The Official Confirmation of the Existence of Heliopaths

"The Official Confirmation of the Existence of Heliopaths"

by Paracelsus

"Harry? Harry? Wake up!"

Harry opened his eyes with a gasp. Ron and Hermione were staring down at him with worried expressions. "You'd fallen asleep, mate," Ron told him. "Moaning something awful..."

"Sorry," Harry mumbled, rubbing his eyes. He hadn't gotten much sleep since they'd begun their sixth year at Hogwarts. Ron was perfectly aware of that fact - that was probably why he'd suggested to Hermione that they have a picnic here by the lake. That, and the fact that it was a beautiful day, unseasonably warm and sunny for a Saturday in October. Small wonder he'd kipped off.

"Was your scar bothering you?" Hermione asked anxiously.

"Yeah... well, not exactly..." Harry tried to recall the feelings and images from his dream. They came rushing back to him with sudden clarity - and urgency. "Come on," he said, getting to his feet.

"Wait a minute, what about the food?" Ron asked. Harry didn't answer, but took off at a run along the lake. Hermione and Ron had no choice but to follow.

Around the Hogwarts grounds, other students were taking advantage of the fine day: eating on the grass, lounging together near the gardens, flying over the Quidditch pitch. Harry ignored them all; instead he headed away from Hogwarts. He ran like a man driven by overwhelming need, to witness some event of great import - or perhaps, to prevent it.

After a few minutes he veered away from the lake and towards the Forbidden Forest. Eventually he stopped in a clear area, still well away from the Forest but not visible from Hogwarts castle. Standing at the top of a grassy knoll, he could see the Forest stretching out before and beneath him. Harry looked carefully at the scene, then nodded, the images from his dream falling into place.

"Harry, what is going on?" demanded Hermione in a strained voice, as she and Ron trotted up to Harry. Her breathing was labored, though neither she nor Ron had run as fast as Harry had.

"This is the spot," Harry told them. "In a little while, Hogwarts is going to be attacked, and they'll be coming through this spot."

"Attacked?" Ron said in alarm. "Who'll be coming through here?"

Harry assumed his most serious expression as he looked at them both. "Heliopaths."

There was a moment of silence.

"Oh, honestly Harry!" Hermione exploded. "You frighten us half to death, bring us all this way without a word of explanation, make us abandon our lunch, and now you tell us we're being attacked by figments of Luna's imagination?! If this is a joke, it's not very funny!"

"It's not a joke, Hermione," insisted Harry. "This is what I dreamt."

"Exactly! You had a dream. It's the only way you can see imaginary monsters, isn't it?!"

Harry blew out his breath in exasperation. "You know better than that," he said after a moment. "I can tell the difference between ordinary dreams - and the kind I get from Voldemort."

Ron tried not to wince at the name (he'd gotten better over the summer, but he still couldn't help wincing). Hermione still looked skeptical, but seemed willing to at least listen. Harry waited a moment to be sure he had their attention, then continued, "I dreamt he was happy - the expectant kind of happy, you know? Where something you've planned is about to fall into place, just the way you want it. And I got a picture, a memory I reckon, of him talking to these big tall things. They were hot - so hot that none of his Death Eaters could get close to them... only Voldemort could come up and talk to them. And he's using them in a surprise attack on Hogwarts. Today. Soon."

Hermione's skeptical look didn't change. "I thought you said you've been doing loads better at Occlumency since we returned to school."

"Um... I didn't say that, exactly..."

She blinked, then frowned. "No... you only implied it. What you said was that you'd stopped having these dreams." She turned to Ron, intent on prying the truth from him, but Ron anticipated her.

"He hasn't been dreaming because he hasn't been sleeping long enough to dream," he said, readily enough but with an apologetic glance at Harry. "He wakes up six, eight times a night." Harry glared at Ron for breaking the code of male solidarity, but this wasn't the time to make an issue of it.

Hermione likewise chose to leave the topic for now, but she gave Harry a dark look that promised further discussion later. "Well... if you're right and the school's going to be attacked, shouldn't we be telling someone?" she suggested instead. "Professor Dumbledore, for instance? The other teachers?"

Harry shook his head. "Their response would be the same as yours, I suspect," he replied. "It was only a dream, and there's no such things as heliopaths. And..." He hesitated, then went on in a low flat monotone, "And I've been fooled by dreams from Voldemort before."

It was the first time Harry had referred, however obliquely, to Sirius's death the previous June. The fact that he chose to acknowledge it now was enough to convince his friends that this wasn't a joke on Harry's part.

"So why'd you make us run to this spot?" asked Ron after a pause. "To be an early warning if heliopaths do show up?"

"Exactly. If I'm wrong, we haven't lost anything but our picnic. And if we're right, we'll spot them far enough away from the castle for something to be done to stop them."

Ron nodded. "Right, then. We'll wait here awhile and see if they show." He paused uncertainly. "Uh, Harry, how will we recognize them? I mean, what do they look like?"

"Not really sure, Ron," Harry said, furrowing his brow. "In my dream, they were tall and hot... but that's about all I remember."

"How tall?" pressed Ron. Harry shrugged.

"'Tall and hot'. And from that, you infer the existence of heliopaths," Hermione snorted. "They're a myth, Harry."

"Didn't you once tell Binns that every myth has a basis in fact?"

"You don't think I meant that, do you!?" She glared at Harry for daring to suggest she might be logically inconsistent.

"So how're we going to know if heliopaths show up?" asked Ron in hasty intervention.

"Welllll..." said Harry thoughtfully, "there's only one person at Hogwarts who might be considered an expert on heliopaths..."

"Oh please, you're not suggesting...!" Hermione began.

"Luna. If heliopaths exist, she'll know more about them than we do... if for no other reason than she believed they exist when we didn't."

"But Luna's not here," Ron pointed out.

"Yeah, Ron, I can see that," replied Harry dryly. "One of us will have to go find her." He locked gazes with Hermione as he added, "Someone who can look in the girl's lavatories for her, among other places."

Hermione opened her mouth to argue, then realized that Harry had actually made a valid point. "Fine. All right... though I really don't see how she can help us. Even conceding she believes in heliopaths, that doesn't mean we can trust what she believes about them." She raised a hand to forestall Harry's protest. "I know, I know, she's the best resource we've got."

"Thanks, Hermione," said Harry with a grateful smile. "Come back as soon as you can, okay? You know how lost we are without you..."

Her scowl softened considerably, replaced after a moment by an upraised eyebrow and a not-quite-suppressed smile. "Wait for me here," she ordered them, and left at a jog.

Ron and Harry said nothing until she was out of sight. "Do you really think Loony will be able to tell us anything?" Ron eventually asked. "Anything useful?"

"Luna," Harry corrected him sharply, "will be more useful than anyone else at Hogwarts. No one else even admits heliopaths exist." He turned and surveyed the Forbidden Forest as he spoke.

"Yeah, well... I'm still not sure I do, either," said Ron. "I mean, I'm not questioning your dream or anything, Harry, but... you have to allow it was pretty vague. What you saw might not be Loo - er, Luna's heliopaths; they might be something else big and hot..."

"Oh, I think we can assume they're heliopaths," Harry interrupted, still watching the Forest.

"Why?"

"Take a look." Harry pointed. Ron spun and was struck speechless.

A host of towering, translucent things were walking into view through the Forest. Literally walking into view: one moment there was nothing to be seen, the next moment each creature became visible as it took a slow step towards them. The creatures had to have some sort of magical camouflage, making them undetectable until they came within a certain range... They were hard to see in any case, since their shapes shimmered like the hot air above a candle flame. Almost the only way they could be seen was when they came into contact with a tree, or a log, or anything that could (and did) catch fire. The fire filled them with an inner light, and they could then be seen to be vaguely human in shape, but twice a human's height.

"Uh, Harry," said Ron in a voice that cracked embarrassingly, "I don't think Hermione and Luna are gonna get back in time."

Harry took a moment to answer. "I know, Ron," he said quietly. "That's why I sent her away."

"You... what?"

"Haven't you seen how she's been in pain? And trying to pretend she wasn't?" Harry continued in that same quiet tone. "Didn't you hear her gasping when we ran here today? She still isn't fully recovered from..." He stopped to draw a deep breath, and finished in a tight voice, "...from the fight at the Department of Mysteries."

Ron could hear the words Harry didn't - couldn't - say. The fight that was my fault. That nearly got Hermione killed.

"You don't want her hurt again, any more than I do," Harry added.

"No," said Ron after a moment, "no, I don't reckon I do." He cleared his throat nervously. "So, um... so do you have any idea what the two of us can do? To stop them? Alone, I mean?"

"I do have a plan," said Harry.

"Good," said Ron. He watched nervously as one of the heliopaths took hold of a large fir tree and set it afire - then sucked the flames into its body. "What is it?"

"We hit them with every spell we know and hope one of them works."

Ron blinked. And gaped at Harry in incredulous disbelief. And after a minute found his voice again: "That's it?! You mean that's your plan?!"

"Well... yeah."

The two friends spent another moment staring at one another. Ron finally gave Harry a wide grin. "Brilliant. Let's do it."

*

For the second time since leaving her boys, Hermione was forced to pause and catch her breath. Now that she was alone, she allowed herself to massage the scar on her chest... the scar where Dolohov's curse had entered her body. She wasn't about to admit it to Ron or Harry (especially Harry), but the curse's damage hadn't yet fully healed. It wasn't stopping her - she wouldn't let it stop her! - but it was slowing her down.

"And even after I reach the castle, I still have to find her somehow," she muttered. "Luna Lovegood. Of all the daft notions...!"

All right, given their assumptions it made a certain amount of sense, but it was still daft.

Hermione gathered her strength and began to trot towards Hogwarts again. As she jogged, she tried to logically examine the entire scenario, putting it all into neat organizational boxes in her mind: Harry's dream (had it been a true vision, a Voldemort trap, or just a random dream?), heliopaths (unproven but, she was willing to stipulate, not disproven), being sent to find Luna...

She had to stop again, but not because her wound hurt. A nasty memory had just resurfaced in her mind: the memory of Harry in the Forbidden Forest, preparing to mount an invisible thestral, and arguing that she should stay behind to attract more thestrals. A perfectly logical reason for her to not go to the Department of Mysteries, but it had a strong whiff of Harry's damned saving-people-thing: keeping her out of the fight, for her own good. Like some helpless infant...

She'd refused to stay behind, of course, and the arrival of more thestrals had squelched Harry's argument. End of story... until now...

Hermione had been sent to find Luna, hadn't she? Surely Harry hadn't sent her... to safety? He couldn't still be feeling guilty that she'd been injured in last June's fight, he had no reason - she'd explained that to him often enough. No... Harry wouldn't do that... he'd told her to return as quickly as possible...

Having buried the nasty memory and the nastier suspicion, she refocused on the task at hand. Harry had sent her to find Luna, the closest they had to a resident heliopath expert. In which case, it was vital to bring her back to the clearing as quickly as possible.

And if Hermione could do that without actually searching the school grounds for her, so much the better...

She reached into her pocket and drew out her fake Galleon. She'd given similar Galleons to the D.A. last year, as a means of informing them of their meeting dates. They still bore the Protean Charm she'd put on them then. When Harry altered the lettering on his Galleon, all the other Galleons would change to match it.

But since she'd been the one to cast the Protean Charm, she could do the same trick with her own Galleon.

Drawing her wand, Hermione tapped the Galleon's edges. There wasn't enough room for a detailed message, so she had to consider carefully just what to write. After a moment's thought, she scribed the words LUNA URGENT FRONT DOOR. She tapped the coin one last time and felt it grow warm in her hand - as all the other Galleons would.

Now, if Luna still carried her own Galleon, and if she could interpret the message rightly, and if she wasn't off in Cloud-Cuckoo-Land as usual, then she'd be waiting for Hermione at Hogwarts's doors. Hermione smiled in satisfaction and, pocketing the Galleon and her wand, made a direct path for the castle.

*

We're making progress, I guess, thought Harry in desperation. We've got a whole list of spells we know won't work against them...

Ron's first idea had been to "fight fire with fire", and had tried using Incendio against the heliopaths. No luck - if anything, they welcomed the spell. Stupefy didn't stupefy; Expelliarmus couldn't take weapons from unarmed beings. Reducto and Impedimenta didn't even slow them down: heliopaths evidently weren't solid, or at least not solid enough for those spells to take hold. It was as thought they were, somehow, simply masses of superheated air given humanoid form...

The only thing in our favor is how slow they move... one step at a time. But nothing stops them, either! Merlin, I'm beginning to feel the heat they generate. We'd better find an answer quick... but how can we fight something we can't touch?

Of course! Harry smiled as the answer popped into his head. Quickly he searched his brain for a happy memory, settling on their first day back at Hogwarts - the day he'd been told his "lifetime" Quidditch ban was lifted. Then he brandished his wand at the nearest heliopath and bellowed, "Expecto Patronum!"

The great silver stag burst from the end of Harry's wand. It sprang for the nearest heliopath and caught it in its antlers. With a toss of its head the stag threw the heliopath back towards its fellows. "Yes!!" cried Harry. Fight fire with fire... or rather, fight energy with energy. A Patronus can affect you monsters, but you can't burn it back!

His exultation was short-lived. The heliopaths didn't like having one of their own thrown at them, not a bit. Their radiant heat rose sharply... they were angry now, it was obvious. And their slow plodding tread had increased in tempo...

"Over there!" Harry called to his Patronus, directing it to the left, where the heliopaths were drawing nearer. Obediently the shining stag wheeled and charged, head lowered. The heliopaths fell before it... but others were now advancing from the right...

"Ron, I think I can keep them penned here for a while longer," Harry said as he motioned again to his Patronus. "You'd better go fetch Dumbledore while there's time... get going, run..."

"Sorry, Harry, can't hear a word you're saying," said Ron. "Locomotor Mortis! Uh... Petrificus Totalus! Damn..."

"You can too hear me, you git!" Harry shouted, then gave up. That was Ron for you... and he couldn't spare any more thought to getting him to safety. He needed all his attention to command the Patronus, the only thing keeping the heliopaths at bay. But the heliopaths were massing, it looked like they were going for a full frontal attack... the foremost heliopath was nearly at the bottom of the knoll, the grass blackening under its feet. And he had only one Patronus...

And, just as if someone had read his mind, he heard two voices behind him cry out together: "Expecto Patronum!"

A shining silver otter leapt through the air and hit the lead heliopath in its "stomach", knocking it flat. Overhead, a silver swan descended on another heliopath, beating it back with its wings. Emboldened, Harry's stag went for the nearest cluster of the creatures. Harry spared a half-second to look behind him, and his eyes widened in astonishment.

Cho and Ginny, mounted on their broomsticks, were descending to the knoll behind Harry. Each carried a passenger: Luna rode behind Ginny, and incredibly, Hermione rode behind Cho. Both Hermione and Cho wore stony expressions, but their wands were already out and guiding their Patronuses.

Harry turned his eyes back to the heliopaths. He couldn't afford to be distracted, he had to accept the situation and adapt. "Keep them at a distance, and keep them corralled if you can!" he commanded, and in his peripheral vision he could see Hermione and Cho take their stations on either side of him. "Maybe we can drive them into the lake... I'll bet they don't like water..."

"No!" Ron shouted urgently. "If they reach the lakeshore, they've got a clear path straight to Hogwarts castle. At least here, we've got the advantage of position."

Trust the chess player to see that, thought Harry. "Luna, is there any other spell we can use against them?" he yelled.

"Oh yes," Luna replied, perfectly calm, as though they were back in the Great Hall discussing the next Hogsmeade weekend. "When Fudge assembled his army, he used the Flame Freezing Charm to control them." Harry concentrated on directing his Patronus to another cluster of the creatures, but behind him he could hear Luna instructing Ron and Ginny on the correct use of the Charm.

"Let's try it, shall we?" said Luna at last, still in that maddeningly offhand tone. "Gelidus!"

The nearest heliopath halted, standing motionless for a moment. Then it gave a roar - not a lion's roar, but a roar like a distant forest fire - and began to tramp angrily up the knoll. Clearly, the Flame Freezing Charm had hurt it, but only stopped it for a second. Not nearly long enough...

"Try it with me, Ronald," Luna said. "Together. Ready? On the count of three... one, two..."

"Gelidus!" Ron and Luna cried together. This time the heliopath stopped in its tracks; it was no longer shimmering and translucent, but a cloudy white.

"Everyone work in pairs!" Ginny called out. "Pick a heliopath and use Gelidus together!"

'Everyone'? 'Pairs'? Harry spared another glance behind him. In amazement he saw Neville, Lavender, Seamus, Parvati and Padma, Ernie, others coming up behind them... Harry turned back to the heliopaths with a surge of confidence. Dumbledore's Army had arrived.

The frozen heliopath was already thawing itself, its own internal heat overpowering the Freezing Charm. It gave a roar even more enraged than before... before it was struck again with a joint Gelidus from Ginny and Neville. More and more of the heliopaths were being targeted now, and the main host was milling in angry confusion.

"Keep them budged together," Harry said as he repositioned his Patronus to stand between the heliopaths and the lake. "The closer together, the easier targets they are..."

"How long do we have to hold them, Potter?" asked Cho as she directed her swan.

"As long as it takes," Harry replied. "Hermione, is there anyone back there we can send to fetch some teachers?"

"We shouldn't have to send anyone," said Hermione. "I've already sent a message to the teachers, I sent it when I found Luna. But I don't know what's taking them so long...!" She stopped and said in a low voice, "Oh dear, I should have expected that."

It took Harry a moment to see what she meant. When the heliopaths stood closer together, they burned hotter. The effects of the Flame Freezing Charms weren't lasting as long... and the heliopaths seemed to realize this. They began to advance towards the knoll en masse, clustered together compactly, burning fiercely hot.

"Fall back," Hermione called behind her, and the D.A. began to give way. Harry stood his ground, gesturing to the silver stag to stand between the heliopathic host and the knoll. Within moments, the otter and the swan had joined it. Harry looked quickly left and right - Cho and Hermione were still by his sides.

"You heard her - fall back," repeated Harry.

"When you do," said Cho curtly.

"I'm staying to play rear-guard," Harry shot out.

"Right. And we're staying to guard your rear," Hermione retorted.

The heliopathic host was close enough now that Harry could feel his skin drying, like the beginnings of sunburn. The lower hillside was brown with scorched grass, and the very air was being robbed of oxygen. Harry lowered his head in determination; below him the shining stag did likewise. The foremost heliopath came within striking distance of the Patronuses, hesitated, and reached out...

"GELIDUS TOTALUS!!"

It was a high-pitched bellow from behind Harry, and its effect was immediate. A wave of cold hit Harry like a slap in the chest - the air temperature plummeted, so that in seconds Harry's breath was visible before his face. The mob of heliopaths stood petrified and solid, their outlines for once distinct, their bodies a solid icy white. Harry looked behind him in awe.

Professor Flitwick stood on a stump near the top of the hill, his arm outstretched and his wand aimed at the heliopaths. Gone was his usual cheerful expression: he looked dark and menacing, as though angered that any invaders would dare threaten his pupils. For one moment, he was no longer the mild-spoken diminutive Charms professor... for this one moment, Harry could well believe that Flitwick had been a dueling champion in days gone by.

Behind Flitwick stood Professor Dumbledore, his eyes projecting power, as fearsome as Harry had ever seen him. He raised his wand and pointed it, not towards the heliopaths, but high into the air. Harry followed where Dumbledore was pointing, and saw clouds gathering in what had been a cloudless sky. Within seconds, dark stormclouds lowered over the clearing where the heliopaths stood frozen. "Levinbrond!" rumbled Dumbledore.

And the heavens obeyed. Lightning erupted out of the clouds, bolt after bolt in rapid succession, to strike at the heliopaths and blast them to flinders. Their thunder echoed throughout the Forbidden Forest; the sound of the heliopaths exploding added to the din. Harry was forced to shield his eyes and turn his head from the dazzling discharges.

Finally, the sound of thunder fell quiet, and he looked back. All the heliopaths were gone but two, lying on the ground and still frozen solid. The three Patronuses gazed back at Harry, Hermione and Cho, then simultaneously dissolved in a swirl of silver mist.

Behind him, Dumbledore lowered his wand with a satisfied air as the stormclouds began to disperse. "Top that, Shazam," he said smugly before striding forward. "Is everyone unharmed?" he inquired in a louder voice.

There was a general murmur of assurance. "We came as soon as we received your message, Miss Granger," the Headmaster continued. "Unfortunately, part of the enchantment surrounding the heliopaths made it difficult for us to know exactly where to come. We were forced to split into teams... Professors Snape and McGonagall must be on the other side of the lake by now."

"Thank you, Professor," said Harry. "I wasn't sure you'd come, since, uh..."

"Given the nature of the threat - and your premonition of it?" Dumbledore smiled gently. "I take your dreams most seriously, Harry, even when they may seem preposterous. And in this case, I'm glad to be proven wrong." He turned to the assembled students and beamed at them. "I think... yes, I believe that Special Awards for Services to the School are called for. Collectively for you all."

"Wow... thanks, Professor," said Ron. Fleetingly he wondered whether any student had ever before received two Special Awards, or whether he was the first. Well, he and Harry.

"I just wish I could guarantee," continued Dumbledore more solemnly, "that this will be the last occasion where such services will be necessary." He sighed, momentarily weary. "Enjoy the brief interludes of peace while you can, my children. The time will come soon enough when you'll be an Army in fact as well as in name."

The Patil twins exchanged a worried glance; Ernie and Lavender looked daunted. Then Dumbledore brightened. "In the meantime," he told them, "would you care to help us inspect our prizes? I left two of them intact, Filius ... I feel certain the magizoologists from the Ministry will be fascinated by them."

Most of the D.A. were more interested in returning to the castle to spread the news of what they'd done. Luna, Ron, Ginny and Neville decided to remain, and they walked down the hill with Flitwick and Dumbledore. Harry was about to join them when he noticed that Hermione and Cho were missing. Anxiously he looked around, and spotted them standing some distance away, engaged in a private - very private - discussion. Even Harry, not the most perceptive of people, could feel the edged emotion crackling between the two witches.

After facing an army of hostile fire-monsters, acting as mediator between Cho and Hermione ought to have been simplicity itself. Nonetheless, as Harry moved towards them, he almost felt he preferred the heliopaths.

Hermione and Cho stopped talking as Harry approached. Though they hadn't raised their voices, the tension between them was obvious in their postures: one with arms akimbo, hands on waist, and the other with arms folded in front of her. They turned unblinking stares on Harry, who had to steel himself before saying, "Um, am I... interrupting anything?"

"No," they said, shortly and in unison.

"Oh, good. And you're both all right?" Unsmiling nods from the two. Harry cleared his throat and tried again. "Well, I just wanted to... to thank you both for, well... for showing up. It was lucky you both came when you did - I mean, I reckon we're the only three at Hogwarts who can conjure corporeal Patronuses..."

"Actually," replied Cho coolly, "what was lucky was that I saw Granger while I was flying over the Quidditch pitch earlier. I caught up with her just as she met Lovegood..."

"And when she understood the situation," put in Hermione, "she volunteered straight away. It was especially good of her to give me a ride on her broom - I wasn't expecting that. It would've taken much longer to get back here otherwise. Thank you again."

Cho waved it away. "Don't thank me. I volunteered to fight You-Know-Who when I joined the D.A. last year. And wasn't that what the D.A. was about, anyway? Training us for fights like this?" Her eyes met Harry's as she continued, "Despite everything that's happened since then, I still think you're still our best hope of defeating Him... and I'll follow you into battle whenever you call. You, or your... lieutenants." Cho kept her gaze firmly on Harry as she said this.

'Lieutenants.' Odd choice of words, that. But then, it was a strange moment for all of them... this was the first conversation Harry'd had with Cho since returning to school. "Awkward" didn't begin to describe it.

"Well," said Hermione, trying to fill in the pause in the conversation with an attempt at brightness, "shall we join the others, then? I'd like to take a closer look at the heliopath bodies..."

"I think I'll head back to the school, thanks," said Cho, still not taking her gaze from Harry. Harry met her gaze and gave her a formal half-bow... of gratitude and acknowledgement, and something he couldn't define. At that, Cho gave a small smile for the first time. "See you around, Harry," she said. "Oh, and Granger? I don't think I'm under any misapprehensions at all."

Harry watched her mount her broom and fly off. After a moment, he and Hermione began to walk to where the heliopaths lay. "'Misapprehensions'?"

"Cho and I were having a discussion," explained Hermione, a touch of pink in her cheeks. "I was explaining some things to her..."

"About the D.A.?"

"About last year, yes. I was trying to explain that she might have been labouring under a... a misapprehension, and I wanted to set things straight."

"Ah, I see," said Harry, not seeing in the least. "Well, um... it sounded like you two were agreeing to disagree, as they say..."

"Yes, well, if she can't accept the obvious truth, I refuse to beat my head against a brick wall." Hermione seemed to consider a moment before she continued, "Why don't you talk to Cho about coming back to the D.A. this year? We just saw how much of an asset she'd be... and I'm sure she'd return if you were the one to ask her."

Privately, Harry felt no desire to ask Cho for anything... but Hermione usually had her reasons. "We'll see," he said noncommittally, as they joined Dumbledore, Flitwick, and their friends. Flitwick was kneeling by one of the frozen heliopaths, examining it with interest.

"I've never seen creatures like these before," said Dumbledore. "I can only begin to speculate about their origins. You are to be congratulated, Miss Lovegood... your staunch faith has been vindicated."

"Um, yes," said Hermione with an embarrassed cough. "I was... um... wrong, Luna. Heliopaths do exist."

"Yes," agreed Luna mournfully. At her tone, everyone turned to look at her quizzically. Luna sighed and elaborated, "It's a challenge to believe in something when there's no proof to support it. Having proof is nice, but it removes the challenge. Anybody can believe when there's proof."

"You'd be surprised, my dear," Flitwick consoled her, looking up at her with a comforting smile. His gaze flicked to Hermione, and Harry could've sworn he saw the tiny Professor give her a wink.

As for himself, Harry wasn't concerned with this latest magizoological discovery. His thoughts were fixed on what Dumbledore had said earlier. We're less than two months into the school year - it isn't even Hallowe'en - and already we've been attacked. Is this going to be the way the rest of the year will go? Voldemort sending army after army of magical monsters against Hogwarts?

Of course he will, Harry answered himself. What's he got to lose? We can't strike back at him... each attack will weaken us a bit more. And we have to beat back every attack, every time.

While he only has to be lucky once.