Harry Potter and the Veil of Mystery

Chapter 16

The Aurors

Harry walked into the Great Hall on Friday a few minutes after noon, as usual, after teaching his last Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson of the week. He sat down next to Neville, across from Ron and Hermione.

"So, how was Herbology?" he asked. The other three had a Herbology class which ended just before noon on Fridays.

"Well, you remember that we have that with the Slytherins," Ron said, looking none too happy about it. "Malfoy made his first comment about what Neville said in the paper, about his parents. Scum that he is," he added, unnecessarily.

"It wasn't even very clever," added Hermione. "He just asked Neville if he'd seen his parents in the loony bin lately. We were all furious, of course. We knew he'd do it eventually, but still..."

"But Neville did good, though," said Ron, clearly proud. "He didn't answer for a little bit-half the class was watching, they wanted to see what Neville would do-and then Neville said, "I'm kind of busy now, Malfoy. Why don't we meet at the Quidditch pitch later, and we can discuss it?"

Harry laughed, since of course Malfoy was presently not allowed to go anywhere in the school except classes. "Good one, Neville," he said. "Well done."

Neville smiled. "Thanks, Harry. Professor Sprout came by later and gave me a big smile. Malfoy was really angry, and most of the class laughed, even some Slytherins, mostly the girls. I'm sure she wanted to, too." Neville's odd emphasis on the word 'she' made it clear he was referring to Pansy, whose name they didn't want to use in public in case they were overheard.

"I'm sure she laughed on the inside, Neville," said Hermione. "I should ask her about that tonight."

"Oh, that's right, you gave her the notebooks on Tuesday," said Harry, keeping his voice down. "How's that going?"

"Really good. We've talked for about two hours a night so far."

"Wow," said Ron. "How are you going to get your studying done?"

"It would be a bit of a problem if it continued for any length of time," she admitted. "I think it's just so new to her right now, having someone to talk to with no set time limit and no danger of being caught, like there always is when she meets Harry. She's just so keen to talk, it's like she's been really hungry for a long time, and now she can finally eat almost as much as she wants. I think she'll get full at some point. Anyway, I do some studying while waiting for her answers, but I'm just not going to tell her I can't talk to her because I have to study. She's a nice person, and she deserves our support."

"Yes, she does," Harry agreed. "It really is amazing what a nice person she's turned out to be. She was really good to me the night I woke up from the curse."

"How do you mean, Harry?" asked Neville.

"She was the one who was there, and she had to tell me about the ones who'd died. I just lost it, totally broke down. She just held me for a very long time, tried to make me feel better. Nothing was going to, of course, but she really wanted to. When you feel like I felt that night, you just need to know that you have a friend there, that somebody really wants to help you, even if they can't. It was really good of her."

"Well, you know how she feels about you, Harry," said Hermione. "I know she was happy to be able to do it. But I'll tell her what you said."

"How are you doing with that now, Harry?" Neville asked.

"You mean, the fact that the people died? It still bothers me, of course. Why do you ask?"

Neville paused, uncertain about whether he should say anything or not. "I... I've heard you." He looked apologetic. "I think you've cried every night now, for the past five nights."

Harry was embarrassed, but not mortified; he knew they would be understanding, even Ron, and wouldn't tease him about it. "Could you hear it, Ron?"

Ron nodded uncomfortably. "I don't want to intrude, Harry, I really don't. But those rooms are pretty quiet. I think you're trying to be quiet, you're just not quite managing it. We're concerned about you."

"Well, I guess I'm not sure what the normal mourning period is for people whose deaths you've..." Harry went silent, knowing how the word 'caused' would sound to the others, and to himself. He figured his meaning was clear anyway.

"Harry..." Hermione's tone and expression were pleading. "Look, what if, one Hogsmeade weekend I said I wanted to meet you in front of the Owl Office. You got there, were waiting for me, and a Death Eater snuck up on you and killed you. That wouldn't be my fault in any way, but I could blame myself, saying that you'd still be alive if I hadn't asked you to meet me there. That's what this situation is like."

"It's not exactly the same, since I knowingly put people's lives in danger," Harry said. "But I do see what you mean. It's just that... I know what all the arguments are, and they make sense. There's just something in me that won't let it go, that won't let me off the hook. Probably it's because they were so young, and death is so... permanent. I was able to forgive myself for you getting Cursed, at least partly because it's the kind of thing that, though it's horrible, you can get past. This is different."

"But Harry, Voldemort has to be fought... I know, I'm not telling you anything you don't already know, it's not rational. And I know I would have no idea how long would be a normal time for you to feel the way you do. All we're saying is that we're concerned. So... please don't be mad at us, Harry, but we went and talked to Professor Dumbledore this morning. We just wanted to know what he thought."

Harry shoved down his initial impulse to be angry; he could understand why they were concerned. He was silent for a moment, then muttered, "Bet I know whose idea that was."

Ron glared at him. "Well, then, you'd be wrong, because it was mine." Harry looked up, startled. Ron was giving him a 'what do you think of that?' look. "I may have the emotional range of a thimble, or whatever Hermione said last year, but I'm not too thick to know that there's a problem here. I thought Dumbledore might be able to do something to help you, or reassure us that it was normal."

"And what did he say?" asked Harry, interested.

"I don't think he said whether it was normal or not," said Hermione, "but he said it wasn't surprising. He said that he doubts that a sixteen-year-old has ever been put into this kind of position, and that this sort of thing may be the hardest thing for you about your position of leadership, maybe even harder than facing Voldemort. He said it's hard for him, and he's been doing it for many years."

Ron nodded, impressed. "He said he's lost count of the number of times he's cried for people who have died, all the times he's irrationally blamed himself. That made us feel a bit better. But then he said that however good your heart is, that's how much you'd suffer."

"That made us feel worse," said Hermione. "Basically, he's concerned for you too, but knows there's no way out except through, and the first time is always going to be the hardest. Not that it gets easier, he said, but just because it's the kind of thing that nothing can prepare you for. He also said that you can't truly understand it unless you've experienced it. I think that was his way of telling us nicely that we really can't know what you're going through, which I suppose is fair enough. It doesn't mean we don't want to help you, though."

Harry sighed. "I know, and I appreciate it, both of you. I don't know what you can do, though, or even what I can do. It's almost like something I can't control, as if my body is doing something it needs to do."

Hermione nodded. "Maybe it is, for all we know. Maybe that's why Dumbledore's not that concerned. Well, he is, but you know what I mean. Like I said, he doesn't seem to think it's all that surprising. I expect he would try to do something specific to help you if he thought there was something really wrong."

"If I'm still crying about it in a month or so, then I guess I'll suspect that there is," Harry said. "In the meantime, I guess we'll just see how it goes." He pulled up his bag from the floor, and started to dig some letters out if it. He had been getting more mail as a result of the Hogsmeade attack and the latest Hugo Brantell article, and had taken to shoving it all into his bag in the morning, rather that try to look at it as he ate breakfast. He paused as a standard Muggle-type letter fell out of a larger envelope. "Hey, this one's from my Aunt Petunia!" he said in surprise.

The others were surprised too; even Neville, who knew the least about Harry's family situation, knew enough to know that this was very strange. Harry started to open it.

"Hey, Harry, how do they send you mail, anyway? They don't have access to owls, after all," asked Ron.

"I guess you wouldn't know this, Ron, but-" started Hermione.

"I wish I had a Galleon for every time I heard you say those words," grumbled Ron.

"-Muggles post letters to one central, Muggle-recognized address, where they're received by wizards and then forwarded on," she finished, as if Ron hadn't interrupted.

"I must say, I'm surprised she even knows the address," said Harry as he read the letter. "Well, not surprisingly, she's annoyed. I knew she wasn't just writing to say hello. 'We've gotten ten owls in the past three days, including three copies of the article about you. It's nice that your friends saved your life, but what does that have to do with us? You even say in the article that we have no interest in wizarding affairs, and they go and send us things anyway! Can't they read? What is their problem? I gather they feel we should be interested, which they have no business deciding. Can't you do something about these people? You know how we feel about owls.' It goes on a bit more, but you get the general drift of it."

Ron made an unpleasant face. "Yes, Harry, it's nice that you survived a few deadly attacks, but the real problem is all that unwanted mail. The poor woman." Neville just shook his head.

"Like I can control what people in the wizarding community do," Harry agreed.

"Oh, dear, I hope nobody got the idea to write to my parents and tell them what I'm doing, or worse yet, send them the article," said Hermione anxiously. "I hate to think what they would think. Hopefully I'm not famous enough for them to bother."

"Save Harry's life a few more times and you really will be famous," said Ron.

"Aha, a disincentive," pointed out Harry.

Hermione gave Harry a 'be serious' look. "I'll deal with being as famous as I have to be, to keep you alive," she said.

"That's the spirit," Ron said. "No sacrifice too great."

"It would be a sacrifice," Harry said. "Believe me, I'm in a position to know."

"Harry, that makes me wonder... I've heard you complain about being famous, but are there ever any advantages to it?" asked Neville. "I don't mean people getting all excited because you're Harry Potter, I know you don't like that. I mean other things."

Harry thought hard; it was an interesting question. "Well, there's a lot of goodwill I get by being Harry Potter, but that doesn't seem to actually affect me very often. Also, sometimes when people are being nice to me, it's hard to tell whether that has anything to do with it or not. I guess there probably are advantages, but they're not obvious too often. Do you think I seem ungrateful about it?"

"I wouldn't use the word 'ungrateful,'" Neville said apologetically, "but I just noticed that you don't have much that's good to say about it. So I was just wondering."

Harry got back to his food, thinking about it. If only people didn't stare so much, he thought, it wouldn't be so bad. After a few bites, he opened up another letter and read it. It was along the same lines as was usual, with general praise for him and encouragement of what he was doing. Harry wished he could appreciate such praise more, but especially after the deaths, he was in no mood for praise of any kind.

He opened the next letter, an official-looking one. As he read it, he had a feeling of incredulity, as if this couldn't possibly be happening. Finishing it, he put his head in his hands. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ron looking at him. "What?" said Ron.

Wondering what Ron's reaction would be, Harry handed him the letter without comment. Ron's eyes practically bulged as he read it. "It's the people who make Chocolate Frogs... they want to put Harry on a card!" Neville looked awestruck, as did Ron. Hermione looked impressed, but not awed.

"Well, if you think about it, it's not that surprising," she said, as Ron and Neville looked at her as if she didn't quite appreciate the honor being done Harry. "Harry's always been famous, and that's one of the things they want when they put someone on a card. But the person on the card also has to have accomplished something in particular, something really noteworthy. Harry's done two such things this year: the spell, and defying Voldemort in the face of extreme duress. Considering that, Harry's an ideal candidate for a card." She regarded Ron and Neville for a moment; they still wore rather awed expressions. "Honestly, I think you two are more impressed with this than the spell Harry came up with."

"If you collected Chocolate Frog cards, Hermione, you'd be more impressed too," replied Ron.

Neville nodded his agreement. "They only make them for wizards who are really legendary," he said. "I'm not sure, but I think that Dumbledore's the only living wizard who has a card."

"Well, Harry deserves it, of course, but I'm sure the Chocolate Frog people are thinking that this will really boost sales," Hermione said.

Ron and Neville looked at her as if she had insulted Harry. "Hermione!" said Neville scoldingly. Harry was surprised; he had never heard Neville use such a tone. I guess I'd better get used to Neville changing, he thought.

"What?" she asked, defensively. "I said he deserved it."

"Well, it doesn't matter, because I'm not going to let them do it," said Harry. "I get embarrassed enough as it is with fuss being made over me, I don't need this." Ron and Neville looked at him as if he were crazy, even though they knew him well enough to have predicted his reaction.

Hermione answered him. "Don't be silly, Harry, of course you have to let them do it. We know you, and we know you'd rather not. But you have to."

Harry's tone was almost hostile. "Why? Why do I have to?"

She used the tone that had always annoyed him, the tone that suggested that what she was saying was blindingly obvious, and that she really shouldn't even have to be saying it to him. "Harry, the fact that you're the Boy Who Lived will be mentioned on the card, of course, but you'd be worthy of one in any case. But you have to do it because you're a public figure, a symbol of the fight against Voldemort. You survived him as a baby, you survived his return, you drove him out of your mind. You're very symbolic now, and having you on a card will be a very good thing for the wizarding world. Children will get your card, and it'll help them understand what you've done and what you're trying to do. They'll identify with you, and want to do what you've done. That's the sort of spirit we need in the wizarding community. A card would be a way of reaching children, in the same way Hugo's articles have reached adults. You have to do this, Harry. It would be a waste not to."

Harry closed his eyes; he couldn't believe that this had happened. He could see Hermione's point, but just felt he couldn't deal with it. Hermione saw this, and persisted. "Harry, I know what you're thinking. You already feel bad about what happened in Hogsmeade, and you're in even less of a mood than ever to be considered any kind of hero or example to others. I understand, and I might feel the same way if I were you. But this could be, surely will be, good for the morale of the community, especially children. You have to put that above your personal feelings."

Harry still didn't speak, but now the others were waiting for him. After a minute, he finally said, "I can't say I don't see your point, Hermione. It's just hard for me to accept, is all. I don't feel real good about myself right now, and this seems... way out of proportion, somehow."

"Harry, Hermione's right," said Neville, looking at Harry earnestly. "You have to stop thinking about yourself, you have to think about how this affects others. You probably didn't think about this, but this will mean that I'll be able to say that I once helped save the life of someone who has a Chocolate Frog card. Please don't take that away from me." Only after he finished speaking did a small smile cross Neville's face.

Harry couldn't help but smile. "I'm sorry, Neville, I shouldn't be so selfish," he said in the same vein. "Tell you what, I'll go talk to Dumbledore. If he says I should do it, then I'll do it. Don't worry, Hermione, I'll tell him what you said."

She looked almost smug. "That's okay, Harry. He'll tell you what I said."

Five minutes later, Dumbledore did just that. "Of course, you should let them do it, Harry. It is quite an honor, one of which especially your recent actions have made you deserving." He went on to say roughly what Hermione had said, which Harry told Dumbledore, who smiled. "Well, there you are. If Hermione agrees with me, then I must be right."

"I'm sure she'll say it's the other way around, sir," Harry said. "All right, I'll do it. I just don't like the idea right now, coming so soon after... Ron and Hermione told me that they were in here earlier, and about what. They told me that you seemed to think it wasn't out of line with what happened. How long do you think it will last? How long will it be until I'm able to go to bed and not think about it, not dwell on the families, and so forth? I always imagine them..." He trailed off, knowing Dumbledore knew what he was saying.

In Dumbledore's eyes, Harry saw the same compassion he had seen the first time they had talked after Hogsmeade. "We cannot know how long it will take, or even should take. Few people are put in the position that you are in, that I am in. It is one of the hardest things a person can do. Most people do not understand this, which is why it will not be cited on your Chocolate Frog card. But it is true nonetheless. You cannot be quite the same person after this happens as you were before.

"You see, Harry, your heart and your mind are fighting a struggle. Your mind is telling you all the practical aspects of the situation, all the arguments that I have made and Hermione has made and that you know are correct. Your heart refuses to accept the death and suffering of others, and desperately wishes you not to be a part of the equation in any way. What is happening now is your heart expressing its grief over what has happened, and its desire that nothing like this happen again. For you to function as a leader, you must respect and honor your heart, and listen to it, but ultimately do what your head tells you is of the greatest benefit to all. Your heart only knows the suffering that is here and now.

"This type of theme recurs. You experienced it first when Hermione was Cursed, and even referring to last year, I said a few months ago that sometimes we must suffer damage in the short run to avoid greater damage in the long run. Also, recall our conversation after the confrontation in the Department of Mysteries. I told you of my great mistake, that I cared for you so much, too much to tell you what you needed to know. I said, 'What did I care if numbers of nameless and faceless people and creatures were slaughtered in the vague future, if in the here and now, you were happy?' I listened to my heart over my head, and Sirius died when he need not have."

Harry winced. "Sir, that wasn't your fault-"

"I do not mean to assign blame to myself. I know that the fault for his death lies with Bellatrix Lestrange and Voldemort. I merely point out that the causal relationship between my actions and Sirius's death is greater than the one between yours and the Hogsmeade deaths. You cannot blame yourself for the Hogsmeade deaths and not blame me for Sirius's. But the point I was originally making was the heart's focus on the here and now. I fell into that trap by waiting too long to tell you of the prophecy. It is the kind of trap I have usually avoided in the past, when it came to people I felt less close to than you. You, even knowing all the facts, would have been tempted to sacrifice great long-term interests for short-term ones, because of your heart. So it is not surprising that your heart should rebel at what happened in Hogsmeade. As Professor Snape said, what you have done will very likely end up saving more lives than were lost. But you cannot see, or easily imagine, the happiness, the comfort, the wholeness of the families who did not lose someone they would have lost, if not for your actions. It may be useful for you to try to do so."

Harry thought a bit, then nodded. "That makes sense, sir, I'll try to do that. I just... never thought I would have people's deaths on my conscience. I feared it a few times, when Ron and Hermione went into danger with me. But this time it actually happened, just in a different way. It's been very hard for me to adjust to that."

"As I have said, it will always be hard to deal with, especially with this being the first time. You have done some very brave things, Harry, and some very hard things. I think it would not harm anyone, or dishonor anyone's memory, were you to enjoy being given a Chocolate Frog card."

"I remember Fred and George saying, when the Ministry had you removed from those posts last year, that you didn't care what they did so long as they didn't take you off the Chocolate Frog cards. You do enjoy being on them, don't you?" asked Harry, his tone making it sound more like a statement than a question.

Dumbledore smiled. "It was a joke with more than a little truth in it. The posts from which I was removed are important, but also political, which was shown by the ease with which I was removed. The Chocolate Frog cards are not at all political, and so are a more reliable indicator of the esteem in which I am held. I was very flattered to be given one, especially while I was still alive. It is quite an honor. It is also good because many students see my card before coming to Hogwarts, causing them to tend to treat me with a certain respect."

Harry couldn't help but smile. "Sir, all you need to do to get people's respect is walk into the room."

"Why, you may yet cause me to blush, Harry. Thank you. But not all people, obviously, if they do not like what I am saying, as we saw last year. That is why it is best not to fall in love with fame; it can turn on you in a second. But it appears that for you, it is enough of a struggle merely to tolerate fame. I assume that is part of the reason you were inclined to resist the card."

Harry nodded. "I've never been happy with fame, which is funny, considering how some people lust after it. I guess I have to get used to the idea that by doing what I do, I'm kind of stuck with it. I don't know if I can ever enjoy it, but maybe I can try not to be so bothered by it."

"That is a good idea. We must always try to accept that which cannot be changed. In this situation your fame is helpful. Not to you personally, but to the cause you lead. In particular, note how there is symmetry in the reason for your fame, and your activities now. You have always been a symbol of resistance to Voldemort, and you are doubly so now."

Harry was starting to accept that this was true, and if it was, he may as well make the most of it. "Sir, do you think the Chocolate Frog people would send me a few dozen of the card they make of me if I asked them to? I can think of some people who would probably like one."

"I am glad to hear you say that," said Dumbledore with amusement. "And yes, I believe that while the company would prefer that everyone buy more Chocolate Frogs in order to get your card, they would not say no to you. By all means, mention it to them in your answer."

Harry got up to leave. "I will. And thank you, sir. Talking to you always makes me feel better."

"I am very glad, Harry. Perhaps you should do so more often, in that case."

Harry chuckled. "Maybe I should. By the way, did I ever tell you... on the train to Hogwarts, in my first year, the first Chocolate Frog card I ever got was yours."

"It was obviously fate," said Dumbledore. Harry couldn't tell whether he was joking or not, then decided it didn't matter. He smiled and left.

Harry saw Dumbledore again relatively soon, as Friday after lunch was when he had his Defense Against the Dark Arts class with Dumbledore. He was talking with Ernie and Justin when Dumbledore entered. As usual, the classroom went silent.

"Good day, everyone. Today's topic will be dueling," There was a murmur of interest; they had never studied this before, and it was considered a more interesting topic than usual, based on dueling playing an important part in wizard legend, as well as popular fiction. Harry felt that for he and his friends, it held even more interest, as they might well need to use it.

"Dueling looks like wizards simply waving their wands at each other, but it is very complicated, and difficult to master. Several types of ability factor into one's dueling skill. Firstly, one must have good mastery of silent spellwork." Harry saw a few people look at him. "One cannot vocalize one's spells in dueling, since the spells are sent by the opponent so rapidly. One would lose the duel quickly. Secondly, one must have excellent tactical instincts. Good reflexes and steady nerves are also of great importance.

"From a defensive point of view, one should keep oneself protected at all times, using the Protection Charm. But as there are some spells against which the Protection Charm is less than effective, one must keep on the offensive as well. In advanced dueling, most do not even use the Protection Charm, but rather use their own spells to both attack and block what the other person sends. That aspect of dueling will be covered next year; for now, we will focus on the fundamentals."

Dumbledore went on to explain the details of how it worked, and showed them how to practice using the 'Blue' spell. They paired off and practiced. After a while, Dumbledore asked them to change partners, so Harry changed from Hermione to Neville. Practicing with Neville, Harry found it a little easy to get through Neville's defenses, so Harry called Dumbledore over and they both worked with him on it. Neville was soon able to get the Protection Charm working fluidly in conjunction with his offensive spells. After another ten minutes of practice, Harry suddenly found it very hard indeed to get past Neville's defenses. He saw the same kind of intensity on Neville's face as he had seen in the D.A. last year, and was heartened.

"Very good, everyone, you are picking it up well," said Dumbledore after another ten minutes of practice. "Now, before we move on to our next subject, we will have a small tournament to determine who is the most proficient in this class at this time. The winner of this class's tournament will then compete against the winner from the other sixth-year class. The winner will receive a small prize that I have donated: a candle that never burns out, and will emit any aroma which is possible for a candle, on request." Harry saw Hermione's eyes light up; she obviously wanted it. Neville glanced at Harry; he had seen it too. Harry decided that if he won, he would give it to her.

Dumbledore split them up into pairs, and each dueled in front of the class. With sixteen students in the class, it worked perfectly: there would be eight winners, then four in the next round, then two, and finally one. Each match was decided by two wins out of three; a win was achieved by turning the opponent blue.

Dumbledore appeared to be using a kind of seeding system; it seemed as if the eight strongest students were paired up against the eight weakest ones, and the strongest ones won their matches. Harry beat Parvati, Ron beat Seamus, Neville beat Dean, and Hermione beat Hannah. In the second round, Harry beat Justin, while Neville beat Ernie, much to Ernie's obvious annoyance. Ron and Hermione also won, and so would play each other, and Harry would play Neville. Hermione took the first bout from Ron, but he came back and won the next two, to advance to the final. Hermione looked unusually disappointed.

Harry knew he would have a tough time with Neville, but he expected to win. Their wands flashed as they started; Neville was quick, at least as quick as Harry, and Harry again saw a look of fierce determination on Neville's face. He obviously wanted this badly. Neville finally got in under Harry's defenses, as Harry saw his hand turn blue. The classed gasped lightly; it was clear that they, too, expected Harry to win. In the second bout, Harry focused more on defense, and it went on for a minute and a half, far longer than any other bout, most of which had lasted less than fifteen seconds. Harry finally broke through for the win. In the deciding bout, Harry tried to focus harder. It went on for over a minute, but eventually Harry made a mistake and saw his hand turn blue again. The class truly gasped this time, and applauded at how hard-fought the bouts were. Harry smiled and shook Neville's hand. "You did great, Neville," he said.

Satisfied and pleased, Neville turned to face Ron. The bouts were much shorter than Neville's with Harry; Neville took Ron out in less than thirty seconds each time, and again got applause from the class. Ron shook Neville's hand as well, and moved over to where Harry was standing. "How did he get that good?" Ron whispered.

Harry shrugged. "He was really determined, that's all I know for sure."

"Excellent, Neville, that was very well done. The win over Harry was especially impressive. We all know that Harry's skills with a wand are excellent, and given that his non-vocalized spells are as effective as his vocalized ones, you had a handicap to overcome. Most impressive indeed." Neville glowed, but still looked determined. "Now, I have arranged for the winner from the other class to come here. Let us see if he has arrived." Dumbledore went to the door and opened it, and in walked Draco Malfoy, followed by Professor Snape, obviously Malfoy's escort.

Suddenly Harry understood the reason for Neville's attitude. At first Harry wondered if Neville had just wanted the candle, but now he realized that Neville had guessed or known that Malfoy had been the winner in the other class, and that he badly wanted to beat Malfoy in retaliation for his remark about his parents. Harry walked up to Neville and whispered, "You can do it, Neville. Go get him."

Malfoy stood at the front of the class, smug as ever. Harry had little doubt that he had practiced with his father, but probably not too much with the 'Blue' spell. "The winner will be determined by three wins out of five," Dumbledore announced. "Will this class's champion please step forward."

Neville stepped forward, stopping opposite Malfoy. Malfoy's jaw dropped; he was not bothering to hide his astonishment. "Sorry, Malfoy," said Neville, grinning. "I know you were hoping for Harry." The class laughed; Malfoy looked more smug than ever.

Dumbledore started them on their first bout, and five seconds later, Malfoy was a deep shade of blue, again looking astonished. Watching the bout, Harry felt that Malfoy had been so overconfident that he could break through Neville's defense that he had neglected his own defense. The second bout was again won by Neville, this time taking about thirty seconds. In the third bout, Malfoy was clearly taking Neville seriously, a look of determination nearly matching Neville's was on his face. A little past the one-minute mark, Malfoy turned blue, and it was over. The class had not cheered for Neville's first two wins, not wanting to celebrate prematurely, but they let it all out now, cheering wildly. After a few seconds, Dumbledore quieted them; Harry saw Neville give Malfoy a very satisfied smile. "That was very well played, on both sides," he said. Harry didn't think so; he was sure he could have beaten Malfoy, and he thought probably Ron could have as well. "Thank you, Mr. Malfoy, Professor Snape, for coming by." A very angry-looking Malfoy was led away by Snape.

People surrounded Neville, giving him their hearty congratulations; the Hufflepuffs looked as happy as the Gryffindors. Dumbledore walked up to Neville and handed him the candle. "Congratulations, Neville. You did excellently." Harry had never seen Neville looking happier. "Well, those long bouts took more time than I had expected, and now we are out of time," Dumbledore announced. "Thank you for your attention and effort. I will see you again next Friday."

Most people left, but a few hung back to look at the candle. "Strawberry!" said Neville, and almost immediately, Harry could smell strawberries in the air. Everyone was impressed. As they were packing up to go, Neville approached Hermione. "I was pretty sure I noticed before that you really wanted to get this," said Neville. "I didn't care about it that much, I just wanted to beat Malfoy. I'd like you to have it."

Hermione looked embarrassed. "Oh, Neville, I couldn't-"

"Please," Neville insisted. "I really want you to have it."

Hermione took it, looking at Neville with great affection. "Thank you very much, Neville. I'll always value this, especially because of the circumstances under which I got it." She leaned forward and kissed Neville on the cheek. Neville blushed furiously.

"Wow, Neville, it looks like she got you with the 'Red' spell," joked Ron, as everyone laughed, including Neville.

Harry patted Neville on the shoulder. "That was a really nice thing to do."

"You were going to give it to her too, Harry. I could tell," responded Neville.

"Yes, but you were the one who won," Harry said. "That must have been satisfying."

Neville just smiled, picked up his bag, and headed out as the rest followed.

The days got colder as winter approached, and as Christmas decorations went up, the atmosphere became more festive. The school had not forgotten the four who had died at Hogsmeade; among other reminders, their desks remained empty and unmoved in all their classes, including Harry's. Harry had stopped crying at night shortly after his talk with Dumbledore, but still missed them and was pained to think of them, especially when he saw their empty desks in the classes. But people also recognized that life had to go on, and they welcomed the holiday cheer.

Adding to the cheer was Malfoy's continued confinement, which was very good for the overall atmosphere. Pansy had told Harry that Malfoy's absence had an excellent effect on the Slytherin common room. Crabbe and Goyle, now rudderless, kept to themselves and were very quiet, as were others who had accepted Malfoy as their leader. The first years also reported that life in the common room was far better, and they felt that Malfoy's power was now sufficiently broken that he would be unable to make the common room his domain again after he got back. Pansy felt that they were probably right, and wished aloud that Malfoy's confinement would last until he graduated. Harry tried hard to restrain himself from again suggesting that she come out into the open.

Shortly after waking up on the last Friday before Christmas vacation started, Harry walked from his dormitory to the Great Hall. He took his usual seat opposite Ron and Hermione, next to Neville.

"So, Harry, are you leaving for your visit with the Aurors tomorrow?" asked Neville.

Harry nodded. "I leave tomorrow morning, and stay until Monday night, after which I go straight to the Burrow." He smiled at Ron. "You have to spend Christmas with family, after all."

Ron smiled back. "Mum'll be very happy to hear you say that."

"What will they be doing with you?" asked Neville.

"I'm not sure. I know they want me to work on the spell with them, since they still haven't got it yet. I'm not quite sure what else they have in mind. Cassandra's been a little vague about that."

"Cassandra Banks?" asked Neville, eyebrows raised. Harry nodded. "I know her," said Neville. "She's really nice. She was a close friend of my mother's, they became Aurors at about the same time. She visits my gran and I occasionally."

"Well, she seems very nice in letters," Harry agreed. "I'll be looking forward to meeting her, and I'll mention you to her."

"Have you heard from any others besides her?" asked Hermione.

"Just Tonks, last week. It was to confirm stuff about this weekend, but it seemed like mainly an excuse to tease me. She said something about trying to find some mistletoe," he said as the others laughed. "A few other things like that."

Hermione was still chuckling. "I wonder if she's just letting you know that she's going to have some fun with you while you're there. She's probably going to massively flirt with you."

"What should I do?" asked Harry apprehensively. Hermione barely managed not to roll her eyes.

"Enjoy it, Harry. Tease her back, flirt with her back. I think it's safe to say that the age difference is enough that she's not really serious, but it's also safe to say that she finds you at least somewhat attractive, or she wouldn't do it. You like her; just treat her like you would Ginny or I."

"Yeah, but you and Ginny don't flirt with me," Harry pointed out.

"Maybe we should, so you get used to it," she suggested, smiling mischievously.

"Oh, please don't," Harry pleaded, as Ron and Neville laughed. "I'm confused enough already about this sort of thing, I don't need to start wondering about you and Ginny."

"You'll be fine, Harry, trust me," she said earnestly. "Don't worry about it. Just have a sense of humor, you sometimes do."

The morning owls flew in, and a small box was dumped on Harry's part of the table, right next to his food. His first reaction was to wonder if the owl was deliberately trying to avoid hitting his food. He opened the box. "What is it?" asked Ron.

Harry read the letter attached to it first, then opened the smaller package inside the package. He handed Ron a Harry Potter Chocolate Frog card, saying, "According to the letter, these will be announced on the first of the year. I'd rather people around here didn't know about them until then."

Ron looked at the card. "Cool!" he enthused, as Hermione leaned over to take a look. "Good picture, Harry," she commented. Harry handed Neville a card so he could see. "Read the back, Ron!" said Hermione.

Ron turned it over and started reading. "Also known as the Boy Who Lived, Harry Potter at age one was the first ever to survive a Killing Curse, delivered by the evil Dark wizard Voldemort... they used his name?!" Ron exclaimed, agog, while still trying to keep his voice down. "It's not just the letter 'V' followed by eight dashes, they actually print the name! This is the first time I've ever seen the name in writing!"

Harry nodded. "That was my only condition for letting them make the card. No 'Dark Lord,' no 'You-Know-Who.' They had to use his name, in full. They weren't happy about it, but they were willing to do it. The person who wrote me back said, 'We have decided that if you can risk the Cruciatus Curse, the least we can do is print his name on a card.'"

Hermione smiled at him proudly. "Here's another good thing to come of what you did, Harry. This may seem small, but you inspired people in all sorts of ways. After what you went through, people aren't going to be angry at this sort of thing anymore; they'd be ashamed to be angry after you suffered what you did, for them."

Ron continued reading. "'Currently Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts at the age of sixteen, he braved the Cruciatus Curse for five nights against Voldemort before finding an amazing new shield which blocks the Curse. To date, only his mentor, Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, has mastered the spell. He is also the youngest wizard ever to be chosen as a companion by a phoenix.' Well, they don't have that much space, I suppose. Or they could have mentioned the Chamber of Secrets or the Sorcerer's Stone."

"Those events aren't as well known," Hermione pointed out. "They'd be a bit hard to explain on a card. How many did you have them send you, Harry?"

Harry looked somewhat embarrassed. "Fifty," he said.

"Fifty?" Ron exclaimed. "What are you going to do with fifty?"

Harry sighed. He wasn't looking forward to telling them this. "I'll tell you, but first you have to promise not to tease me about it." He didn't take his eyes off Ron.

"Why are you looking at me?" Ron asked, defensively.

Hermione looked at Ron as if he were being especially dense. "Because he knows Neville and I won't tease him about it, Ron."

"Well, how can I promise that if I don't know what it is?" asked Ron. Harry just kept looking at him. "Oh, all right," Ron finally conceded.

"This goes against my usual inclinations, which is probably why I'm sensitive about it," Harry said. "But I know they'll appreciate it. I'm going to sign and personalize them-you know, like, 'to David,' then sign my name-and give them to all the first years as a Christmas present." Harry looked around for any mocking reactions.

Predictably, Hermione smiled. "Harry, that's so nice of you, they'll be thrilled. I don't think Ron would have teased you anyway, though. It's too close to something Malfoy would taunt you about. I assume that's why you're sensitive about it."

"I just don't like the way it sounds, like I'm so full of myself that I think handing out autographed cards of myself is such a good thing. I'm sure some people will think that after they find out. But I know the first years will like it, so I'm doing it anyway."

Ron looked disappointed. "C'mon, Harry, have a little more faith in me than that. There's plenty of things to have a go at you about without stooping to something that Malfoy would do. It is nice of you."

Harry was surprised; Ron didn't have to go quite that far, but he appreciated it. "Okay, Neville, what do you think?"

Neville did not respond; by way of answer, he held up the card, and proffered it to Harry, along with a pen, his eyes making a silent request. Ron and Hermione chuckled, and Harry smiled. He took them, and wrote, "Neville- thanks for your friendship." Then he signed it, and gave it back. "I could have written more, but these cards aren't very big."

Neville read the card, and smiled broadly. "That's just fine, Harry, thank you. I'm very happy to have gotten the first one."

Hermione had gotten out a pen. "That means I get the second," she said.

"I guess this is why I had them send fifty instead of forty," said Harry. "I didn't know if you guys would want them, but I wanted them just in case." He took the pen, thought for a minute, then wrote, "Hermione- I love you," then signed. She took the card, looked at it, and melted. "Oh, Harry... thank you..."

Looking uncertain, Ron said, "I want one too, but I want to know how you're going to sign it first."

Harry chuckled. "If you don't watch out, Ron, I'll sign it the same way I signed Hermione's." She showed hers to Ron, who groaned, then to Neville, who laughed. Harry thought for another minute, then wrote, 'Ron- thanks for Keeping me safe,' then signed, and handed it to Ron. "There you go, a Quidditch reference and everything."

Ron looked at it and smiled. "Thanks, Harry, that's good."

"So, except for the ones for the first years, you've got seven left," said Hermione. Assuming everyone wants one, I'm trying to figure out who'll get the rest. Let's see... Ginny, Pansy, Justin, Ernie, Hagrid... right?" Harry nodded. "That leaves two more," she said. "Oh, Professor Dumbledore! He'd probably want one. Also, maybe Fred and George, they could share one. Sometimes it seems like they're the same person anyway."

"Ginny, I'll just give one, I have a feeling she'll want one," Harry said. "Pansy too, I just hope she's careful where she keeps it. Hagrid, maybe I'll ask him if he wants one. It wouldn't surprise me if he did. But Justin and Ernie, I'm too embarrassed to just ask them. If one of you wants to do it, you can, or if they ask after they come out, I'll give them one. I don't know about Professor Dumbledore."

"I think he'll want one, Harry. Mainly for sentimental reasons, and we all know how he feels about you," said Hermione.

"You may be right... thinking about people I'm close to, I can't help but think, Sirius would have gotten a big kick out of this, really enjoyed that I was on a card."

The others were somber. "Yes, he would've," agreed Hermione. "I can hear that laugh of his. And he would've told you that your father would've been proud, too. And I'm sure he would've been right."

Harry felt conflicting emotions, as he now often did when he thought of his father. Part of him felt proud, as Hermione had intended, but... before his last Occlumency lesson with Snape last year, whenever he thought of his father, in his mind's eye he saw the cheerful, happily married young man in the pictures Hagrid had collected for him. But now, he also saw an arrogant, vain fifteen-year-old being deliberately cruel. He knew that his father had changed and become a better person, but he still couldn't help but see that image, and feel a flash of the shame associated with it. He wondered if and when he would be able to set that aside.

He focused on the more positive image, and knew that as usual, Hermione was right. "Thanks," he said. "So, what are you doing for Christmas vacation? With your parents?"

"Yes, I don't think they have anything special planned," she said. "I'm sure I can make it over to the Burrow once or twice. My parents will understand."

"How about you, Neville?" asked Ron. "Do you think you can make it over at some point?"

Neville looked very pleased to have been asked; he had never been to the Weasleys' before. "I'm sure I can, anytime except Christmas day. Just let me know when you want me over."

Ron nodded. "Just so you know, it's not the most posh place in the world..."

Harry hated to think that Ron was embarrassed about his home, and said, "I think it's great. It's got lots of character."

Hermione agreed. "Really, Ron, do you think Neville's going to care about that? That's the kind of thing someone like Malfoy would go on about." Neville simply looked at Ron, but his meaning was clear: he didn't care what it looked like.

"All right, all right," Ron conceded. "Just making sure. I'll stick my head in the fireplace to let you know when's a good time to come, Neville."

"Too bad Pansy can't come," said Harry, making sure to keep his voice down, as they did whenever discussing Pansy. "That'd be nice for her, to be able to do something like that."

"How do you know she can't come?" asked Hermione.

"You can ask her if you want," said Ron. "You're a family member, remember, that means you can invite people, just like any of us."

"If I was like Tonks, I could make my hair red," Harry joked. "No, I was thinking she couldn't come because of security issues. She's suggested that she has more of a formal relationship with her parents, and she would either have to lie about where she was going or tell them but make sure they kept it a secret. Also, what if Malfoy sticks his head in her fireplace and asks where she is? There's just too many things that could go wrong. It seems too risky."

"But you don't know her home situation that well, Harry," Hermione pointed out. "You could be making wrong assumptions. Maybe you should ask her, and she can tell you whether it's possible or not."

Harry looked doubtful. "If I asked her that, she'd tell me it was possible without even considering security, she'd be so happy for the chance," he said. "She's not going to consider the risks in a way that I'd feel comfortable with."

"Isn't that her choice?" Hermione countered. "Harry, remember when you were stuck in Privet Drive for over a month, a year and a half ago? You were furious when you got out, we'd never seen you so angry. You were so isolated. You didn't care about security, you just wanted some friendly human contact. You were angry at Dumbledore for valuing your security over your happiness. Do you want to do the same thing to Pansy?"

Harry was silent for a moment, then looked at Hermione with annoyance. "I hate it when you're right," he said.

She gave an apologetic shrug. "I suppose you wouldn't care for some comment to the effect that now you know how Professor Dumbledore must have felt at the time."

Harry shook his head. "I'll mention it to her, see what she says. I'm meeting with her later today, so if anything's decided, I'll tell you tonight."

Eight hours later, he told Pansy about the conversation, finishing with, "I just wanted to admit that I considered not even suggesting it, but Hermione was right, it wouldn't have been fair to you. So, if it can be managed safely, and if you want to, it would be great if you could."

She smiled. "It's nice of you, both to ask, and to admit what you almost did. But the answer is I can almost certainly come, and there are no security problems. I've long since been able to use the fireplace to go pretty much wherever I want, without having to account for where I go. And fortunately, I've never involved Malfoy in my home life. He's never been to my home, even had his head in my fireplace, nor mine in his. We haven't had any contact in the summer or during vacations, just at Hogwarts. So that'll be no problem. If my parents aren't in the living room, I can just say the name of the Weasleys' house and go straight there. If they stay in the living room for a long time, I can just go to Diagon Alley or someplace like that, and then go from there to the Weasleys'. Either way, it'll be fine. And I would be happy to. It would be nice to spend some time with the rest of you. I'll also be keen to hear about what you do with the Aurors."

"I'll be interested to know myself," he assured her. "Okay, then, the thing to do is to keep in contact with Hermione with the notebooks. It'll probably be between the day after Christmas and New Year's Day, so you can let Hermione know if any of those days are bad for you. And I'm glad you can come."

"So am I," she agreed. "It'll be really nice to do something like this. It's also nice that I've met the Weasleys and they know about me. Maybe I can get to know Ron and Neville a bit, too."

"Oh, that's right, you already know Ginny from spending time with her after Hogsmeade, right?"

"And talking to her with the notebooks," Pansy said. To Harry's surprised look, she said, "You didn't know about that? After Hogsmeade, Ginny asked Hermione if she could borrow the notebook a couple of times a week so she could talk to me, and we've been doing that ever since. We've gotten to know each other pretty well."

"No, I didn't know that, it's great," Harry said enthusiastically. "I'm glad that you're doing that. Hermione had a really good idea with the notebooks."

"And you were really good to pay for them," she said. Harry was startled. "Yes, she told me. It was very nice of you. She told me how much you get for being a teacher, so I didn't feel too bad. I know you can afford it. But it was still really nice."

"For me," he said, "it was nice to be able to use the money I have to do something like that. More than once I've wanted to buy Ron something really nice, but I know I shouldn't, because he can't reciprocate, and it makes him feel bad. I wish he didn't feel that way. It's funny... when I was growing up, I never had any money, because my Muggle relatives never gave me any. In the wizarding world, because of what my parents left me, I've always had more than enough. But the thing I'd really like to do-do something nice for the Weasleys-I can't, because of how they'd feel about it. It's almost frustrating sometimes. So I was really happy to be able to pay for the notebooks; I felt like the money I had could do some good."

She chuckled. "I can understand that, but I can't help but think, first thing, that Malfoy would laugh at that sort of attitude. To him, money is a way to get power. And luxury, but mainly as a tool. You know how his father bought respectability and power after Voldemort's downfall, so that's how he looks at it. Given that, it's both nice and not surprising that you would look at money as a way of being good to people."

Harry shook his head. "I've never understood the appeal of power, not the way Malfoy and people like him see it. Maybe that's because I've always seen power from Professor Dumbledore's perspective. To him, power is responsibility, and you get it when people give it to you, not from trying to take it. He lost those posts a year and a half ago after Voldemort came back, but he didn't care. He was doing the right thing, and if people didn't want to give him responsibility while he was telling the truth about Voldemort coming back, then I think he just knew that that was the way it had to be. I've learned that the only kind of power worth having is when people give it to you, and trust you to do the right thing with it even when they disagree with you."

Pansy thought for a minute. "I guess you've had quite an education, spending as much time with him as you have. I had never thought of it like that. I just always assumed that power was something you tried to get so you could control things, make them be the way you wanted them."

"It seems to me that you have to persuade people of things, not try to make them do things. But I guess if you spend time with Malfoy, you would see it like that."

"I don't think it's just him," she said. "It seems to work that way with the Ministry too, from what I've seen."

"Maybe you're right," he allowed. "They seriously misused their power last year, I know that for sure. Not just what they did to me and Dumbledore in the Prophet, but just denying that Voldemort was back. That certainly put me off power, especially the idea of trying to have it. I can barely handle what I have... though I guess I wouldn't say that I have 'power,' it's more like 'influence.' All I care about is that I can help get people to say Voldemort's name, get people to fight him."

"And you have," she said, her pride obvious. "You got me saying it, and I never thought I could."

"You just did it because you felt sorry for me," he said lightly, recalling that she had done it when he was grieving for the Hogsmeade dead.

She looked at him in dismay and a little anger. "Is that what you think?" she asked. He gave her a kind of blank, 'what did I say?' look. Looking stern, she continued, "I did it because... when you were crying, what you were going through... I'd never seen anyone in that much pain. I had... I guess it's called an epiphany, I suddenly realized what you've taken on your shoulders. Not only the risk to you and your friends, but the risk that's indirectly there based on what you do. I could feel your despair, how responsible you felt, and I realized that this was something you risked to get people to say Voldemort's name, and how important it was to do it, that you would risk both the Cruciatus Curse and the emotional pain of people dying like that. When I saw that, I knew that saying his name was minor compared to that, and I said his name to let you know that I understood that. I was supporting you, not feeling sorry for you."

Harry looked down for a few seconds. Then he looked up and said, "I'm sorry. That was a stupid thing to say. I took something that was hard for you, and made it sound like it wasn't important. Sometimes I say things without thinking about them very well, and this was one of them. I guess I just automatically try to minimize it when someone compliments me like you did, acting like it was just you being nice instead of something I did. But I'm really sorry."

She nodded. "I understand. I suppose I've done things like that before. Not to mention years of doing really bad things. I have no business chastising you."

"C'mon, Pansy, you can't keep beating yourself up with that. Not only that, but that has nothing to do with this. You have every right to be upset with me if I say something thoughtless, or even if it's not thoughtless but just upsets you. Your past doesn't take away your right to have your feelings, or to say what they are."

She thought for a few seconds. "You reflexively put yourself down by minimizing your accomplishments, and I do it by bringing up my past. At least we have something in common."

He nodded, recognizing the similarity. "Looks like you're right. Maybe we can both try to work on it. It won't surprise you to know that Hermione's criticized me for excessive modesty more than once, and so has Professor Dumbledore. And, by the way... when you said his name, that night I woke up, I knew it was support. Even in my grief, I knew, and I appreciated it. I just couldn't say it right then. Couldn't do much of anything right then. But I knew."

"I'm glad, Harry. I'm glad you knew that." They were both silent for a moment. Then Pansy said, "Do you think we should finish it up for today, or was there anything else you wanted to talk about?"

"Actually, there is one thing... I'm curious, do you, or did you ever, collect Chocolate Frog cards?"

She shrugged. "Not really... I looked at them, and I might have kept some of them, but I never really collected them. Why?"

"I figured... I think collecting them is more of a thing that boys do than girls. Hermione never did either, but Ron and Neville did. Anyway, there's one that I thought might interest you." He took a card from under his robes and handed it to her.

She looked at it, and gaped as much as Ron and Neville had. She was speechless. "I suppose I shouldn't say anything that minimizes my accomplishments," he joked. "They asked me last month if they could do it. I didn't want to, but Hermione and Professor Dumbledore persuaded me that it was a good idea. So I asked for some extras. You're welcome to keep that one if you want."

She finally found words. "Harry, this is amazing... not compared to what you've done, of course, but it really says something. You deserve it for everything you've done, of course, but this is a serious kind of recognition. I'm glad they persuaded you to overcome your modesty and agree to it. This is great."

"There was one thing I insisted on. Turn it over and read it." She did, and gaped again. "There was no way I was going to agree to a Harry Potter card that said 'You-Know-Who' on the back of it."

"I see what you mean, it would be kind of silly. Still, this is amazing... of course, I want to keep it, Harry. But I was wondering if you would sign it for me, too."

"Normally I'd be too embarrassed to," he admitted. "Even without Malfoy's acting like I love the attention I get, seeing Lockhart in second year made me never want to sign an autograph, ever." She chuckled, remembering Lockhart's vanity. "But I sort of understand that it makes people happy, so I'll deal with it." She handed him the card and a pen, and he thought for a minute. "Well," he said with a casual air, "I'm not good at thinking of original things to say, so I'm just going to sign yours like I signed Hermione's and Ginny's. It's easy enough, since it's true." He finished signing, and handed the card and the pen back to her.

She looked at it, then looked at him, already near tears, as if seeking confirmation of what he had written. He kept his eyes on hers. She stood up and walked to him; he stood too as she wrapped him in her arms. They held each other gently as tears rolled down her cheeks. "You know, Harry," she finally said, "this is the first time I've ever cried because I was happy. My first thought was that I don't deserve this, I don't deserve to have you feel that way about me. But I realized that it's a thought I shouldn't have. So my next thought," she said, now looking into his eyes, "is that I love you, too." She kissed him on the cheek, then held him again. "Thank you, Harry, thank you so much..." After a minute had passed, she said, "I'm sorry, I can't seem to let go of you."

He laughed, gently squeezing her shoulders. "It's all right, I've got my eyes on the map. You can hold on for as long as you want. Seems like I don't mind."

She chuckled. "I think I'm holding on because... I feel like I'm holding onto love, kind of. My father has never said he loved me. My mother has, but rarely, and in a kind of perfunctory way. Not like she really meant it, not with emotion. You really mean it, I can tell in your eyes. It's so wonderful, you've made me so happy." She stepped back a bit, her hands still on his shoulders. "Did Ginny and Hermione react this way when you gave them their cards?"

He smiled. "Not quite... Ginny hugged and kissed me, like you did; Hermione didn't, I think because we were in the Great Hall. I think she would have. But they didn't have as strong a reaction as you did, because they had already told me that, and I had told them. They knew it already. But since I had never told you I loved you before... it's funny, I never could have done this last year. I would have been mortified. It's just because of Professor Dumbledore, helping me access the love I felt, and Hermione..." He told her about the conversation they'd had after talking with John about Dumbledore and the golden dog. "She was the first person who ever told me she loved me. It was... like you said about me a few months ago, like hearing music for the first time. I couldn't believe how good it felt. So I think I know how you feel. Just keep in mind... you do deserve it. I didn't decide to feel this way about you, I just do. So it must be that you deserve it. Also, I want you to know... you're just as important to me as my other friends."

She gave him a final squeeze, and released him. "That means a lot to me, Harry, because I know what they mean to you. Thank you for the card. I'll always treasure it." She paused. "You know what I should also thank you for... you were afraid that I would fall in love with you. Telling me something like this could only encourage that, but you did it anyway, because you wanted me to know. You could easily have avoided it. Thank you for not doing that."

"I'd be lying if I said the thought never popped into my head," he admitted. "But I didn't think about it for very long. It would really be unfair to you to do that. Something like this, it's important. Someone's coming," he interrupted himself, leaning over for a closer look at the map. "Oh, it's Justin, it's okay. I told you he knows about you, right?" She nodded. Justin knocked on the door. "Come in," Harry said

Justin entered, doing a slight double-take upon seeing Pansy. "Hi, Justin," she said. "I'd like you to meet the new, better Pansy Parkinson. And I hope you'll forgive the old one for all the stupid stuff she did."

Justin smiled. "Harry's told me what you're doing, Pansy. I really admire you for it. It must be very difficult." Pansy blushed.

"It is," agreed Harry. "I admire her too." He put an arm around her shoulders and squeezed to emphasize the point. She beamed, and blushed harder as Justin chuckled. "You've really changed since last year, Harry," he said. "Must be all that love. Guess you need a lot of love to beat Voldemort."

"He certainly has that," agreed Pansy, who to Harry's surprise stepped towards Justin and showed him the card. Justin grinned. To Harry's expression, she said, "Well, I want to show it to somebody. I'm proud of it."

"That seems to be common," Justin said. "Hermione showed me hers, too. Well, she showed both Ernie and I, so we could see the card. You should have seen Ernie's face. Hermione was like, 'no, he means a friendship kind of love, don't get that started again.' She obviously has a sore spot about those Rita Skeeter articles."

"I don't blame her," said Pansy, as Harry nodded.

"Ernie was okay after that. To tell you the truth," Justin said, lowering his voice, "I think he kind of fancies her. I know they spend time together in the library, and just the way he talks when she comes up... I could be wrong, it's just a feeling. I know he really respects her intellect. You wouldn't know if she maybe fancies him, would you?"

Harry shook his head. "Whoever she may fancy, if anyone, she hasn't mentioned it to me." He glanced at Pansy, who also shook her head. "If we're right about them being Head Boy and Girl next year, they'll have plenty of time to spend together, though."

"Anyway, Harry," said Justin, "Hermione said you'd give me a card, but that you were too embarrassed to just come up and offer it. So here I am."

"It just seems like too much," he said. "Like..."

"Like something Malfoy would get on you about, I know. She told us why, and I can understand it. I know you hate to be like 'look at me, I'm Harry Potter,' especially after those articles last year. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

"Well, they'll find out after the New Year, anyway, it'll be all over the school..." Harry told them what he planned to do with the first years; Justin and Pansy both grinned. "That's so nice of you, Harry," she said. "They'll love it."

Justin nodded. "My brother'll go bananas. I can see it already, he'll run around showing it to everyone, he'll bother people on the street he doesn't know and show them. No matter what my parents get for him, that'll be his favorite gift."

"Be sure you don't tell him, or anyone else," Harry cautioned. "I want it to be a surprise, and if one first year knows..."

"All the others will know within five minutes," Justin finished. "I understand, I'll keep it under my hat. Hermione already told us to keep it secret, but she didn't say why, exactly. You must be proud, Harry. It's an incredible honor."

"Honestly, I've been too embarrassed to be proud, but I suppose you're right. You should have seen me when I got the letter telling me about it. I felt a little bit like I felt when I got that scroll."

Justin laughed. "Oh, yes, that was great. You'll be hearing about that for as long as you live, I'll bet. Anyway, I'd like my card signed too, if you don't mind."

Pansy took out the pen she'd given him and handed it over. Harry fished another card out of his robes. As he signed it, he told them how he'd threatened Ron about signing his, causing them both to laugh. Harry wrote, 'Justin- thank you for saving my life,' then signed it and handed it to Justin, who smiled again as he read it. "It was my pleasure, Harry. Hell, it already made me a hero to my brother. He was so proud of me, it was hard for him not to tell our parents."

"So, Ernie didn't want a card?" Harry asked.

"He said he didn't, but I think he does," said Justin. "Hermione told us that you were too embarrassed to ask us if we wanted one; I think Ernie's too embarrassed to come and ask for one. I think if you signed one for him and I brought it to him, he'd be pretty happy."

Harry nodded. "Well, since I was too embarrassed to offer, I can't blame him for being too embarrassed to ask. Of course, I'll be happy to." He paused. "You know, Justin, I'd like to sign his the same way I signed yours. He saved my life too. I'm just a bit concerned that if I do-"

"It'll remind him about how he felt because he didn't join, I know," Justin agreed. "But I agree, he does deserve it. Look, go ahead and do it anyway. I'll make sure he understands that you're serious, how you mean it. I want him to be able to show it to his kids someday, like I will mine." Harry took out another card and signed it the same way. "Thanks," said Justin. "I'm sure that when they come out, my brother will be buying more. He's going to want extras, he collects them anyway."

"Well, he'd better do it soon, then," Harry said. "The Chocolate Frog people told me in the letter that they're going to have a special promotion for it. Just for the month of January, one in every twenty Chocolate Frogs will contain my card. After that, it goes back to the usual chances, which I guess is one in a few hundred or something. So he should get them soon if he's going to."

"I have a feeling he's going to be in Diagon Alley the first day they're out, with all the Galleons he can get his hands on. And I bet he won't be the only one, either. It should be interesting to see what happens."

"One thing I know will happen," said Pansy, "is that the first day back after vacation, in your class, your first years will be so busy thanking you that it'll be hard to teach. Then, the next day, the second years will ask why they didn't get them."

Harry couldn't help but nod at the truth of it. "I thought of that, but I couldn't reasonably ask for three hundred cards. I guess I'll just tell them the truth, that I thought the first years would appreciate it more. If they get the card, I'll sign it for them, is the best I can do." He paused. "You know, it's funny... four months ago, I was really scared of being a teacher, I was just hoping I wouldn't do too badly. It still amazes me that I'm thought of the way I am."

"Well, it amazes us that you did something spectacular, Harry. You should try to enjoy it once in a while. You deserve it."

"Thanks, Justin. I manage to occasionally."

"Harry, I should go," said Pansy. She looked at the map. "We were finished anyway, and of course we can't leave at the same time. I'll go now, and you and Justin can leave in a few minutes."

"Okay. Hermione'll let you know when to come. I hope you can, I'm looking forward to it."

"Me too," she said eagerly. She put the card in a pocket in her robes. "Thank you so much, Harry. See you, Justin." She gave them a wave and walked out into the classroom.

After a few seconds' silence, Justin said, "Now, that is one happy girl."

Harry nodded, happy that he'd made her so happy. "It's amazing how close we've gotten in such a short time." He explained briefly that they met once or twice a week, and why. "So, she basically has no one to talk to," he concluded. "That's why she's so happy to see me."

Justin grinned, and Harry knew why he was before he said anything. "Something tells me that's not the only reason," he said wryly. "So, you and she aren't..."

Harry shook his head. "Nope. Scroll or no scroll, I'm still too chicken."

"I bet there's some people who'd argue with that," countered Justin, "but just for the sake of discussion, suppose there was no danger..." He looked at Harry questioningly.

Harry's impulse was to avoid the question, but then he remembered that Justin had saved his life, so he supposed Justin should be able to ask that kind of question if he wanted to. Harry thought for a few seconds. "Honestly, I'm not sure. I like her a lot, but I really try not to think about that. I feel like I'd just be torturing myself, thinking about something I can't have, and I don't see the point. I see her like I see Ginny and Hermione, that's all I can really say." He saw Justin looking at him with sympathy, like Hugo had when he'd asked Harry the question in September.

Justin nodded. "I guess I can see why you feel that way." He paused. "Funny, you have a phoenix, a Chocolate Frog card, good friends, and the first years love you... but I'm still not sure I'd want to be you."

"I'm not sure either, Justin," he answered, half-seriously. "Guess I'm stuck with it."

The next morning, Harry woke up at 7:30, a bit later than usual, but well in time to be ready to leave at 9:00, the time suggested by Cassandra in her last letter. He said goodbye to Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Neville, and met Professor McGonagall at the entrance to the castle. He carried his trunk, again bewitched to weigh almost nothing, behind him. They walked together to the Hogwarts gates and out into Hogsmeade.

Harry sighed as they walked down the main street in Hogsmeade toward the Owl Post Office. Responding to McGonagall's inquiring look, he said, "I was just thinking, I doubt I'll ever be able to look at this place in the same way I used to."

She regarded him sympathetically. "Such associations do fade, but they never leave us entirely," she agreed. "There are several sites in London which I will always associate with attacks perpetrated by Voldemort about sixteen years ago in which I lost friends, friends with whom I was as close as you are with yours."

He nodded somberly. "I can really understand that," he said. "I'm sure I'll always feel that way about the Department of Mysteries, not that I'll have that much reason to go there in the future. Probably just as well, I might end up walking through that veil."

"Which is one of the reasons that room is so inaccessible," she said. "Like Hogwarts, it does not permit Apparation or Disapparation. The closest to it that one can Apparate is the Atrium near the entrance. Which, I suppose, has its own associations for you as well." To his great surprise, she took his hand for a few seconds, squeezed it, then released it. He looked at her with an expression of appreciation, but said nothing.

"Harry... you don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but... why did you show us that fourth dream as you did? You could have arranged with Professor Dumbledore for it to be edited. It was so highly personal, I felt as though I were intruding."

He shrugged. "I didn't really think about it. With what was going on, I was totally focused on getting Voldemort out of my dreams, and I thought any little clue could be important. All of my friends already knew what had happened, so it wasn't an issue with them. The only one I thought twice about was Professor Snape, and if his attitude towards me hadn't changed this year, I might have seriously considered it. But now... I guess I thought of it like taking off your clothes when you go to the doctor. He was there because it was important that he be there. As for you... I don't know, I just didn't mind. You know how I feel about you, Professor." He almost held back saying the last sentence, but decided to anyway; her support during the Voldemort trial had meant a lot to him, and he had come to understand that her true personality was rather different than the one she showed students.

She raised an eyebrow, as if in great doubt. "In that case, why is it that I did not get a card?" She smiled a little as Harry burst out laughing. More seriously, she said, "Yes, I do know, Harry. And thank you."

"It never occurred to me that you'd want one," he said, though he knew she had almost certainly been joking. "And it isn't just me that feels that way. Especially Hermione."

"I have always considered her something of a kindred spirit," McGonagall said. "I confess to having raised my hand more than my share of times as a student. And I was Head Girl, as she no doubt will be. I find myself hoping that she will apply for a position on the teaching staff in the future, when one comes up."

Harry was a little surprised. "What subject?"

She gave him a knowing look. "Can you think of a subject she would not be qualified to teach?"

"Good point," he agreed. "No, wait a minute, there's Divination."

She didn't quite roll her eyes, but seemed to almost do it. "Yes, and I would say that speaks well of Hermione." Harry grinned. "Nothing personal about Sybil Trelawney, who I'm sure is a lovely person once you get to know her, but I admit I have always considered Professor Dumbledore's decision to continue the subject of Divination to be similar to his allowing Peeves the run of the castle."

Harry laughed and shook his head. "Boy, was that subject a complete waste of time. I would've taken Muggle Studies if I'd known, or if I'd known John. It didn't take Ron and I long to just start making stuff up. The more violent and awful we made it, the better she liked it. And she loved to predict my death. She must have done it a few dozen times in three years."

"Unfortunately, on quite a few occasions, she has been nearly right. But for your friends..."

If she had planned to finish the thought, she never got a chance, as they were met by a taller-than-average, slightly plump witch with medium-length dark hair. Harry couldn't guess her age, but he felt as though she was the same age his parents would be if they were still alive. She smiled at McGonagall. "Professor, it's nice to see you again. You look very well." Turning to Harry, she said to McGonagall, "And who is your handsome young companion?"

Harry and McGonagall both laughed. "Sometimes I wish," he said, "that someone could ask me that and really need to be told."

"Fame probably seems a lot more appealing if you're not already famous," Cassandra agreed. "But I'm afraid there's no chance of that happening to you, Harry. Especially now, with these floating around." She reached into her robes and pulled out a Harry Potter Chocolate Frog card.

McGonagall reached out to take it as Harry raised his eyebrows. "How did you get that? I only got them yesterday."

Her answer was cut off by McGonagall's exclamation of surprise on reading the back of the card. "Harry, did they offer to do this, or did you demand it?"

"The latter," he said. "Anything else would have looked stupid."

"A good use of your fame, to advance your cause," agreed Cassandra. "But to answer your question, Aurors have lots of connections. Fortunately, being an Auror is a very honored position, and people are often happy to do things for us. Many of us were interested, Tonks in particular."

Harry smiled, and quickly explained to McGonagall how Tonks had been acting. "She's been having fun with me ever since the article."

"I don't know, Harry," said Cassandra, a little more serious now. "I'm sure she is to an extent, but I think at the same time she is a bit smitten with you. She knows you're too young, but I think she is anyway. I mean, what you said in that article, you were practically waving a red flag in the face of any girl in your age range."

Harry shook his head. "See, this is how little I know about women. I thought it would discourage them."

Cassandra's face took on a motherly look. "That you know little about women was also shown by the fact that you said it in the first place. It was so obviously wrong, which the girls at Hogwarts told you in that scroll. Nobody who had ever been in love, Harry, would have said what you said. But I know that you're trying to avoid the pain and the worry, and it's understandable. We all feel for you."

Harry sighed. "One of these days, I'll forgive Hugo for asking that question. You must be right, since everyone has said the same thing. But there's not much I can say until it happens."

"Well, I should let you take him back," said McGonagall. "Cassandra, it was good to see you again. Harry, have a good vacation." She nodded goodbye, then turned to walk back down the street toward Hogwarts.

Cassandra took his arm lightly and steered him towards the Owl Post Office. "Harry, I'm sorry. Here I just met you, and I'm taking liberties like that. I know that can't be an easy topic for you."

Harry waved off her apology. "Really, it's all right. I feel like I know you already, from your letters. I know you're trying to help. Also, Neville speaks highly of you."

"I'm glad. Neville's a very nice boy. What happened to his parents was a terrible wound to the Auror community. They were young, very well liked, very good people. I assume he's told you that I was good friends with Alice?" Harry nodded. "You and he have a lot in common, Harry. Both lost your parents very young, born at the same time."

You'd really think so if you knew the prophecy, thought Harry. He said, "I think he got the worst of it. At least with my parents, it was fast. I can't imagine the number of times he must have thought about how it was for them. I've sometimes wondered if that was why he was so shy."

"It could be," she said, "but I kind of think shyness is something you're born with. But I noticed you used the past tense. He did seem different the last time I was there, and his grandmother mentioned it as well. She said she thought being in your group had something to do with it." She paused, her face turning grim as they walked into the room with the fireplace in the Owl Post Office. "She also said that Lestrange tortured him in the Department of Mysteries."

"He ran into a room, with a broken nose and bleeding, where ten Death Eaters had me cornered," Harry confirmed. "I saw her do it. She's just... evil. Unbalanced and evil."

"I've never killed, Harry," she said quietly as they stopped in front of the fireplace. "There were times when I could have, and I would have been excused, but I never did. But I think I could kill her if she were standing in front of me... I suppose you can understand that. You showed us those dream encounters with Voldemort, even that one where he taunted you with your memories. I think you might have killed her if you knew how, if you could have. Nobody would have blamed you."

"I'm just as glad I didn't know how. I really don't want to do that. But I can really see how you feel. She certainly deserves whatever she gets."

Neither said anything for a moment. Then she said, "Well, enough of this cheery talk, Harry. Let's get a move on. We've had you authorized, of course, so don't worry. Just say 'Auror Training Center.'"

He did so as he threw some powder into the fire, and stepped in. In a second, he was in a large living room, nicely decorated and with a number of chairs and a few large sofas. He took a step out and saw six people get up to greet him.

Kingsley Shacklebolt reached him first, and shook his hand warmly. "Harry, good to see you again," he said as Cassandra appeared in the fireplace behind him. "We're glad you could come."

"I'm glad you'll have me. I've been looking forward to spending time with all of you." He suddenly decided to take Hermione's advice as he saw Tonks approach. "Especially Tonks," he added, as he smiled at her.

All the Aurors in the room laughed, as Harry realized that everyone must know about her attitude towards him. "That's it, Harry, get into the spirit of the thing," chuckled Kingsley.

Tonks looked at Harry suspiciously. Then she smiled, and walked up to him and kissed him on the cheek. She looked a bit surprised when he showed no signs of embarrassment. "So, what made you take this attitude?" she asked.

"I'll admit I was a bit concerned," he said, smiling. "But Hermione told me to just enjoy it. I figure if I can keep focused on love near Voldemort, I can deal with you having a bit of fun with me."

"If you can keep focused on love near Voldemort, Harry, most of us would assume you can do just about anything," said a wiry wizard with light brown hair, about Harry's height. "We haven't met, I wasn't around for your presentation in September. Jack Temble, nice to meet you."

"You too," said Harry, shaking his hand.

The others approached him. "Steve Janus, we met in September, but just briefly; with all those people, I wouldn't expect you to remember." Steve was a little tall with short black hair, a cleft chin, and a friendly expression. Two others, named Joan Wilson and Winston Clark, introduced themselves as well. Harry vaguely recalled the faces from September, but not the names. To Clark, he said, "It's funny, I have a first year with the last name of Clark. I wouldn't assume you're related, though, since Clark is a common name."

"You mean Helen? No, she's my daughter," said Clark, surprising Harry. "Actually, Clark isn't a common name in the wizarding world. My father was Muggle-born. But yes, you've been an important topic in many of the owls she's sent. She told my wife and I all about what happened. We were proud of her, and of you for what you taught her and the other first years."

"I was really proud of her," Harry said sincerely. "She was really brave. She'd just gotten to the place, knew little about it, but helped organize resistance to the neighborhood bully. She also understood, faster than the others, why I had to take on Voldemort, no matter what."

"She learned what you taught her, Harry, first with words and then by your example. Not to take anything away from her; you're right, she was very brave. But she couldn't have done it without you. I'll admit that I was wondering what Dumbledore was doing, making a sixteen-year-old the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. But after the first week of owls, I wondered no more. And after the Voldemort thing, I wondered why you weren't made Minister of Magic by acclamation." The others laughed as Harry smiled in embarrassment.

"See, isn't he cute?" said Tonks. "He's been praised and complimented who knows how many times, and he still gets embarrassed so easily."

He looked at her in playful annoyance, but answered Clark. "I wondered what he was doing at first, too. I was stunned. I really didn't want to do it, I was afraid I'd fail. But you probably know, it's very difficult to say no to Professor Dumbledore."

Kingsley nodded. "The man's done so much, he has such great moral authority. But you know, Harry, and not to embarrass you more, but you now have quite a bit of moral authority as well. What you were willing to endure to say his name was a more difficult trial than any of us will ever have to face, almost certainly. What you did means that when you speak, people will pay attention and respect it. Your crusade might have created a huge backlash, normally. People would have let their fears run rampant, and criticized you for stirring up Voldemort while sitting there safe at Hogwarts. But when people heard what you did, they either said his name because you inspired them to, or because they were ashamed not to. Either way, it worked."

Harry shook his head in wonder. "And the funny thing is, Voldemort made it worse than it would have been if he'd just left me alone. I guess being as powerful as he is can make you overconfident. I'm sure it never occurred to him that he could lose the fight he started."

"Why shouldn't he think that way? He's Voldemort, after all," said Tonks. "Except for when he tried to kill you as a baby, he hadn't lost a fight for a long time. So, naturally, he's going to be looking for any chance to get you. Which is one of the reasons we wanted you here."

"Why is that?" he asked, confused. "I thought you wanted me here to work on the spell some more."

"No, I don't think anyone actually said that," said Cassandra. "I mean, I'm sure we'll ask you some more questions, but that's not the reason we wanted you here. We want to give you some extra training, teach you some more stuff."

Kingsley nodded. "Harry, you're going to be facing him again. It's bound to happen. We want you to have the best shot you can against him, and the Death Eaters. There are things you need to be able to do."

"Like what?" Harry asked.

"For one, to Apparate. That's the first thing we're going to work on."

"But I'm-"

"Not seventeen yet, we know," said Tonks.

"I mentioned before, Harry, that being an Auror is an honored position," said Cassandra. "We get a pretty substantial amount of license from the Ministry. If we ask for something, and it's not outrageously expensive or morally questionable, we tend to get it."

"Unfortunately, Cassandra, these days it's the politically rather than morally questionable that tends to be a problem. Harry knows, he was harassed politically most of last year," said Kingsley.

"Well, anyway," continued Cassandra, "we applied for, and were given, special dispensation for you. You can now legally Apparate, and you will continue to be able to do so; it's not just for this weekend. Also, the dispensation is not only for Apparation, but for everything to do with your being underage. You could be in a highly dangerous situation anytime, and we don't want you having to stop and think about whether you were justified or not, what trouble you might get in. You deserve it, considering what you've done, and the danger you're in. As of now, for legal purposes, you are of age. You are authorized to do anything an adult wizard can do."

Harry didn't quite know what to say; this was the last thing he had expected. "Thank you," he said. "I really appreciate that you've done this."

She shook her head dismissively. "Like I said, you absolutely deserve it. Also, we need you, and the ability to Disapparate could save your life. We feel it's serious."

"But not too serious for a little wagering," grinned Tonks.

To Harry's questioning look, Temble said, "Many of us like to bet on things, probably more than most people do. We think it's a result of high-stress jobs. We often bet on things that are hard to predict, but not totally random. A few people decided to start a betting pool on how long it'll take you to learn to Apparate for the first time. Ten of us, ten Galleons each, so whoever's closest gets a hundred Galleons."

Harry couldn't help but find this amusing. "So, who picked the fastest time?"

"We don't know," said Cassandra. "We only know what we picked, we don't get to find out what everyone picked until the event in question happens. Just so you know that if someone seems especially keen for you to get it in the next few minutes, it means that the time they picked is almost there."

"What's the average time it takes a person to do it for the first time?"

"About two hours," she said. "I think it's safe to say that we all picked some time under that."

"No pressure, though," added Tonks, with a mischievous grin.

"Okay, well, I'm ready to start anytime. I've really been looking forward to learning this."

"Hmmm... what time is it... nineteen after nine, okay," muttered Kingsley. "The interesting thing about Apparation, Harry, is that there really isn't that much to learn. It's just a matter of trying until you get it right, as is the case with a lot of spells. When you're trying to work it out in the beginning, the key is visualization. Imagine yourself in the place you want to end up, and simply will it to happen. Your success will be determined by the strength of your visualization.

"Let's give it a first try. I want you to try to Apparate to the other side of this room. See that painting over there on the opposite wall? Try to Apparate so that you'll be standing in front of that painting. Focus on that spot. Imagine you're already there. Just decide to be there, and know that you will. We'll be quiet, and just do it when you're ready."

Harry felt that he could do this. He had, after all, unintentionally Disapparated once even before he knew he was a wizard, so he knew he had the ability. Even though it wasn't a part of Kingsley's instructions, Harry found himself focusing on love. He realized he had just gotten into the habit of doing that whenever he needed to focus, to concentrate. He thought of Hermione, of Pansy. He felt relaxed, and wanted to take a look at the painting. He decided he was there already...

...and suddenly he was standing a few feet in front of it. He turned in surprise. Six of the Aurors looked surprised as well, as Tonks shouted, "Harry! Yes!" and grinned broadly.

"I take it you said he would do it on his first try," said Cassandra with amusement, as Temble picked up a sealed envelope and opened it, looking through pieces of paper.

"Hmmm... Nope, the other guesses ranged from four minutes to a little over an hour, but Tonks was the only one who said he'd do it on the first try. Quite a longshot there, Tonks," said Temble.

Just for fun, Harry Apparated back to where he had been standing before; all of a sudden, it wasn't that difficult. He was sure he could do it anywhere. "How often do people do it on the first try?"

"Does anyone know of anyone who has?" asked Kingsley. Everyone shook their head. "The people at the Apparation Test Center would know better than us, but we're sure it's really rare. Tonks did go out on quite a limb there; I'd say she deserves the Galleons."

Cassandra looked annoyed. "I was the one who picked four minutes, I thought nobody would go lower than that. Oh, well."

"That was very impressive, Harry," said Kingsley. "I'm just wondering, if you had to guess, why would you say that you were able to do that, considering that it's very rare to do it on the first try?"

Harry thought for a minute. "Well, you said it's all about visualization, and visualization has a lot to do with focus. Since my life and sanity have depended on being able to focus completely, I'm probably able to do it better than pretty much any other sixteen-year-old. Also, I came up with the shield by visualizing it, so I have experience using that. That's just a guess, though."

Kingsley nodded. "I think it's a very good guess. That's what I had thought as well. So now, we refine it, make sure you understand how to do it over all kinds of areas. You can Apparate to anyplace on the planet, you don't have to have been there to do it. If you've never been there, of course, it helps to look at maps to get a fix on where you want to go, otherwise you could end up pretty far from it. It's impossible to Apparate into a solid object; if you tried, you'd just end up at the closest possible spot to the object."

"So, if I decided I wanted to Apparate in the Sahara Desert, I could do it? Even if I didn't know exactly where it was?"

Kingsley shook his head. "You have to at least have a general idea of where it is. So if you know that it's in Northern Africa, that's enough. You could end up anywhere in the desert if you're not any more specific than that about your destination."

"Sorry, but I have to try this." Harry focused his intentions, and the next thing he knew, he was standing in a desert. He could see nothing but sand and clear blue sky, not even sand dunes. It was very hot, which didn't surprise Harry, even though in England it was almost winter. It occurred to him that nobody would live long where he was. He picked up a small handful of sand, focused his thoughts, and was back in the living room at the Auror Training Center. He held out his hand, but didn't spill the sand onto the floor.

Kingsley looked amused. "Almost everyone goes someplace like that as soon as they know they can. It's quite a novelty at first. I went to Antarctica, which I quickly realized was a bad idea. Wizard robes don't keep you very warm."

"I have a question," said Harry. "Well, probably I'll have a lot of questions, but just for now... can you follow someone who's Disapparated? Is there any way to know where they've gone?"

"Unfortunately, no, Harry. It would make our jobs much easier if we could, that's for sure. But there's just no way to do it. I assume the thrust of your question is, if Aurors' jobs are to capture Dark wizards, can we follow them, track them down." Harry nodded. "No, the best we can do is catch them in an anti-Disapparation field. They always have a slight advantage over us because when we find them, that's the first thing we have to do. It's a little bit like, if we were playing chess, we have the black pieces."

"And even that doesn't always work," added Cassandra. "An anti-Disapparation field can be overcome, if the wizard is powerful enough. It often comes down to who is the stronger wizard. If who we're chasing is stronger than we are, they get away. It's that simple. That's why only the strongest wizards can become Aurors."

"That's also why Voldemort is so hard to catch," said Kingsley. "Even if five or ten of us surrounded him and started firing off spells and anti-Disapparation fields, he could still get away. The only one who would have a chance is Professor Dumbledore, and we don't even know for sure how that would go.

"Getting back to Apparation, some people use longitude and latitude to more closely determine where to go. If you have a head for figures, it's not a bad idea. But most wizards get by fine without it. It seems like you're pretty well in tune with your intuition, so I wouldn't worry about it if I were you."

"Okay, here's an odd question," Harry said. "If you were falling, and while falling you Disapparated-"

"Would you still have the downward momentum?" finished Kingsley. "It's not that odd a question, many people ask it. The answer is yes; you can't save yourself from a fall by Disapparating. If you Apparated on the ground, you would hit it with the force that you were falling with. Now, if you're falling, you can always Apparate higher up in the air, buy yourself more time, and you could keep doing it indefinitely if you didn't need to eat and sleep. In your case, of course, you don't have to worry since you have Fawkes. He can always catch you."

"That reminds me, did you hear exactly how Professor Dumbledore saved me after I was Cursed off my broom, on the morning after the second dream?" The Aurors shook their heads, and Harry told them the story. They were impressed, but not surprised. "Well, that's Dumbledore," said Kingsley. "It's possible that a few of us could have managed that, if we had a phoenix, but it would be tough."

"Oh, that reminds me of another thing," said Harry. "Last year when Dumbledore saved me in the Atrium-he seems to be doing a lot of that lately-he saved me from a Killing Curse by Voldemort by moving a large object in front of it, to shield me from it. He also moved two other things at the same time. Is that something you Aurors do a lot?"

Kingsley nodded. "There are some of us who are still alive today because we did that; it's pretty well recognized as the only thing you can do with a Killing Curse if you can't get out of the way. The problem is, it has to be pretty substantial, it can't just be a piece of wood. I take it you'd like to be able to do that?"

Harry nodded. "But I also have a question. Why can't you get out of the way of a Killing Curse by Disapparating instead of using objects to block it?"

"You can, sometimes," answered Kingsley. "The problem is, you can't know that your adversary hasn't already put an anti-Disapparation field around you, and when a Killing Curse is on the way is no time to find out. You only have time to do one thing, and if you try to Disapparate and fail, you're dead. If you have an object you can block it with, that's the thing to do. One thing Aurors are trained to do is in every situation, take a quick mental inventory of what's around, you have to be able to do it almost without thinking. Disapparating is a last, desperate resort.

"Anyway, moving objects is not that difficult, just for one thing. The trick is doing two or three at once. It takes a certain amount of concentration. We can work with you on that a bit, if you like. I don't think it would take long. It'll help that you can do it silently, with little or no loss of effectiveness. Actually, let's test you on that, we meant to do that at some point." He put a spell on himself, then said, "Hit me with 'Blue.'" Harry did so, and a gold 100 popped up next to Kingsley, who whistled and shook his head. "A sixteen-year-old with a 100... never thought I'd see that. So, yes, that's a big help, you don't have to say anything. We have an area with various random objects, we can have you practice moving them around, in different combinations."

They spent the morning doing a few more Apparation exercises and having Harry move multiple objects around. It was difficult at first, but after an hour's effort, he was finally able to set three objects along three separate preset paths. Then they practiced sending harmless spells at Harry to test his ability to block them with objects. He tended to miss them at first, but again, became better quickly with more practice. "There may not be too many times, though, when you'll need to move three things," said Kingsley. "I know you're thinking of keeping safe whoever you're with. Again, almost the hardest part may be finding things to use."

"Do wizards who are fighting ever use this skill to basically throw things at their opponent?" asked Harry.

"Not really," answered Tonks. "When you're fighting in that way, you have to be dueling. Throwing things is a very inefficient and tactically poor way to go about trying to defeat someone. Also, it's less effort for them to swat it away than it is for you to throw it."

"How do they swat it away?"

"With the Repulsion Charm," Tonks said. "It's a kind of a field, really, which extends about a foot from your body. Any object entering it will immediately go back the way it came, with the same force and direction it had coming in. That's why you have to be careful; if you throw objects, you have to be sure they don't originate from someplace on a line between you and them, because if they do that, the objects would just hit you. We'll teach you that one now, it won't take long." He practiced for a bit, and sure enough, he was soon causing objects to zoom away from him as fast as they came.

They stopped a little after noon to have some lunch, which was brought by house-elves. The conversation turned to Ministry politics and how it affected the Aurors.

"We all knew that Voldemort had come back, of course," Cassandra was saying to Harry. "None of us believed for a second what the Prophet was saying about him, we knew him better than that. One thing about being the Hogwarts headmaster for such a long time is that every single Auror had him for a headmaster, and we knew that in the unlikely event that he was starting to lose his marbles, he'd step down before it became apparent. But the problem was that we couldn't step forward as one and say that Fudge was full of it and Dumbledore was right. Not so much because we'd all be fired, because they really couldn't, but because we'd be setting ourselves up as the real authority. We have to be subordinate to the proper leadership, however stupid it may be."

"But if you had come out and said you believed that Voldemort was back," asked Harry, "wouldn't people have believed you and put pressure on the Ministry?"

Cassandra chuckled. "You're very good at magic, Harry, but I'm afraid you don't know much about this sort of thing. You think too well of most people. I'm afraid that Fudge was well suited to his position in one way: whether by chance or by design, he told people what they wanted to hear. And history has shown, both for wizards and for Muggles, that politicians who tell people what they want to hear do well.

"Some people would have believed us. But many more wouldn't have, because it wasn't what they wanted to hear. It would have created a hugely divisive rift in wizarding society, and made us enemies of the Ministry leadership. Now you may say that's a price worth paying to get people to recognize that Voldemort was back, and there's a point to that. But-and Dumbledore will agree with this if you ask him-again, we have to take our orders from the leadership. If we try to take over, even if for the best of reasons, then suddenly we'd be politicians ourselves, having our own internal fights and problems. I'm not saying there was no case for outright rebellion; Voldemort being back was a huge problem. But many of us helped Dumbledore, which was as much as we could do, and as much as he wanted us to do."

Harry finished a bite of his food. "I guess I understand what you're saying. But I'm surprised that more people didn't believe Dumbledore. I mean, a lot of people knew him from Hogwarts, they had to have known what kind of person he is."

She shook her head sadly. "They did, but most were like Fudge-they just didn't want to believe it, and so found reasons not to. A society is only as good as its citizens, and in this case, our society kept its head stuck in the sand for too long. Dumbledore understood what was going on, of course, but didn't really have much choice but to do what he did. All he could do was do his best and hope that people would eventually see the truth, and work against Voldemort in the meantime, which he did very well."

"And now that people are starting to take their heads out of the sand," continued Kingsley, "here you come along, slapping their faces, telling them that they should say his name, that they should be brave. They know it's true, but... this may be hard for you to understand, brave as you are, but many people don't want to be bothered. They'd rather go about their business and keep their heads down. They'll be stirred to fight if their interests are directly threatened, or if friends or family are harmed, but only then, and often by then it's too late."

"I have a hard time believing that," said Harry. "I mean, look at Hogwarts. I've gotten nothing but support there since I started this thing. And this is even after the Prophet spent all year saying what a nutter I was."

"Well, a few things, Harry," Cassandra replied. "First of all, people there know you, and they can tell there's nothing wrong with you. Secondly, most kids don't read the Prophet, especially not deeply enough to find the little slurs about you. Thirdly, there wasn't enough time before Voldemort attacked you to find out exactly what support you would have gotten. What if he hadn't done it? I'm not saying people would have been hostile, but since it happened, I think it's not so much your campaign people have responded to as much as your bravery. Then they express their support by embracing your campaign. So the Hogwarts community has ample reason to support you. Some Gryffindors could hear you scream, and they told the other students, which is a kind of first-hand account. Dumbledore showed everyone part of your last dream. They could identify with it. Most people haven't seen it. They've heard about it, which is impressive enough. My point is, you're bound to get more support at Hogwarts." She paused, then said, "I can only imagine what it would be like if everyone had seen all the dreams, like we have. Winston wasn't too far off with his 'Minister of Magic by acclamation' comment."

Given that no one was objecting to what Cassandra was saying, he assumed that the rest of them felt much as she did. He didn't want to believe that wizarding society could be so shortsighted. "I can't argue with you... it's just frustrating to think that we have such a great person as Professor Dumbledore, and people don't even listen to him."

Kingsley nodded. "I can see why you'd feel that way, Harry. You aren't old enough to have become cynical yet," he said wryly. "Even our baby has gotten a bit cynical."

"Pretty darn cynical, after what happened last year," said Tonks. "That was quite an education. If there were any justice at all, Fudge would have been removed from office."

"Unfortunately, by the time most politicians' mistakes are made apparent, the damage from them has long since been done," said Cassandra. To Harry's surprised look at Kingsley's comment, she added, "We use the term 'baby' to refer to whoever the youngest Auror happens to be at the time, which of course is Tonks right now."

"But we're hoping you'll be our baby soon, Harry," said Tonks, grinning.

"Thanks," said Harry, finishing up the last bite of his lunch. "So, what are we doing in the afternoon?"

"Dueling," said Kingsley. "Dumbledore told us that your class has done the basic bit, but only with 'Blue,' of course. We want to teach you how to do it for real. He also said that you did very well in the class tournament, but you weren't the champion."

Harry nodded. "In fact, I'm looking forward to doing more with dueling, but I was wondering if we could also have for this the person who beat me. He's a friend, and I'd really like someone to be able to practice it with at Hogwarts. If he could learn with me, he could keep pace."

Cassandra shook her head. "I'm sorry, Harry, I can see why you'd want that, but it's irregular enough having you here. We can't start bringing people in here; you're kind of a special case."

Unhappy, Harry said, "I understand." He realized that he would have to be happy enough that he got to do this.

"Who beat you?" asked Tonks. "Ron?"

"No, Neville." Harry noted several surprised looks, but no one was more surprised than Cassandra, who looked incredulous. "Are you serious?"

"Of course," he said, surprised that she would say that. "Neville's skills have improved dramatically in the past year, I saw it happen in the D.A. But yes, in the class tournament he barely squeaked by me, but he wiped the floor with everyone else. He beat Malfoy in the sixth-year final, the whole class was cheering him. It was great." He went on to explain why Neville's win was especially satisfying after what Malfoy had said earlier that day about his parents. The Aurors all looked disgusted, but not surprised, that Malfoy would have said such a thing.

Cassandra looked at Harry and said, "Yes, Harry. Neville can join us for the afternoon." This got a few surprised looks from the other Aurors. "Anyone want to argue with me?" she asked the room.

No one said anything for a moment, then Kingsley said, "No, I think we all know better than that. But we wouldn't argue anyway, Cassandra, you know that."

"Good," she said. "It'll be a pleasure to help train Neville, Harry. I didn't mean to be insulting of him by being so surprised. It's just that his grandmother has always said that he wasn't that talented."

Harry remembered what she had said at St. Mungo's. "I've heard her say it too, and I wished she wouldn't. Things like that probably contributed to his being so shy for such a long time. But it looks now like he had talent all along, but just had a hard time bringing it out. I'm sure it hasn't helped that we've had more than our share of poor Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers at Hogwarts. I have to admit that when we played, I expected to beat him. I was really happy for him, though."

Cassandra stood up. "Jack, would you do me a favor and go get Neville authorized for our fireplace?" Temble nodded and left the room. "Harry, why don't you come with me to get him. You can get your first experience... have you ever been to Neville's house?" Harry shook his head. "So, it'll be your first time Apparating someplace where you've never been. Good practice for you."

"So, how do I do it? Do I look at a map?"

"Yes, that's the most common way if you've never been to the place before. I'll go get some maps, and I'll show you where it is, find the nearest Apparation point." She got up and left the room."

"What did she mean by 'Apparation point?'" Harry asked the others.

"When wizards live not far from Muggles, as many wizards do," explained Kingsley, "it's obviously not a good idea to Apparate anyplace on the street. One could be seen, and we prefer to avoid doing Memory Charms if we can. So, many places have pre-selected points onto which it's recommended for wizards to Apparate if they're going to that area. That's what Cassandra will be looking for."

"Not to mention they'd hear the sound," Harry agreed. "Speaking of that, I forgot to ask earlier... when anyone's ever Apparated or Disapparated around me, I've heard a popping sound. But I didn't hear it when I did it. Why is that?"

"No one really knows," answered Tonks. "We assume it's for a similar reason that your voice sounds different to you in a recording than it does in your head."

"Okay," said Cassandra, walking back into the dining area. She moved aside some dishes and laid out maps in front of Harry. "Here's a map of England, we're here, and here's the village Neville lives in. Now," she put a different map on top of the others, "Here's a closer map of Neville's area. There's a field a few doors down from his house, and this area has some trees. We'll Apparate here and then walk, it'll only take a few minutes. I assume you're ready to go anytime?"

Harry stood up. "Ready when you are."

"Okay, I'll go first. When you're thinking about where to go, visualizing it, you should also visualize me in that place. It may help you get closer to where I'll be. If you get there and you don't see me anywhere, just come back here and we'll try again. But I have a feeling you'll find me. Are you ready?"

He looked at the maps again, visualizing. "Okay. Go ahead."

With a pop, she was gone. Harry visualized the area, with particular attention to ending up as close to her as possible. He willed himself there.

He was suddenly standing near some trees, and near her-rather nearer than he had intended. His face was about four inches from hers. Just as this was registering, she gave a start. "Harry!" she gasped, putting her hands on his shoulders and taking a step back. "Oh, you startled me! Can't fault your aim, though," she said, recovering. "That was pretty impressive, really. I just didn't expect it."

"Sorry," he said as they started walking. "You can tell I'm still new at this. I focused on standing as close to you as I could, I forgot to think that I might get closer than I should. I didn't think I'd get nearly that close." He chuckled; she looked at him inquiringly. "I was just thinking, if it was Tonks, she would have said I did it deliberately."

Cassandra laughed. "Yes, she would've. So, what she's doing doesn't bother you?"

"Well, at first I was a little nervous. I'm not used to people acting like that with me. But I like Tonks, and I'm flattered that she does it. So I'm trying to, like Kingsley said, get into the spirit of it. Probably if she stopped now, I'd be disappointed."

She laughed again. "Yes, I can see how you could get used to that. I have a feeling she won't be the only one, Harry. She's just doing it a bit more obviously, for humorous effect. But I have a feeling that if you were the same age, it wouldn't be quite so obvious or quite so humorous."

"Hermione said the same thing," he said. "I've never really had a girlfriend, so I don't know how I'd react. But she's a nice person, and she's attractive. I'm surprised she's not taken already, come to think of it."

Cassandra's expression became more serious. "You'll find, Harry, that a higher proportion of Aurors are single than is usual. Our lifestyle makes dating kind of difficult. Also, it's hard to be married to an Auror. I'm married, but I'm unusual. My husband isn't the worrying type, but now that Voldemort is back, even he's a little worried. We have to be ready to pop off at a second's notice, into highly dangerous situations. It would be unnatural for someone's partner not to worry."

"Do you have kids?" Harry asked, curious.

"No," she said, in a way that made him wonder if she had wanted to. "Not as a choice, it just never happened. It wasn't something we desperately wanted, so that was all right. But even fewer Aurors have children, especially women. Female Aurors who have babies usually take a year off to take care of the baby, and it makes being an Auror in general a lot harder. When Frank and Alice had Neville, that was unusual. They went to school together, and fell in love while training to be Aurors. We were wondering how they were going to handle raising a son, with the demands on their time. We assume that his grandmother would have had a significant role anyway. Ah, here we are," she said, walking up to a small but nice-looking house. She rang the doorbell.

After a few seconds, Neville's grandmother opened the door. She was clearly surprised by who she saw. "Cassandra, Professor Potter, please come in," she said politely. "Neville had said that you would be with the Aurors, Professor. What brings you here?"

Neville walked into the room. "Harry! Cassandra!" he said. Cassandra walked over to Neville and hugged him. "Hello, Neville," she said. Harry got the impression that this was a standard greeting, and he wondered if she thought of Neville in a motherly way. She let go of Neville, who looked at Harry with curiosity. "What are the two of you doing here? I thought they were going to be working with you on that spell."

"Well, Neville, it turns out that they wanted to train me in Auror stuff instead." Neville's eyebrows shot up. "Yeah, I know, I'm pretty happy about it," Harry agreed. "Anyway, this afternoon they wanted to teach me dueling, real dueling. I asked them if you could join us, so you could learn along with me, and I'd have a sparring partner I could practice with in Gryffindor Tower. I hope you can come with us for the afternoon."

Neville's eyes went wide. "Are you serious? I'd love to! I'm just... really surprised. I... I would have thought you'd have asked for Ron to join you," he said, embarrassed.

"We would have said no to Ron, Neville," said Cassandra. "That's who I thought he was going to ask for, too. But he didn't; he asked for you. Obviously, I wasn't going to say no."

"Well, I did have plans for Neville and myself for this afternoon," said Mrs. Longbottom, "but I suspect that Neville would never forgive me if I did not change them. We can do them some other day. You both are doing him a great honor."

"It's nothing he doesn't deserve, Mrs. Longbottom," Harry protested. "Didn't he tell you that he beat me, and was the sixth-year dueling champion?"

This was the first time Harry had ever seen Neville's grandmother look surprised. "Neville? Why didn't you tell me about this?"

"I was going to, Gran," said Neville. "But you know how I am about sending owls, and I just hadn't gotten a chance to say it in person yet. Vacation just started, after all."

"I expect a full account of it when you return," she said, her pride in his accomplishment understated but clear. "Both that tournament, I mean, and today's activities."

Neville nodded and smiled, clearly very excited. "I promise, Gran. Thank you, both of you," he said to Harry and Cassandra.

"Like I said, Neville, you deserve it," said Harry emphatically. "You're good, and I'll be able to get better practicing against you." Neville looked even more pleased.

"Would you like to use the fireplace?" asked Mrs. Longbottom.

"Yes, thank you," said Cassandra.

"Wait a minute, Harry. How did you get here?" asked Neville.

"That was what we did this morning, Neville." He explained, and enjoyed watching Neville's expression. "So, yeah, I was pretty excited about that."

"I sure would be, too," Neville agreed. "But it's a good idea, after Hogsmeade especially. You could be targeted again, and being able to get away could save your life." Then he looked dismayed. "Of course, you'd never leave if anyone else around was in danger. So maybe it's not that useful."

"Professor Potter," said Mrs. Longbottom sternly. "Neville nearly died helping to save you. Do not misunderstand; I am as proud of his action as I can be. I know his parents are proud. But I will be most displeased if what Neville almost died to protect is wasted carelessly. You must take great care to stay alive. Do you understand me?"

Harry felt as though he were talking to an even stricter version of Professor McGonagall. "Yes, ma'am," he said solemnly. He could see Neville grinning, out of his grandmother's field of vision.

"Very well. Have a pleasant day, all of you." She gestured them to the fireplace.

They went through, one by one, Harry last. He stepped out of the fireplace at the Auror Training Center to see Neville looking around, slightly awed by his surroundings. Not what was in the place, Harry realized, but just the place itself.

Cassandra called out, "We're back!" The other six Aurors walked into the room; in turn, they introduced themselves to Neville and greeted him warmly. Neville, still a bit awed, shook their hands but said little. After a few minutes of small talk, Kingsley said, "Okay, well, let's get down to it. Neville, Harry, follow me, please."

They followed him into a large, mostly empty room that was obviously for training. "First, let me watch you two have a few bouts with each other using Blue, so I can take a look at your technique, see if anything needs to be fixed." Neville and Harry squared off and fought twice, each taking one bout, each one again lasting more than a minute. "Very good," said Kingsley. "You two are quite evenly matched. Neville, would you hit me with Blue, silently, please?" Neville did, and a gold 86 popped up next to Kingsley. Harry and Neville both raised their eyebrows. "It was 79 a few months ago," said Neville.

"Quite an improvement in such a short time. But then, you have Dumbledore teaching you, so I shouldn't be surprised," said Kingsley. "Even so, you're operating at a disadvantage relative to Harry. Very impressive." Neville smiled proudly. "Okay, we're going to start with some of the more basic techniques and spell combinations, and work our way up to the more advanced ones. I don't mean to say that you two will be able to take on Death Eaters by the time we're finished today, but I want to give you as much new information as I can. Then, you can practice at Hogwarts, and get better at what you'll learn today."

Kingsley spent the next few hours gradually moving them through the basics and the intermediate techniques and skills. Harry felt it was a bit like chess; now they were being taught how the pieces moved, the proper role of each piece, and general strategy. By the end of the day, they would know as much as reasonably possible, and it just remained to practice. It felt like an unusually difficult but interesting class, requiring great concentration. Occasionally they dueled so Kingsley could check on how they were applying what they were learning. Sometimes Kingsley would have a bout with either of them, defeat them by using a particular technique, then teach it to them and teach them how to defend against it. Then they practiced it.

At 5:00, Kingsley suggested they call it a day, but both Harry and Neville pleaded for more time. Kingsley agreed to go for one more hour. At the end of the hour, tired and hungry but still exhilarated, Harry and Neville reluctantly stopped. They talked with Kingsley for a little while about strategic aspects of dueling, then went with him to the dining area when dinner was served. They sat down at the table with the rest of the Aurors who had been there earlier.

"So, how'd they do?" asked Cassandra, who Harry knew was much more interested in Neville's progress than his.

"Very well," replied Kingsley. "Coming along nicely, especially for having as little experience as they do. Still too early to tell, but I see no reason why either couldn't become expert, with enough practice." Harry and Neville exchanged a grin.

"That's great, really great," she said. "Neville, your grandmother had never said anything about your having this kind of skill. Did this happen recently?"

Neville glanced at Harry, then nodded. "It was because of being in the D.A., Harry's study group."

"But Neville, whatever talent you have is nothing I created, or had anything to do with. All the D.A. did was give you a chance to practice," protested Harry.

Neville shook his head. "It was much more than that, Harry. I think what was stopping me before was psychological. I was always terrified of teachers, feeling that I wouldn't measure up, or get thrown out for not being magical enough. My gran worried that I wouldn't get into Hogwarts in the first place. Anyway, people like Snape didn't help me any."

"Snape was always awful to Neville," Harry explained to the group. "Neville was his favorite target besides me."

Neville shuddered. "That class was a nightmare, I'm so happy to be rid of it. But anyway, I was always really afraid of teachers, except Professor Sprout. I liked her, and I liked Herbology. But the others... it was just hard to get past. But the D.A... Harry had more to do with my skill coming out than he realizes, or will admit," said Neville, glancing at Harry as he said the last part. "Harry was being a teacher in that group, and a good one. He didn't criticize, didn't act like something wasn't good enough. I started to realize I could... I don't know, get into it, I guess, without worrying. And once that happened, it just felt as if I wanted to make up for lost time. I looked forward to that time every week."

"Thank you for that, Neville," said Harry. "I'm really glad. I looked forward to it too. There was far too little to look forward to last year. But, yes," Harry said to the group, "at some point, Neville just... blossomed is the only word I can think of. He tried really, really hard, and became one of the strongest members of the group. It was pretty amazing to watch. And satisfying, too." As was the case earlier in the year, Harry didn't want to suggest what he suspected, that the escape of Bellatrix Lestrange and other Death Eaters from Azkaban had motivated Neville greatly. Neville said nothing about it, so Harry didn't either. Harry wondered if Neville just didn't want to acknowledge it, or was so appreciative of Harry's efforts that he wanted to give Harry more credit than he should.

"I'll bet," said Tonks. "So, Neville, have you ever considered becoming an Auror?"

"No," Neville said. "I never for a minute thought I would be good enough."

"From what I saw today, it's far from impossible," said Kingsley. "If you think it's something you'd like to do, you should think about it, find out more about it."

"But he couldn't, could he?" asked Harry. "I was told that you had to have a N.E.W.T. in Potions, and he's stopped taking Potions."

"That can be gotten around," said Tonks. "Potions is the least important of what's supposed to be necessary."

Harry looked very dismayed. "I thought I had to have Potions to even have a chance of becoming an Auror, it was what Professor McGonagall told me on Career Day last year. I'd hate to think I'm taking N.E.W.T. Potions for nothing."

"Well, technically, she's right," explained Cassandra. "On paper. Tonks just means that some people have become Aurors without it, if they were exceptional in other ways and did outside study in Potions to get up to speed."

"Especially these days," remarked a clearly annoyed Kingsley. "There have been fewer new Aurors than usual over the past ten years, and we're pretty sure that Snape is part of the reason. Not him personally, though maybe partly, but the fact that no one can take the N.E.W.T. course unless they got an Outstanding O.W.L. Some people who might have become Aurors otherwise probably looked at the requirements, decided they couldn't fill them because they couldn't get into the Potions course, and didn't investigate being an Auror further. A few years back I asked Dumbledore to persuade Snape to change the requirements, but Snape wouldn't. Recently, we've been seriously considering pushing the Ministry to change the paper requirements to a Potions O.W.L. instead of a N.E.W.T., and doing extra Potions training ourselves. If this continues, it could really become a problem."

Harry nodded, surprised. "I think Neville could do fine with Potions provided that Severus Snape was nowhere in the area." Neville grunted in agreement.

"I can understand that," said Tonks sympathetically. "I had him for Potions when I was there. It would be hard to imagine someone more unpleasant. What's wrong with him, anyway? Cassandra, you were at Hogwarts around the same time as him, weren't you? Did you know him?"

"I was two years older than him," answered Cassandra. "He was well known for being interested in the Dark Arts, and for being an adversary of some same-year Gryffindor students, mainly Harry's father and Sirius Black. I haven't dealt with him recently, so I can't say if he's like how he was then. But he wasn't exactly a fun person then, either. Just seemed like someone mired in darkness. From what you say, it sounds like he still is. Yet Dumbledore trusts him. I'd love to know why."

"I've asked him," said Harry. "He won't tell me, says it's a private matter between him and Snape. What I'd like to know is why he puts up with Snape being so horrible to the students. I mean, me I can understand; I'm the son of his worst enemy, world-famous in a way I didn't do anything to deserve. But why Neville? Because he wasn't good at Potions, or was afraid of teachers? It's hard to understand."

Kingsley nodded. "There's a lot of things in this world that we don't understand all that well, and that we never will. This is definitely one of them. Something happened between Snape and Dumbledore that we'll never know."

There was silence for a minute. Then Harry said, "Can I ask you something... you said earlier that even if five or ten of you surrounded Voldemort and threw spells and anti-Disapparation fields at him, he could still get away, because he's so powerful. So how is he ever going to be defeated, if he's that powerful?"

He looked at their faces; nobody seemed very happy with the question. "The answer is that we don't know," said Kingsley. "We try to come up with things, but we almost have to hope to get lucky. That's part of why Voldemort's such a big threat: he's so hard to kill. Frankly, Harry, our biggest hope is you."

The other Aurors did not seem surprised to hear him say that, so Harry assumed it was a widely held opinion among the Aurors. Neville looked a bit surprised, perhaps wondering whether they knew the same part of the prophecy that he did. Tonks said, "You don't seem surprised to hear that, Harry. Have other people told you this, or has it occurred to you on your own?"

Harry tried to filter everything he said through the idea of not wanting to mention or refer to the prophecy. "There are too many connections I have to Voldemort not to think of it that way," he said. "The scar, the telepathic connection, my being a Parselmouth, and then recently, the spell I came up with. Not that I have any idea how I could beat him, mind you. Just that I seem extremely connected. Still, as long as we have Dumbledore, I have to think Voldemort can be beaten. I just wondered what you guys thought about it."

"We sit around, Harry, and wonder what we can do," said Cassandra. "Right now, the best we can do is try to do what Neville did, to keep you alive. That's why you're here."

"Excuse me," said Neville, with trepidation. "Why am I here, then?"

Cassandra met Neville's eyes. "Partly because Harry asked for you... and partly because... Aurors are very close to each other, Neville. It's kind of like a big family. Even if some of us don't like each other that much, we're still like family. And that makes you sort of an extended family member. I feel an obligation to you, to do what I can to help you. You lost your parents to their jobs. The least we can do is look out for you a bit." Now she smiled. "And it doesn't hurt that you're a very nice person." As Neville looked down, embarrassed, Cassandra got up and left the table, and the rest continued talking. About fifteen minutes later, she came back in and sat down. "Harry, I should have asked you first, but I have a feeling you won't mind. Neville, I've just been to see your grandmother, and she's given her permission to have you stay with us until Monday, meaning, as long as Harry will. If you want to, that is."

Harry grinned and turned to Neville, whose expression suggested that Christmas had come early. "Thank you, Cassandra," said Neville. "I really appreciate it."

The conversation turned to Neville's parents, and those Aurors who knew them shared their recollections with Neville. As they talked, Harry felt a warm glow of contentment; this was a wonderful thing to have happened to Neville, and it wouldn't have happened if he hadn't requested it. He knew he would enjoy the next two days.