Chapter 27

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of JK Rowling's fabulous characters. I do however own this story, I wrote it and I do NOTgive permission for anyone to post it anywhere else. If you want to share it post a link.

Susan collapsed into Amelia's arms and Kingsley quickly secured the scene and called for a healer.

"She's magically exhausted but otherwise mostly unhurt," the ministry healer said looking over the battleground incredulously, spelling a couple of potions into her stomach, before turning her attention to Amelia and forcing her to drink her own strengthening and healing potions

"She put up one hell of a fight, most of the Aurors I know couldn't have fought so well," Amelia said soberly. "I never wanted her to have to fight like that but I'm grateful for whoever taught her."

"That cutting curse she used isn't illegal but it's certainly dark," Auror Dawlish said after testing her wand.

"So were the spells I was using, we were outnumbered and fighting for our lives after being attacked in our own homes by You-Know-Who himself, it was no time for holding back or using schoolgirl hexes and jinxes," Amelia retorted.

"But where did she learn it. I've never seen it before," Auror Dawlish pressed.

"You're not about to suggest that my niece be charged for killing four of the ten most wanted criminals in Britain?" Amelia asked imperiously.

"She killed four of them?" Kingsley asked in astonishment looking at the carnage.

"She must have killed five or six Death Eaters in total but only three of them were the most feared Death Eaters and You-Know-Who himself was a joint effort," Amelia replied almost automatically.

"No of course not, she was defending herself from He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, anything short of the Unforgiveables is considered an allowable and reasonable response," Dawlish almost stammered in his haste to assure his boss that he meant her niece no harm. "But Snape taught Defence Against the Dark Arts last year, didn't he? If he was teaching the children curses like that, something needs to be done to make sure that they don't end up using them on each other in a schoolyard fight."

Amelia and Kingsley both shuddered as they realized the truth in Dawlish's words. Even if only all the sixth and seventh year DADA students had learned spells like that then keeping the house rivalries from killing someone was going to be a full time job. Especially if the vigilante attacks on Malfoy and his friends continued. They wer lucky nobody had used a spell like that on the annoying little brat already. They really needed to find out who was doing that before there was an all out war in the school. Especially if, as Susan had suggested, it wasn't a single group of students and was probably in response to an attack Malfoy and his friends had initiated. Sooner or later the new Lord Malfoy was going to pick a fight with someone hot headed enough to kill him.

Susan roused and immediately began calling for Harry.

"Harry who?" the Healer asked.

"Could she be calling for Harry Potter?" Kingsley asked her, having been told by Tonks that Harry had been the one who somehow raised the alarm.

"I can't feel him. Someone needs to check on him. He gave me his magic, and now he's gone," Susan said, still too out of it to remember that she needed to keep their connection a secret.

Luckily her voice was weak and the only people who heard her were the Healer, Amelia and Kingsley.

Amelia understood what she was referring to and looked over at the dead Death Eaters and their leader in shock. Susan had done that with Potter's magic? He was the one she'd unblocked her magic with, no wonder she'd been so overprotective of the boy this year. The boy had saved them through the strange connection the young couple had formed when they unblocked their magic. "Send someone to check on him immediately," she ordered shakily.

Kingsley shot her a confused look but she was the boss and he wasn't about to start questioning her orders now while she was partially responsible for killing the greatest threat to magical society this century. He cast a messenger patronus telling Tonks to check on Harry.

"It's all quiet here. The Dursleys are out for the evening and the wards are intact," Tonks sent back.

"Never mind the house. Go inside immediately and check on Harry, something strange has happened and we think he needs urgent assistance," Kingsley's second patronus ordered.

Tonks frowned in confusion. Kingsley's orders went directly against Mad-eye Moody's and Molly Weasley's who was in charge of coordinating the guard on Harry this year while Dumbledore was off on secret business and Dumbledore's orders for the last few years. But still he wouldn't have sent the order without a good reason. "If Harry's run off after me telling him to stay he's going to be in so much trouble and if this is to pay the kid back for sending Kingsley on a wild goose chase or done something stupid then I hope I catch him doing something embarrassing," Tonks said to herself as she spelled the front door open. She roamed through the downstairs before heading up to Harry's room, thinking it odd that he wasn't taking advantage of his relatives being out of the house. Cursing as she found his room and the rest of the house empty, and again when she saw what looked like his wand lying on his bed, she cast a point me spell, surprised when it pointed almost straight down.

Tripping down the stairs she cast again. In spite of the wand pointing directly to him each time it took her a few minutes before thinking to check the cupboard under the stairs.

She pulled open the door, absently noting that it had in unusually strong lock for a cupboard designed to hold muggle brooms and mops. Luckily it had been left unlocked then gasped as she found Harry sprawled on the tiny cot mattress on the floor sweaty and unconscious. Quickly casting a field diagnostic spell, she sent a messenger patronus to Kingsley and to her mother who was a healer.

Tonks hadn't explained herself very well and Andromeda arrived outside the wards in a panic a moment later. "Nymphadora!" She called urgently.

"Sorry Mum, I didn't mean to frighten you. I'm fine, it's Harry. I don't know what happened to him. He was fine half an hour ago and his wand is upstairs so he hadn't been casting anything but somehow he's magically exhausted," Tonks explained.

Andromeda cast her own more detailed diagnostic before pulling potions out of her bag and spelling them into his stomach.

"I don't know how he did it but he's expended almost all his magic, and his adrenaline levels are through the roof as if he'd been fighting for his life," she said. "His wand is in his pocket, tell me what he's been casting," she said pulling it out and handing it to her daughter.

"That doesn't make any sense, there was a wand upstairs on his bed. He was alone in the house and there's been no attack, nothing has happened here," Tonks replied. She tested the wand. "This isn't real!" she said in surprise. "Point me Harry Potter's wand."

She looked around and saw the fallen wand had rolled or been kicked into a corner and picked it up and tested it. "He hasn't cast anything in the last few weeks his last spell was a lightening charm, probably on his trunk on the train."

Andromeda cast more spells. "The potions are working but his levels were dangerously low. I'd like to transfer him to St Mungo's," she said.

"You can't. It isn't safe for him there," Tonks argued.

"He can't stay here," Andromeda replied. "I'll take him home with me."

"He needs to stay here to charge the blood wards," Tonks said.

Andromeda looked up anxiously. "If they're tied to him like that, the wards will kill him in this state! We need to get him out of here now!" She insisted urgently, casting a featherweight charm on him and levitating him out of the cupboard so she could carry him. She rushed for the ward line and apparated away as soon as she was clear.

"Bugger," Tonks exclaimed, wondering how she was going to explain this to Molly and Kingsley.

Speaking of Kingsley, he was probably waiting for an update. She sent off a messenger patronus telling him Harry was okay, removed from the Dursleys and asking to meet.

Kingsley sent back an order to come straight to the apparition coordinates he sent.

Swearing lightly. Tonks packed up Harry's trunk, shrunk and pocketed it and the bag her mother had left behind, before apparating to the coordinates.

Arriving outside a large manor house bustling with the clean up crew, Auror teams a healer and a pair of unspeakables , she looked around for Kingsley. "What happened and where are we?" She asked as she joined him. "Failed Death Eater attack" Kingsley said grinning euphorically.

"Bones manor?" Tonks asked seeing her boss hugging a teenage girl with a strong resemblance to her. "But how did Harry know? And why is everyone so excited about it?" She asked taking in the almost party atmosphere amongst the Auror's and others who were enthusiastically participating in the cleanup.

"Voldemort is dead, along with several of his inner circle. The war is all but over, and that arse Malfoy isn't going to be able to bribe himself and his cronies out of trouble this time," Kingsley said grinning.

"Voldemort? Are you sure? I thought that the prophecy said Harry had to..." Tonks began.

"He did, though I have no idea how without being here," Kingsley said. "Keep it to yourself for now though, until we can get the whole story. Where'd you send him? Headquarters? And why? We promised Dumbledore that he'd stay in Surrey til we were able to move his relatives. Not that I suppose it matters much now, but there might be retaliation attacks."

"He was unconscious, dripping in sweat and magically exhausted, beyond my ability to help him, he needed a healer so I called Mum. When I said his presence there was strengthening the wards she panicked and ran out of there with him. She said his magic was dangerously low so I think she thought feeding the wards might harm his recovery," Tonks explained.

"Please tell me she hasn't taken him to St Mungo's. We need to organise an Auror protection detail. Go now and I'll send someone to join you," Kingsley ordered.

"No I told Mum it wasn't safe for Harry there. She was planning to take him home with her," Tonks reassured the senior Auror.

"How secure is your family home?" Kingsley asked.

"My mother was brought up a Black, and became a blood traitor married to a muggleborn. How well warded do you think it is? We have full war wards active all of the time since Bellatrix broke out of Azkaban," Tonks retorted dryly.

"Then he's safe there for now. I want to question him tomorrow to find out what happened," Kingsley replied, satisfied with the warding.

"What happened here?" Tonks asked.

"Time to find out," Kingsley said noticing the Unspeakables waiting for him and taking down the privacy charm he'd used to talk to Tonks.

"We've established definite identity and cause of death. The body's magical signature is Voldemort, or close enough. There are minor differences but they're consistent with the magical signature we found just over a year ago when he battled Potter in the Atrium of the Ministry and every other time we've been able to confirm his participation in a raid since his resurrection. He was killed by a dark cutting curse that we haven't seen since his defeat in 1981. Back then it was used exclusively by the Death Eaters, we believe possibility one specific Death Eater, though we never matched an identity to his magical signature. It might be something in the spell itself because we can't match it to anyone that was known to be here either. It's a partial match to young Susan Bones. If it wasn't well known she was an only child, I would suspect a sibling or half sibling," the first Unspeakable reported.

"The other bodies were confirmed dead their magical signatures match their appearances," the other Unspeakable added. "Four killed by Amelia, two by Miss Susan Bones And the others by the witch or wizard with the signature that killed Voldemort. As a side note it's also now confirmed that Voldemort was most likely Tom Marvolo Riddle who graduated Hogwarts in 1945."

Kingsley just nodded at the information without adding anything. He knew from Amelia's reports that Susan had cast the spells from the unknown Bones and from what Susan had said while still half unconscious that she and Harry had found a way for her to access and use his magic. Which also accounted for how Harry could be experiencing the after effects of battle when he'd been safely inside his relatives' house the whole time, if that's what really happened. The new question was how it was even possible for Harry to give magic to anyone much less a classmate under attack hundreds of miles away? And how had he even known she needed his help?

Now he just had to find out how they'd done it, and more importantly, whether Voldemort was permanently dead this time. Dumbledore had warned them not to try to set up a confrontation between Voldemort and Harry because the older wizard was currently immortal and that there were steps Harry had to take before he could kill his nemesis. He'd have to question Harry and Professor Dumbledore about that too, and pass all the information he could get to Amelia. The time for keeping secrets had passed. She'd be a prime target for revenge if You-Know-Who was resurrected and she deserved to know about the possibility.

Dumbledore's habit of withholding information from even the followers he claimed to trust the most hadn't sat well with him and since he'd insisted on leaving the country and being out of contact with the order for the entire summer, Kingsley had wondered if information they needed to win the war before any more people were killed had gone with him. Now it seemed that one of the few pieces of information he did share with them was wrong. How much sooner could You-Know-Who have been killed if the order had been able to go after him two years ago before he rebuilt his following. How many lives could have been saved. If they'd managed to kill him a year or two ago.

He cleared the clean up crew to remove the bodies to the morgue and released Auror Dawlish and the team back to their regular duties once the evidence was properly collected and catalogued, before approaching Amelia and Susan Bones.

"Unfortunately, Dawlish is one of the biggest gossips on the force and he outranks me so I couldn't order him not to say anything and I doubt he'd take an order from you at this time as you clearly have a personal conflict of interest. I could have had him obliviated but I thought it best not to do anything that would insinuate that we'd covered up something or faked the Death Eater paraphernalia, since Malfoy is one of Fudges favoured advisors and biggest campaign contributors. The downside means it will be public knowledge that you and Susan killed Voldemort and Lucius Malfoy by lunchtime tomorrow. I'd suggest you find somewhere else to stay behind strong wards and set up mail redirection and monitoring for a few weeks or more," Kingsley said.

"I'm needed at the Ministry to make sure the rest of his followers aren't able to bribe their way out of charges," Amelia replied anxiously. "I'd send Susan to stay with friends but I feel the need to keep her close. She can't be left alone in this state, and I don't trust the security at St Mungo's once news of tonight gets out."

"You can't stay here! The wards are damaged. I'd advise you to seal the place up and hire a warding team from Gringotts to assess and repair the damage as soon as possible, before the place is ransacked by fans," Kingsley said.

Amelia sighed. "Do you also have a suggestion where to go?" She asked.

"Don't you have friends you could stay with?" Kingsley asked frowning.

"None that have war wards I would trust and who wouldn't gossip about having the new saviour-of-the-world staying with them and inviting their friends to hear the story. You remember the hullabaloo that occurred last time he was defeated," Amelia admitted frowning.

"Then perhaps you should take a leaf out of Dumbledore's playbook and hide in the Muggle world for the summer. It worked to hide Potter all these years," Kingsley replied wondering if he ought to offer his own flat to his boss. The wards wouldn't be up to snuff and he didn't have the expertise to improve them tonight, there best safety lay in not being able to be found. He cast an owl mail ward and anti scrying ward on the two of them.

"Hiding Harry Potter in the muggle world was necessary due to the number of dark affiliated families attempting to gain custody of the child. It only worked because Potter was a baby and wasn't old enough to draw attention by his lack of knowledge of the Muggle world. Susan and I would stand out like a sore thumb, and neither of us have the knowledge to navigate that world safely," Amelia retorted.

"I need to see Harry. Maybe we could ask him to stay with us to show us what to do, or you could arrest his relatives and we could stay with him," Susan said.

"Do they need arresting?" Amelia asked wondering if Susan was overreacting.

"They starve him and treat him like a house elf. They threaten to beat him and have him working from sun up to sundown and still complain that he hasn't done enough to earn his dinner. Dinner that he's cooked and still isn't allowed to eat," Susan ranted.

"Harry isn't at his relatives' he is currently under the care of Healer Tonks, so we don't need to do anything immediate. I'll have them quietly investigated. Potter's almost seventeen so he won't need to go back there, it Susan's accusations are substantiated," Kingsley suggested.

"We couldn't impose, on Healer Tonks," Amelia said.

"Mum wouldn't mind under normal circumstances, I'm sure. But as estranged as they've been for decades, I'm not sure how she's going to react to her sister's and both her brother-in laws' deaths. And you wouldn't want to be found there if her other sister feels the need to visit and reconnect with the only family she has left," Tonks said uncertainly.

"In that case Harry might not be safe there either," Kingsley said frowning. "You should go home Tonks. Warn your Mum and Dad and keep guard over Harry. Not a word about Harry's part in what happened tonight, or his location. Or the potential abuse charges against his Aunt and Uncle to anyone. Not even Dumbledore himself if he asks," He ordered.

Tonks nodded, and aparated away,

"Okay now Susan, can you tell me why you said you were using Potter's magic tonight? How did you know such a thing was even possible? And how he knew you were being attacked and raised the alarm?" Kingsley asked.

He was surprised when instead of answering, Susan looked startled for a moment before giving her aunt a frightened look.

"I'm not upset you let the secret slip, you were fighting for your life, magically exhausted and shaking from adrenalin overload and it's been a monumental night, it's normal that you were a bit out of control. But I think you are going to have to explain it to Kingsley and I. I trust that he will keep it out of the official reports if possible, and not gossip about it," Amelia said sounding far more calm than her anxiously beseeching glance at Kingsley indicated.

"I won't gossip about anything you tell me in confidence, but I can make no promises about the official reports until I've heard both sides of the story. Honestly though, I think it best that Potter's name be kept out of things for now. We don't want more of a media frenzy than we're already going to have," Kingsley said sincerely.

Susan nodded. "I guess it doesn't matter so much now Voldemort is dead," she said, confusing her listeners.

"What do you mean Susie, How did you manage to get word about the attack to Potter, and why did you say you were using his magic?" Amelia demanded.

"I think she actually did use his magic as well as her own, though I've no idea how she could have," Kingsley said. "According to the Unspeakables, the magical signature of her later spells is only a partial match to hers."

"Harry and I both had childhood blocks on our magic from before our parents were murdered. We decided to help each other unblock them as a way to keep it secret, instead of having to ask somebody else, and risking them bragging about it afterwards. Since then, we've had this connection, I can feel what he's feeling, physically and emotionally and I can feel when he's using strong magic. It's mostly when we're concentrating on it but strong pain or emotions come through all the time, and I've become aware when he's concentrating on me and vice versa.

"So tonight, when the Death Eaters started breaking through the wards, Harry would've felt my terror and I felt him check in on me. He disconnected for a moment then came back and told me that help was on the way. He told me not to hold back, to give them everything I had. I figured he was right. I'd rather die magically exhausted having given it my all and hopefully taken a few of the Death Eaters with me than hold back and have them beat me because my spells weren't strong enough and risk being taken captive and tortured or worse. So I fought as hard as I could, and Harry kept the connection open so he knew what was happening. Having Harry there with me gave me more confidence and I could feel him pushing his magic at me and then my spells were stronger than they'd ever been before and I could cast more quickly. Then Bellatrix Lestrange turned up and I could feel Harry's fury and hatred to the woman who'd killed his godfather and my wand just spat out at her, and then when Lucius Malfoy started the killing curse I just reacted without thinking. I don't even know if it were me or Harry in control then."

"I've no idea how the two of you did it but that fits with what the Unspeakables found. The last two or three spells you cast don't match your magical signature on record. It's a partial match, they're currently working on the theory that you had another unknown close relative here tonight but I'd bet that if they thought to compare the signature, they'd find a partial match to Potter too. I'll encourage them to drop it, we're not going to punish anyone for defending themselves or the two of you," Kingsley said.

"So she really was using Harry Potter's magic?" Amelia asked surprised.

"Yes, according to Healer Tonks, he's just as magically exhausted as your niece here is, if not more," Kingsley replied.

"Can you keep this out of the official record and not tell anyone at all. You must realise what it would do to Susan's reputation if it became known," Amelia pressed.

"There's no reason to mention it. Potter wasn't physically here and I doubt anybody would believe what happened. There's no documented precedent, I've never heard of a bond that works like that, much less an accidental bond, and we definitely don't want people believing that Harry's going to just magically turn up to defend them from all attacks," Kingsley said nodding.

"Thank you," Amelia and Susan replied.

"There was one thing Dawlish wanted to know. What was the cutting curse you used and where did you learn it?" Kingsley asked.

"Is Susan in going to be in trouble for it? I thought I talked Dawlish out of that nonsense," Amelia asked, frowning.

"No she isn't in any trouble. In fact, she will probably be awarded the Order of Merlin first class for her actions tonight. But it was a dark curse that hasn't been seen in about fifteen years, and prior to that only seen in a few Death Eater attacks. We know that your defence professor was a Death Eater during the last war. Dumbledore vouched for him, said that he was a spy for the light, and he was pardoned for his actions. I want to believe he was telling the truth and that Snape wasn't hoodwinking him by playing into Dumbledore's need to give everyone a second chance but not everyone believes that and I do sometimes have my doubts.

"If Snape's been teaching dark curses to students it gives us a reason to haul him in and question him, even if he's genuinely Dumbledore's man he'll be able to name most if not all of the Death Eaters. Hopefully we can round up all the miscreants this time, especially since Fudge won't have Lucius in his ear about pardoning them," Kingsley said enthusiastically.

"If he was truly a spy for the light he should have come forth at the end of the war and given up those names," Amelia said scowling.

"I agree, but there's the argument that he couldn't know who to trust and there's no way to know without questioning him under Veritaserum that he didn't provide Dumbledore with a list of the Death Eaters and Dumbledore made a decision to watch and act only if he saw signs of continued acts of torture and murder," Kingsley said.

Amelia gave a disgruntled huff but couldn't argue with the possibility. She and Albus had disagreed about more than the handling of Draco Malfoy when it came to appeasing the powerful purebloods and the man definitely claimed to be acting on information nobody else had access to and he'd refused to share with anyone.

"Unfortunately for your case, Snape didn't teach us this, he pretty much stuck to the standard curriculum of spells we'd need for NEWTs. Harry taught it to me. He found it in a book somewhere," Susan said.

"That's actually a relief, if all of next year's seventh years knew this curse, then we'd have to have Aurors patrolling the school to keep the students safe," Kingsley said.

"Why?" Susan demanded. "You weren't bothered when you had a student casting Unforgivables at his classmates and as you said this curse isn't even illegal?"

Kingsley frowned. "I hadn't heard about that."

Susan scoffed disbelievingly.

"Who else did Harry teach this to?" Kingsley asked expecting her to say Ron and Hermione and perhaps Ginny Weasley. He wasn't sure how he felt about that, while it was far better than Snape having taught the entire school, both the Weasleys were far too hot headed and like their mother for him to be perfectly comfortable with then knowing such a violent spell. Not to mention that Molly would go through the roof if she learned they were using Dark Magic.

"Um I think it was only Neville, and I'm fairly sure one of them probably taught Luna if she wanted to learn it, but the only one there when he taught me was Neville," Susan replied. "I was there the first time he tried it and he was surprised by how much damage it could do."

"Did he ever cast it on a person?" Kingsley asked hurriedly.

"No, we were using training dummies, transfigured from rubbish. Harry tried to avoid casting anything on people at all until he was sure he could control his magic. He got a huge boost of magic when the blocks on it were removed and he had to work hard not to overpower spells and hurt someone without meaning to. Neville had his magic unblocked and had problems as well though he and I didn't get as big an increase as Harry," Susan said. "And wherever he found the spell it had no description of it other than that it was invented for use on enemies. I don't think I can tell you much more about it."

"There was a rumour that Potter attacked the Malfoy brat. Do you know what spell he used?" Kingsley asked.

"Expelliarmus," Susan said frowning.

"He nearly killed another student with an Expelliarmus?" Kingsley asked shocked.

"Malfoy was trying to hit him with the Cruciatus curse at the time so Harry was pretty angry and reacted without thinking, he tried to disarm him, Malfoy dodged and the spell blew up the mirror behind him, they were in one of the bathrooms on the first floor and glass shards flew everywhere and Harry got a shield up in time to protect himself but Malfoy was pretty cut up as well as being injured where he hit his head and back when he was knocked over by the explosion," Susan tried to explain.

"Kingsley, where did you hear that?" Amelia asked. "Dumbledore quashed that investigation and refused to allow us to arrest Draco Malfoy. The Malfoy boy pleaded to a misdemeanour and was given ten years' probation in return for Potter not being expelled for deliberately injuring a fellow student, even though I believe Potter's statement that he hadn't intended to cause serious harm and Draco Malfoy was healed within hours."

"I heard it from Severus Snape, who was ranting about the golden boy getting away with attempted murder. He's always had it in for Potter so none of us took it too seriously but when I saw the damage Susan did tonight with a curse she said Potter taught her, I had to ask," Kingsley explained.

Susan nodded, "Snape thought it was this spell too when he saw the injuries Malfoy had."

"Snape recognised the curse?" Kingsley asked, suddenly alert.

"I wasn't there but yeah from what Harry said about his reaction, I think so, you'd have to ask Harry," Susan said.

"Why do you think Potter would teach you and Neville a curse that he wouldn't teach his best friends?" Kingsley asked curiously.

"Neville is one of Harry's best friends, he just doesn't make as big of a song and dance about it as Ron. I think that it was more likely that Ron and Hermione refused to learn it, than that he didn't offer to teach them. Hermione is a bit of a 'rules are more important than almost everything' sort of person and Harry found the curse written in the margins of an old potions text book. Hermione was already upset with Harry about the book because Harry was using the tips on potions he found in the book to make his potions work better than if he'd followed the textbook properly, and she'd called him a cheat for using the other persons work, so he might not have wanted to bring it up. But Hermione was always more interested in spells that would be on our NEWT exams, she knew this spell wouldn't be so she probably wouldn't want to learn it, particularly if she thought it was dark and Ron is a bit of an idiot about dark magic too. He couldn't see that Voldemort wasn't going to be beaten in a fight with purely light spells, this wasn't the only spell Harry taught me and Neville that he said Ron and Hermione had refused to learn," Susan said.

Kingsley nodded, the explanation fit with what he knew of the other two members of the golden trio. "What about Ginny and Luna?" he asked.

"Harry spends very little time with Ginny, he's been avoiding her since she tried to kiss him and ask him out in front of the entire Gryffindor common room and got so upset when he turned her down a couple of months ago. She clearly hasn't given up on the idea of bagging 'the-boy-who-lived' and it makes him uncomfortable. He didn't find this spell until after that incident but I doubt he would have taught her this anyway with her temper," Susan replied.

Kingsley frowned, he'd gotten the impression from conversations he'd heard between the Weasleys that Harry and Ginny were practically attached at the hip and on the verge of declaring each other the love of their life. He wondered for a moment which redheaded girl was deceiving herself or whether Potter was leading them both on. "Would he have taught Luna Lovegood?" he repeated, trying to concentrate on the facts that mattered.

"Luna doesn't like to fight, she'll work on spells to hang about with us but she's more happy learning shields and healing spells and patching us up," Susan said. "He would have taught her if she was there when he and Neville were practicing the spell and wanted to learn it, but otherwise it probably didn't come up. She likes spells that do damage to the dummy that she can try to heal. This one can't be healed with the normal healing spells, and Luna was more interested in trying to find a healing spell that worked on it, so he probably didn't practice it around her that often."

"Training dummies don't respond to healing spells, particularly not training dummies transfigured out of junk," Kingsley said.

"Oh I think that's the room of requirement's doing. Luna wanted dummies she could heal so the room gave them to her," Susan explained.

"I'd like to see this room. Does Harry know who's old potions book it was?" Kingsley asked.

"I know he didn't at first but I think he did find out at some stage because all of a sudden he became a lot more careful who saw it and bought a new potions book and started writing the hints into his own book instead of taking the old one to class. He didn't even keep it in his trunk or his bookbag," Susan said thoughtfully. "I can tell you that whoever's book it was is seriously good at potions not just following directions like most of us but at changing things to get a better result. All the hints that Harry tried from the book were really useful.

Like a future potions master level of good or just a student likely to get an O?" Kinsley suggested. "When was it that he seemed to realise that having the book was dangerous?"

"The level of intuition on when to follow the instructions and when to change them to improve the results was way beyond even the best potions students in our year. That or one of their parents was a potions master and gave them the hints over the summer. If it was Snape's old book, that would explain how Harry seemed to find out whose book it was at the same time as Malfoy crashed into the mirror and ended up with cuts all over his face and arms, or maybe he just suspected it was Snape because he recognised the spell and had a counter spell he was using to heal the damage when we hadn't been able to find a healing spell that worked," Susan agreed.

"No it doesn't, if Snape knew that the spell does this then why would he think that Malfoy could have been attacked by it? In spite of his malingering in the hospital wing, Draco Malfoy was only superficially injured by the flying glass, and the Death Eaters tonight were almost cut up into diced chunks," Amelia said.

"I don't know. I don't know if he realised how strong Harry's magic is, Harry has been really trying to hold back in class not to injure anyone and because he didn't trust Snape and the Slytherins, and he didn't know Harry had been practicing the spell. Maybe if an average wizard tried it for the first time and was a bit more hesitant casting a spell they didn't know against a person when they didn't know what it would do, it might look like that, I couldn't do anywhere near this much damage to the training dummies with this spell," Susan replied.

Kingsley nodded his agreement. "I don't think that the previous victims of that spell looked like You-Know-Who and the Lestranges did tonight when the Death Eaters were using it in the last war either. I would've remembered."

He escorted the Bones' to a muggle hotel and helped them check in, showing them how the electrical lights and appliances worked and how to look at the menu and call room service before setting some security wards on their room and wards to alert him to other magical presences on the building itself. He used his own credit card and told Amelia that she could pay him back in Galleons so she didn't have to worry about Muggle money.

A/N: Thank you to all those who reviewed followed or favourited this story for your support.