Still don't own anything recognizeable... just the stuff that isn't! ;)

I know 2 chapters in one day... hope you enjoy!

Chapter Twenty-four

Magical Kisses

The celebration party in the Gryffindor common room had gone on for the whole evening. The Creevey brothers, it seemed, had found out where the kitchens were and had shown up with food and pumpkin juice. The hidden passageways were still sealed up, so no one could get into Hogsmeade for some butterbeer, but no one seemed to notice. It wasn't quite as spectacular a win as some that Harry had been able to pull off in his quidditch career, but the party was as boisterous as any he could think of. It was a rare chance to truly relax and enjoy themselves and all of Gryffindor wholly embraced the opportunity.

It was late, or early in the morning, depending on how you wanted to look at it, when at last the five friends finally found themselves alone in the common room. Ginny sat next to Harry, who had his arm casually draped over her shoulder. Taylor sat on the other side of Ginny, and Ron had his arm around Hermione as they sat on the other sofa by the fire, which had died down to mere coals. It had been quiet for some time, the friends lost in their own thoughts.

"You know what I think Taylor?" Ginny asked, breaking the comfortable silence. "I think we need to find you a boyfriend."

Taylor's head whipped around so fast to look at Ginny that she got a crick in her neck. Harry leaned forward to look around his girlfriend to get a good look at Taylor, a funny look on his face. Ron's snort and the sound of Hermione's hand smacking Ron's arm was all that followed Ginny's proclamation for a full couple of breaths. Then…

"A boyfriend? What do I need one of those for?" Taylor asked finding her voice at last. Harry was nodding his head in agreement.

"Oh well, I just thought…" Ginny began again, but Taylor saw a mischievous light dancing in Ginny's eyes and she knew the red haired witch was up to something.

"I think that is a wonderful idea, Ginny!" Hermione chimed in, having already caught on that Ginny was up to something.

"But I…" Taylor started to say, I don't need one, but Ginny's next remark stopped that thought before it left her mouth.

"Oh well, then maybe we could find you a witch instead, you know if you prefer!"

"What!" Harry exclaimed, before he took to coughing and Ginny had to pound him on the back several times before he was able to breath properly again.

Ron's face was blank, his mouth opening and closing like a fish, but no sound was coming out.

"A witch, uhhm, I'll have to think about that," Taylor said, deciding to play along. She glanced over at Hermione and could see that her best friend was trying hard to conceal a smile.

Ron finally found his voice, "A witch! Bloody Hell! You've gotta be kidding!"

Harry looked from his sister, to his best friend, then to his girlfriend finally noticing the smiles that each witch was trying to hide. He swallowed audibly, relief washing over him that this was just one of the girls' jokes. He was a little surprised at the way he felt when Ginny had mentioned getting his sister a boyfriend. He now totally understood the way Ron felt towards Ginny! Then, when Ginny mentioned a…, breathe, just breathe Harry, he said to himself.

"Yeah, Ron, I'm kidding. Don't go getting your knickers in a knot. Merlin, you'd think you were born in the dark ages or something. It's totally acceptable for two witches to be together, or two wizards for that matter." Taylor said, shaking her head at Ron's incredulous expression.

"Oh, you know Ronnie-kins, he is still in the dark ages when it comes to women's lib. He still thinks women should be barefoot and pregnant!" Ginny's snappy reply had the desired effect on the boys, just as she knew it would. Ron started to sputter, his face going bright red, and Harry's face went white, then when he meet Ginny's gaze, the same shade of red as Ron's.

The three girls decided that now was the best time to retreat to their dorms. Their laughter could be heard all the way up the stairs until their dorm door shut, cutting off the sound, leaving the boys to recover on their own.

The following day was Sunday and the five late goers slept in late, then headed down to breakfast together, the girls still giggling each time they caught each other's eye.

The Great Hall was almost empty, so the five had little trouble getting seats together. They were almost through eating when Professor Shacklebolt came down from the teachers' table and stopped by them.

"Good morning, Professor," Hermione said in greeting, as the rest of the friends nodded.

"Good morning Miss Granger," Shacklebolt's deep voice was pleasant, but his eyes were sharp as he looked from Harry to Taylor. "Mr. Potter, Miss Porter, I want to see you in my office in one hour, please. I am in need of your assistance with the research paper I am doing for the Ministry."

"Yes sir," Taylor and Harry said together as they watched Shacklebolt continue on his way out of the Great hall.

Hermione leaned forward so only the five of them could hear, "What do you think this is all about? You don't think something has happened do you?"

"Don't know, but I guess Taylor and I will find out shortly," Harry said just as quietly as he met Taylor's glaze.

An hour later Taylor and Harry stood outside the office of their Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Harry was just about to knock on the door when it was opened by Professor Shacklebolt.

"Mr. Potter, Miss Porter, ah good, you are here. Please come in," Professor Shacklebolt said as he stepped back to allow them to enter his office, closing the door behind them. "Please, have a seat. I've asked you here for a couple of reasons," Shacklebolt continued as he took his seat behind the desk.

Harry glanced at Taylor, but she shrugged her shoulders slightly before sitting in one of the two chairs that the Professor had indicated.

Harry looked around. It was very similar to when Lupin had been here, with some gadgets like Moody might have had, and even a couple of things it seemed that were leftover from Snape. This was the first time that Harry had been in the office this year. All of the 'private lessons' that Taylor and he had that year were always in the Defense classroom.

Taylor was looking around too. If I were Spiderman, she thought, I'd say my spider sense was tingling. She noticed that the door to the storeroom was slightly ajar, but the sound of Shacklebolt's voice had her full attention once again on the professor.

"First of all I wanted to let you know that the school will be closing early for the upcoming Christmas holiday, (Why Professor?) because the Ministry is implementing some new census legislation and I quote 'to improve our data base so that funding and resources are used where they are most needed'."

"But Professor, that has to be Voldemort's doing. He is interfering at the Ministry!" yelled Harry coming to his feet.

"Harry, please, sit down. The Order knows that this is Voldemort, but there is nothing we can do. We cannot force our hand with the Ministry, and we don't know whom we can trust there anymore. Voldemort is working his puppets up in the Ministry. We just don't know how high he is able to pull the strings.

"Will the school reopen in January, Sir?" Taylor asked, speaking for the first time.

"As far as we know yes, but with the Ministry becoming just a pawn to Voldemort, we're afraid we aren't sure just who will be allowed to come back." Shacklebolt's solemn deep voice brought the point home.

"Muggle borns you mean," Taylor's voice was barely above a whisper, and even though she wasn't a muggle born, only Harry and Lupin knew the truth about her parentage.

Shacklebolt nodded his head.

Harry turned to Taylor just realizing the full impact of what had just been said. "Taylor, but your…"

"Harry! Look, Professor Shacklebolt just said that this is just one possibility, maybe it won't even come to that right, Professor?" Taylor interrupted Harry before he said too much.

"That is right, Miss Porter. We don't know what will come of this census. To be sure, it has something to do with Voldemort, but as of yet we don't know any more.

Harry looked over at his sister and suddenly he realized the precarious position that she could be in, if muggle borns where to be prosecuted. His stomach clenched as he thought of all the times that she, herself, had proclaimed to be a muggle born. Hermione's face flashed before his mind's eye. More than just his sister would be in trouble.

"The Order needs to know what your plans for this holiday are, Mr. Potter. We believe that it will be unadvisable to stay at the school. We can make preparations at The Burrow. However, we feel that maybe a lesser-known location might be safer. Miss Porter, I believe you will be returning to Briggs Cottage for the holidays?"

Harry shot Taylor another look. They had already decided that they were going to go looking for Horcruxes over the holidays, but he wasn't about to tell Shacklebolt that. "Ahh, well I'm not sure Professor," Harry said stalling for time, "I'll let you know in a couple of days, ok?"

"Yeah," Taylor said, thinking that she wasn't really lying, she did intend to go to Briggs Cottage over the holidays. She just didn't plan on being there longer then it took to get the Dark Magic books that were hidden there, and leave.

"That will be fine, Mr. Potter. Good, Miss Porter. Now the second reason I wished to speak to the two of you is that we have finally gotten the results back from the tests we were running after those two Gryffindor girls attacked one another," Shacklebolt was looking right at Taylor as he said this, as if gauging her response. "It's been determined that Dark Magic was used to manipulate those girls…"

Taylor looked right back at Shacklebolt, the hair on the back of her neck stood on end. So they were trying to implement her as the bad guy here.

"Professor, I told you before that I had nothing to do with those girls attacking one another," Taylor said defensively.

"I know what you told us and I want to believe you, but how can you explain the presence of Dark Magic in this school, other than that which you performed? It's a very obscure form of magic, you know." Shacklebolt's voice held no censure in it. He was merely looking for another explanation.

Taylor's knuckles where white as she fought the urge to scream. They didn't really trust her! She looked at the floor as she tried to think of what she could say. She wanted to look at Harry to see how he was taking this, but all she could see were his hands doubled up into fists, so he wasn't all that happy about it either.

Taking a deep breath, Taylor decided to try to explain as best she could. "Professor, I haven't used any Dark Magic, since I was in the cave with the snakes, a full couple of weeks before those girls attacked one another. And, yes, it is a very obscure form of magic, but as Snape told me, I am not the only one able to use it. Voldemort can also." Taylor forced her hand to open and put it up to stop from being interrupted. "No, I do not think that Voldemort has been in the school, but it would not be all that difficult for him to manipulate a potion to get those girls to act like that. I could more than likely work it out given the time."

"And just how do you explain," Moody's gravelly voice suddenly spoke, causing Taylor's head to whip up and look to the store-room door where Moody stepped into the room followed by Lupin, "how this 'potion' got past the wards of the school?"

"The forbidden forest! The day after the attack, Hermione said Macmillan saw some Slytherins heading into the forest, but they came back out a short time later. What if it wasn't the first time that they had gone into the forest? What if…" An almost inaudible moan caused Taylor to glance sideways at Harry who had his head bowed and one hand up on his forehead, a fine sheen of sweat covered his face.

"Harry!" Taylor was out of her seat and kneeling in front of her brother in a heartbeat. She knew that Harry was having one of his 'visions' about Voldemort. Harry's eyes were squeezed shut as he fought the pain. Slowly he started to slide out of the chair as he lost consciousness. Taylor slid her arms around her brother's chest and carefully lowered him to the floor.

A hand grabbed hold of Taylor's arm and yanked her away from Harry, dragging her across the room. Taylor's wand was suddenly in her hand as she looked to see who dared to take her away from her brother when he needed her.

"I think you had better stay over here, Porter," Moody growled menacingly. He too had his wand in his other hand.

Taylor could feel the pendant on her chest burn as she fought the urge to strike. Her only desire was to get back to Harry. "Let me go!" She twisted, trying to break Moody's grasp of her arm.

"Not until you tell me what is happening to Potter!" Moody tried to keep his hold on Taylor but with a flick of her wand he yanked his hand off, his hand slightly smoking. His initial stunning spell ricocheted off her shield charm as she ran back towards Potter. His next spell he didn't fool around. "Crucio!"

Taylor heard the spell cast and felt it smash through her shield charm. She had almost made it back to her brother's side when the pain hit. Pain, like nothing she had ever felt before, exploded in her body. It was like being electrocuted. All her nerve endings were on fire.

Professor Shacklebolt and Lupin, who had been kneeling beside Harry trying to see what was the matter with him, looked up, shocked to hear an unforgivable curse used. Lupin watched in horror as Taylor was struck with the curse and dropped to the ground, screaming. He was immediately on his feet, his own wand drawn.

"Moody! Enough!" Shacklebolt's voice boomed through the office.

Moody lifted his wand, and then looked over at Shacklebolt, reaching into his pocket with his smoking hand, he withdrew a small compass-like gadget. "Dark Magic has been used in this room, and Potter is unconscious. Do you still think that Miss Porter is harmless?"

"Moody, we do not use unforgivables on students!" Shacklebolt's voice was commanding.

Taylor was trembling uncontrollably. With a huge effort she looked to where Harry was lying, just a little more then arms reach away. She could hear what was being said right above her but she didn't look up. She needed to get to Harry. Slowly she reached out with her right hand. Somewhere in her garbled thoughts she realized that she no longer had her wand, but even stretching her fingers out she couldn't quite reach Harry.

"Man, have you lost all the sense Merlin gave a flobberworm?" Lupin asked his voice trembling from anger.

Taylor forced her knee up towards her hip. The rough stone tiles scraping against the jeans she was wearing. Then she pushed her body along the tiles until her fingers at last touched Harry's cold hand. She wrapped her fingers around her brother's, then she laid her head on the floor, praying that the trembling would soon pass.

"How do you explain the Dark Magic that was just used in this room, if not from Miss Porter?" Moody challenged as he clumped closer to the two prone students on the floor, his magical eye shifting from one to the other, just in case.

"I don't believe that Taylor would ever do anything to hurt Harry," Lupin said, he had to be careful here, he didn't dare say any more. Moody was suddenly looking right at him. Lupin forced all his churning emotions into the back of his mind. He was never sure just what Mad Eye could see with that magical blue eye of his but it wouldn't do to allow his feelings toward the Potter kids to be too close to the surface of his mind right now. Dumbledore had a reason for hiding Taylor's true identity and he didn't plan on being the one to expose it.

Lupin met Mad Eye's stare. All traces of his thoughts safely put away.

"Taylor is it now, not Miss Porter? I'm surprised at you Remus, I'd have thought that you would know better than to place too much trust in a friend." Moody's stare seemed to drill into Lupin as if he were trying to see his thoughts.

To Taylor it felt like an eternity of heart beats but in reality only a couple of minutes had passed since the Crucio curse had been lifted. The uncontrollable shaking had subsided, leaving her just feeling weak. Taylor felt Harry's fingers tighten around hers and she lifted her head up to look at her brother. She blinked a couple of times then realized that the reason he was fuzzy was because she had lost her glasses, but she could still see that his eyes were starting to flutter, he was coming to.

"Mad Eye! I think that is enough!" Shacklebolt had watched the exchange between the two Order members closely, trying to read between the lines. Was there more going on here than met the eye or was he just becoming paranoid like Moody? "Lupin, now is not the time," and he glanced meaningfully down at his two students who were starting to come around. He stepped between the two older wizards and went to check on his students.

Gathering her strength, Taylor pushed herself into a sitting position, and then shifted so that she was right beside Harry, who was as white as a ghost. A hand was suddenly on her shoulder and she turned to see that Shacklebolt had knelt down beside her, his face full of concern.

"Taylor, are you all right?" Shacklebolt asked softly.

"Yeah, I think so, but Professor I didn't have anything to do with…" Taylor's voice cracked slightly and she glanced down at Harry, whose eyes were blinking as if to bring things into focus. Taylor wasn't sure if she should tell them that Harry had just had a 'vision' of something that Voldemort was doing. She was fairly sure that even the Order members were not privy to that little bit of information.

Harry blinked his eyes. The pain was slowly receding and he could see Taylor and Professor Shacklebolt looking down at him. Just where he was, slowly came back to him. The vision of what Voldemort had been doing still burned in his mind's eye. He shuddered. He went to sit up but a hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"Easy Harry," Taylor said softly, he still looked so pale. She was afraid for him.

"Harry. Are you alright? Maybe I should send for Madame Pomphrey?" Shacklebolt's deep voice was filled with concern.

Harry shook his head. The last thing he wanted was for the school nurse to be called. He'd had these 'visions' before. He'd be all right in a few minutes.

Taylor took an uneasy breath, and then looked up where Moody and Lupin were standing a few meters away. Moody had accused her of using Dark Magic on her brother. She could have laughed at the audacity of the accusation. Remembering what Moody said to Lupin, she said, "In these times Moody, trust is the first victim. Mistrust and fear are what has allowed Voldemort to become as powerful as he is. I have no one in this world, but… Harry and my friends. There is nothing that Voldemort could offer me that can compare to that." Taylor slowly came to her feet and faced Moody. She held up her arms, like a muggle, defenseless. "If there is some way that I can prove to you, that I will never ever, hurt Harry, then I will do it now,"

Lupin gasped as he realized just what Taylor, surely inadvertently, had offered to Moody. Fear anew clenched his insides.

Harry looked from his sister to Moody trying to figure out just what was going on. What had he missed that had led to this?

Shacklebolt watched with held breath. What was the old auror going to do?

Moody stared at Porter for a long time, trying to decide what he should do next. This offer of Porter's to prove herself trustworthy wasn't expected. If she was, as he suspected, turning to the Dark Arts then… she would never stand before him defenseless and offer that which she did to him. She could be using Occulemency but his gut told him that she wasn't. She stood before him on pure nerve, a true Gryffindor. Slowly the old auror nodded his head, "Porter, that is a very alluring proposition. You are either the most skilled Occulenceman I have ever seen, or incredibly foolish."

Moody flicked his wand and Taylor felt the oddest sensation, as if a sound wave passed through her body, starting from the right side and exiting out her left hand.

Moody's "humph" when the spell had passed was followed by, "I do not believe this proves that you will not turn to the Dark Arts, however," the gravely voice continued grudgingly, "as for what happened to Potter right now, I believe you had no part in it."

Taylor snorted, then tried hard to wipe the smirk off her face as she lowered her hands and said, "Well Moody, that sure is good to know," she knew she shouldn't continue on saying what she was but she just couldn't stop herself. It must be from the shock of having just endured the Crucio curse. Bending, she picked up her wand and glasses, sliding the wand into its holder and her glasses onto her face. "Of course if you would have just asked, I'd have told you that he just fainted. See, I just kissed him out in the hall before we came in here, and well," Taylor glanced down at Harry, shock written all over his face, Taylor winked at him, an impish glint in her eye, before she continued. "I'm one hell of a kisser!"

"Taylor!" gasped Lupin trying to overcome his shock at the flippant remark she had just made.

"Miss Porter! I believe that will be quite enough!" Shacklebolt was just as stunned by the words coming out of her mouth.

Taylor, the devil be damned light dancing in her eyes, reached down and grasped hold of Harry's hand, helping him to his feet. Harry was still speechless.

Moody watched. This girl was smart. Instead of trying to lie her way out of this mess, she was using one of the oldest tricks in the book, misdirection. And by the looks on Lupin and Shacklebolt's face it had worked. "I was under the impression that Mr. Potter here was dating Miss Weasley."

"Oh he is. I just wanted to see if Harry was as good a kisser as Ginny said he was." Taylor continued in that same flippant voice. "I guess I have my answer."

A/N Well there is another chapter! I am fairly certain I took some liberties in this chapter with the fact about the Order knowing about Harry and his 'visions' from Voldemort. I know Dumbledore knew, and Sirius and Snape... but I just couldn't remember if the others knew or not... so I run with the idea that no they did not know... hopefully that isn't too hard to imagine. I just figured that Dumbledore wouldn't want it widely known(even in the Order) that Harry was having 'visions' about Voldemort. As for Taylor's atitude at the end of the chapter I tried to channel what I thought James might be like and I could always picture him with a snappy comeback and enough nerve to sink a boat! Hopefully that was the way it came off! I would like to know what you thought!

Thanks to my bata barbc!

Until next time(which won't be today but hopefully very soon!)(plus in the story we are getting close to Christmas so I'm gonna try to post as much as I can for this holiday season!), cytpotter