Harry Potter and the Triangle Prophecy

Harry Potter and the Triangle Prophecy

Chapter Twenty-Four

Home

The Dutch loved their homes. They shared this old Anglo-Saxon word--ham, hejm
in Dutch--with the other peoples of northern Europe. "Home" brought together the
meanings of house and of household, of dwelling and of refuge, of ownership and of
affection. "Home" meant the house, but also everything that was in it and around it,
as well as the people, and the sense of satisfaction and contentment that all these
conveyed. You could walk out of the house, but you always returned home.

--Witold Rybcynski, Home: A Short History of an Idea

Dumbledore conjured champagne for the celebration of Percy and Katie's wedding, but Harry had something else on his mind. After kissing the bride and shaking Percy's hand, he left the celebrating throng on the deck and went down the companionway into the hold, lighting his wand so that he could see in the dimness. When he found a lantern hanging on a beam, he lit it and was able to extinguish his wand. He gazed around the dank-smelling space, which was oddly quiet save for the slapping of the water on the hull.

In addition to transfiguring the Kissed Aurors into small animals--chiefly hamsters--Dumbledore, Hermione and Sirius had conjured small cages in which they would be safe, no matter how turbulent the seas became. Harry went from cage to cage, peering at them; they were very still, some of them on top of their companions in rather undignified poses, presumably from the rough seas they'd experienced. It was strange for Harry to see their dark little eyes staring into space, unblinking. If he hadn't been able to see the very small movements indicating that they were still breathing he wouldn't have believed that they were alive.

He stared at cage after cage, but none of the Kissed, Transfigured Aurors stirred. He tapped the side of one of the cages with his index finger. Nothing. He sighed. Then he remembered that they'd all been stunned, in addition to being Transfigured. No wonder they weren't moving.

But suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he did see a movement. One of the hamsters, a sleek black one, was twitching its nose, sniffing at the other animals in the same cage. Very carefully, Harry opened the door and took it out. Something about the look in its small dark eyes was familiar to him, and he held it close to his face, whispering, "Cho? Is that you?"

He reckoned they hadn't stunned her before turning her into a hamster. She still seemed somewhat dazed, looking at him as though she wasn't really seeing him, sniffing at his hand as though that would tell her all she needed to know about him.

He stroked her back and rubbed her between her small ears, taking out his wand. He started to remove the spell from her, to turn her back into a human, but then he remembered what Percy had said and thought better of it. He sighed and put her back in the cage, closing the door carefully. She continued to sniff lethargically at the other hamsters in the cage with her, before settling down to sleep. Harry turned to leave, but immediately bumped into someone.

"You left the celebration, Harry," Dumbledore said gently. Harry had the feeling that he'd been watching him with Cho; he wondered whether he'd hidden himself using the Chameleon Transfiguration to be invisible, but didn't dare ask.

Harry shrugged. "I'm happy for them, and it was even my idea, but in some ways, I'm not feeling that much like celebrating now." He waved his hand at the cages. "All of these people are going to end up living the rest of their lives in St. Mungo's, and we didn't manage to get the dead off the island before we had to run for it. So to speak."

Dumbledore put his hand on Harry's shoulder. "Well, I think you all did very well, considering what we were up against...."

Harry looked at him with narrowed eyes. "It's a good thing that both you and Ron have such good hearing, so we knew about the bomb. Only--I know Ron's reason for being able to do that. What's yours?"

Dumbledore gave him that sly look that always preceded an instance of his telling Harry, You'll know when it's time, or something similar. Harry grimaced, waiting for it, but to his surprise, Dumbledore nodded at him.

"I thought you might have forgotten about that." Harry shook his head. "Well, I'll tell you what Harry. You offer some guesses as to why you think I have exceptional hearing, and I'll tell you if you hit the mark."

Harry sighed. "I was rather hoping you might just tell me something for once." He tried not to sound irritated, but he wasn't sure he succeeded.

Dumbledore chuckled. "Ah, I see. After almost seven years of my cryptic answers, you've grown rather weary of my whimsical nature, have you?" he said cheerfully, not sounding a bit offended. Harry grinned at him.

"Maybe I thought that being Head Boy would mean I wouldn't have to follow clues and work out riddles every time you opened your mouth, that I'd be in the inner circle at last."

Dumbledore nodded. "And well you might think that." He looked intently at the cage where the hamster Harry was sure was Cho was sitting, still awake, looking at the two of them, it seemed. The ship rocked gently beneath their feet and Harry noticed for the first time that Dumbledore seemed to have natural sea-legs; he hadn't stumbled or been awkward, that Harry had seen, since he'd boarded the ship. He wasn't sure whether that was part of the hearing mystery or not.

"Why don't you let her out again, Harry?" he said softly. Harry nodded and did as Dumbledore suggested. He held her in his hand, feeling her tiny heart beating rapidly against his palm. "Bring her up on deck, why don't you, give our former Head Girl some fresh air?"

Dumbledore's voice sounded strange to Harry, but he did as he suggested, following the headmaster back up the companionway. He and Harry walked slowly toward Ron and Hermione, where they stood near the starboard rail, sipping champagne. The fairy lights shed an ethereal glow over all and the wind filled the sails, pushing them on down the coast.

"Harry!" Hermione said when she saw him. "Oh, hullo, Professor Dumbledore," she said, nodding respectfully to the headmaster. "Where did you both go?"

"I went to check on Cho," Harry said, nodding at the hamster he was holding. Hermione's mouth became very thin.

"I'm glad she was Kissed," Hermione said bitterly. "I never thought I'd say that about anyone, but I'm glad. You know, when we were down in the hold and thought we might all die, I tried to think of other things, to keep my mind off that. Well, to keep my mind off that and spewing," she admitted, with a glance at Ron. "And something occurred to me--Ron told me that she left him to face Evan on his own last year, in the forest. But what if she was actually working with him? What if she knew about Viktor being Voldemort's heir, what if she was already a Death Eater last year, when she was Head Girl? She might not have needed to be under Imperius at all to give poor Professor Flitwick that potion! She could have just given him poison and killed him! And then after that she received the Order of the Phoenix!"

Harry felt the small animal in his hand squirm against his fingers, as though trying to get away. Suddenly, the bright eyes didn't look so glazed over anymore; they looked terrified. He tightened his grip and said grimly, "You may be right, Hermione."

Dumbledore nodded. "Speaking of honors," he said idly, gazing out at the dark beyond the ship, "you do realize that I will be recommending that you all receive the Order of Merlin for what you have done."

Hermione gasped and Harry was so surprised that he almost dropped the squirming little hamster. Cho was growing steadily more agitated.

"While--while we're still in school?" Hermione choked out. Ron was simply standing with his mouth open in shock.

"Yes," Dumbledore continued. "I shall also recommend that we have the ceremony in the Hogsmeade village hall, instead of at the Ministry. It holds nearly as many people as the Great Hall at Hogwarts and should work nicely. There will be a little time required to process some paperwork and for me to convince Cornelius--but I have no doubt that I shall prevail. You needn't look so worried, Harry."

"It's not that," Harry told him, frowning as he struggled to keep Cho confined in his grasp. "It's just--you can't give us the Order of Merlin while we're still in school."

Dumbledore's brows lowered over his eyes. "And why not?"

Harry grimaced. "Because poor Snape would--he'd have a meltdown. I remember how he was near the end of my third year, when he thought he was going to get the Order of Merlin for bringing in Sirius, and it didn't happen because Hermione and I helped him esc--" He stopped, seeing the horrified looks on Ron and Hermione's faces. "Erm," he managed to say. "He's standing right behind me, isn't he?" His voice shook and his two best friends nodded slowly, confirming what he had already had guessed.

He turned, expecting to see a very irate Severus Snape, but instead, Snape was looking at him with amusement, one corner of his mouth turned up. "Nice to finally hear you admit to it, Harry," he said sardonically. "Did you think that Sirius Black and I had worked together for almost three years without my asking him how exactly he managed to do me out of the Order of Merlin?"

Harry grinned at him. "Well, now you're going to get it. First Class, I should think," he said, looking sideways at Dumbledore, who nodded.

"And I think that if Miss Granger and Sirius receive Third Class, Severus might not have a 'meltdown,' as you put it," he said softly, his eyes twinkling at Harry over his half-moon spectacles. "I would recommend my brother as well, but he already has the Order of Merlin, First Class."

Harry's face dropped. "What about Ron? He saved your life!" He looked in distress at Ron, who seemed both a bit disappointed and yet resigned. But Dumbledore clapped him on the shoulder and smiled gently.

"As did you, pulling us from the sea in your griffin form. And while I do not think that my life is more important than the other lives saved, I will use that as a very good excuse to recommend Second Class for you and Mr. Weasley as well," he said with a wink.

Ron was standing in open-mouthed shock again, as Hermione launched herself at him, hugging him tightly. Harry slapped him on the back, grinning, and Snape didn't even appear to object to this.

However, as he congratulated Ron, he lost his grip on the hamster, and after Cho landed on the deck, she went scampering away from him. To his relief, Dumbledore was on top of things and pointed his wand at her.

"Finite Incantatem!" he cried.

Harry gasped; he was taking the Transfiguration spell off her! Suddenly, Cho Chang appeared before them all, standing in a slightly crouched position, her short sleek hair swinging around her chin, looking very alert and not the least bit as though she'd been Kissed by a dementor. Ron immediately lunged for her, but Dumbledore put his hand out to stop him.

"You nearly got us blown up!" he snarled at her, not really trying to get past Dumbledore; he obviously didn't want to hurt him. "Trying to bloody rescue you! Just because you wanted to throw your life away doesn't mean that we did!"

Hermione stepped forward and, surprisingly, slapped Cho across the face. Harry reluctantly pulled her back; she struggled against him. "You were trying to kill Harry and Ron, pretending to be Kissed," she spat. "You were trying to get as many people killed as you could, but we were too quick for you, pulling all of the Aurors out of there the way we did. It spoiled your plans. So you were going to take Harry and Ron with you...." she choked, as Harry held her.

Cho didn't look at Ron and Hermione, though they were the ones leveling accusations at her; she was looking at Harry, her dark eyes very cold, her mouth twisting in a smile. He shivered, but he didn't wonder for a moment how she had come to be like this, how she had become a Death Eater.

It's all my fault.

Then suddenly she turned and said simply, "You were right, Hermione," before abruptly changing before them all. Suddenly, a very large eagle was standing where Cho had been; she leapt up onto the rail and launched herself into the night, her enormous wings beating against the cold February air.

Hermione gasped. "She's an Animagus!"

Harry sprang for the rail. "I'll change too, and go after her!"

But Dumbledore put his hand on Harry's shoulder; he looked up at the old man, who was still taller than him. He was shaking his head, looking grim. "She did exactly as I expected her to do," he said simply. "She learned to take on the form of an erne while studying under Professor McGonagall, taking rather longer than you and Hermione, more than three years. She didn't finish, in fact, until after she completed her seventh year. She finally registered with the Ministry last summer ..." Hermione gasped; Harry could hardly believe it. Cho had trained to be an Animagus too! "I was starting to think she would wait until we docked to make her escape, so that she wouldn't have as far to fly. In her presence I made a great show of talking about how concerned I was that Sirius might splinch himself, going back to the Burrow from the ship. I had hoped that she might be leery of Apparating from the ship, and I daresay she was, as she exposed herself to the rest of you as an Animagus. No, this is far better...."

Harry's mouth dropped open, much as Ron's had. "You--you mean you did that on purpose? Let her get away?" He nodded. Harry was utterly confused. "And how is this better?"

"And what's an erne?" Ron wanted to know.

"An erne is a large sea eagle. And this is better because, as of this moment, she believes we are going down to Dover," Dumbledore explained calmly.

Hermione frowned. "We're not?"

"No. We never were. I originally suspected that she might decide to Apparate away at some point--which is why I wanted her to believe that only the Hogwarts Apparition teacher would be likely to do it successfully--and notify other Death Eaters of our location. That is why I allowed her to hear me speaking to Severus about Dover while in her hearing. It so happens that you all heard as well, and believed that to be our goal."

Harry looked at him shrewdly. "So, you were never fooled by her for a minute."

In the glow from the fairy lights, Dumbledore looked very old as he said, "No, I was not."

Ron crossed his arms. "So if we were never going to Dover, where are we going?"

"To Snape," Dumbledore said simply, raising his eyebrows. Harry, Ron and Hermione stared at each other, baffled.

"Erm," Ron began. "Professor Snape is right here," he said slowly, as though speaking to a simpleton.

Dumbledore looked at him indulgently. "To Snape, Suffolk," he said this time. "We shall need to navigate up the River Alde first. Nothing our fine captain cannot handle," he added with a nod to Snape.

Harry laughed. "So, we're actually going to a town named 'Snape.'"

Dumbledore shrugged. "There is a very old regional Ministry office there, not far from the bridge, in the Snape Maltings. Lovely concert hall there; you would enjoy their music festival in June, Miss Granger. It is quite famous." He smiled gently at his Head Girl. "It will be possible for the three of you, Severus and Miss Dougherty to return to Hogsmeade by Floo, as well as the new Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and Sam. Aberforth can use Floo to go to the central Ministry offices in London with the Aurors who were imprisoned and Kissed, and a definitive list of the dead can be compiled after the fact. For the identities of the Death Eaters who were killed during the fighting, we shall have to rely upon eyewitnesses. And I believe that all of the Aurors who were imprisoned, after a bit of rest, shall have their hands quite full running to ground all of those escaped prisoners." He didn't mention the dementors, and Harry tried not to shiver at the thought of them. "After he helps to sort out the Aurors in London, my brother can come to Hog's End for the celebration, and I will return Severus' vessel to her proper place in the Firth of Clyde."

"Yes, what about the wedding dinner?" Hermione asked.

"Ah, yes, quite. Well, having it this evening is really out of the question, isn't that right, Severus? How long is the river?"

"About twenty-one miles. The entry point is at Shingle Street in Orford. We'll actually be navigating the Ore at the start; between Orford and Aldeburgh it changes to the River Alde, but I couldn't tell you where. I haven't been in these parts for years..."

Harry narrowed his eyes, thinking hard. "Before your parents died, you came here one summer with your uncle for the yacht races held by the Aldeburgh Yacht Club," he said softly, vaguely remembering something his dad had said to him in his other life. He looked up at Snape, who swallowed, nodding.

"That was over twenty-five years ago," he replied in a quiet, even voice. Clearing his throat, he turned to the headmaster again. "The entrance is shingle, but the banks can get very muddy, if I remember. It is a tidal river, and we shall need the high water level that is present much of the night in order to navigate up to the bridge; at low tide it is little better than a narrow stream and you are lucky if you can avoid grounding a dinghy."

"So perhaps we shall arrive by morning?" Dumbledore asked. Snape nodded.

"It will be necessarily to do so well before that, else we'll be sitting in mud when the tide goes out. But there is no reason we cannot. As the moon has only been waning for one night, the high tides are very high yet, especially as we're getting close on the start of spring. But that also means the low tides are very low, and will expose most of the hard. There is a fair breeze from the northeast at five knots, but it is not storming. It'll do."

Dumbledore nodded to him, then turned to Harry, Ron and Hermione. "Once we arrive in Snape and reach the Snape Maltings, it won't be long before you're back in Hogsmeade. Percy and Katie shall have their wedding banquet," he said, his eyes twinkling. Harry felt his heart swell; he would see Ginny at Hog's End! He thought again of why Sirius had Disapparated from the Patricia and prayed again, silently, for the safety of everyone in that house. "I think that if you return to the castle by Monday morning," Dumbledore finished, "no harm will be done." That sounded fine to Harry; more time with Ginny away from Hogwarts.

But now Hermione looked still more distressed. "But--but--Harry and I will miss the Sunday night prefects' meeting!"

Ron and Harry both laughed. He was strongly reminded of the end of their second year, when Hermione had been so upset by the exams being canceled. "I honestly think you can miss a meeting for once, Hermione," Ron said, grinning at her.

"I'm not so sure," Harry said, chuckling more than he knew he should be. "She might go into withdrawal or something." He had seen that Hermione loved being in charge of the prefects' meetings. They were always run strictly by Robert's Rules of Order, had firm agendas, and moved along quickly, if rather brusquely at times. She brooked very little discussion.

Hermione stuck her tongue out at them both and crossed her arms. "Someone has to keep the prefects from thinking they can just do anything they want. Eddy Shire takes any opportunity to take points away from a house other than Slytherin."

Harry saw Snape's mouth twisting as though he was trying to stifle his laughter as well. "And that is a problem why?" he asked her, raising his eyebrows. She flushed and Harry and Ron laughed.

"So we probably won't dock until near morning?" Ron asked. "When I thought we were going to Dover, I reckoned we'd still be on our way through tomorrow and part of the way into Monday."

"How soon before we begin our journey along the Alde, Severus?" Dumbledore asked him.

"We're nearly to Orford now, actually," Snape informed the headmaster. Harry saw that Duncan MacDermid was at the tiller now. He saw where Harry was looking and said, "I shall take the tiller myself before we get to the estuary and onto the river proper. There is a shifting shingle bar across the entrance. It is notorious in sailing circles for being unpredictable. We don't want to be swept onto the shoals. Most boats in these parts never actually cross the bar; they stay to the Ore, Alde and Butley rivers. And as we shan't be needing to secure a buoy in Orford, we needn't bother the harbormaster there."

"Will you need me, Captain?" Harry asked Snape, who shook his head.

"Get some rest, Harry. There are markers all up the Alde that show where the shallows are, but we shan't need to worry about that for hours, when we're closer to low tide." He put his hand on Harry's shoulder and Harry felt very much like he had his dad back; he'd felt that way several times during the trip, but never as much as at this moment.

"Yes, sir," he answered obediently. He, Ron and Hermione bade the others good night and went down the companionway into the hold; Harry led them to the berths in the fo'castle and Ron and Hermione climbed into one bunk together, fully clothed. He chose one of the others, wishing that Ginny was with him. He hoped again that she and the rest of her family were all right. His eyes finally closed and he slipped into dreamless slumber, lulled by the gentle rocking of the Patricia.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

When Harry awoke it was three o'clock by his watch; he could see it well by the moon beaming in through the porthole above his bunk. He felt surprisingly well-rested and decided to leave Ron and Hermione, still sleeping peacefully, to go up on deck.

He pulled his woolen pea coat close around his body when he reached the deck; the spell that had earlier made the air on the deck feel spring-like, for the wedding, had faded, and the air that struck him full in the face was hard and cold and full of winter once more. There was a mild wind pushing gently at the sails, and he saw Duncan MacDermid stowing the topsail, in fact, which Maggie had just thrown down to him; they not only wouldn't need that kind of thrust in the narrow channel, it would make it harder for Snape to steer properly. They had to tread a fine line between going quickly enough to beat the ebbing tide and yet be able to prevent the Patricia straying into shallow water.

He found Snape near the tiller, staring hard at the water to either side of the hull; Harry saw that tree branches had been thrust into the mud banks to indicate the deeper water. In the moonlight, Harry could see that some of the branches had fading red or green paint on them; he asked Snape about this, hoping he wouldn't think he was a pest.

Snape continued to watch the water carefully; Harry could see a good bit of damp wood below the high-water marks on the withies, and he wondered how soon the water level would be dangerously low. "Red for port, green for starboard," Snape told him shortly.

Ah, right, Harry remembered. That way you know to which side of the withy is deep water. "Right, sir. Forgot." Harry had to squint to see even a trace of paint on some of the branches, though, as it was so faded. He realized that this was why Snape was concentrating so hard; before he moved his hand on the tiller, he needed to make certain he knew whether the withy was directing him to the left or right. An error meant being grounded, most likely.

Maggie ambled over to them, looking rather weary. "Do you need me up here, or can I go below for a while?"

"We are past the marsh," Snape told her. "My uncle should be able to help if we actually need to do any tacking, which is doubtful with the wind so mild. Get some rest; Harry's here now, too, should the wind kick up."

"Take the bunk I was using in the fo'castle," Harry told her. "Ron and Hermione are down there, too."

She smiled at him and quickly pecked Snape on the cheek before leaving; he gave her an affectionate look before going back to staring at the withies; he couldn't afford to be distracted and she knew that. After she was gone, they both remained silent for some time, Harry keeping an eye on the withies, should Snape's eyes prove to be weary. He watched the older man's hand on the tiller and saw him moving in the expected ways. Harry had to squint very hard at times to spot the paint color on the branches.

At length, Harry could see the bridge in the distance; it was an old Roman style structure, a single stone arch giving the impression that you could go under it and continue up the river, but the Patricia would never fit under such a space. Harry leapt onto the dock when they had drawn alongside it, tying up the painter with a flourish, feeling exhilarated. They'd done it; they'd rescued the Aurors and would soon be going back to Hogsmeade, going home.

It's not your home, he had to remind himself suddenly. But in some ways, it would always be his home. He knew that he really shouldn't have been surprised that his feet had taken him to Ginny's bedroom during the summer; it had felt as natural to him as breathing. He had lived there for over ten years, even though it was only during the summer months and the Christmas and Easter Holidays since he had turned eleven. She had been an occasional guest in that house for only a few years, since Percy had purchased it with the money that used to belong to Lucius Malfoy.

Lucius Malfoy. That wasn't a good thought. He had no earthly reason to like Weasleys. When he left Percy in Azkaban to die, he'd probably thought that justification for Percy having 'stolen' his money. Percy and Katie had just married; nothing would touch them, Harry promised himself. There was also no love lost between the Bells and Lucius Malfoy, either; it was because of him that Sam had gone to prison and Katie had been placed under Imperius, ordered to pursue Harry during his fifth year. And I'll never let Lucius Malfoy hurt Ginny again, he thought with determination, remembering the sight of her frail little body in the Chamber of Secrets.

Harry leapt back to the deck, looking to Snape for further instructions. "You're very keen, Mr. Potter," Snape said to him.

"Please, sir--I want to make certain everything's all right at Hog's End. Lucius Malfoy--"

Snape nodded. "Of course. It's natural to be concerned," he said slowly.

He met Harry's eye and the familiarity of the situation was almost painful. You were a good dad, Harry wanted to tell him. He'd told him this before, but he still wasn't certain Snape believed it.

It took some time to roust everyone from sleep and hustle them onto the dock. Aberforth and Sam led the Aurors to the local Ministry Office, some of them carrying the cages containing their erstwhile comrades. Harry wondered what the good people of Snape, Suffolk would think if they looked out their windows and saw this queer parade of bedraggled wizards walking toward the dark concert hall. Probably tell themselves they're still dreaming and go back to bed, he realized, knowing that Muggles' brains were very good about helping them cope with otherwise inexplicable sights. Harry, Ron and Hermione hung back, waiting for Dumbledore, Maggie and Snape. When they'd all disembarked, Dumbledore untied the painter and withdrew his wand from his robes again; after the ship was reduced in size once more, he summoned it neatly into his hands and walked along with them, just as though he were toting a model of a ship.

They proceeded past a pub called The Plough and Sail until they finally reached the Snape Maltings. Dumbledore led them to a blank wall in side of the building which suddenly became a door when he waved his hand casually in front of it. They all entered, finding not a concert hall, but a dingy little office overflowing now with Aurors. Harry thought that it was probably just as well that no one who normally worked in the office was around at four-thirty in the morning; they'd probably be completely overwhelmed.

Aberforth made his way to them through the crowd. "About half have gone through to London," he told them. "I think the supply of Floo powder I found in the clerk's desk will do for all of us. You might want to leave a note for the poor bloke, Albus, explaining where all of it's gone. He might take it better if it comes from you."

They waited for more of the Aurors to go through, and then Percy, Katie, Hermione, Ron, Aberforth and Sam finally went. Harry nodded at Snape, Maggie and Dumbledore before he stepped toward the fire, but suddenly, Dumbledore thrust his hand at him.

"Good work, Harry," he said simply, looking at him over his half-moon spectacles.

Harry grinned at him. "Thank you, sir," he said before throwing his powder into the fire and crying, "Hog's End!"

Harry stumbled out of the drawing room fire, coughing a bit from the soot. Percy, Katie, Hermione, Ron, Aberforth and Sam were standing about talking to each other, along with Fred, Sirius, Mrs. Figg and another wizard he knew he'd seen before. Ginny was standing to the side, and the moment he saw her, alive and well, he lost all semblance of self-control and launched himself at her. She met him half-way, and then there was nothing in the world but Ginny's arms around him, Ginny's mouth opening under his, Ginny's hair caught in his fingers....

When they came up for air, they noticed that everyone else in the room had stopped to gawp at them, and Harry felt himself redden. He'd been followed out of the fire by Maggie and Snape, who looked highly amused. Fortunately, Harry noticed that not only were Ron, Fred and Percy not looking hostile, they also seemed somewhat amused, and Katie was giving him and Ginny a gentle, friendly smile while clutching Percy's arm. Sirius strode to him and enveloped him in a hug. Harry grinned at him and hugged back.

"So," he said, "is it too much to hope that when Lucius Malfoy attacked you all stupefied him and turned him over to the Ministry?"

"Actually, it's too much too hope that he attacked. We haven't a clue where he might be. It's been quiet as a church around here, except for--"

An ear-splitting wail was suddenly heard from the upper reaches of the house and Harry turned to Fred, grinning. "The babies?"

Fred nodded, looking very tired. "Rufus finally arrived yesterday at about three o'clock. I don't think we're ever really going to have peace around here again. Tell me once more why I moved in with my brothers after leaving home?"

Ron laughed. "When I finish school, maybe we can get a flat together and you can escape the Wailing Ones," he said, only to receive an instant glare from Hermione. Ron was frowning now. "What? What did I say?" he demanded, as Hermione's brow furrowed and she drew her lips into a very thin line.

Harry and Ginny looked at each other, shaking their heads and smiling; in some ways, when it came to Hermione, Ron was still as thick as when he was in his third and fourth years.

Fred, however, picked up on it. "That'd be fine with me. You are in the habit of walking about in the morning with nothing on, right Hermione?" he asked innocently, raising his eyebrows.

"Oh, er, on second thought--" Ron said quickly, finally catching on.

The rest of them laughed, and soon after they were in the large old kitchen, eating whatever food was available, sitting round the long table talking and making plans for the special dinner that would come later, to celebrate Katie and Percy's wedding. The wizard Harry hadn't been able to put a name to was Mundungus Fletcher; he remembered that Fletcher had been at the ceilidh, wearing Clan MacGregor, like him. Fletcher and Mrs. Figg had come to Hog's End at Sirius' bidding, to protect against the Death Eater attack that wasn't.

When George entered, carrying one of his children in each arm, looking very proud, a roar went up, and Maggie and Hermione each claimed one of the babies, while Katie took turns cooing at each of them. Even Ron took an interest in the newest Weasleys, declaring that Rowena looked like she would favor her mother, which was a lucky thing, as he wouldn't wish for any girl to look like George. Rufus would just have to tolerate being told he looked like his dad.

George merely laughed at this; he looked happier than Harry had ever seen him, with the possible exception of the time he'd caught George and Angelina in bed together during the infamous Christmas party in his fifth year. The thought of what they were very likely doing during that party made him shift uncomfortably in his chair, and when Ginny asked him whether he was all right, his reply of, "Never better," came out a bit squeaky, making her stare.

At length, they heard footsteps in the corridor outside the kitchen and Molly and Arthur Weasley entered, stopping short when they saw everyone. "Oh! I came to check on the babies. Why didn't anyone say that you'd returned?" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed, pulling Percy and Ron to her. She didn't have to talk Maggie into anything; as soon as she'd handed little Rufus over to Katie, she was throwing her arms around her mother and brothers both. Mrs. Weasley also had to hug Hermione and Harry, but Harry noticed Katie standing nervously to one side, awkwardly rocking Rufus to and fro, waiting. Finally, Percy took the baby from her and handed his nephew back to Maggie. He put his arm around Katie's shoulder and brought her to his mother.

"We've something to tell you, Mum."

Harry watched Mrs. Weasley's face very carefully as she learned that she had a daughter-in-law. He saw the initial flash of anger, but that was quickly pushed down as she gathered Katie to her, hugging her firmly. She looked at Percy over Katie's shoulder, and Harry had a feeling that she didn't want another row with him, after very nearly losing him. Then she held Katie at arm's length, saying, "Aren't you pretty? And also an Auror, yes?" Katie nodded; Harry could see that she was shaking. Mrs. Weasley seemed to be biting back a comment about Katie's job. They all waited while she continued to regard Katie; the silence was deafening.

"Well," she finally said, "these days--I reckon no one has the time to plan weddings," she said, her jaw clenched rather tightly, looking at George out of the corner of her eye. "And it's not as though your father was there either," she added cheerfully, as though this was a comfort to her. Katie looked uncertainly at Percy; Mrs. Weasley evidently didn't know that Sam was there, that he had in fact given Katie away.

Arthur Weasley broke the uncomfortable tension by stepping forward and kissing Katie on the cheek. "I am very happy to have another daughter," he said warmly. Then he noticed Sam hovering nearby and put his hand out to him. "And Sam Bell!" he cried happily. "It's been years! And now we're family!"

Sam flushed and shook Mr. Weasley's hand; Harry could tell that Sam felt awkward about seeing people again whom he'd known before going to prison. They all knew why he hadn't been about for years. "Well, actually, Mrs. Weasley--"

"Molly," she insisted, patting his arm sympathetically.

"Er, yes, Molly. You see, the thing is--I was there." Sam looked at her earnestly.

Silence.

The expression in Molly Weasley's eyes was not one Harry ever wanted to see directed at him. He whispered to Ginny, "Let's get out of here." She nodded and they managed to slip inconspicuously into the butler's pantry, which led to the dining room. However, Harry had forgotten that this was now the office from where Weasley Wizard Wheezes was run. Percy had a large desk in here sitting behind a couch which faced the fire. He didn't particularly care where they were, though, as he pulled Ginny to him and lowered his mouth to hers. She responded at first, but then she just turned her head and clutched at him, her cheek against his shoulder, and he felt tears wetting his sleeve, her body beginning to convulse with sobs as the shock of it all finally took her over.

"There, there," he said gently, leading her to the couch, pulling her onto his lap. As she cried into his neck, he rocked her and whispered soft reassurances in her ear. Finally, she lifted her tear-stained face to him and pulled the amulet out of the neck of her blouse. "I--I--" she tried to say, hiccuping and looking so adorable that Harry had to try very hard not to smile. "I saw," she finally managed to say, holding out the amulet to him. He knew what she meant. He was horrified, remembering being on the horizontal mast, the ship going up and up, the bone-shattering impact when they'd gone over the first really massive wave. She must have thought she was going to see me die, he realized.

He kissed her face all over, feeling tears steal into his eyes as he thought about what he'd put her through. "I never should have given you the amulet..." he said to her, full of remorse.

She took it off and placed it over his head. "You have it again, Harry. It was my gift to you in the first place," she added, her voice ending on a croak. As she drew her hand away, he saw something on her right palm, and he held it up to his scrutiny now, staring at it; fading but still visible was the dark pink image of the basilisk. She had been clutching it so tightly for so long that it was in her very skin.

He looked at her in distress. "Did you stop holding it for a second while we were gone?"

She bit her lip. "Once. When Angelina had had Rufus and I held him. But that was it. I gave him back to her quickly; I wanted to make sure you were all right....And when I saw you pull Ron and Professor Dumbledore from the sea...." She was crying again, or still--he wasn't completely certain she had ever stopped. "Thank you," she whispered. "Thank you for saving him. And Percy...."

He'd been living all of it so quickly, everything coming in a rush, that it hadn't occurred to him how it would look to Ginny, how she would be constantly on edge, sitting in Hog's End, clutching the amulet. He gazed at her affectionately and cupped her cheek in his hand, then lowered his hand in order to draw her palm to him, imprinted with the basilisk. He brought it to his lips, kissing the image gently, making her gasp at the sensation. When he use his tongue to lightly trace the great snake's outline on her skin, he could feel her trembling at his touch. He started to work his way up to her wrist, then kissing the inside of her forearm, pushing up her sleeve.

"Hello, Harry Potter."

He almost jumped out of his skin when a small green head poked out from under the fabric and looked calmly up at him. He sat staring at her for what seemed a long time while he waited for his heart to slow down again. He swallowed and finally said, "Hello, Sandy," then looked up at Ginny. "So," he said, his voice sounding slightly strangled. "You've been wearing Sandy on your arm."

"Yes," Ginny said, also having regained the ability to breathe normally (although he liked the fact that he had been responsible for her recent very erratic breathing). "She's been quite chatty since you left. Wish I knew what she's been saying. After Sirius arrived, I was half afraid that every time she said something it was about Lucius Malfoy attacking." She gently withdrew the garden snake from her sleeve and Sandy wrapped herself around Ginny's hand while Ginny stroked her smooth length. "Even though I didn't know what she was saying, I enjoyed taking care of her, though. She feels very nice. I remember the first time you let me touch her..."

Harry laughed; suddenly, everything they were saying seemed like a double entendre, and he just couldn't help himself.

"What?" Ginny said with wide-eyed innocence.

Suddenly the door opened and Ron and Hermione crept in, their backs to Harry and Ginny. "Do you think Mum saw us leave?" Ron whispered to her.

"I don't think so," Hermione said softly. "She was just sort of glaring at Percy and Sam. And Maggie and Snape."

"Good," Ron said quietly, pulling her to him and starting to lower his mouth to hers. Before their lips made contact, however, he stopped cold, having noticed Harry and Ginny sitting on the couch, staring back at them. "Erm," Ron began awkwardly. "So this is where you two have hidden." He turned Hermione to face them and said needlessly, and too loudly, "Hermione! We've found Harry and Ginny!"

Hermione rolled her eyes, a smile pulling at the corners of her mouth. "Yes, because Harry and Ginny are just so dim that they really believe that's why we came in here," she intoned. Ron shuffled his feet a little, embarrassed.

Ginny laughed. "No, we thought you were here for the same reason we are--to get away from the kitchen before Mum's temper starts making the pots and pans fly about."

Ron grinned. "Too right. She was fine until Sam had to go and tell her that he'd been at the wedding."

Harry shrugged. "I know Sam. I reckon he decided that they should begin as they mean to go on. His relationship with your parents, I mean. He's Percy's father-in-law. He wanted to be honest with your mum. Think what a row there would be if she only found out later that Sam was there! This way the blow-up will be out of the way and everyone can get on with their lives. Besides, she has the babies to distract her now, as well. She'll be fine, and Percy and Katie and Sam will be fine."

Hermione shook her head. "I don't know. Mrs. Weasley doesn't seem very inclined to get over this soon. I mean, we can't exactly turn back the clock and get her to the ship, can we? She can never really attend Percy's wedding, even if another ceremony is held. It's not quite the same."

Harry's mind suddenly lit up with the solution. "There doesn't have to be another ceremony." He stood suddenly, surprising Ginny, but he simply picked her up when he did this, and then deposited her on her feet. He bolted out of Percy's office, grinning, and he heard the others following after as he returned to the kitchen.

Mrs. Weasley was sniffling into a handkerchief while Percy and Katie stood nearby. "Please, Mum," Percy wheedled. "It wasn't like we had a big wedding and invited other people but not you, now is it? It was all very spur of the moment. Sam happened to be there because he was worried about Katie . I proposed to her when we were still in Azkaban, but I never intended to marry without you being present."

"That's all my fault, Mrs. Weasley," Harry said suddenly, stepping up to her. "If you want to blame anyone for that, blame me."

Mrs. Weasley glanced up at him, startled that he was suddenly involved in the conversation. Percy put his hand on Harry's arm. "You don't have to do this, Harry."

He looked Percy in the eye. "But I should. It's the truth. She shouldn't be angry with you or Sam or Katie, or with Professor Snape for performing the wedding, or Ron and Maggie for being best man and maid of honor." He turned back to Mrs. Weasley. "I should have considered how you'd feel, but I didn't. It just seemed like--well, like we'd all just been through so much horrid stuff and needed something good to celebrate. I saw men and women who'd been fighting Death Eaters, who'd seen their comrades killed or Kissed by dementors, and people who hadn't eaten for days clapping and cheering and smiling when Percy and Katie were pronounced husband and wife," he said softly to her. "When we opened those cells, the Aurors looked ready to die, and fully expected to." He looked fondly at Katie. "Percy and Katie reminded them all that there's still plenty to live for."

Mrs. Weasley faltered for a moment. "I see, Harry. Well, far be it from me to be so selfish," she started to say, sounding contrite; "although I didn't know it was selfish to want to attend one's own son's wedding," she added, the contrition leaving as quickly as it had come. Harry grinned at her.

"You can still attend the wedding," he told her. She looked up, frowning, and Percy and Katie looked very alarmed.

"Now see here, Harry old boy," Percy started to say.

Katie looked exasperated. "I already said that I didn't want a big wedding to beginning with; just a trip to a registry office. And now we're supposed to do it all over again?"

Harry smiled secretively. "Not at all." He turned to Mrs. Weasley. "You can see them get married for the first time." He tried not to laugh at her baffled expression. "I have a Pensieve, Mrs. Weasley. I'll put my memory of the wedding in there, and you can go in and see it. It'll be just as if you were there, but without the seasickness," he added, catching Hermione's eye, grinning.

He was unprepared for Mrs. Weasley throwing her arms around him and hugging him tightly. "Oh, you dear boy!" she exclaimed, as he struggled to breathe. When she had released him, she turned to Ginny. "Well, we have work to do, putting together a wedding dinner in only a few hours, and I'll need your help," she said, very brisk and businesslike now.

Harry grinned at Ginny. It had worked! Mrs. Weasley was no longer angry, and they could get on with the business of celebrating. As Mrs. Weasley swung into party-planning mode, with Katie, Ginny, Hermione and Maggie to help her, Sirius pulled him aside, nodding at him.

"Good work, Harry. Keeping a mother-in-law in line is a good thing to be able to do before getting married."

"Yeah, but Katie hadn't been around Mrs. Weasley much, she didn't know that--"

"I wasn't talking about Katie," he said, his dark eyes snapping with mischief.

"Sirius! We're--we're just--"

His godfather laughed. "I'm sorry, Harry. I won't joke about it again. You can be very crafty when you want to be, that's all. You know very well that you're the last person in the world Molly Weasley would ever be angry with, so you took the blame."

"I wasn't lying about that. It was my idea. I wasn't just taking the blame--it belongs to me."

Sirius was still smiling broadly, and now Snape, Mrs. Figg and Mundungus Fletcher had joined their small circle, along with Ron, Percy and Fred. "At any rate, we need to discuss security for this little party." He nodded at Percy. "I'm not saying you shouldn't be celebrating--but we can't let our guard down. We still have to stay on our toes. Your mum will be needing to get some supplies for that, and she'll need an escort. I recommend going to some Muggle stores, avoiding wizarding places."

Percy nodded. "Right. Katie and I will go with Mum to do the shopping. I have some Muggle money, left over from before the Gringotts siege ended. Should be enough for everything we need. And we're not going to be contacting anyone who isn't already in the house."

"Good. Keep it exclusive. Less of a security risk that way. All right," Sirius said, nodding. "Now--house security. We'll need to take turns securing the north, south, east and west facades, and inside, someone to keep an eye on the fire. I don't think we should take the house off the Floo network, though. I do think we should put anti-Apparition wards on the place. Just because Lucius Malfoy hasn't attacked yet, doesn't mean he isn't going to. He'd love to break up a party like this, after all. He's probably furious that Cho Chang led them all down to Dover for no reason. Or at least, I hope she did, as Dumbledore told me that he's going to have the Ministry send a contingent of their best Aurors to ambush them. Hopefully he won't work out ahead of time that it was a ruse. We very likely won't learn whether that went well until later. Oh, and that reminds me--don't forget to keep an eye out for an especially large eagle."

Mrs. Figg and Fletcher were baffled by this, so Sirius explained. Harry caught Ginny's eye across the room, as she listened to her mother's plans for the party. She smiled back at him and he felt that everything was getting close to being all right. Or it would be, if only they knew what Lucius Malfoy was up to.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The party was a roaring success. Mrs. Weasley was in her element, Percy and Katie looked very happy, the cake was beautiful, and Mr. Weasley was snapping his camera every few seconds, it seemed, looking quite giddy.

They'd cleared the drawing room of furniture to use it for dancing, although they had to settle for the wireless, as there was no time to hire a small ensemble. Harry was drinking some punch and talking to Ron and Hermione when Ginny walked toward him, her hand out, and soon he was thrusting his cup of punch at Ron and following her onto the dance floor.

He remembered holding her in his arms the previous summer, at a very different sort of wedding. She'd looked so beautiful, but it was hardly surprising, as she'd taken great care with her hair and makeup, and Alicia had dressed her. She looked like her normal, everyday self now, and even more lovely, he thought, than when she'd been Alicia's bridesmaid.

Harry was able to hold her close to him without wincing; before the party, he'd gone up to the new nursery, where Angelina and Madam Pomfrey were bathing the babies, and Madam Pomfrey had examined his welts and healed them quickly. He'd started to go, but the babies had rather fascinated him, and Angelina had let him hold little Rufus after his bath, swaddled in a towel with a small hood attached. His creamy tan skin was a dark pink in places, after his bath, his bushy reddish-brown hair still slightly damp. He really did resemble George, if George's features were softened a bit. He smiled up at Angelina, rocking Rowena, who'd been fretful during her bath.

"Why the name Rufus?" he had asked.

"Ah, you think you know the reason for the name 'Rowena,' do you?" she had asked him slyly.

He'd laughed. "I take it that means she wasn't named for Rowena Ravenclaw."

Angelina had shaken her head. "Not at all. The name 'Rowen' means 'red-haired.' So does the feminine form, 'Rowena.' But we didn't want to name one of them 'Rowen' and one of them 'Rowena.' It so happens that Rufus also means 'red-haired.'"

Harry had laughed. "That Weasley hair does have a way of cropping up, doesn't it?"

She'd shrugged. "We reckoned that even if their hair was more brown than red they were good names. Twin names should sound well together. I quite like the sound of 'Rufus and Rowena.'"

Harry had nodded. "It's good. Coming down to the party?"

She'd shaken her head, gazing down into Rowena's little face as she yawned and stretched her little arms, tiny fists flailing in the air. "My party is right here," she'd said dreamily, leaning down to press her lips against the soft buttery cheek.

Harry held Ginny closer to him as they danced, his face buried in her hair; he'd been afraid that he'd never hold her like this again, and now, here they were, dancing in the drawing room of his home. In a way. He gazed down at her and remembered Percy's vows; he knew just what he meant now. Ginny's my home, he thought, gathering her to him again as a new song emanated from the wireless.

After a few more songs, the news came on, being reported by a woman with a cultured voice that was not unlike what Harry was accustomed to hearing on the BBC. Percy was about to turn the wireless off, but he stopped when he heard what the report was about :

"The Ministry of Magic has announced that a daring rescue mission headed by Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore has been successful in retrieving the Aurors who went missing after the Death Eaters convicted in the Gringotts siege were transported to Azkaban. Minister Fudge is overjoyed at Dumbledore's success."

Fudge's voice was heard now, saying, "Everything went as planned. We regret that we needed to tell the relatives of our brave Aurors that nothing was being done for the moment, but it was necessary for security reasons that news of the mission not reach the wrong ears, if you know what I mean. I always had the utmost confidence in Albus and knew that if anyone could do it, he could."

"Liar!" Harry cried indignantly. Ginny clutched at his arm, looking worried.

The woman's voice returned. "The returned Aurors are being debriefed now and should be back to work after a short holiday to regain their strength and visit with their families. Casualty lists will be released shortly. In a controversial move, Dumbledore included Hogwarts students on the mission, namely Head Boy, Harry Potter, and Head Girl, Hermione Granger, who are both to receive the Order of Merlin, an unheard of honor for a wizard and witch still in school...."

Hermione looked up, frowning. "Why isn't she mentioning Ron?"

"Hogwarts instructors Sirius Black and Severus Snape were also part of the mission. Relatives of missing Aurors should send owls to the Ministry for more information."

When the music started again, they looked at each other, stunned. There was nothing about Ron, nothing about him, Sirius and Snape receiving the Order of Merlin; nothing about the dementors being loose and the prisoners having been freed by the Death Eaters (such as Lucius Malfoy); nothing about the purpose to which the missing Swedish Short-Snouts had been put; and finally, nothing about Azkaban being destroyed. There was also nothing about whether Remus Lupin would be declared innocent and cleared of all charges. Harry was feeling very much like throttling Cornelius Fudge.

He put his arms around Ginny and resumed dancing with her a bit stiffly, feeling somewhat distracted by the news report; he watched Ron and Hermione carefully. Ron's face was dark with anger, but also a kind of resignation. When he and Hermione left the drawing room, Harry was worried and followed after a minute, Ginny holding his hand.

To his surprise, he found them in the large entrance hall, standing about six feet apart, doing kata. Ron's jaw looked like he was clenching it, but gradually, as he swept his arms in a slow dance identical to Hermione's, lifting his legs in exaggerated kicks and turning with pinpoint precision, he began to relax and the red light left his eye. Finally, he and Hermione finished and closed their eyes, bowing deeply, and Ron looked up and acknowledged Harry's and Ginny's presence for the first time. He seemed much calmer.

"You all right, Ron?" Harry asked uncertainly. His best friend nodded, taking a deep breath.

"I'm fine now. There are just times I have to remind myself that I can't stop every idiot in the world from having anti-werewolf prejudices. I'd go mad trying. I'm not going to let it get to me. I used to be one of those idiots after all, and think how thick my skull is," he added with a smile. "I never expected to get the Order of Merlin at all, let alone while still a student. If they don't want to honor a werewolf, there's not much I can do about it."

Harry remembered the unfairness of Ron not being able to play professional Quidditch, and now this. He looked at his best friend grimly, thinking, But maybe I can do something about it. He didn't say anything though, not really having any idea how he would push for Ron to be recognized for what he'd done. Hermione looked at him pleadingly and he nodded at her; they seemed to be in agreement that something needed to be done.

"Don't look like that, Harry!" Ron said, slapping him on the back. "Let's all go back to the others. I'm over it, really. It's just a stupid little award. It's not important to me."

But as he watched Ron square his shoulders and walk back to the drawing room with Hermione, he remembered the boy who had looked into the Mirror of Erised and crowed, "I'm Head Boy!...I'm wearing the badge like Bill used to--and I'm holding the House Cup and the Quidditch Cup--I'm Quidditch captain, too!"

And yet, Ron was the one who had the strength of mind not to return to the mirror when Harry had not been able to resist. Somehow, Harry had a feeling that if Voldemort had tempted Ron with his deepest desire, Ron wouldn't have fallen for it.

He hugged Ginny to him as they returned to the drawing room, and she looked up at him shrewdly. "You have something planned, don't you?" she said softly. He grinned down at her.

"Not exactly. I plan to have something planned. Does that count?"

She kissed his cheek softly. "You're a very good friend, Harry. I do hope Ron appreciates you."

He nodded. "He does. That's why I plan to have a plan. Ron shouldn't be shut out in the cold. I just don't know what the plan is yet."

"Well, we'll have to spend some more time dancing. I've heard that helps the thought processes."

He gave her a lopsided smile. "You have?" he asked, holding her more tightly.

"Well, no, but I want you to dance with me some more, so I'm trying to give you a good excuse," she laughed.

Harry would have been content to dance with Ginny all night (and he did indeed have the beginning of a plan in his head after all of the dancing), but by midnight, Hermione was reminding him, Ron and Ginny that they had to return to Hogwarts in the morning and needed to get some rest. There was some scrambling required for rooms, as the spare room next to George and Angelina's had become a nursery, and the next one over was already being used by Madam Pomfrey, who joined the party briefly, but largely seemed to be wanting to return to the nursery to help Angelina with the babies. Angelina also came downstairs for just a few minutes, looking very tired but happy.

Percy and Katie were in Percy's room, of course, and Sirius and Sam were using Lee's, as he was still on a trip. Fred, grumbling a bit, offered his room to Maggie, trying to ignore that it seemed to be a certainty that Snape would be in there as well. Harry reckoned that he and Ron would share the same room they had when they'd stayed over before the Quidditch match at Hogwarts during the summer, and that Ginny and Hermione would both be in what he thought of as 'his' old room. He wasn't certain where Fred was going to be, as he couldn't picture him sharing with Madam Pomfrey (although the thought made him want to laugh out loud).

Harry and Ginny were standing outside her room and he was pulling her to him, kissing her good night, when he was startled by a finger poking his shoulder. It was Ron. "Don't you think you've done enough of that today?"

Harry raised his eyebrows at him. "Do you think you've snogged Hermione enough today?" he retorted, gesturing at Hermione with his head; she was standing further down the corridor, outside what Harry thought of as Jamie's room, where he and Ron would be sleeping. He looked down at Ginny and sighed, leaning over to kiss her cheek. "I reckon what Ron's trying to say is that it's time to say good night."

She smiled and kissed him lightly on the chin. "Good night, Harry," she said, gently slipping her hands out of his and turning to walk toward Hermione.

"Erm," he began awkwardly. "Where are you going, Ginny? This is your room--"

But then he turned and saw, to his surprise, that a sign had been created and hung on the door; it bore a simple script legend which read, "Harry's Room."

He turned to her, unable to say anything. "But--but you like this room so much--" he started to say. She shook her head, smiling shyly.

"It's your room now, Harry, any time you stay here. It's official."

Harry raised his hand to the simple sign, slowly tracing the letters with his finger, his throat feeling very tight. "Thank you," he said with feeling.

"And now," Ron said, clapping a hand onto his shoulder, making him wince; "you won't be wandering into the wrong room in the middle of the night after going to the loo, will you?"

Harry laughed. "No, that's true." The girls laughed and said goodnight again from the other end of the corridor before going into the room they were sharing. Just as Harry was about to turn the knob and enter 'his' room, another large red-haired figure pushed between him and the door, opening it before he had the chance.

"Awfully good of you to let me stay with you blokes tonight," Fred said cheerfully. He crossed the room and patted the cushioned window-seat. "This'll suit me. I don't need anything more. You two take the bed, I'll be just fine." To Harry's surprise, Fred stretched out on the large window-seat--which actually had room to spare. Harry and Ron smirked at each other. Fred was probably going to want to burn the mattress in his bedroom in the morning, Harry thought, but he didn't dare say anything.

His exhaustion finally catching up with him, Harry lay down on the large bed, closest to the door, and Ron undressed and stretched out on the other half, snoring loudly within seconds, it seemed. Fred was also quickly making very loud buzzing noises (Harry had forgotten how filled with snoring the Burrow had been on summer mornings when he was younger.) But even though he was thinking grumpily that he'd never fall asleep with that racket, he was soon completely unaware of their noise as he drifted into a deep sleep.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Harry felt the mattress shift as Ron rose; he was vaguely aware of his best friend padding to the door, and hearing the door open and shut. He had started to drift off again when the door opened once more and light footsteps moved toward the bed. Ron laid down again, but he wasn't making the mattress tip quite so much as before. Harry opened his left eye a very small amount, seeing red hair before him. He closed his eyes again.

He wasn't sure how many minutes later it was that he heard a strange whistling sound and his eyes flew open as he realized that when he'd seen the red hair, it had been long red hair. He reached out and touched her shoulder.

"Ginny," he whispered. The whistling continued and Harry shook her shoulder slightly. "Ginny," he said a little louder. She rolled onto her back and sleepily opened her eyes. Harry was finding it hard to breathe. He brushed some hair from her eyes and her hand drifted up to his face, brushing over his stubble. He looked into her dark eyes, growing larger and larger as he lowered his face toward hers. She brought her other hand up to the other side of his face, guiding his lips to hers. He let her control the kiss. There was a rushing noise in his ears; she gently opened her mouth and he felt her soft lips under his, her smooth skin under his fingers. He slid his arm around her waist, pulling her closer to him, even though it could never really be close enough.

He couldn't believe they were in bed together at last. Her hands slid down from his face gradually, her fingers moving sinuously, like a slow trickle of water flowing over his shoulders, his arms, his back. As usual, he had gone to bed in nothing but his boxers and Sandy around his left upper arm, although he was also wearing the amulet now. The sensations flowing from her fingers were inflaming him; all of his skin felt extraordinarily sensitive to her touch, and he moved his mouth to her soft neck, stifling his cry of surprise when her slim, agile fingers continued down to the small of his back and then slipped quickly under the fabric of his boxers.

He licked his way up her neck and over her chin, then into her mouth again, and she opened it wide, welcoming him. He shivered under her delicate caresses, which were having a more profound effect upon him than he thought possible. She was barely touching him, her fingers merely making glancing repeated contact with his skin. He moaned into her mouth because of what her hands were doing and brought one of his hands around to her front, covering her right breast through her borrowed night dress; now she was making a gurgling noise in the back of her throat, and he could feel the hard tip under his palm, through the thin fabric.

He lifted his face from hers after delicately kissing her lips, her cheeks, her nose. He gazed into eyes that looked black as a moonless night and whispered, "I love you, Ginny."

"I love you, Harry," she said without hesitation. She kept one hand under the fabric of his boxers, and with the other she pushed between his shoulder blades, gently but insistently, and he lowered his mouth to hers again. Under his hand, he could feel her chest rising and falling more rapidly; he removed his hand from her breast, causing a small whimper of protest to disappear into his mouth. His hand crept down her stomach to her thighs, then he slowly started pulling up the fabric of the night dress until he could feel her skin beneath his fingers. He moved his hand higher under the fabric, gently tickling, glancing over the surface as she had done with him. He felt her breath catch in her chest, and she tensed up for a moment. Harry hesitated, wondering how mentally ready she was for all this, despite having gone to Madam Pomfrey for the potion.

He moved his hand higher still, very slowly, should she feel compelled to put a stop to it. He would do whatever she wanted; there was never a question of anything else in his mind, even though he was reacting very strongly to both her hands and her reactions to him. She tensed up even more and gasped into his mouth. The hand still under his boxers flattened against his skin, her warm palm making him feel that his temperature was skyrocketing. He moved his mouth down her throat at the same time that he moved his hand up; he could feeling her shivering under his touch as she whispered his name.

"Oh, Harry...."

He moved his mouth down to the breast that had been ignored previously; he put his mouth against the thin night dress, sending his warm breath through it to her even warmer flesh, as he continued to move his fingers. He could feel her entire body trembling under him, and he tried to concentrate, glancing up at her enraptured face, her eyes closed, wondering whether he'd ever seen her look quite so beautiful....

"SNERT!"

Suddenly, a loud snort met their ears, followed by an even louder buzzing noise. Ginny looked over at the window seat, her eyes very wide. Harry knew from the look on her face that they were both having the same thought at the same time. Pulling themselves into upright positions, they put that thought into words simultaneously as well.

"Fred!"

Harry wasn't sure whether her face was quite that shade of red because of what they'd been doing, or because of what they'd been doing in the same room with her brother. His face felt very hot, but it was the only part of him that felt that way now. Fred's snoring was like a very, very cold shower to Harry. Their double shout had apparently penetrated Fred's sleep-hazed mind, and he blinked and yawned, then shot straight up himself, his eyes open very wide now.

"Harry! Ginny!" His mouth was open as well. Harry didn't quite know what to say. Then Fred swallowed and said to her, "Tell me I'm dreaming and you're Ron, not my little sister in bed with Harry."

"Erm, Fred," Ginny began, biting her lip; "you see--"

Fred covered both of his eyes with his hands. "No! No no no no no! I definitely do not want to see anything!"

"Fred!" Ginny implored. "We both have our clothes on!"

Fred peeked out between two fingers. "Harry doesn't!"

"Boxers!" Harry said quickly, moving the sheet out of the way so Fred could see one of the legs; he certainly didn't want Fred to see more than that, as it would have been quite incriminating. "And a snake!" he added, pointing at his arm. "Speaking of which--you couldn't have said something, Sandy?" he hissed at her. Ginny had said she'd been so "chatty" while he was gone. She slowly opened her eyes and regarded him sleepily.

"Unlike some people, I speak when I have something to say," she responded, before closing her eyes again.

"Is that all?" Fred said indignantly, ignoring Harry and Sandy's hissed exchange. "Oh, then that's all right. My sister's wearing an almost transparent night dress," he said, followed by Ginny bring the sheet up to cover her chest; "and you're wearing boxers. Oh, well, that's much better. Nothing could possibly happen under those circumstances," he drawled sarcastically.

Still clutching the sheet to her front, Ginny drew herself up, kneeling on the bed, her face reddening with anger now. "Now, you listen to me, Alfred Weasley. Sooner or later something's going to happen. You're just going to have to learn to live with it. I'm not a little girl anymore. I love Harry and he loves me."

Fred rolled his eyes. "It's not that--well, it is that I don't want to think of my sister in bed with anyone, because that's like--well, eating one of those dung-flavored Bertie Bott's Beans. Only worse. You know what I mean. And I know you're not a little girl. I know Maggie isn't either, but that doesn't mean I want to think about her and Snape in my bed--" Fred made a dreadful face. "Oh, rot. Now I've thought of it. Thanks a lot." Harry laughed, but stifled it quickly when Fred gave him a look. "Can't you at least sleep with a shirt on, Harry?" he grumbled, floundering about for another thing to complain about.

"I never do when I can help it. Feels like I'm being strangled in my sleep." He shrugged, as though this were completely out of his hands.

Fred grimaced. "How did you get in here, anyway?" he asked Ginny. "And where's Ron?"

Ginny raised her eyebrows and looked quite smug. "For your information, this was all Ron's idea. He showed up in our room and booted me out. I asked him, 'What am I supposed to do, get in bed with Harry now?' And he said, 'If you like.' Which rather surprised me, but I didn't argue with him...."

Harry smacked himself on the forehead. "He probably reckoned that with Fred here as a kind of chaperone, nothing was likely to happen...."

Ginny grumbled, "Well, he might have mentioned it to me. I didn't know Fred was sleeping in here, and I didn't notice him when I came in. He'd stopped snoring for a while, I suppose. There's a first time for everything," she added. Fred glowered at her, then stomped to the door, looking very grim.

"Well, there aren't going to be any first times for you, at least not tonight," he declared. "I'm going to get Ron back in here."

"I--wouldn't do that if I were you," Harry told him ominously. Fred stopped dead, his hand on the knob.

"Why not?" he asked suspiciously, looking at Harry through narrowed eyes.

"Well, first off, you know his reflexes. If you invade that room quite suddenly, you're taking your life in your hands. Plus, if they're still, erm, doing anything, I doubt that Hermione would take it well that you'd be seeing her in that sort of situation, and you'd also be seeing Ron in that situation, which--"

"--is the last bloody thing I ever want to see," Fred agreed, shuddering.

"Yes, it would be the last thing you'd see, once those two got through with you," Ginny added, smirking. Harry laughed, not bothering to stifle it this time, even though Fred glared.

"Come on, Fred. Go back to the window seat. We're just going to go to sleep, no need to worry. You're our chaperone. Ginny's virtue is quite safe," Harry said, trying to reassure him.

Fred slumped back to his makeshift bed. "Yeah, nothing for the pair of you to worry about; you can just drop off to sleep, no problem. Me? I won't sleep another wink for the rest of the night." However, he could barely get this out before he was yawning and rubbing his eyes.

"Why not?" Ginny asked.

"You don't think I'm going to sleep on the job, do you? Now I ruddy well have to sit up all night and watch over you." He crossed his arms and glared at them. "You see if you like what's in your breakfast tomorrow morning," he mumbled, and Harry remembered that it was never wise to take food from one of the twins, even when they were in a good humor.

"Suit yourself," Harry said, shrugging. "Now that we're both thinking about your being here, sleep is absolutely all we have in mind. That's a guarantee." To emphasize this point, he threw himself back on his pillow and closed his eyes. Ginny curled up next to him on her left side, with her right arm across his chest. He smiled and, eyes still closed, said, "Good night, Ginny."

He felt her press her lips to his shoulder. "Good night, Harry."

There were only a few moments of silence before Fred's voice broke it again. "Look, why don't you sleep on the window seat, Ginny, and I'll take the bed with Harry."

Ginny giggled. "Harry's my boyfriend, Fred. Find your own."

Fred was sputtering now. "That's not what--I was just--"

"Good night, Fred!" they chorused. Harry cracked his eyes open, seeing her face very close to his, smiling mischievously. She kissed him quickly and put her head down again. He pulled her to him, his arm around her shoulders, and closed his eyes once more, feeling quite content despite being watched over by Fred Weasley. If, for now, this was what it took for him to be able sleep with Ginny in his arms, he would take it.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Dumbledore sent horseless carriages to Hog's End to take them back to the castle in the morning. Harry decided it would be wisest to wait to eat breakfast until he was in the Great Hall, well away from Fred Weasley. To his surprise, when he, Hermione and Ron walked into the Great Hall with Sirius, Snape and Maggie, most of the assembled students stood and started cheering, pounding the tables with silverware and making a general ruckus. Dumbledore was back, standing at the head table clapping decorously with the other teachers, who were also standing. Harry saw Mariah, Millicent and a few other people standing at the Slytherin table, but not Draco Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Nott or Zabini. Most of the Slytherins who were standing were chanting "Snape, Snape, Snape..." as though they needed to show that they were paying tribute to him, not to the others. Obviously, the news of the mission hadn't just been on the wireless, but Harry wished he could see whether the Prophet had been more accurate than the report they'd all heard the previous evening. He didn't yet know whether it was just shoddy reporting or the Ministry meddling.

Sirius, Snape and Maggie made their way to the high table and Harry, Ron and Hermione went to the Gryffindor table, Ginny following behind. Once they were actually in reach of the other Gryffindor students, it was something of a free-for-all. Will Flitwick was grinning at Harry and pumping his hand, Dean and Seamus were hugging Ron and Hermione, other students, some of whom Harry only knew by sight were Gryffindors were grabbing his hand and patting his back.

"Please, settle down everyone," Dumbledore said above the din, and, miraculously, they did. He smiled at Harry, Ron and Hermione and waved his hands at Snape, Sirius and Maggie. "I am very pleased that our Head Boy and Girl were successful in their mission, as well as the Gryffindor Quidditch captain," he added, nodding at Ron, "and our Apparition and Potions Masters, as well as Miss Dougherty. I am in communication with the Ministry about when the ceremony will be held to bestow the Order of Merlin upon them, and rest assured that you all will learn of it. That is all I can say for now. I believe we should let them eat their breakfasts now and wait until later," he said firmly, looking over his spectacles at the students, "to pump them for information. Thank you."

He sat again, as did all of the teachers, and a ripple of noise moved across the Great Hall as the students all sat as well. Harry sat next to Ginny, feeling that everything just might be all right. He was back at Hogwarts, which was the first place where he'd ever felt at home in this life, and she was by his side. He'd been incredibly happy to wake up in the place he'd thought of as home in his other life, with Ginny in his arms. Everything was coming together, it seemed. Now if only they knew what Lucius Malfoy was up to....

They had Transfiguration after breakfast, and to Harry's surprise, the first thing McGonagall did was to ask him to come to the front of the room. All of the other seventh years were watching and waiting, and Harry was wondering what he would have to do; he didn't remember what the homework was he should have done, and wouldn't have had any time for it anyway, as he'd been out of the castle all weekend. Swallowing, he hoped he'd be able to convincingly fake it, or at least be able to use the his brand new I-was-on-a-mission-with-Dumbledore excuse.

"All right, Potter. Show the other students."

Harry looked at her uncertainly. "Um, show them what, ma'am?"

She raised her eyebrows at him. "Did you fail to read the Prophet this morning, Potter?"

Harry was getting a bad feeling about this. She withdrew a copy from her robes and held it out to him.

Saved by Harry Potter, the Animagus;
An Auror's Story

Harry stared at the headline. Bloody hell. "I'm sorry, Professor McGonagall," he said softly. "I know I wasn't supposed to let people know until after I took my N.E.W.T.s, but when I proposed my plan for the mission to Professor Dumbledore, he didn't say it would be a problem...."

She nodded. "I understand that," she said too quietly for the other students to hear. "He wanted to get the Aurors back as badly as you did. But now the cat's out of the bag, so to speak," she said, a rare smirk pulling at her mouth. "Time to face the music. No charges will be filed, of course; you had permission to wait to register. But now that everyone in the wizarding world knows you are an Animagus, there isn't much point to putting it off any longer, is there?"

He nodded, understanding her point. "Of course."

"So," she said more loudly again, in his brisk teacher's voice. "Show the other students," she intoned, waving her hand at the dozens of other seventh year students filling the room.

"Show them--?"

"Your Animagus form," she said, as though he were daft.

"Oh! Y--yes. R-right," he stammered out.

"And then you will answer any questions they have."

He looked at her in alarm, then leaned in. "What about Hermione?"

McGonagall spoke softly again. "No one knows about her, and that is how it will stay for now. You decided to let others see that you are an Animagus," she said, as though he had had much choice. "You are on your own, Potter."

He sighed, looking out over the heads of the other students. Suddenly, Draco Malfoy caught his eye. He was glaring coldly back at Harry. Harry forced his eyes away; this wasn't the time to get into a staring contest with Draco Malfoy. He'd no doubt seen him walking up the stairs with his arm around Ginny's shoulder.

He closed his eyes, not trying to rush the Transfiguration, as there was no reason to go quickly. He opened his eyes as his feet were touching down on the floor, making many of the students gasp and back away. He saw that Neville was smirking at Dean and Seamus, who were looking very alarmed to see what appeared to be a full-grown lion before them.

"I knew," he was saying smugly to them. "For years now! He was sleeping that way once, and I--"

But Neville's jaw just hung open and his boasting ceased when Harry spread his wings.

Harry was very glad when the bell rang. As they made their way to Defense Against the Dark Arts, Harry sighed with relief. He planned to sit well to the back of the classroom and take a break after being the center of attention in Transfiguration.

However, it turned out that Mrs. Figg wanted him to spend ninety minutes discussing dementors and the effects of people being kissed by dementors. Hermione started shaking, tears running down her face; Harry knew she was still having trouble coping with feeling responsible for Elliot's death. Harry set his jaw stubbornly.

"I don't think so, Professor Figg," he said to her firmly. "I think Ron and I should take Hermione to the hospital wing," he declared, as Ron helped her to stand and Harry took her arm, helping her to the door. They were surprised when, before they could close the door, Draco Malfoy had run to the front of the room and declared, "I'll help them, Professor Figg."

He had slipped out the door and shut it before she had a chance to object. The three of them glared at him while he smirked at them, looking quite pleased with himself.

"So, ducking out of class by faking a little nervous breakdown at the mention of dementors? Isn't that supposed to be Potter's thing, Granger? Or has Weasley taken to dressing up like a dementor when he wants some from you? That would certainly be enough to put you off dementors--"

Harry wasn't completely certain why she decided to do it, as he only saw how enraged she was for a split second before she abruptly changed into her wolf form and leapt at him. Draco Malfoy's head hit the hard stone flags with a sickening thud and he stared up in wide-eyed horror at the huge grey she-wolf sitting on his chest, snarling at him, a touch of red in her eyes as she snapped her jaws mere millimeters from his nose.

Harry and Ron saw him reaching for his wand, and Ron said, "I wouldn't, if I were you. You'll just set her off. See, when she bonded with some wolves over in America, she really learned how to let go of her human mind and completely take on a wolf mind. She's not really Hermione right now, except that she knows that she hates you. You need to behave as though you really do have a murderous wolf on you and make sure you don't antagonize her," he said calmly, while Draco Malfoy shook all over and stared up at Hermione's slavering jaws.

"She--she's an Animagus too?" he gasped in horror. "But--what if--if she--"

"Tries to kill rip your throat out?" Harry said casually, twirling his wand as if he hadn't a care in the world. "Oh, I doubt she would actually do that. Well, probably not..." he added, meeting Ron's eye, which had a mischievous glint in it.

"Get her off me!" he yelled now as a low growl began emanating from Hermione's throat, her eyes never leaving his.

Harry watched him squirm for a minute more, then said, "That's probably enough, Hermione. We don't want him to soil himself, after all. Think of the smell."

He grunted with pain when Hermione dug her hind paws into his thighs before leaping over his head and landing on the stone floor. She turned around and walked slowly to Harry and Ron, her careful predator's gait as menacing as her relentless gaze. She stood between Harry and Ron, looking balefully at Draco Malfoy as Ron reached down and stroked her shaggy coat.

Harry walked to Draco Malfoy and stood over him. "So--who's ducking out of Defense Against the Dark Arts, Malfoy? Get back in there. Professor Figg may need you to explain what it's like to be initiated as a Death Eater."

He stood, turning pink with anger, brushing down his robes angrily and then taking his wand out of his pocket. "You won't get away with this, Granger," he said ominously, but this time, she used a more traditional approach. She'd reverted to human form in the blink of an eye.

"Expelliarmus!" she cried, having whipped out her wand. Draco Malfoy's wand flew out of his hand and he went hurtling backward into a narrow stone niche which might once have held a very long, thin piece of statuary, or a prized lance or pike. Draco Malfoy appeared to be wedged in the small space. Harry had never had a more difficult time restraining his laughter.

He grunted, trying to extricate himself and failing. Hermione carefully placed his wand on the floor about six feet away from him, then stood and crossed her arms, smirking. "Your wand is here whenever you want it, Malfoy. Good luck."

They walked away from him, hearing him grunting and groaning, trying to free himself from the niche. Ron was grinning ear to ear.

"That was fun!" he said. But when they'd turned a corner, Hermione slumped against Harry, and Ron quickly helped support her. "Hermione?" he said gently, looking at her with concern. She raised her eyes to them both.

"I still--I still feel like going to Madam Pomfrey for a little something," she said softly. "I need--I need to feel better for longer than it takes to humiliate Draco Malfoy...."

Ron smiled at her and kissed her brow. "You are rather good at it, you know," he told her, making her smile a little.

"Yes, but--it's not a skill that would have saved Philip Elliot's life," she said quietly. Harry should have known that Hermione would want to know the Auror's full name. He thought of the way Elliot had just stepped off into space again and shivered. Azkaban would never again turn people into quivering bags of bones, huddled in corners, but if the dementors were wandering about in the world at large, people wouldn't need to be in Azkaban to experience this. However, if the Ministry didn't acknowledge that there was a problem and try to do something about it....

"It's just like with the Squibs," he said, thinking aloud. "I remember my mum saying that. The Squibs all just disappeared and no one ever did anything about it...." He stopped and looked at Ron and Hermione. "You can go with her to see Madam Pomfrey, right?"

Ron frowned. "Well, sure. But where are you going?"

"To see Myrtle. I still haven't asked her about the Squibs."

Ron and Hermione both exchanged knowing glances. "Ah, off to cheat on Ginny?" Ron said merrily.

Harry was also laughing now. "Temporarily, if Myrtle will have me. I wonder whether she's over her disappointment at my having fixed the timelines. And she wasn't thrilled about the time she found me and Hermione--" He stopped, reddening, remembering that the time he was thinking of was the night before Ron's sixteenth birthday, in the prefect's bathroom. He saw that Hermione was also turning a bit pink.

"We'll be off now," she said shortly, her voice a little higher than usual, perhaps hoping that Ron wouldn't pick up on their discomfort. "Good luck with Myrtle."

When he entered Myrtle's bathroom, as it was a very cloudy day out-of-doors, it was rather dark at first before the torches on the walls sprang to life. He didn't hear a sound except for some dripping water in one of the sinks and his own slow, even footsteps. Is the passage still there that leads to the Chamber? he wondered. But he knew he had to focus on other things.

"Myrtle!" he called, his voice echoing on the hard surfaces of the bathroom. "Myrtle, it's Harry! Thought I'd stop by for a visit--" Did that sound convincing? How would he get the information he wanted out of her without it seeming like the information was the only reason for his coming?

Suddenly, she came swooping through the door to one of the stalls, stopping and looking enraptured at first, clapping her ghostly hands together and grinning, then doing an excited loop around the room. "You've come! You've come! You've finally come!"

Harry felt his face growing warm. "Yeah, well, I--"

"And just in time for Valentine's, too!" she said, even more rapturously. "Or close enough, at least, as it was just a couple of days ago!"

Harry swallowed. "Erm, right. Well, how've you been?" he asked, feeling awkward. He wasn't all that certain how to chat up girls in general, despite having seen Draco do it a hundred times in his other life (he still didn't understand how his former best friend had that kind of nerve). He certainly wasn't clear about how he was to chat up a very sensitive ghost who had made no secret of the fact that she fancied him.

"Oh, you know how it is….The older students never come in here, and the occasional first year does something unforgivably rude," she said, her voice taking on an angry edge, "which just means I have to teach them a lesson!" Her voice rose on a shriek, and she zoomed up to the ceiling, around the perimeter of the room, and back down to the sinks, where she perched on the edge of a basin, suddenly quite composed again. "So I don't get to talk to much of anyone at all…"

"…and you don't get to see people very much, unless you go to the prefects' bathroom," Harry said, smirking at her.

Her jaw dropped and he wondered whether saying this was a mistake. "You haven't told anyone about that, have you?" she said, her eyes narrowing and her voice suddenly a low growl. Harry swallowed.

"No, of course not. You--you've got to have your hobbies, after all--" He shut his mouth quickly then, as he wasn't sure this was the right thing to say again.

She looked at him suspiciously, crossing her arms. "Why are you here? Really?"

He drew his lips into a line; "I have to be honest with you, Myrtle. I need some information."

She swooped carelessly about the bathroom, moaning. "And what information would I have that you could possibly need?"

"Well--it's about my other life," he said slowly. She stopped in mid-air and charged at him, stopping abruptly when she was an inch away from his nose, making him feel like his heart had stopped. She was very close now, and he was shivering violently from the cold emanating from her.

"Yes," she said in a low, angry voice. "I liked that world, and you've taken that away from me."

"Well, I was wondering," he said, trying to avoid squeaking. "Did you see what happened when Argus Filch disappeared? How did the Death Eaters get into the castle to take him? And what did they do with the Squibs once they had them?" He would have thought that the Death Eaters would have been ordered to kill them, but then that didn't explain why Buttercup was in Azkaban.

She grinned knowingly, flying about his head in dizzying circles. "Ah, that's what you want to know. I see. That's why you're here."

"Well--well I know how much you adore misery of that sort," he said, trying to make it sound like a compliment. "I could have gone to one of the other ghosts....The Grey Lady told me some interesting things...."

"The Grey Lady!" Myrtle spat scornfully. "She doesn't know anything about anything! She never sullies herself by speaking to the likes of meeeee," Myrtle wailed, rushing up to the ceiling and circling about before swooping down and abruptly bringing herself face to face with Harry. "Do you want to know what happened to the Squibs?"

He nodded, biting his lip. "Very much. I would really appreciate it, Myrtle."

She looked smug. "Well, the next time you need information, come to me first, not to that full-of-herself Ravenclaw ghost. Not that Ravenclaws know anything about people, either. Noses always buried in books," she sniffed.

"Um, Myrtle," he hesitated; "Squibs?"

"Oh, yes. The Squibs. Well, you wanted to know how the Death Eaters got into the castle to get at Filch?" Harry nodded anxiously. She smiled and shook her ghostly head. "They didn't," she said mysteriously, clearly enjoying his confused reaction.

Harry frowned. "Did they get him when he was shopping then? Or on holiday?" But the thought of Filch going anywhere on holiday was a very strange one; he tried to picture him at the seaside, or going on long walks in the country to do some bird-watching, or gazing at art in museums. Nothing seemed quite right; as far as he could tell, Filch had only one purpose in life--to terrorize the students of Hogwarts. He couldn't picture him ever leaving the castle.

"No, he was fetched when he was here working at Hogwarts," she said tantalizingly. "But it wasn't Death Eaters who took him." She paused, taking in his shock with evident glee.

"It wasn't Death Eaters?" he said, perplexed. "Is that why they couldn't work out who'd done it? It was someone else entirely? Then who?"

Her smile became more and more wicked. "I remember when they came to arrest you," she said dreamily, floating up above the stalls now. Harry tried to remain patient, but it was difficult. "I remember those two who took you away....the parents of that boy who likes the plants so much...."

"Likes plants? You mean Neville? Oh, right. The Longbottoms arrested me. That's what you remember."

She nodded, sitting comfortably on the ceiling. "The same ones came for him."

His face dropped, disappointed. "Oh. So Filch did something to get himself arrested and the Longbottoms came and got him?" He'd been so close. "Drat. I didn't realize that. I had hoped that he'd disappeared in the same way as all of the other Squibs...."

She zoomed down to look him in the eye. "Oh, but he did."

He froze. "You mean--" He couldn't process it. "Do you mean that the Ministry took the Squibs away? That the Longbottoms just stood there and tried to tell my mum that they cared about finding out what had happened to the Squibs and they were what happened to the Squibs?" He realized suddenly that he was shaking with impotent rage; it was truly impotent, though, because he was angry with people who had never done that in this world, people sitting in a mental ward at St. Mungo's, unable to remember anything, including their son's face, for more than a few minutes at a stretch. Then, recalling who the Minister of Magic had been in his other life, he realized that this decision had probably been made by Barty Crouch, who was dead in the world that had come to life again when Harry had fixed the timelines. There was no one to blame, no one against whom to retaliate.

"Where did they take them?"

"Oooh," she said, enjoying making him wait for his information. "I was curious about that too. So I followed Argus very quietly. I reckoned the Ministry would never find out; they only told me that I couldn't haunt Olive Hornby anymore." She sniffed, sounding a bit miffed, but Harry was looking at her attentively, so she continued. "It was a kind of camp. Up in the mountains. The Ministry told them it was for their protection."

"Like the werewolf camps!" he cried. "Myrtle! I cold kiss you!" He couldn't, of course, but she looked quite pleased that he should say so. "But--do you have any idea how someone who'd been in one of those camps would end up in Azkaban?"

She shrugged. "The same way that anyone ended up there, probably. He must have committed a crime."

Harry paced, wracking his brains. What could Roger Davies's cousin have done? But then he realized he knew. He had probably done what Harry would do in a similar situation. He looked up at Myrtle. "Did you ever hear of anyone trying to escape from the Squib camp? Did you stick around there for very long?"

"Not very long, but now that you mention it, I did hear of an attempted escape...."

"And? And? Did the person get sent to Azkaban?"

She shrugged. "I'm sorry, Harry. I don't know. Honestly. I'm not just saying that," she said simply, looking genuinely sad.

But he was grinning ear to ear at her. "I know you'd tell me if you knew for sure, Myrtle," he said warmly. "Thanks so much for everything. You don't know how helpful you've been...."

As he turned to leave, she sighed, "Yes, leave now that you have what you came for...."

He paused at the door and said, "Tell you what, Myrtle. I'll come back later and do some of my homework here. Keep you company some more, all right?"

She rushed at him, stopping abruptly a couple of feet away. "You promise?"

He grinned. "I promise," he said, meaning it, as he wanted to find out whether there were a lot of other things she knew about that other world. He waved to her as he left.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After telling them what Myrtle had told him about the Squibs, he talked Ginny, Ron and Hermione into coming back to Myrtle's bathroom as well. During much of the week, whenever they weren't in their lessons, Harry was pumping Myrtle for information. He'd never seen her happier, telling of all of the misery from Harry's other life. Ginny tried to keep her distance from Myrtle, who'd been immediately hostile toward her, and she wasn't very friendly toward Hermione, either. She was as pleased to see Ron as she'd been to see Harry (Ron looked rather alarmed at this).

On Saturday Morning, when the post owls came, Hermione opened the copy of the Times her parents had sent to her and started perusing it idly, then stopped and frowned, rattling the paper noisily, obviously wanting Ron or Harry to ask her why she was reacting this way.

"All right, Hermione," Harry said with a sigh. "What now?"

"That--that--witch. And I don't mean that in a good way. That Harrington-Smyth woman who's the MP from Mole Valley now. She's--she's gutting the national health care system, and everyone else is going along! The Prime Minister is completely behind the plan! Or, I should say, lack of plan. This is insane! There's nothing in place as a substitute! Private hospitals wouldn't be able to handle the volume, and what about people like my mum and dad, with their little surgery? How are they going to cope?" She rattled the paper indignantly. "Something has to be done, Harry. Can't Dumbledore get her out of there? Is anyone doing anything about her? A witch shouldn't be allowed to interfere in the Muggle government, should she?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't really know that they even know for certain she is a witch. I thought some of the operatives were supposed to be working on that. Maybe Sirius knows."

Hermione turned the pages of the Times, still furious, and Ron tried to put his arm around her shoulder. "Perhaps we could--" he started to suggest softly. She shook him off irritably.

"Is that all you ever think about, Ron?"

He bristled. "I was going to suggest that you could use some kata to calm yourself, but if you're going to be that way--"

She relented and calmed down a little. "I'm sorry, Ron. My parents are dentists. This hits very close to home..."

Ron shrugged and took a bite of toast. "Maybe that Rodney Jeffries bloke can just cure all of the Muggles of everything wrong with them and have done with it," he said when he'd swallowed. "Says here in your paper that more people are running off to see him every day...."

"Don't be ridiculous. You have no idea what sweeping changes of this sort are going to mean...."

Hermione seemed about to tell them, but suddenly a cry went up from the Slytherin table, and everyone in the hall turned to stare. Mariah Kirkner was standing and holding a piece of parchment that she'd evidently received in the owl post; she looked as though the world had ended. Draco Malfoy ran after her as she dashed from the hall, and Harry instinctively followed; he knew he had to learn what was wrong.

In the entrance hall, Draco had stopped Mariah and was holding her by the shoulders. "Stop it!" he ordered. "Tell me what's wrong!"

She was breathing in quick panting gasps, tears rolling down her face. Then Ginny stepped forward; she, Ron and Hermione had followed Harry out of the Great Hall. Ginny put her arm around Mariah's shoulders and said gently, "You're among friends, Mariah. Please tell us what's wrong."

Mariah handed her the parchment, and Draco and Harry crowded on either side of her to read it.

My dear sister Mariah,

I am sending this by owl post even though I think you should hear it from me in person. Should I be delayed, I wanted you to know what was happening as soon as possible. To get to the point, our dad is murdered and our mum kidnapped by Lucius Malfoy.

"Oh no!" Harry couldn't help crying. That's what Malfoy was up to! He looked at the parchment; it was a very terse letter, but there was more.

You may have felt queer all evening, a bit off. I'll tell you the reason for that when I get there. I should be at Hogwarts by morning. I shall be going to the Ministry first, to talk to some people about getting our mum back. See you soon.

Your brother,

Munro

Just then, the great heavy door slowly opened and a tall man in his twenties entered. They all turned toward him, and Harry saw the immediate reaction from Hermione and Ginny. A handsome man with short, dark hair curling tightly against his head, he was recognizably Mariah's brother, with the same large brown selkie eyes, almost no white around them. He otherwise didn't look especially remarkable to Harry; the girls' reaction to him, however, seemed to be to go weak at the knees; their eyes looked rather glazed over as he strode toward his sister with concern.

"Mariah!" he cried, taking his sister in his arms, hugging her quickly. She sobbed on him.

"Munro," she managed to say through her tears, "what happened?"

He looked very grim, glancing around at the others. When he met Hermione's and Ginny's eyes, they looked like they just might swoon, and Harry was feeling more than a little irritated. He could tell that Ron was as well.

"Before you do anything else," he said with an edge to his voice, "could you turn off the selkie charm a bit? You're--distracting them," he said to Munro Kirkner, motioning to Ginny and Hermione, who was gazing at him much as she had gazed at Gilderoy Lockhart in her second year.

He looked up, startled. "Oh, er, sorry." He glanced at his sister. "How mainy people know aboot--?"

"They're me frainds, Munro. They know."

He looked resigned to this, but not particularly happy. "Waill, thain they can hear what I need t'taill ye." He swallowed, holding her shoulders, shaking a little. "Lucius Malfoy didnae jest kill our dad an' take our mum," he said slowly. "He--he also took yer skin."

Mariah cried out and collapsed, and Draco went to her, holding her closely, looking very concerned. Mariah was shaking her head, her eyes so wide Harry could actually see a little white around the darkness.

"No, no, no, no, no...."

Ron frowned, not understanding. "She's more upset about that than her mum being kidnapped, or her dad being murdered?"

Harry drew his lips into a line. "Don't you remember, Ron? If you steal a selkie's skin, you can make her do anything you want." Hermione came to stand with them, putting her arms around Ron's waist; he smoothed her hair affectionately. They were all feeling very shaken.

Harry looked fearfully at Mariah Kirkner, being rocked in Draco Malfoy's arms. Ginny crouched by her side as well, rubbing her back, sympathetic tears running down her face. She had been expecting to be Lucius Malfoy's target, but instead it was Mariah. Harry looked at the three of them, shaking his head.

"Lucius Malfoy was never planning to go after Ginny," he said softly to Hermione and Ron. "We thought he meant her when he said he was going to get his son's girlfriend to 'do' things for him. Somehow his father must have found out about Mariah; he knew that she was his girlfriend now, not Ginny. And somehow he also found out that she's a selkie," he added. He looked at Ron and Hermione, his heart in his throat. As the sound of Mariah Kirkner's keening filled the hall, he heard his own words to Ron echoing in his head:

If you steal a selkie's skin, you can make her do anything you want.

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