In the end, Harry returned to Hogwarts in the afternoon – glad he wouldn't have to deal with classes immediately – and, as soon as he could, pulled Neville away from the common room and into an empty classroom, where he did a few privacy spells Alduin had taught him.

In the meantime, Neville was talking, non-stop. "Harry, what happened? We were so worried, and your cousin only talked to us very briefly to tell us you had been kidnapped but you were fine, we didn't know anything...Parvati was so scared, you can't imagine...and then when you called me you were barely coherent..."

The spells were finally done, and so Harry turned to Neville and said: "It was Riddle."

Neville blinked at him. "Yeah, you said that before, but- What does that mean?"

"What do you think?" Harry asked, pacing back and forth in the front of the classroom. "Some servant of his kidnapped me from Hogsmeade...to bring him back from the dead."

Neville sat down numbly at the nearest desk. "So...it's really true, then? What you're been worried about? What I thought you told me over the call? He's actually back."

"Yeah."

There was a long silence as Neville looked off into the distance. "Well, then," he said then, "you really have to step up teaching me now."

Harry blinked at him, stopping in his tracks.

"Defence, Harry," Neville said like he was slow, which was the first time in his life Neville had used that tone with him. "For one, everyone should know how to defend themselves. For another, if you're going to be a target now – even more than before I mean – everyone around you should be able to defend themselves properly I remember what you told me about your lessons with Snape, how defending other people who were not properly trained was so hard. I don't want to be a liability for you. In fact, I want to help."

"Help?" Perhaps Harry was still numb from the shock of it all, even after two days to take it in, because he felt like he was a step behind in this conversation.

"With the war," Neville clarified.

Harry shifted. "I don't know how much I'm going to be doing to be honest – I mean obviously at some point I will have to, you know, do it, but before then I have no idea...for now it seems Riddle wants to hide, and Fudge is denying he came back..."

That caught Neville off guard, at least. "What?"

"Yeah. I discussed it with my cousin and we sort of agreed to play along a bit, for a while..." And Harry explained the plan to Neville.

Neville frowned. "I don't like it, but I guess the reasons make sense. Better you that me. I couldn't stand it, but I suppose you're used to watching what you say to the papers pretty closely?"

Harry only nodded.

"And anyway it's just temporary," Neville added, "so yeah, I see the point. But...what are you gonna tell the others?"

Harry sighed. "Mostly the same I'll be saying to the public I think, only I'll try to look a bit less like an idiot. But...I think I should tell Ron the truth. And maybe Sophie."

Neville gave a resolute nod. "Definitely to Ron."

"Maybe I'll see how Sophie reacts to the official version and decide based on that?" Harry suggested, and Neville agreed to it, considering it a good plan.

"What about the person who kidnapped you? Do you know who it was?"

"We have some guesses," Harry admitted, "but nothing firm, and definitely no proof."

Neville frowned. "What if they try again? Can they get to Hogwarts?"

"You bet. We're pretty sure it's the same person who got my name in the Goblet in the first place."

Neville looked alarmed. "What are you going to do?"

Harry grimaced. "They've...taken some protective measures. I'll write it down for you – they told me it was the safest way." He dig for some parchment and quill in his bag, under Neville's nervous eyes, and describe the plan, showing it to Neville and then, and his friend took it in, burning the parchment.

"All right," Neville said slowly. "That makes sense, I guess. I hope I won't mess it up."

"I'm sure you won't. I'll probably tell Ron too, just in case you're not at hand for some reason-"

"If you think I'm gonna leave you alone after this," Neville muttered, "you're out of your mind."

Harry gave him a grateful smile. "What did you mean with stepping up on the training?" He asked then.

"I know you haven't been driving me as hard as Snape drives you," Neville replied. "I was pretty happy with that until now, but it's got to change, Harry. I can't afford to be going slow any more."

Harry reluctantly agreed that it was probably true. "All right," he said, "I'll try to get Snape to teach me some of the stuff he does for me. No promises on success, though."

"Let's hope," Neville muttered, "that he doesn't actually want me dead."

-hp-hp-hp-hp-

Neville, of course, was the easier part. Harry spent about an hour after that reassuring his Gryffindor friends, and Parvati especially, that he was fine and feeding them the official story.

He watched Sophie's reaction in particular, as he'd said he would, and was pleasantly surprised when she grew serious at this. "I always made fun of you for calling your cousin first thing whenever something happened," she said, "but I think it really saved your life this time. I mean, from what you said, you barely got the info about where you were out...if you'd taken just a bit longer to decide..." She shuddered, looking shaken, and while Harry felt sorry about that, it boded well for the possibility of telling her the truth later.

Once he'd assuaged their most immediate concerns, Harry muttered to Ron that h'd need t talk to him later before he excused himself for being tired and slipped on the Invisibility Cloak, heading to the dungeons.

His multi-way mirror was broken, and he had only been given a quick two-way replacement by Alduin, but he still had the other two-way ones from before. Theo was on the other side of one of them, ready to receive his message, and so he met with him, Draco and Daphne in one of the empty classrooms in the dungeons.

Draco and Theo were both quiet, watching him, but Daphne asked her questions as soon as he cast the privacy spells. "What happened? We've heard all sorts of wild rumours and Parvati was near hysterical..."

"Not without reason," Harry muttered, settling down on one of the desks. "For one, I was kidnapped right out of Hogsmeade."

"Seriously?" Draco said, incredulous, at the same time that Theo asked: "How?"

"Someone slipped me a Portkey. I landed in a graveyard, which was pretty creepy, so I called Alduin, obviously." His friends all nodded. "I didn't really know where I was, so Alduin told me to try and read the names on the gravestones to get a clue – dunno how he expected to find me if it was some random Muggle ones, but the first name I came across was Riddle."

Daphne took in a sharp breath. "I'm guessing that wasn't an accident."

"You bet," Harry replied. "Before I could do any more than read the name to Alduin, someone stunned me, and I woke up tied up and gagged, with Pettigrew in front of me."

"Damn," Daphne commented.

"Trust me, that's the good part. There was huge cauldron, and..." Harry described every part of the process of Riddle's recreation to his Slytherin friends, going into as much detail as he could recall, and by the time he ended he could see disgust plainly in their faces, as well as worry in Daphne's. As he had suspected, Theo and Draco showed no surprise.

There was silence when he finished his story, and then Theo asked in a carefully measured voice: "And all of this is public knowledge?"

"Not on your life!" Harry replied. "I'm not so sure people would believe me to be honest – it sounds pretty insane – so when I eventually talk to the papers, I'll just talk about Riddle appearing there, and about Pettigrew. I don't think anyone needs those gross details, really."

"Why did you tell us, then?" Theo asked, a strange intensity in his voice.

Harry gave him a look. "Well, you already knew the most important part. There's no harm in giving you the details, and unlike most Gryffindors, I don't have to worry about you telling it to all and sundry. And I thought you should know."

Daphne frowned. "I didn't know anything about this."

"No, I didn't think so," her father wasn't a Death Eater, contrary to Mr. Nott and Malfoy, at least based on the information Alduin had, "but you'd have found out within the week I think. So no sense to keep secrets. I told Neville everything and will tell Ron too, but the rest...I don't know how far it would spread, and I really don't want the public to know everything." His Slytherin friends couldn't talk about it, he knew, because coming from them everyone would find the information rather suspicious. They knew it, too, and would keep silent. Even prejudice could sometimes be useful.

Exhausted, Harry returned to Gryffindor, promised Ron to talk in the morning, and fell asleep as soon as he hit the bed.

-hp-hp-hp-

With Harry back at Hogwarts, Alduin contacted Alexandra to come and discuss details, something they didn't have time for in her first flight with the boys. He had more information now, anyway, and they needed to talk about their strategy in light of that.

First, however, when they came, he hugged both of his boys, and spent some time playing with them.

"Wynn missed you," Alexandra told him as she watched him listened to the stories about his past days Wynn told with Edric in his lap, cuddling him. "Edric too, probably, but it's harder to tell with him. Wynn kept asking about you constantly."

Alduin supposed it shouldn't be surprising – it'd only been two days, but he'd only been that away from his sons once before, when he'd gone to Italy with Harry.

It was something to take into account in their plans too, and so once the boys had enough of his immediate attention and were willing to play a bit more independently in his presence, only occasionally demanding his response, he joined Alexandra on the sofa in the nursery and settled down to plan.

"He wants to lie low for the moment, make use of Fudge being delusional to do his work undisturbed. But I was also told that he's not really sane, so he might change his mind at any moment."

Alexandra nodded. "Have you agreed with Harry on the public approach?"

Alduin inclined his head, and – with a short interruption by Wynn when the boy brought him a picture he drew to admire – he explained their plant o Alexandra.

"In that case, I think it's best not to reduce my public appearances much for now," Alexandra said slowly. "He will want to discredit any idea that he's back, and grabbing me somewhere would hardly do that. The boys will be staying in the safe house for now, but I can go places, and we can announce my pregnancy a little early so that I have an excuse for doing less than before."

Alduin could easily agree to that, but: "What about when garden parties start?" That was less than a month away, and not taking the boys there would definitely be seen as significant.

"We will have more information by then about how this is going to play out," Alexandra pointed out. "Let's decide then."

That, too, was reasonable.

"Do you think you could come back here once a day? I know it increases the danger, but..."

"Of course," she replied immediately. "There might be time for deep hiding, but it isn't yet, and I wouldn't rob the boys off your company."

Alduin gave a grateful nod, and they sat together for a while.

"In light of this," Alexandra said then, "I think we should revisit the monogamy agreement."

Alduin gave her a surprised and worried look. "Have you met someone? Are you sure they can be trusted?" Now was definitely not a good time to be getting closer to a stranger.

Alexandra scoffed. "No. You know I won't. It's about you, not me. The boys won't be with you now, so the usual reason disappears, and...I think you could probably use some comfort."

Melania Doge's face immediately flashed in Alduin's mind, but he pushed it forcefully away. "I will also be quite busy with the war," he pointed out.

She shrugged. "I'm certainly not forcing you, but I'm saying it's up to you. I won't consider it a betrayal if you get together with someone under these circumstances, that's all I wanted to tell you."

Alduin exhaled. "All right," he said. "In that case, of course, the same goes for you."

Alexandra, however, shook her head. "The children will be in my care," she said. "I won't be endangering that in any way."

Alduin frowned at this inequality, but the put a hand on his forearm. "We each have a role to play, a role we had agreed on well in advance. I agreed to it freely, knowing what it would mean. I don't need sex that desperately, Alduin, and I will have all the companionship I need with Patritia. It will be fine. Don't make this harder for yourself than you need to."

Slowly, reluctantly, Alduin agreed to that as well.

-hp-hp-hp-

The following day, Harry dragged Ron and Neville into an empty classroom before breakfast and retold the story of his kidnapping once again.

Ron exhaled. "I knew the story you were telling was bullshit," he said, "but I'm glad you admitted it to me. I'm glad you got out all right, too. And also, can we come back to the training idea?"

Neville laughed at that, and Harry snorted as well. "Great minds work alike, ti seems," he said. "I'll see what I can do. Now let's have breakfast."

They did, and Harry spent the History of Magic period afterwards trying to plan sessions for both Neville, who had gone thorough the basics with him already, and Ron, who would be just starting. By the end of that period, he had something he could work from, at least, an walked to the Defence class with more purpose than he'd felt since being saved from Riddle's plans.

His good mood, however, disappeared the moment Moody told him to stay back after class.

That had never happened before, but even without that factoring in, Harry would have been suspicious, so he gave Neville a telling look, and his friend gave an almost unnoticeable nod in response before he left with the others.

Harry, taking a deep breath, turned to the teacher.

"Apparently, you were kidnapped," the man muttered. "But no one tells me anything else. So tell me, Potter – what happened afterwards?"

As slowly as he could, Harry launched in another retelling of the story, again with as many details as he could recall – though this time, for a very different reason.

"So the only question that remains," he said with a deep breath at the end, trying to pull all his confidence and bravery to him and hoping everything had gone off without a hitch, "is who was it that slipped me the Portkey."

"Ah." Moody gave an odd smile. "I believe I can answer that question for you. You see...it was me. I put your name in the Goblet at the start of term, and when that failed, I slipped you the Portkey."

"How kind of you to confess," a voice said suddenly as the door flew apart, and immediately afterwards a curse flew, petrifying Moody before he had time to as much as draw his wand. In another moment, Giacomo Proudfoot was taking off Harry's Invisibility Cloak and handing it back to him.

"Thank you," Harry muttered, willing his voice not to shake. "I suspected him, but still...an ex-Auror? Really?"

"I don't think this is the real Moody," Proudfoot replied. "But we will soon see. For now, I have to contact Kingsley."