Harry Potter and the Final Curse

Chapter 12 - Security Measures

Standing just inside the door of the main Muggle studies classroom, Harry was momentarily stunned at the sight of two dead bodies, lying under the indisputable sight of the Dark Mark. Even if you did not know the significance of the Mark, it was still foreboding to look at, sending shivers down your spine. Aside from the unnatural green light emanating from the Mark itself, the room was dimly lit with only a handful of torches mounted on the walls, casting unholy shadows of the Mark on every wall of the classroom.

McGonagall, Professor Cortes, Professor Prose, and Mr. Speckles stood outside the classroom in the corridor, a combination of horror, and fear in having disturbed the crime scene, preventing them from entering further. Harry didn't blame any of them; given the choice, he would have stayed outside the classroom too.

"They're both dead, Harry. By the killing curse no doubt," said McGonagall unhappily. "The third years who were due to be taking her class now discovered them."

Hermione kept her cool, but Harry knew she was panicking inside. "They must have been scared out of their lives," she imagined out loud.

"Oh that they were, and probably still are," said Professor McGonagall. "Luckily Mr. Speckles wasn't too far away at the time and quickly informed me. Under the circumstances, I thought it best that they not be let back among the rest of the student population, so I have confined them to a safe house for now. We'll have to, of course, question them later, but for now leave them be."

"Of course, Professor," agreed Harry.

Harry circled the room in order to get a look at the scene of the crime from every angle, but from no aspect did it look any better.

"Do you think the person trying to kill you was also responsible for this?" asked Hermione, her eyes flicking rapidly from the Dark Mark to the two dead bodies.

"I would think it's likely, but I'll have to study the scene of the crime more closely before I can give a more definite answer," said Harry, continuing to circle the room.

"Very well, Harry, do what you have to do," said Professor McGonagall. "In the meantime I must break the news to their families. Since even tightly guarded secrets spread like wildfire in this school, it is likely that everyone will know of this by the end of the day, so we better make an official announcement as soon as possible."

"What about the rest of today's lessons? I take it all of today's Muggle studies lessons will be cancelled?" asked Hermione.

"I think that's best under the circumstances. I do not see why all other lessons shouldn't proceed as planned though," said Professor McGonagall to Hermione and the rest of the teachers that were there. "However those students that witnessed this event are to be excused for at least the rest of today."

"Of course, Minerva," said Hermione.

"You'll have to either cover my lessons or cancel them as well," said Harry. "I can foresee this taking the best part of the day."

"Severus is free during the fifth period, so he should be able to cover your second year group," said McGonagall, "but it looks like we'll have to cancel the rest. Now we had all better leave Harry in a bit of peace. Mr. Speckles, would you please make sure that no student comes down this way until further notice."

"Right away, Headmistress," said the caretaker as he proceeded to carry out his instructions.

McGonagall and the rest of the teachers left the area to go about their respective businesses. Only Hermione remained behind for now, although it was for the benefit of Harry more than anything else.

Harry starred at the two corpses for a moment, deep in thought. He had seen more than his fair share of death up close in his life, both friend and foe, right back to his first clear memory of Cedric Diggory's last moments. He was sort of used to death now, but it still remained hard.

Harry bent down to get a closer look at the departed bodies. Professor Asgard wasn't exactly one of his favourite colleagues, but he certainly didn't want to see her dead. The look on her face was one of sheer horror, making Harry believe that the killing curse was indeed responsible. He didn't really know the boy, but it was always hard to see a young life taken away prematurely. If it was the same person that had been trying to kill him, why had they changed tactics? What good would it do to kill these two anyway?

"Do you need any help, Harry?" asked Hermione, trying to be of some assistance but ultimately looking like a spare part.

"No, I'll be fine," said Harry, without looking at her. "You go and help the Headmistress, she probably needs it more than I do."

"Ok," said Hermione softly, "but just call if you do need me."

Hermione left the Muggle studies classroom. She took one final look at Harry before she closed the door, and it was obvious to her that he wasn't taking this turn of events very easily. If it were up to her, she would have stayed to help her friend, even if she was there just for moral support, but she respected his wishes and let him be.

Harry returned briefly to his office in order to pick up the equipment he needed for the analysis. Once he returned to the Muggle studies classroom with a number of dark detectors of all shapes and sizes, Harry got down to the unpleasant task of determining cause of death.

* * *

At around five o'clock that day, after a lengthy examination of the crime scene, Harry called for an urgent teacher's conference. McGonagall had learned from experience that important conversations like these were best confined to secure locations such as her office. Gone were they days when she would speak candidly about serious issues, in places such as the hospital wing, where any Ron, Hermione, or Harry could hear them.

Nearly all the members of staff in the school attended the meeting. The only people that weren't there were Hagrid, who was given the task of supervising the students that had seen today's events; Madam Mendel, who had urgent duties in the hospital wing; and Professor Binns, who rarely came to meetings anyway.

Enough chairs for everyone to sit down were placed in a semicircular formation around McGonagall's desk. The only people that did not sit down were Harry, who was standing to the right of the desk in order to help preside over the meeting; and Snape, who stood to the left of the desk so that his position of leadership would stand out more.

The tension in McGonagall's office could be cut with a knife, as everyone dwelled on the events that had recently unfolded. Even Harry, who was trained to deal with these kinds of situations, was anxious, although he didn't make it obvious.

"So it is true?" asked McGonagall worryingly. "Both were killed by the Avada Kedavra curse?"

"Yes, I'm afraid so," said Harry, gently nodding. There was a moan of despair from many of the teachers in the room. "I'm also fairly certain that the person responsible for these deaths is the same person who's been trying to kill me."

"But why kill Professor Asgard?" asked Hermione. "I could understand if it was someone in a position of power, but Emily was just ... Emily; the teacher of Defence against the Dark Arts is a worthy target, ... sorry, Harry, ... but what good would it do kill the Muggle studies teacher?"

"I wish I could give a decent answer on that, Hermione," said Harry, "I really would. I have a couple of theories though: Perhaps she was just simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, the boy too, and the assailant killed them to keep them quiet? Or maybe the assailant, frustrated that they couldn't kill me, went for someone easier? Anyway, if this was simply a case of a murderer, then this whole matter might be simple, but there's something that throws it into a whole new level."

"I assume you're referring to the Dark Mark?" asked Snape openly. "Not to mention the fact that an unforgivable curse was used."

"Yes," said Harry, glancing nervously over the desk at Snape's arm, where he knew the faint remains of the mark still existed. Snape seemed to notice as Harry did this, hiding his arm behind his back.

"So that means that whoever is responsible is a Death Eater, or Voldemort himself," said Hermione uneasily.

"It can't be Voldemort," said Harry adamantly, although not aggressively. "I've just been in contact with the Ministry, and they report that his tomb is the same as it's always been, sealed with the Sword of Gryffindor. But a Death Eater has always been a likely identity, and the Dark Mark now more or less confirms it."

"But if it is a Death Eater, surely they must have some sense and not reveal a big clue like that," said Professor Lal.

"That's why I think it is one of the students that is responsible," said Harry. "This generation of kids don't seem to understand what Voldemort put this world through, the Dark Mark being perhaps the most visual icon of that era. Any adult Death Eater, even the most dim-witted ones, would have realised what the sight of the mark would mean, and not create it without good reason."

"It's entirely possible that a youth could become a Death Eater, although it would have to be one of the untrue ones, as they wouldn't simply be old enough to be a true one," said Hermione. "But they must have some sort of connection to someone that was, or is, a true Death Eater in order to have learned the Morsmordre spell, used to summon the mark. It's just not something you can pick up and learn from a book."

"You've looked, have you?" asked Harry inquisitively, smiling just so that she knew he was joking.

"I won't lie and say I wasn't a little bit curious, just for research purposes of course," rationalized Hermione. "But I couldn't find any references to its creation, not even in the foulest of dark magic spell books."

A strange thought came into Harry's head of Hermione, using her knowledge of dark magic, being a really powerful dark witch, and wreaking havoc upon the world. Luckily Hermione was such a kindhearted person that there was little danger of that actually happening outside of his mind.

"I think we can safely assume that it is an untrue Death Eater," said McGonagall. "But we still don't have enough information to make a more specific identification."

"So, what do we do now?" asked Professor Cortes.

"The whole school, in all probability, knows about what happened by now, so we better make an official announcement to both the students and the general public," said McGonagall. "We shall not, of course, tell them the exact circumstance of their deaths. I think it's in everyone's best interest not to disclose the fact that there's a Death Eater on the loose."

"But what about the students that actually saw the mark?" fretted Professor Greenvale, shivering slightly with fear. "We can't keep them confined for ever. How do we prevent them from telling others?"

"I have already thought about this," said McGonagall. "Since we cannot rely on them just simply keeping quiet about it, especially considering what happened, we'll have to use some more drastic measures."

There was a brief silence in the room as everyone tried to decipher what 'drastic measures' meant.

"You mean memory charms, Minerva?" assumed Hermione, breaking the silence.

"Exactly," nodded McGonagall. She turned to face Professor Lal. "Kamlesh, I believe you are experienced with memory altering magic?"

"Yes," confirmed Professor Lal proudly, sitting up straighter on his chair and fiddling with the end of his greying beard. "I spent many years studying that branch of magic, and became very proficient at it as a result. I would be happy to do what is required."

"Excellent," beamed McGonagall.

"I don't mean to dampen the situation anymore," worried Professor Greenvale, "but even with those young people having their memories erased, we still can't hide the fact that two deaths have occurred. Perhaps we will have to close the school after all."

"No, you all know what will likely happen if we do that!" said McGonagall tenaciously, slamming her fist on her desk. "But we can't just sit here and do nothing; two murders have been committed and there may be more!"

Harry, and several of the other teachers, were taken aback at the Headmistress' sudden aggression. She obviously felt passionate about what she was saying.

"I know the school is important, Minerva, I think we all agree on that," said Professor Lal, "but in my opinion, saving the lives of the students is much more fundamental. I'm not the only one with children here," he looked at Harry, "and I worry for their safety. We could just send the students home, and assemble a security team to hold the school until it is deemed safe that they return."

"I have considered that option, yes," said McGonagall, fixing her gaze on Professor Lal, "but I do not believe it is for the best. If we let all the students go home, we will be letting a murderous Death Eater go free into the world as well, to be able to kill at their own leisure. At least here we have them contained ...."

Professor Lal wasn't happy with the Headmistress' appraisal, and he showed his disagreement openly by sighing angrily and standing up hastily from his chair; Professor Greenvale, sat next to him, jumped in shock and let out a weak shriek at his actions. Professor Lal then proceeded to sulk, pacing back and forth across the office, with his arms crossed.

"I can see Professor's point, Headmistress," said Harry, glancing briefly back at the fuming Charms teacher, "the students are the most important thing in this school; without them the school is pointless. But if we, as you suggest, keep the Death Eater contained, what's to stop them from just killing more people here?"

"I hadn't finished what I was going to say," said McGonagall, resolutely, with a slight hint of aggravation in her voice (although this was clearly aimed at Professor Lal). "I was going to suggest that we tighten up security so that it will become impossible for there to be any more attacks. This will last until we can find out whoever is responsible. I've already been in contact with the Minister for Magic himself, and he supports the idea of a lock down, however, I will not instigate it unless I have a majority decision amongst all the members of staff."

There was a period of silence when everyone looked at each other, each deciding on whether a lock down was such a good idea. Harry thought the idea had merit, although instigating it would be difficult, especially in a building this size. Then of course there was what the general public would think of it, most importantly the hundreds of parents whose children attended the school.

Hermione brought this point across before Harry had a chance to speak. "What of the parents of the students?" she asked. "They're not going to be happy that their children are being contained with a murderer."

McGonagall turned her attention on Hermione. "That is a problem, yes, but the Ministry have said they will use every power at their disposal to try and pacify the parents, and, of course, the press."

"That won't be easy, even for the Ministry," said Snape. "Then of course there is the board of governors to consider, most of whom have family attending here; many of them have positions of high power and influence in the wizarding world."

"There may be one or two of the governors that may kick up a fuss," said McGonagall, "but I think the majority of them will support the idea, given the circumstances."

Harry himself had not been directly involved with board of governors, and most of his knowledge of their actions came through Hermione. He had met several of the individuals in the past, although none of those occasions were school related. Most of them, as McGonagall had commented, were good honourable people.

"What does Dumbledore have to say on all this?" asked Stewart Ackerley, speaking for the first time in the meeting.

Harry glanced at the wall where the portraits of old head teachers lie, expecting to see Dumbledore there, but he wasn't; he was probably off on one of his little adventures. Most of the other portraits were occupied, although they kept quiet.

"Albus agrees with me on this issue," said McGonagall, "as do several of the other former head teachers. But, despite how much I admire the advice of my predecessor, he is no longer an active part of this school, and the real decision lies with those in the here-and-now."

McGonagall swept her field of vision around the assembled members of staff, giving each of them a communicative stare. They all knew that she didn't come to plans on the spur of the moment and must have given it a lot of thought.

"Very well, we will vote on it," said Snape, taking the initiative. "Since we have nearly everyone here, raise your hand if you believe in the decision of a lock down."

It took a few moments for all the teachers present to finally make up their minds. Most of the teachers, including Harry and Hermione, raised their hands in agreement. Professor Lal had calmed down a bit, but he still showed his disapproval but keeping his arms firmly folded, and busied himself by staring intently at the various trinkets stored on a shelf to the left of McGonagall's desk. Professor Greenvale also kept her hands down, although this was probably due to fear more than anything else. Snape did a quick count of those who had raised their hands.

"Then it is in agreement," nodded Snape, without showing any signs of emotion regarding his opinion of the outcome. "The school will be locked down."

"Good," said McGonagall, "I have already given the matter much thought and this is what I believe we must do -," she cleared her throat before continuing, "students will be supervised at all times when not in their common rooms. No student will be allowed outside the castle without supervision, which in turn means that none of them be permitted to travel home during the Christmas holidays. Visits to Hogsmeade will also be cancelled."

"They're not going to like that," said Hermione, stating the obvious. "But it seems to me like a necessary arrangement to me."

There was a general mumble of agreement from the rest of the staff.

"I know forcing them to stay here over Christmas sounds barbaric, but we shall do our best to ensure that they feel as comfortable as possible," said McGonagall.

"What about Quidditch?" asked Professor Cortes, "Since that's an outside event, will that be cancelled too?"

"It would probably be a good idea, yes," said McGonagall. "However, since it has so many fans between the students and teachers alike, I am inclined for it to continue as planned, provided we make the proper precautions. With that, and other things, in mind, I have requested the presence of additional security personnel. Aside from help keeping the peace, they will also assist with the ongoing investigations."

"I assume these additional security personnel are being assigned by the Ministry?" asked Harry.

"Yes," confirmed McGonagall. "I know not what type nor number they are sending, though. Anyway, Harry, since you are still technically an Auror, I am assigning you the responsibility for their welcome and organisation."

"Of course, Headmistress," accepted Harry. "When will they arrive?"

"They are due first thing tomorrow morning."

The rest of the meeting continued discussing the finer points of the lock-down plan, and nearly everyone had some sort of suggestion as to how to go about it. All in all, the meeting lasted for over an hour and would probably have lasted longer if speed wasn't an issue.

* * *

The teachers all worked overtime ensuring that the school would be secure, many of them skipping any sort of dinner in order to get the job done. The first thing on the agenda was to put wards on the walls and gates surrounding the grounds so that no-one could pass through them. The wards even extended high into the air, forming an invisible dome over the entire grounds, so nobody could escape, not even if they tried to fly over the walls.

Creating such a large and powerful barrier was extremely hard work, and it took the combined efforts of five teachers working flat out, for about three hours, to create it. Dumbledore could have probably done it by himself, but all he could really do was offer advice through his portrait. It was very tiring work, and Harry, who was one of the teachers that created it, was exhausted afterwards. Under normal circumstances he would have gone for a lie down afterwards, but there was still too much work left to do, and the resting had to wait.

Other security measures they instigated included sealing all unnecessary external doors of the castle, which also included securing all of the secret entrances that led outside. Since Harry had the most experience of the secret passages, the task of sealing them was given to him. Eventually the only way in or out of the castle was through the main doors, but even they had wards on them to prevent just anyone from wandering through.

In order to restrict communications between the school and the outside world, nearly all of the fireplaces in the school were temporarily removed from the Floo Network. The only fireplaces that still had access to the Network were the ones in Harry's and McGonagall's offices. Every single piece of mail coming in or out of the school would also be monitored to ensure no inauspicious information was exchanged. These ideas were taken from Umbridge, perhaps the only useful contribution she had ever made, although this time it was for the sake of the student's safety and not some personal vendetta. Harry wasn't sure what had become of Umbridge after all these years, although he had heard a rumour that she had become a recluse, never going outside, and screaming every time she heard something that resembled hooves clip-clopping.

After the teachers had done everything they could think of, Harry was so tired that he collapsed on one of the sofas in the teacher's wing, and slept through to the morning.

* * *

While most of the teachers were busy with the security measures, McGonagall and Hermione attended the Great Hall, where all the students had turned out for dinner as usual. There were many wild rumours that had been circling about, as to what had happened earlier that day, including one where a whole class had been killed, and another where Professor Asgard killed the boy before turning the wand on herself.

Since everyone was at least sure that two people had died, McGonagall told them a version of a truth. As it had been decided before, they did not disclose the fact that a Death Eater was responsible, and so they just said there was an escaped killer on the loose, who somehow managed to infiltrate the school. This reminded many of the teachers of the time when there was a supposed murderer named Sirius Black, who had escaped from Azkaban. Few, however, knew the real truth of that story.

On hearing this story, the students were naturally extremely fearful. It wasn't until McGonagall explained all the security arrangements in place to protect them that the students seemed to ease up a little, although tensions were still high.

What would happen to Muggle studies lessons was also discussed. Hermione would take over Professor Asgard's duties for the time being, until they could find a replacement. McGonagall would cover Transfiguration lessons if they clashed with Muggle studies. Many of the students thought that the death of their teacher would mean the end to Muggle studies, and they were disappointed when they found out they still had to complete the assignment on 'How Muggles clean their homes'.

After dinner, the students were all sent to their common rooms and dormitories for the rest of the day, escorted by teachers, as the security measures officially began.

* * *

The following day, all students, when not in their common rooms or dormitories, were supervised at all times. In the morning, the students would be escorted in small groups from their house common rooms, to the Great Hall, for breakfast. After breakfast, they would then be escorted to their first lesson by their tutor for that session. It would continue along these lines until they finally went back to their common rooms after dinner.

During break and lunch time, students were not permitted to exit the castle and venture into the grounds. They were only allowed outside during lessons if they had a good reason for doing so, such as a trip to the greenhouses for Herbology, or for Care of Magical Creatures lessons.

The first day of these restrictions seemed to go well, and nearly everyone abided by the rules to the letter. However, it soon became obvious that it would be impossible to monitor every single part of the castle for transgressions, and the teachers really needed help. Normally the first port of call would be the Prefects and Head boy and girl, but they were constrained by the same restrictions as their fellow students. They would still, however, be invaluable in helping keep discipline and morale high.

Thankfully, the resident school ghosts had not remained ignorant of the situation and so many of them decided to volunteer their eyes and ears to the cause, which included all four of the house ghosts. The Bloody Baron also promised to keep Peeves in line, as he would no doubt be a major security concern.

Even further eyes and ears came in the form of the portraits that lined the many walls of Hogwarts. Although they didn't have the freedom of the ghosts, and they spent half their time asleep, the portraits would still be valuable allies in the times to come, and many took their role very seriously. Sir Cadogan, the brave yet foolish knight, took the task to heart, and worked tirelessly in his quest, challenging everyone who went past his own portrait (or whatever portrait he happened to be visiting at the time).

The suits of armour had extra enchantments to act as lookouts. Although they couldn't really do anything, the suits of armour would sound the alarm if they spotted anything that wasn't supposed to be. It came to a point where it was virtually impossible to go anywhere in the school without being seen by someone, or something.

* * *

The next morning after the meeting, Harry waited in the entrance hall for the arrival of security personnel from the Ministry. He wasn't sure who they would send, nor how many there would be. The only thing Harry was fairly sure of, due to the nature of the assignment, was that they would most likely be Aurors. He hoped that there would be at least someone he knew and trusted. Trust was going to be a near necessity.

The doors to the Great Hall opened loudly behind him, and Harry turned round to look. Professor Snape was escorting a group of students towards the dungeons. Harry figured they must be Hufflepuff first years due to the presence of John Sanders among the group. They all looked terrified, which must have been a combination of fear of there being a killer about and the fact they were about to have Potions. Harry gave John a nod as a way of saying hello, which he nervously returned.

"Come along," ordered Snape, who had his wand pointed idly at the students, "keep it moving."

Harry watched them as they disappeared down the stairs leading to the dungeons; Snape's droning voice echoing down below, issuing orders to the students.

"Wotcher, Harry," said a familiar voice from behind him, signalling the arrival of the personnel from the Ministry.

"Hello, Tonks," smiled Harry as he turned around to greet her. "Nice to see you."

Nymphadora Tonks, due to her abilities as a Metamorphmagus resembled a woman in her twenties, even though truthfully she was in her forties. The same abilities also gave her the unnatural pink coloured hair. Harry had known her for more than twenty years, and the sight of her was always welcome.

"I'm glad to be here," said Tonks. "When they asked for volunteers to come here, I jumped at the chance. Gives me the opportunity to see how you're getting on with your new job."

"Well you're not here to have fun," explained Harry. "These are serious times."

"Of course, but even in the darkest of times you've got to have a little bit of enjoyment for the sake of morale."

Harry turned his attention to the others that had arrived, and saw that there were two other Aurors, which Harry recognised as Christopher Challis and Albert McIntyre.

Chris was a fair-haired young man in his early twenties, who had only been out of Auror training for about six months. Harry had been given the responsibility of being his mentor for his first few months in order to show him the ropes, and took him on one or two missions. Even though he was relatively inexperienced, Chris was a reliable hard worker and had proven himself to be trustworthy.

"Hello, Chris," said Harry, shaking his hand. "How's Auror life treating you?"

"Not bad, Mr. Potter," replied Chris. "It has its ups and downs."

"And is this assignment an up or a down?"

Chris contemplated the question for a moment. "Probably an up. Hopefully this will show the boss that I'm capable of tackling the more juicy tasks. Plus, it's nice to be back at my old school, and I can see my sister too."

The other man, Albert, was at least twice Harry's age, and was a veteran of both the Dark wars against Voldemort. The silver-haired Auror was well respected among his peers, and his presence was enough to lighten anyone's day.

"Nice to see you, Albert," said Harry, shaking his hand courteously. "It's a real honour to have your presence here."

"Oh, the honour is meeting you once again, Harry," said Albert. "Thanks to your efforts, the world is a much safer place. I was discussing this with young Neville Longbottom, who popped into the Ministry for a governors meeting, just yesterday before I received the summons to come here. He speaks very highly of you."

"And I, him," said Harry. "Neville is a good friend. Anyway, neither Neville nor I would have got very far in this world if it weren't for people like you."

From the looks on Tonks' face, it was obvious she was getting fed up. "Look, can we cut out all this hero worshipping," she said irritably. "You're both wonderful people. Now can we please get down to business?"

"I was only being friendly," apologized Harry, "but if you want to get straight down to it, that's fine by me."

"Alright then," said Tonks.

"Follow me please," said Harry, gesturing the three of them to follow him.

The three Aurors picked up their possessions and followed Harry up the main stairs in front of them. Harry led them to a room on the second floor, which was near to where Harry's office was located. He opened the door and ushered the Aurors inside.

The room was ordinarily a disused classroom, but it had now been cleaned up and simply furnished with a few tables and chairs. A couple of bunk beds had also been placed in here, giving the entire room the look of a youth-hostel. The room had only two small arched windows at the far end of the room, which let only minimal light in.

"This will be the Auror headquarters for the time you will be here," said Harry, pointing out the features of the room. "It should be suitable for our needs."

It was evident from his facial expressions that Albert expected something a little grander, but he didn't voice his opinion. "This should do fine," he said as he glanced around the room.

Tonks, however, wasn't quite so reserved about her feeling of the room. "Is this it?" she asked in disbelief.

"It's the best we could come up with at short notice," said Harry. "I did think about using the Room of Requirement, but I eventually decided on this room as it's so close to my own office."

"What's the Room of Requirement?" asked Chris.

"It's a room that configures itself according to your needs at the time," explained Harry. "I discovered it in my fifth year and we used it for the DA lessons."

"A room that changes to what you need?" pondered Tonks. "That makes a lot of sense now that I think of it."

"What do you mean?" asked Harry.

"When I was at school here and going out with Calvin Jones, we spent ages trying to find a place to, well you know," said Tonks. "Anyway, one night, after searching the castle, we came upon a room on the seventh floor that was perfect, and we spent the night. I tried to find the room again the next day but it seemed to have vanished."

"Well, that sure sounds like you found the Room of Requirement," said Harry, "but there's a trick to finding it though, so it's not surprising you never found it again."

"Oh?" enquired Tonks. "You wouldn't mind telling me just how you do find it?"

"Now that would be telling," said Harry, grinning childishly.

"Oh, you and your little secrets," said Tonks, not totally surprised. "Anyway, I suppose I could get used to the room. I just need to make one or two changes, that's all."

Tonks, Chris, and Albert spent the rest of the morning setting up their centre of operations in the old classroom. Harry would have stayed and helped but he had other more pressing tasks, namely teaching, but he popped his head in every now and then to see their progress.

While Chris and Albert spent much of their time organising and setting up their equipment, Tonks began to make the changes she had been talking about. When Harry looked in on them at around midday, the walls were now a pink colour to match her hair and there were numerous bunches of flowers scattered around the place, much to the dislike of her colleagues; it reminded Harry of how she had decorated her cubicle in the Ministry.

Once they had all finished, it was difficult to believe that the place used to be a disused classroom and, despite his displeasure at the new colour scheme, Harry had to agree that the room looked much better now. The final touch was a few protective spells here and there, including a ward on the door so that only Aurors could enter.

* * *

A couple of days after the deaths, a memorial service was held in the Great Hall for both Professor Asgard and the young Slytherin boy. Afterwards, the bodies of both people were sent to their families for a proper burial.

The press naturally became very interested in these latest happenings and so began camping outside the School grounds in the hope they would be able to find out something more. Thankfully the school had the Ministry on their side which helped to keep them at bay, although there was little chance of any of them getting through the barrier anyway.

Despite them not being able to actually get into the grounds, the press still managed to produce articles on the story, even though most of it was speculation. One such article, in the Daily Prophet, came three days after the deaths: -

Deaths at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

The deaths of two people, named as Professor Asgard who taught Muggle studies, and a thirteen-year-old Slytherin boy named Donald Smith, has been officially confirmed. The Daily Prophet sends its condolences to the families of the deceased in their time of need.

The official statement the School has given, puts their deaths down to an escaped murder on the loose, but we have been unable to confirm this. Considering the Ministry are trying to keep the matter as quiet as possible is cause for suspicion. We also have received unconfirmed reports that Hogwarts has been receiving death threats from persons or organisations unknown, and we have reason to believe that the two events are connected.

This news comes not long after the recent appointment of celebrated Auror, and defeater of the Dark Lord, Harry Potter, for the role of replacement Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. As many of our loyal readers will remember, there were a series of unfortunate accidents that occurred to the previous tutors of the subject. Whether these accidents were related to more recent events is mere speculation, although it seems highly likely.

Parents of students attending the school naturally fear for the safety of their children, and the question still remains - If there is an escaped murderer on the loose, and he has already killed at the school, why do all the children remain there? Why is the school simply not closed?

We posed these questions directly to the Ministry, but they were either unwilling, or unable, to give us a satisfactory response. They did assure us, however, that the students are safe, and that the situation is under control.

"I don't know what's going on at that school," said a concerned mother in a recent interview, "but I'm glad they have Harry Potter there to keep things together. While I'm sure McGonagall is an excellent administrator, I have my doubts when it comes to her ability to protect the school from any sort of danger, let alone a murderer on the loose."

The Daily Prophet will continue to report on the story as we get further news.

After reading the article on the morning of its issue, McGonagall threw down the paper in disgust.

"Who does this woman think she is?!" she scowled. "I have kept this school safe for eighteen years!"

Unfortunately the paper wasn't the only piece of mail that maddened the Headmistress. Another anonymous letter had arrived, which simply read 'It will happen soon'. Harry immediately took the letter for examination. Although he could not find anything obviously malevolent about it, it still had an inherent evil that Harry could not pin down.

The other mail of any interest that morning consisted of dozens of letters from parents demanding to know what's happening in the school. Since they couldn't really ignore them, McGonagall picked up her quill and a stack of parchment and began the exhausting task of writing a personal response to each of them.

* * *

The following few weeks up to the Christmas holidays were fairly uneventful school-wise. The three Aurors spent much of their time either patrolling, escorting, or searching for clues, helped by Harry whenever possible. The room where the deaths occurred was examined so many times that every single speck of dust had been catalogued, although they found nothing that would help the investigation.

As Harry's family life went, however, there was something that was fairly noteworthy: -

Harry sat in his office one lunchtime, busy marking a homework assignment that his sixth year Hufflepuff class had handed in the lesson before. Due to the recent circumstances, Harry had decided to try and make it as easy as possible for his students, and all lessons and homework he devised he made as fun, and enjoyable, as possible. Several of the other teachers seemed to follow this as well, although Professor Snape naturally didn't change his teaching methods one iota.

For this assignment, he had asked them to write an encyclopaedia of dangerous magical creatures that you might find in the British Isles, and how you would defend yourself against them. While it wasn't exactly hard, since most of the information could be obtained from a single book, it was fairly time consuming, and Harry estimated would take about three hours to complete it to an acceptable standard.

The one he was marking now, written by Alan Larson, was written sloppily and it was obvious that little effort had been put into it. Harry had no choice but to give this piece of work a D.

After he put Alan Larson's work on the finished pile, Harry took a bite of the cheese sandwich that lay on a plate on his desk. Harry found out, soon into his stretch as a teacher, that members of staff, due to their often busy schedules, were allowed to order food from the kitchens to be brought to wherever they desired at mealtimes. It was customary to tip the house-elf for this service, or at least attempt to tip them as they nearly always refused it.

Harry got back to marking the assignments, and picked up the next one, written by Geraldine Donovan. He was already impressed by it on the first foot of parchment, beautifully laid out and exquisitely written, with impressively accurate diagrams. The assignment went on for what must have been three yards, and Harry was delighted when he gave Geraldine the mark of Outstanding.

As Harry put the wonderful assignment on the finished pile, there was a knock on his office door.

"Come in," said Harry, having a quick bite of his sandwich.

The door opened and Professor Cortes half entered into Harry's office.

"Yes, Prospero, what can I do for you?" asked Harry.

"I have a student here that wishes to speak to you about something," said Prospero, "although she won't say what though."

"Tell them that I'm sorry but I'm too busy at the moment," said Harry as he got ready to mark the next assignment.

"I told her you'd be too busy, but she insisted on it, and I thought you might make an exception in this case."

"And why's that?" asked Harry, unrolling a homework parchment.

Seconds later, Lily appeared in the doorframe carrying her school bag.

"Oh, it's you, Lily, come on in," said Harry, coaxing her inside. "Thank you, Professor."

Lily entered the office and planted herself down on the chair in front of Harry's desk. Prospero nodded and left, closing the door behind him.

"So," said Harry. "What can your old man do for you?"

"There's a slight problem with the Marauder's Map you gave me - I think it's broken."

"Broken?" asked Harry, looking at Lily suspiciously. "What did you do to it?"

"Nothing!" denied Lily.

Harry smiled at her. "Well we'll soon see," he said. "Do you have it on you?"

"Yes," said Lily. She opened up her bag, and rummaged around in it for a moment, before she pulled out a slightly crumpled piece of parchment and placed in on the desk.

Harry picked the Marauder's Map and examined it, recalling his own recent experience with it. He had initially, after the first few attacks, thought about using the map to try and identify his attacker, but it just wasn't very sensible. It would have worked fine if he had time to prepare for the attacks but, since they came without any warning, he wouldn't have time to activate it. Walking around with his face stuck in the map all of the time wouldn't work either, as, aside from the unpracticality of it, his attacker would probably be smart enough not to try anything. Harry therefore decided to leave the map with Lily, as he had no real use for it.

Harry might have believed Lily's portrayal of innocence if it hadn't been for the slight stickiness and faint smell of pumpkins permeating the map. "Now I see the problem," he said, shifting his composure to one of dismay. "You should really be more careful with this. It's one-of-a-kind and can't exactly be replaced."

"Sorry, Dad," apologised Lily, "but it was an accident; I didn't mean to do it. I was just looking for a book to help me with my Astronomy homework, using the book-catalogue in the Library, when I accidentally spilt my goblet."

"I'm shocked that the Librarian actually let you get anywhere near the Library with a goblet of pumpkin juice," said Harry. "Madam Pince used to chase us out the Library if we had so much as a Bertie Bott's bean with us."

Lily screwed up her face in confusion. "Madam Pince, who's she?"

"Oh, that's right," said Harry, suddenly remembering. "The Librarian is Madam Dulcet now, isn't it? Let me guess - she was the one that actually gave you the pumpkin juice?"

Madam Dulcet, an elderly witch who typically wore her hair in curls, was a very kind, almost sickly sweet, person. She was well known for her giving nature, and it would be no surprise to Harry if she started serving refreshments in the Library.

"Yeah, she did," verified Lily. "Anyway, I should have been more careful."

Harry couldn't be cross at his daughter for something she was obviously sorry for, and besides, it wasn't exactly all her fault. "That's ok," he said, with a sympathetic smile, " just as long as you're not going to tell me that you've a misfortune with your invisibility cloak."

Lily went extremely quiet voice-wise, but her breathing was much more intense. Harry looked at her skeptically; it was obvious she was hiding something.

"What's happened to the cloak, Lily?" chanted Harry.

"Well," she said quietly, "promise you won't get cross?"

"I'll try," said Harry, clasping his hands behind his head and leaning back on his chair.

"Well, I may have spilt a sticky toffee pudding over it," she sort-of admitted. "And it may have happened about a month ago when I snuck down to the kitchens in the middle of the night."

"I see," said Harry, keeping his anger in check. "And how severe is this stain that may have happened?"

"Well - and I'm not saying it did happen - it may have been an entire pudding about this size," said Lily, her hands depicting a circle about a foot in diameter.

"And you say this may have happened about a month ago, long enough for the stain to saturate into the material of the cloak?"

"Maybe," said Lily quietly. "You're not mad, are you?"

If Harry had told her that he wasn't mad, that would have been a downright lie. He was infuriated about how she could be so careless with something so obviously valuable and rare. This train of thought, however, led him to remember the times when he was a kid and was using the cloak and map, the chastising by Remus during his third year, about being careless with the map, being the most prominent in his mind.

Now he knew how Remus, and the other parental figures in his life, must have felt. Using this newfound experience, Harry felt that he couldn't be angry at Lily for something he might have done himself. He also felt that he was partially responsible, for the lack of information he gave her. All he had done was shown her how to use them and told her not to misplace them, but had he ever told her how to actually care for them? No, his excitement at the situation overrode his sensibility.

However, his role as father, and role model, compelled him to speak up, and he forced out a reprimand. "Yes of course I'm mad!" he shouted. "Those gifts were meant as a token of your mother's and my affection, to be used to help your life here at the school! They were not meant as something you just toss around carelessly because you can't be bothered to give them the care they deserve!"

Lily kept her head down, hiding her face, although it was obvious to Harry that she was on the verge of tears. He calmed down and gave Lily a sympathetic look, with the intention of trying to show her that he was not just some bossy father.

"I'm sorry, Dad," repented Lily. "I really mean it this time. I assume you're going to tell mum?"

Harry thought about it for a moment. "No," he decided. "This time I think we'll just keep this between the two of us. But I don't think it should be left unpunished, however since this is a family matter and not a school one, I cannot simply take points off your house or give you detention. Nor can I simply ground you as it wouldn't do much good round here of late. I will, however, ask that you hand me back the cloak and map until you can prove to me that you are responsible enough to have them back. The map I already have here, but you are to give to me the cloak at the next possible opportunity."

Lily nodded in agreement. "Yes, Dad," she said timidly.

"Now," said Harry, "before you go, I want to test out the map to see how bad the damage is. Hopefully it might be repairable."

Harry picked up his wand from where it lay on his desk. He spread the map out on the surface of his desk, clearing away all the junk that had accumulated on it, and activated it. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Those words rang in his mind for a moment. Regardless of the extraordinary magic of the map, its main purpose was to aid mischief-makers, and giving it to anyone other than the most law-abiding saintly person was just asking for trouble.

Harry was expecting the lines of ink to appear where his wand had touched the map, but nothing happened. Thinking perhaps he said the words incorrectly or something, Harry tried it again but nothing happened. On the third attempt, he got some sort of response, with indistinct lines forming but eventually evaporating. It was only until the fifth time did the map actually display what it was supposed to, forming the familiar words of 'Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs'.

This difficulty in activating the map reminded Harry of Uncle Vernon trying to start his car on cold mornings, although Harry had succeeded in his task without any swearing or pointless banging of his fists.

The lines of ink on the map swirled around the page, forming the walls of Hogwarts, along with its many residents. However the map was incomplete, with chunks of the walls missing in random places, and others that seemed to flicker in and out of existence. The representations of people seemed to be similarity affected.

Harry scanned the map and located his office. There were two people said to be in the room, but neither was who Harry was expecting. According to the map, his name was Netty Moss, who Harry remembered was an author of fiction, several of whose books could be found in the Library. The other name in the room, Lily's supposed name, was something even more strange, and even though Harry knew it was quite impossible, the memories associated with the name conjured an involuntary shiver down his spine.

Lily peered over at the map to see what her father was so concerned at. "Why does it say my name is Tom Riddle?"

"I don't know," said Harry, thoroughly puzzled by the whole thing. "You know where the name Tom Riddle comes from though, don't you?"

Lily thought for a moment. "Wasn't that the real name of that Voldemort bloke?"

Harry nodded. "Yes, he was," he confirmed. Although Harry had taught Lily not to fear the name of Voldemort, her flippant use of the name in conversation was a little unsettling.

Harry turned his attention back to the back, and he noticed the names of both of them flickered briefly at different times to their real names, before going back to the false names. He also noticed that his name vanished completely for about ten seconds before reappearing again.

"Well," said Harry. "It looks like the map is well and truly broken."

"Can it be fixed?" asked Lily hopefully.

"I don't know, but I'll see what I can do," said Harry as he checked his wristwatch. "Well look at the time. It's nearly the end of lunch. Come on, I'll escort you to your next lesson."

Harry stood up from his desk and packed the Marauder's Map, along with some paperwork he needed for his own next lesson, into his briefcase. Putting on the cloak that hung over the back of his chair, he led Lily out of his office and locked the door behind him with his wand.

* * *

In her office later that day, after all the lessons, and by the time they had finished escorting the students back to their dormitories after dinner, Harry confided with Hermione about the strange behaviour of the Marauder's Map.

"Tom Riddle?" she said quietly. "You're being serious?"

"Deadly serious," said Harry, remaining straight-faced. "Here, let me see if I can prove it to you."

Harry reached into his briefcase and retrieved the map. He spread it out onto Hermione's desk and activated it. As Harry suspected, it did not work the first time, and it took a further six attempts to get it to work acceptably. The lines of ink formed on the parchment, showing Harry and Hermione the layout of the school, although displaying it incorrectly as it had done before.

After a moment or two, Harry located Gryffindor Tower on the map and searched all the levels until he found what he was looking for. "See, look - Tom Riddle."

Hermione looked more closely at the name 'Tom Riddle' as it walked around the common room side-by-side with the name 'Tina Cartwright'. As he watched it, the name flickered briefly to 'Lily Potter', before returning back to 'Tom Riddle'.

"It doesn't seem to affect everyone," said Hermione as she spread her vision over the entire map. "Tina's ok, Alison Jameson is ok, Stewart Ackerley is ok, I'm ok."

"But why are some of them different?" asked Harry. "Where are those new names coming from?"

The cogs in Hermione's brain turned as she tried to discern the reason for the strange names. "It looks like that map may have somehow tapped into the Library records," she figured, "explaining your new name and some of the others - Look, Miranda Goshawk, and Kennilworthy Whisp."

"That doesn't explain Tom Riddle being there though," said Harry.

"Actually it does," justified Hermione. "Didn't you know that Tom has several books to his name?"

"He has?" said Harry, quite amazed at the prospect.

"Of course," explained Hermione. "They were all written when he was widely known as Voldemort, but he used his original name when he penned them. He only wrote about five books in total, and none of them were duplicated in any great number."

"And the School Library has several books by him?"

"Yes, about three I think. They're all related to the Dark Arts, and are known to be some of the most terrible books in the genre. They're naturally safely secured in the Classified section."

"The Classified section? You mean the restricted section?"

"I'm not really supposed to be telling you this, but no; it's a whole other section. But it's not surprising you've never heard of it; it's not exactly common knowledge. They didn't even tell me until I'd been teaching here a few years."

"So I take it you won't tell me where it is then?"

"No, I won't tell you exactly where it is, but let's just say it's accessible from the main Library. Even if you did know where it was, and knew how to get there, you'd be hard pressed to actually get in there; you need the permission of the Headmistress and at least one of the Heads of houses to access it."

"So all the really nasty books are in there, then?" assumed Harry.

"Exactly," nodded Hermione. "The amount of dark energy in there is enough to scare most people away before they even enter. It's not somewhere I want to go again if I can help it. So anyway, what are you going to do about the map?"

"I was going to see if I can try and fix it myself, and if that fails I suppose I could send it to the one surviving Marauder."

"I suppose if anyone can repair it, it'll be Remus," said Hermione. "But if he can't .... well, then I don't know."

They both stood for a moment in silence before Harry spoke. "Well, I'm sure it'll be fine eventually. Let's just hope the cloak isn't in need of a similar amount of restoration." After reaching inside his cloak for his wand, Harry deactivated the Marauder's Map ("Mischief Managed"), and packed it back in his briefcase. "Well, I'll let you get down to whatever work you've got to do."

Harry was halfway towards the door, when Hermione spoke up. "Oh, before you go. I've got something you might want to see."

Harry turned round to face Hermione. "What?"

She opened the top drawer of her desk and produced a rough book, about two inches thick, bound together with string. She thrust it into Harry's free hand.

"What's this?" he asked, putting down his briefcase and flicking through the pages without actually reading any of them.

"That's my manuscript for hopefully my first published piece of work," explained Hermione. "I want you to read it and tell me what you think."

Harry flicked through the pages once more, unnerved by the prospect of having to spend hours reading something this long. "There must be about five hundred pages here!"

"More or less, yeah," said Hermione. "You will read it won't you?"

Harry's initial though was NO! , but he couldn't do that to his friend, especially for something she had obviously put a lot of time and effort into. "Sure, no problem," he said. "You wouldn't mind just giving me a quick summary first, though?"

"Of course. It's a biography of your life as a student here at Hogwarts," described Hermione. "I decided to split the whole thing into seven parts, each corresponding with one of your school years. What you hold in your hands is the first part."

Harry remembered back as far as he could, trying to remember if he had ever given Hermione permission to write his biography, and then it hit him - about three years ago, while drunk during the new year celebrations, he had jokingly suggested that she should write it.

"When I said you could write this, I meant it as a joke," said Harry. "You're seriously telling me you actually wrote it?"

"Certainly," smiled Hermione. "The only real problem I've got at the moment is deciding upon a name for it. I've thought about 'The First Year at Hogwarts', and 'From Muggle to Wizard', but the best one I've come up with is 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone', and maybe change it slightly to the 'Sorcerer's Stone' to spice it up for the American market."

"And I suppose you'll end up calling the second part 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets', and then the third one 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'?" joked Harry.

Hermione looked at him for a moment in astonishment. "Absolute genius," she said. "I must write those two down."

She pulled out an extremely long piece of parchment from one of the drawers in her desk spread it out on her desk. It looked like it was covered in notes related to the biography, which included a couple of diagrams, one of which he was sure was supposed to be of him as an eleven-year-old boy standing near the Hogwarts Express. Hermione wrote down, in the blank bits of parchment she could find, the titles Harry had just suggested. She then seemed to go over the notes, looking like she was completely ignoring Harry.

"I'll just go, then?" said Harry, pointing his thumb backwards towards the door.

Hermione didn't answer so Harry just stuffed the manuscript into his briefcase, picked up all of his stuff, smiled, and left without another word being said between them that day. If Harry didn't know Hermione very well, he would have assumed she was being cold with him, but he knew that, once she got down to something she was passionate about, there was little chance of her being interrupted by anything short of a nuclear explosion.

* * *

After the incident with the Marauder's map, Harry got back to his regular routine of teaching and security patrols. Lily, after a little bit more prompting, finally gave him the invisibility cloak back two days later, which he examined closely to determine the state of any damage. Luckily the cloak, aside from needing a good clean, was completely fine, and it worked as it should do. Harry hung it up in the wardrobe in his sleeping quarters for safe keeping.

The map, however, was a different story. Harry used all the methods he had at his disposal to try and repair it, but the best he could do was to rid the map of the pumpkin smell and stickiness. No matter what he did, Harry could not restore the functionality to it, and so he sent it to Remus, the person with the best chance of fixing it.

At the time, Remus was staying in a hotel in Paris, located in the 'Rue de Magique', the French equivalent of Diagon Alley. After Floo-ing the hotel from his office, and trying to communicate with the receptionist using his patchy knowledge of the French language ("Avez-vous, no, je voudrais ... to err... parlez a la avec .... Monsieur Lupin"), Harry finally got to speak with Remus. Harry explained all of the problems with the Map and asked Remus if he would take a look at it for him. Thankfully, Remus agreed, and the map was given to him.

Remus promised to keep Harry informed as to the progress with restoring the map to its former glory. Harry then broke the Floo connection with the Parisian hotel and shook the stray soot from his hair and clothes.

* * *

The weeks going on towards Christmas became decidedly colder, mirroring the general feelings of the students and teachers. After a couple of weeks of being escorted everywhere, the students were starting to adjust to the changes, but their lack of freedom was really starting to get them down. Hogwarts was no longer a joyful place to be in, and it felt more like a prison, the only things missing were the bars on the windows and the dodgy cuisine. Not even the knowledge that Christmas was just around the corner helped to lighten the mood.

The only thing that could have improved the down heartened feelings of the residents of Hogwarts, was the Quidditch match between Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. As had been planned, the match was under extremely tight security, with all three of the Aurors, and many of the teachers, on constant watch for trouble.

Having not had much opportunity to practice their skills, which included Harry's Seeker club being cancelled, the players of both teams were a little on the sloppy side when it came to performing. This, combined with the dispirited feelings from both player and spectator alike, made for a very dull and disappointing game of Quidditch, certainly the worst game Harry could remember. The match ended with a victory to Hufflepuff (the score was Hufflepuff two hundred, Ravenclaw sixty), without any incident.

The general agreement after the match was that the Quidditch teams needed to practice, and so a number of regulated training sessions were instigated, under tight security. This included restarting the Seeker club, which was renamed the 'Asgard Club for Seekers' in honour of the fallen teacher.

Unfortunately one of the main objectives of the club (to train the Gryffindor Seeker) was not going well, as Lawrence showed no real signs of improvement. Lily, however, was steadily improving, and it wouldn't be long before she would be ready to try out for the position in the house team. The Gryffindor team themselves had just about forgiven Lily by this point and they started to eagerly support her training.

All the Quidditch training seemed to help improve the moods of some of the students, although for many of them it was still dark times. What was needed was a morale booster and the teachers held a conference to decide the best course of action. The most popular suggestion, one made by Hermione (although Professor Cortes reckoned it was his idea), was that of a big party on Christmas day, like that of the Yule Ball but on a grander scale, which would include the whole school. The only person to object was Professor Snape, who thought the whole idea was frivolous.

And so the teachers began preparation for the Christmas party, which would be in the Great Hall in the evening, well after Christmas lunch so they all had time to recover from it. The first thing on the agenda was creating the decorations for the Great Hall, and so Hagrid was commissioned to find the best and biggest Christmas tree that he could find. He disappeared into the Forbidden Forest for a couple of hours and when he returned carrying a thirty foot tree with beautiful foliage, the teachers gave him a round of applause. Professor Lal was tasked with decorating the tree and the hall and he did a really excellent job of it. Hermione and a few of the other teachers also helped but none of them were up to Professor Lal's standard. Once finished, the hall looked magnificent.

The next thing on the agenda was sorting out food and drink for the party. This task was left to Hermione, who went down to the kitchens and asked the house elves ever so nicely to prepare some snacks and drinks. The house elves, as usual, were more than happy to comply, although Hermione, with her usual concern for their welfare, reminded them not to wear themselves out. Most of the ingredients they needed were kept on site, but it was decided that having some butterbeer for the students would be a good idea. Butterbeer was kept in very limited quantities in the castle and so they had to order it in from outside. Although it cost three sickles a bottle wholesale, and there were about a thousand students in the school, it was deemed a worthy enough price.

They also needed music for the party, and since it was a bit short notice to hire a professional act, Professor Cortes (who was an excellent guitar player) decided to see if he could recruit students who could play music to a decent standard. Eventually he managed to get hold of five students, one of which was the Head Girl, Gryffindor Rebecca Stevens, who was a whiz on the piano. The others were - Graham Bones, a Hufflepuff fifth year who played the trumpet; Jacques Weasley, who played the double bass; Sarah Challis (a younger sister of Auror Chris Challis), a fourth year Ravenclaw who played the violin; and Jodie Williams, a third year Slytherin who played the saxophone. They now had a fairly well rounded band and rehearsals began almost immediately.

Almost everything was now set for the biggest party Hogwarts had seen in years.