover all this material on his own.

Harry started work. His hand was soon stiff from all the writing. 'I don't know this! we never covered this in class!' the Herbology section was a complete disaster, and Harry took a couple of breaks, to stare at the ceiling, hoping for inspiration. But at least when it came time for the Defense Against the Dark Arts, the questions weren't so bad, and Potions was a breeze. 'I guess Snape really is a good teacher.' Or maybe not - Harry heard muttered swearing and what sounded like a quill being snapped coming from Ron, who was sitting at the table behind him.

Finally, the OWLs were done, and the school year with them. It had all ended not with a bang, but with a whimper.

'This can't happen again. No more going with the flow, and staying out of trouble. Trouble comes looking for me, and next year, I'll be ready.' Harry stood up and walked out of the exam room. 'It's going to be payback time.'

Harry collected his trunk and walked down to Hogsmeade station. As he walked resolutely onto the Hogwarts express, one thought filled his mind.

'And Voldemort is going to die.'

END

This is the end of the second story of my trilogy. The final part will be titled Harry Potter: Hero. I am having a little trouble with it, so I am going to take a little extra time - expect to see the first chapter in the beginning of January.