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Chapter 25

Harry's little defence club was quickly becoming one of his favourite times of the week. He and Hermione had split it into two parts, the first being learning and revising spells and the second being games where they practised tactical thinking. For example, they often played a game based on paintball. The only "offensive" spell you could use was a colour charm, but they were allowed to be creative outside of that. This helped everyone learn what to expect better in a real fight, though they quickly learned they needed a forfeit for 'dying' as some of them, mostly those with red hair, were too quick to volunteer to play distraction. As effective as that tactic was in a game, Harry and Hermione didn't want them getting into a habit of trying it when some masked idiot was throwing around deadly curses. Another game was based off of tennis, where instead of a ball, the two players would bounce an Expelliarmus back and forth using a reflective shield.

Harry and Hermione dominated the games at first. Even if they had let their fitness slip a little since the Triwizard Tournament, they were still the most experienced. However, everyone else soon started to catch up to the point where the two of them actually had to work for it. There was also a great improvement in Ginny; the youngest Weasley wasn't having anywhere near as much trouble learning the other spells and skills Harry was teaching them. Without the constant failure hitting her every week, Ginny was able to start to put her grief behind her. However, It was unfortunately not replaced with the happy, sporty, and fiery girl that she was before her father had been killed. The fire was still there, but it had a sharpness and focus the girl had never had before. Ginny would push herself during practice until she was almost exhausted, constantly pushing herself to be perfect. It was obvious the girl wanted vengeance for her father. Harry couldn't exactly fault her for that, but he did pull her aside after one session. "Ginny, can I talk to you for a moment?"

"Sure Harry, what can I do for you?" Ginny had just gotten through a tense match against Susan. Ginny had been brutal, reflecting the Expelliarmus hex directly at Susan's head as much as she could.

"How are you holding up?" Harry knew he sounded stupid, but he had no experience bringing up stuff like this.

"I'm doing better now. Why?" Ginny asked. Her tone wasn't hostile, but he couldn't exactly call it friendly eather.

"It's just… it's pretty obvious what you are planning. I want you to promise me you won't go off after any Death Eaters on your own," Harry said, hoping he hadn't said it in the wrong way.

He apparently had, because Ginny was instantly annoyed. "What the hell do you know about it?"

"I know that you're hurting. I know you want to make them pay for what they did to your dad. And I know that if you die you have six brothers and a mother who are still dealing with the loss of your dad who probably couldn't take losing you."

Ginny looked at him sadly before saying. "You don't understand. You don't understand a thing." Then she walked away.

Later that evening Harry was lying in bed with his two mirrors open, reflecting Hermione in her own four-poster in the girls' dorms and Fleur from her bed in Beauxbatons. Both mirrors were in their standard nighttime position, currently enlarged and stuck to the underside of the canopy over Harry's bed so he could lay back in bed and look up at the mirrors, and the two beautiful women they showed.

"What do you two think I should do about Ginny?" Harry asked. "Should I stop training her for her own sake?"

Fleur answered. "Non. Ginny may just decide to try and train herself. And if she overestimates herself, then she could easily find herself in a bad situation. I recommend you keep training her. That will both give her time to work through her emotions, and probably train her better so that if she does end up in a fight she has a chance to survive it."

Hermione jumped in once Fleur finished. "It will also give us the opportunity to emphasise that the reason we are training is to defend ourselves if we are attacked, not to go hunting Death Eaters. We are in school, we aren't child soldiers."

After that the conversation moved on to other topics. Fleur told them she had filed her paperwork for moving to Britain and sent it off to the British Ministry of Magic. The plan this summer was for Fleur and her family to come to Britain for a holiday, and when her parents left Fleur would stay. Gringotts were keen to have her start pretty early, apparently the marking for the French version of the N.E.W.T. exams were fast tracked so that people could move on to their jobs or apprenticeships as quickly as possible. Fleur was going for a hybrid position in Gringotts where she would be trained as a ward master in exchange for her working a position at the bank as she learned. This meant that Fleur would take longer to get her mastery, but she would be in a much better position financially. And as long as Fleur proved herself to be good enough as a warder, the goblins would offer her a position as a ward builder.

When Hermione asked why a bank would need a ward builder, Fleur said. "Gringotts is a bank that deals with more than just vaults; they also deal with things like mortgages. And when witches and wizards buy a house, they nearly always need new wards put up that they can control, so Gringotts sends in a warder to remove the old wards and put up new ones that are keyed to the new owners." That made sense to Harry and Hermione, although it was different to the way things were done in the mundane world. At least from what they knew, a bank would just hire a surveyor or maybe a building firm if they needed anything done with a property, but it was easy to see how it could work this way as well.

-ϟϟϟ-

The Easter break was quickly approaching. Harry floated the idea that they could take the time away from the school and eather Fleur could come to them or he and Hermione could visit France, but both of his ladies had vetoed the idea. They were all too close to important exams to think about spending any time away from their respective libraries. Harry did make one demand of Hermione, which was for at least Easter Sunday they get permission from Professor McGonagall to go to his house where Sirius, Remus, Dan and Emma could floo in and have a nice Easter dinner together.

Hermione had happily accepted that, she missed her family even more than Harry did and it was easy to add one day off to her studying schedule. Harry wanted Fleur to join them as well, but it seemed ridiculous to fork out for two international portkeys just so Fleur could join them for dinner. However, Fleur did say she was going to try and arrange something similar for her to visit home for one day in the holiday. Gabrielle, who didn't have any such exams, was also going home so Fleur didn't need to worry about her.

When it came time for people to sign up to remain in the castle during the break, Harry was not surprised to see that very few students opted to remain at the school, and from the names he recognised the majority were first generation. Apparently enough people were spooked over Voldemort's return, or the copycat if they believed that, that they wanted their children home. The first generation students, however, seemed to feel safer at the castle rather than at home. Everyone who stayed at the school didn't need to worry about a letter from the Misuse of Magic office for breaking the Statute of Secrecy if they needed to defend themselves.

One big exception to the trend was Harry's little defence club. Susan Bones was staying because her aunt was too busy trying to track down Voldemort and find enough evidence to arrest people she strongly suspected of being death eaters, Luna's father was off on an expedition and wouldn't be back before the new term started, and the Weasley family were all staying because their mother had gotten a job and wouldn't have the time to look after them. Harry did feel for Mrs. Weasley, but he couldn't help but wonder how she didn't already have a job. There was a legitimate reason to stay home until Ginny came to school, but after that she should have gotten a job. He didn't know the ins and outs of the Weasleys' finances, but he did know that Ron had been stuck with an old family wand until the start of third year, and the money for that had come from a lottery win. What was Molly doing all day while her kids were in school? Now, Mrs. Weasley was apparently working for Tom the bartender at the Leaky Cauldron, running the kitchen and cleaning the guest rooms. Harry could easily see that Mrs. Weasley was a perfect fit for that job, and while he doubted the money was great she would only need to worry about sending two of her children to Hogwarts next year, so he was sure she could do it.

With almost half of the Quidditch team out of the castle, Hermione appropriated all of Harry's Quidditch time for either study or canoodling together in the Room of Requirement. Before they had left to go home for the break, Hermione's dorm-mates had been surprised that Hermione wasn't more of a nervous wreck and had asked her about it. The conversation that had followed had been embarrassing, but Hermione had admitted that the stress relief she was getting from Harry was probably a big part of it. The girls had gotten all giggly over that information before complaining about the quality of available men at Hogwarts. Even for Hermione's dorm-mates who were dating someone, their relationship was too new for anything that involved.

Now that everyone had left, the castle felt empty. They even got rid of the four house tables in the Great Hall during meals, as there just weren't enough students. Instead, there was only one table half as long as one of the regular tables. After breakfast on the first day of the Easter holiday, Harry went down to Hagrid's hut looking for a bit of help and a spot of tea.

"Harry how are yeh? It's been a while since yeh came down here." Hagrid said as he opened the door and found Harry on his doorstep grinning up at him.

"I'm good. Ever since I got rid of Umbridge it's been pretty quiet for me," Harry said as he took a seat across from Hagrid, the oversized chair still practically swallowing him like it had in his first year despite how much Harry had grown.

Hagrid chuckled at the mention of Umbridge. "It couldn't have happened to a nicer toad."

Harry chuckled too. He had felt a little guilty at first, but after the investigation had uncovered so much that she had done, all sympathy he had for the new cat-toad-woman hybrid had died. The only thing he wished now was that he had chosen an animal without fur, she didn't need a layer of fur to help her stay warm in prison. "I'm sorry I haven't been down to visit, it's my O.W.L. year and it's been difficult to justify the time, and when I could, well, Hermione came first."

Hagrid literally waved off Harry's comment. "Ah, don't worry about it. You have other things on your plate than having tea with an old man like me."

"You're not that old Hagrid!" Harry protested lightly.

"Harry, I'm old enough that my teenage years were during Grindelwald's war."

Harry flashed him a grin. "Which by wizarding standards makes you middle-aged. Hell, if you live right you might not even be half way yet."

The two of them spent half an hour catching up and drinking tea. Hagrid had offered Harry a few rock cakes, but he was luckily able to honestly say he had eaten breakfast just before he came down, saving both his teeth and Hagrid's feelings. "So, what did yeh really come here looking for?" Hagrid asked.

"I need some wood for my Runes project," Harry answered.

"Well I can definitely help yeh with that. And as it's a school project, I don't even have to charge yeh. What are you looking for?" Hagrid seemed happy to help.

Harry explained about the drying doorway and how he needed to build a frame big enough for someone to comfortably walk through. Hagrid agreed to help him not just with getting the wood but with making the frame as well. Hagrid may not know his runes, but as the school's groundskeeper and not being able to do magic, he had by necessity become a pretty fair carpenter.

Hagrid was also interested in Harry's first attempt at a drying frame, which would apparently be rather useful for him. For example, Hagrid suffered from a leak in his firewood shed every few years, and being able to instantly dry out any soaked wood would be a godsend. Hagrid also collected herbs from the Forbidden Forest, and drying them straight away like that would reduce the amount he lost to mould and rot every time.

Harry agreed to create a more robust version of his first test for Hagrid in exchange for Hagrid helping with the woodwork, and so they got started with the full size frame, which turned out to be a lot of fun and rather interesting as well. Hagrid taught Harry how to use a saw, how to measure twice so after you only have to cut once, and how to drill a straight hole so that you can drive a wooden dowel through it instead of holding it together with magic, as it was possible any magic holding together the frame itself could interfere with the runes Harry was going start to etching in later.

Hagrid helped Harry take the two frames they had made up to the common room. He really wanted somewhere more secure to keep it, but leaving it in an empty classroom filled him with dread. While being carved it was possible to activate incomplete runes, and depending on the stage the runes were at it was possible to end up with a potentially deadly doorway big enough for two people to walk through. The last thing Harry wanted was for some first year to accidentally activate the doorway before it was finished and walk through it. That's not to mention the idea that Malfoy or one of the other children of the Death Eaters could try to sabotage it. No, leaving them in a classroom was definitely out.

The common room wasn't much better, but it was the Easter holidays and Harry hadn't even started the carving yet, so he would need to find somewhere secure to keep them long-term. Harry gave Hagrid his first test frame as a thank-you with a warning to be careful with it, as anything alive that passed through it was going to die pretty quickly. Not that Harry was afraid for Hagrid's life, he was big enough and the frame small enough that Hagrid would have trouble fitting an entire hand through the opening, let alone anything that could kill him.

After saying goodbye to Hagrid, Harry went to look for Hermione. Or more accurately, he pulled out the Marauders' Map and looked to see where she was before going straight there. Hermione was in the classroom where they practised their Defence Against the Dark Arts spells, along with Daphne, Tracey, Susan and Kathryn. Harry hesitated before going in, worried that he could be interrupting some girl time, but it was close to the start of dinner so he risked it. However, all they were doing was practising all the spells they had learned since first year. They wanted to know what spells they couldn't cast perfectly from memory so that they knew what they needed to work on for the practical parts of their O.W.L's

Hermione smiled at him and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek when she saw him. Harry asked, "Hey ladies, having fun?"

Daphne rolled her eyes at him before saying, "Do we look like Ravenclaws?"

Tracey decided to tease him. "True, we have been getting ready for our exams. We don't have the time for any more naked pillow fights."

Harry just laughed, and Susan sent a stinging hex at Tracy's backside that the Slytherin girl dodged. "I'm sure you're far more disappointed in that than I am Tracey." Harry needled her. "Anyway, dinner will start in a few minutes, you coming?" He held out his arm for Hermione to take, acting extra formally for a lark. However, it sort of backfired, as while Hermione did take his offered arm, Tracey decided she was going to take his other arm and start acting like a lovestruck fangirl. It was hilarious, and soon all the girls were laughing at Harry's expense, but he weathered it as it was good to see Tracey starting to get back to her old self after what had happened to her parents.

"So what were you doing all day? Hermione said you were only going to be a few hours." Kathryn asked. Harry explained how he had only gone to Hagrid for wood, but Hagrid had offered to help him actually build the frames. "Honestly, I had to agree to that offer. Runes are one thing, but I had no ideas on how to actually build a large frame like that. I was just going to try my best or ask Professor McGonagall for help to transfigure it. But Hagrid showed me how to do it all."

"That was nice of him," Susan said as they arrived at the great Hall. Dinner that night was minted lamb chops with mashed potatoes and a selection of vegetables and thick minted gravy. It was absolutely delicious. Apparently, the elves with much less work to do with so few students in the school took the opportunity to really show off their skills as everything was cooked to perfection.

After dinner, Harry took the opportunity to talk to Professor Babbling about a place to carve his frames. "Well Mr. Potter, I agree that keeping your project in the common room or in a random unused classroom is a bad idea. I will arrange to have one of the classrooms locked and you will be given a copy of the key. Now, unless you have further need of me, I have a mountain of work to mark waiting in my office, so I'll wish you a good night."

-ϟϟϟ-

Arranging for him and Hermione to have a day pass to leave the castle was relatively simple. All Professor McGonagall had needed was a form signed by the Grangers giving them permission to leave the castle for a day, which they were all too happy to sign if it meant they got to spend Easter Sunday with their family. Dobby and Sassy were also rather happy about getting to make a big family dinner; as soon as Harry told them, Sassy got all excited and started to plan out the dinner right then.

Harry had stepped himself and Hermione directly into his Hogsmeade house at half past nine in the morning, before going back for Daphne and Tracy. Dan, Emma, Sirius, and Remus arrived a little under half an hour later. Hugs all around soon followed. Hermione tried to squeeze the life out of all the adults while Emma did the same for the teens. Soon everyone was sitting around having a good time catching up. Emma was complaining that Sirius's place didn't have electricity so she needed to record her favourite television shows at the office and play them while they worked. It helped that Dan had the miraculous ability to program the VCR recorder to record different channels at different times. They could just rewind the tape and set it to play when they got into the surgery in the mornings. Still, both Dan and Emma admitted that they had made much more progress on the large stacks of books each of them had to read, now that their time after work was free of the distraction of a television.

Tracey did retreat up to her room for an hour, but Daphne had gone after her at first and had come back saying she just needed a bit of time. Harry remembered Hermione's grandmother telling him that holidays were always the hardest, and as much as Harry and Hermione had made space for the girl in their family, Tracey was still very much in the first year of grieving the loss of her parents, and every little thing was going to remind her that they were no longer there. Sirius was telling Harry about what was happening at the Wizengamot since Umbridge's trial and sentencing when Tracey came walking back in. Nobody made a fuss, even though it was obvious just by looking at her that she had been crying. Harry just called Dobby in and asked for hot chocolate for everyone, because as it was Easter chocolate was mandatory.

Speaking of chocolate, Dan and Emma had brought a whole bunch of large Cadbury chocolate Easter eggs with them for everyone. Each box came with a large hollow chocolate egg, two chocolate bars, and a mug decorated with the company logo. Each of the teens had two eggs each. Harry had caramel and wispa gold, Hermione had dairy milk and double decker, Daphne had flake and dairy milk fruit and nut, and Tracey had crunchie and Cadbury cream egg.

Lunch wasn't due to be served for a few hours yet so each of the teens opened one box. Daphne chose to open the flake as she was curious about the picture of the chocolate bar on the box. "What is it?" She asked as she unwrapped one of the bars.

"It's just chocolate, but they do something while it's cooling and it makes the chocolate really crumbly and flaky," Hermione explained.

Daphne tried it and was surprised when the bit she took of the bar crumbled up inside of her mouth with hundreds of little bits of chocolate that started melting over her tongue almost immediately. Tracey was curious about the crunchie and asked what the yellow filling was. Harry realised then that he had never seen honeycombs like that in the magical world, but he didn't know exactly what it was either. Luckily for them Dan apparently knew. "It's called cinder toffee, and it's made by mixing molten toffee with baking powder. Some people call it honeycomb because of the way it looks but there is no honey in it."

Everyone had a great time, and the crown of lamb with redcurrant glaze the elves had made was absolutely divine. Everyone was just relaxing when there was a loud explosion that shocked them all. Harry and Hermione instantly were on their feet running to the window, and Harry pulled aside the lace curtain and saw someone in a Death Eater mask with his wand pointed at the house.

Now, Harry knew he was supposed to step everyone to the castle and safety at this point, but they were trying to destroy his home again. This house was his last connection to his dad's family, and suddenly Harry could see what would happen if he kept playing the game by their rules. They would slowly chip away at everything he had, taking a little bit from him every time until he had nothing left. They probably didn't even know he was here. They just wanted to take something from him and send a message.

The Death Eater's wand flashed and a second spell came rushing at the house, and a large explosion impacted on the wards. Harry saw red, and in that moment he decided that if this was the game Voldemort wanted to play, then Harry was going to show them that he knew how to play as well. He drew his wand from his holster and stepped.

Less than a quarter of a second later, Harry was standing behind the man who was laughing as he tried to destroy Harry's home. His quick cutting hex to the back of the man's neck soon put a stop to that. Harry then stepped away back into the house before the death eater's head had even hit the floor and watched out of the window as three more masked Death Eaters un-disillusioned themselves and came walking out of the shadows. Harry laughed, he really couldn't help it. It wasn't even funny, it was just rather pathetic. This had apparently been some kind of trap, but Harry's move of being there for less than a second hadn't given the watchers time to react. Now…could he do it again?

A/N

No, a Pepper-up potion doesn't help if you are tired. It's a cure for the cold and flu that has a side effect of warming the drinker up. Also, a Wit Sharpening potion is not for making the drinker witty. The potion that makes you better at talking is a Scintillating Solution.