The timeline for 6th year is interesting… because what this chapter will depict apparently happened at the very end of June before all the exams when the year before OWLs took place at the start of June, but it's not a major issue really, it just means extending certain inter-chapter events.

This one's a big chapter, and one I'm really excited for you all to read. I won't say any more however, and I'll just let you get into it!

Unfortunately for Leo, his not being a prefect and being caught out past curfew had cost Gryffindor 20 points, and Hermione had got a stern warning about abusing her Prefect powers before sending the pair off to the Common Room, where none of their friends agreed that the discovery of the Prince's being a Pure Blooded family was a major discovery. It also turned out to be one of the last nights that they managed to get away with non-schoolwork research as the countdown to their exams was getting more and more pressed on them by all of their teachers, with Ginny especially making herself scarce so that she could revise for her OWLs.

When they did have a spare couple of hours however, it was spent in the library as Leo and Harry poured through all of the historical artifacts that had been noted down throughout the history books, while Hermione had almost memorised the Prince family tree from between 1764 and 1932, with absolutely nothing of interest within that time range. The last of the Prince's in the Hogwarts records was a girl named Eileen, who Hermione discovered midway through June was at Hogwarts in the 1940's as a Slytherin and eventually became the captain of the Gobstones club. That wasn't something that actually interested Harry however, who even laughed that news off claiming that the Half Blood Prince couldn't be a girl down to the writing, something that ticked Hermione off even more adding to the friction between the friends.

All of that and the stress over their upcoming exams meant that when Harry was summoned away by Professor Dumbledore one evening at the end of the month, it was somewhat of a relief for Leo not being in the middle of the pair's sniping, and it allowed him to draft out his rather excessive notes on the Goblin Rebellions of 1612, 1752 and 1890 while Ron and Anna revised Herbology, Fay and Hermione were quizzing one another on the dangers of the Babbling Beverage, while Ginny kept interrupting them with her own revision of basically everything she had ever learned at Hogwarts. That was until Harry came rushing back into the Common Room, almost knocking over a pair of third years on his way back over to them.

"I've got to be quick." He panted as he recovered his breath, looking mainly towards Ron and Hermione, all disagreements seemingly forgotten. "Dumbledore thinks I'm getting the cloak, but listen. I'm going with him, he's found one."

"Found what?" Anna asked nosily, but Fay shushed her immediately, with Leo noticing the excitement in her eyes as she was finally, and possibly accidentally, being included in something. A familiar feeling to himself earlier in the year.

Harry carried on without showing that he noticed the interruption however. "But we'll be away from Hogwarts, so you see what this means?" He asked rapidly. "Dumbledore won't be here tonight, so Malfoy's going to have another clear shot at whatever he's up to."

"Harry…" Hermione began to roll her eyes.

"No, Hermione, listen to me!" Harry said, his urgency was borderline panicky, a tone he hadn't used before in his exasperation with the brunette girl. "I know he was celebrating in the Room of Requirement. Please, trust me."

She paused for a split second, but nodded firmly, something which Harry breathed a breath of relief at. He then looked at Leo and reached into his pockets. "Here." He said, handing him a scrap piece of parchment. "Hermione knows where to look, but please, watch him. And watch Snape too, I'll explain that later too but I don't trust him at all. Get everyone you can from the DA." He then flicked a large Galleon over to Ron. "If I'm right and Snape is involved we need all the help we can get."

"Mate…" Ron began, wanting an explanation like the rest of them sat around the small table, but Harry once again interrupted him.

"There isn't time." He urged before he also shoved a pair of socks in Ron's hands, explaining after a moment of confusion from the red head. "It's the Felix. Share it around with everyone that you can." He looked at his watch. "I really need to go…"

"No!" Hermione stated just as urgently as Harry, rising to her feet. "You should take the Felix, Harry. You'll need it."

Harry smiled as he shook his head. "I'll be fine, Hermione, I'll be with Dumbledore. I'd rather know you are all ok…"

Everything over the past couple of weeks was completely forgotten when Hermione jumped out of her seat and in a flash of bushy hair had claimed Harry in a vicious hug, clinging on to him. Harry looked surprised, and then grateful, returning the embrace before pushing her away towards the chair that Leo was sat in. "I'll see you later. Just… trust me." He repeated. Hermione could do nothing but nod in answer.

And with that he was off, leaving the five 6th year Gryffindor's extremely confused for a moment. Leo looked down at the parchment, realising finally what it was and looking back at the portrait hole in surprise before he began to lay it out flat on the table after Ron had very quickly dumped all the revision notes into an open bag. Hermione immediately threw up a privacy charm around them as he pulled out his wand and tapped the parchment. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." He muttered. As the map of Hogwarts began to scrawl across the page he heard Anna and Fay gasp, grinning as he watched their faces light up in wonder at the sight. "What is this…" Fay whispered.

"A present from mine and Harry's dad's." Leo said, the briefest explanation he could think of before the urgency Harry was in festered in Leo too. He turned to the map and asked. "Where's Malfoy?"

"It's late, he should be in the Common Room." Hermione responded, moving the map until a whole host of Slytherin's were named in the same place. Leo noticed Alice Rosier was sat in a huddle with Tracey Davis and Daphne Greengrass, while Crabbe and Goyle were also in their Common Room… though nobody saw Draco Malfoy.

Other suggestions were bandied around as they checked the kitchens, and all the usual detention spots before Ron slapped himself on the forehead in realisation. "The Room of Requirement! He'll still be there!"

"Of course!" Ginny gasped, pointing to the spot where the Room should have been. Of course there were no names, but the fact that they couldn't see Malfoy's anywhere else gave them their answer. "We need to go…"

"Hold on." Hermione said, as she shifted the map to show the Potions classroom and tapped it nearby at the mark that was showing Professor Snape in his office. "There."

"Can someone explain what is going on?" Anna asked impatiently, finally speaking up as she looked towards Ron with a glare. "What is this… where has Harry run off to, why do we care what Malfoy is up to and what is going on!"

The Weasley seemed unbothered by her glare and rattled off into an explanation as . "Harry is off on a secret mission; we can't share what that is on Dumbledore's orders." He added at her pout. "But he's also been suspicious of Malfoy all year, who has a mission from Voldemort." He ignored the winces. "Which Hermione disagrees with…"

"Ronald." Hermione warned. "Not the time."

"Right. So we're going to do what Harry has asked because if Harry is even remotely right, Malfoy needs to be stopped." Ron explained to now the now gawping 6th year girls. "Hermione, you scout out Snape's office. Keep a lookout and try and stop him if he leaves, you'll think of something to stall him with." He pre-empted her question. "Leo, me and you will go to the Room and block off Malfoy."

"I'm coming too." Ginny said defiantly, her wand already in her hand.

Ron looked like he wanted to argue, but thought better of it and nodded his head. "Fine." He looked at the other girls. "Fay, you were part of the DA, are you in?"

Fay paused and looked over at Leo, a silent question that he could decipher almost instantly. "You're ready." He nodded, realising at that moment that the same question should really be being asked of him.

"Then yes. I'm in. I want to help, especially if Malfoy is… one of them." Fay explained firmly.

Ron didn't question it any further as he looked at Anna next. "This is going to be dangerous." He tried to warn her.

"You are all going, so I am too." Anna said stubbornly, folding her arms. Once more Ron refused to argue, the urgency once again showing on his face.

"Right, you both go with Hermione then." Ron said. "And keep the Galleons on you in case we need to communicate." He reached into his own pocket and pulled out another Galleon, gently passing it over to Anna. "Don't lose this." He urged.

"Send a message out now." Leo added to Ron's instructions, reaching behind him for his denim jacket in anticipation of leaving imminently. "Any DA members that are paying attention, we need them ready. Get the prefects patrolling their areas, but especially near the 7th floor."

Hermione immediately got to work relaying that message and Leo felt a humming in the pocket of his jeans where he kept his own Galleon. Ron stood up and took a deep breath, before noticing that Neville had immediately wandered over to them. "Neville, follow me I'll explain on the way." He commanded, before uncorking the Felix and pouring a drop onto his tongue, before passing it around. Leo took it from Ginny, pouring a drop into his mouth and relishing in the delicious honey-like flavour before he passed the small bottle over to Fay and making sure his wand was secure.

Once he was prepared to run, Leo turned to Hermione, a million words passing through their eyes that went unspoken in their present company. Once the others had started to move, he held his hand out and squeezed hers gently, conveying that message before he ran off, catching up to Fay and Anna as they exited the Portrait Hole. "Stay safe." He told them. "I don't know what's going to happen tonight… but please, stay safe."

"You too." Fay responded, and as they reached the staircases Ron and Anna shared a parting kiss before the two groups split, neither knowing what they were about to walk into.

Once they got to the 7th floor corridor that housed the Room of Requirement Leo stopped, and immediately cast a disillusionment charm over himself, waiting for the others to do so as well before slowly making their way towards the wall that housed the entrance to the room. Checking that Malfoy was still undiscoverable on the map, they then settled in a spot down the corridor and waited.

Leo use that time to play around with the map now that he had finally gotten to spend some time with it. He quickly spotted Hermione in the corridor outside of Snape's office, joined now by Luna Lovegood as well as Fay and Anna. He kept an eye on her marker for what seemed like the longest time, until all of a sudden Neville gasped and tensed up behind him. Looking over, Leo saw that the door was reappearing and so he quickly shoved the map into his jeans and kept his hand on his wand, staying expertly still so as to not risk the disillusionment charm's strength.

Malfoy was the first out, holding a strange, shrivelled arm as he began giving the area a quick scout Once he was happy he then gestured for 7 figures in dark robes to leave the Room of Requirement. "The Astronomy Tower." The Slytherin said as the Death Eaters filtered out. Leo recognised around half of them from an article in the Daily Prophet the year earlier, the one explaining the mass breakout from Azkaban. At the back of the line of Death Eaters was a different face that Leo recognised, one that he had hated ever since he had been told the story of his Mother's worst nightmare and been shown his picture as a warning. He spotted the thinning, long brown hair, the almost black eyes, that same, evil smile that had been on another newspaper article all those years ago. He was the one to tense up now, his hand squeezing his wand tightly as he thought on some of the spells he swore he would use on that man...

He soon wished that he hadn't, as that was the exact moment that Avery looked over towards their direction, his black eyes looking through them almost. He pointed his wand at Leo who prepared to defend himself… only for the Death Eater to cast "Revelio."

Barely waiting a moment before the shimmer of his disillusionment charm signalled its failure, Leo was ready. "Stupefy!" He cried out, aiming at Avery who easily batted the spell away with a grin. Three more stunning spells fired from behind him towards the group of Death Eaters but before they could impact them, the corridor lost all light and in a matter of seconds Leo couldn't even see his wand in front of him. "Lumos!" He tried, with the others trying various light and fire spells too as footsteps grew louder. Leo tried flinging a fist out in the direction of the noise, but he connected with nothing but air.

As the footsteps died the school kids turned back around. "Try and get back to the staircase!" Ron called out, but it was awkward moving, as Leo tried groping around for the wall to aid him, instead bumping into one of Ron or Neville on the way. Eventually after what seemed like minutes the darkness lifted and Leo had to take a moment for his eyes to readjust, but by the time he was somewhat aware of his surroundings once more, there was no sign of the Death Eaters.

"FUCK!" Ron was the one to swear, the red head kicking out at the wall before shushing the complaining and outraged portraits that were housed in that corridor.

"We need to get to the Astronomy Tower!" Ginny cried out. "That's where they said they were going!"

Ron nodded, but turned to Leo and asked. "Hermione?"

Leo looked down at the map again, noticing firstly that Hermione was thankfully still in the same place, but also that a few floors down from their position Remus Lupin was patrolling the castle. "Come on." He said, taking the lead as he began to jog towards the staircase. "We need to warn the Order."

By the time they had raced down two flights of stairs Remus Lupin had moved over towards them, turning the corner just as Leo did and the two collided into one another, sending both tumbling to the ground.

"Leo!" Remus exclaimed unhappily as he dusted himself off. "What in Merlin's name…"

"The Death Eaters!" Ron was the one to exclaim, interrupting the former teacher. "They're in the castle!"

There was an initial laugh of disbelief, but the looks on all four of the students faces gave it away and Remus looked frantically between them all. "Tell me everything." He said sternly, and so between them they did, explaining what they could of Harry's request and what Malfoy had now been proven to definitely be up to all year, finally getting to the part that had happened mere moments ago upstairs. Remus digested all of the information quickly before he retrieved his wand from his robes and after a momentary pause to steel himself, waved it silently producing a silvery wolf. Caster and Patronus looked at one another for a few seconds before it bounded off through a wall and out into the night sky. "The Order shall be here momentarily." He explained. After a moment of awe for the magic, Leo then realised that he also had a way to communicate, pulling out the Galleon from earlier and pressing his wand to it, thinking of his message. Death Eaters in Castle. Astronomy Tower. "You should all return to your common room." Remus told them.

"No chance." Neville was the one to say, a frown forming on his face. "Not while there are Death Eaters here!"

"Exactly, Death Eaters are here and you are all underage!" Remus told them. "It is our job to protect you…"

Leo shook his head. "This is our school, Professor." He said firmly. "We will protect it."

The adult's head flicked between 4 determined faces and eventually growled in frustration, but nodded, a look of respect very briefly crossing his eyes. "Very well, but stay behind me please." He instructed them all, holding his arms out wide as he turned and began to run.

They all sprinted through the castle towards the Astronomy Tower, and within minutes they had caught up to the group of black clad intruders. "STUPEFY!" Ron was the one to cry out first before sprinting past him, and Leo saw the Weasley's face had contorted into unbridled rage as his spell ricocheted away from a large blonde Death Eater, who had managed to shield himself just in time before throwing back a bright green jet of light.

"Down!" Remus cried out, but the time for order and discipline had gone. The corridor was quickly lit up by a multitude of colours as green, red, blue and purple spells were cast firing one way or another, some connecting in a clash of sparks, others missing Leo's head by inches as he ducked, throwing out a stunning spell in return.

"We don't have time for this!" One of the Death Eaters cried out, before pointing up to the ceiling. "Confringo!"

"Arresto Momentum!" Leo threw the spell upwards less than a second after the blast of fire connected with the ceiling, catching the rubble just in time to keep the corridor clear, noticing as Death Eaters bolted one way or another to try and get away.

"Quickly! We must stop them!" Remus cried out, though Ron was the first to charge down the corridor after them. Leo waited until he had moved past the debris' path before releasing the spell, watching as the corridor was covered in dust and marble chunks.

Leo took the different route, having spotted where Avery and another had run off to. Giving chase as his rage grew, he sped through corridor after corridor, catching up with the Death Eaters just as he passed the Magical Theory classroom. Leo threw out a jelly leg jinx towards Avery, tripping him up before knocking over a cabinet in order to block off the path. Avery was clearly experienced however and as he fell towards the floor, fired back before he landed, a jet of green light that caused Leo to dive into the classroom. When he popped his head back out into the corridor again, three more curses of various colours flew past his head and scorched the stone walls behind him. Growling at being pinned down, Leo used the adrenaline coursing through his veins to fire a variety of hexes and curses towards the trapped pair of Death Eaters, ducking through the doors after each spell to cover himself.

After minutes of stalemate, Leo decided to try something new, aiming his wand at one of the desks within the castle he cried. "Cuerda Ignis!" A rope of fire shot from the tip of his wand and wrapped around the leg of the desk, and Leo hauled the desk towards him as the flames began to lick at the wood, before urging the spell to constrict towards his wand, bending the desk around the doorway and down the corridor with a loud crash. Using the distraction he darted out from the room and shouted. "Confringo!" towards Avery when around half a dozen stunners flew overhead from behind him. Avery snarled as he realised he was now outnumbered as well as trapped, blasting through the cabinet and racing through the gap as he dragged his Death Eater friend with him, and though Leo wanted to give chase he needed a moment to catch his breath as six Ravenclaw students ran towards him.

"Leo! Mate! What's going on?" He heard the voice of Terry Boot call out as a large hand grabbed him by the shoulder of his denim jacket and hauled him upright. Leo then saw that all of the Ravenclaw's that joined the DA the year previously had answered his call. Well, all but Marietta Edgecombe he noted, but that was understandable to him. As he looked over at the group he was delighted to see that his DA Galleon message had worked. Anthony Goldstein and Michael Corner had pushed past to try and repair the damage to the cabinet, while Cho Chang, Sue Li and Padma Patil all looked up at Leo concerned. "Leo?" Terry urged.

"Death Eaters in the castle." Leo explained. "They're doing something in the Astronomy Tower… I don't know what."

"We're not far." Cho explained, looking around. "Come on, we're with you."

Leo led the way as they all ran through the castle, noticing scorch marks, burning paintings and rubble as they went, soon getting to the main chamber of the Astronomy Tower where the sight before him showed Leo that he had been delayed by a while. Spells were flying everywhere in the wide, circular chamber and he could count at least 2 bodies lying on the ground, but by far the most horrifying image was the Dark Mark that loomed in the skies above them, visible through the chunk of the tower that had been blown out. He was brought back to the scene in front of him when a large body shoved him to the floor, and over Terry Boot's head flashed another green light.

As he rose to his feet and started firing hex after hex towards the Death Eaters, he could see that as promised that a number of the Order of the Phoenix had arrived as he launched a stunner towards one of the Death Eaters who was engaged in a duel, with Tonks on one side of the chamber, while on the other… Leo gasped, watching as his Mother was manoeuvring dozens of rock shards to fly into nearby Death Eaters repeatedly. He ducked another curse before throwing back a leg locking jinx in the direction it came from, ducking and weaving around different spells, the Ravenclaw's and damaged objects until he was close to his Mother. "Mum!" He cried out.

"Leo!" She returned frantically, reaching out for him with her spare hand and gripping his arm tightly as she dragged him into her arms, wrapping him in a fierce hug. "What the bloody hell are you doing here?" She demanded.

He threw up a shield charm behind her back to block a yellow spell from hitting them. "Fighting!" Was all he said, pulling away from the hug as he shot a stunner back. "What's happening?"

The look on Mary's face told him that they would be having a very long conversation about his rushing into danger later, but thankfully she put a cork in that lecture and instead began to explain everything, in between spellcasting as they defended their position. "There's a barrier blocking the stairs, but Professor Snape has gone up after the Death Eaters and will force them back down, then we'll get them!"

His initial relieved breath was cut short as a loud explosion caused both of them to jump and stare in the direction of the stairs as the ceiling above began to collapse. Leo immediately threw up a shield charm to block the debris, managing just about to stay on his feet as dust was thrown up everywhere by the clattering stone. Coughing and spluttering, Leo tried blowing the dust away with a light breeze charm but to no avail. A shout went up from somebody, Leo had no idea who, that the barrier had been broken, and before having any time to register that Mary was dragging him with her towards the stairs, not letting him go for a moment as he heard Professor Snape's voice in the distance, once more not making out properly what was being said as the spells started again in more volume as Leo realised that they had only been defending against a smaller number, and the rest of the Death Eaters were now charging down the stairs in their numbers, closely followed, to Leo's surprise, by an extremely angry Harry Potter, who vaulted the last ten steps and raced past without so much as a word. Leo wanted to follow him but his Mother's grip was too strong, and all thought of running after Harry was abandoned when he was forced to throw a shield charm up as the large blonde Death Eater had continued his onslaught of firing destructive spells everywhere he could point his wand at, with the final one coming as the floor beneath Leo exploded.

Groaning as a searing pain spread through the back of Leo's head he grabbed hold of his wand again, gripping it tightly as with his other arm Leo wiped the blood and dust away from his eyes. He tried to regain his bearings, wincing as the pain in his head grew, presumably from being slammed into the wall, Leo thought to himself, before trying to focus on the aftermath of the floor explosion.

The Death Eaters had begun to flee one by one as the Order and students of Hogwarts managed to gain more of a foothold within the chaos. Pulling himself to a sitting position Leo looked around for his Mother, only to find her around twelve feet away locked in a vicious duel with the one man Leo dreaded to see her facing, as he recognised the rotting teeth and cold, black eyes of Avery. He tried to get to his feet again but a blasting curse shot overhead and it was all Leo could do to duck out of the way, shielding himself again from the debris falling over him before once again attempting to haul himself upwards, finally managing to regain his footing as he shooting a blasting curse towards Avery, missing him by inches. Leo began to move towards them when a force of air knocked him back onto the ground.

Groaning, Leo pushed himself up with his arms, straining his neck to find his Mother again as he was doing so. The duel was still ongoing as in his dazed vision he saw a multitude of colours flash both ways, only for the final colour to be green, and coming from the direction of Avery.

The scream that left his mouth didn't sound human, a raw, guttural cry that felt like it was cracking his throat like glass. His vision blurred and shook around him but the pain in his head was no longer there, the only thing in the entire world in that moment was that green light from Avery's spell hitting Mary MacDonald squarely in the chest.

Reviews:

Lightningscar: Ghosts are more the imprint of the soul, not the actual soul, which in my eyes are different as a person with a living soul can grow and adapt, while a ghost is stuck in the moment immediately before their death. Same with the Priori Incantatum, that's not actually the soul of the person either. As Dumbledore explains in this passage here:

"Which means," said Dumbledore slowly, his eyes upon Harry's face, "that some form of Cedric must have reappeared."

Harry nodded again.

"Diggory came back to life?" said Sirius sharply.

"No spell can reawaken the dead," said Dumbledore heavily. "All that would have happened is a kind of reverse echo. A shadow of the living Cedric would have emerged from the wand… am I correct, Harry?"

"He spoke to me," Harry said. He was suddenly shaking again. "The… the ghost Cedric, or whatever he was, spoke."

"An echo," said Dumbledore, "which retained Cedric's appearance and character. I am guessing other such forms appeared… less recent victims of Voldemort's wand…"

Yeah the kiss wasn't exactly supposed to be a big twist… that's not the point of this relationship, it's been a slow burn where Leo has basically learned to come out of his shell as he's been forced to be around these people, and in doing so he's found somebody that he really connects with on a level he's never experienced before. I'm a bit disappointed it came off underwhelming, but perhaps that's because I felt we already knew what Dumbledore said from the books so I've only written the reaction here rather than the retelling. I really wanted to give Ron more and show why he is a big part of this trio, and with him and Hermione not having the same relationship as canon that can come out in a bit more of an authoritative way. He's grown up a lot in Year 6 here through his relationship with Lavender and seeing his two friends coupled up as well.

Dante687: Thank you!

SkepticPrinceArthur: Dumbledore theorises about Nagini in his talk with Harry when they view Slughorn's memory, so obviously Leo wasn't privy to that conversation. You might be the only person so far to have guessed that Ron and Anna would start something! At least the first person to mention it.