Harry Potter and the Ring of Reduction

Chapter 3

No Longer At Bay

Harry and Ginny walked through the Aurors' fireplace at a quarter to midnight and walked through the compound to the Apparation detection area. They found Hermione in the large room adjacent to it, and sat down near her. "Hi there," she said. "I'm on standby, obviously, I just finished some drills. Did you two get enough sleep?"

"Yes, thanks," answered Ginny. "Mum had us sleep at Hogwarts so we wouldn't be disturbed."

Hermione raised her eyebrows. "I actually thought of that, but I didn't want to suggest it to Molly. I'm glad she did it." She looked at them appraisingly for a few seconds, then broke out into a broad smile.

Harry felt his cheeks flush. "What?" he asked, more defensively than he intended.

"I don't think you really want me to answer that, Harry," said Hermione, still smiling. "You're practically glowing, both of you. I'm really pleased for you. And also impressed, since I know what you had to get past."

"That was mainly her doing," said Harry, looking at Ginny. "People say I'm brave, but she's every bit as brave as I am, more so in some ways."

Ginny shrugged. "I don't think of it as being brave, so much as... extremely lustful."

Embarrassed again, Harry said, "I'm just glad Molly didn't take one look at us and know."

"Are you kidding, Harry?" asked Ginny, surprised. "Of course she did. I think you were just avoiding eye contact with her. That probably told her as much as anything else. She gave me a few looks, I could tell she knew."

"How was she about it?" asked Hermione.

"It wasn't like she was pleased, but she wasn't bothered either," said Ginny. "The only reason she accepts the idea at all at my age is because it's Harry. I think it was kind of like, 'well, I knew they would.'"

"Did you eat at the Burrow, or at Hogwarts?"

"At Hogwarts, since we didn't want to bother Mum so late, though we knew she wouldn't have been bothered. But we thought, well, there's all those house-elves at Hogwarts with nothing to do, so... it was funny, Harry summoned Dobby with his dog. When he got there, Dobby was practically wetting himself with pleasure at being summoned by someone as brave, noble, generous, awe-inspiring-"

"He had a few words for you, too, as I recall," interrupted Harry, hoping to derail Ginny.

"Yes, apparently I'm quite a wonderful person in my own right," acknowledged Ginny, "but I'm pretty sure that I'm just basking in Harry's reflected glory. Also, I'm a Wheezy, and we had the Joining done, so with all that I must be pretty incredible. Anyway, Harry had him bring us some food, and within ten minutes there's a table all nicely set up, a candle and everything, and enough food for five people. I was thinking, I could really get used to this."

"Well, you could, if Harry ever asks Dobby to be his house-elf," suggested Hermione. "Of course, adjusting to all that praise all the time would be a bit hard on Harry..."

"We'll have plenty of time to think about it," said Ginny, with an amused glance at Harry. "So, any more Apparations today?"

"Yes, two," answered Hermione, turning serious. "One with me on ready, one with Neville. Both were the usual, someone taking a Portkey away. They almost got the one I went out for; Dawlish made it out there in just over a second, and just barely missed whisking away the Portkey before the Death Eater could grab it after Summoning it. He was really angry, he was so close."

"I can imagine," said Harry, knowing how he would feel. "How's your time coming along?"

"My best so far is two point two seconds, which I'm told is very good, for my level of experience. Neville managed two seconds once, so we're both doing okay. I doubt either of us is going to be the one to catch anyone, though."

"You never know," said Harry encouragingly. "I'm hoping to get out there fast enough to catch one, anyway. I'm going to ask Kingsley if I can do a few hours of extra practice before tomorrow's shift."

"Don't bother," she advised him. "Neville already tried, and Kingsley said no. Gave Neville a little lecture about pacing himself, how there won't be any off days, and so forth. And he's right, of course."

Harry had to admit to himself that it made sense. "Oh, well. Guess I'll do the best I can in the time I have." They heard the chime indicating it was time for the shift change, and headed into the detection room, passing and saying hello to Neville as they did. They looked at the list on the wall and saw that from midnight to three a.m. Harry would be on ready status and Ginny on standby, and it would switch every three hours until the end of their shift. Harry mentally prepared himself to Disapparate at a second's notice, and started studying maps.

A little over an hour later the alarm sounded, and Harry instantly looked up at the large wall, on which three maps instantly appeared. The first was of Manchester, the city that was the site of the Apparation; the second, a more detailed and closer view of the area, and the third, a very close view of the target area. Each map had a rapidly blinking red dot indicating the exact spot of the Apparation. Harry took in the information as quickly as possible, and Disapparated.

Just as Harry Apparated he heard a loud thwack, followed instantly by a shriek. His eyes tracked a body flying through the air away from them, but what he quickly focused on was what had sent the body flying: a giant.

Harry felt a flash of fear that a dozen Death Eaters wouldn't have caused; there was something about the sheer physical impressiveness of a twenty-five-foot tall person that caused him to quail. He looked around, and the Aurors were reacting quickly, shooting off Stunning spells. He heard Kingsley say, 'Imperio,' and he wondered if it would work. He was trying to decide what spell to use when the giant shouted something Harry didn't understand, and wound up for another swipe of his hand. "Back off!" shouted Kingsley, and everyone including Harry Apparated thirty to fifty feet away, so as to be well out of range... or at least a few giant steps, Harry quickly calculated.

More Aurors started Apparating in; it had to be the standby shift, but Harry didn't see Ginny with them. "Everyone, together, now!" shouted Kingsley. "Avada Kedavra!" shouted twenty voices, startling Harry further. He watched the green bolts head for the giant, and hit him. The giant swayed, looking like he might topple. Despite being well out of range, Harry nonetheless prepared to Disapparate if necessary.

"Again!" shouted Kingsley, and they sent another twenty Killing Curses at the giant. He swayed again, and this time toppled over. Harry wondered if he was dead yet. Kingsley apparently was not wondering, as he had the Aurors fire yet again. Is that really necessary? wondered Harry, who then remembered that giants were somewhat resistant to magic. He recalled that four Aurors had not been able to take down Hagrid with Stunning spells, and Hagrid was only half-giant.

A few Aurors approached the prone giant. One stopped at the neck, checking the carotid artery for a pulse; another leaned across his face to put his hand in front of the giant's nose, checking for breathing. They walked over to Kingsley. "It's dead," one Auror reported.

Kingsley nodded. "Go to the Ministry, have them start waking people up. This has to be gone before sunrise." The Auror Disapparated. Kingsley addressed the Aurors, saying, "Tonks, Jack, Diana... go find the body, see what if anything we can learn from it, who it was."

Tonks and the others appeared far less than thrilled to be given the task. "If there's anything recognizable, which I doubt," muttered Tonks as they headed off.

"Everyone else, back to headquarters," said Kingsley. They started Disapparating, and Harry did as well.

He had barely registered his new surroundings when Ginny ran up to him and hugged him. "Oh, Harry, thank goodness... they said there was a giant, and I shouldn't go... I wanted to anyway, just to make sure you were okay."

"I'm okay," he assured her. "They killed him. Twenty Killing Curses, three times."

Kingsley walked up to them as they separated. "Are you wondering, Harry, why I found it necessary to do that?"

Harry thought for a second, and realized that he had been, but understood quickly once he thought about it. "You're responsible for everyone's life here."

Nodding solemnly, Kingsley said, "I had a feeling you'd understand that, given your experiences. You haven't had to kill, but you've been responsible for others' lives. Yes, that's part of it. The other part, the part you might not understand so easily, is that it's a message to the Death Eaters: that we're not playing with kid gloves, that they take chances with their lives when they fight us. That doesn't mean that we'll kill indiscriminately, or if we don't have to. But giants are tough, and not killing that one would have been taking a big chance, one I wasn't willing to take. If there's doubt as to whether it's necessary, that's the choice I'll make."

"I suppose I can understand that, too," said Harry, wondering if he could make the same choice, to order a person or creature killed when there was some doubt as to whether it was absolutely necessary. "I assume Ginny wasn't sent because her role is to protect from Killing Curses, and that wasn't going to be an issue here?"

"Yes," agreed Kingsley. "I didn't specifically order that-there wasn't time-but it was the right choice. We could all have easily been killed if that giant had done what he was supposed to do. I mean, it's not hard to guess what happened. The giant was told to whack us all away when we Apparated, but he jumped the gun-giants aren't all that swift, mentally-and did it to the Death Eater who Apparated to lure us there instead of us. If it had been done right, we wouldn't have had time to get out of the way, and most of us would have died. Basically, we were lucky. We don't know how many giants they have, but now they have one less." He walked away.

Harry and Ginny exchanged a look. He said, "Let me tell you... I've seen enough that not that much scares me anymore. But... that, that scared me." He mimed looking straight up, indicating without words what was necessary to see a giant.

"You may be Harry Potter, but you're still allowed to be scared," she said, taking his hand momentarily. She mouthed 'I love you,' which he did as well. He went back to looking at the wall and concentrating, and she to her drills.

The next two days passed without incident or progress. Death Eaters Apparated five to seven times a day, day or night, always to a Portkey which they took to get away. Harry's response times improved to the point where he was averaging one point five seconds per response, a tiny bit better than the Auror average. He had a close call in which he barely missed a capture, as did some Aurors, but they failed to catch anyone. The Aurors' sole solace was that they knew the Death Eaters were taking a lot of time to fly to the sites in advance to set up Portkeys, and so were devoting almost as much effort to the fight as the Aurors were. Harry wondered if either side would give up if the stalemate continued for any length of time, but he knew they faced one deadline: the start of the next Hogwarts term on the third of September. He and his friends had to return to Hogwarts, and would not be able to provide protection past that point.

He wondered, too, how long he and the others could continue to put in twelve-hour days. He didn't mind the time and effort it took, but he knew that the continuing stress of being ready to Disapparate at a second's notice for six hours a day couldn't be sustained indefinitely. Kingsley had already approached them to suggest that they take turns taking a day off while another was on ready status for twelve hours instead of six. No one took him up on it, but he let them know that there would come a point when he insisted on it. Harry annoyed Kingsley by pointing out that he also hadn't had a day off since the crisis began; Kingsley responded by pointing out that he had been doing his job for longer than Harry had been alive, and so had excellent conditioning. Harry didn't argue further, but still had no intention of taking a day off.

At nine-thirty on Sunday night Snape signaled Harry to request a meeting, the first time he had done so for almost a week. Harry assumed that Snape had held off at first because of the Auror situation and its demands on Harry's time, but that Snape's needs could not be put off indefinitely. The session lasted an hour and a half, a little longer than usual, which Harry assumed was because it had been a longer time between meetings than usual.

Ginny had already gone back to the Burrow, and he joined her when he was finished, at a little after eleven. Fawkes brought Harry into the living room, as usual, but to Harry's surprise, everyone was in the room: Arthur, Molly, Ron, Ginny, and Pansy. He knew that Arthur and Molly might wonder where he was when he was having sessions with Snape, and that McGonagall had told Molly that Harry was at those times doing something important which couldn't be revealed.

Harry looked at them, a questioning expression on his face. Ginny gestured him to the spot on the sofa next to her. As he sat, Arthur spoke. "Something happened earlier today, Harry. Cornelius Fudge is dead, assassinated."

Stunned, Harry said nothing, processing the information. After a minute, he said, "By Death Eaters?"

Arthur nodded. "Almost certainly. The assassin Disapparated after he did it. Of course, this prompted the Aurors to Apparate to where the assassin went, but apparently he got to the Portkey before they could catch him. They think he was using Polyjuice Potion, and that's how he was able to get close enough to do it. He impersonated a friend of Fudge's."

Molly voiced the thought now on Harry's mind. "As we've already told Ginny, Harry, the last thing you should be thinking right now is that if you'd only agreed to protect him, this might not have happened. He was protected, but obviously things can go wrong. You or Ginny being there wouldn't have totally protected him, just from Killing Curses; there are plenty of other ways to kill someone. If they were determined to kill him, they were going to get him."

"At least the next person to take the job is going to really understand the risks," commented Ron. "Oh, and Harry, there's an interesting twist to this, one that's not so good for us. When he was attacked, Fudge was doing that interview with Rita Skeeter. The assassin tried to kill her, too, but just as he fired the Killing Curse at her, she transformed into a beetle. It saved her life, but now she's out in the open as an unregistered Animagus."

"Which means," continued Ginny, "that Hermione could be in trouble. She has no more hold over Skeeter. I guess we're going to find out whether she was right about whether what she did was illegal or not." Harry assumed that the Weasleys had been filled in about what Hermione had done to Skeeter.

"I would never bet on Hermione being wrong," said Ron.

"True," agreed Ginny. "And nothing may happen, anyway."

"Something will happen," said Pansy, sounding very sure. "Remember what I said from when I saw her talk to Hermione in the fireplace. She hates Hermione. She's going to find some way to stick it to her. I'm sure of it."

"I don't know what she can do," argued Ginny. "She can accuse Hermione publicly, but between Hermione doing what she did against Voldemort and helping the Aurors now, she's going to have some good will to draw on. Nobody's going to be eager to harass her, except Skeeter."

"Oh, and Harry, Archibald called a few hours ago," said Arthur. "He wanted you to know that you should feel free to call him to talk to him about this; he offered to come over if you wanted. He also said that you shouldn't think about blaming yourself."

Harry found that he wasn't sure what he thought. "Obviously it's hard not to think about it that way a bit," he said, partly thinking out loud. "But another way to look at it is that we're taking risks, bigger risks, for the Aurors-not so much because we like them more than Fudge, but because they're out there protecting people, enforcing the ARA, and sometimes getting killed, like Teddy and Anna. Fudge may have been a target, but it just seemed like he wasn't doing anything that made him worth protecting, or more worth it than anyone else. I'll accept the risk to Ginny in doing what we're doing, but I find I don't regret that I wasn't willing to risk her safety for his."

"I feel that way too, Harry, of course," agreed Molly. "That doesn't mean his death isn't a tragedy, even if he was a... well, anyway..." she trailed off uncomfortably, not wanting to speak ill of the dead.

"I guess, thinking about it, I don't especially blame myself," Harry concluded. Looking at Ron, he continued, "And you have a good point. He chose the position, and it's always going to have risks." He was comfortable with how he felt, but he couldn't help wondering how he would have felt, or what he would have done differently, if the Minister of Magic had been Dentus, or someone he had liked. Then he reminded himself that Dentus wouldn't have made the request of him, and probably would have refused the help if offered.

A half hour later, Harry and Ginny walked into the room where the standby Aurors relaxed and did response-time drills, and found Hermione sitting in a chair near the door.

She greeted them. "I suppose you've heard about Fudge, and Skeeter."

"You worried?" asked Ginny.

Hermione shook her head dismissively. "She can't do anything to me. I have a feeling she'll try, but the worst she can do is try to drag my name through the mud. And considering what her status is now-she's going to be up on charges, the Aurors are sure of it-I don't think anything she says will be taken so seriously. I'm much more worried about catching Death Eaters than I am about her, believe me."

Harry found that he had no trouble believing it; he just hoped she was right. They talked until midnight, and passed Neville as he left the ready-status room. "Oh, Neville," said Harry. "I forgot earlier to say Happy Birthday. Not much of a seventeenth birthday, was it?"

Neville shrugged. "Could be worse. Cassandra made sure everyone knew, so people were saying it all day, and they had a cake for me during my first standby shift. My birthday isn't usually much anyway, and at least I got to be with people this way. I'm not complaining. Anyway, thanks."

They continued in; Harry was on ready status, Ginny on standby. Harry yet again focused on and studied maps. Pretty soon I'll have the whole map of Britain memorized street by street, he thought. He wondered how close to that the Aurors came, since they had to be ready to go anywhere.

A little over an hour into his shift, Harry looked up to see Kingsley rush into the room. He shouted into the standby room, "Ginny, get in here!" She ran in, looking at Harry quizzically; Harry's face indicated his own puzzlement.

Kingsley was talking mainly to Harry and Ginny, though all the Aurors were listening. "Something's happened to Neville and Hermione. They're not wearing their pendants." Harry knew that the Aurors would know this immediately, since the pendants were hooked into the same detection system that worked for the Aurors.

"Where are their pendants?" asked Harry, his insides suddenly churning with fear.

"At the Longbottom home," Kingsley replied. "We're about to go there, but we have to do it together, since it could be another trap. Everyone ready?"

As everyone nodded, Ginny whispered urgently, "You have to take me, Harry, I've never been there." Harry moved behind her, put his hands on her shoulders, and Disapparated, as did the others.

The house was dark. Aurors immediately started using their wands as flashlights; one Auror found the lights and turned them on as others fanned out across the house. Harry knew the search wouldn't take long, as the house was small. Kingsley walked over to the table and wordlessly held up two pendants, one blue and one orange. Then they heard a noise from an adjoining room, and an Auror came out. "We found Mrs. Longbottom. She's dead."

Harry and Ginny exchanged a look of sorrow for Neville, and there was an explosion in the fireplace. Ron came charging out, followed by Pansy, both in their pajamas. "I called them on my pendant when we got here," said Ginny to Harry. To Kingsley, who looked at her disapprovingly, she added, "I knew they'd want to help."

"Of course we do," said Ron, with a defiant look at Kingsley. "They're our friends too. Any news?"

"Neville's grandmother is dead," said Kingsley, and Ron and Pansy had much the same expressions as he and Ginny had had. "We have no idea where Neville and Hermione are, and no way to find out. Their adrenaline alarms didn't go off, so they had to have been taken by surprise. The obvious guess is that the Death Eaters killed Mrs. Longbottom, one of them used Polyjuice Potion to assume her identity, and fooled both Neville and Hermione long enough to knock them unconscious. We have to start looking, but unfortunately even though it's only been a few minutes, they could be almost anywhere by now, if they carried them off on brooms or took a Portkey."

Harry's heart was racing, though he barely noticed it. "I can find out where they are," he said, as Fawkes materialized. "Fawkes can know, he'll take me to them. You go back to Auror headquarters, you can get my location from my pendant, and come in force."

Kingsley nodded. "You understand, Harry, that they could be in a nest of Death Eaters. There could be thirty or forty."

"I don't care if there's a thousand," said Harry, staring at Kingsley.

"I know, I just wanted to be sure you're ready. Okay, we'll only be a few seconds behind you."

Fawkes stuck out his tail feathers, and as Harry reached for one, so did Ginny. "I'm going with you."

"So are we," said Ron, as he reached for part of Fawkes' tail as well. Pansy put an arm around Harry's shoulders, and he held onto her.

Fawkes, to Harry's surprise, did not move. Harry looked at Fawkes, trying to rein in the urge to shout, so badly did he feel the need to get moving. Fawkes turned his head and regarded Harry, obviously trying to communicate. Harry took a deep breath, and tried to clear his mind so he could understand. "What's going on?" asked Ron. "Why isn't he going?"

After a few seconds, Harry answered. "He says, only me." To the other's surprised looks, Harry tried to explain. "He doesn't know where they are, I think. He has to take me somewhere, it'll make it easier to find them, I'm not sure why." He looked at Kingsley. "Fawkes is going to take me somewhere, but not where they are. The next place he takes me, after that, will be the place. When you see me go there, send everybody." Turning to his three friends, he said, "After Fawkes takes me to where they are, he'll come right back here for you. Be ready." They nodded, and let go of him and Fawkes. Fawkes took flight.

They appeared in Dumbledore's quarters; Harry found himself standing in front of one of the chairs in which he and Dumbledore had sat last year. He looked up at Fawkes. "Is it something that's here? Something he has? What am I supposed to do?" He felt nearly panicked, imagining what was being done to Neville and Hermione as he sat there.

Fawkes fluttered down to the arm of the other chair and started singing. Harry suddenly realized that what Fawkes wanted at the moment was for him to calm down, to feel peaceful, as that was the usual purpose of the song. He focused on calming himself down, tried to focus on love. In the urgency of the moment he found it very difficult, but as he did, he started to understand why Fawkes had brought him there. He wasn't sure if he was realizing it himself or if Fawkes was telling him, but he knew. Fawkes could locate Neville and Hermione because they were close to Harry, but it required concentration, and was difficult. Fawkes could not find them at the moment because Harry's emotional state was interfering with Fawkes' ability to concentrate to the degree necessary. Harry understood that the faster he calmed down, the faster he would reach Neville and Hermione.

He took several deliberate deep breaths, and tried to sink into the feeling of love as intensely as he had done last September. Images of Neville and Hermione in distress came into his head, and he did his best to dismiss them. Focus on love, he thought. He calmed himself, focusing harder.

After what Harry thought was about two minutes, Fawkes flew into the air, his tail facing Harry. Still focusing on love, Harry grabbed the tail, and they were gone.

They materialized outside, in what looked like a rural area, though Harry spared no time to look at his surroundings. Neville was lying on the ground screaming, clearly being tortured. Hermione was frantic, then startled as she saw Harry and Fawkes. Wand already out, Harry instantly summoned his shield, and it surrounded Neville, who stopped screaming. Fawkes disappeared. Harry then Summoned Hermione's wand, directing it toward her; she grabbed it and turned to face the Death Eaters. The Death Eaters started firing spells at Harry and Hermione, who focused on warding them off as Aurors started Apparating all around. Fawkes reappeared, carrying Ron, Pansy, and Ginny. He started singing as they let go of him and started firing on Death Eaters.

Taking a better look around now that he personally was no longer under dire threat, he saw that there were about twenty Death Eaters. Aurors continued to Apparate in; Harry realized that it must be all forty, that Kingsley had called in the ones who were off shift and had probably been sleeping. Seeing an opportunity, Harry looked for Voldemort. He found him, behind a group of Death Eaters. He quickly put up an anti-Disapparation field, hoping it would work. We outnumber them, Harry thought, we could get Voldemort now, with Albus's help.

He saw the Killing Curse shield go up around one Auror, then another; he realized that Ginny and Hermione were focusing on the battle, casting the spell where needed. He saw Neville get up, and he Summoned Neville's wand over to him. Neville caught it, but didn't acknowledge Harry. He ran over to the battle, near where Bellatrix Lestrange was dueling with an Auror. As soon as he got close, Neville raised his wand and shouted, "Crucio!" Lestrange screamed, fell to the ground, and continued screaming. On Neville's face, Harry saw a look that he never would have imagined. He would have sworn that it was not really Neville, that something was controlling him.

The Death Eaters fell back into a circle as Lucius Malfoy cast what looked like a gold circle around them; all were contained within it except Lestrange, and two others who had fallen. Malfoy reached into his pocket, and in an instant, everyone in the gold circle was gone.

It was suddenly quiet, except for the sound of Lestrange screaming. "Neville, stop!" shouted Cassandra. Focusing on Lestrange, Neville ignored her. Harry briefly thought of putting up his shield around Lestrange, and realized he couldn't bring himself to do it, feeling that Neville, however irrationally, would see it as a betrayal.

Hermione ran over to Neville as Cassandra shook him. "Neville!" she screamed. Cassandra grabbed his wand arm and yanked it upwards; Lestrange stopped screaming. Neville turned on Cassandra furiously. "I wasn't finished!" he shouted in rage.

Hermione looked at him sadly. "You were never going to be finished, Neville," she said quietly. "You could do it for days-"

"Not days," Neville replied, still shouting, but a little less loudly than before. "Just an hour. Just an hour," he repeated. Harry looked at Ginny and Ron, and they at him, with deep sadness, as they understood that Neville had been hoping to inflict the same fate on Lestrange that she had on his parents.

Lestrange was regaining her breath. "You should have let him continue," she said scornfully. "He might get good at it someday. He's not, now."

Fury flared on Neville's face again as Cassandra held onto Neville's wand arm to restrain him. "Don't tempt me," she shouted at Lestrange. Without a word, Kingsley raised his wand and shot off a Stunning spell. Lestrange lay flat on the ground, unconscious.

"Well, we'd heard enough out of her, that's for sure," said Kingsley. "I assume they're just unconscious?" he asked, gesturing to the other two Death Eaters on the ground. A nearby Auror nodded. "We all okay?" he asked, and got another nod. "Okay, everyone start heading back. Cassandra, you and Tonks help Neville."

"Me too," said Hermione, as Aurors started disappearing.

"Soon, Hermione," Kingsley assured her, "but first we need to know what happened. Let's go back to headquarters, and we'll sit down and you can tell us. Then you can go be with Neville." He picked up Lestrange, and none too gently swung her over his shoulder.

She reluctantly nodded, as she put an arm around Neville. Having largely calmed down, Neville put his around her, and leaned over and whispered into her ear. She glanced at him, then nodded. "Okay, we're ready," she said.

"Fawkes'll take you," said Harry to Ron and Pansy. He prepared to Disapparate as everyone else started doing so, and saw Fawkes appear before Ron and Pansy just before he disappeared.

Harry and his friends formed a loose circle soon after their arrival at Auror headquarters. Hermione again put an arm around Neville, who saw Kingsley approach and asked, "How soon can I get back to it?"

Trying to avoid looking incredulous, Kingsley spoke solemnly. "Not for some time, Neville. I know you want to help. But Aurors have to be in control emotionally at all times. What you just went through, most people wouldn't wish on their worst enemy. You need time to recover from it."

"Come on, Neville," said Cassandra gently. "Come with us."

"But they need me! Me and the other three-"

"We'll be all right, Neville," said Harry, as encouragingly as he could. "We'll get by. We can do eight-hour shifts with no standby, something like that. It'll work."

"He's right, Neville," said Kingsley. "Having one of you on standby is a luxury, not a necessity. What's important now is you getting better, and that's going to take time. Cassandra will help you, she'll be there for you. We all will, we'll all help you."

Neville was staring straight ahead, as if still unable to grasp the idea that he couldn't go back on duty right away. Cassandra said, "Let's go, Neville. You'll stay here tonight, there's some nice guest rooms. We'll help you get set up." He finally nodded. With an arm around his shoulder and Tonks following, she led him away.

Kingsley walked to a meeting room, Harry and the others following. "Do you want to tell us, or show us in a Pensieve?"

"I'd rather just tell you, if that's okay," she said, and Kingsley nodded. Still emotional from her ordeal, she calmed herself and began her story. "I had just got into bed when Neville called me on my pendant. I got up and went to the bathroom because I didn't want to disturb Pansy. He sounded... not agitated, but unusual. He said there was something important that his grandmother wanted to talk to us about, and that I should come right over. To tell you the truth, right then I felt like there was something wrong; I couldn't say what, but it just didn't feel right. It seemed strange. But it was nothing I could put my finger on, and he seemed to think it was important, so I put on some clothes and took the fireplace over.

"His grandmother, or what we thought was his grandmother, had us sit down at the table. She seemed to be acting strangely, too, but I just put it down to the idea that she was going to tell us something important. We were sitting there, and she got up to get something. She was behind us, and that's the last thing I remember from there. She knocked us out, I don't know how.

"The next thing I knew, we were in the place where you found us. I assume it was Fawkes that found us?" Harry nodded. "Thank goodness for Fawkes," she said, shuddering. "If not for him..."

Harry didn't want to think about that. "Come to think of it, why didn't they think of that? Didn't they know enough about phoenixes to know that Fawkes could do that?"

"No, Harry, in fact, I was surprised myself. It says in Reborn From the Ashes that a phoenix can do that for someone's spouse, but it says nothing more than that. They had reason to think that as long as they didn't take Ginny, they wouldn't be found. So either Fawkes is unusual, or the bond you have with the rest of us is unusually strong." Harry knew which one he thought it was.

"Anyway, they woke us up. There were about twenty of them, and of course they had taken our wands. Voldemort said something about how good of us it was to join him, that kind of stupid thing, being sarcastic. Neville said, "You've made a big mistake, Voldemort. Aurors are going to be arriving any second now." Voldemort said, "Are they? Without your pendants? They must be very impressive Aurors indeed." Neville looked down and touched his neck; he hadn't realized our pendants were gone. Most of the Death Eaters laughed, and then Bellatrix Lestrange took a step toward him. She said, "Longbottom, you have been around Potter too long, you've picked up his bad habits. We do not say the Dark Lord's name. And if we do..." and then she did the Cruciatus Curse on him. It was horrible. I don't know for how long, maybe ten or fifteen seconds. It was all I could do not to plead with her to stop, I know that would've really entertained them. She stopped it, and Neville was gasping, trying to recover from being Cursed, you know how that is, right afterwards. She said, 'Now, what do we call him?' And Neville-I still can't believe he did this-looked up and said, 'Asshole.'" Hermione looked uncomfortable repeating the word.

Everyone else's eyes went wide, including Kingsley's. "Wow," said Ron, looking amazed, "that's very... un-Neville-like."

Hermione nodded. "I thought so, too, but I think I understood what he was thinking. They had already killed his grandmother, and the situation we were in... I thought we had no hope, that it was just a question of how much we were going to have to suffer before we died, or that we might end up like his parents. That thought scared me, but then I remembered where his parents really are," she glanced at Harry, "and I wasn't quite so scared. But I'm sure he thought the same thing, and I think for him it was like you see it with you and Voldemort, Harry. They were going to torture us no matter what, so I'm pretty sure he just decided, the hell with it, we're dead anyway, so I'm going to say what I want. I was really proud of him, even though I was practically hysterical, watching him suffer like that.

"Well, you can easily guess what happened next, of course. When they got over their shock at what Neville said, they did the Curse on him again, and let it go for a long time, I'd say about two minutes." Harry saw Pansy shudder. "I was trying so hard not to react, and probably doing a really bad job. They knew how it would affect me, and they were smiling while watching Neville scream. At one point I looked over at them, and I saw Malfoy with them. He just smiled and raised his eyebrows, like he was saying, 'remember me?' I was so furious...

"Finally, they stopped. Voldemort said, 'Bella, where is your sense of fair play? Let's see what he can do with his wand.' She threw his wand to him. He picked it up, but could really only get to his knees, he was still weak from the Curse. Lestrange said, "Well, Longbottom, let's see... I drove your parents insane, killed your grandmother-the Dark Lord, kind as he is, allowed me the privilege-and now I can make it a clean sweep. But should you join your parents or your grandmother, that's the question...'" Hermione shook her head. "I'm sorry, this is hard to say all at once. That people can be so inhuman, so despicable..."

She paused for a minute, trying to hold back tears, then continued. "She said she heard Neville could do your new spells, and she wanted to see them for herself. Then she did the Curse again, and even though he had his wand, he couldn't bring up the shield, and it hit him. They all laughed, and somebody said, 'Potter should have given him more lessons.' She whisked his wand away, then Voldemort looked at me. He said, 'First, Mudblood, there is a little business to settle from last month, for your disrespect.' Then he did the Curse on me, I'm not sure for how long. Then he asked me what I had done that day, what my role was in what happened. I said I didn't remember, although I knew he would know I was lying. He said that Neville would suffer until I changed my mind. Neville yelled, 'Don't tell-' and he was interrupted by the Curse, but I knew what he wanted, of course. I knew it was like I said before-we were going to die, it was just a question of when and how. I had decided I wasn't going to tell them no matter what, but watching Neville, I was starting to weaken. Then I realized that Voldemort could take it from me using Legilimency anyway, and he was just doing it that way for entertainment, to see how long I'd watch Neville suffer before I broke down and told them. I was just opening my mouth to tell them when Harry and Fawkes appeared. I was so relieved, it was like one of those Muggle movies where the cavalry comes over the hill. Not even so much that I wouldn't have to tell them what I knew, of course, but so Neville wouldn't have to suffer anymore... it was so horrible."

Harry was suddenly aware of how much effort it had been for her to tell the story while keeping control of her emotions. She looked at Kingsley and said, "Is it all right if I go see Neville now?" He nodded, and she got up. Ron, sitting next to her, got up as well, and reached out to hug her. She fell into his arms and started to sob; he held her and tried not to do so himself. After a minute, she thanked Ron, and left.

Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Pansy all exchanged glances, all very emotionally affected by what their friends had suffered. Kingsley spoke, addressing the practicalities of the situation. "Obviously, Neville's going to be out of action for a while. At least a few weeks, probably more. If an Auror went through what he did, they'd probably be off for a month.

"Unfortunately, much as we all care about Neville, we still have to keep dealing with this Apparation problem. Also, I don't want to make any assumptions about Hermione's status. She went through a lot, too, and might need some time, though if she says she can return soon I'll be inclined to accept it. But we have to work out what to do in the meantime. Harry, you and Ginny may have to just do twelve-hour ready status shifts for the time being." They nodded, indicating that it was no problem.

Ron spoke up. "The last time we were tested was three weeks ago, " he pointed out. "It's not impossible that Pansy or I could have reached 100 by now and be able to do the spells. It's worth checking."

"I'm not thrilled at all with the idea of Pansy going out on calls," interjected Harry. "I mean, the whole point of her being at the Burrow-"

"You think I like it, Harry?" Ron challenged him. "I don't, I really don't. But we've talked about it-we've had a lot of time for talking over the past few days," he said, as Harry realized this was his way of expressing that he and Pansy hadn't felt very useful, and wanted to be doing what the others were doing. "She really wants to do this, and I have to accept that, even if I don't like it."

"Look what just happened to Neville and Hermione, Harry," Pansy pointed out. "I'm certainly not in any worse danger than that, or than you if you got captured. I know what could happen, but I'd be surrounded by ten Aurors. It just doesn't seem that likely that anything would happen. But even if it was more likely, I'd still want to do this."

Harry was silent, unhappy but understanding her reasons. Kingsley nodded. "I was going to suggest testing you two, actually. I, we, appreciate your desire to help." He made eye contact with both, making the point that he was grateful even if they turned out not to be able to do the spells. "Let's do it now. Ron, you first."

Kingsley stood and put the measuring spell on himself. "Harry, a test, please?" Harry fired Blue, and as expected, a gold 100 hung in the air for a second , then vanished. Kingsley gestured to Ron. Ron had his eyes closed, obviously concentrating. Then he opened them and fired at Kingsley. A gold 99 hovered in the air. Ron winced, his disappointment and frustration obvious. "Don't be discouraged, Ron," Kingsley advised him. "That's progress from last time. Just give it more time, it looks obvious that you're almost there. You'll get it." Harry caught Ron's eye and nodded, hoping to reinforce Kingsley's thought.

Pansy stood and gave Ron a short kiss before taking position in front of Kingsley. She too concentrated, then fired, and was rewarded with a 100. She smiled and made a brief gesture of triumph. Harry and Ron exchanged a look that made it clear that both had mixed emotions. When Pansy looked at Ron, he smiled, clearly not wanting to be unsupportive of her achievement.

"Okay, Pansy, looks like this means you're in," said Kingsley. "We're going to want you for noon-to-midnight, the one we lost Neville from. I know that after what just happened you may not be that tired, but you need to try to sleep. We'd like you here by noon, but more importantly, I don't want you here until you've had six hours of sleep.

"And one other thing... I hate to do this, but we have to be 100% certain that you can actually do the spells."

Pansy nodded slowly. "I knew that. I'm not looking forward to it, but it's a small price to pay for being able to do this."

"Are you sure you know exactly what to do, Pansy?" asked Harry, concerned.

"Yes, I've heard you describe it lots of times, I know what to do." She concentrated, obviously summoning feelings of love. "Ready."

Kingsley counted down and fired the Cruciatus Curse. The familiar shield came on, but as expected, a small portion broke through; Pansy screamed and fell to the ground. After Ron helped her up, she asked Kingsley to do it again, as had Neville and Ginny. He did, and the shield blocked the spell completely.

"Okay," said Kingsley. "If Hermione's back for the noon shift, we'll train you to Apparate and work on your response speed. If she's not, one of us will escort you if we get a call. After what happened, I'm hoping for a quiet night, or even that they'll give up. They lost three people tonight, and I don't think they have that many. But of course, we can't assume anything." He stood, indicating that the meeting was over. "Harry, Ginny, if you'd go out and take your positions. Ron, Pansy, get some sleep."

They headed out. Ron intercepted Harry and quietly said, "Would you stop by the Burrow before you go to Hogwarts? I want to talk to you."

"Sure," Harry agreed, wondering what it could be. Walking out to his post, he thought of what had happened to Neville and Hermione, and hoped he'd have a chance to catch someone.

The night was quiet, however; there were no Apparations from midnight to noon for the first time in a week. Harry wondered if this meant they had given up, but he doubted it. On their way out, Harry and Ginny passed Pansy, who assured them that she'd had enough sleep.

Back at the Burrow, Ginny went to talk to Molly while Harry went upstairs to look for Ron. He was in his bed, but obviously awake. Harry sat down on the edge of his, facing Ron. "When did you get to sleep?"

"About five, I think." Ron rubbed his eyes, trying to wake up. "We sat downstairs talking for a few hours after we got back. It wasn't like we were going to get to sleep soon anyway. We talked about what happened to Neville and Hermione, about the energy of love business, lots of stuff. I told her what I was going to ask you. She thought it was a good idea, although she was surprised I would do it."

Harry smiled a little, wondering if Ron was deliberately trying to keep him in suspense. "Maybe I will be too, if you tell me what it is."

Nervously, Ron looked at Harry. "You know I want to do what you guys are doing. You can probably guess how badly I want to do it, and that I was very unhappy that I'm stuck at 99."

"We don't know that you're stuck, Ron. This is the first time it was measured at 99. You could still be getting better."

Ron shrugged. "That could be, but somehow I don't think so. I've thought for some time that the reason that you four could do it and we couldn't was that you were couples, you were in love. Pansy and I were heading in that direction, just not quite there yet. Or we were there, but hadn't said anything. But now we are there... and, you know, it's great, I've never been as happy as I am now. I thought that with that, we both would be able to do the spells, to get 100. But, as you saw... I'm really afraid that that's as high as it's going to get for me, that there's something stopping me. I know you might say it'll just take longer for me, because of how I am, that it was hard to get used to this kind of thing. But I just don't think so. I've focused hard on love, I've said and thought things I never thought I would. I think I've got rid of that, but something's still stopping me.

"So, this is what I was thinking. I know you don't know everything about this, that you're still learning too, but you know more than anyone. You were able to show them how to do it, even though you didn't exactly know how to show them. If there's an expert, you're it. And now you're becoming a Legilimens, you can pull out thoughts and memories. I want you to... do Legilimens on me, to look around. I want you to try to work out why I can't do this, if there's something stopping me."

Harry looked at Ron in astonishment. His first thought was, wow, he really wants this badly, to ask this. After he took a few seconds to take in Ron's request, he said, "Ron, I'm not even sure I know what to say. I mean, first of all, are you sure you really know what you're asking? I mean, I could see-"

"You could see anything that's ever happened to me, no matter how embarrassing or private," Ron finished. "Harry, I know what this involves. I'm not ignorant about it. Hermione's told me what it's like, and that she trusts you. You should know I trust you too."

"I know that, Ron. But it'll be different than with Hermione. With her, I deliberately focus on love, happiness, things like that. If I do this, I'll have to look around at different things, and maybe the negative ones more than the positive ones. I could find stuff that you've forgotten, that you shut out because it was painful."

"I didn't know you could do that," said Ron, raising his eyebrows a little. "But I don't care." He stared at Harry, determined.

"You also understand that not only might it not work, but I'm not even sure what I'd be looking for. It would have to be a kind of thing where I know it when I see it, and maybe not even then. I might even have to deliberately call up things that are secret or embarrassing, because something like that is more likely to be the thing stopping you, if there is anything I can see."

Ron sighed. "Yes, Harry, I get that. I'm not saying I think it's going to be a barrel of laughs. But unless you tell me I'm going to suffer permanent brain damage, I'm not changing my mind. Like I said, this is you, you know how I feel about you. Or, you're going to very soon, anyway. Do you think I'd ask just anyone? Do you think I'd let someone like Snape tromp around in my mind, to dig stuff up? I know what I'm doing."

Harry had to try to keep a reaction off his face, amazed as he was that Ron had stumbled onto the very thing that was happening with him and Snape. He looked at Ron, and realized he wasn't going to be able to talk him out of it.

"All right. I assume you want to do this now?" Ron nodded. "Okay, hang on..." He raised his left hand and looked into the palm. "Ginny, I'm going to be a while longer with Ron, I'm not sure how long. Could be as much as an hour."

"Okay," he heard her reply in his head. "What's going on?"

"I'll explain later," he said, putting his hand down. To Ron, he added, "I'll tell her what I did in general, not the specifics, of course." He got out his wand. "Oh, before I start, let me just make sure of something. Have you told Pansy you love her?"

"Yes," replied Ron.

"Would you say you're 'in love' with her, not just that you love her?"

Harry felt that Ron had to push back embarrassment for a second before he answered. "Yes, I'm in love with her."

"Have you told her that?"

Ron thought. "No, not exactly like that. Do you think I should?"

"Well, yes. Not only so you can get 100, but also just because it'll make her happy. But it also depends on your reason. If you're not saying it because you're embarrassed, then you should say it. If it's because you're not sure she feels exactly that way about you and you're worried about getting hurt, that's different. The reason is important. I mean, last September, I told Hermione and Ginny that I loved them. The only reason I didn't tell you was that you would have freaked out."

Ron chuckled at the thought. "Yeah, that's about right. But would you have really thought it was necessary?"

"What I thought was necessary was that I'd be willing to say it, or rather, that embarrassment wouldn't stop me from saying it, even if something else would. I felt like I had to totally accept it and not be embarrassed by it, since at first, the whole thing embarrassed me. We've talked about this in the sessions, of course. I don't know that it would be like that for everyone, only that it was for me."

"I understand," said Ron. "So, let's get started."

"Okay. I think at first, I'm just going to do the basic stuff, like I do with Hermione, just to... I don't know, get a feel for your mind. Doing this with Hermione felt different than with Albus. Once I get a feeling for it, then I'll start looking."

Ron nodded, and Harry started. Calling up feelings of love, he found that thoughts and memories of Pansy predominated, followed by ones involving Hermione and himself, and his parents, especially Molly. He then called up feelings of pride or accomplishment, and found roughly what he expected: memories of winning the Quidditch Cup in fifth year and sixth year, winning the chess match against the board on the way to the Sorcerer's Stone, being named Quidditch captain and prefect.

Harry now struck out in random directions, wanting to see if he got lucky in finding something before looking in specific areas. He discovered that he was already familiar with most memories that came from after they met, but that they had a different feeling and emotional content, since they were Ron's, not his. Doing this, he found nothing that he thought might be important.

He looked now for happy memories in general, with no particular theme, and the fourth one that came up, to Harry's surprise, was Ron watching Harry in the first task of the Triwizard tournament. He felt Ron's happiness for him, but then felt Ron's embarrassment at feeling he'd been irrational in being angry at Harry and helping cause their argument, mixed with a feeling of inadequacy, of feeling he wasn't as good as Harry at most things, and would never be. He felt Ron struggle to put those feelings aside and be happy for Harry, and decide to apologize.

Harry retreated from Ron's mind. "Funny... I hadn't thought that this could be kind of awkward for me, as well as you. I'm sorry, I didn't know you felt that way."

"That's because you've never been Harry Potter's best friend," said Ron with a wry smile. "So you wouldn't see it that way. But yeah, that was almost a perfect example, even not thinking about the argument we'd had. I was happy and impressed that you flew so well, but I couldn't help thinking, 'I couldn't have done that well.' It's hard not to at least think that. By the way, is this relevant to what you're looking for, or-"

"No, I just stopped because I was surprised, I didn't know about it. But you're right, if I stop every time something like that happens, we could be here all afternoon."

Grinning, Ron said, "Yes, and I have a feeling my sister has plans for you. Good thing for you I can't peek into your memories."

"You'd definitely find some stuff," agreed Harry. He continued looking, and found that he unconsciously returned to the theme of Ron feeling inadequate. The first memory to come up was of when he had told Ron that a dream was of him trying and failing to stop a goal because he was angry with Ron and Hermione pressing him to do Occlumency more. He felt Ron's anger and shame, more intense than Harry had expected due to the Quidditch-related stress Ron had suffered for much of his fifth year.

He again stopped his search. "I'm really, really sorry about that," he said. "It was not only nasty, but not true. I was dreaming of getting past that door, and I knew I shouldn't, so I was probably nastier because I knew you and Hermione were right and I didn't want to be reminded of it. Anyway, especially seeing it from your side, I feel awful about it. I'm sorry."

Ron nodded. "It's okay, I understand. The way I was doing at Quidditch must have made a pretty tempting target. It's funny, probably we'd feel a lot differently about a lot of things if we could see them from the other person's side, like you are now."

"I'm sure of that," agreed Harry. "In fact, that's one of the things Albus has talked about at night. He hasn't done this yet, because it doesn't happen until you go to the spiritual realm, according to him, but he said that after we die we examine our lives kind of like this, but we see everything from the other person's point of view, and we feel how they felt. He said it's kind of part of our education."

"I'll bet a lot of people would act pretty differently if they knew that, and believed it," commented Ron. "Can you imagine what that's going to be like for someone like Voldemort?"

Harry shook his head. "Don't want to think about that, really. He'll be there a while, that's for sure."

He continued searching, but found nothing that seemed useful. He decided to try specific types of searches, starting with the idea of feelings of embarrassment connected to love. He found that Ron had felt acutely uncomfortable, more than he had let on, when they had started having the energy-of-love sessions, and that it had been an act of will to choose to take part in them at all. He investigated more closely, and found that Ron had had feelings, even recently, of discomfort with the sessions, as though the sessions were silly and he was humoring the others by taking part.

Harry stopped. "I think this could be significant."

Ron looked doubtful. "Well, I don't really feel like that. I know that it's a good thing to be doing, I know it makes sense, that love is important. It's only a very small part of me that ever thinks that way, only very occasionally. Sometimes you think things you know aren't right or true, but you think them anyway."

"I know that, but there's this feeling I get... it's like, you have those feelings because there's some part of you that's still embarrassed about the whole thing. Like, if anybody but the other five of us could see what you were doing, what they would think. You don't really think it's silly, but you do get embarrassed, and it's like, that kind of thought is a place you go in your mind sometimes when you get embarrassed. Like a safe place, to escape the embarrassment, so you don't have to feel it. I can totally understand it, but I do think it could be interfering with your progress. Maybe only a little, but in this situation, maybe a little is all it takes."

Ron slowly nodded. "So, what do you think I should do?"

Harry thought about it. "I guess, try not to have that thought anymore. If you feel embarrassed, don't run away from it, just let yourself feel embarrassed."

"I've already done that plenty, believe me," Ron put in.

"I'm sure you have," said Harry. "I guess I'm saying you should do it all the time, not run away even once. Don't let there be any place in your mind where you stand back and look at it from a distance. If you feel yourself going there, come back, and... embrace the embarrassment, I guess. That's what I'd suggest. I can't be sure, of course, but I think it could help. It's just a feeling I get."

"Okay, then I'll do that," Ron agreed. He was still very serious, and it again struck Harry how badly Ron wanted this.

Harry started searching again, and after ten minutes, found something else he thought might be important. After coming across a memory about Umbridge, he decided to look for memories of violence and aggression. A minute later, he found something: he saw Ron using the Cruciatus Curse on Malfoy, torturing him. Surprised, he stopped searching.

Ron spoke before Harry could. "How can you see that?" he asked, puzzled. "That never really happened, obviously. It's just a daydream. Not one I'm especially proud of, of course," Ron continued, as he glanced down in embarrassment, "but I'm sure you can understand why I've had it, with what he did to Pansy."

"I can definitely understand it," he assured Ron. "To answer your first question, I'm not sure. I'm still kind of new at this, and I didn't know I could see things, images, that were just imagination. If I had to guess, I'd say it's because this one is very vivid, very important. I'd imagine it helps you deal with what he did to Pansy."

Ron nodded, clearly still embarrassed at Harry finding it, but making himself talk about it anyway. "I think I first had it the night it happened, when I sat up all night in the infirmary. When she told me what happened, I was just so... even 'furious' doesn't seem to be enough, probably mostly because I was starting to have feelings for her at that point. I think I first had that particular thought that night, and I think I had it most times I thought about what Pansy had been through. It was just too painful to think about what he had done without the idea that he would pay for it somehow." He chuckled ruefully. "Seems kind of pathetic when I really look at it, which I never had before. Let me ask you, Harry... you must have felt like this, too. You're very close to her, and you're the one she did it for. How do you not have thoughts like that?"

It was a good question, Harry thought. After thinking for a minute, he said, "I think at this point I just channel it differently. Like I said a while ago, the thing with Lestrange at the end of the fifth year kind of immunized me. Thinking about torturing Malfoy wouldn't help me at all. Some conversations I had with Albus about Voldemort, about evil, probably helped. People like Malfoy, their lives are so empty because they're full of evil. Love is wonderful, but they're never going to really feel it, and I feel sorry for them. I think at some point I started seeing evil as... like a force of nature, or something. Like being angry at a hurricane, there's no point. I think with her, I just focused on her, trying to help her, rather than being angry at Malfoy. After she showed me what happened in the Pensieve... it was a struggle to accept it, because she had done it all to save my life. I told her how much I loved her, how proud of her I was, and of course I gave that speech. That helped a lot; I felt like I had done what I could. I don't know if you could easily do the same thing; you haven't had the experiences I've had. I think it's harder to draw lessons that really sink in from other people's experiences than from your own. I mean, look at what just happened to Neville. He knew my experiences, but when the time came, it didn't help him. He had to go through it himself, just like I did."

Ron gently shook his head in sadness. "Poor Neville... what he went through was worse than any of us ever have, even you."

Harry nodded. "That's for sure. I don't know exactly what we can do to help him, but I know we will. I suppose it'll be Hermione most of all."

"Is he going to get in trouble for that? I mean, it is seriously against the law. When you did it, nobody else saw, but forty other people saw him. I was worried about that."

Harry shook his head. "No, I asked Kingsley about that during my shift. Aurors have a kind of a code, I guess you could say. They're very close, as you know. They take care of their own, and they judge their own. They would turn him over to the Ministry if he had done something really outrageous, and if he had done it with deliberate intent. But, as Kingsley said, he was acting out of blind rage, and he had plenty of reason. No non-Auror except for us will know what he did, and they'll take care of him. They're extremely sad for him, just like we are."

"That's good, I'm glad they feel that way about him," said Ron. "So, anyway, do you have any suggestions for this Malfoy thing? Do you think it's really important?"

"I'm not sure. It could be. My... intuition, which Albus is always trying to get me to use, says that it is. It seems very possible that you can't use the energy of love if you're harboring violent thoughts and desires. I mean, I hope you never have to learn this lesson yourself, like I did, like Neville will. I'm very sure that Neville will end up feeling worse for what he did, not better. Maybe you can learn from us. Imagine how you would feel after you tortured Malfoy. You would feel empty, like I did. It wouldn't help you any, it wouldn't change what Pansy suffered. You'll be a better person, better able to help and support Pansy, if you can somehow set that aside and become the kind of person who wouldn't torture anybody, or even want to-even if they deserved it. I'm not saying it's easy, but it's the only answer I can think of. Remember what Albus said last year-what we do to others, we do to ourselves. If you can think of it that way-and I do think it's true-it may help you to not feel that way."

Ron nodded thoughtfully. "Okay, I understand. Well, that gives me a lot to think about, which is good, because I have lots of time. Do you think we should do any more, or do you think that's enough for now?"

Harry shrugged. "I suppose you never know what you might find, but these two things seem pretty likely, and I'm not sure how many things you could work on at once anyway. Probably stopping now is a good idea. We can always try again if it doesn't work."

Ron nodded, and they stood. "Thanks, I appreciate it."

"No problem," said Harry. He turned to leave, and was almost out the door when he heard Ron say, "Um, Harry..."

He turned and saw Ron looking down nervously, in what appeared to be serious embarrassment. Ron opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again, and it suddenly dawned on Harry what Ron was going to say. Harry had to squelch an impulse to say, 'It's okay, I understand,' as he realized that Ron needed to prove to himself that he could do this. With great sympathy for what Ron was trying to do, Harry kept his face as expressionless as he could. No jokes, no smiling, he told himself.

Finally, Ron spoke. Looking alternately down and at Harry, he nervously said, "Look, I know you know this already, but... I love you." Now Ron smiled in embarrassment, and Harry allowed himself to smile as well.

"I know, I love you too," replied Harry with some embarrassment. "And don't worry, I know why you said it. I'm impressed, you didn't work up to it, like trying it with Ginny or your parents. You did the hardest one first."

"Just decided to jump in the deep end, I guess," said Ron, and Harry was startled that again Ron had by chance used a phrase significant to him. "Besides, either you can do it or you can't. If I was going to deal with the embarrassment, it might as well be now. Ginny, Mum, and Dad will be easy now." Now, Ron smiled again, though not from embarrassment. "It was very hard not to make a joke about it, but I felt like it wouldn't count if I did."

"I can understand that," said Harry. "I thought of one, too."

"What was yours?" asked Ron.

Smiling, Harry said, "Mine was, 'now, when you say that, do you mean you're in love with me, or...'" He trailed off as they both burst out laughing.

"That's a good one," chuckled Ron. "Mine was, 'of course, I know there are things that Ginny can offer you that I can't...'" They laughed again, then Ron added, "Yours was better, though."

Harry shrugged. "Lots of possibilities for humor in there. Good thing Fred and George aren't lurking with a pair of Extendable Ears, we'd never hear the end of it."

"No way would I have even had any of this conversation if they were in the house at all," said Ron emphatically. "Good thing they're so devoted to the shop."

"Well, I should get going," said Harry.

"I'm going downstairs too, still haven't eaten," said Ron, following Harry out the door. They walked downstairs and, to Harry's surprise, saw Hermione in the living room. She, Ginny, and Molly were on the sofa, talking.

"Hermione!" said Harry. He sat on a chair next to her, and took her hand. "How's he doing?"

"Pretty bad, as I was just telling them," said Hermione, not looking too well herself, Harry thought; she was as shaken and depressed as he had ever seen her. "It would be bad enough if it were only his grandmother being killed, or only the thing with the Death Eaters, but for both... well, he's a mess, of course. He was going to try to go to sleep when I left. I hope he can, he'll need it. This is going to be really hard for him."

"And for you, too," Ron pointed out. "You didn't exactly have a picnic."

"So much more happened to him that I don't think about what happened to me so much," said Hermione. "I just spent most of the night trying to help him... by the way, Harry, I don't know if you know this, but Fawkes showed up and sang for a while. I think it helped both of us, it was sweet of him. And of you, since I know he wouldn't do that unless we were both people you felt very close to. Not to mention, finding us and saving our lives."

"I'm glad he did that, well, both of them," said Harry. "He really is a comfort."

Molly got up and headed to the kitchen. "There's not that much more I can tell you," Hermione continued. "I just, you know, tried to comfort him as best I could. Cassandra did too, she was in and out. There's only so much you can do, though."

"I know what you mean," agreed Harry. "When I-"

He interrupted himself as several owls flew into the room, each one dropping a letter into their laps. With a quizzical look at each other, they opened the letters as the owls flew off. Harry's contained no salutation or signature, and simply read: 'In your fifth year, your friends Ron and Hermione talked about your behavior behind your back, in very uncomplimentary ways. They wondered if the Prophet was right in what it said about you. What do you think?'

Harry looked up at the others, amazed. "What in the hell...?" he said to himself, as the others wore equally shocked or upset looks. "Are all of yours like mine? Saying you guys said nasty things about me?"

"Not nasty, in my case, but... something like that, yes," said Ginny, looking angry and confused. Harry and Ginny exchanged letters; Ginny's read, 'You should know that Harry thought about Pansy for a girlfriend before he picked you. He told her, but he didn't tell you. He must not have thought you could take it."

They switched back as Harry said to Ginny, "It's not a lie, strictly speaking, but this makes it sound bad, which it really wasn't." Hermione took Harry's letter as he took hers; Ron clearly didn't want anyone to see his letter. Hermione's said, 'You might want to take a break from self-righteous crusades for a while. Harry and Ron were just humoring you by signing your O.W.L. petition, and a lot of Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs were angry with you for risking their O.W.L.s. They didn't say anything because they were afraid of suddenly getting bad cases of spots, like the "sneak." And the house-elves at Hogwarts even dislike you! "She is nosing into our business..." "She thinks we is stupid, that we doesn't know about her silly hats..." When you can't even get house-elves to like you, honey, you know you have problems. The trials of always being right, of always knowing better than others. Life is so hard.'

"Hermione's is the longest, that's for sure," said Harry. "But who-"

Hermione gasped. "It's Rita Skeeter, it has to be. She called me 'honey' once, and who else could get this kind of information? She-"

Molly walked into the room, crestfallen, holding a letter. "What is going on?" she asked, looking at Harry. "Someone says that when Percy died, you and Ginny were talking to Fred and George about how you didn't really like Percy, that you didn't care..." She looked on the verge of tears.

Harry tried to keep down his mounting fury at what was happening. He knew the potential for emotional damage here was high; it was clear to him that whoever was writing the letters was putting events in the worst possible context. Making a sudden decision, Harry took out his wand. He approached Molly, silently erasing from her memory everything that had happened since just before getting the letter. As she suddenly looked blank, then confused, he took the letter and envelope from her, and put them and his wand into his robes. Then he hugged her and said, "I love you, Molly."

"Oh, Harry, thank you... I love you, too..." said Molly, looking pleased and a little disoriented. "That's strange, there was something I was going to say, but I can't remember... oh, well. I'm going to go upstairs, see you all later." She walked up the stairs.

He walked back to the others, who all wore stunned looks. "Are you crazy?" asked Ron in disbelief. "Do you know how illegal that is? Not to mention-"

Harry shoved the letter in front of Ron as Ginny peered over to see it. "Whoever's doing this is trying to hurt all of us, or turn us against each other. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to see her hurt like that, not about this. She suffered so much already."

"And this would just open up the wounds again, and rub salt in them," said Ginny, having read the letter. "I think you did the right thing, Harry, reading this. This would have devastated her, and even us explaining how it really was wouldn't have helped much."

"The common factor," said Harry, "seems to be to take true events but twist them, making them look as bad as possible. Sounds like Rita Skeeter, all right. Not to mention that it explains how she knows all this." He read aloud the letter Ginny received, then said, "What actually happened was that when I saw Pansy's attack in the Pensieve, one thing she said to Malfoy when he asked her if I loved her was that she didn't deserve me, and never could. I didn't want her thinking that, so I told her that in the months before I fell in love with Ginny, I'd thought about the idea of having a girlfriend, and that I'd thought about Ginny, but also about her, the point being that I never thought she wasn't good enough for me. The letter makes it seem like I seriously thought about it, but it was just daydreams, and I only didn't mention it to Ginny because it didn't seem important. I just thought it was important for Pansy to know, so she didn't think I thought she wasn't good enough. I have a feeling that all these letters will be like that. Ron, what does yours say?"

Ron looked as though he was trying hard to keep his temper down. "You may as well see it, you already know," he said shortly. Frowning, Harry picked up the letter. It said, 'I think you may not know that Pansy has been... intimate with Draco Malfoy. Harry and Hermione know, but it seems like they didn't think it was anything that would concern you.' Harry cringed and handed the letter to Hermione. To Ron, Harry said, "This is like the others, it's not as bad as it sounds."

"Did you see what that said?" Ron shouted. "How can that not be bad?"

"What is it?" Ginny asked, puzzled. Harry saw Hermione gasp as she read the letter.

Harry pulled Ron up from where he was sitting. "Come here, into the kitchen," he said, tugging Ron, trusting Hermione to explain to Ginny why she couldn't be told what was in the letter.

In the kitchen, Ron wheeled on Harry. "Okay, what is it? How can this be 'not as bad as it sounds?' It sounds pretty bad!"

Harry wished Pansy were there so she could tell Ron herself, but she was on duty with the Aurors, and Harry knew that Ron couldn't wait ten minutes, much less ten hours. "The letter makes it sound like it was something she wanted to do, which it wasn't," said Harry. "It happened the day after Easter vacation, the day Crabbe blew up. She was trying to get him to tell her how he was planning to kill me. He agreed to tell her, only if she let him... touch her," he said, hoping his tone indicated what he meant without his having to provide more detail. "So, that was her choice. Let him do that, and save my life, or not do it, and I'd die."

Ron stared straight ahead, his expression becoming anguished. He stared at Harry for a second, then slowly sat down at the table. "Why didn't she tell me?" he asked, his voice heavy.

"She didn't want you to have to know, to have to think about it. She wanted to spare you that. It wasn't that she was ashamed of it. Her exact words to me at the time were, 'it was revolting, but I'm proud that I did it.' She was proud that she was willing to do something that disgusted her, to save me. And there's a part of me that wishes she hadn't done it, even given what would have happened."

Harry could tell from Ron's expression that he was no longer angry at Pansy, but his emotions were still in turmoil. "I can imagine how you must have felt, being the one she did it for. Why did she tell you?"

"I think it was more the whole thing that she wanted me to see, not only that. That just happened to be mentioned. Malfoy was outraged that she did that, for that reason. We think it was one of the reasons he tortured her so badly, he was furious at being fooled like that. As for Hermione knowing, she just figured it out; when Pansy signaled, Hermione saw them in a couples' place on the map."

"So, if she hadn't signaled, right then..." Ron trailed off. "Harry, you know that daydream about Malfoy? It's coming back to me... and now, Rita Skeeter's in it too. Is this the part where I'm supposed to just think about love?"

"Kind of, I guess," replied Harry. "I can really understand why you're having those thoughts. But, yeah, I guess the thing to do is think about Pansy instead. Funny, I sort of feel... responsible, since I'm the one she did it for."

"I have to talk to her, Harry. I know she's on duty, but I have to talk to her."

Ginny ran into the kitchen. "Hermione just left. We were talking, and it suddenly dawned on her that Neville probably got one of those too. In his state..."

"Oh, my God," said Harry. "I hadn't thought of that. That's the last thing he needs right now. He probably has it already."

"Yeah, and given how much she hates Hermione, it's probably pretty awful," agreed Ginny. "We should get down there too, we might be able to help explain whatever it is. Neville won't know what it is when he gets it, or that it's deliberately distorted."

"Dammit," said Harry. "Okay, let's go. Ron, I'll replace Pansy for the time being, you can talk to her. Ginny, tell Kingsley what's going on, then see if Hermione needs any help with Neville." They headed to the fireplace.

Harry and Ginny walked into the Apparation detection room; Ron waited in the standby room, as only authorized personnel were allowed in the detection room. Harry thought that Kingsley might be off duty by now, but he was still there. Harry walked up to Pansy, who was studying maps. "Pansy," said Harry, "did you get a-"

She held up a letter of the same type as the rest had gotten. "What does it say?" Harry asked. She handed it to him silently, obviously upset. Harry read to himself, 'Hermione and Ginny don't think you can make it work with Ron.' He sighed with relief. "Thank God, it's not so bad. Listen-"

"What do you mean, 'not so bad?' What's going on, anyway? Who is this from, and why?"

"We think they're from Rita Skeeter, and that she's striking back at Hermione. We all got them. As for this, I was there when this was said, and it's not what she makes it sound like. They were worried that in an argument someday, Ron might, in a moment of anger, bring up your past, and it could damage your relationship. They were worried about you, not thinking you couldn't make it work."

Pansy thought for a few seconds. "I suppose I can see where they might worry about that. It would be pretty bad, and I've wondered about it too. Everyone got them?"

"Yes, and the reason we're here is that Ron needs to talk to you. The subject of his is what you did for me that day, to get Malfoy to tell you-"

"Oh, no," said Pansy, looking stricken. "How did she know?"

"She's a beetle Animagus, Pansy, she can be anywhere. She must have been in the room and we couldn't see her. She made it sound much worse than it was, in the letter. I had to tell Ron what it really was right away, I'm sure he was imagining much worse things. He needed to talk to you, he's in the other room. I'll fill in for you, take as much time as you need."

"Thank you, Harry," she said, and rushed out of the room. Harry looked around and saw Ginny finish talking to Kingsley, then head out, he assumed to Neville's quarters.

Kingsley walked over to Harry. "Well," he said gravely, "it appears that what Hermione did with Skeeter was not the swiftest of ideas."

"Certainly seems that way now," agreed Harry, keeping an eye on the map board, trying to be ready to Disapparate at a second's notice.

"Now, how did she do this? She just hung around you and your group for two years, since Hermione caught her?"

"At least at some times, anyway," said Harry. "Some of the information is from two years ago, some from last year, even some from this summer. So, probably she was around at various times. We don't know how much. We don't know for certain that it was her, but Hermione's sure, and it makes sense."

"So, she could have been around at any point when you were in for training, she could have heard me telling you about the Auror code."

Harry nodded. "Yes, she could."

Kingsley took a breath. "That is... less than ideal. That is really not something I would like to see printed in the Prophet."

"I wouldn't think so," Harry agreed. "But now that she's known, is the Prophet really going to print anything she got while illegally being an Animagus?"

"Hard to say," said Kingsley. "They sometimes toe the Ministry line, but sometimes not when they get something sensational. I have a friend at the Prophet, maybe it's time to give him a call."

"Sorry about the disruption," Harry said, referring to his replacing Pansy. "We're just in kind of a crisis mode right now. Bad enough for this to happen anytime, but during this time, and with Neville and Hermione..."

Kingsley nodded, and walked off. After twenty minutes, Pansy came back in. "Thanks, Harry, I appreciate it. We both did."

"No problem," said Harry. "Is everything okay now?"

"Mostly," she said confidently. "We still need to talk more-like, several hours, probably-but for now it's okay. I apologized for not telling him, I understand now I really should have. It's like what Ginny said to you, that she wants to share in your life, both the good and the bad. Ron said pretty much the same thing, even though we're not committed like you are; he wouldn't want me to shoulder something like that alone, even if it would be hard for him to know. But he understands why I did it, and I know he doesn't have the impression that that bitch wanted him to have. Yes, I'm a little annoyed at her," added Pansy sarcastically.

"Hermione's going to be more than a little annoyed if what Skeeter wrote to Neville is as bad as I think it's going to be," said Harry. "I should go see how that's going."

"See you later," said Pansy as he walked off. As he passed Kingsley, Kingsley reminded him to get some sleep at some point. He found Ron, and they walked to where the guest quarters were. Once they got close, they were guided by the sound of loud crying. They entered a room and saw Ginny holding Hermione, who was clearly in the middle of a prolonged cry. She looked up at Ron and Harry as if to tell them what had happened, but started crying again instead. Ron sat down to hold her, and Ginny took Harry's hand and led him out of the room. They found a nearby room empty.

"I guess I don't have to ask if it was bad," Harry observed.

Ginny took out a letter from her robes. "This is the letter Neville got," she said. Harry opened it and read: 'You might not be aware, but Hermione doesn't like your grandmother very much. Not so long ago, she said, "I'll be happy when I don't have to worry about what his grandmother thinks anymore." Wonder what she meant by that... You see, Hermione always thinks she knows what's right, so she'll be right there, ready to take over for your grandmother, telling you what to do. She also said, "Neville will be good once he's trained." How's the training going? And you know she's doing Legilimency with Harry, but you don't know that she's opening up your most private moments to him. He already saw what you did at the Burrow over Easter, and she's going to show him more. She could protect your privacy by putting those memories in the Pensieve, but she's not going to. It seems as though she doesn't have much respect for your privacy.'

He looked at Ginny glumly. "This is really bad, even worse than I thought it was going to be. That one about his grandmother... I can only imagine what he thought, especially in his state. I assume the quotes are accurate?"

She nodded. "I was there for both. They're exactly right, but again, taken out of context. When she said the one about his grandmother, we were talking about the idea of him moving out of her house, living by himself. You probably know that they'd been arguing about how he let his grandmother run his life, as she put it. Hermione was looking forward to his living on his own, so he wouldn't have to answer to her. But him reading that right now... he had to think she was looking forward to his grandmother dying. And the Legilimency thing, that's really bad too. What she said looks really bad if you don't know the whole situation, but she can't tell him the whole situation. How in the world is she going to explain that to him?

"Anyway, of course she was already with him when I got there, but it seemed to be going badly. He basically seemed to have shut down. I heard him saying, 'I can't deal with this, I can't deal with this.' Hermione was crying and trying to tell him what happened, but he just wasn't responding. Then Cassandra came in and gave him some stuff to get him to sleep. Hermione was mad at Cassandra, but Cassandra did the right thing. She wasn't going to get anything coherent out of him; she's barely coherent herself. They've both been awake for about thirty hours, had trauma... and now this. When Hermione was crying just now, she managed to say that she was afraid that Neville would leave her. I really don't think he will, but I can see why she's worried. I would be if I was her."

"How much had they been arguing about his grandmother?" asked Harry. "I wasn't really aware of that."

"It wasn't terrible, but there had definitely been stress. Neville's plans always depended on what his grandmother would allow, which really frustrated Hermione. She said at one point, 'he's a month shy of being an adult, but she still has him on a tight leash.' Glad Skeeter didn't throw that one in there as well. Hermione felt it wasn't healthy, that Neville should assert himself more. He's asserted himself in different ways over the past year that he hadn't before, just not with his grandmother. Hermione felt that he was so used to doing everything she said that he didn't think to question it, and she was afraid that nothing was going to change when he turned seventeen. And if nothing changed then, when would it? She was having visions of having to get his grandmother's permission to go on dates with him in five years. And I don't have it from his side, but I'm sure he was upset too. He probably felt that she was pushing too hard, or asking too much too soon. She was putting him in an uncomfortable position. So, it was difficult for both of them. Now, with his grandmother dying... you can just see him saying to her, the next time they argue, 'well, you got what you wanted, she's gone, you don't have to fight her anymore.' She obviously didn't want his grandmother to die, just to let go of him a bit, but it's going to be hard for him to make that distinction, especially at first. It's going to be hard for them."

Harry shook his head sadly. "I wonder if she timed this deliberately, if she heard about what happened and rushed those letters out. It would be really cold-hearted, but it wouldn't surprise me."

Ginny stood. "Come on, let's go back and see how she's doing." They walked back to the room Hermione was in. She was talking with Ron, and looked up at Harry and Ginny. "So you saw the letter," she said despondently. "What do you think?"

Harry felt he had to be honest. "It's bad. But I don't think you're going to lose him. He just needs to recover a bit from what happened. He'll see things for how they really are, in time."

"It's hard for me to think that right now," she said. "I'm too worried... and when I'm not thinking about that, I find myself imagining all kinds of grisly ways Skeeter could die. My favorite right now is, getting stepped on. Either as a beetle, by me, or as herself, by a giant. Either would be okay. I mean, you know me, Harry, I'm not a violent person. I was sad that Goyle died. But this is just so... sick, especially after what happened. The timing was no accident, I'm sure of it. To do this to someone who suffered what Neville did is just depraved. Morally speaking, she's no different than a Death Eater to me."

Harry didn't quite see it that way-Skeeter had committed no violence, and probably wouldn't-but he could see why Hermione did, and had no inclination to quibble with her. "It'll be okay, Hermione," he said. "It's really hard right now, but it'll get better. Come on, you should go back to the Burrow, try to get some sleep. Fawkes will sing to you."

Ron took Hermione's hand and helped her up, then put a comforting arm around her. They walked out of the room, headed for the fireplace.

It was almost three o'clock when Harry and Ginny finally made it to his Hogwarts quarters. Again very tired, they fell asleep almost immediately.

Harry found himself at the phoenix place, standing next to Dumbledore. "Albus! I'm surprised. I thought you weren't going to meet me while this Auror thing went on. I'm happy to see you, of course."

"Thank you, Harry. As I always am to see you. And I did not in fact originally plan to meet you, but circumstances suggested that it was a good idea tonight, or should I say, today. I personally will not have much to say, as I wish to keep the interruption of your sleep to a minimum. But it should not surprise you to learn that Esmerelda Longbottom is here, and has a few words to say to Neville."

"It does surprise me, I guess, because I hadn't thought about it," Harry admitted. "It was such a busy, and bad, day..."

"Very understandable, it was indeed trying. Before I summon Esmerelda, I sense you have a question. You wish to understand why I did not use my ability to incapacitate Voldemort during the confrontation, and perhaps facilitate his capture." Harry nodded. "The answer is, because it would have done no good. Had I done it before you arrived, the Death Eaters would simply have tortured Neville and Hermione for information as to how it happened. Had I done it after you arrived, it would have made no difference, as Lucius Malfoy was carrying the device which allowed their entire party to escape. They would simply have carried Voldemort away. By the way, you should know that your anti-Disapparation field was successful; Voldemort at one point attempted to Disapparate, but failed. I suspect this means that in all such future confrontations in which Voldemort expects to have contact with you, he will carry some such device as to provide a certain means of escape.

"I will now summon Esmerelda. Please also convey to Neville my love, and that of his parents." Mrs. Longbottom appeared, wearing what Harry remembered as her normal clothes. Her face, however, was kind and gentle, not strict and forbidding as he was accustomed to seeing it.

"Neville, my darling... I am very glad to have this opportunity to say to you things I could not manage to say to you before. First of all, I love you. I did say that on occasion, but not nearly as often as I should have. Had I said that as often as I criticized you, and vice versa, I would have been a much better parent. But your parents were right when they said I did the best I could.

"I want to apologize for focusing my attention on such things as achievements, ability, family honor, marks, and so on, when I should have focused it on the kind of person you are, which I now understand is far more important. You are, and always have been, a very good person. I did not understand or recognize that as I should have. I also want to make sure you know that you should not consider yourself in any way responsible for what happened. I knew the risks, and I chose what I chose. Please do not spend any time thinking you could have or should have done something differently.

"I know that my presence in your life was too constricting; I did not allow you the kind of freedom you should have had. We were both caught up in a dynamic that I created, but neither could escape. You were conditioned to seek my approval for things you need not have, given your age, and I wanted you to continue to do so. If Hermione and I have one thing in common, it is a tendency to think we are always right. It is a failing, both in her and in me. What has happened in the past day will give her the opportunity to see past it, if she can manage to do so. What Rita Skeeter did, and the timing, were not an accident. Things happen for a reason. You and Hermione have the chance to work out problems that you would have had to in the future, but with more difficulty then. Tendencies have not yet had a chance to become firm patterns, as they did with you and me.

"I know that you are not certain right now whether or not you will have a future with Hermione. You must make your own decision, of course. My advice to you, for what it is worth, is to stay with her. Mostly because you love each other, and partly because you will both have a chance to learn from this and change your behavior. Yes, you both; Hermione may be controlling at times, as I was, but you need not be controlled. You are a participant, you contribute to the situation. She is the way she is, and you are the way you are. She can change, and so can you. It will not be easy for either of you, but this is an excellent opportunity. Again, things do not happen by accident: there is a reason you two have found each other and fallen in love. You bring out in each other that which you need to change, in order to learn about yourselves and be happy, and love is a powerful motivation to do so. I know you both can do it; it is just a question of your willingness to make the effort necessary.

"What I want for you more than anything is to be loved and to be happy. You have it in your power to be both; the rest is up to you. I will be moving on to the next place now. You will not see me again in this life, but you will see me again. I love you, and always will. Goodbye."

* * * * *

Harry woke up at a few minutes after nine. Ginny rolled over to lean against him and smiled in such a way that Harry knew what she was going to suggest before she did. "So," she said, raising her eyebrows a little, "how about going for a swim?"

Harry chuckled and wondered if that was what she was going to call it from now on. "I'd love to, of course, but we could have time problems. Professor Snape said last night that while this Apparation thing goes on, if he calls me, it'll be between nine-thirty and ten."

She looked at the clock. "Okay, so we have twenty-five minutes. Plenty of time."

He smiled and kissed her. "I'm really glad, and lucky, that you are the way you are about this. It makes it really nice."

"Being with you makes it easy," she answered. She kissed him, and they stopped talking.

Twenty-five minutes later, at exactly nine-thirty, Harry's pendant vibrated in the familiar way that indicated a signal from Snape. "Wow, what timing," he said, wiping the sweat from his forehead. "One minute earlier would not have been good."

He reached for the pendant to speak into it, but heard Snape's voice first. "Was it not explained to you, Professor, that when I signal, your end becomes an open channel immediately?"

Harry and Ginny exchanged an 'oops' grimace. "Sorry, Professor, I forgot."

"Evidently," said Snape in a very dry tone. "What is your availability?"

"I'll be there in fifteen minutes."

"Very well," Snape replied, breaking the connection.

Harry lay back down and put an arm around Ginny, who snuggled on his shoulder. "Think he's going to make some remark about that?" she asked.

Harry's expression indicated his indifference. "He might. But obviously I don't take it the way I would have before, since the situation is so different. Then, it would have been at my expense in a mean way. Now, it would be at my expense in a way intended to be humorous. It's a subtle difference."

"Well, as long as you can tell," she said, amused. "Why did you tell him fifteen minutes? You could have gone now."

"I just didn't want to jump up and go right then. It's not like he expects me to come the instant he calls, which is why he calls a bit earlier than he expects me there."

"I'm definitely glad to keep you here for another few minutes," she said. "So, what was the thing in Ron's letter, anyway? I never did find that out."

"I can't tell you. It's something extremely private about Pansy, something that I knew about her but Ron didn't. Skeeter was taunting him about that."

"It must've been pretty bad. I saw Ron's face, and he was really unhappy."

Harry nodded. "That's partly because she made it sound worse than it was, but he didn't know that when he first read it. But I explained it to him, they talked, and it's going to be okay. Were you bothered by what was in your letter?"

"My first reaction was that it was just... strange," she explained. "Like, why is someone telling me this? It was just very odd. I was angry at the obvious nastiness of the letter, but I didn't take it that seriously, and then even less after you explained it. It was a very nice thing for you to say, actually, to let her know that you could have felt that way about her. Of course, it's easy for me to be magnanimous, I'm the one that ended up with you." She shifted position, resting on her elbow, and looked him in the eye. "You know what makes me really happy?"

Doing his best to keep a straight face, he replied, "Yes, but unfortunately, I have to leave in fifteen minutes."

She chuckled. "Besides that. What makes me happy is that... probably Skeeter spent a fair amount of time around you that you didn't know, some of it recently. She had opportunity to hear you talk, a lot, when I wasn't around... and what she wrote in my letter was the worst thing she could think of, to try to hurt us. That means that you haven't said anything to anyone that would make me feel bad if I heard it, that you haven't kept any secrets from me. Most people don't get a chance to find that out in the way I just did. It's easy to keep secrets, it's easy to say things about people when you don't think they'll find out. You never did that. That makes me really happy." She leaned over and kissed him.

"I'm glad," he said, her happiness causing him to feel a warm glow of contentment. "I never thought about it, really. I mean, I'm just so in love with you, I can't imagine what I would say, like that."

"I don't think it's a matter of how much you're in love," she said. "I mean, look at Hermione. She loves Neville a whole lot, but she said things that she's going to regret. And it's not as though Neville did something to make her say those things. There were just... circumstances in their relationship that were hard for her, like the situation with his grandmother, that we don't have."

"No, I'm pretty lucky with the in-law situation," said Harry.

"To tell you the truth," Ginny said reluctantly, "she obviously exaggerated and distorted it, but there was a lot that Skeeter said about Hermione that was more or less accurate. For example, Hermione is right a lot of the time, but she acts like she's right all the time, which makes her less able to deal with it when she's wrong. She made a huge mistake with Skeeter. She should have made her stop writing about us, but not stop writing altogether. She's been sitting around for two years with nothing to do but nurse a grudge, no wonder she hung around us. She was looking for ways to hurt Hermione, and she did it.

"I'm also sure that Skeeter was right about the house-elves, though the way she said it was cruel. I don't doubt they said those things. And I did hear that a few people were afraid to cross Hermione on the Astronomy O.W.L. thing. And where Hermione's 'I-know-best' thing hurts worst is with Neville. He's still kind of passive and... easily dominated, I guess, and Skeeter hit just the right note to hurt them both with the 'she's going to take over where your grandmother left off' thing. Neville's bound to think, do I want someone telling me what to do all my life? And if the answer is 'no,' he's going to start thinking just what Skeeter wants him to. I'm sure Skeeter would consider it a major victory to break them up. You can't hurt anyone worse than that."

Harry thought for a minute. "I guess one question to ask is, did Skeeter deserve what Hermione did to her? I'm not sure I know the answer."

"I think the question Albus would ask is, what were Hermione's motives? Did she act out of a desire to protect herself and you from lies being told about you? Did she do it on behalf of future people who Skeeter didn't get a chance to lie about and hurt because Hermione stopped her from writing? She might say she did, or even think she did, but it's hard not to think that her main motive was revenge. And if it was... like Albus said, what we do to another, we do to ourselves. Hermione's getting back what she gave out, only worse."

"But Skeeter started it," Harry pointed out. "Of course, Albus would say that didn't matter, that because someone does something that hurts us doesn't justify hurting them back. As I learned, the hard way, a year ago."

She kissed him on the cheek and looked at him with sympathy. "Of course, that's easy to say, difficult to do. If someone did something to hurt you badly, I can't say that I wouldn't dedicate my life to making them suffer... because you mean so much to me."

"I hope you wouldn't," he said seriously. "But I see the point. It is a lot harder in the actual situation, and I'm not inclined to judge Hermione." He looked at the clock. "Looks like I need to get dressed and get going," he said, reaching for the bag he had brought from the Burrow with clean clothes.

"Oh, sure, and leave me to deal with the dirty clothes strewn all over the floor," joked Ginny. "Is this how it's going to be when we're married?"

Smiling, Harry emptied the bag with the clean clothes and pointed his wand at the floor. All the dirty clothes flew off the floor and into the bag. "Never let it be said that I didn't do my part," he said as he got dressed.

"That's pretty good," she said, obviously impressed. "Where'd you learn that?"

He shrugged. "I don't remember that I learned it particularly. I think it's just an offshoot of what the Aurors taught me about moving multiple objects. Same idea."

"Well, you may be useful around the house after all," she said, as she too got dressed. "I'll meet you back at the Burrow." He kissed her and left.

He walked into Snape's office exactly on time. "Good evening, Professor," said Snape politely. "No doubt you are feeling... rejuvenated."

Harry chuckled. "She wondered if you would say anything. Sorry about that, I just have to get used to it. But I suppose I needed to feel a bit rejuvenated. It was quite a long, hard day. I assume you heard about most of it."

Snape nodded. "I have decided that I will depart from my usual practice and focus on the events of your most recent day. It will be useful for me to know more clearly what is happening." Harry stared ahead, focusing on love, as Snape accessed Harry's memories of the past day. He saw Snape hit all the high points: the rescue of Neville and Hermione, and Hermione's account of it, receiving the letters, and Harry's conversation with Ron. He saw Snape smirk when Ron mentioned not letting Snape look through his memories, and to his surprise, Snape positively snarled when he saw Harry and Ron joking about Ron's 'I love you.'

After Snape retreated from Harry's mind, Harry asked, "What was the problem?"

Snape glared at Harry. "Any branch of magic which requires two men to say they love each other has too high a price, no matter how otherwise useful."

Harry was not surprised that Snape felt this way, but rather at the strength of the feeling. "It's not necessarily a requirement, I think you know. It was just something Ron felt like he had to be able to do. But it seemed like what really upset you was our joking about it. People joke about that kind of stuff all the time."

"There is nothing funny about perversion," shot back Snape. Harry raised his eyebrows, but said nothing. Snape calmed himself, then said, "It is not my place to... editorialize about what I see here. I was simply answering your question. Do you think that Mr. Weasley will succeed in using your spells the next time he attempts it?"

Harry wondered if Snape was trying to deliberately move the subject away from his reactions. "My guess is that he will, and if he does, that the reason will be what he said to me. As you've heard me say before, I think that using the energy of love requires a total commitment to the idea, and Ron showed that commitment by doing something he was extremely uncomfortable doing." Suddenly curious about Snape's opinion, he asked, "Let me ask you... do you think I should try to teach this in my classes?"

Snape looked at Harry with disdain. "Surely you are joking. Having no hope of learning it myself, I am singularly unqualified to offer an opinion."

Harry frowned. "But you know what it is intellectually. You know what I had to do to get it to work, you've seen my memories. You can't give an objective opinion?"

"I cannot properly identify with what would be required of those students being taught, so I cannot speculate. You, Professor, are the person best qualified to make that judgment, and after that, those whom you have successfully taught. I suggest you ask their opinions."

Harry nodded. "I'd like to ask another question, if you don't mind... do you think Hermione was justified in what she did to Skeeter?"

Snape raised an eyebrow. "I gather from your use of the word 'justified' that you are seeking an opinion based on morality, which I am again unqualified to offer. My view is simply that an action is to be judged on its expected consequences. If the desired consequences outweigh the undesired consequences, and no more favorable actions are available, the action should be taken. If you ask whether I think Miss Granger's actions wise, the answer would be an unqualified 'no.' She acted from a position of strength that was expected to continue, but did not. If her objective was to cause Ms. Skeeter to cease publishing unfair articles, she could have conditioned her continued tolerance of Ms. Skeeter's articles on her evaluation of their fairness. Instead she prohibited Ms. Skeeter from writing altogether, an action with no purpose except its punitive nature. If her intention was to avenge herself upon Ms. Skeeter, she succeeded, but only for a limited time. So, as with all such decisions, evaluation of the decision must be based on what the individual hoped to accomplish."

Harry found it interesting that despite its lack of moral content, Snape's answer was nonetheless useful. It was in a way similar to what Ginny had said a short time ago, which Snape had not seen: that Hermione's action only made sense in the context of wanting revenge. "Thank you, Professor. That was helpful."

Snape nodded. "Unless you have any further questions, we are finished for the time being."

"No, nothing, Professor, thanks."

Harry moved to leave, but Snape spoke again. "If I call you tomorrow, I shall do so at exactly ten p.m. This may assist you in scheduling your... activities."

Harry couldn't help but smile. Very dry humor, he thought, but sometimes funny. "Thank you, Professor. I appreciate that." He left Snape's office, Fawkes appeared, and Harry went to the Burrow.

Harry and Fawkes materialized in the living room, after which Fawkes perched on Harry's shoulder. Ron and Ginny were on the sofa talking, and Molly in a chair, knitting. Harry asked where Hermione was.

"Sleeping," said Ron. "When we came back, I sat in her room and talked to her some more. I didn't want her to be alone with her thoughts. Fawkes came and sang, and she finally fell asleep at about five or so. We've been trying to be quiet upstairs, we want her to get as much sleep as she can get."

"Also, because the longer she sleeps, the longer Neville has, to be ready before she sees him again," added Ginny. "She's still going to be desperate to see him, and he may not be ready. It's hard to say."

"That reminds me, I'd like to get there a little early, maybe ten minutes, if that's okay," said Harry.

"No problem, but you'd better eat soon, then," said Ginny. "There's food for you in the kitchen."

Harry thanked Molly, and went into the kitchen. Arthur walked in, and said, "Harry, could I talk to you for a minute? Upstairs?"

Surprised, Harry nodded and headed upstairs. Arthur had never asked to talk to him privately like this before. Walking quietly so as to avoid waking Hermione, they went into Arthur and Molly's bedroom.

Arthur sat on a chair, and gestured Harry to sit on the bed. "There's something very important I need to ask you, Harry." Harry nodded, waiting for Arthur to continue. "You remember at that dinner a few weeks ago I was talking about Memory Charms, saying that I could recognize when one had been done. When I came home today, the first thing I noticed about Molly was that one had been done to her. A strong one, it was clear as day to me. Around the same time, Ron told me about the letters you all got. It's not hard to put two and two together. I would've asked Ron, except it was so strong I didn't think it could've been him, even if he'd been taught how to do it. So I'm asking, was it you?"

Solemnly, Harry nodded. "I assume Ron told you that the letters took information which was basically true, and twisted and distorted it so that it seemed much worse than it was?"

Arthur frowned. "Harry, I'm not questioning your motives. I know you, I'm sure you had the very best of intentions for what you did. But you need to understand that while we use Memory Charms a lot on Muggles because we have to, it takes the most extreme circumstances to justify using them on wizards and witches without their consent. The Aurors must have explained this to you when they taught it to you. It's against the law for a very good reason. If people could just do it anytime they wanted, even with excellent intentions, people's memories would be at risk, no one would be safe." Arthur paused, staring at Harry earnestly. Then he glanced down and shook his head a little. "And there you sit, Harry Potter, maybe the most courageous wizard of your generation, a phoenix on your shoulder as a living testament to your character. If anyone's earned the right not to have his judgment questioned, it's you, but I still felt it was important to say what I said. So, having said all that, I'm very curious to know what could have prompted it."

Harry had wanted to interrupt, but felt that Arthur had the right to say what he wanted to say uninterrupted. Now he said, "Arthur, the fact that I'm Harry Potter had nothing to do with why I did it. I don't feel like I have any special rights, or have earned the privilege of breaking the law. I just... very strongly felt like it was the right thing to do. Molly's been through so much pain, she didn't deserve..." Harry pulled the letter he had taken from Molly out of his robes and handed it to Arthur, staying silent for a moment as Arthur read, his eyes widening.

"After you and Molly went upstairs that night, Fred and George did ask Ginny and I what we truly felt about Percy's death, how it affected us, but what Skeeter wrote is such an exaggeration as to not be true. The truth is, we all had ambivalent feelings about Percy, and we all felt badly about it. We didn't feel like we really knew him, we still had anger toward him for what he had done to this family, and we were very upset for what you and Molly had to go through. We just needed to talk about our how we felt about it, and we couldn't do that with you and Molly around."

Arthur stared ahead, very emotional, but unexpressive. Then he looked down, and spoke. "It's not going to surprise you, I'm sure, to hear that I shared some of your ambivalence. I loved Percy, of course, he was my son. His betrayal hurt me worse than anything ever had, and I know I bear at least some responsibility for it. In the fight that drove him away, I was honest, but unnecessarily insulting. That doesn't excuse what he did, but... anyway, I can very well understand how you all felt. That was why what happened was so tragic."

Harry nodded. "I think we all kind of understood that. Anyway, Molly came out of the kitchen, holding the letter, tears were starting to come to her eyes... I just couldn't bear to think of it, that she should have to suffer this again. I just decided to do it."

Harry was sure Arthur was trying to hold back tears; Arthur said nothing. After a pause, Harry said, "If you tell me to, Arthur, I'll go and withdraw the charm, and hope that she forgives me for doing it."

Arthur shook his head. "No," he said quietly. "No, even though the principle of the law says I should take you up on it... but I love her, and like you, I would spare her the pain, especially as undeserved and spiteful as the letter is. I can't say I would have done it myself; she's my wife, and if spouses start doing it to one another... I do hope you'll never do it to Ginny, no matter the reason. But this is done, and I'm not going to undo it."

Arthur stood, and Harry did too. "Thank you, Harry, for being honest with me, though I didn't expect anything else." Harry felt like he wanted to say something else, but he didn't know what. He simply nodded and left.

When Harry got down to the kitchen, he looked at a clock and saw that it was eleven twenty-five, and he wanted to get to the Aurors' headquarters early. He ate as fast as he could, found Ginny, and they went through the fireplace.

Separating from Ginny, he headed toward the guest quarters. He knocked on the door, and after a few seconds, the door cracked open and Neville peeked through. Seeing Harry, he opened it, his face impassive. Harry walked in. He decided not to make small talk, feeling that Neville would be in no mood for it. "Neville, do you know who wrote those letters?"

He nodded. "Rita Skeeter. Cassandra told me, and she also told me that they're pretty exaggerated, but basically true."

"Not only exaggerated, but distorted," Harry pointed out. "In most of the letters we got, she makes something look really bad, but leaves out the information that explains why it's not really like that. That's the case for yours, too. Neville, if you take what she said seriously, you're doing exactly what this person who hates Hermione wants you to do. She'd like nothing better than to break you two up, to crush Hermione's spirit. She deliberately sent these letters right after you'd been through that horrible experience, so you'd be vulnerable. This is the kind of person we're talking about."

Neville looked pained. "I understand, Harry, and maybe you're right. But what she said in the letters... it really rang true. It's the kind of thing Hermione would do or say. She did try to pull me away from my grandmother, she did usually act like she knew what was best for me better than I did..."

Harry jumped in while Neville was pausing. "And those are important things that you need to talk about," he agreed. "But you can't take anything seriously that this woman says, she's trying to destroy Hermione. Neville, since those letters came, Hermione's done nothing but cry, until she finally fell asleep. She's terrified that she'll lose you. You have to give her a chance."

"I will, Harry. I wasn't planning on never talking to her again, or something. I'm just... this is really difficult for me too, you know."

"I know. We all want to help you, both of you."

"It seems like you're mainly trying to help her. That's all you've talked about since you came in here."

"That's because she can help you best, Neville, if you let her. I know what happened to you is worse than what happened to me last year, but if I'd had Ginny when Sirius died, it would've helped a lot. I mean, I can tell you how sorry I am, and how much I support you, but it's not the same as if she does. She can help you better than we can, and she would be right now, if not for Skeeter. That's why I'm here telling you this. It's for her, but even more for you.

"I'm sorry, Neville. I have to go soon, my shift is starting. But I have a few minutes, and there's something I have to go and get."

Neville looked confused as Fawkes appeared. Harry and Fawkes left, and were back in fifteen seconds; Harry was holding Fawkes' tail in one hand and the Pensieve in the other. Harry shifted his memories into the Pensieve as an amazed Neville watched. "I'll be back for it later, after my shift." He headed for the door.

"Harry... is this..." Neville gaped.

Harry stopped at the door and nodded. "See you later."