Harry Potter and the Ring of Reduction

Chapter 5

Harry Potter's Tragic Childhood

Twenty minutes later, Harry, Hermione, Neville, and Ginny sat in the girls' bedroom, two each on two beds, facing each other. Hermione had just finished relaying the conversation to Neville and Ginny, who, like Harry and Hermione, were appalled.

Hermione concluded by saying, "I wish we could have told Ron and Pansy, too, on an open pendant channel, but they're doing their shifts, so we'll have to tell them about it later."

Pained, she looked at each of the others' faces before continuing. "Also, before we talk about what we're going to do, I want to apologize to all of you, especially Harry, for getting us into this mess." Turning to him, she continued, "You're the one who's going to suffer most for what I did, whichever way we choose. I'm very, very sorry... I never would have done this if I'd known what could happen."

Harry recognized that it was true that he was in a dire position because of what Hermione had done, but he felt strongly enough about Hermione that he wasn't about to kick her when she was down. "We all do things we wish later we hadn't done," he said. "Why should you be any different?"

She chuckled ruefully. "I thought I was. Well, anyway... I want to know what everyone thinks, but I want to know what you think first, Harry, because this affects you most of all."

He didn't have to think long. "To me, the question isn't whether we fight her, but how we fight her. First of all, giving in to this kind of thing is just really bad on principle. If I gave in, I would feel I was living someone else's life, not my own. Secondly, once we gave in, we'd be hers to control. She'd know she could get us to do anything. I don't think I can live my life like that. It just isn't that hard a decision."

"Neville?" she asked. "She did make that threat about you. If you were convicted-"

"It's not going to happen," replied Neville confidently. "She has no proof. Even if she admits she saw it as a beetle and heard us talk about it, that's not proof. Also, the Aurors would back me up, to them it would be as if I were an Auror. We should talk to Kingsley before this happens, but I'd rather take my chances, for the same reasons as Harry said. I don't want to be under someone's thumb, and whatever happens to Harry happens to all six of us. We're in it together."

"Ginny?"

Harry had no doubt about Ginny's response, and he was right. "Do you really need to ask? Of course, we fight."

Hermione looked at them proudly. "I have a feeling Ron and Pansy will say the same thing-but when we ask them, we get their opinion before telling them ours-so now we have to work out how we do it, what we do, what our options are in terms of fighting her."

"I was thinking about this while we were still out there talking, actually," said Harry. "I was thinking that one thing we might want to do, or might have to do, is reach out, see what people we know can do to help us. There are some things that she's threatened, like writing a book about me, that we can't do anything about. But there are some things that we could do, or try to prevent from being done. Like talk to Kingsley about her threat to Neville; if they know about it beforehand, they might be better able to defend against it. Also, I could talk to Archibald and Hugo; Hugo could tell me the situation at the Prophet, whether there was any chance of getting them to refuse to print anything she writes. He wouldn't be able to do anything himself, but he could tell me who could. Archibald could help work out the question of how her punishment will work, and whether the Ministry could make the Prophet not print anything she writes, or even make the terms of her punishment that she can't write for any papers. We need to go on the offensive, we need to find out what the possibilities are."

"We also need to find out how we can protect Hermione from the legal consequences of what she did," added Neville. "If there are any."

Hermione shrugged. "At this point, I feel like saying I deserve whatever I get, but I know you guys feel differently, and I appreciate that. I understand the point, Harry, but in a way I'd rather take a couple of days before we start talking to people about this. Maybe there's something we're overlooking, something we can do to stop this before it starts. I'd like to at least think about it before we start telling people."

"What could we do?" asked Ginny. "Find something worse to blackmail her with?"

Surprised, Hermione glanced at Ginny to see whether she was joking. "No, even if that was an option, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't do it, in case it backfired like my other one has. No, I think I've learned my lesson. I feel like I'm in one of those Muggle children's dramas, you know the ones, Harry, that try to teach children morals. 'And what did we learn this time? Well, we learned not to do things we know are immoral, because they always come back to haunt us.'" Hermione wasn't usually this cynical, but Harry could easily understand her attitude.

"Anyway," continued Hermione, getting back to Ginny's comment, "no, it's not that I have anything specific in mind, but just that it might be good to have some time to mull it over, think more carefully about what to do. Also, we have to be careful about what we do that quickly. I mean, suppose Harry contacted Hugo, and Hugo started making inquiries. Suppose by bad luck one of those got back to Skeeter. As it is, she's not going to do anything for five days, waiting for our answer, but in that case she would know our answer, and start doing things right away."

"We probably shouldn't wait too long, though," suggested Ginny. "We do want to get outside advice before she starts doing whatever it is she's going to do. Maybe we should start telling people in two days, on Friday."

"That's all right with me," agreed Hermione, checking to see if it was with the others as well. "But one thing, I have to be the one who does the telling. Neville, you and I will tell Kingsley, and Harry, I'll be with you to tell Dentus and Hugo. And I'll tell McGonagall myself."

"Do you really have to tell McGonagall?" asked Neville, obviously thinking that would be highly unpleasant for Hermione.

"She's going to find out about it anyway, Neville. I'd really rather she heard it from me than someone else. I respect her too much for that." Harry could understand that, knowing he'd have felt the same way about Dumbledore, if it had been him. "Maybe we'll think of other things we can do, that might help us. Maybe she can help us in some way we don't know about. Obviously we don't want to tell too many people, since it could get around to people we don't want it to. But we should tell people we can trust."

"We have to tell my parents too," pointed out Ginny.

Hermione nodded reluctantly. "They know part of it already, of course, but... yes, I'm not looking forward to that, either."

"Is there any chance that she could get in trouble for trying to blackmail us?" wondered Neville.

"It's the same problem as with her trying to get me in trouble for what I did," said Hermione. "There's just no proof, nothing that would stand up at a trial. What she did is more obviously illegal, since she demanded money, but I doubt we could get her. That's something that Dentus could tell us, probably."

There was silence for a moment; it seemed that no one had anything more to say. Hermione spoke again. "Okay, we'll talk to Ron and Pansy when they get off shift. Obviously without you and Ginny, Harry, if you have a shift tonight. If you don't, it'll be the six of us.

"By the way, Harry, Ginny... I assume you did have a conversation about roughly what she said." They nodded. "You are right, Ginny. It was revenge. I didn't even realize it at the time, I just thought it was justice. But she was right, when she said I was a hurt little girl with more brains than common sense. That's what's so... really frustrating about all this, a lot of what she's said has been true. That, and the way I've treated Neville... it's just hard to face up to stuff like that about yourself, never mind in the middle of a situation like this, and what Neville and I have already been through..."

It had been clear since the middle of her last sentence that tears were coming. Closest to her, Ginny put an arm around Hermione and let her cry on her shoulder. After Hermione finished, she thanked Ginny. "I bet I'm going to be doing a lot more of that before this is over," she said as she wiped away tears. Recovering, she added, "I almost wish I were still doing the shifts with the Aurors, it would give me something else to think about besides this."

"Well, if you really want something else to think about, there's something Harry was thinking about doing, that we wanted to ask you about," suggested Ginny.

Realizing what Ginny meant, Harry corrected her. "Something we were thinking about. I'm trying to get her used to the idea that my money is now our money."

"That may take a little time," she said, "you may have to be patient with me."

"I am nothing if not patient," he said. To the others' smiles, he added, "Well, not really. But I'll try. Anyway, we were thinking about buying some stuff, getting a computer and whatever else is necessary to use the internet here. Arthur would like it, but it would be for anyone to use who wanted to."

Hermione's face lit up. "Oh, that's a great idea, Harry! Arthur would just love it, and it would be convenient for me, too. What did you want to ask me about it?"

"Well, we got the idea from seeing it in Dudley's room," explained Harry. "He said that it's not that simple, that to get it set up you have to really know what you're doing. So as you know, whenever there's something that requires a lot of research and will probably be boring and difficult, we think of you."

Neville and Ginny laughed, and Hermione reluctantly smiled. To Ginny, in a clearly sarcastic tone, she said, "It's when he says things like that, Ginny, that I can see why you can't keep your hands off him."

"Well, he doesn't say things like that to me," replied Ginny.

Still smiling, Hermione said, "I know you're just trying to make me laugh, Harry. I appreciate it. Sure, I'll look into it. My parents have it, of course, I'll ask them about it too. I assume you're hoping your part in this will be limited to providing the money?"

Mildly chagrined, he nodded anyway. "That would be ideal."

"Hmmm... I may make you do more than that, but we'll see. It's very sweet of you, both of you. And Ginny, you really should think of it as your money too, he's right. Neville and I don't have that issue, just because neither of us has much money."

"I was thinking," said Harry to Ginny, "that you and I should go on a shopping trip, get you used to the idea of using the money."

She smiled mischievously. "Better hope I don't get too used to it. But yes, I suppose you could talk me into it."

"Okay, I guess we're done, and I know you two need to go to sleep soon," said Hermione. "But there's another thing I want to talk to you about, and I'm really sorry, Neville, but..."

"That's okay, I understand," said Neville, standing up. "I know you have to talk about this with them from time to time, you don't have to apologize to me every time. It's really all right." He left the room and closed the door.

Keeping her voice down, Hermione said, "About this thing about not telling people for a few days, it occurred to me that Snape could easily find out, Harry. He could just look at what happened today."

Harry shrugged. "If he sees it, he sees it. Not much that anyone can do about that. But I'll know if he's seen it, and if he does, I'll ask him to keep it under his hat until we start telling other people."

"Do you think he would?" wondered Hermione.

"I'm not sure, but I think so. I think he understands the idea that what he gets from my memories isn't something he's going to talk about with other people, or use the information without my permission. I think he would understand why it has to be that way. He's been very cooperative about the whole thing so far, like the timing and stuff like that."

"How's it going, anyway?" she asked.

"Fine," said Harry. "He didn't do it for almost a week, when the Apparation thing started, but now he's done it three days in a row. I guess he went too long without it, but he did say that that kind of thing would happen. Nothing really significant has happened, except that yesterday he practically had a fit when he found out I did Legilimency on Malfoy." Harry explained why Snape had reacted as he had.

Hermione frowned. "He's right, I should have thought of that too. I guess I was just enjoying what you did to Malfoy so much, I didn't think of the possible drawbacks. I can see why he was so upset."

"He was really trying to control himself; he knows that screaming at me isn't going to do any good, and will only make it that much harder for me to help him. It's funny, though... when he uses phrases like 'breathtakingly foolish' or 'stunning misjudgment' now, it actually bothers me more than it ever did when he insulted me before, because I know now he's not trying to be insulting, but trying to choose a phrase he thinks is accurate. And like you felt with Skeeter at times, the truth hurts. I did Legilimency on Malfoy partly because I wanted information, but mainly to hurt and humiliate him, because it would, and I could.

"Anyway, other than that, it's going all right with him. The hardest part is... you remember that Albus said that I would have to 'come from a place of love' all the time when I helped Snape. Especially since he's on his best behavior, that hasn't been as hard as I thought it might be. But it's really hard when I have other emotional reactions at the same time. Like, I felt really stupid and embarrassed at not thinking of the thing with Malfoy, and it's hard to feel that way and be calm and loving at the same time. That's where this is a lot harder for me than it was for Albus." He paused, thinking about whether there was anything else that needed to be discussed. "Well, we should get going, we still need our sleep in case we do a shift tonight."

They stood up. Hermione looked as though she were trying to keep her expression casual, but she was clearly still anguished at what the consequences of her actions might be to Harry. "Harry, I-"

He cut her off with a gesture, then stepped forward to hug her. "I'm so sorry," she said in a small voice as he held her.

"It's all right," he said, hoping it would be true. "Whatever happens, we'll deal with it. Don't blame yourself."

She had started to cry a little, but she chuckled at his last words. "Not much chance of that. Of course I blame myself, it's my fault this happened." She hugged him more tightly. "But it's nice of you to say that anyway."

He shook his head. "She didn't have to do what she did. She chose it. She's far more responsible than you. Don't forget that." He let her go, and she smiled her thanks. Ginny hugged Hermione as well, and they took Fawkes back to Hogwarts.

Thirty minutes later, in the bed in his quarters, Harry finished his Occlumency exercises. Ginny was on her side, facing him; he rolled over away from her to try to sleep. He felt her move closer to him, a hand on his side. He rolled back towards her.

"You're still up?" he asked, surprised.

"Just thinking."

"About the Skeeter thing?"

She nodded. "About what could happen." Concerned, she looked closely into his eyes. "Are you scared? About what could happen?"

He looked back, understanding that this was what a life partner was for, to talk about how he felt in ways that he wouldn't to anyone else, that he preferred not to admit to himself. "Yes. I'd never say it to Hermione, of course, but... I'm terrified at the idea of the book. I'd rather walk through Diagon Alley stark naked than have her publish a book like that, knowing what she'd say... with her 'point of view,' with just enough truth to make the lies seem believable. I'm pretty scared of that."

She gently touched his face. "I can see why, I would be too. It may be small comfort, but the people who know you and care about you wouldn't believe it, wouldn't even read the book."

"I know. And you're right, it is a comfort, but a small one." He looked into her eyes and saw her love for him, her compassion, the sure knowledge that there was nothing she could do to help him that she wouldn't do. He moved closer and wrapped his arms around her. "What is a comfort, a big comfort, is... we saw what she tried to do to Neville and Hermione, and how close it came to working. I know that there's nothing she can do to get us anywhere near that point. I know I'll always have you. You, your love, are the biggest comfort I could have."

She squeezed him hard. "I'm glad, I'm very glad. That's all I really want."

They lay silent in their embrace for a minute. He said, "You know, it's a terrible thing to think, but I almost wish the Apparation crisis would continue a while longer."

She moved her head from his shoulder so she could look at him. "No, you don't. You just wish we could sleep in the same bed. But I know what you mean, I do too. It's so nice." She sighed. "Well, it's something to look forward to when I graduate."

"Two years seems like a very long time right now."

"I know we should sleep, we have to sleep, there could be a shift. But part of me wants to just lie here awake for seven hours, enjoying this, because we may not get to do it again for a while."

"We'll be able to lie here," he corrected her. "Just not sleep."

"Guess so. Well, I'll roll over, then." She did, and Harry moved closer to her. He put his arms around her from behind, his body close to hers. She let out a small moan of contentment. "I love it when you do that."

"I do too," he said. "It's another big comfort."

"For me, too," she agreed. They stayed in the position until they fell asleep.

* * * * *

Nine and a half hours later, at a few minutes before midnight, Harry and Ginny walked into the standby area, looking for Kingsley. He walked in from the detection area, Ron and Pansy behind him. He asked them all to join him in a meeting room, and in a minute all five were sitting in one.

"Okay, it's been thirty-six hours since the last Apparation," said Kingsley. "We had excellent reason to believe that there would be no more, and events seem to be bearing that out. So, we're going to change how we deal with this, and part of the change is that you six won't be here all the time anymore. We will want you on call, in a sense, but we're going to consider that the period when we need to respond to each call with absolute maximum speed is over. We've won that battle.

"What we're going to do for the next... we're not sure how long, is that six people are going to be on ready status instead of ten, but the ones on standby will go too, just a few seconds later. We think that's an adequate safety precaution in case of an ambush. Another precaution is that after responding to a call, the senior Auror on the scene needs to send an 'all clear' signal, or you could call it the 'it's not an ambush' signal, within two seconds. If they don't, it becomes a full alert, and all hands are called in, including you. We think that twelve Aurors can hold off however many of them there are for a few seconds, and we can arrive in force. Another aspect of this is that the ARA is being stiffened up; the penalty for a first offense is now two months in jail. After what just happened, we're assuming every call is a Death Eater attack.

"Now, as for how you fit into this... you six, or, five, until Neville is ready for action again, will be on call but not on-site. Your pendants will notify you if there's a call and the two-second 'all clear' isn't sent. When that happens, you should immediately Apparate to the detection room. Now, unfortunately, you're all at the Burrow, and can't Disapparate from there. So you have to get here in whatever way is fastest. If you're downstairs, head for the fireplace, and once you're in ours, Apparate to the detection room. If you're sleeping, Harry will call Fawkes, who will take the boys to the room, then go back for the girls. You get the idea. This way, we can use you without having to have you here all the time. If you're all right with it, that is. It seems like a reasonable medium-term solution. We know that once you're back at Hogwarts, only Harry can respond by Apparating, and we'll deal with that later. So, are you all okay with this?"

As expected, they all were, but Harry felt he had to mention something. "For now, it's only us four. I tested Hermione, and she's at 93. It's not confirmed that she can't do the spells, but it seems like a reasonable guess. I wouldn't want to test it."

"How did that happen?" asked Kingsley, puzzled.

"She's come under a pretty vicious emotional attack in the past few days, which you kind of know about already," said Harry. "My guess is that if you have a lot of very negative emotions in the front of your mind, you can't use the energy of love. We can't know, of course, but I think it's a good guess."

Kingsley sighed. "You're the one best equipped to make it, Harry. But this could be a problem. Does this mean we're going to have to be checking everyone all the time? That could get messy. Could you drop below 100 just from having a bad fight with your spouse? We need to know how this works."

"As you know, Kingsley, this is very new," replied Harry. "I don't know. My guess is that it takes something really bad to knock you below 100. I mean, Ron got a fairly bad, but temporary, emotional blow about ten hours before he got his first 100, so I think it takes a lot."

Kingsley still looked uncomfortable. "If you could test Hermione every day or two, as she gets better, it would tell us a lot about how this works."

"I'm not sure that would be a good idea. She was upset just that I asked to test her, and much more when she didn't pass. This is all very... mental. Being tested often when they're not at 100 might give people a stronger sense of being under pressure, and make it harder for them to get there. I mean, given what he's been through, I'm not sure that Neville would be at 100 now, either, but I haven't tested him because I don't want him thinking about it. I only tested Hermione because I had to. I think they'll both get back to 100 as they recover naturally from what's happened."

Kingsley now seemed positively annoyed. "I should have known that there would be teething problems with something this good. Could you four humor me and let me check you out?" He stood, cast the spell on himself, and one by one they all scored 100. "Well, that's something, anyway. Okay, that's about it for now. Any questions?"

No one had any. "Okay, just one more thing," said Kingsley. "Harry, we're going to take a bit of a break from your training, partly because we need to give our people some days off, too, and Neville wouldn't be up to it anyway. We might want to resume in a week or so. But while there's still some summer left, we were hoping you could start training us. We don't seem to be getting anywhere on the energy of love by ourselves. We wondered if you would start some sessions with some of us, in whatever way or group you think is best. It would be entirely up to you."

"Sure, I don't mind at all," Harry agreed. "I'll think about the details, and let you know in a day or two. It would have to be people who really want to do it, though."

Kingsley chuckled. "Harry, we all want to do this, really badly. We know what could be involved. I mean, for example, you're not going to meet anyone more... reserved than Dawlish. He doesn't speak unless he has to, but he'd spill his guts about anything you asked him to, to do this. There's no motivation problem."

"I guess I can believe that. Okay, I think it would be best to do it with the people I know best, for starters. That would be you, Cassandra, Tonks, Winston, and Jack. I'd also like Neville, so I could have help, and he knows you all too. I'll talk to him about it, and I'll let you know." Harry paused, thinking for a few seconds. "There's something else. I would want whoever does it to... how do I say this... you all can do the Killing Curse, like you did against that giant. I don't know this for a fact, but I really think it's the case that if you can use the Killing Curse, you can't use the energy of love. It's just a feeling, a very strong feeling. Whoever does this has to not use the Killing Curse, I mean, make a decision not to use it. I really think that's necessary."

Again, Kingsley appeared unhappy. "I can see why you say that, but it could be a bit of a problem for some of us, especially me. It's very rare that we use it, but there could be times when it's necessary. I don't like the idea that somebody doesn't have that weapon at their disposal if they really needed it. And I say 'especially me' because I'm a senior Auror, and in many cases where it's necessary to kill, I would have to give the order. I might not be able to do what I need to do in a bad situation if I accepted that. I'm assuming that for your purposes, giving an order to kill isn't that different from actually doing it myself, right?"

"I would think so," Harry agreed. "I don't know what to say, Kingsley. I see your point, but I think this is important. I suppose we could try it where the others decide not to use the Killing Curse under any circumstances, and you decide not to use it or order it used unless you feel you absolutely have to, where lives are at stake if you don't. I don't know if that's going to work, but it seems worth a try. You have to decide that it's an absolute last resort."

Kingsley was silent for a moment. "I don't know if I can even do that, Harry. I mean, I can't say it was an absolute last resort against the giant, but it was the right thing to do. I mean tactically right, not morally right. I don't like the idea that I can't decide to do something like that; it's not compatible with being a leader in the field. Tell you what, I'll think about it, and we'll talk again when you decide on the details of how it's going to work."

Harry nodded, then looked as if he had just remembered something. "There's something I wanted to ask Ginny, but I want to here, because you'd be involved too." Looking at Ginny, he said, "I want to do something, something I don't usually do, because this is over. I want us to go to dinner, in Diagon Alley, in some nice restaurant. Like the Golden Dragon, or something like that."

Surprise registered on everyone's faces. "Sure, I'd love to," said Ginny, recovering. "But you're right, it's not like you. What made you want to do that?"

"I'm not sure, it just seemed like a nice idea," he said. "It's like, I don't want to be cowed into never going out in public. Lots of people do stuff like that, and I never have. I think I'd like to. Also, I never had anyone like you to do it with." They exchanged a smile.

"Count me in," she said, clearly very pleased.

Kingsley looked amused. "Your first date. I assume I'm involved because of security considerations."

Harry became serious. "Yes, and if it's any kind of problem at all, I won't do it. I'd rather not inconvenience you at all for something like this-"

Kingsley waved him off. "Don't be ridiculous, Harry, you helped end this thing. You deserve something like this, and there'll be no shortage of volunteers. What day and time were you thinking of?"

Harry shrugged. "Maybe... Friday, seven-thirty?"

"Sure, no problem. In addition to the security, you should let me take care of the arrangements, and the reservations. I'd rather the reservations weren't in your name, because it could get out, and we don't want people knowing that sort of thing in advance. I'll talk to the restaurant manager, just tell him it's V.I.P.s, so when you go there, tell them that I made your reservations." Kingsley smiled. "Of course, even if you showed up unannounced and with the restaurant full, because you're Harry Potter they'd probably conjure up a table and move everyone over a bit. But it's better to do it this way. Okay, consider it done. And have a nice time, you do deserve it.

"One last thing, all of you, and you can tell Hermione and Neville too... as long as you're on the kind of detached duty you'll all be on, you'll still be working for us, so to speak. So you should feel free to wear those robes whenever you want to, at home or in public." Harry saw a proud smile break out over Ron's face, as he knew it would; Ron had been very excited to put on Aurors' robes. "In fact, it's kind of better if you do, in case you get called. Okay, that's it. Our thanks to all of you, and tell Hermione and Neville, too. Now, relax and take care of yourselves."

They thanked Kingsley, got up, and headed to the fireplace. "Wow, wearing Aurors' robes in public!" enthused Ron as they walked. "Pansy, we have to go into Diagon Alley tomorrow, walk around, what do you say?"

She laughed at his enthusiasm. "You just want to be seen."

"You bet," he agreed. "Especially by Fred and George, they'll have a heart attack... and knowing them, they'll do it at the same time. I also want to celebrate Malfoy being in custody. Before I wouldn't have wanted to do this, but you're a lot safer now, so I don't mind."

"Sounds great to me," she agreed. "And Harry, that'll be interesting, dinner at the Golden Dragon. That's the fanciest restaurant in Diagon Alley. You should have a good time."

His arm around Ginny as they walked, Harry said, "I don't know if this is part of what made me think of that, but it occurred to me that I've never been to a nice restaurant in my entire life. The Dursleys never took me, of course, and as a wizard there was never any reason to." He smiled at Ginny. "Now there is."

When they returned to the Burrow, it was twenty minutes after midnight, but Neville and Hermione were still up, sitting on the living room sofa. As Harry made his way through the fireplace behind the other three, he heard Neville comment, "So, I guess this means it's over, huh?"

Harry realized Neville was referring to he and Ginny not starting a shift. "Yes, it is." He went on to describe the Aurors' plans for them for the future, and the rest of the conversation as Ron and Pansy joined Hermione and Neville on the sofa, while he and Ginny took chairs. As he finished, he noticed the Pensieve on the floor near the sofa, and raised his eyebrows inquiringly at Hermione.

"I just couldn't bring myself to repeat that conversation again, or even hear it repeated," she explained, answering his unasked question. "But Ron and Pansy need to hear it, of course. I already put my memory in there, they can take a look at it."

Ron and Pansy were obviously less than enthusiastic at the prospect. "For pure entertainment value, I'd rather watch Harry catch Malfoy a few more times," joked Pansy. "But yes, I suppose we should." She put the Pensieve on the coffee table, and she and Ron put their fingers in.

Responding to Harry's account of the conversation with Kingsley, Hermione said, "When Kingsley talked about us being on call, he didn't mean Neville or I, I suppose?"

"No," agreed Harry, looking first at Neville, then at Hermione. "I think you'll be back when Kingsley and Cassandra think it's okay, and you," turning to Hermione, "when you're back at 100. You know, I'm really sorry I had to-"

She cut him off. "I'm the one who's sorry, Harry." With a wry smile, she added, "It's becoming my new mantra. But you were right, you did have to, and it was very smart of you to think of doing it. If I had gone out on a call, had to try to use the spell and failed... it would have been extremely bad. I shouldn't have been snippy with you."

Harry shook his head. "I think we'd forgive you much more than that, right now."

"Obviously you do, considering what we're looking at, because of me."

"It's not only you," he protested. "She was right, I knew and I didn't say-"

"Oh, please, Harry, I thought you knew better than to take anything she said seriously," scoffed Hermione. "You had just been through this traumatic experience, and were facing another summer with the Dursleys, and you were going to think about whether I had done the right thing or not? She knows the circumstances you were in, and she only said that to try to justify taking from you what she can't take from me. I would never have listened to you if you'd tried to talk me out of it. I knew what was best, after all."

Much as he wanted to, Harry couldn't argue with what she had said. He changed the subject, and they chatted until Ron and Pansy finished watching the memory in the Pensieve. "No, Pansy's right, definitely not high-quality entertainment," commented Ron. "But your bit was pretty good, Neville. Nice show of support." Neville smiled in mild embarrassment.

"Of course the four of you have already talked about this," said Pansy. "I think we don't really need to ask. Being her 'friend' is totally out of the question, right?"

Not answering Pansy's question, Hermione turned to Ron. "I assume you feel the same way?"

Ron nodded. "It really comes down to you, of course," he said, looking at Harry. "You're in it much deeper than the rest of us. And I saw your face when she mentioned the book, and I'd feel the same way. But I know you, there's just no way you would do this. Obviously, we're totally with you."

Hermione thanked them, and told them about the rest of the conversation she and the others had had earlier. They talked for another hour, about the Skeeter situation first, then other things as the conversation branched out. Finally at one-thirty, Ron and Pansy decided to go to bed, and Neville went through the fireplace back to his Auror quarters. Telling Pansy she would be up in a minute, Hermione lingered until the others were gone.

Keeping her voice down even though they were alone, Hermione asked Harry, "What happened with Snape? Did he have a session tonight?"

"Yeah, fourth day in a row," said Harry. "And no, fortunately, he didn't look at anything to do with the Skeeter thing. He went back to what he'd been doing before, going through my life year by year. He spent today's session at the end of our fourth year."

She raised her eyebrows. "That's good, but I'm a little surprised he didn't think this is worth keeping an eye on."

"Well, the other thing is what he usually does," pointed out Harry. "I think he only started looking at daily events because of the Apparation crisis and how it involved the Death Eaters. Now that that's over, he must not feel the need. He would consider the Skeeter thing just part of our personal lives, something he wouldn't have that much interest in."

"Well, thank goodness for small favors, anyway," said Hermione. "Okay, I'm going to bed too. Good night."

Harry and Ginny were alone on the sofa. "I guess we have to get back to our usual sleep schedule now," she said. "Somehow I think if we go up to our beds, we're not going to get much sleep."

"No, I guess we're better off just staying awake through the night, then going to sleep early tomorrow night," he agreed. Trying to keep a straight face, he continued, "It's about four and a half hours until people start waking up here. Now, what are we going to do with all that time?"

"You're just trying to torment me," she grinned. "What you really mean is, would there be anything wrong with taking Fawkes back to your quarters."

Now grinning along with her, he said, "Yes, that must be what I meant. But I wouldn't think so; Molly just wanted to be able to know where we were. We could just leave a note." She agreed, and they did.

Harry heard the footsteps moving down the stairs, and looked up at the living room clock. It was a quarter after six, which Harry guessed was the usual time Molly got up. He then heard the padding of slippers on the floor as she came into the living room. He and Ginny were on the sofa, his arm around her, their feet up on the coffee table, reading From Albus, To Harry together.

"Good morning, dears. Oh, it's so nice that you're reading that together," said Molly as she peered over their shoulders. "I've had a few peeks at it some days when I've been cleaning, it's really wonderful. Have you been reading it all night?"

"Well, not all night," said Ginny, looking up at her mother with amusement.

Molly feigned exasperation. "Do you see that, Harry? My daughter is taunting me. Give them an inch... Thank goodness you don't do that, you're much too nice to."

"No, he's much too embarrassed to," Ginny corrected her mother. Harry smiled but said nothing, hoping to avoid becoming involved in the conversation at all.

"I think it's cute that you're embarrassed about it," said Molly.

Speaking before he thought, Harry responded, "Well, I'm embarrassed about talking about it, but not..." He trailed off as he realized what he was about to say, and went back to reading the book as Molly and Ginny laughed.

"It's probably a good idea to think about where a sentence will end before you start it," Ginny suggested, then leaned over to kiss him. Molly chatted with them about the previous day's events, expressing her pleasure that the Apparation crisis was over, and that they planned to go to the Golden Dragon.

"Arthur and I went there once, for our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, it was very nice. I really wouldn't want to do that sort of thing so often, but it was a nice change." Molly spent a few minutes telling them about the experience, then headed off to the kitchen to start breakfast. Harry and Ginny continued reading until Pansy and Hermione came down a half hour later; they chatted with them about the contents of Dumbledore's book until breakfast was ready. Harry went upstairs to put the book away and see if Ron wanted to come down for breakfast.

"Well?" asked Pansy as Harry came back into the kitchen and sat down at the table. Arthur walked into the kitchen and sat down as well.

"He seems to be thinking about it," said Harry. "He said something, but I couldn't quite make it out. I think it might have been 'go away.'"

"Sounds like a good guess," said Pansy.

"Well, that could be your future, Pansy," said Ginny, deadpan. Pansy gave Ginny a mildly annoyed look as Hermione and Molly smiled.

"Come on, Ginny, it's way too soon to think about that. I mean, we just got together a few weeks ago," protested Pansy, though she clearly knew she was being teased. "Give us some time. It's a year before we could think about doing anything anyway."

"Well, you are both of age," pointed out Ginny, persisting. "You could have the Joining of Hands done." Now Harry chuckled, imagining what Ron's reaction would be if he heard that. Pansy gave Ginny a 'very funny' smile.

"You know, I hear people talking about that at work once in a while, since you two had it done," said Arthur conversationally. "Before that, I'd hardly ever heard it mentioned. People still think it's a bit strange, because it's so uncommon. And some of the younger men, you know how they are about commitment, they were joking that it should be called the 'Shackling of Wrists.' A few have asked my why in the world I would let my fifteen-year-old daughter have it done."

Molly smiled. "Did you tell them it was because your forty-nine-year-old wife thought it was a good idea?"

"No, but that would have been a good answer too," chuckled Arthur. "No, I just said, 'Do you think we would have allowed it if it had been anyone but him?"

Everyone at the table but Harry laughed. "Good answer," said Ginny, smiling at Harry, who focused on trying not to be embarrassed.

"None of the women asked me that, though," said Arthur. "Especially the ones with children, they know that we all want to see our children married well. One of them said to me, 'Six sons and one daughter, but you really hit the jackpot with her!'"

There was more laughter as Hermione said, "Arthur, I think Harry's starting to wonder whether you're trying to embarrass him, or if it's purely by accident."

"I'm just saying what people said, so it's their fault, not mine," said Arthur innocently.

"I'm just wondering, Arthur," said Hermione, "was there anybody who thought you did the wrong thing?. I mean, it occurred to me, some people who don't know Harry and Ginny might think, she was fifteen and a half, it's too young to let her make that kind of important life decision. She can always do it when she's seventeen, there's no hurry. Did anybody say that?"

Arthur thought. "Not in just those words, but something like that, yes. And a key phrase there is 'people who don't know Harry and Ginny.' I mean, I don't get the impression that you or the others thought that. It's not an unreasonable argument, of course. Or, you could say, it's a good argument on paper, but in real life... we knew perfectly well Ginny wasn't going to feel any differently when she was seventeen. The only reason not to do it was one that just made sense in theory. Looking at them both, talking to them, you just knew. So you could say, the lesson here is to not judge situations you don't really know."

Despite the potential for being further embarrassed, Harry was curious enough to ask a question. "Were you kidding, then, about the 'if it was anybody but me' thing? It could have been someone else she felt this way about, after all." Ginny looked at him sharply, an incredulous expression on her face. "Well, theoretically," Harry added hastily.

Arthur grinned at their interaction. "No, I wasn't kidding, Harry. And the point, I hope you know, isn't that you're 'Harry Potter' as such, just that it was you. We knew you well, we had already sort of adopted you, we knew what kind of person you are. It's not impossible that she could have fallen for some other boy, theoretically," he added, forestalling Ginny's objection, "who was a really good person, but we wouldn't have approved the Joining of Hands because we wouldn't have known them, not like we know you. But it has nothing to do with anything the public associates with Harry Potter."

"Another factor, I suspect," added Molly, "is that we fell in love in sixth year at Hogwarts, when we were sixteen; I was just a half a year older when I fell in love with Arthur than Ginny was with Harry. And Arthur and I were sure we would end up together, so it's hard for us to subscribe to the 'they're too young to know what they're doing' school of thought."

As she spoke, an owl flew in with a copy of the Daily Prophet, which fell in front of Hermione. Ron walked down the stairs, looking half-awake. "Morning, Ron," said Ginny. "Did you sleep in those?"

Ron glanced down at his Aurors' robes as he took a seat. "No, it's a bit warm for that. But I get your point, so I will say that yes, I plan to wear them at every available opportunity until the term starts. So if you'd like to make fun of me for that, go right ahead."

"Not quite so much fun now," said Ginny resignedly.

"Glad to hear it," replied Ron.

For the next two minutes everyone focused on eating; the only noise was the clinking of silverware and the rustling of Hermione's newspaper. Finally, Hermione sighed and said, "Well, Skeeter is now officially active. Front page of today's Prophet: 'Harry Potter's Tragic Childhood.'"

"They let her write?" asked Ron disbelievingly, as Harry winced. "While she's up on charges of being an unregistered Animagus?"

"Apparently so," confirmed Hermione. "I just read the article. It's pure Skeeter. Most of it's true, but she gives it a flourish, you could say, and makes it seem worse than it is. Which is quite a feat, in Harry's case, because his childhood was pretty bad. The article is favorable to you, Harry; you're the tragic, unwanted orphan, cruelly treated by uncaring, selfish Muggles."

"Isn't that pretty much the truth, though?" pointed out Ron.

"Yes," she agreed, "but it's just the way she says things. For example, Harry, you've said they never hit you. She doesn't say they did, but she implies that with all this other stuff, they must have. It mentions the cupboard under the stairs and Dudley's second bedroom, and how he bullied you, but at the end says how you nobly rose above such belittlements and are now nice to Dudley, even if you can't quite find it in your heart to forgive your aunt and uncle. It heavily emphasizes the Dursleys-are-anti-wizard angle. She makes Dudley look kind of bad, but redeemed, and your aunt and uncle are the true villains of the piece. Listen to this: 'All evidence sadly points to the conclusion that if the true story of how Harry was treated were presented as fiction, it would be considered 'over-the-top' and scarcely believable, and his aunt and uncle, two-dimensional caricatures with no visible redeeming qualities.' And of course, in true Skeeter fashion... you've said more than once that you think they were that way because of what happened to your mother, that her sister was scared of wizards because of that. No mention of that anywhere."

"Well, it's a good thing they don't get the Prophet," said Molly.

"Oh, they'll get this," said Hermione with certainty; Harry noticed that Molly looked distinctly unhappy. "Skeeter will have had it sent to them. Harry may look good in this, but she didn't do it to be nice to him."

"Could I see it?" asked Harry.

"You're going to read it?" asked Hermione in surprise as she handed it to him. "I thought you wouldn't want to."

"I don't, really, but I'm sure I'm going to be hearing about it, so I'd better read it so I won't be surprised to hear what's in it," grumbled Harry. He wondered how many times in the future he would be reading unpleasant articles about himself for the same reason.

The article was indeed relentlessly negative toward Vernon and Petunia, casting them in a worse light than even Harry felt they deserved. As he read, Harry realized the article's own special meaning as a message from her to him: it was part promise, it made him look good, meant to encourage him to be her 'friend,' but it was also part warning, as she understood that he had avoided discussing his relatives publicly and would not have wanted the article to be written. Harry felt the message was that if he became her enemy, the articles would get a lot worse. He felt a wave of despair as he remembered the threatened book, which would become a reality if he rejected her proposal, which he knew he would do. He glanced to his right and saw an extremely glum look on Hermione's face; he wondered if she had been keeping an eye on him as he read the article, and felt even worse about the difficulty he was in.

Finishing, he handed the paper to Ginny, saying, "Did you see the thing at the end, that little footnote that acknowledges that she's an unregistered Animagus, but swears she didn't use that ability for this article? That's the biggest lie here. I mean, there are things I said on Tuesday at Privet Drive in here, and she was definitely a beetle there."

Hermione nodded. "Yes, I noticed. I have to imagine it's for the sake of form, on the part of the Prophet. They know it's a lie, but they pretend they believe her, so they're covered, legally speaking. By the way, where did she get the quotes from Dudley?"

"That was from the day I caught Malfoy, just before I found her hiding in my robes," said Harry. "Pansy had asked him why his parents treated me like they did. I'm not surprised she used it, it fits with her story really well."

"It makes them look worse than almost anything else in the article, really," agreed Hermione. "He basically admits that they raised him to treat you badly. Your aunt and uncle are going to be furious, I'd imagine. What are you going to do about that?"

Harry shrugged. "I know this doesn't sound nice, but it is the first thought that pops into my head, and it's the truth: I really don't care. This article may not be exactly the truth, but it's close enough that I don't feel bad about it. They'll read this and think it's all lies, maybe lies I've told. They'll never recognize themselves in the article, and I don't care if they do. I'm just lucky I wasn't living there when this happened, I don't have to hear their reaction."

"How can they not recognize themselves, if what the article says is mostly true?" wondered Ron.

"When you get a little older, Ron," said Arthur, adopting a humorous tone that suggested he was older than he was, "you'll discover that people have all kinds of ways to avoid dealing with unpleasant facts about themselves-"

"Like deciding they're right all the time," put in Hermione gloomily.

There was silence for a few seconds, as the others were taken aback by Hermione's uncharacteristic attitude. Then Pansy looked at Hermione sympathetically. "You're starting to remind me of how I was last year, when every other word out of my mouth was something negative about myself. I seem to recall you and Harry telling me to go easier on myself, not to beat myself up all the time."

Hermione sighed. "Yes, but at least no one was paying for your mistakes any more. Harry's paying for mine, and he may for quite some time."

"How do you mean, Hermione?" asked Molly. "Wouldn't she be writing about Harry like this anyway, and wouldn't she have been doing it all along if you hadn't put a stop to it?"

"No, she wouldn't have the kind of information she does, if not for what I had done." Hermione took a deep breath, then explained to Molly and Arthur what Skeeter had threatened. "So, obviously, we're not going to do what she wants," concluded Hermione. "But unless we can do something to stop her, Harry's in for a pretty bad time."

Molly was clearly horrified, and even Arthur reacted strongly. "That evil, awful, despicable woman..." exclaimed Molly.

"But it's my fault, if I hadn't done what I did-"

Molly pointed a finger at Hermione. "You didn't make her become an unregistered Animagus and use her ability like that, Hermione. Don't you blame yourself for that. You're responsible for what you did, and she's responsible for what she's done."

Arthur nodded. "She's right, of course. Suppose you had turned her in, like you now say you should have done. That would be very reasonable, nobody would argue with that. Nobody, including you, would now be suggesting you did anything wrong. But couldn't she have just gone off and done the same thing anyway? Said, 'I can't be a reporter anymore, so I'm going to get revenge on the one who found me out by making her life and that of her friends miserable?' And would you be responsible for that? Of course not. So you're not responsible for this, either.

"You see, Hermione-and this gets back to what I was starting to say a minute ago, about how people avoid reality-we all create for ourselves what you could call our own narrative, our own story. It's what we tell ourselves about ourselves. For some people it's pretty close to the 'objective truth,' if there is such a thing, and for some, like Harry's aunt and uncle, it's probably fairly far away. But they couldn't live with themselves if they had to see themselves in terms of what they really did to Harry, so they tell themselves something else."

"I overheard them once," put in Harry. "They tell themselves that they were 'strict' with me."

"Yes, that's a good example," agreed Arthur. "It's all right to be strict, so they can tell themselves that and be okay with that. Though I wonder how they justify the cupboard-under-the-stairs thing... but I digress. If we more or less accept the idea that we should behave morally, but we don't, then we build a narrative that justifies our actions. Ironically, the narrative for someone like Voldemort would be very close to the objective truth, because he has no need to put what he does in any kind of moral context, or justify it to himself. To him, power is its own justification. As for Skeeter, she probably has a fairly twisted narrative by now. Probably one element of it is the idea that it's all right to be an unregistered Animagus. She might think, everyone breaks the law a little, so why not me, or, it's my body, I should be able to do what I want with it without having to tell the government."

"Another," said Pansy, "would be the idea that it's all right to write articles the way she does, that leave people with a wrong impression. She said it to them yesterday, with all these justifications. Articles would be boring, intelligent people understand, everybody does it."

"Another good example," said Arthur. "So if you look at it like she does-that it's perfectly reasonable to be an unregistered Animagus, to use that ability to get stories, to write those stories in whatever biased way makes them most interesting-then what Hermione did looks pretty bad. No doubt she feels totally victimized by Hermione, and so justifies just about anything she's done, or will do. Now, Hermione, part of my point is that you don't have to accept that. In your haste to blame yourself for what Harry may suffer, you overlook the fact that she's responsible for her own actions. All you have to ask yourself is whether what you did was morally wrong. I'm not so sure it was. You only made her stop writing for a while; exposure probably would have done it permanently. Once the charges against her start to go through the system, I don't think she'll be writing for the Prophet anymore. You gave her more of a break than you had to."

Hermione was silent, digesting what Arthur had said. "I could accept that, and partly I do... but the problem is, I've thought about it now enough to know that I did do it for revenge. So I am morally culpable, which makes it easier to blame myself. I do understand that she didn't have to do this, that she chose it. But thinking about what has happened, to Neville... what will happen, to Harry especially, but the others too... no amount of rational thinking can get me past that, at least not right now."

Harry remembered how he had felt when Sirius died, when the students died at Hogsmeade, and found that he could identify all too easily with how Hermione felt. He found that despite what lay ahead for him, he felt worse for her than he did for himself.

* * * * *

Neville came over at nine-thirty, and at ten Ron and Pansy left for Diagon Alley, both in their Aurors' robes. Harry sat in the living room talking to Ginny, Neville, and Hermione. At one point he went upstairs for a few minutes, and when he came back down, he was surprised to see Hugo Brantell standing with the others.

"Hugo!" he said, as they shook hands. "It's good to see you. What are you doing here?"

"I mainly came to talk to Neville and Hermione, for the article on what happened to them the other day," Hugo replied. "But it seems like you guys are already onto another crisis. You certainly have interesting lives."

"We live in 'interesting times,'" muttered Hermione.

Hugo noticed Harry's puzzled expression. "Hermione's referring to a well-known old Chinese saying, which I assume she knows because she reads a lot," he said, giving her a quick grin. "If you wish someone ill, you say, 'may you live in interesting times.' The idea is that most things that make a time period interesting are bad things. It's like a variation on 'no news is good news.' I mean, don't I usually show up after something bad has happened?"

"I hadn't thought of it that way," said Harry. "It does seem that we live in an extremely interesting time. But you said 'another' crisis. Did they tell you about it already? I was only upstairs for a few minutes."

Hugo chuckled. "You keep forgetting about my special powers, Harry. No, they haven't said anything, but their mood, combined with my understanding of general circumstances and, if I may be so immodest, above-average analytical skills, tells me quite a lot about the situation. Why don't I tell you what I've gathered, and you can tell me the rest if you want?" Intrigued, Harry and the others nodded.

"Okay... first, now of course I know what Hermione did with Skeeter: made her stop writing on pain of it being revealed that she was an Animagus. After Fudge was killed and Skeeter was exposed, Hermione lost her hold on Skeeter, and it's not a leap to imagine that Skeeter's spoiling for revenge. And since you six are a unit, she'll take it out on all of you, Harry being the fattest target. I'm not sure exactly how today's article fits into that, but I'm sure it does somehow; maybe she wants to start off being nice to you before she rips into you. Also, given the nature of the quotes in the article, and that I know you would never give her quotes, she's been following you around as a beetle. Finally, given the palpable sense of crisis here, I gather that she's made some threats, or is trying to blackmail you in some way. How's that?"

The four teenagers exchanged impressed looks. "Amazing, as usual," said Hermione. "She visited us yesterday, and made her demands. I was going to show you in the Pensieve, but now it looks like there's no point. We were actually going to call you anyway, Hugo, to ask for your advice and help. We're in a pretty bad situation."

He nodded. "Sure, I'll do what I can. But I'd still like to see what happened in the Pensieve anyway. It's not the same as being in person, but I can still pick up stuff that most people wouldn't. I might be able to get useful information."

Harry realized with a start that a reference to Snape would be included in that. "Hermione, would you come with me for a second? Excuse us, Hugo." He pulled Hermione into the kitchen. "She mentions the thing with Snape!" he whispered. "You can't show it to him!"

"Relax, Harry, I did think of that. I showed Ron and Pansy, remember? I edited out that part, and I will for Hugo too."

He nodded, calming down. "Sorry, I should have known." They went back into the living room. "Sorry, Hugo, it's just that there was something in there that I can't tell you, as much for personal as for operational reasons."

"It's all right, Harry," Hugo said humorously. "I don't expect to know every secret from every person I deal with."

"Bet you know most of them, though," replied Harry as Hermione put her memory into the Pensieve.

Hugo grinned. "I try to be extremely discreet." He entered the Pensieve. When he returned, he had an impressed look. "I must say, I didn't think she'd go quite that far."

"Like I said, it's pretty bad," said Hermione glumly.

"Yes, it is," agreed Hugo. "Now, my analysis. First of all, the bit at the end, where she threatened to reveal operational information... it was easy to tell that that's an empty threat, she's not going to do it if you refuse. Sorry, when you refuse. She knows the Prophet would never let her do it, and it would be too great a risk to her anyway. As for the book, and the other things she threatened you with, obviously she is very serious about that. The fact is, she hopes you'll say no. She wants the money and the access to Harry, but viscerally, she wants to make Hermione suffer even more, and she knows that making Harry suffer is an excellent way to do that. She thinks you'll say no, but she isn't sure; she knows perfectly well how the book will affect Harry, and thinks there's at least a chance he'll cave. If he did cave, she would intend to hold up her part of the bargain-there would be no book-but she would expect to own you, in a sense, that you'd be able to refuse her no request." He shook his head in wonder. "I've seen a few disturbed people, and she's definitely up there with them. One thing that might help you to understand why she's like this is that before Hermione clipped her wings, she was the star of the magical journalism world. She had access at the highest levels, friends, her articles were popular-she is right when she says that having a 'point of view' makes articles more interesting to most people. She had disdain for those of us who practiced balanced, 'boring' journalism. So, she had farther to fall when she did, and the fall hurt more. She had a big ego, and it took a huge pounding. When she said what she did about friends and family, I could tell that that hurt her most, the loss of prestige. That drove her to this sort of nasty revenge as much as anything else."

Listening to Hugo, Harry felt grateful that they would have his help. "So, now, the question is, what can we do? What should we do?"

"Well, Harry, obviously the facts of what you've done in the past year give you influence, and there would be high-level people in the magical world, maybe in the Ministry but also outside it, who would help you if you asked. The trick is to know who to ask, and to make sure the help is unconditional. You don't want to find yourself in a position in the future where someone is under the impression that you owe them a favor, any favor they choose to ask. You also, obviously, can't ask for anything illegal or unethical, as it gets you right into the same boat with a different person.

"Now, as to what I can do personally... what I would recommend is that you go on the offensive, and I can help you do that. I could write an article, an article that would bring all this out in the open. That she's followed you, that she's gotten information in highly unethical ways, that she blackmailed you for money and access. It is true that this would expose you to her following through on her threats, but since you were going to refuse her demands, she was going to do that anyway. This would put her on the defensive and make her look very bad, which of course she deserves. This wouldn't stop her from writing the book; as she said, nothing can stop that. But what it would accomplish is, first of all, legal consequences aside, she would never write for the Prophet again. I'm certain of that. Secondly, if she did find someone to print what she wrote, or just wrote the book, she would be highly discredited. Most people wouldn't even believe the things she said about you that were true. I think that as far as the book goes, that's as good a result as you could hope for.

"There would be one cost to doing this. Hermione, you would have to give an interview, and come clean about what you did two years ago, give all the details." Harry gave a start, which Hugo noticed. "I know, Harry, but this is going to happen anyway. Skeeter is going to give her account of what Hermione did as soon as she knows you're refusing her demands. At least this way, your version is the one that people hear first. We can get a legal opinion before I do this; I know she puts herself in very minor legal jeopardy by admitting it as opposed to simply being accused, but she'd have to admit it anyway unless she wanted to publicly lie about it, which I can tell she doesn't want to do. I'm sure, though, that nothing would happen to her. The other positive thing about this is that it makes Skeeter look even worse, that she's trying to take it out of Harry's skin for what Hermione did. Harry will come off looking extremely sympathetic. Hermione won't look so good, but probably no worse than misguided. The article would extensively re-quote the things that upset you, Hermione, and you would explain why you felt victimized enough to do what you did. A lot of people would understand, and also admire the fact that you were clever enough to figure her out and catch her.

"Very strictly speaking, what I'm suggesting would be unethical on my part, as my motive in writing an article is supposed to be only to inform people, not accomplish some goal." With a small grin, he added, "My article would have a 'point of view.' But it would still be far less unethical than any article she's ever written, and you guys are in a position you don't deserve to be in. Also, my article would be the truth; I can live with it very easily. So, if you'd like to take some time to think about it-"

Hermione cut him off. "No, we don't need to. We'll do it."

Harry's eyebrows shot up. "Whatever happened to deciding things as a group?"

"Not this one." She stepped up to him, her gaze earnest and determined, her voice full of emotion. "Harry, this is perfect. The best thing about it is that it takes the heat off you and puts it on me, where it belongs. And like he said, what I did was going to be exposed anyway. This is best for me, as well as you. But you have to know that I would expose myself to this anyway. I should be the one to take the consequences, if there are any. It's killed me that first Neville, then you, would suffer for what I did. Please don't argue with me. You would do this, in my position. It's the right thing to do."

Harry wanted to find arguments to make, but there were none; he knew she was right. He felt his chest tighten; he looked down, then at her, and nodded, resigned. She looked at him appreciatively, also saying nothing.

She turned to Hugo. "Thank you, Hugo. I appreciate this, more than I can say. Well, you can probably tell anyway even if I can't say. When would it be printed?"

"The Sunday Prophet is perfect. Her deadline is Monday, so that gives you maximum time to do whatever else you're going to do, and it also has the largest readership, which, while not ideal for you personally, Hermione-"

"I understand," she interrupted, hoping to forestall another objection from Harry. "That sounds good. When should we do it?"

"Probably Saturday. Better to do it as late as possible in case anything changes. For now, of course, we should do the one I came for. That is, Neville, if you're up to it. I waited a few days because I know this was terrible for you, and if you'd like more time, that's fine."

"No, now is okay," agreed Neville. "Just as well to get it over with now. I'm sorry, I don't mean-well, never mind, you know what I mean. You probably did before I said anything."

Hugo smiled. "Yes, but I find it makes people more comfortable if I let them say things instead of telling them what they were going to say. It's not me personally, it's talking about what happened. I totally understand."

As Hugo finished his sentence, there was a small explosion in the fireplace. To the shock of Harry and his friends, Dudley walked out.

Harry gaped in disbelief. "D-Dudley?" he managed to get out. Dudley grinned at Harry's astonishment.

After a few seconds of silence, Hugo stepped forward. "Hi, Dudley. I'm Hugo Brantell, a journalist. I wrote the articles about Harry over the past year, but not the one today, as I'm sure you know."

"Nice to meet you," replied Dudley. "So, you're the one that can read people's minds?"

Hugo chuckled. "Not quite-"

"Seems that way sometimes," Neville put in humorously.

"So, what am I thinking?" asked Dudley, obviously very interested.

"Well, as I was saying, it's not exactly mind-reading," said Hugo. "It's that I can tell a person's mood, and whether or not they're being truthful. Would you like me to tell you what your mood is?" Dudley nodded eagerly. "Well," continued Hugo, with the air of one who had done the same thing for people's entertainment many times, "your mood is mainly one of excitement at the moment. Not only excitement for doing something you're not supposed to-your mother will go berserk if she finds out you've done this-but also for just coming over here, to this other world you've heard about but never seen. You've wanted to do this for some time, but haven't had a good enough reason until now, to talk to Harry about the article this morning. And as I mention the article, I see that you're definitely not a big fan of Rita Skeeter, but at least you understand that Harry had nothing to do with it." Hugo smiled again. "So, how was that?"

Now Dudley was gaping. "Wow, amazing," he enthused. "Pretty cool ability, for a reporter. You don't even have to ask people questions, do you?"

"No, I do, they just don't have to answer them," joked Hugo. "But I let them do it anyway, just to be polite." As he spoke, Crookshanks came bounding down the stairs.

"Crookshanks!" said Hermione happily. "What are you-oh, I see, you're checking him out. So, what do you think?" After regarding Dudley in what Harry felt was a slightly haughty manner for a few seconds, Crookshanks rubbed his face against Dudley's shin, then turned and went out through the front door. "Must be going to chase the gnomes, he does love it here. Congratulations, Dudley, you passed inspection." To Dudley's quizzical expression, she explained, "You see, Crookshanks is part Kneazle, which is kind of a catlike magical creature. That's why he doesn't look exactly like a normal cat. Kneazles are well known for being able to detect untrustworthy people."

"Seems like kind of a strange talent," mused Dudley. Harry had never thought of it that way, but felt that Dudley was right.

Hugo turned to Neville. "Neville, Hermione, where would you like to do it?"

"The kitchen, I guess," suggested Hermione.

"Okay. Oh, and Harry, I'd like a few words with you, too, about rescuing them. And from Fawkes, too, if he can spare the time," Hugo joked.

"He should get all the credit, all I did was slow him down," Harry replied. "Sure, I'll be around." Hugo, Neville, and Hermione walked to the kitchen, leaving Harry, Ginny, and Dudley alone.

"Fawkes is the phoenix, right?" asked Dudley.

He remembers a lot from those articles, thought Harry. "Yes, he-oh, there he is," said Harry as Fawkes appeared and perched on Harry's shoulder. Dudley's eyes went wide. He made a silent request to pet Fawkes; Harry nodded, and Dudley did.

"Wow, really soft. So, what does he do?"

"Saves my life, mostly," Harry half-joked. "It's kind of hard to explain. He can travel from anywhere to anywhere in a blink, and can carry me, so that's often very helpful. The other thing phoenixes are well known for is their calming qualities. Just being around him makes me calmer. And of course their song, they're pretty famous for that." As Harry finished the sentence, Fawkes started singing, stopping after about twenty seconds. Dudley was clearly enraptured.

"Wow... I could listen to that for hours," he said. Harry noticed that it was the third time Dudley had said 'wow' in the past few minutes.

"I have, before," said Harry. "He doesn't do it that often, though, mainly when I particularly need it. Which is often enough, considering how my life is." He and Ginny sat down on the sofa, and he motioned Dudley to a chair. "Well, I don't need to ask, or to be Hugo, to know that your mother had a fit this morning. Hell, she probably had one just from the paper arriving, never mind the article."

"Yeah, she was surprised to get a whole paper, not just a clipping. Why did we get one, anyway?"

"Skeeter clearly had it sent to you. This is part of her campaign of harassment against me. She's written nasty things about me before; she only made me look good in this article so your parents would look worse by comparison, and blame me for it. She wanted Petunia to assume I cooperated with it, to make her and Vernon look bad."

Dudley nodded. "Worked like a charm, then. That's exactly what happened."

Harry shrugged. "Yeah, but it's like shooting fish in a barrel. All it takes for your mother to blame me for anything is my involvement in it in any way. You know that."

Dudley chuckled. "Yeah, I suppose. But it's been a while since I've seen her this mad. Dad too, a bit, but especially Mum. I did try to tell her that it was written by someone you didn't like, but I'm not sure she even heard me. Too busy ranting."

Harry was not at all surprised; in fact, he would have been surprised if anything else had been the case. "Here's the funny thing. She knows I'm a big celebrity in the wizarding world, and she knows that in the Muggle world, celebrities' families are often written about in the tabloids, and the celebrities would rather the stories weren't written, whether they're true or not. She knows this, but it would never enter her mind that this wasn't something I wanted. It would never occur to her to give me the benefit of the doubt. Just the opposite; she would always start out from the idea that whatever made me look worst was right, and go from there."

"But you can see why she was mad, though," Dudley pointed out, "and why she blamed you. It really looked like you were trashing them."

"Yes, it did, I wouldn't argue with that," agreed Harry. "I can see why they'd be really angry. But... I'm wondering, Dudley... besides what Hugo said, about wanting to see our world, why did you come over here?"

Dudley looked as though he didn't quite know how to answer the question at first. "I suppose I wanted to know what you thought, how it looked to you. I had kind of figured out that the article wasn't something you wanted, from the way you acted with her the other day. You were pretty mad. Also, you had chances to trash them in interviews for the other articles, and you didn't, you tried not to answer the questions. I wanted to be able to tell Mum what you thought of it, and that you weren't attacking them."

Harry made a gesture of indifference. "It's not going to make any difference, Dudley. She's going to think what she thinks."

Ginny spoke up. "Maybe, but it wouldn't hurt to tell Dudley anyway, since he's here. Maybe it will change something, you can't know."

Harry looked at her with affection, and took her hand. "It's not impossible that you're right, but you've never met his mother. I hope you never have to."

"Probably better that I don't," she acknowledged. "I'd have a few things to say, and there'd probably be a screaming match. But still..."

Sighing, Harry acquiesced. "All right, if you want to tell her something, Dudley, this is what you can tell her. I had nothing to do with the article, I wasn't interviewed for it, and if there was some way I could have prevented it from being written, I would have. The times I'm quoted in the article were from when I was talking to friends, and the reporter overheard... well, you can explain to her how that worked. The quotes were taken out of context, of course. And there were some things that weren't in the article that should have been. For example, I'm sure Skeeter has heard me say that I think your parents are the way they are about wizards because they're scared of them, but she didn't mention it. I have no desire to make them look bad.

"But, and you can say this to them or not, the fact is that the article isn't that far from the truth. All the quotes from me are accurate, and they're true. All of the facts she relates are true; it's her implications and the way she makes things sound that are wrong. If they deny that they treated me badly, then they're fooling themselves. Not that I care whether they fool themselves or not."

"The overall impression I get," said Ginny, looking at Harry compassionately, "is that you don't care what they think."

Harry shook his head. "I can't care what they think. That's... almost such a basic thing to me that I wouldn't have thought to even say it. I mean... it's funny, I never really thought about it like this before, but... a few times at Muggle schools, before I was eleven, I got complimented or praised by teachers. Not often, but occasionally. It always felt strange, because it never happened at home, not once. I remember a few times when I tried to get her to say something nice about something I did, like a good score on a test, something I made for art class, like that. She either brushed me off or criticized it; I never got approval from them for anything, not once. I learned not to expect it, or hope for it. I would have been..." he paused and shrugged, looking for a phrase, "emotionally crushed, I guess, if I had. I had to not care about what they thought, it would have been too painful if I had. It was my way of coping, I guess." He paused, and with a small chuckle, said, "Skeeter would have loved this, to hear me say this and put it in the article. Fits in well with the 'poor, tragic Harry' theme. Anyway, so I just can't care what they think now. And I wouldn't care to try to work it out with them, it would be impossible. You know how they are about this, Dudley. They don't like to talk about things like this, and they would never be willing to admit what they did, or apologize. There would be no point."

Ginny's grip on his hand had grown tighter as he talked. After he finished, she moved closer to him on the sofa and pulled him into a hug. At first mildly embarrassed because Dudley was there, he decided he didn't care. "It's all right," he said quietly. "It was a long time ago."

"I know," she said. He could hear the sadness in her voice. "I feel like I just want to hug you then, who you were then. I'm sure you could have used it."

His first thought was that that time was past, that it was too late, but he didn't want to say it to her. He just said, "Thanks," and they let go. Dudley was looking off to one side; Harry wondered if he was trying hard not to react. He knew Dudley hardly ever saw any displays of affection like that except on television, and would normally disdain them.

"Well," Harry continued, "that's in the past, and it isn't something I like to think about that much. Just don't see the point. I guess I just thought of it because it explains why I don't care what they think now. Anyway, Dudley... I'm not sure what else I can think of to say."

Dudley nodded, and was silent for a half a minute. Then he said, "So, are you still going to come and do that thing, so they can't, you know..."

"Sure. I don't have to like your mother, but I will humor her. Probably this weekend, but of course I have to talk to Kingsley. He's the one I was with the other day, he's a senior Auror. He needs to arrange for my protection while I do it."

"I was wondering, do you really need to be protected?" asked Dudley. "I mean, now you can stop that killing spell, and you're really strong, can they really hurt you?"

"Not very easily, no," agreed Harry. "I'm not even sure it's that necessary for them to protect me, not like it was last year. It's mainly to be careful, which I understand. There are other things they could do to me to kill me, and I'm important enough that they don't want to take a small chance. There's... reason to believe, and I can't be any more specific than that, that I'm the only person who can defeat Voldemort."

Dudley looked puzzled. "But that's not any secret, is it? I mean, I read about it in the articles, it's because of the energy-of-love thing, right? I thought that was the whole reason you found this in the first place, you needed it to fight him. From what you said, it sounds like love is like kryptonite to him."

Harry chuckled. "Good analogy, that's about right. I meant, there's other reason to think so. Anyway, yeah, they just don't want to take any chances. With all those attempts on my life in the past year, I can see why." Harry paused, then said, "Well, since you're here, let me give you a tour of the house, show you all the interesting magical stuff."

Dudley grinned. "Cool, thanks. Also, I was wondering something... Mum's gone for another couple hours, I thought maybe you could take me to that place that you said is like central London for wizards. I'd really like to see that."

Harry's face reflected his doubt. "I would, but it's not a good time right now, for two reasons. One, I'd have to be protected, and the Aurors are tired from all the work they've been doing lately. I don't want to put them out for something that's not really necessary. Also, I'd be recognized by... well, pretty much everybody, and approached by some people, who would also want to know who you were. Then, it would be like, 'This is my cousin, Dudley.' 'Oh, yes, I read about you this morning. Why did you need two bedrooms?' Or, 'Why were your parents so awful to him? Why should they hate wizards so much?' You get the idea; it would be like with Ron and Pansy, only much worse. It wouldn't be real pleasant for you."

Dudley nodded in resignation. "Hadn't thought of that. Too bad, I would've liked to see it."

"You will, someday," Harry assured him. "As time passes, people will forget about it. Well, let's show you around." They stood, and walked over to Molly's special clock. "First, there's this clock, which tells where every family member is, kind of. You see each person's name on one of the hands, see, Arthur's is 'work' and Molly's is 'shopping'... wait, there's one for me? When did this happen?"

"I think she had it done just before we got back for the summer," said Ginny. "She had Percy's changed to be you." They exchanged a look, remembering their sorrow for Molly at the loss of Percy. Harry briefly explained what had happened to Percy, then continued showing Dudley around.