Harry Potter and the Amulet of the Moon

Chapter 4

The Test

Breakfast went off without incident. George kept to his usual friends, Lee and Angelina, and didn't come in contact with Ron or Harry. Ron continued to sit next to Hermione, explaining that he simply found he preferred sitting next to her. Harry had no objection, but found that Cho now took the previously empty seat to Harry's right. He saw no obvious evidence of what Luna had talked about; Cho was friendly, but in no way that seemed inappropriate. Harry assumed that part of the reason was that Cho, unlike most people there, didn't have anyone from her usual crowd of friends at Hogwarts. He wondered if that would make living among them more difficult for her. He resolved to be friendly to her, but definitely not do anything to give an impression he didn't want her having.

As they were finishing, he remembered something he needed to mention. "As you know, yesterday Kingsley and Hestia flew to Australia to set up the Portkey. It's near the beach; I'll show you all where it is later.

"I suppose you don't need to be told, but I will anyway, that using this Portkey is an extremely grave matter," he continued. It flashed through his mind that he'd never used the word 'grave' before; he had picked it up from the portraits, who tended to use it quite often. "Off the island, even though Australia is far from England, the chances of endangering the timeline greatly increase. It's only to be used to save lives. I can't emphasize that strongly enough."

"What's the procedure that'll be followed if someone's seriously injured?" asked Hermione.

"Kingsley brought an artifact, one that keeps a person in suspended animation for about ten days. The first priority would be to get them into that, then turn it off long enough for Cho to get whatever information she needed to say what should be done next. If she thinks it's dire, and there's nothing she can do, then we use the Portkey. But even though I want everyone to know where it is, I don't expect anyone to have to use it." There was some quiet nodding, but no comments or questions.

Kingsley would conduct most of today's sessions; he had told Harry he wanted to emphasize early on some spells that he thought were important for Aurors but not taught at Hogwarts. "Today, the first thing we're going to work on is the Propulsion spell." As he spoke, Fawkes suddenly swooped out from behind some trees, and flew over them. Harry was a little surprised; Fawkes had spent time with him in his tent, but so far hadn't joined them on the field.

"Cool!" exclaimed Justin.

"Why is he here?" Ernie asked Harry, who shrugged.

"Maybe he's here to challenge Harry to a game of chess," cracked George. Harry didn't know exactly how much disrespect George intended, but couldn't help but chuckle at the thought. He saw several heads swivel to look at George, whom they clearly thought had spoken out of turn. Harry turned to look at Ron, who rolled his eyes, communicating 'just ignore him' to Harry without words.

"He's beautiful," remarked Angelina.

Harry glanced at Kingsley, who seemed a little annoyed. Harry stepped forward and turned to face the others. "Let's give Kingsley our attention, okay?"

There were no further comments; Kingsley gave Harry a wry 'thank you' expression. "Propulsion is, as it sounds like, a spell that propels something away from you." He reached into his robes and produced an apple, then held it up in his palm. Pointing his wand at it, he caused it to fly about twenty feet away, where it hit the ground. "Basically, it's the opposite of Summoning."

"Why don't they teach this at Hogwarts?" asked Padma.

"Good question," agreed Kingsley. "I think they should. The answer, I think, is that while it's relatively 'cool,' it doesn't have too many applications in daily life. It has considerably more value for Aurors, however."

"What's the range?" asked Lee. Kingsley responded by Summoning the apple, setting it up again, and pointing his wand at it. This time, it shot straight ahead a meter and a half off the ground, much faster than the last time, going between Harry and Ron. As it approached the nearest trees, Kingsley pointed his wand up, and the apple suddenly shot upward, clearing the trees. They could see it pass the trees and the beach, and finally splash in the water, perhaps a half a mile away. A few people started applauding; humorously, Harry joined them.

"Very nice," marveled Angelina.

"You wasted an apple!" joked Lee. Kingsley pointed his wand again, and after a few seconds, the apple came sailing back into view; it flew to Lee, where it hung in the air, a few drops of water falling off of it. "Help yourself," offered Kingsley. With a grin, Lee said, "Thanks for washing it for me," and took a bite.

"You're quite welcome," responded Kingsley. "Now, this can serve as a distraction when fighting an enemy; you can shoot things at him. Of course, he can shoot them back at you, so be careful what you use. There are pellets we sometimes use, things that explode in midair, and you use this spell to send them on their way. We'll be going into that later; for now, let's just get the spell down."

"Can this be used on people?" wondered Corner.

"Stay away from Michael, everybody," joked Justin.

"It can, though of course it would be considered an assault, like most spells you do on anyone unwilling," answered Kingsley. "In fact, this spell is the basis for the spell that allowed Voldemort to fly."

A few people exchanged surprised glances; clearly, not everyone knew about that. "How was it the basis for that?" asked Harry. "How did that work?"

"The tricky part," explained Kingsley, "was the way in which he directed the spell, so that it kind of curved around and hit himself in the back. It was as though he was constantly propelling himself forward, often at very high speed."

"Faster than a Firebolt, anyway," muttered Harry.

"Exactly. Now, most people, including Aurors, don't try to do that. Not so much because it's difficult, which it is, but because it's not so necessary. And it requires a great deal of magical power. So, I don't recommend that anyone think about it in compensation for not being able to Apparate."

"Why would we not be able to Apparate?" asked Dean.

Damn it, thought Harry. "Sorry, that's my fault," he said to Kingsley. Stepping forward again to speak to the group, he said, "This is something I forgot to add, that I was going to tell you before we left. I don't want anyone Apparating on the island. Consider this an Apparition-free zone."

"Why?" asked Ernie.

"First of all, the island is pretty small, no more than three miles in any direction," said Harry. "But the main reason is that I don't want people to get in the habit of Apparating around all the time. Aurors need to be in good physical condition, so the least we can do is get around on our own feet."

"Because Merlin knows, we wouldn't want things to be too convenient," said George sarcastically. Surprised, Harry decided to ignore this, but had the sudden thought that perhaps Kingsley's concerns about George had been justified. This was a problem, he realized, that he would have to deal with at some point.

"Are there any exceptions to this no-Apparating thing?" asked Dean.

"Luna, Cho, and Kingsley are exempt," said Harry. "They aren't Aurors, and I'm not going to take it upon myself to tell them what kind of physical condition they should be in. Kingsley has said he doesn't plan to, though. The only exception I can think of would be a health or injury-related one. Of course, if someone's in very bad condition or injured, they shouldn't try to Apparate; it's better if--if someone's with them--that person does the Apparating, back to camp to get Cho and whoever else, so they can then Apparate to that spot."

No one else made any comment, and they got back to working on the Propulsion spell. Harry wasn't familiar with it, but found that he picked it up very quickly, faster than anyone else in the group, and was using it to greater effect. He couldn't help but wonder if this was another result of the Auror Leader test; did it somehow confer an ability to learn spells quickly? He felt mildly annoyed as he realized that he would never be completely sure of such things in the future. Maybe when he got back, he would ask the portraits for a complete list.

* * * * *

The next few weeks went by fairly smoothly, as Harry and the Auror trainees slowly got used to their routines. The food preparation improved, to the point where they stopped using the miniaturized food entirely, and Luna and Cho had learned to bake bread, courtesy of one of the books Hermione had suggested taking along.

The main problem, the only problem, continued to be George's attitude. George had avoided Harry and Ron since the chess game incident, and he continued to make wisecracks during training. Individually, each was defensible as a joke, but taken together, they reflected an attitude that suggested to Harry that he'd made a serious misjudgment in asking George to come with them. He'd simply assumed that George would act as an adult, and no other trainee had let him down on this front; all took their duties seriously, looking to the future as defenders of society.

The last straw, for Harry, came when just after an afternoon practice a group of trainees were talking about the notion of patrolling the shops in Diagon Alley. Corner said that he was sure that there were many shop owners who would be willing to pay Aurors bribes to spend more time near their shops than they otherwise would. Harry felt that Corner's tone was responsible, noting it as a fact, not anything to be pleased with. George's response was a flippant "Clearly, there's good money to be made as an unethical Auror." Bad as the content was, what was worse to Harry was the casual tone, as though there was nothing particularly wrong with being an unethical Auror. Considering that it was unethical Aurors that had caused Kingsley to feel it necessary to make Harry take the Auror Leader test, Harry was especially sensitive to the notion.

He waited for several minutes so it wouldn't appear that he was responding to that particular comment, then approached the group and asked George to come with him. He'd prepared himself for the notion that George would challenge him to talk about it in front of others, or refuse to come, but George simply stood and followed Harry to his tent.

Harry motioned George to sit, and they both did. "George, it seems to me that you don't really want to be here. Do you think that's true?"

"Why do you say that?" asked George, trying for a reasonable tone.

With a light sigh, Harry answered, "I think you know. It's your attitude, the comments you make--"

Interrupting Harry, George immediately turned sarcastic. "I'm sorry, Harry, I hid from you my irreverent nature. You had a right to know that I'm the sort that likes to break the tension with humor."

Again, Harry sighed without noticing it. "The humor is different than it was. It used to be silly, funny, and sometimes cutting, but usually at teachers. You didn't want to be at Hogwarts, and you got out when it didn't suit you anymore. Now, your humor is kind of sharper, even though you came here of your own free will. So... why did you come here?"

George's response was immediate. "You asked me to. And by the way, I don't accept your premise about my humor. I don't think you're qualified as a humor critic. Now, I grant you that authority figures tend to be on the receiving end of my humor, as was the case at Hogwarts. I submit that now that you're an authority figure, your view of it is affected by where you sit."

George's answer had angered Harry even before Harry realized why, but the reason quickly came to him. "Yes, you did make comments like that about Snape, Binns, Lockhart, and even ones we liked, like McGonagall, Flitwick, Sprout... but never Dumbledore. Your jokes were in sympathy with him, never pointed at him, and he was the biggest authority figure at the school."

"His actions, his manner, everything about him merited respect," argued George. "Sorry, Harry, but you're not Dumbledore."

"And I haven't done anything that merits respect," countered Harry. George stared, saying nothing. "Look, George, I would never say I was anything like Dumbledore. I would love to be, someday. I know I'm incredibly young to be in this kind of position of authority, and you know better than most that I didn't ask for it or want it. But I'm stuck with it, and I asked you here because I wanted your help. You're one of the five people--Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny, and you--that I didn't quiz about their reasons for joining, that I simply asked for help and hoped that their loyalty to the values we all believe in would make them want to help me in this extremely difficult job I now have. Right now, all I'm asking of you is that you not do things that make my life more difficult. Is that something you think you can do?"

Harry could see he had affected George by reminding him of what he, Harry, had done in the past. He wasn't fond of bringing up such things, but it did seem appropriate right then. George paused before answering. "I think you're overreacting to the things I say, and I really do think you might have thought about it more carefully before asking me, knowing how I am. This is me, Harry, this isn't something I can turn on and off like that. You might as well ask Hermione to stop showing off how much she knows, or ask Ron to stop being so competitive. Now, having said that, I'll admit that I might have thought about it more carefully as well. I may have overestimated my ability to fit into an authority-driven structure; there's a reason that Fred and I went into business for ourselves. Something about being your own boss. So, why don't we do this: I'll take the Portkey, and stay in Australia for the year. Give me--"

Harry's jaw dropped. "George, you can't be serious! You know I can't do that."

"Give me a tent," George continued, raising his voice a little over the interruption, "and a year's worth of the miniaturized food; I'll pay Kingsley back when the year is up. I'll do the anti-detection spells that you three did, stay out of everyone's way."

The last sentence set off alarm bells in Harry's head, prompted by his ability to detect lies. The last sentence wasn't a lie, but Harry detected strong equivocation; George was clearly far from sure that that was exactly what he was going to do. Horror filled Harry as it dawned on him what George was contemplating. Eyes wide, he gasped, "You're thinking of trying to save Fred."

George rolled his eyes. "Well, now I am, now that you've said it. But just because you say it doesn't mean I'm going to do it."

More equivocation, thought Harry. "Are you saying that if you went to Australia, you absolutely, positively wouldn't seriously consider going back to try to save him?"

"Well, the more you talk about it--"

Harry was fast losing his patience with George's evasions. "Answer me!" he demanded.

"I don't see why I should--"

"Because I'm the one whose decision it'd be to let you go or not!"

"So now, I'm a prisoner--"

Harry decided to try to draw it out more directly. "I have a Time-Turner, I have the ability to go back and save my parents, who died saving me. Do you see me doing that? Do you think I'm going to?"

"They may be your parents, but you didn't know them! I knew Fred, we spent every day together. It's a loss that you can't understand!"

"That makes it worth risking catastrophe--"

"You've taken risks for your friends before!"

They fell silent as it dawned on both of them that George had as much as admitted that he had a desire to do it, and had given it serious thought. Harry put his head in his hands, unable to believe what he'd heard.

"I can't let you go, George," he said heavily. "I don't want you to feel like you're a prisoner here, but I just can't do it. Let's... let's give it a couple of days, both think about it, and then we'll decide what to do from here on out."

George stared at him. "But you're saying that whatever I promise, going to Australia isn't an option."

Harry stared back. "No. It isn't." Wordlessly, George quickly stood and left.

Full of tension and adrenaline, Harry walked over to the bed and lay down. How can he even be thinking about this, wondered Harry. He knows what's involved. This was now a crisis... he would have to get Kingsley's advice, and Ron and Hermione's, maybe talk to Lee and Angelina to see if they could have some influence over him... He wondered if this would be his life from now on, reeling from one crisis to the next. Shaking his head, he got up to go outside. He would start talking to people after dinner.

He was only a few steps away from his tent when Ron and Hermione walked towards him, intercepting him. Ron gestured him to walk a few steps away, presumably so they couldn't be overheard. "Were you just talking to George?"

"Yeah, why?"

"You don't look like you had a good conversation," observed Hermione. Harry rolled his eyes.

"I just passed him a few minutes ago," said Ron. "I made some general comment, and he just said, 'bugger off,' pretty angry. I was like, what did I do?"

"It wasn't you, it was me," Harry told him. "But it's not something I want to talk about out here. An hour or two after dinner, okay?"

They nodded, and the three walked back to the main eating area. People were learning to conjure, and a half-dozen people sat or lounged on various odd-looking creations. Harry veered over to the 'kitchen' area, as he had come to think of the place where Luna and Cho got the food together. He tried to come by once every day or two, so they wouldn't think he'd forgotten about them, or didn't appreciate their efforts.

"How are you two doing?" asked Harry.

"Good, just fine," said Cho cheerily. "I never thought about having this kind of career, but there are interesting aspects to it."

Harry wondered if she was complaining. "You know, Cho, I did represent this to you as more of a health thing. If you'd rather spend less time doing this--"

"No, it's fine, it's fine," she assured him. To Harry's surprise, his lie detection ability kicked in, telling him that she would in fact rather spend less time doing what she was doing. He suspected that she was lying because she didn't want to be seen, in front of Luna, as requesting not to have to prepare food. She had brought plenty of medical books, as he'd promised her she'd have a lot of time to study them, which would be advantageous for her Healer training. He would talk to her privately later, then he would talk to Luna, to see how much of the burden of food preparation she felt able to take on.

He looked down at the counter and saw a dozen large potatoes, including one that was enormous, almost half the size of a human head, and oddly shaped, a little like a human in the fetal position. "Good Lord, is that a potato?"

"Oh, yes," said Luna calmly. "This seems to have grown naturally, but you can get them to grow like this, or even bigger. My father grew fruit and vegetables like that occasionally."

Cho turned to look at Harry. "What does that mean, 'Good Lord'?"

"It's a Muggle expression," said Harry. "We use it when we're really surprised by something."

"Ah," said Luna. "So then, can we say, 'Good Lord, you wanted to make Draco Malfoy an Auror?"

There was a burst of loud laughter nearby; Harry turned to see that it had come from Justin, standing not far away, talking to Ernie and Terry. "Doesn't sound quite right, does it?" grinned Justin.

"No, it doesn't," agreed Harry. "Surprised, but I guess, not in every case. Depends on the situation."

"Would that be like, 'Merlin,' or 'oh, Merlin?'" wondered Justin.

"Maybe," agreed Harry. "But I could never get used to saying the 'Merlin' things. It just sounded stupid to me."

"You know," remarked Terry, "I read a book that suggested that Merlin was a big old fraud."

"Really?" said Harry.

Hermione now joined the conversation; Harry noticed that it seemed to be getting crowded around the food preparation area. "Do you mean, 'Merlin, Man or Myth?'"

Terry shook his head. "It was, 'The Great Deceiver.'"

"Oh, yes, that's mentioned in a footnote in the one I read," nodded Hermione. "But they don't have it in the Hogwarts library!"

Harry leaned over to Justin and commented, "I love how Hermione reads footnotes."

Justin grinned. "We always thought she should have been a Ravenclaw."

Terry and Hermione appeared to take no notice. "There's an old copy in the Ravenclaw common room library."

Hermione seemed frustrated. "It always seemed so unfair that Ravenclaw got that library. Why not just keep all the books in the main library, so everyone can read them if they want?"

"Because nobody else cared," said Justin quietly; Harry suppressed a chuckle.

"Because," countered Terry with a feigned air of superiority, "they were rare books donated to that library through the years by former Ravenclaws for the express purpose of being in that library."

Hermione scoffed. "Just so you can feel superior to everyone else."

"Okay, you have to move this conversation to the table," announced Cho loudly. "Food's almost ready, we need space."

As they started moving, Ron said, "Yeah, it always used to tick me off that Ravenclaw had all those rare books!"

Hermione gave him a disdainful look. "Why?" asked Justin, as if Ron were serious.

"Because then we had to listen to Hermione complain about how Ravenclaw had all these great books," responded Ron, with a grin at Hermione.

"Don't joke with Hermione about books, Ron," advised Terry humorously. "For her, and for Ravenclaws, it's serious. But Hermione, it's not to feel superior--I know you were joking, at least I hope--but it's to remind us that books are precious, that the knowledge of a lifetime might be in each one, and the loss of one--I mean, if all copies are lost--can be a great loss for everyone. There was a powerful spell on all the books--"

"That didn't allow them to leave the common room, I know," said Hermione sadly.

"We couldn't even take them to our dormitories," said Terry. "If we did, they would disappear to their place on the shelf, and we couldn't pick them up for another day. It was pretty strict."

Everyone started sitting at the table as the conversation continued. "I have to admit," said Harry, "that now that I'm Auror Leader, and there are lots of things I need to know, I'm starting to appreciate the value of books more. And I also heard that thing about Merlin. I told you in that quest, I had to learn enough to beat a really good duelist. He said he was a contemporary of Merlin's, and that Merlin was a huge self-promoter."

"What was his name?" asked Hermione, very interested.

"He wouldn't tell me," said Harry. "All I know is that he was tall, maybe six-three, with a goatee, unfriendly, and arrogant. Oh, yes, and he could read minds."

"Wilfred Landon!" exclaimed Terry and Hermione in unison. Harry had to laugh, as did Justin, Ron, and a few others.

"That's so cool, that you met him," said Terry excitedly. "What did he tell you?"

Harry told them as much as he could remember, then added, "He didn't go into it that much, though. He wasn't much for chatting. It was pretty tough; I had to beat him even though he could read my mind."

Terry whistled, impressed. "How do you beat someone who knows what you're going to do?"

Harry's attention was momentarily diverted by a spell passing in front of him, one that he was sure only he could see. Glancing over, he saw that it had come from Kingsley, sitting three seats away. He guessed it was a Propulsion spell, to drive away an insect. People had been using the spell a lot for that purpose.

Returning his attention to Terry, he said, "Partly by making your shot so good that he can't beat it even though he knows it's coming. But also by not planning your shot in advance, just doing it spontaneously. I learned that doing that minimized his advantage."

Plates of food started arriving, as they always did, by being levitated over by Cho or Luna. Harry Summoned some mashed potatoes to his plate, then a couple of pieces of chicken. "Do you think Merlin really was a fraud?" asked Corner.

Harry shrugged. "I have no way of knowing. I am pretty sure that this guy thought so. He was really annoyed at me for wondering whether what he said was true; he seemed really indignant. So, if he's right, then yes."

"Guess it helps to write your own legend," observed Ernie.

"So, who'll be writing your legend, Harry?" asked George from across the table. It took an effort of will for Harry not to react with annoyance. Yes, he thought, I can look forward to George tweaking me for the next who knows how long.

He managed to remain outwardly unaffected. "With my luck, probably Rita Skeeter."

"Stay on her good side, it might be a terrific legend," said Terry. "I've heard that if she likes you, she makes you look really good. You could be the next Merlin."

Ron chuckled. "Just what Harry wants," he said sympathetically.

Glancing down at his food, Harry saw a sudden change: what appeared to be a small ball of magic, no bigger than a sunflower seed kernel, flew over and embedded itself in his mashed potatoes. Glancing over, he saw Kingsley's hand move away from his wand, which was now resting on the table. Clearly, it had come from Kingsley. What was it?

Pretending nothing had happened while he worked it out, he Summoned some broccoli to his plate. "I think Harry's already being seen as the next Merlin," commented Seamus.

"Who knows, maybe people will think I was a big old fraud," said Harry, hoping the topic would move on from his legend. He still had to struggle to keep his annoyance with George under wraps.

"If Skeeter writes about you, they will," said Hermione. With smug satisfaction, she added, "But she won't, if she knows what's good for her."

Harry suddenly realized, as he took a bite of chicken, what Kingsley had done. He put something in my food; the only purpose could be to have a physical effect, to knock me out. Why? He wants to do that test, the one where we leave everyone alone. I didn't want to do this one, and this is his way of doing it. I don't have to take responsibility, since he knocked me out, and he doesn't know I know, since he doesn't know I can see spells. He took a bite from the potatoes, but avoiding the part with the magical ball. He wanted to think about it for a minute or two.

"What do you mean, 'if she knows what's good for her?" asked Parvati.

Hermione hesitated. "This is something that has to stay within the Aurors, but it's good if everyone knows..." As Hermione told the story, Harry continued working on his food, making his decision. He had to admit there was a reasonable point to the test, and this way, if the trainees were angry at being tested like that, they would be angry at Kingsley, not him. He decided, and as Hermione finished her story, Harry took the last bite of his potatoes.

As if on cue, Hestia, who was sitting next to Cho, stood. "Cho, would you come over here? There's something I need to ask you about." Still in the middle of her meal, a surprised Cho nodded, and walked away with Hestia. Harry immediately understood: if he fell ill, Cho would naturally be right there to check him, which Kingsley didn't want. Hestia's job was to distract Cho.

Wondering when the symptoms would start to hit, he suddenly realized they already had. Reaching over for a glass of water, his hand faltered, falling to the table just short of its goal. He lurched to his left, fell into the lap of a surprised Hermione, and the lights went out.

"Harry! What's wrong?" gasped Hermione.

Kingsley was up in a flash. "It's okay, I've got him," he said, reaching in under Harry's arms with both hands to pull him out of his seat. Holding Harry with his left arm, wand in his right hand, he Disapparated. Both Kingsley and Harry were gone.

Shocked, Ron and Hermione leaped to their feet. "Kingsley!" Ron shouted.

Cho came running over. "What happened?"

Everyone was now standing and looking around. "Harry fainted," said Neville. "Kingsley grabbed him, and Disapparated them both away."

"What?" exclaimed Cho, shocked. She whirled around. "Hestia? Did anyone see Hestia?"

"Hermione," said Ron, "Do that locator spell. First, Harry."

She took out her wand, moving it in a 360-degree pattern. "Harry's not on the island," she reported. Ron's eyes went wide. "Kingsley isn't, either. Nor is Hestia. They're all gone."

"Where could they have gone?" asked Ginny.

"Australia," said Hermione and Ron, almost as one. "Cho," asked Hermione, "did Harry have any medical condition that you were aware of?"

"No," she answered. Somewhat indignantly, she added, "And why did Kingsley just Apparate him away as soon as he fainted? That's supposed to be the whole reason I'm here!"

"It's a test," said Neville firmly. "It has to be. It's the only thing that makes sense."

"Maybe," suggested Padma, "it was some weird thing that Kingsley recognized, some medical emergency, and he knew there was no time to lose. Apparate to the Portkey, take it, get him to the hospital in Australia."

Hermione looked doubtful. "Not impossible, but it stretches credulity. I think Neville's right."

"We can do the spell to see if the Portkey's been used," suggested Terry.

"Good idea," agreed Hermione. "Cho, what was Hestia talking to you about?"

"Something about the food, nothing urgent," said Cho. "I was wondering why she pulled me away from the table, then this happened."

Terry nodded. "Diversion. It's a test, definitely. Hestia's helping Kingsley."

"Terry," said Hermione, "why don't you Apparate to the Portkey and check--"

Ron quickly spoke. "Harry said, no Apparition."

Hermione appeared about to argue, then changed her mind. "Harry's not here," pointed out George.

"So we start breaking every rule he made just because he's not here?" retorted Ron. "If this is a test, which it almost definitely is, that's not what you want to start doing. But more importantly, Harry's the leader here, we came here knowing that. We do what he would want us to do."

"And who up and made you the leader now?" George challenged him.

"Harry's the leader, and that doesn't change just because he's not here. Or in the future, when he goes abroad, do we start doing whatever we want just because he's gone?"

"Cho, you can Apparate," pointed out Hermione. "Would you pop down there and do a status check on the Portkey?"

Cho nodded. "Sure." She disappeared, and returned several seconds later. "Hasn't been used in the last 24 hours."

"That confirms that it's a test," said Ernie.

"So, what do we do now?" asked Justin.

"First, let's analyze this," suggested Hermione. "It was almost too easy for us to figure out that this was a test. Kingsley could have, for example, waited until the middle of the night, gone to Harry's tent, Stunned him, and taken him away. We don't notice until morning, and they're just gone, we have no idea what happened. Why not do that?"

There was silence for a few seconds. "We'd think it was foul play," offered Ron. "An unknown person on the island, a predator, whatever. We'd have to assume that, go on full alert, do searches--"

"Entertain the thought that one of us is a criminal using Polyjuice Potion," cut in Terry.

"Exactly," agreed Ron. "It's a full-blown crisis. Kingsley must not have wanted that."

"Why not?" wondered Neville. "It would still work as a test."

"It would be an enormous test," pointed out Ron. "After all, we're not Aurors yet, and none of us is over 20. He may not have thought we could handle a crisis like that. This is a... gentler test, you could say. We know it's a test, all we have to do is not panic, do what we'd normally do."

"Do we know for sure that it was just Kingsley?" asked Padma. "Couldn't it have been Harry, or both of them?"

Ron and Hermione exchanged a glance, and shook their heads in unison. "It certainly looks as though he wasn't in on it," said Hermione, "and if he was, I don't think he'd have done it like this. This just isn't him."

"It does seem like more of a Kingsley thing," added Ron. "Harry wants a real group feeling, so I don't think he'd do this. Also, I do know that while Harry probably didn't authorize this test, he's given Kingsley permission to do tests as he chooses." Hermione shot him a quick look that suggested that Ron had said something he shouldn't have. "Kingsley might have figured that included knocking Harry out if that suited his purpose."

"So, what's the test?" asked Lee. "Like Ron said, just not panic?"

"I agree with that," said Neville. "I mean, who knows, other weird things might start to happen, as part of the test. But if not, I think passing the test means doing exactly what we would otherwise do. To the extent that we fall apart without Harry, we fail. That's how I see it, anyway."

"Me, too," said Padma, and a few other people agreed further.

"Next question," said Terry. "Do we need a temporary leader?"

Ron and Hermione again exchanged glances. At the same instant, Ron said "no" while Hermione said "yes." "We don't need one," protested Ron. "How many command decisions has Harry had to make in the last week? Pretty few. I think we can get through whatever time this takes without that. If everyone acts responsibly, there shouldn't be any problems."

"Things happen, Ron," countered Hermione. "Neville could be right, there could be more aspects to the test. Decisions might have to be made, without time for debate. We need to know who'll be making them."

"They won't be life-or-death things," argued Ron. "If they were, Kingsley would've done it differently, like you pointed out. Any further tests are more likely to be moral, or the kind that acting responsibly and morally will deal with. I don't want to elevate one of us above the rest. Harry's the leader."

"I'm not talking about 'elevating' anyone," she protested. "Just empowering someone to make decisions that may need to be made. We should have an election, we should all choose who it's going to be."

"Before doing that," said Ron, "let's have an election to decide whether there needs to be a leader or not."

"I know," said George sardonically. "Let's have an election to see whether we should have an election to decide whether there should be an election."

There was a slight pause as no one seemed to know what to say; suddenly, Luna spoke. "That seems unnecessarily complicated," she said earnestly.

Over half of the trainees, including Ron, chuckled. "Yes, I think so. Okay, first, we decide whether there should be a leader or not. Show of hands okay?"

"Wait, one question," said Corner. "Are Luna and Cho voting?"

"I don't see why not," said Neville. "They may not be trainees, but they did come here, and agree to be under Harry's authority. They should have a voice in whose authority they are under."

No one objected, but Luna said, "I think I'd rather not vote. I'll follow whatever is decided, though."

Eyes went to Cho, who shrugged. "I'd just as soon vote."

"All right," said Hermione. "Those who think we should choose a temporary leader, raise your hand." She raised hers, and counted. "Ten," she announced. "Out of sixteen, a clear majority."

"Okay," said Ron. "The next one has to be a secret ballot." Hermione looked unhappy at first, but nodded; no one argued. Seamus conjured pencils and pieces of paper, and distributed them. "Luna," suggested Ron, "since you're not voting, you be the one to count the votes." Again, no one objected, and Luna nodded her agreement. She collected the papers, then paused. "George, I don't have yours."

"Not voting," said George simply.

"Are you still going to follow the leadership of whoever does win?" pressed Ron.

George stared evenly. "If I agree with it."

Heads swiveled to stare at George. "What the hell is wrong with you?" demanded Corner. "I mean, smart remarks are one thing, but this is mutiny!"

"I don't have to answer that. And it's not mutiny. I came here on the understanding that Harry, not someone unchosen by him, would be in charge. Just because someone gets chosen by everyone else doesn't mean they're in charge of me."

"Are you trying to be difficult?" Corner persisted. "I mean, are you making a sincere, devoted effort to--"

"Michael," Ron interrupted him, "let's not do this now. Let's just vote, and worry about that later." Corner looked unconvinced, but said nothing more.

"Suggested rules," said Hermione. "Majority is needed to be chosen, top three candidates proceed to next stage of selection."

Ron raised an eyebrow. "You make it sound complicated," he joked. "But okay, whatever."

Luna assorted the papers into piles and announced, "Hermione 7, Neville 3, Ron 3, Ernie 2." Ron gave Hermione a glance that said, 'looks like it'll be you.' She gave a light shrug, but appeared slightly pleased.

Seamus handed out new slips, and they repeated the process. Luna read out the new results: "Hermione 7, Ron 5, Neville 3." Ron raised his eyebrows slightly, assuming that it was Ernie and Justin's votes that had gone to him. Seamus handed out more paper, and they wrote one last time. Luna counted them up, and announced, "Ron 8, Hermione 7."

It was hard to tell whether Ron or Hermione was the more surprised one. After he recovered from his surprise, he said wryly, "See, this is one of the reasons I wasn't thrilled to have a vote. I didn't want people wondering who voted for who. Anyway, let's hope a lot of decisions won't be necessary. Like I said, we go on as we have been, and everything should be fine. Same eating times, same bedtimes, same practice schedule."

"Are you going to stay in Harry's tent?" asked Ginny.

"No," Ron answered. "And tomorrow was the tent-changing day, so I'll find some other way to randomize the tent assignments. Now, can anyone else think of anything we need to address, in this situation?" Silence greeted him. "Okay, then. We have a few hours until sunset, so, you know, do what you would normally do."

Ten minutes later, Ron and Hermione were walking through the trees and bushes, for no other reason than to have privacy to talk. Keeping his voice low, Ron said, "I feel as though I should apologize for winning."

She shrugged lightly. "In that case, I should probably tell you that I voted for you, all three times."

His eyebrows went up. "Well, then it works out okay, because I voted for you all three times, too."

Now she was very surprised. "Why?"

"You're the smart one," he said. "You always know what to do, in whatever the situation is."

She gave him a wry look. "Yes, I remember how I cleverly thought of using fangs from the basilisk to kill the Horcruxes."

"I'm not saying I never had a good idea. But you know what I mean."

"Well, you can ask me for advice, and I'll give it. But I voted for you because I think people will follow you, more willingly than they'd follow me."

Ron grunted. "Except for my brother."

"He wouldn't follow anyone," she pointed out. "That really is going to be a problem. What are you going to do?"

"Give him a wide latitude," Ron answered. "He might not follow anyone, but he'll automatically rebel against anything I try to tell him to do. Whatever I do with him, I'll need support from the others. I'll basically wait until people are telling me to do something about him."

"I suppose I can see where that makes sense," she reluctantly admitted. "If it was me, I'd probably try to lecture him, and just antagonize him more. I was glad to see Michael stand up to him."

"Yeah, me too," said Ron. "Not that I want to see people oppose him, but it's good to know that what he's doing isn't popular."

The two wandered around for a while, then found a small hilly area in which, at the base of one hill, the grass-covered hill rose at a sharp angle from the ground, providing a perfect place to sit and rest against. They sat, and found they had a magnificent view of the sunset in progress, the clouds visible just over the trees. He reached over and took her hand; she gripped it tightly and snuggled against him.

"This is such a nice place," she said contentedly. "I wonder if whoever worked on this island made it to be this way, helped create the hill like this."

"Interesting question," he said. "Considering all the nice touches on this island, it wouldn't surprise me. I wonder if, after this year is over and we're in our normal life, we could take vacations here."

She smiled. "It's a nice thought, but it might be difficult. Remember, Harry had to throw the Foreign Ministry people out of their own section to do this secretly. He's not going to want to do that just for the sake of vacations."

"I guess," Ron acknowledged.

They sat for over a half hour, admiring the scenery and chatting about nothing in particular, when they heard the rustling of leaves being stepped on. They stood as three people--Padma, Parvati, and Terry--came into view.

"Hi," said Ron.

"Hi. Sorry to interrupt you," replied Padma. "This looks like a nice area."

"How'd you find us?" asked Ron.

Terry grinned. "Hermione's not the only one who can do a locator spell. We wanted to talk to you, and both of you is fine. It's about George."

Ron sighed. "Why am I not shocked."

"He's really getting out of control," continued Terry. "It's like Michael said, he's almost going out of his way to annoy people, to cause problems. After you left, he started making comments about the both of you, like, you must have gone off to have a fight because the vote was so close, like that."

"I called him on it," added Parvati, "and we got into an argument. The gist of what I said was that what he was doing was tearing people apart when we should be trying to work together, and he said that he isn't doing anything different than he ever did, and if Harry asked him, Harry must have wanted him to be as he was being. The fact is, of course, that he isn't being like he was at Hogwarts, but he won't admit that."

Ron shook his head sadly. "Yeah, I know."

"The interesting thing," said Padma, "is that he started a sentence, then cut himself off, but it seemed that what he was about to say suggested that Harry has already had a talk with him about this. Is that anything you know about?"

Both Ron and Hermione shook their heads. "He said something about that before dinner," said Hermione, "but we didn't have a chance to talk to him about it. We assume it was a talk with George, and his mood suggested it didn't go well."

"Ron, you're his brother," said Parvati in frustration. "You don't have any idea what could be up with him? He hadn't been like this in the past few months? Has he still not gotten over Fred's death?"

"He hasn't been like this," said Ron. "Not until we got to the island. He was fine before, or else I'm sure Harry wouldn't have asked him. And of course he was really sad at Fred's death--you all saw him at the funeral--but when Fred came back as a ghost, that cheered him up. He seemed all right after that. But believe me, I'm just as baffled as you are."

"What are you going to do?" asked Terry.

"As little as possible," he said. "If he wouldn't heed Harry, he's certainly not going to heed me. This is just part of the risk we took by going back in time; none of us can leave, so we're stuck with it. Short of locking him up, there's just nothing we can do."

"I'm afraid," said Parvati, "that he could disrupt the relationship, the unity, that Harry's trying to build. That group spell that he wants us to learn, this thing is just going to make that harder. Not to mention, what if he gets other people thinking like him?"

"Then it's better that we find out now," said Ron. "You could see this as part of the Auror test. If someone listens to him too much and adopts his attitude, then maybe they weren't right to be an Auror."

"You don't suppose this was the reason Kingsley did this, do you?" asked Hermione. "That he knew George would be like this, and to see whether anyone would be influenced by him, especially without Harry around?"

Ron winced slightly. "I hope not. I suppose anything's possible, but that would be really kind of... cold." He paused. "Look, the best thing I can say, and I'd say this to everyone, is just try not to react to it. Don't respond, and if you can't stop yourself, then get away from him."

There was silence for a minute, as if no one knew quite what to say. Terry looked up at the sky. "Nice sunset."

Ron nodded. "Yeah."

* * * * *

The next two days passed in an atmosphere of repressed tension, as if everyone was waiting for George to do something beyond the pale. But George attended the practices every day, and while he continued to make less-than-friendly comments, none were quite so bad that Ron wanted to confront him.

Ron asked Padma and Terry to handle the randomized tent pairings, worried that if George were coupled with anyone he preferred not to be with, he would accuse Ron of having engineered it. As it happened, he was paired up with Ginny, to which he voiced no objection. Ron was glad, as he knew that his sister wouldn't put up with anything she didn't want to. But for the second time in four weeks, Ron was paired with Hermione, prompting George to 'joke' in a way that was not at all funny that Ron had arranged it, despite all evidence to the contrary.

Meanwhile, Luna was having her own problems. With Harry's absence, and after Harry's suggestion that she might want to spend less time preparing the food, Cho virtually abdicated all responsibility in that area to Luna. Luna tried not to be bothered--and now that she had a few weeks' experience under her belt, she did feel she could handle it by herself, even though it was a lot of work--but it was more the way Cho had done it, with an air of 'oh-you'll-do-this-won't-you' rather than as one equal to another. In the privacy of their tent, Cho wasn't rude to Luna, but seemed to clearly regard her as one might regard someone of a lower status or rank.

In most of her time at Hogwarts, Luna had been treated like that or worse, and it hadn't bothered her; she had always felt as though she had a kind of mental shield that protected her from the poor treatment that had come her way. Not caring how she was thought of was essential.

That had started to change in her fourth year, when she became friends with Harry and the others, who were kinder to her than most others had been. Her association with them increased her status and profile, and by the end of her sixth year, after Harry defeated Voldemort and mentioned her in a speech watched by more than a thousand people, she was one of the most popular people at Hogwarts. It felt strange, and while her attitudes were sufficiently ingrained that it didn't affect her much, she felt that she could understand why people became addicted to popularity, sought it out so aggressively, and changed who they were to get it.

She knew she was thought of as 'spacey,' and she knew why, but had never told anyone (not that anyone had ever cared to ask). She had always kept it as a secret, one held in remembrance of her mother.

Soon after her tenth birthday, she had asked her parents how they met. They told her the story, and her father got out old issues of the Quibbler. He proudly showed her the very first issue, the one with the story that Witch Weekly wouldn't print but had inspired him to create his own publication. "How to Track a Snorkack" was the headline of a Page 1 article, with the sub-headline "The Door to the Twin Dimension."

Fascinated, she read the article, and a few days later she asked her mother to show her how to visit the twin dimension. Her mother agreed, but asked her not to say anything to her father just yet, "because you know how he worries." Luna agreed, and over the next few weeks, she slowly learned the spell that enabled her to move her consciousness to the dimension that, of all the dimensions in the multiverse, was closest to our own.

At first, Luna only used the spell occasionally, and the results were unremarkable: the twin dimension looked a lot like the normal one, and the main difference was that the twin dimension appeared slightly misty, as if one were looking at it through a thin fog. The places she saw were different and random, more likely to be near one's current location, but possibly as far as a few dozen miles away. It was on these occasions, her mother said, that Snorkacks were more likely to be seen.

It was only a month later that the devastating accident happened. She cried at times, but more often isolated herself. Her father was so buried in his own grief that he often didn't know what she was doing, and she spent long days in her bedroom, visiting the twin dimension as much as possible. The spell was difficult to do frequently; she could visit once every half hour at most, and then only for less than a minute each time. She found through experience that she was never 'gone' from this dimension even though she was elsewhere. When she used it consistently, it had a mild effect on her 'normal' consciousness: it made her appear distracted, as if her attention was only partly focused in the present moment, and the world around her was of only moderate interest. In the wake of her mother's death, she did the spell regularly for months on end, spurred on by a lucky sighting of a nest of Snorkacks on only her fifth try after her mother's death. They were beautiful, peaceful creatures, and gone far too soon. Her father finally recovered enough to notice the change in his daughter's demeanor, but attributed it to an emotional retreat, a reaction to her mother's death.

She saw things other than Snorkacks, of course, but they were mainly what she was looking for. She couldn't physically interact with the twin dimension, but it felt as though she was in it when she was there. Once in her first year at Hogwarts, while outside for a Care of Magical Creatures class, she saw two Snorkacks in the distance. Excitedly, she interrupted the lecture to point them out, but by the time anyone had looked, they were gone. Most everyone made fun of her, but it didn't bother her. She knew from her father's article that Snorkacks were one of those rare creatures that had the natural ability to cross over from one dimension to the other, for varying durations.

She had stopped visiting the twin dimension every chance she could, but she still did it frequently, and it provided emotional comfort. It was a chance to get away from reality, to go to a place that felt comfortable and welcoming. At first, it helped her deal with the reality of her mother's death; at Hogwarts, it helped her to be indifferent to how she was regarded. It never occurred to her that she might not be seen as so different if she didn't visit the twin dimension so often. She just did it, and didn't think about whether it was a good idea or not. She didn't tell her father, because her mother hadn't wanted him to worry. With him still broken up over her death, she didn't want to give him another thing to worry about.

The pattern continued until her fourth year, when to her mild surprise she started to make friends, including the famous (but surprisingly nice) Harry Potter. With people to talk to, the DA to practice with, and the school tense due to the presence of Umbridge, she started to visit the twin dimension less and less often, though still regularly. In sixth year, the ability to visit the twin dimension was largely what got her through the trial of being kept captive at Malfoy Manor with her emotional equilibrium intact.

After Voldemort's defeat, she told herself that it was time to stop visiting the twin dimension, or at least, to cut back to rare occasions. Now popular and respected, she had no need to withdraw from daily life, and she had come to realize that she came across better to others when she didn't do it than when she did. That lasted until her father's death; in her guilt and grief, she went frequently. She told herself that she might see some hint of him, some supernatural indication or message, but deep down, she knew that it was simply because it made her feel better.

She had planned, again, not to visit the twin dimension while on the island; she would be busy, and the companionship of these people was very important to her. This was a unique time, and she wanted to be fully present for it. Things had gone reasonably well at first, though she found herself wishing she and Cho were included in the tent randomization scheme. They'd had a good conversation at the party at the Hog's Head the day before leaving for the island, but they simply weren't compatible. Cho wore makeup, which Luna had no use for; Cho worried about her hair and clothes, while Luna settled for making herself basically presentable. Cho clearly felt that looks were important--and who could blame her, having been praised for her looks endlessly, as she must have all her life--but Luna was sure that her future husband would love her for her character, not her looks. Luna gradually realized that Cho looked down on her for this--subtly, Luna felt, and maybe Cho herself didn't realize it--and at first, it didn't bother her much. Luna would try to make the best of the situation. But when Harry left, or was taken, the tension in the group rose significantly, partly due to the fact of the test itself, but mainly due to George's peculiar behavior. With the responsibility of food preparation suddenly in her hands, she found herself with more stress and less chance to relax. The occasional brief break from reality started to look more appealing. At least, until Harry gets back...

* * * * *

Next, Chapter 5, Harry's Decision: Upon returning to the island, Harry finds himself making a decision whose possible consequences include a disastrous time paradox, wiping out his timeline.

From Chapter 5: "Self-righteous bastard!" George spat loudly, and delivered a backhand blow with his right hand that hit Harry on the right side of his face, near the eye. George left the tent, took a step outside, and Disapparated as Harry followed him out, the door still open.