Harry Potter and the Triangle Prophecy

Harry Potter and the Triangle Prophecy

Chapter Twenty-Two

Salvage

The real fascination in reclaiming architectural details lives in the narratives each piece furnishes....When you
buy an architectural remnant, you are paying for a piece of history and its story (real or imagined)....As long as
we relish stories, there will be a need for architectural salvage warehouses to provide the missing narratives....

--Joe Rhatigan, with Dana Irwin, Salvage Style

Matt knew what was in his father's mind: he had obviously decided that to earn some extra money, he was going out salvaging.
He had been to several wrecks before, but only to help get the crew off. He had never been keen on the salvaging business, aware
that his life was more valuable to his family than a bit of extra money....The ketch rolled and the mast pulled itself up yet again, and
in that instant both of them saw the man on deck. He was lashed to the mast and looked more dead than alive. But as Fathom plunged
past, they both saw an arm go up and heard a feeble shout above the pounding of the seas....At that moment he would rather have
drowned himself than sail away and leave that lone spark of life on the wreck. To sail away would be to die a thousand deaths.

--K.M. Peyton, Sea Fever

Harry and Ginny stared across the Gryffindor table at Ron and Hermione.

"Remus Lupin!" Harry exclaimed. "They think Remus had something to do with all of those Aurors disappearing?" The Great Hall was very quiet and still around them, Harry's words echoing in the nearly-empty space.

Hermione looked rather pained. "Well, they did all insist upon surrendering to him in particular after the Gringotts siege...."

Ron recoiled from her. "Hermione! How can you say that?"

"I don't mean I agree! I meant--I can see how the Ministry might think that looked suspicious. It was obviously an attempt on the part of the Death Eaters to discredit Remus. This proves it. We know he couldn't possibly be on the same side as them, but the Ministry still has a lot of ingrained anti-werewolf prejudice," she added softly, looking sadly at Ron. Ginny also looked morosely at her brother.

Harry grimaced and took the paper from Hermione, glancing quickly through the article. "It's another Daisy Furuncle story," he said dully. "Or should I say--Narcissa Malfoy?"

"Narcissa Malfoy?" Ginny said, mouth open. Harry had forgotten that she didn't know about the true identity of Daisy Furuncle. The three of them explained about what they saw in Ron's Omnioculars.

"She spends plenty of time slamming Remus, naturally," Harry said, still looking at the article. "Nothing new there. Perhaps her continuing anti-werewolf kick is because Nita was so upset with her for writing that story about you, Ron, and they're still on the outs...."

Hermione dropped her jaw. "You know about that?"

Ginny raised her hand. "I think I need to get caught up again...."

Harry looked up casually. "Yeah. I told Ron I knew he'd been writing to her." He turned to Ginny. "They got to know each other when he was in hospital."

Ron looked at Hermione sheepishly. "Harry thought I was cheating on you with a woman ten years older than me." Hermione and Ginny didn't speak, but after a moment of looking like they were trying to restrain themselves, started laughing very hard, their eyes scrunched up. Harry thought they might hurt themselves. Ron looked rather put-out. "It could happen, you know," he said with an injured air, above the sound of their raucous laughter. "Not me cheating on you," he said hastily to Hermione. "I mean--her being interested--or rather--oh, I'll just shut up now--" he mumbled as the laughter continued unabated. Finally, Hermione pulled his mouth to hers in a quick kiss, grinning at him, and soon he was grinning back.

Harry held up the paper to read the rest of the article (and to possibly hide Ron and Hermione doing anything else), grinning briefly to Ginny behind the shelter of the page. But when he continued reading the article, he very quickly stopped smiling and lowered the paper to the table once more, finding Ron and Hermione locked in a deep kiss.

"Oy! Come up for air! Something important here!" They separated, both coloring. "There's a list of names. The Aurors who've gone missing," he said quietly. He paused, swallowing, looking at Ron and Ginny in turn, unsure how to say it. When he looked at Ginny, he couldn't tear his eyes away from hers; she looked away first, pulling the paper to her slowly so she could read the list herself.

"Percy Weasley," she whispered, raising her eyes to meet Ron's gaze.

"Oh no," Hermione breathed, covering her mouth with her hand.

"And Harry!" Ginny exclaimed now, looking at the list again. "Not just Percy--"

"I know it's not just Percy, there were seventy-fi--"

"Katie."

Harry stopped dead, immediately picturing Katie in his mind, Katie working in the hot summer sun, Katie laughing with him as they had dinner at the Leaky Cauldron, Katie at the European Cup--

"Oh, god," he said softly, looking down at the list again. Kathryn Bell. He'd gone right to the bottom of the list, assuming that it would be alphabetical, looking for Ron and Ginny's older brother. After staring at Katie's name for a half minute, he said, "I'll bet Sam doesn't read the Prophet these days. Ron and Hermione--since Professor Dumbledore only just this morning appeared at breakfast for the first time. Aberforth may not have left the castle yet. Go up to the headmaster's office and see if he's still about. Sam shouldn't hear about this from a stranger; it should be from a friend. And Aberforth's the best friend he's got." He could barely choke out the words, thinking, They have to be all right....Katie and Percy have to be all right...

"What are you going to do?" Ron asked as he and Hermione rose to go.

"Ginny and I will go to Snape's office. We can use his fire to call Hog's End--and the Burrow. And he can tell Maggie. I think he should definitely be the one..." He was having trouble speaking without sounding like he had a frog in his throat now. He remembered the expert way Percy had handled things at the European Cup, impersonating his own father. Ginny patted his arm as though he were the one who had a missing brother--and maybe, in a way, he did.

Ron nodded and he and Hermione strode purposefully out of the Great Hall. Harry stood and started walking in the opposite direction.

"Where are you going, Harry? The stairs to the dungeon are this way," Ginny said, perplexed.

"This is a shortcut. Come on."

She followed him silently to the door behind the head table; after he opened it, he took out his wand and lit it, and he was glad to see that she followed suit without question. They each held their wands aloft with their right hands while clutching at the stone wall with their left hands, the stones slightly damp to the touch. They climbed cautiously down the steep stone steps, finally reaching the bottom; Harry thought something brushed by the bottom of his robes, and he tried not to imagine what it might be. They shuffled along slowly for a while, their breathing sounding abnormally loud in the underground passage, until they'd come to where Harry thought he remembered the secret entrance being that led to Snape's office.

"The Seer shall be Seen."

Harry froze. "What?" he asked Sandy.

"What?" Ginny whispered to Harry. "Did Sandy say something?"

Harry couldn't imagine what Sandy could mean; he didn't have any plans to take her out of his shirt, or to take his robes and shirt off. "Let's just try to get this open," he whispered back to Ginny, deciding that he'd just have to wait and see about what Sandy had said. He wasn't sure why he was whispering; it just felt like the right thing to do when standing in a dank secret passage. He felt for and found the crack in the wall that indicated where the door was and began to push, Ginny putting her shoulder into it as well to speed up the process. The door finally gave way and pivoted in the middle, revealing Snape's office in all its depressing glory.

Embarrassingly enough, it also revealed Severus Snape sitting in the wing chair by the fire with Maggie Dougherty on his lap. Harry's jaw dropped and he gasped. At the sound, Maggie and Snape looked up, and Maggie--looking unsurprised--was forced to stand, as Snape sprang to his feet, his face dark with anger.

"How dare you! This is a complete abuse of--"

"We--we're sorry! We would have come the other way, but then the students might panic--speaking of which, why are you in here together when you're scheduled to have a classroom of students sitting out there right now?" Did I finally catch Severus Snape in a misstep? he wondered. He strode to the door leading to the classroom, lifting a corner of the curtain that shielded the window in the door and seeing a room full of Gryffindors and Slytherins. They were third years; Harry spotted Will Flitwick and Jamaica Thomas sitting together in the fourth row.

"Now, Severus, it isn't as though I didn't warn you!" Maggie said to him with her arms crossed on her chest as she smirked at him. "I told you Harry and Ginny were going to walk in, but you said you'd put a foolproof locking charm on the door to the classroom... And as for why I am here," she said, turning to Harry and her sister, "I came down to pick up some ingredients for a Divination exercise--scrying," she said, as though what she'd actually been doing wasn't the furthest possible thing from her intended errand. "And what are the pair of you doing here, anyway?" she said, turning the tables in big-sister fashion. "Shouldn't you both be in a lesson?

"We're here because there's something you should know, Maggie, and we thought Professor Snape should tell you," Harry said. "But now--you'll just wind up hearing it from us after all, I reckon. We also wanted to ask Professor Snape whether we could use his fire to talk to some people...."

Snape narrowed his eyes. "Tell her what? Talk to whom? What is going on, Potter? Spit it out!" he snapped.

Harry drew his lips into a line; he told them about the missing Aurors and then said, "Percy's one of them," very softly.

Maggie's legs couldn't hold her up suddenly, and Ginny joined her on the floor, holding her sister tightly and whispering to her, "I know, I know--"

Harry also crouched, to talk to her. "So--you didn't see this coming? Not that I'm criticizing. I just meant--"

She shook her head. "That's all right. I know what you mean. No, not an inkling." Harry waited for Sandy to say something to him about Seers not choosing what they see, but for once she remained silent during an otherwise excellent opportunity to give Harry her opinion about Seeing. Maggie lifted shining eyes to Harry. "I've only recently got my family back! Am I supposed to just accept losing one of them now?" she choked as Ginny hugged her tightly.

He crouched down to talk to her, shaking his head. "No. Definitely not. We are going to get him back. And the others, too."

"But--but how?"

Harry stepped closer to Snape and whispered to him, "The thing is--in order to get those Aurors back, I think that this calls for someone to break into Azkaban. And the only two people--not counting Barty Crouch, Jr.--who've broken out of it are me and Sirius...."

"But that was in--in your other life--" Snape hissed at him.

"So?" Harry responded.

"Are you seriously telling me that after escaping that place, you want to go back?"

"Do you have a better idea?" Harry whispered fiercely. He stepped back from Snape then and said in a normal voice, "At any rate, we need to call the Burrow and Hog's End, make sure the whole family knows what's going on."

Snape nodded agreement at this and walked to the fire, pinching some Floo powder between thumb and forefinger.

"The Burrow!" he exclaimed, throwing it into the fire.

Molly Weasley's head appeared in the fire box. "Oh, it's you," she said, sniffling into a handkerchief. "I thought maybe--some news from the Ministry--oh, you very likely have no idea what I'm talking about--"

"Percy," Snape said shortly, his voice surprisingly gentle.

Harry stepped to the fire. "Don't worry, Mrs. Weasley. We'll get him back."

Mrs. Weasley looked up at him, startled. "Oh, Harry! I didn't see you there..."

Ginny stepped forward. "I'm here as well, Mum," she said softly.

"Ginny! So you know! I was hoping--you might not have heard yet--"

"Maggie's here too. And Ron knows, as well," she told her mother. "We were going to call you, then call at Hog's End, to see whether they know. They should, as Percy lives there."

Molly Weasley blew her nose on a flowered handkerchief. "The last time Percy and I spoke we had another row! I've been trying to tell him--tell him that he isn't cut out to be an Auror!" she cried, distraught. "I told him that he'd get himself killed! How could I have said that?" she asked, her face twisting in disgust at herself. "I should have been proud of him, and instead I was being selfish at the thought that I might lose him--"

Harry drew his mouth into a line. "It's all right, Mrs. Weasley. I'm sure he's just fine," he said, even though he was not sure of any such thing. "You take care of yourself. We need to call Hog's End--"

Molly sniffed again. "You take care of yourself, too, Harry. Thank you for calling, Severus." Harry was jolted for a moment by Mrs. Weasley being on a first-name basis with Snape. "Goodbye, girls," she added with a sad, motherly smile before her head disappeared.

Harry was the one who threw the powder into the fire and said, "Hog's End." Fred's face popped into the firebox this time. He looked a little less morose than his mother, but only a little.

"Fred Weasley here, creative genius at Weasley Wizard Wheezes," he recited in an automatic-sounding monotone. "Hang on and I'll get my Quick-Quotes Quill, as you probably have a message for our presiden--Oh! Harry! It's you. Sorry. Loads of people have been calling, wondering whether their orders are going to be filled. See, Perce's had a spot of trouble," he said, clearing his throat.

Harry nodded. "We know. We didn't know if you did. How is everyone else there taking it? Katie's gone missing, too."

Fred nodded, looking very harried, and for the first time since Harry had known him, he looked truly grown-up. "I know. But the thing is--I was about to use the fire to call Madam Pomfrey. We need to get her here pretty soon. It's not urgent in the next five minutes, but in another hour it may be..."

Harry frowned. "Why?"

Fred grinned now. "Angelina's in labor. George is upstairs with her now. Lee's not here, unfortunately. On a trip to London. So Angelina just has us until Madam Pomfrey gets here." He laughed for a moment upon seeing Harry's face. "Don't look like that! You have an expression like you've eaten our newest sweet for general consumption! It's a very tart-flavored chewy thing, a little like Turkish Delight in texture, but it causes you make this face for a few hours after you've eaten it..."

Ginny brought Maggie near the fire and Fred smiled at them. "Ginny! Maggie! Didn't know you were there!" His smile looked a bit forced.

"Oh, Fred! How soon are the babies coming?"

"Well, we are talking about twins. I don't imagine it'll be that fast. When we were growing up, I don't know how many times we heard how long it took Mum to produce me and George. Well, whenever Mum was very cross with us, actually," he admitted. "But even so--I should probably call Pomfrey now."

"We're going to do everything in our power to get Percy back, Fred," Harry said with determination.

Fred nodded grimly at him. "Good. Two more people will be waiting to see him when he comes back, unless you're back very fast, or Angelina takes a week to give birth....Gotta run...."

His head disappeared from the fire. Ginny turned and put her arms around Harry. "How are you going to do it?" she asked him, clutching him tightly.

"First--we need to talk to Sirius, I think. And Dumbledore." He looked at Snape, who nodded at him.

"I need someone to take over this class. Miss Weasley!" She jumped away from Harry and stood to attention as though he were an army officer and she a recruit. "You're a competent brewer of potions," he said with a nod to her. Harry could tell that Ginny was trying not to look pleased about the low-key compliment. "And you are a prefect. I need you to tend to these students while I go upstairs with Harry and your sister. I've written the potion of the day on the chalkboard in the classroom. You will need to patrol the worktables to guard against any unsafe potions practices and check the potions at the end of the class. Are you feeling up to it?"

Ginny swallowed; Harry didn't know that Snape had ever turned his class over to anyone else before. He hadn't been at all happy with the job his own uncle had done while he'd been away during Harry's sixth year. "Y--yes sir," she said quietly.

"Oh, and--should the students give you any trouble or get out of line in any way, do not hesitate to deduct house points." Would Ginny deduct points from Gryffindors? he wondered. Her eyes glittered now and he could almost feel the power emanating from her. No, he didn't think she would hesitate to do that for a minute, if it was warranted.

She lifted her chin and looked him in the eye. "I won't, sir."

He nodded to her and swept into the classroom, followed by Ginny, Maggie and Harry.

"Third year Slytherins and Gryffindors," he said in that ringing voice. "I need to discuss something of great importance with the headmaster, Miss Dougherty, and the Head Boy. Miss Weasley will be in charge of the class while I am gone. She is a prefect and you are to give her your undivided attention, as well as respect and obedience. She will take house points from anyone who steps one toe out of line--regardless of which house you are in.. And in addition, she will have the power to give detentions--which shall be served with me. Are there any questions?"

You could have heard a pin drop in the room. He raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, Professor Snape," the frightened third years started stuttering out slowly, in an uneven ripple that took a minute to reach all of the corners of the room.

"Good!" He nodded at Ginny; despite her brave facade, she looked a bit paler than usual to Harry. "Carry on," Snape said to her with another nod. Harry gave her a reassuring smile and squeezed her hand.

As he was leaving, Harry saw Will Flitwick mouth the words, What's going on? He merely shook his head grimly as he followed Snape and Maggie into the corridor. He had to slow down to wait for them at the top of the stairs, having sprinted up without a thought, moving past them quickly. Maggie tried to keep up, but she was huffing and puffing. Snape was only a little behind Harry, as he was able to skip several steps at a time with his long legs.

Outside the headmaster's office, they ran into Aberforth, coming out of the passage with the spiral stairs. He looked like his old self again; his hair was collar-length once more, his nose appeared to be restored and his shabby clothes looked like he'd just been gardening. His brother, Ron and Hermione followed quickly on his heels.

Aberforth nodded at Harry. "Goodbye, Harry. I am leaving Winky here for the time being while I--"

"--go tell Sam," Harry said quietly. Aberforth nodded sadly.

"Yes." He sighed. "I enjoyed having Katie work for me last summer. A delightful young woman. Sam is very proud of her, you know."

Harry grimaced. "He didn't want her to be an Auror," he said softly.

Aberforth looked grim. "He has numerous bad memories of it. As do I."

"He'll appreciate that it's you telling him," Harry said. "And with any luck--soon there will be some good news."

Aberforth looked at Harry and smiled. "Yes. Hopefully." He grasped Harry's hand briefly, then strode off down the corridor.

Dumbledore looked round at them all. "Well, I do not think that the corridor is the best place to have the necessary conversation about this grave situation, do you?"

"Why don't we go to my rooms?" Maggie said suddenly.

Dumbledore smiled at her. "Excellent idea! And I don't think a little tea will come amiss, either, as talking is thirsty work..." He took Maggie's arm in his and they led the way to the staff wing. On the way to Maggie's rooms, Harry stopped and knocked on Sirius' door, getting no answer. He swore under his breath.

"Where can he be?" Hermione said softly. "Let's see, when does he teach Apparition on Friday--?"

"Alicia's," Harry said softly. Hermione stopped, her mouth clamped shut as though she was afraid she'd say what she thought about that.

As they moved along, Harry hung back, and when they were passing Alicia's door, he let the others go on and quietly knocked. After half a minute, Alicia came to the door, the baby on her hip.

"Oh, hello, Harry! What are you doing here at this hour? Don't you have a lesson?"

"Not right now. Listen, do you know where Sirius is?"

"No, I haven't seen him since breakfast." But then Harry looked past her into the room and saw a large black dog lounging near the window.

"I see Snuffles is here again," he said, drawing his mouth into a line.

She smiled, turning to look fondly at the dog. "Yes. He's such a dear."

"Yes, well--that's why I came looking for Sirius. I need to borrow Snuffles."

"Borrow? For what?"

"Well--it's not me, actually. Professor McGonagall sent me. Sirius promised her she could use Snuffles for a Transfiguration lesson."

"What?" she said, her brow furrowing. "What's she going to Transfigure that poor dog into?"

Harry looked at his godfather grimly. "Oh, she'll think of something." He patted his leg. "C'mere, Snuffles. We need your help."

The black dog stood very reluctantly and followed Harry into the corridor. Harry smiled at Alicia. "Don't worry. I'll return him in perfect working order."

When the door to Alicia's room had closed, Sirius continued to pad along beside Harry in his dog form. "What have you been getting up to then, eh?" Harry said to him. "While you've been lounging about Alicia's digs, there's been a bit of an emergency--" Harry explained the missing Aurors to him, as well as Remus being the Ministry scapegoat and Percy and Katie being among the missing. He also explained who was waiting in Maggie's rooms to discuss the problem. When they were right outside Maggie's door, Sirius Transfigured himself.

"That's dreadful, Harry," Sirius said, shaking his head. "Did you know Katie was born at Ascog Castle?"

"Erm, no," Harry said, genuinely surprised.

"Sam and Trina--Katie's mum--were there for a little celebration we were having when your mum completed her Auror training. Trina's water broke and my mum and your mum ended up delivering Katie, as Trina's midwife couldn't get there in time...."

Harry swallowed; he thought it very likely that he wouldn't be able to function very well if he had to contemplate what might have become of Katie. He remembered casting the revealing charm with her wand and seeing Rodney Jeffries' tent filled with pinkish magical signatures...

"Oh, and just so you know, I was actually gathering useful information in Alicia's rooms this morning, not just 'lounging about.' She received an owl. I'll have to tell you more about it later--we should probably join the others."

Harry nodded, not making a comment about Sirius 'actually gathering useful information.' When they entered Maggie's sitting room, Professor Dumbledore was in a comfortable armchair near the fire, while Snape sat in a matching armchair on the opposite side of the hearth and Ron and Hermione were side by side on the couch facing the fire. A tea tray was on the table and Hermione was pouring, but Maggie was preparing to leave.

"I really can't stay--I was supposed to be getting the scrying ingredients and going right back to Sybill's tower! I'll find out at lunch what's happening, yeah?"

Harry nodded at her. "Of course."

When she was gone, he and Sirius joined the others, Harry settling down on the hearth rug with his back to the fire while Sirius joined Ron and Hermione on the couch. Dumbledore put down his tea and looked round at them all, giving each of them a small smile. "This," he began, "would be a very nice gathering were it not for the fact that we are here for a very serious purpose." He nodded to Ron in particular. "Your brother was one of the finest Head Boys Hogwarts has ever seen, and if there is any way to get him--and the others--back, we will find it. Unfortunately, I have some bad news," he said, turning to Harry, Snape and Sirius, "which came while we were talking in my office: the Ministry will not be sending anyone to Azkaban. Not yet, at any rate. In that they are already down by seventy-five Aurors, they are understandably nervous about losing more. They are of the opinion that a battle fought on Azkaban fortress against an entrenched enemy would be a sure defeat. They may be right."

"So Fudge isn't going to do anything?" Snape spit, eyes flashing. "He's just going to leave all of those witches and wizards there?"

"That is assuming that any of them are still alive, Severus," Dumbledore said quietly; Harry looked at his best friend in distress; Ron grasped Hermione's hand convulsively, and Harry swallowed, thinking also of Katie.

"What about the prisoners?" Sirius wanted to know. "They're just to be left there, without anyone to bring them food and water? Being sent to Azkaban isn't meant to be a death sentence." Harry could see that he was thinking about what would have happened to him if he'd never broken out.

Dumbledore sighed. "The Ministry is assuming two things. First, that the prisoners were all released, so the question of their needing food and water would be moot. Second, it is also being assumed that the Aurors were killed, or the owls that have been sent would have been returned with messages....Now, my worry, and not, I'm sad to say, the Ministry's--is that the chief purpose of this may have been to spirit away the dementors, who would be only too eager to serve Voldemort, in my opinion. If, as the Ministry predicts, the prisoners and dementors are indeed gone and the Aurors killed--the only thing left to do is to recover the dead. There are plans to do just that, when some time has passed and it is deemed safe, but the Ministry of Magic does not see any reason to rush about that. It would be a gross misstatement to say that I merely disagree--"

"Please, sir," Harry interrupted, his stomach jumping about with impatience. "I don't mean to be rude, but--but I think I know what has to be done. And it's not to abandon the prisoners or the Aurors. If there's a single person alive, we should try to get them back, even if it's someone who's been kissed by a dementor. We can't just let them slowly starve. And even those who are dead--I'm not trying to say that I'm--I mean--" he faltered again. "It meant a lot to Cedric's parents that I brought his body back. I could have left him there and they would have had to hunt down the place where Voldemort had got his body back, but--they didn't have to do that. They knew, and didn't have to wait. I think we owe the same to the families of the Aurors--and even the prisoners." Harry saw that Snape's mouth was drawn into a surly line. Does he think I'm being arrogant, like my father? Harry wondered.

Dumbledore, however, bowed his head to him. "I'd like to hear what you have to say, Harry."

"Well--everyone in this room knows about my other life. And Ginny knows too--"

"Speaking of Ginny, where is she?" Ron said suddenly, interrupting.

"I needed to ask Miss Weasley to tend to my third-year Slytherins and Gryffindors," Snape said archly. "She is a prefect, and that is one of the functions of a prefect." He nodded at Harry, a silent way of urging him on. Okay, he thought; maybe Snape won't shoot me down after all.

"So, everyone here knows that I broke out of Azkaban, right? It seems to me that Sirius and I are the only people who haven't been kissed by a dementor who've done this, as far as we know. We know what it's like in there and we're also both Animagi, so we can move about the island in our animal forms and be less affected by the dementors than when in our human forms--if there are any left there. Hermione being an Animagus also makes her a good person for this mission. Plus, in our Animagi forms, we're all three fairly large animals and can fight in our animal forms if need be--again, if there's anyone to fight."

"So you think the Death Eaters who were taken to Azkaban are still there, Harry?" Hermione asked him, looking both a little nervous and hopeful.

He shrugged. "It's one possibility, that they're lying in wait, hoping that there will be a rescue attempt and that they can ambush whoever comes. I reckon that's one reason the Ministry doesn't want to go in yet, for fear of an ambush. But if we go in expecting to be ambushed--we'll be one step ahead of them. Plus, they'll probably be expecting anyone who comes to use the usual approach--the small boats with prisoners go into this grotto, and there's a long stair that leads up to the fortress proper. We won't take that route. We'll come in from the top."

Snape cut in now. "That's impossible. There are charms on the fortress that not only make Apparition impossible, as it is impossible here at Hogwarts, there are also anti-broomstick charms. Or rather, any object that has been enchanted to fly will be rebuffed once it gets close to the island. Flying charms do not work around Azkaban."

Sirius nodded in agreement. "That's right. It doesn't matter--broom, motorcycle--" he said, smirking at Dumbledore, who had a small smile.

"Flying car," Hermione said, looking smugly at Ron and Harry.

"Yeah, but animals that can fly--like owls--can get there," Harry said.

"Well, yeah," Sirius said. "But we can't ride owls to Azkaban."

"No, I didn't mean that. I meant--a winged creature can get though. That's how I escaped, after all."

Hermione's face lit up. "Of course! Flying in your griffin form!"

He grinned at her. "Right! None of us could fly a broom onto the island--but a golden griffin could fly there."

Sirius' eyes lit up. "And so could a hippogriff." Harry wondered where Buckbeak was now.

"I don't know, Harry. I still can't believe you flew to the coast from Azkaban. When I was swimming, that distance, in my dog form, I almost drowned. It probably didn't help that the current took me pretty far south, almost to the Firth of Forth. After I reached the mainland, I was taken in by the crew of a trawler, thank goodness. They nursed me back to health--well, healthier than I'd been , at any rate--and happened to be heading south, to London, so I was able to escape from them and check on you in Surrey before heading north again to Hogwarts. I would never have managed the overland trip if I hadn't been able to recover from the swim while I was living on the trawler."

Snape's lip curled. "I have to agree," he said, as though it was very distasteful for him to agree with Sirius. "It's too far. You told me yourself, Harry, that you were exhausted from flying to the mainland. You'd have the same problem flying in the opposite direction, and so would any hippogriff, especially if carrying a passenger. So, you'd exhaust yourself flying there, collapse, and, if they're still there, promptly be attacked by Death Eaters."

Harry grinned at him. "No I wouldn't That's where you come in. We'd need make sure we're flying a shorter distance--preferably from the deck of a good yacht. We'll need to rent something somewhere along the coast, not too far away. Probably Peterhead or Inveralochy rather than Fraserburgh, especially this time of year, when many of the best might be in dry-dock. And if we do that--we'll need an experienced sailor to be captain," he added, looking meaningfully at Snape.

Snape raised one eyebrow. "Yes, but a captain needs a crew--"

"I served as your first mate many times on the Patricia," Harry told him, "and didn't you teach Maggie to sail, years ago? Plus, there's always Uncle Duncan, too. I mean--Professor MacDermid."

Snape looked like he was considering all this, his chin in his hand as he stared past Harry at the flames. "Yes, yes. It's possible...but if we are to have a vessel tomorrow, I will need to leave now, which means I will not be able to teach for the rest of the day."

"I think that, for once, we can afford to give the students a small holiday from their Potions lessons, disappointed though they will be," Dumbledore said to Snape; Harry saw the twinkle in his eye and only just managed to refrain from laughing. "And while, in many respects, this sounds like an excellent plan, Harry, there is still one problem: while dementors cannot see, and so did not detect you or Sirius leaving the prison, Death Eaters can see, and if they have not all fled from the fortress but are in fact lying in wait, they would very likely notice a yacht moored close by, even if they were primarily looking for small boats to come into the grotto, as you mentioned, rather than hippogriffs and a golden griffin landing on the upper bluffs. For that reason, I think that I should also join this little excursion," he added, to Harry's surprise, but also relief. Then Harry frowned in confusion.

"How will you prevent them from seeing us?" he asked the headmaster.

Dumbledore gave him a cryptic smile. "You shall see, you shall see, Harry. But they shall not," he added, putting one finger alongside his nose in a conspiratorial manner and smiling slyly. "I think that we will also not 'invade' the prison in one fell swoop. We cannot afford to take many people, as we will need space in the vessel to remove the Aurors." Harry looked surreptitiously at Ron; Dumbledore didn't say the Aurors' bodies. "That is seventy-five people to rescue. If we take a large contingent, it will be difficult to accomplish our goal. So--first, we need to find out whether a battle even needs to be fought. If we need assistance, we shall have the operatives standing by to provide it. If not--we can simply begin to coordinate the rescue operation. So--Harry, you will need to do reconnaissance first, to see what is what. Your talent for conjuring a strong Patronus could be quite useful, in the event that any dementors are still on the island....I shall speak to Hagrid about acquiring some hippogriffs quickly, and I shall speak to the other operatives about standing by. And I will come with you, Severus, to acquire a vessel."

Snape nodded at the headmaster. "Yes, sir."

Ron made a face. "But what if you can't get the kind of boat you want? Or someone has it but won't let you use it? And who's to say you'll know how to use whatever kind of boat it is?" He sighed. "I'm not trying to derail my own brother being rescued, but I'd feel a lot better if you were going to be sailing your own boat. I mean, you probably know that like the back of your hand, and Harry and your uncle, as well," he said to Snape, surprising Harry. Ron usually only spoke to Snape to complain about something. Ron sighed. "But I reckon you can't just shrink down the Patricia and put it in your pocket, then Apparate to the coast with it...." he trailed off wistfully.

Dumbledore laughed heartily suddenly. "Well, it is true, Mr. Weasley that you could not do that. Especially if you do not bring up your Transfiguration marks. Professor McGonagall was just telling me about your performance the other day, in fact. You're only the third-best Transfiguration student in your year," he added, his eyes twinkling at Ron, whose mouth had dropped open.

"Third? You're joking! I never thought I was that--" Then he looked perplexed. "But then who are one and two--" However, he hadn't gone very far with this line of inquiry before a glare from Hermione told him the probable answer. Dumbledore chuckled again.

"Need I remind you that your two best friends are both Animagi? And while it is quite true that you could not Transfigure Professor Snape's vessel into something small enough to carry in your pocket, and neither could anyone else here, I can."

Harry laughed. "You! I should have known!"

Dumbledore nodded at him. "Yes, you should have. I did, after all, teach Professor McGonagall everything she knows of Transfiguration and was the Transfiguration professor for many years before becoming headmaster. So! That was an excellent idea you had, Mr. Weasley. Despite my having the ability to do that particular Transfiguration, it nonetheless had not occurred to me, and so again we all benefit from your keen--if irreverent--approach to problem solving. Ten points to Gryffindor!" he declared, beaming at Ron, whose ears were quite red now. Hermione was beaming at him.

"It would be preferable to have the Patricia...." Snape admitted grudgingly, raising his eyebrows at Ron. Harry smiled up at him.

"She's a yare ship, sir," he said to Snape

He nodded at Harry, looking as though he were trying not to smile.

"Aye, that she is, Harry." He turned to Dumbledore. "In that case, we should go to the village and Apparate to Dunoon immediately, headmaster," Snape said, sounding grim.

"I agree. However, first I will need to contact a certain person I know in Magical Transportation to get a Portkey to the coast on short notice. Where did you say you landed when you escaped from prison, Harry?"

"Fraserburgh."

"Hm...And how did you avoid being seen? A golden griffin doesn't set down on the northeast Scottish coast every day."

"Well, other than the fact that I landed well before dawn--there weren't even any fishermen out and about--I landed on the roof of the Museum of Scottish Lighthouses. It's a former castle, quite large and high, near the beach, with a modern lighthouse nearby, which is the one they actually use now. The parapets would keep anyone from seeing us if we landed on the roof with a Portkey, especially very early."

Dumbledore nodded. "Very good, very good. Now, I think the only member of our party we are missing is Madam Pomfrey, should we need someone with us who can give medical attention to those we find, and possibly to members of our own party."

Harry bit his lip. "Um, well--see, she's probably on her way to Hog's End to deliver George and Angelina's babies. When we called Hog's End in Professor Snape's office, Fred said he was about to call her to do the midwifing...."

Dumbledore nodded. "Ah, I see. New Weasleys! Isn't that nice. Well then, we shall have to make certain that we all read up a bit on our first-aid charms before we depart...."

"What about a doctor from St. Mungo's?" Ron said quickly.

Dumbledore looked at him inquisitively. "Who did you have in mind?"

Ron looked sheepish. "Dr. Anderssen. We're sort of friends now. Although, come to think of it--" Ron swallowed. "After what we found at the dragon reservation, maybe she wouldn't want to risk seeing anything like that again--" Ron swallowed, and Harry wondered now whether Percy and Katie had been cut down as ruthlessly as the people on the reservation.

The headmaster nodded. "That was truly dreadful, yes. But those people had no way to defend themselves from such an attack, and indeed, were not even expecting one. I expect that seventy-five Aurors would not be so easy to overcome."

Unless they're only arriving three at a time and being picked off as they come up those long, winding stairs, Harry thought grimly.

"But if she would be willing to come--"

"No," Hermione said suddenly. "We don't know that we can trust her." Harry remembered that Ron had said he'd told Hermione about Nita; what he hadn't told Harry was her reaction to that. Harry felt like he was no longer in the dark about this.

Ron frowned at her. "Hermione, I told you--"

"Yes, and I'm not so sure you should believe that she's your friend until she shows some other signs of being truly disenchanted with the Malfoys, other than calling Draco Malfoy disloyal because he put his dad in prison. Her beloved uncle is in Azkaban--I hope. When we first met her at St. Mungo's, frankly, she didn't really strike me as someone who was on our side in all this. She hates most Weasleys. Even though she claims she's not getting on with her aunt now, she did give her a place to live when she lost her home. I think that we should contact St. Mungo's after the fact if we need them to come get anyone for treatment, but asking Nita Anderssen to come along is a very bad idea."

Ron looked sulky, as though she would get a piece of his mind later about this. Dumbledore shrugged. "If there is some question--it is probably wiser to err on the side of caution. Draco Malfoy's cousin, eh? I do not recall a Nita Anderssen coming to Hogwarts...."

"She went to Durmstrang. Her mum works for the Swedish Ministry of Magic. She's the one who organizes the annual broom race," Ron told him.

"Ah, ah, that would explain it--"

"Yes!" Hermione said. "That's another thing. She went to Durmstrang, where she probably learned Dark Arts from day one. I just think--considering how sensitive this is, bringing in someone whose loyalty can't be guaranteed isn't a good idea--"

Dumbledore nodded at her. "Well, in that we do not know for certain whether we will need a doctor on board, we may merely be wasting Dr. Anderssen's time, when she might be far more needed at St. Mungo's." He gave Ron a look that said this part of the conversation was over, and Ron grimaced, his mouth in a line, as he gave the headmaster a small nod.

They all stood, and to his surprise, the headmaster grasped Harry's hand. Giving Harry an ironic smile, he said, "I knew there was a reason for you to be a golden griffin Animagus, Harry."

Harry grinned at him. "Yeah, when I was in my other life, I did, too. Only, there, I thought it was so I could break out of Azkaban. Turns out it's so I can break in."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Harry felt very jumpy after that, having to sit through History of Magic, fighting against the urge to just change into a griffin now and fly to the coast, in full view of the wizarding and Muggle worlds alike. As he doodled idly in the margins of his parchment, listening but not really listening to Professor Binns drone on and on, he remembered his own stay in Azkaban, and he hadn't even realized he'd been singing He is an Englishman under his breath until Ron put an elbow in his ribs. Harry looked up, swallowing; the entire class, including Professor Binns, was staring at him, and the Slytherins in particular were sniggering openly. (The Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws were at least doing it behind their hands, and although most of the other Gryffindors seemed to be trying to pretend they didn't want to laugh, Harry could tell it was difficult for them.) Draco Malfoy was laughing the loudest and elbowing Crabbe and Goyle good-naturedly, as they also clutched their stomachs, laughing.

"Would you care to give us all a little concert, Mr. Potter?" Binns said icily, sending an extra blast of cold air toward Harry as the laughter of the Slytherins continued. "At this moment I am not certain that it is greatly to your credit that you are an Englishman," he added, making almost all of the other students roar now. He actually looked rather pleased with himself for producing this response. (Laughter was never heard in Binns' lessons. Snoring yes; laughter, no.) Harry almost longed for the days when the ghostly professor didn't know his name.

Ron and Hermione eyed him with sympathy. Harry wanted to sink beneath his desk and disappear; it seemed that the time to leave for Fraserburgh was eons away, and in the meantime, going through the motions of being a typical seventh-year student was likely to drive him mad.

"Sorry, sir," he said softly, after the laughter had died down.

Binns continued droning, as before, and the class once more sank into its usual torpor. When the bell rang for lunch, Harry jerked his head up; he'd fallen asleep, his chin in his hand, and he'd been having a very vivid dream. He was in his other life again, not in Azkaban, this time, but in the Great Hall, sitting at the Slytherin table, about to begin a meal. The Bloody Baron was zooming right at him, and Harry thought he was going to tell him to fix the timelines, as he had done on the first day of the autumn term of his sixth year, in his other life. Instead, in his dream, the Baron, the Fat Friar, the Grey Lady and Nearly Headless Nick formed a macabre sort of chorus line, their arms around each other, kicking up their heels, while singing lustily:

When a felon's not engaged in his employment
(his employment)
or maturing his felonious little plans
(little plans)
his capacity for innocent enjoyment
('cent enjoyment)
is just as great as any honest man's
(honest man's).

Meanwhile, Peeves was zooming around them in a dizzying display of poltergeist aeronautics, his grating voice singing a completely non-harmonious counter-melody while unseen violins played a warped-sounding accompaniment:

I'm called little Buttercup, dear little Buttercup, though I could never tell why.
But still I'm called Buttercup, poor little Buttercup, sweet little Buttercup, I.

But Harry realized that he was no longer hearing the poltergeist's voice. It was now a wavering falsetto....

Buttercup.

Harry shook himself, picking up his parchment and quills and putting them in his bag, following Ron and Hermione down to the Great Hall in a bit of a fog. He remembered hearing Roger's cousin sing at the wedding, in August, and wondered again what he'd done in the other world to end up in Azkaban. Maybe he was framed, Harry thought, but then he remembered that in both worlds, Roger Davies had been a Death Eater. Unfortunately, the only other beings in this world who knew about the other one were the ghosts, and they very likely wouldn't know about a lone wizard and the particular reasons for his going to prison. Unless--

He'd never had a conversation with the Grey Lady of Ravenclaw--only greeted her politely every now and then, when the occasion arose. But now he thought--maybe Roger and Evan had been in school when their cousin had gone to Azkaban? Maybe there was some sort of scandal in Ravenclaw, as a result? It might be worth a try to ask her. And it would give him something else to think about before the trip up north.

He went to the Great Hall with the other students, swept along by the crowds and led by the hand by Hermione now and then, when he started to fall behind, but not really paying attention to what was going on around him. When he sat at the Gryffindor table, he noticed the Ravenclaw ghost sitting at that table, having a conversation with Mandy Brocklehurst and some other seventh years. After he'd eaten mechanically, not even taking notice of what he'd chosen, he rose and walked toward the Ravenclaw table without saying anything to Ron, Hermione or Ginny.

Harry approached the Grey Lady and said, "Excuse me for interrupting," nodding at both the ghost and Mandy. "Could I borrow her for a few minutes? There's something I need to ask her in private."

The Ravenclaws looked surprised, and Padma Patil's mouth was twisting unpleasantly.

"Come to ask her for voice lessons?" she said. "You didn't sound that bad." The other Ravenclaws started laughing, but Harry ignored them, and to his relief, so did the Grey Lady.

"I will come with you," she said in a mellifluous voice, wafting after Harry as he left the Great Hall. He looked over his shoulder and found that Hermione, Ron and Ginny looked perplexed; he would tell them later what he was up to.

"Hello," he said to the dignified ghost a bit uncertainly. "I reckon I should introduce myself. I'm--"

"I know who you are," the Grey Lady said, smiling indulgently at him. "What is it you would like to know?"

"It's--it's something about my other life."

She frowned. "That world was never meant to be--"

"I know, I know. And I fixed it. But--but there are loads of things I don't understand about it. Like when I was in Azkaban," he said, dropping his voice lest anyone should hear him, "there was another prisoner whose cell was near mine. He was Roger Davies' cousin, and since Roger was a Ravenclaw, I reckon his cousin was too, when he was in school. I was hoping you might know something about why he went to prison in that world. He's not in prison in this life, and this has been bothering me for a while, especially now that there's this trouble at the prison...."

She shook her head sadly. "No cousin of Roger Davies was in Ravenclaw," she said sadly.

Harry grimaced, unsure how else to find out what he needed to know. "Are you sure? Think--his name was Geoff. I just met him last summer."

She nodded her head now. "I think I know the one you mean. But still--he was not in Ravenclaw. When he was here at the school, he was in Hufflepuff."

Harry stared. "Hufflepuff? A Hufflepuff went to prison? That just seems--wrong. I mean, how could someone whom the Sorting Hat would put into Hufflepuff end up in prison? How could someone be surrounded by all of that hard-work and loyalty for seven years and break the law?"

She shook her head. "Do you not think many Death Eaters are hardworking? And they are certainly loyal to their Master. Hard work and loyalty are as easily used for ill as ambition or bravery or a desire for knowledge." Her voice seemed to come from a far distance. He swallowed, digesting what she'd said. "And I did not say that he spent seven years in Hufflepuff."

Harry widened his eyes. "Did he--did he do something to get himself expelled and go to prison, before he was even out of school? A Hufflepuff?" Harry still couldn't quite picture a dark wizard who was a Hufflepuff.

"No; it was quite simple, really. He was asked to leave because he was a Squib," she said carelessly. "It was quite the scandal that he'd been admitted at all....."

"A Squib!" Harry squeaked, before getting control of his voice again.

"Yes, a Squib," she said, completely unperturbed.

"Well, that's--that's even weirder," he insisted to her. "I mean--why would a Squib be at Hogwarts in the first place, let alone in a wizarding prison?"

She gave a small, ghostly shrug. "That I cannot tell you. In that other world, I did not even learn of Mr. Filch leaving the school until after he was gone. I do not recall having heard why the Squibs disappeared."

Harry drew his lips into a line. "Okay. Thanks. You've actually been quite helpful." She nodded to him and drifted through a wall, just as the bell rang for the afternoon lessons.

He merely went through the motions of attending Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures that afternoon, and when he was back in the common room at the end of the day, Ron, Hermione and Ginny tried pumping him for information about the Grey Lady, but he refused to talk. Finally, after just gazing at him pleadingly for some minutes without saying a word, Ginny broke him. (How did she do that? he wondered.)

"All right, all right. You have to promise to keep this quiet," he said, relenting, leaning close to the other three. They sat in their usual spots near the fire, and Harry looked around the side of his chair before saying anything; the other Gryffindor students seemed to be involved with their own lives and paying no attention to the four of them. "I was asking her about Roger Davies' cousin, Geoff," he whispered to them. "The bloke who sang at the wedding last summer. I was hoping she might know why he was in Azkaban in my other life."

"Why'd you want to know that?" Ron asked, shrugging.

Harry grimaced. "I've been thinking a lot about that, what with our planning to leave for Azkaban in the morning. Or rather, before morning. He's the cousin of someone we know is a Death Eater, and he was in prison in that other world. I know, I was too, but I'm wondering whether he had anything to do with framing Mr. Spinnet. After all, if Roger was doing what he was doing to protect his family--well, his cousin's part of that family and might have been convinced to help. Roger convinced Alicia to help."

"So--if that's what's happened, where is Roger?" Hermione wanted to know.

Ginny opened her eyes wide. "Maybe his cousin double-crossed him?"

Harry shook his head. "I was just trying to find out, for a start, whether the Grey Lady knew why he'd gone to prison before, in case there was a fuss about it in Ravenclaw, because of a former member of that house being arrested and all that. But it turns out--he wasn't in Ravenclaw. He was in Hufflepuff. Except he shouldn't have been."

Ron frowned. "Why not? The Sorting Hat doesn't make mistakes, does it?"

"According to the Grey Lady, Roger's cousin was in Hufflepuff, but he shouldn't have been at Hogwarts at all. He was a Squib, and when he was found out, he was expelled."

The three of them gasped.

"Expelled!" Ron choked out. "Wow! A Squib gets in, but then gets expelled. I wonder why all of that happened?"

Harry shook his head. "I don't know, but I mean to ask Dumbledore. He would have had the final say in whether he was expelled, I should think. I just wish there was someone else I could ask about why he might have gone to prison...."

Hermione looked at him with her arms crossed. "You're forgetting one of the nosiest parkers we've ever had the displeasure to meet here at Hogwarts."

Harry frowned. "I am? What are you getting at?"

Ron's eyebrows had flown up. "Nosy parker? Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Hermione nodded. "Precisely."

"What?" Harry demanded. "Could the pair of you stop talking in code for thirty seconds?"

Ginny looked at him with her brows raised now. "Harry--they're obviously talking about Moaning Myrtle."

Harry stared at her. "Moaning Myrtle? How do you know about Moanin--" But then he remembered that Ginny had thrown the diary through Myrtle in her first year, when she was frightened of continuing to write in it. And when the toilet backed up and Myrtle flooded the bathroom and corridor outside, Harry had found the small black book....

"What makes you think Myrtle would know anything?" he asked them.

Hermione shrugged. "As I said--nosy parker. Roger's cousin was a Squib, and he was in Azkaban. Filch is a Squib, and he presumably disappeared with the others. What if they were all sent to Azkaban? Myrtle probably would have found a way to spy on Filch being taken away, I'm guessing. That would be rather juicy."

Harry nodded. "Could be. All right, good idea. I'll go see her, when we get back."

"Don't you mean we'll go see her?" Hermione said.

"Well, erm, I think I'll go alone."

The three looked at each other and then Harry. "Why?" Ron wanted to know.

He drew his lips into a line. "I just think I'll get further with her is all."

Hermione nodded with understanding. "Ah, yes. Without me and Ginny. Don't want to make her jealous."

Harry felt himself flush. "Well, no, not precisely--"

Ron laughed. "Yes, precisely. You know she's fancied you since our second year, and you want to take advantage of that, make her think you came to visit her special before you pump her for information. Good job, Harry. Yeah, you're right, we shouldn't go."

"Fancies him!" Ginny said, looking indignant.

"Um," Harry began, "well, maybe she did at one time. When I was using the prefects' bathroom to work out the clue for the second task of the Tournament, using that screeching egg, she was in that bathroom, too. Not at first--she showed up after a little while, although I'm not so sure she wasn't spying on me from the faucet, before I got in the tub. And she said she'd seen Cedric in there, too."

Ginny giggled a little. "So--she likes spying on the boys, does she?"

Harry shrugged. "I reckon she hasn't stopped. Not that I gave her much to spy on when I was a fourth year..."

Ginny turned beet red and murmured, "I always thought you looked quite nice...."

Now it was Harry's turn to redden again; he hoped Ron would ignore Ginny's comment. "Anyway, I don't think she feels quite the same about me anymore, so I need to be careful about what I say. She was rather cross with me for fixing the timelines. I talked with her last year, and she told me how much she enjoyed herself in that other world. Loads of other miserable people. She was in her element."

"It's just as well if she's over you," Ron said. "After all, what if she was finally successful in getting you to fall for her? My sister would be heartbroken--" he said with a melodramatic sob in his voice, abruptly cut off when Ginny hurled a cushion at his head. He caught it easily, laughing.

Harry was laughing too, but then he noticed that Hermione was staring at the fire, her eyes narrowed in thought. "Yes, Harry," she said, as though answering a question. "Talk to her about how happy she was in that world. Lead her to talking about the Squibs, find out whether she was about when Filch disappeared, or whatever happened to him. If there was misery involved, she'll just revel in telling about it."

Harry nodded. "I have to agree. She'll probably be positively gloating."

"Well, speaking of being miserable, when you were talking to the Grey Lady, Sirius came to the Gryffindor table at lunch and told us that Remus has been detained by the Ministry. They're questioning him."

Harry swallowed. "Erm, I hate to ask, but what are their interrogation methods like?"

Ron shrugged. "Well, they don't use Veritaserum as a matter of course, as it's not considered completely trustworthy. After all, if Voldemort had a mole in the Ministry, the mole could say he was giving a suspect Veritaserum, and then slip in something that makes the suspect say the exact opposite of the truth every time he's asked a question. Then they'd have a real mess on their hands."

Harry nodded. "So--we've got our work cut out for us on this trip. On top of everything else, we have to clear Remus' name. Hopefully, we'll find out something at Azkaban that will make it plain that he had nothing to do with this."

"We should get some sleep," Hermione said, after yawning hugely. "We need to leave at about four-thirty in the morning. I switched our patrol shifts already, Harry, so don't worry about doing the fourth shift. Mariah's taking it for you."

"Yeah," he said, "except I still have to get up at the same time. Not much bloody difference."

"I've got the third shift," Ginny said, "so I can see all of you off on your trip. I'll be just finishing up at that time."

Hermione nodded. "Snape has the third shift, like you, Ginny, so he'll probably just want all of us to meet downstairs and go after that."

"Draco Malfoy's on the second shift, so he'll be back in Slytherin House by then, none the wiser," Ginny said, looking relieved. They looked at each other, the four of them; they were very careful what they said around Draco Malfoy now that he'd promised to behave more like a Slytherin. They didn't expect it to stop with tripping Harry in the Great Hall and laughing uproariously when Harry sang Gilbert and Sullivan music in History of Magic.

"That's good," said Ron. "Although--how will we explain our leaving to the other people on patrol, both students and teachers?"

"Well, we'll be leaving with Sirius, Snape and Professor Dumbledore himself, plus Maggie, who's also a part-time teacher. We could say--" She paused, her brow furrowed in thought.

Ginny's face lit up with an idea. "You could say that you're going to Hog's End because Angelina's had the babies! It might even be true by then. Hopefully." She made a face. "I hate to think of her spending much more time in labor..."

Harry grinned at her. "That's perfect! All right--cover story in place. Time we all got some sleep. We don't know what we'll find up north."

Ron kissed Hermione on the mouth before going to the boys' stairs, but Harry pecked Ginny on the cheek, feeling self-conscious in front of Ron. He thought at first he was going to have a difficult time dropping off, but he very quickly drifted off into sleep, seeing in his dreams a fortress rising from cold, dark waters, and a feeling of foreboding hovering over everything....

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

At four o'clock, Hermione was shaking Harry awake; he sat up groggily and parted his bed hangings, seeing that she'd already woken Ron, who was getting up slowly, moaning as he went. They'd all been hoping to get some extra rest after the previous three nights, too, when the three of them had been down in the dungeon, because of the full moon. (He and Hermione had insisted that Harry join them and had promised not to attack each other in the morning.) They dressed warmly, wearing comfortable clothes and not bothering with robes. Harry knew that he wouldn't be able to scramble up a mast on the Patricia if he was wearing wizarding robes, and if people in Fraserburgh did catch sight of them, it would be easier to blend in wearing Muggle clothes. Hermione and Ron were doing the same. Harry Transfigured all of their cloaks to look like pea jackets.

When they exited the portrait hole, they found Sirius waiting for them with Professor McGonagall, Maggie and Ginny. All of them but Maggie--who was also dressed for sailing--were normally scheduled to be on this shift; Sirius wanted to escort Harry, Ron and Hermione down to the entrance hall, so there would be no misunderstandings or delays due to their being caught by the three other patrollers.

When they reached the entrance hall, they found Amelia Tadeo, a sixth-year Slytherin, along with Walter Word and Janet Yeager, both sixth-year Ravenclaws, waiting for the changing of the guard that would take place at four-thirty. So far, Professors Sprout and Vector had shown up to relieve Sirius and Professor McGonagall, but only Jasmine Peters, Albert Rothchild--both Ravenclaw fifth years--and Mariah Kirkner had shown up to relieve the other students. McGonagall squinted at a parchment she withdrew from her robes. "Miss Kirkner--do you know what has become of Mr. Shire? And thank you for taking Mr. Potter's shift, by the way. He has been called away because--" she hesitated, looking nervously at Harry, Ron and Hermione, standing near the large entrance doors with Sirius, Maggie and Ginny. Hermione started to open her mouth, but to Harry's utter surprise, the voice that came out of it was not hers but Severus Snape's.

"--because," said a ringing voice, emerging from the dungeon staircase, "he, Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger, among others, have received special permission to go to Hogsmeade to celebrate a birth. Two births, actually. Mr. Weasley is now an uncle," Snape announced, walking imperiously into the midst of those gathered in the hall. "As it is a rather early hour, Professors Black, Dougherty and I will be escorting them to Hogsmeade." Harry grinned at him; he'd had exactly the same thought about the alibi. He should have known.

Professor McGonagall looked relieved that Snape had provided the excuse. She looked at him with a small smile. "I would come myself, Severus, but the headmaster has also been called away on business at the Ministry, and I am serving in his stead while he is gone. I expect I shall be able to pay a visit to my former house-members when he returns."

"I expect so, Minerva," he said smoothly.

He started to move toward the door, but McGonagall stopped him. "Oh, Severus--you didn't happen to see Mr. Shire down in the dungeons, did you?"

Snape turned, frowning. "Mr. Shire?"

"Edward Shire, sixth year. Slytherin. He is scheduled to patrol during this shift, but he did not arrive with Miss Kirkner, who is taking Mr. Potter's place."

"I'm taking Eddy's place," a familiar, lazy drawl said from the direction of the dungeon stairs. Draco Malfoy emerged into the light, his prefect's badge gleaming. "Eddy came to wake me--he's got a fever. He reckons he'll go to see Pomfrey in the morning. He's trying to sleep it off first. I told him I'd take his shift."

Harry looked at him with narrowed eyes; was he telling the truth? When did Draco Malfoy start performing acts of altruism?

"Very good, Mr. Malfoy," McGonagall said imperiously, "but Mr. Shire will have to make do with me in the morning. He will not be able to see Madam Pomfrey--she will still be in Hogsmeade until tomorrow evening, very likely." She nodded at Harry, Ron and Hermione. "Mr. Weasley is now an uncle, and she is there attending to his new niece and nephew, not to mention their mother."

Draco looked at Harry with narrowed eyes. "I see," was all he said.

"All right, then!" Professor Sprout said sleepily. "Let's get this new shift started. Professor Vector and I will go up to the second floor, Malfoy, you and Kirkner take the east wing--"

As the patrollers moved off, Harry saw Malfoy look over his shoulder at them as they opened the heavy front door and prepared to leave. Harry and Ginny hung back.

"Can you--can you give us a minute?" he asked Snape softly. "Just to say--"

Snape nodded silently, and Harry caught Sirius' eye, wondering whether he should have asked him instead. Sirius turned away, and Harry couldn't tell what that meant.

When they were standing in the entrance hall alone, Harry pulled her to him, holding her tightly and burying his face in her hair. "We're going to bring them home, Ginny. I promise," he whispered to her. She nodded and turned her head, meeting his lips with hers, holding his head still with her fingers in his hair.

"Oh ho, what's this, then?" came a familiar voice.

Harry looked up and saw Draco Malfoy and Mariah Kirkner enter the hall; Mariah looked like she might have been trying to prevent Draco from returning. Harry wondered whether Hermione had told Mariah the purpose of her taking his place.

"We're, erm," Harry hesitated.

"You're what? Leaving for Hogsmeade to see two new Weasley brats, leaving Ginny behind? Why isn't Ginny going? After all, she's an aunt, but all McGonagall kept saying was that prat you call a best friend is an uncle." He crossed his arms, looking at Harry with narrowed eyes, highly suspicious.

Harry swallowed. Draco was making a very good point. We really messed this up.

"What makes you think she isn't coming?" he said, trying to keep his voice from shaking.

"Well, for starters, no one's said anything about her leaving the castle, and for another, she's not exactly dressed for it, is she? You're wearing Muggle clothes, too. Why would that be?"

Harry and Ginny looked at each other, swallowing. After what felt like an eternity, Harry opened his mouth to answer, but unfortunately, before he could, the door opened behind him, knocking into him and Ginny. It was Snape.

"I think you've both had quite long enough to--" He froze when he saw Draco Malfoy and Mariah Kirkner. "Mr. Malfoy. Miss Kirkner. Ever vigilant, I see," he said, voice dripping with irony. We're the ones who need to be vigilant around Draco Malfoy, Harry thought.

"I was just about to tell Malfoy that the reason why Ginny wasn't going to come along this early was because she was expected to want to sleep after her shift. But she's very excited about seeing the babies, so she'd like to come with us now after all. She just needs something warm to wear for the walk to the village--" He took out his wand and waved it at Ginny's robe, which turned into a warm winter coat with rabbit-fur trim at the collar and cuffs. She smiled at him.

"Thank you, Harry. I'm glad I don't have to wait to see my niece and nephew."

Mariah smiled at them uncertainly, looking nervously at Draco out of the corner of her eye. "Bring back photos," she said softly, very quickly. Ginny gave her a small smile.

"Well, we're off!" Harry said a touch too loudly. When they were outside, he heaved a sigh of relief. Ron, however, was surprised and upset at seeing Ginny.

"Ginny! What are you doing here? You're not supposed to be coming!" He turned to Sirius. "Tell me she's not coming--"

"Relax, Ron," Harry said quickly. "She's only going as far as Hog's End."

"Hog's End!" said Sirius. "That works out rather well. We were going there anyway, as Dumbledore thought it best to have the Portkey departure point be in the rear garden."

"Okay, that's good. I have to say, though, we didn't think this part through very well. If the rest of us are going to Hog's End to see the babies, certainly it would have made sense for Ginny to come, too. Malfoy came back to the entrance hall and wanted to know why Ginny was staying. Or why she wasn't going. Whatever. He also wanted to know why I was wearing Muggle clothes, but I didn't give him an answer to that."

They all looked at each other nervously. Finally, Sirius said, "We'd best be going. The Portkey takes effect in one hour."

The four of them put their shoulders to the wind and walked toward the village. Ron had his arm around Hermione's shoulder and Harry around Ginny's. It looked to him like Snape wanted to put his arm around Maggie, but he did not. Sirius walked ahead of them all, shoulders hunched against the cold.

When they reached Hog's End, Ginny let them in, as she knew the password. When they were all in the entrance hall, they were suddenly surprised by Fred leaping down the stairs, grinning ear to ear.

"What's this, then? We weren't expecting visitors already. Angelina's only half done, but so far we have the girl! Little Rowena Weasley has greeted the world!" he declared. "George's upstairs, threatening to hex Madam Pomfrey if she tries to take her away from him one more time. She's just trying to clean her up, but George won't let her go!" he grinned.

Ginny clapped her hands together rapturously. "Oh, what's she look like?"

"Beautiful! Full head of sort of brownish-orange hair, very curly, and skin like coffee with loads of cream. You can tell she's going to be absolutely gorgeous. I think even Angelina's going to have a hard time getting her daughter out of George's clutches!"

He looked energized by the goings-on, and Harry could tell that Ron was reluctant to tell Fred the real reason for the visit.

"Well," Harry said, "actually, only Ginny is here to visit. The rest of us--" he nodded at Ron, Hermione, Snape, Maggie and Sirius, "are getting a Portkey to the coast. We're going to bring back Percy and the others."

Fred froze, looking back and forth at their faces. "Oh, god," he choked. "The Ministry said--they aren't sending anyone. Not yet. I can't believe it. You really are?" Harry nodded. Fred swallowed and looked down at his shoes. "Good," he said, looking up again. "Because--as much as George and I have given him a hard time right from the moment we were born--we need to have Perce around to keep us in line, you know? And--and Mum--" Harry had never seen Fred look quite so emotional. Ginny stepped forward and put her hand on his arm. Fred put the arm around her, saying, "He's always been Mum's favorite, in a way. Oh, she loves all of us, we know that. But she and Percy had a sort of--understanding. I think that's why she went off a bit, finding out he'd signed on to train as an Auror without a by-your-leave. If anything happened to Percy--I think Mum would--" He looked very grim. "Well, I don't think she'd be the same...."

Ginny nodded, Fred's arm around her shoulder tightly. She gazed at Harry. "They're going to get him back, Fred. You'll see."

Harry swallowed, not wanting to make her a liar. He bobbed his head at the two of them. "Right, then. How soon does the Portkey take effect, Sirius?"

Sirius check his watch. "Ten minutes. Fred and Ginny, you'd better stay inside. We don't want either of you caught in our wake. You could wind up halfway across the country."

"I'd like to go up and see little Rowena, anyway," Ginny said softly. She smiled at all of them now, not just Harry, then stepped toward Maggie and put her arms around her. "Good luck," she whispered to her sister. She turned to Ron and he pulled her to him brusquely; Harry could see that his eyes were shining.

"We're bringing him back, Ginny, you'll see," he told her, his jaw looking very tight, as though clenching it were helping him to keep control of his emotions.

Ginny hugged Hermione then, and even Sirius. She utterly surprised Snape by also hugging him, quickly and wordlessly, before turning to Harry. He surprised her by pulling her into the drawing room, calling over his shoulder, "We'll just be a minute!" before closing the door. He just couldn't do what he needed to do in front of the others. He immediately pulled her to him and claimed her mouth, sinking his fingers into her hair and deepening the kiss, feeling her arms snake around him, until she was trembling and he thought it very likely she would fall down if he let go of her. He slowly broke the kiss and pressed his lips to her brow. "Oh, Ginny," he breathed against her skin.

"You're scared," she said simply, whispering. He nodded.

"Going back there--I've tried not to think about it--but it has to be done. We can't leave them there." He framed her face with his hands. "I have something for you. Two somethings, actually." He reached into his shirt sleeve and withdrew Sandy, handing her to Ginny. "I don't dare take her with me. I'll probably have to Apparate at some point." He directed his next words to Sandy. "Sorry Sandy," he hissed at her. "Ginny will take good care of you."

"I know, Harry Potter. Good luck."

He smiled ruefully. "Thanks. I'll probably need it." Then he reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out the silver-colored basilisk amulet, looking at Ginny again. "I know that the last time you wore it you saw me with--someone else. And I didn't want to make you feel violated by wearing it when we--we were still not quite together. But I want you to have it while I'm away, so you'll know I'm all right." He had already repaired the chain, which she'd broken when she'd pulled it from her neck after seeing him with Mariah. He placed it over her head and moved her hair out of the way so that it could rest on her sternum. She looked down at it, then up at him.

"What if it shows me that--that something dreadful has happened to you?" she whispered.

He put his finger under her chin. "Then you won't have to wait and wonder," he said softly, hoping it didn't come to that.

"Oh, I wish I could come!" she said suddenly, clasping the amulet. "But--but I don't know anything about sailing, like Maggie and Professor Snape and his uncle--and you. I can't Apparate or turn into an animal at will, like you and Hermione and Sirius. And I'm not a werewolf, like Ron, with all of the abilities that that gives him. I'm just about as bloody useless as they come, aren't I?" she sobbed. He held her tightly, rocking her.

"Hardly useless. And you're fabulous at dueling. This is just--yeah, we need people who can do certain things, that's true...." He was at a complete loss, having no idea what he could say to comfort her. He had to settle for kissing her lightly and turning to open the door to the entrance hall. She put her hand on his arm, to stop him.

"Harry, there's something I have to tell you."

"What?" He hoped he wasn't going to miss the Portkey.

"I--I went to see Madam Pomfrey."

He frowned. "So?"

She raised her eyebrows and looked at him with wide eyes. "I went to see Madam Pomfrey."

The meaning of what she was saying finally dawned on him and he pulled her to him in another crushing kiss; he was acutely aware this time of her body being pressed to his under the coat he'd conjured from her robes, and her fingers lightly tracing his neck, the taste of a mint in her mouth that made her breath feel cool, despite the fact that her mouth also felt like an inferno. He had to try very hard to pull away from her, struggling to get his breath. She smiled slyly at him.

"I wanted to give you an incentive to come back," she said, turning quite pink. He grinned ear to ear.

"That's some incentive. Don't worry--I already had every intention of coming back. But now--" He kissed her again quickly, grinning, and finally, they both returned to the hall.

She went to the back door to see them off, along with Fred. Once they were all standing outside in the garden, Sirius took out what looked like a child's spade, for playing in the sand at the seaside. The five others put their hands forward to touch it. Harry looked toward the back door of the house, seeing Ginny framed in the window there, her right hand pressed against the glass and her left clasping the amulet. The last thing Harry saw before he started hurtling through space was Ginny mouthing the words, "I love you," at him. Then the hook behind his navel pulled him forward with the others, and Hog's End was gone.

They landed with a thud on the roof of the Museum of Scottish Lighthouses, as he'd recommended. It was just as he remembered, only a bit colder and more wintry, as it was a good month earlier in the year than when he'd escaped from prison. Or was it two months earlier? After getting to his feet, Harry walked to the edge of the roof, staring over the wall at the sea, as he had when he'd flown to this spot from Azkaban less than a year earlier, in his other life. The others were brushing down their clothes and trying to get their bearings. He turned to look at Ron and Hermione, giving them a sad smile. "This was the first place I stood as a free man after escaping," he told them. They tried to smile back at him, but they looked more like they were grimacing; he knew they didn't like to think of him in prison. He turned to see what Maggie, Snape and Sirius were up to.

He stopped smiling very quickly; something was wrong with Maggie. Her eyes had gone vacant and round, and she had collapsed onto the stone deck. She looked past them all at the blank, cloud-covered sky, and when she began to speak, it was in that same odd, deep voice Trelawney had used when she'd told Harry that Peter Pettigrew was going to return to his Master....

"Seekers of the Warriors of Light
Be warned, for sorrow lies ahead.
Some are bound by walls of might,
Others dwell now with the dead.

"Present in body, not in mind,
Insensate voids still others be.
A new world's vanguard shall you find
Within the fortress on the sea.

"The Hopeless Ones shall walk the earth
And Happiness this world shall flee
Until the Lion finds their berth
When Night and Day must needs agree."

Her eyes rolled back in her head and she stiffened completely, so that Sirius and Snape had to catch her to keep her from striking her head. Harry blinked in disbelief. Another prophecy. Bloody hell.

He swallowed, looking at Ron and Hermione. "What now?"

"Ennervate!" Snape was saying, moving his wand over Maggie, who was sitting up slowly now, her hand on her chest as she tried to catch her breath.

Sirius looked up at Harry. "We have to get off this roof, so we can meet Professor Dumbledore and Duncan MacDermid on the beach," he said, his voice shaking.

"But--but what she said--" Harry stuttered. What had she said?

Snape looked at him. "I heard it. I think I remember it. Hang on--" He pulled out his wand, and in a moment had conjured a piece of parchment. He pointed his wand to his own temple and muttered something, then murmured something to the parchment. Harry saw writing appear on it, and when Snape put his wand away, he handed the parchment to Harry. Ron and Hermione leaned in to read it as well.

"Insensate voids still others be... Oh, god, do you think that means--" Hermione choked, unable to continue.

Harry nodded, throwing a worried look at Sirius, who would have been an 'insensate void' himself, if Cornelius Fudge had had his way. "It's possible. But what's this last bit mean? Until the Lion finds their berth / When Night and Day must needs agree. I thought she said 'birth.'"

"So did I," Hermione said. "I don't know what it means."

"You think it means--me? The Lion? Like--like in Trelawney's prophecy?"

"What it means," Snape said tersely, helping Maggie to stand, "is that we are wasting time. We have to meet the headmaster."

Harry frowned. He really wanted to understand what Maggie had just said. She slumped against Snape, still looking a bit weak. Harry hoped she would be able to help on board the Patricia.

Ron stepped toward Snape and took his older sister from him. He picked her up easily and leapt up on the wall, then down to the ground; Harry watched him land, bending his knees. It was a leap that could break another man's legs, but Ron treated it like going over a low garden wall. Then he saw Ron take out his wand and cast a spell on Maggie; he didn't know what it was, but she seemed much more chipper afterward. Maybe it was something he learned at St. Mungo's, Harry thought. He looked up at Sirius, who nodded at him; moments later, the four of them had joined Ron and Maggie on the ground next to the Museum by Apparating.

Sirius and Snape walked ahead; Ron walked with his arm around his sister and Harry and Hermione walked side by side, bringing up the rear. Hermione was perusing the parchment with the words Maggie had spoken by the clear, bright illumination coming from the lighthouse.

"A new world's vanguard shall you find... A vanguard?" she puzzled.

"Ah, there you all are!" Albus Dumbledore said when they'd gone only a little way; he emerged from around a rather large pile of rocks, where he'd evidently been sitting on the ground. He was holding, very carefully, what looked like a two-foot model of the Patricia. Duncan MacDermid was with him, dressed for sailing, and to Harry's surprise, so was Aberforth Dumbledore, whose presence had not been expected. Then, behind Aberforth, another figure emerged.

"Sam!" Harry said in shock.

It was indeed Sam Bell, looking quite pale and anguished in the glow of the lighthouse, his mouth very thin. "Hullo, Harry," he said hoarsely, as though his throat was very tight. "I talked Dick--Aberforth, that is--into letting me come. I--I had to come," he said.

Harry grasped his hand, eyes stinging. "I'm glad you're here," he lied. "Katie will be glad of it, too," he added, hoping he sounded more optimistic about the outcome of their excursion than he felt. Even if she was all right, Katie would probably be appalled by her father's presence. As it was, Harry was more than a little worried about him joining them. Sam had so very little magic left in him. Ginny could have come at this rate, he thought. With her dueling skills, she would have been more helpful than a distraught father who couldn't do magic.

Dumbledore was the only one among them wearing wizarding robes. Sam, like Aberforth and Duncan MacDermid, was dressed in Muggle clothes for sailing, although Harry wasn't aware of his having any experience at sea. Dumbledore nodded at Sirius now, who took the shrunken ship from him and walked to the edge of the water with it. He placed it in the surf, then abruptly changed into a dog form, wading into the water, nudging the ship forward with his nose. After a little while, Harry could see that Sirius was having to swim while continuing to push the yacht into deep water enough; there were buoys indicating the locations of shoals, and Sirius had only just gone beyond them. They didn't want the keel to founder as soon as the ship was enlarged. From what Harry could tell, Sirius had passed a buoy marking three fathoms. Finally, Dumbledore turned to Snape.

"What do you think, Severus?" Harry saw Snape nod, and Dumbledore took out his wand, pointing it toward the ship. Harry realized that he hadn't actually seen Dumbledore do much magic with a wand; he often just clapped his hands or flicked a finger. Now he was concentrating harder than Harry had ever seen him, his jaw clenched and an eerie light in his eyes. Harry didn't hear the incantation, if there was one, but suddenly a smooth stream of light which seemed to be all of the colors of the spectrum at once flew from Dumbledore's wand, and the ship began to bulge and stretch until the full-sized Patricia was before them, her masts majestic against the pre-dawn sky, her lovely lines as breathtaking as Harry remembered, the varnished wood and gleaming metal glowing in the beacon from the lighthouse.

Sirius had swum back toward the shore, still in his dog form, to get out of the way during Dumbledore's spell. As soon as the full-sized ship was bobbing in the water, white-tipped waves slapping indignantly against the hull, Sirius swam back toward it and then abruptly changed into his human form just as he reached the rope ladder that had been conveniently left hanging down for just that purpose. They all waited patiently for him to climb up and over the rail, although it seemed to take forever, but then they saw that he was having difficulty getting the dinghy into the water to bring the rest of them across.

"Why don't I take Maggie over myself, Captain?" Harry said, speaking to Snape, who looked surprised for a moment that Harry was calling him this. "She's the lightest one of the experienced sailors. We can help Sirius. For one thing, he should have let down the anchor first thing; at this rate, she'll be going out with the tide."

Snape looked toward the ship, his face twisting. "Please," was all he said, but his voice was dripping with contempt for Sirius' inexperience.

Harry closed his eyes, feeling the change rush through him, the wrenching, bone-deep pain coming very fast and then dissipating as his paws touched down on the frozen sand. He heard gasps, and looked up, realizing suddenly that neither Sam Bell, Duncan MacDermid nor Aberforth Dumbledore knew he was a golden griffin Animagus. The headmaster explained it to them as Maggie approached him uncertainly and Hermione gave her some pointers for holding on. When Maggie's trouser-clad legs were gripping his sides painfully and her fingers were sunk deep into his mane, the cloth of her pea jacket scratchy against his back, he spread his wings and leapt into the cold air above the beach at Fraserburgh.

He climbed for some minutes, moving past the Patricia, then he wheeled against the sky, circling back so that he could spiral down to the clean, scoured deck, where Sirius was still struggling with the dinghy. Sirius hadn't dried himself off yet after his swim, and he was shivering and soaking in the spray that the wind was blowing across the deck, his fingers struggling ineffectually against the swollen ropes. Harry waited for Maggie to climb off him before he transfigured; she was already racing to the anchor. Harry took over the dinghy operation from Sirius, suggesting that he dry himself. Thanks to Maggie, the anchor chain was soon snubbing and the Patricia was firmly in place. Harry lowered the dinghy into the cold water and called to Maggie, "I'll row back; you stay here and start checking the sails. This shouldn't take long."

"Aye, it shouldn't," Snape's voice suddenly said behind him. Harry whirled; Snape, Aberforth, Hermione, MacDermid and Dumbledore had Apparated to the ship. Only Ron and Sam still stood on shore. Harry grimaced; he should have known there wouldn't have to be multiple trips, as he'd already brought Maggie, and Ron and Sam were the only others who couldn't Apparate. He scrambled down the same rope ladder Sirius had scrambled up and when he was in the dinghy he put the oars into position and waited while Snape untied the painter and tossed it down to him. The small dinghy bobbed violently in the wintry water, to which Harry was not accustomed; sailing on the Firth of Clyde wasn't exactly the Caribbean, but in the summer, it was a sight warmer than the northeast coast of Scotland in February. He bit his lip instead of crying out the first time the near-freezing water splashed over the transom onto his trousers, and rowed on, determined to be back on the Patricia's deck as soon as possible; he could hardly feel his hands on the oars just moments after starting for shore.

On the way back to the ship, he let Ron row, as Ron pointed out that he could do it faster. Harry didn't argue; he'd felt the strain all across his shoulders on the way to the shore, and he hadn't especially relished walking through the freezing shallows to ground the dinghy so Ron and Sam could get in. Harry sat in the stern this time, Sam next to him on the duckboard looking worse than Harry had ever seen him. He remembered Sam telling him about having killed his wife to protect Katie, and going to prison for ten years for it, even though Aberforth had strongly implied that, as an Auror, Sam could have avoided that if he'd really wanted to. Now he was going to find his daughter--the daughter he hadn't seen between the ages of two and twelve because he'd been where she was now--in Azkaban.

Once they were on board, Harry waited for the command to weigh anchor, but instead Snape stood with his hand on the tiller, looking at Dumbledore expectantly. He raised his wand again, that stern glint in his blue eyes as he cried in a slow, ringing voice, "Navis omnis obscuro!"

Harry saw the ship, and indeed, all of the people on it (including him) shimmer with a strange rainbow effect briefly. He felt distinctly odd. Then it was gone, and Snape started barking orders, which Harry, Maggie and Duncan MacDermid rushed to obey. When the ship had been returned to its normal size, she'd been facing south, so the first thing they need to do after weighing anchor was to raise the sails and bring her about. Soon the Patricia was slicing through the frigid waters of the north, her sails full of the winter wind, on course for the fortress of Azkaban.

---