Chapter 73 is here... Enjoy!

"Sirius, are you alright? What happened? Is everything okay?" asked Harry, panicking, as he picked up his 2-way mirror.

"Harry... everything is fine, calm down, will you?" smiled Sirius in response. "What's gotten you into a frenzy?" he asked, curiously.

It was only then that Harry realised. "He doesn't know that I know about Nurmengard, does he?" thought Harry, to himself. "What was I supposed to think? It is almost midnight, Sirius," chuckled Harry, though he was still worried about Sirius contacting him late in the night.

Sirius chuckled along with Harry. "So, how are you doing, my boy?" he asked.

"I'm doing fine," replied Harry. "We just beat Hufflepuff a few days back," he added with a beaming smile. "Ron was an excellent keeper," he added.

"Wonderful!" remarked Sirius in response. "So, do you have Ron and Hermione along with you?" he asked after a few seconds.

"Uh..." Harry looked around and saw that Ron had already gone up, while Hermione was sitting at the other end of the common room, studying. "Ron's up... Hermione is here though," he replied. After a moment, he continued. "Sirius, what is going on? What happened?" he asked.

"Check if Ron is awake, if he's, get him downstairs... I need to talk to all 3 of you," replied Sirius. "Don't worry... Everything is fine, everyone is fine," he added.

"Fine! Give me a minute," sighed Harry and got up. First, Harry went to Hermione and handed her the mirror.

"Hermione," he called out. "It's Sirius... He wants to talk to us," he said as he handed her the mirror.

"Hey, Harry," responded Hermione with a warm smile as she took the mirror. "Hi Sirius," she remarked, looking at the camera.

"Good evening, darling," greeted Sirius with a smile. "How are your OWLs preparations going?" he asked.

"Not well at all... I'm lagging behind in all the subjects. I have loads to do in Arithmancy, Transfiguration, Defense Against the Dark Arts..." replied Hermione, hastily and paused as she saw Sirius chuckling. "Why are you laughing?" she asked.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't control it. You are lagging behind? I wonder what you think about the rest of your classmates," he remarked.

"I have so much to study and so little time to do all of it," sighed Hermione. "There's so much going on here... and I'm getting easily distracted," she added.

"Don't be so hard on yourself," responded Sirius. And just then, Hermione saw Harry and Ron walking towards her.

"Ron's here," said Hermione as she handed the mirror to Ron.

"Hi Sirius, what's with all the late-night connect?" greeted Ron as he took the mirror.

"I just wanted a quick chat with all three of you, that's all," replied Sirius with a smile. "So, is there anyone else there beside you?" he asked.

"It's the middle of the night, Sirius. You think anyone else would be up other than Hermione?" chuckled Ron. Hermione stared at him and gave him a tired friendly push.

Sirius beamed a little and after a few seconds, he spoke up. "Well... I don't want you all to panic or get worried, but something happened today," began Sirius, on a serious note. Harry watched him with bated breath, for he knew what was coming, while Ron and Hermione watched him intrigued.

Sirius picked up his wand, waved it at himself and after a moment, panic struck all three of them.

"Oh my God, Sirius!" exclaimed Harry, shocked. Hermione gasped while Ron had a shocked expression as well. Before Sirius had contacted Harry, he had made his face and his body look normal unlike how it was right now, bruised and battered, bloody all over.

"What happened, Sirius?" asked Hermione, alarmed.

"It's a long story, dear... and that's what I wanted to tell you all about. You are going to read about it in the papers tomorrow, anyway..." replied Sirius. After a moment, he continued. "Have any of you heard of Nurmengard castle?" he asked.

"Nurmengard..." wondered Ron, out loud, like he had heard it somewhere.

"It's the prison Gellert Grindelwald built, 70 years ago," replied Hermione confidently. "It is 70 years today," she added.

"Right... right..." sighed Sirius. After a moment, he continued, "You-know-who successfully attacked and captured the prison earlier today," remarked Sirius mournfully.

"What?" gasped Harry. "How?" he added loudly.

"So... We received information, a couple of days back, that You-know-who was planning to attack and take over Nurmengard. Dumbledore had us all in the Order prepared for the battle while he got some assistance from other ministries as well," began Sirius in reply.

"You fought You-know-who?" retorted Ron, stunned. "Why weren't we told about it earlier?" he added, sounding a little upset.

"Is everyone doing okay?" asked Hermione, worried.

"We are all fine," replied Sirius. "Alastor got severely injured and is being treated right now," he added. "Tonks and Arthur got knocked out by curses as well. But they are doing much better now, so no need to worry," he finished.

"Arthur... Dad? Dad was there with all of you? How is he?" retorted Ron, alarmed. "I need to see him right now," he added, hastily.

"Your dad was brilliant out there," replied Sirius, proudly. "And you have absolutely nothing to worry about. He even spoke to us a while back," he added. "Your mother is here, he'll be fine," he finished. After a moment, he continued. "Let your brothers know that Arthur is fine, will you? Your mother would probably write to all of you, but they should know how their old man is doing," he remarked.

"Sirius, what happened at Nurmengard?" asked Harry, diverting Sirius' attention back to the battle of that evening.

"You want the details, Harry?" asked Sirius in response.

"I should have been there with you tonight..." replied Harry, sulking. "All of us should have been there," he added as he glanced at Hermione and Ron.

"I can't lie... We could have used 3 more sets of hands and brains tonight," replied Sirius with a smile.

"But?" asked Harry.

"You will get your chance..." replied Sirius.

Harry shook his head, disappointed with everything.

"You should get yourself looked at, Sirius. You don't look good," said Harry after a few seconds.

"I agree... And it is late into the night. You should get some sleep, Sirius," added Hermione with a smile.

And with that, the trio wished Sirius a peaceful night. It took a couple of minutes of silence for the three of them to regain their thoughts.

"I can't believe something like this was happening and we weren't even told about it till after," sighed Ron, breaking the silence.

"If not for Sirius, the first we would have heard of it would have been in tomorrow's papers," sighed Hermione.

Harry, however, remained silent. He knew that there was a battle to be fought in Nurmengard that evening, he had asked to be a part of it as well, but was denied an opportunity. And looking at Sirius, the way he looked and spoke of the battle, Harry wished even more that he had been a part of it. What worried him the most was learning that despite everyone knowing about the attack 2 days prior, they were still unable to prevent Voldemort from capturing and taking over the Nurmengard castle.

"Harry... you are awfully silent, what's on your mind?" asked Ron, breaking Harry's thoughts.

"Uh... nothing..." he replied. "So... that's where Professor Dumbledore and White were?" he sighed after a moment.

"They have been gone for a couple of days, haven't they?" wondered Ron, out loud. "But, you weren't told anything about all of this, by White or by Dumbledore?" he asked, looking at Harry.

"No... not a clue," lied Harry in reply as he glanced at Hermione who seemed to be staring at him intently.

After a few seconds of silence, Harry spoke up. "Why are you looking at me like that?" he asked, looking at Hermione.

"Nothing... I'm just worried," replied Hermione.

"About?" asked Ron.

"What's not to worry about?" retorted Hermione with a forced smile.

The trio shared a few more seconds filled with silence before Ron remarked, "I'm going back upstairs," he said.

"Good Night, Ron," greeted Hermione with a smile.

"Night," greeted Harry.

"Night," greeted Ron, yawning.

Harry got up from his seat a few seconds after Ron went up. But, just as he did, Hermione spoke up.

"Harry..." she called out. Harry glanced at her in response.

"Nurmengard... 70 years since its inception..." remarked Hermione. Harry stared at her, confused.

"What are you getting at?" he asked. "That today was quite the day to plan the attack?" he added, confused.

"No... I mean the timing is interesting, but that's not what I was going to ask you," replied Hermione. After a few seconds, she continued, "the other day... you were holding this magazine... at Hogsmeade... It had Nurmengard in its cover. You were holding it, right before you dashed away from there in a hurry," remarked Hermione and left her statement open-ended.

Harry chuckled in response, not sure how to wiggle out of Hermione's suspicion.

"I was?" he asked.

Hermione got up cautiously, walked over to Harry and took his hand in hers.

"Hermione," gasped Harry, softly.

"Good Night, Harry," said Hermione, softly and kissed Harry's cheek.

"Good Night, Hermione," greeted back Harry, with a blush. And with that, Hermione left Harry alone in the common room, without uttering another word.

While, in the immediate aftermath of the battle, Sirius wanted to speak with the trio, the following morning, Snape wanted to have a word with Dumbledore about something similar.

"Good Morning, Professor Dumbledore," greeted Snape as he entered Dumbledore's office.

"Good Morning, Severus. What brings you to my office early in the morning?" greeted Dumbledore in response.

"Professor... I wish to speak about what happened yesterday," replied Snape.

"Severus... It wasn't my intention to keep you in the dark," remarked Dumbledore, instantly.

"I don't understand, Professor," replied Snape.

"We didn't want Tom to know that we had intelligence of his plans," replied Dumbledore. "Had we told you that we knew, you'd have been put in an impossible position. Keeping you in the dark was the only way we could continue with our plans," he added.

"I am already in an impossible position, Professor. If you had told me about it, I'd have had a better ground to stand opposite the Dark Lord," retorted Snape, disappointed. "He already knew that you knew his plans," he added.

"I'm well aware of that, Severus. However, had he not known... then you'd have had to lie to him. Would you have rather preferred that?" asked Dumbledore, carefully.

"Remaining oblivious to your plans hasn't helped me either. Now, he thinks that you no longer trust me with your secrets," replied Snape.

There was a sudden silence between the pair. After a few seconds, Snape continued. "You do trust me with your secrets, right, Professor?" he asked, cautiously.

"I trust you as much as I have done over the years, Severus," replied Dumbledore, calmly.

Snape sensed that something had changed between the two of them. Dumbledore looked much more guarded than ever before.

"Severus... I don't mean to pry, but are you worried about your place, now that there is someone else who is also on my side?" asked Dumbledore.

Snape stared back at Dumbledore, bewildered. "Professor, I don't understand," he replied. "Do you mean, Benjamin White?" he asked. Dumbledore remained silent and Snape continued. "I don't like him... There's something about him like he is putting on an act," began Snape.

"I assure you, Severus. He's on our side if that's what worries you," interjected Dumbledore.

"Who is he? And why have you brought him here, all the way from MACUSA?" asked Snape.

"He doesn't belong to MACUSA, Severus..." corrected Dumbledore, but conveniently left Snape's question unanswered.

"The Dark Lord is getting anxious about him. He has questions about him that I don't have answers to. The latest of which has been, Nurmengard. Your trust in him is making the Dark Lord... uneasy," remarked Snape. Dumbledore nodded in acknowledgement.

"While on the same topic..." began Severus, cautiously. "How did you find out the plans?" he asked.

Dumbledore gave a broad smile. "Unfortunately Severus... I cannot give you that information," he replied, calmly.

"Why not?" retorted Snape, shocked. However, he got no response from Dumbledore.

"I have been tasked with finding out about it," remarked Severus.

"Then I wish you the best of luck," replied Dumbledore.

And with that, Snape left Dumbledore's office. His disappointment at being kept in the dark, twice in a row, was quite apparent.

A couple of weeks went by, quite uneventfully, for Harry Potter. It was frankly a nice change of pace, he felt. It seemed that life was back to normal, whatever normal was during these times. Quite soon after the battle of Nurmengard, Harry had resumed his sessions with Benjamin White, if it was possible, with even more rigour and determination. Harry was angry that he wasn't involved and he directed his furious energy into his training sessions. And the results were quite stark.

Harry was closing in on 3 months of training with Benjamin White. And it was already showing. In 5th year, Harry was a completely different person. He was training hard on sharpening his duelling skills with White. Apart from that, he was spending countless hours, alone, practising, whether it was with the Potions book of the Half-blood Prince, or it was his class material. All of it put together, Harry was rapidly getting better in his duelling skills. His speed, flexibility, agility, sharpness, stamina and everything else were getting better and better.

Just another piece of evidence of this came about during his training session with White.

"Get up," yelled White as he fired another stunner at Harry. A weary-looking Harry blocked the stunner and sprung back to his feet.

White blitzed his wand around a few times and Harry blocked every single blow that came his way. Right before White could wave up another attack, Harry apparated out of sight and appeared back, a few feet to the right of White.

And right when he did, he jerked his wand around and sent a beam of red light at White. White, who had seen this move from Harry multiple times, ducked out of the way and sent a ball of fire back at Harry. Nimble on his tired feet, Harry waved his wand at the oncoming fire and extinguished it instantly with a jet of water.

With his turn to attack, Harry pointed his wand at the ground near him and swung it briskly. The rocky terrain he was standing on provided for an uncountable number of rocks and pebbles, all of which now transfigured into different things and flew at White. Some of the rocks transfigured into little balls of fire, some turned into sharp blades, some into icicles and finally, the rest into sharp arrows. White, who was equally quick with his wand, reacted instantly to the barrage of attacks and transfigured a nearby tree into a huge wall and blocked off everything that was thrown at him.

It was then that Harry came up with something.

White's next attack came at him and like he had done all session, he apparated out of sight and reappeared, this time behind White.

And right when he did, Harry slashed his wand and screamed, "Sectumsempra"

White who was ready for the counterattack was, however, not ready for a curse he hadn't seen before. White, didn't even know that it was a curse. Harry's spell breached through White's delayed shield and sliced him across his body, resulting in multiple lacerations across his face, chest and arms.

White's wand fell on the floor as he limped to his knees, clutching his bloodied face.

"Oh my God," gasped Harry as he ran towards White.

However, in an instant, White picked up his wand and muttered something under his breath. And almost effortlessly, he was back to his feet, and his lacerations and bruises disappeared.

"I'm so..." began Harry to apologize, but instead stopped dead in his tracks.

White stared at Harry, with a mixture of anger, hurt and a bit of pride and intrigue.

"I'm so sorry, Professor White," apologized Harry. "Are you alright? I didn't mean to do that... I didn't know that it'd..." he continued, hastily with a tone of guilt.

"I'm fine, Harry," interrupted White.

"Are you sure? I saw a lot of blood... gushing out..." said Harry, unconvincingly. He still wasn't sure how White had healed himself, instantly. Adding to that, he wasn't sure how he had managed to cause injuries to White in the first place. He had tried the spell before, but that was in the chamber, and it was against the wall, or the rocks lying around, never against a live being. In his attempts at inanimate objects, it seemed to barely cause a few cracks.

"I'm quite alright," replied White, staunchly. After a few seconds, he continued. "Where did you learn that spell?" he asked.

"Uh... I, uh... saw it in a book," replied Harry.

"In the past few sessions, I have seen you do some things that I have never taught you. You seem to have picked up quite a few alchemical tricks too," remarked White, suspiciously.

Harry stayed silent for a few moments, contemplating his response, and then he spoke up.

"It's a book, that I borrowed. I'm sorry, I should have told you about it earlier," began Harry in reply. Harry paused to reach for his bag and take out the copy of the "Advanced Potion-Making" he had.

"This is the book where you learned all this from?" asked White, confused.

"Yes," replied Harry. And quickly continued. "I mean... This book belongs to someone, and that person wrote a lot of notes all across the book," he added.

"Who does this book belong to?" asked White, with a blank expression on his face.

"I don't know," replied. "It says, the book belongs to a Half-blood Prince," he added.

"It's a pseudonym..." sighed White.

"You know who that is?" asked Harry.

"No, Harry... I do not. But I do wish to take this book away from you," replied White strongly.

"Why?" asked Harry, shocked.

"I need to inspect this... The curse that you hit me with just now, I would like to know whose it is," replied White, calmly.

"Curse?" gasped Harry.

"Right," replied White as he snatched the book away from Harry.

"But I need the book, Professor White. I need it for... something else as well," protested Harry. Besides the things he had learnt from the Prince, Harry was also using the book as a ploy to get closer to Slughorn.

"You are not getting the book, Harry. Trust me, it is for your own good," replied White. Harry noticed a subtle change in his tone, it was like he was listening to the White that spoke in front of his class, not the one that trained Harry. "If this book has more of these curses, you should stay away from them. It will lead you down a path of no return," he added.

"I didn't know what that spell would do," retorted Harry. "Had I known, I would have never used it against you. Why would I try to hurt you?" he added.

"You are to not use them against anyone, Harry," replied White.

"I can use the killing curse or the cruciatus, but not some curse created by some random wizard?" asked Harry, bewildered.

"You haven't killed anyone yet, kid. There are things that are worse than death. And you don't want to go down that path," reiterated White.

Harry shook his head vigorously, in disbelief.

"I think we have come to the end of our session for the day. I wanted to start with your Occlumency lessons today, but you are not in the right frame of mind. We shall start with it next time around," remarked White.

Harry uttered no other words and with that, the session ended.

"What does it say?" asked Ron, curiously.

"It's the slug club meeting invitation," replied Hermione, causally.

"Yeah, Professor wants to have supper with us a week from today," replied Cedric, who was sitting beside Hermione in the great hall.

"Enjoy the party," chuckled Ron, glancing at the both of them, as he tucked into his eggs.

"Where's Harry?" asked Cedric, changing the topic. Ron shrugged in response.

"He had a long night yesterday," replied Hermione, as she picked up the newspapers that had just arrived.

"What do you guys do at these parties, anyway?" asked Ron.

The hall around them had gotten a bit noisy in the past few minutes. It was as if everybody was whispering to one another.

"Mostly eat and talk," replied Hermione.

"Professor Slughorn shows a lot of interest in our lives," added Cedric.

"He loves to build his network," suggested Hermione, casually.

"That's there of course," remarked Cedric absent-mindedly as he looked around him. The whispers had grown louder, and they seemed to come from those that were reading the papers.

"Are you two downplaying the whole thing, just so that I don't feel bad or something?" chuckled Ron.

"Oh my God," gasped, Hermione. Cedric and Ron stared at her, taken aback.

"Andres Manuel del Rio, one of the wizarding world's foremost experts in Wandlore and Wand making was found dead in his apartment late last night along with his brother, Jose and wife, Sofia," read out Hermione, with a shocked expression. "The Del Rio family, one of Spain's oldest magical families was shattered when they heard the news. Andres and Sofia, leave behind 2 kids, a son and a daughter, who are both working in the Ministerio de Magia de Espana, refused to comment on the situation," continued Hermione, as Ron and Cedric stared at her, shocked and in disbelief. "The tragic passing of Andres comes as a shock to everyone in Espana who will be observing today in mourning," finished Hermione as she handed the paper to Cedric.

"I can't believe he's dead," remarked Hermione, looking speechless.

"Who's he?" asked Ron, a little taken aback by Hermione's reaction.

"He's like their Ollivander or Gregorovitch," replied Cedric.

"Oh, wow," sighed Ron.

"Unbelievable," sighed Cedric after a few seconds as he folded the paper and kept it on the table.

"We even had one of his books in 3rd year," remarked Hermione. "Why would anyone do such a thing?" she added, disgusted.

"Along with his wife and brother? That's rough," sighed Ron.

There were a few minutes of silence between the three of them before Ron spoke up.

"What's with all these wand-makers getting killed recently?" remarked Ron, perplexed.

"What do you mean?" asked Cedric, confused.

"I remember reading about some wand-makers getting killed in their homes," replied Ron. "A couple of times, actually," he added.

"And then there was the death of Meraki," added Hermione.

"Oh, yeah... wasn't she that super old witch who was an alchemist?" asked Ron, remembering vague details.

Meanwhile, in another part of the castle, Benjamin White had just barged into Albus Dumbledore's office.

"Did anyone tell you what happened?" asked White, hastily, the moment he entered the office.

"Of course," replied Dumbledore, calmly.

"First Meraki and now Andres?" remarked White, with a glint in his eye.

"You think this is more than a mere coincidence?" retorted Dumbledore.

"It's probably a coincidence... You know you have to be careful, right?" replied White.

"Let's not jump to conclusions, shall we? Gather some more details and then let's talk. If anyone is on the search, they are bound to have left a lot more bodies than these 2," remarked Dumbledore.

"I don't feel so good about this, Albus," remarked White and with that, he left Dumbledore's office.

PS - So, what do you think about that ending? Let me know your thoughts about the chapter. Will be back with chapter 74 soon. Ciao!