Harry Potter and the Unbreakable Link

Ron rushed into the library, following Professor Dumbledore. Both had their wands out. The library, however, was silent and dark. Hermione was sitting near a bookshelf, her head on her knees. Harry's invisibility cloak and her wand were lying next to her. Further along Harry was standing; his wand still clutched in his hand, staring into space. When they entered the room he turned round and said with a sigh, "He's gone, Professor."

Dumbledore nodded, almost as he hadn't really heard. "Are you all right? Not hurt?" he asked anxiously.

Harry nodded and pointed to Hermione, "I'm not sure about her, though."

Dumbledore and Ron, who was looking rather lost, turned to Hermione. Dumbledore knelt down beside her, "How are you?" he asked loudly, for she had not moved since they had entered the room.

"Is he gone? Really gone?" Hermione muttered.

"So Harry says."

Hermione looked up at them and then seemed to notice Professor Dumbledore for the first time. "Oh. Er... hello, Professor. Er." She didn't seem to know what to say.

"I suggest we return to Hogwarts as soon as possible," he proposed.

Harry, Ron, who was looking extremely bewildered, and Hermione nodded. She stood up and shook herself. Then, picking up her wand and giving a very Hermione-ish stare at no one, she put her nose in the air and left the library first without a backward glance.

They packed quickly and then took their trunks downstairs. Dumbledore was waiting in the hall. Harry wondered how they were going to get back to Hogwarts. Were they going to Apparate?

"I have some floo powder here. I have temporarily connected the castle up and we will return that way."

They went into the dining room (the room with the biggest fire) when Harry suddenly remembered Irene. "What's happened to Irene?"

They all stared at him blankly. Then Ron said, "Gosh, I completely forgot. She went off into the forest. I don't know where she is."

"Irene is the servant Mrs. Weasley told me about?"

"Yes. She's a squib-" said Hermione.

"-and a Malfoy-" continued Harry.

"-and she works for You-Know-Who, but she helped me, so I don't think she's too bad," finished Ron.

"What will happen to her?" asked Harry, "she can't go back to her parents."

"No," replied Dumbledore. "I suggest she returns with us to Hogwarts. We can decide what will happen to her then."

"How will you find her?" asked Ron.

"Honestly, Ron! He'll use the tracking spell. We did it in Charms for our O.W.L.s. I can't believe you don't remember it," protested Hermione.

Ron scowled at her and Dumbledore coughed slightly, told them he'd be back shortly and left in search of Irene.

The other three sat in silence. Ron didn't want to force Harry and Hermione to talk about whatever happened if they didn't want to. Harry simply didn't want to think about it, and Hermione was well aware that Dumbledore would want to know what happened, so she thought she might as well kill two birds with one stone and tell Ron at the same time.

After about ten minutes Dumbledore returned with Irene. She looked pale but collected though she hardly said 'hello' to them. Dumbledore took Harry, Ron and Hermione aside and whispered to them, "Irene has told me all that has happened to her. She has been through a massive ordeal, as have you all, and should on no account be questioned."

He then turned to Irene, "Do you know how to use floo-powder?"

She nodded. Dumbledore threw some into the flames, which immediately glowed green, "Harry- you go first with your trunk." Harry dragged his case into the fire and cried loudly, "Hogwarts!"

He disappeared. Ron followed with his case, then Hermione and Crookshanks disappeared. Irene went next and Dumbledore brought up the rear with Hermione's case.

Mia climbed off the train at King's Cross station on platform seven. She had ran away from the orphanage after she had had a second dream. This one had consisted of her parents saying good-bye to a girl Mia guessed was their supposed daughter who had been swapped with herself in her previous dream. The second dream had taken place at King's Cross station. The girl had gone towards the barrier between platforms nine and ten, and then she had disappeared. Mia now knew that she had living parents, and though she did not expect to see them when she arrived at the station, she could at least try to find out how the girl had disappeared.

She walked towards the appropriate barrier. There were no trains on platform nine, but a small train from Windsor was sitting belching fumes at platform ten. Hordes of day-trippers were coming from it. She hesitated just before she reached the barrier and looked round. What exactly had the girl done? Mia closed her eyes tight and tried to visualise her dream. The consequence was that a group of lively American tourists bumped into her, knocking her into the barrier between the platforms. Fuming, Mia glared at the offending party and rubbed her funny bone, which she had hit.

She touched the barrier, hit it, kicked it, and walked up and down alongside it, achieving nothing more than a few sidelong glances from a nearby guard. Eventually she gave it up and leant against the barrier, frowning in frustration. She seemed to have reached a dead end.

Suddenly her attention was caught by two people coming at a fast walk towards where she was standing. There was a woman in a beige tweed skirt suit carrying an overnight bag and a briefcase. She was thin-lipped and had determined grey eyes. She reminded Mia of an old maths teacher. Next to her, slightly behind her, was a very tall man with bright red hair and horn-rimmed spectacles, dragging a suitcase. They stopped and Mia watched idly as the woman looked at her watch, said something and the man nodded quite a few times. They approached her slowly and she could catch something of their conversation.

"I could have taken Farrel, you know," the woman said in a no-nonsense voice.

"Farrel? He's hardly serious enough."

"He's got his heart in the right place, and he's very good when he actually makes an effort. Just because he is sometimes slightly frivolous over his job doesn't make him a fool, Percy."

"But... he can't take his job lightly. He's your secretary!"

They stopped again, and suddenly the woman leaned up and kissed the man called Percy on the cheek, making him go very red.

"What was that for, Marisa?"

Marisa gave the first hint of a smile, "Just remember, I really should have taken Farrel. Take it and chew it while you're finding seats. I'll be ready to hear you're conclusions when I follow you in a minute."

"Chew it?!"

"Yes, like chewing gum. Now get on the platform- we'll miss the train. I'm just getting a newspaper."

Percy started to walk towards the barrier. Mia moved away unconsciously to let him pass, but he disappeared. Mia's jaw dropped. She stared and looked round for the woman who was buying her paper.

Soon she poked the newspaper into a pocket and started towards the barrier as well. Mia however did not the let the chance go, "Excuse me?"

She stopped, "Yes?"

"How do you do it?" Mia asked bluntly.

"I beg your pardon? I don't what you're talking about and I have a train to catch."

"You won't catch it by walking towards the barrier. Or perhaps you'll disappear like your friend and the girl in my dreams did."

The woman frowned and seemed to be looking for an escape route.

"Where did they go?" Mia persisted.

The woman reached inside her jacket and pulled out a short stick like the woman in the black cloak had done in her dream. Miss Fairfax had said it was a magic wand which Mia had not believed. But could there actually be something in what she said? It was a chance...

"That's a nice wand. Where'd you get it?"

"Ollivander's of course. What?!"

"So it is a magic wand?" The woman looked vexed, "How do you know?"

"My dreams. The person in the black cloak used one and Miss Fairfax thought it was a magic wand because the boy at the orphanage used one, and killed someone by pointing it at them."

"What? You're speaking in riddles, but never mind. What was the name of this boy? Can you remember?"

"Er...Riddle I think."

"My god! You-Know-Who! Start at the beginning, this is important!"

"What do you mean?"

Percy suddenly appeared by them, "Marisa! You have two min- Who's that?"

"What's your name?" Marisa asked Mia

"Mia Grann, aged eighteen, resident of Little Blackhill Orphanage, Suffolk."

"There you have it, Percy. Well Mia, why are you here?"

Mia explained why she had ran away.

"Right. Percy, get on that train to Hogwarts and tell Dumbledore that I am coming and reassure him that everyone passed their NEWTs and OWLs with flying colours. I'll follow tomorrow."

"But-"

"No buts!"

"Er, yes Marisa." And Percy disappeared again.

"Are you hungry, Mia?"

"Yes!" replied Mia, who hadn't eaten anything since a sandwich on the little Blackhill platform.

"All right, lets head for this café."

Mia followed Marisa into the little station café and ordered a large plate of fish and chips.

"I think I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Marisa Goldfinger, temporary Minister of Magic."

"Minister of Magic?!"

"Yes, Minister of Magic. The equivalent of your Prime Minister."

Mia's jaw dropped. She was eating fish and chips with the Minister of Magic!

"Oh, don't go all sycophantic just because you know I'm a bigwig."

"But I-"

"That's all right. Well, you want to know about magic? Perhaps you'd better tell me what you know first."

Mia told her, and as she spoke Marisa's eyebrows grew more and more tight together. She was silent for a few seconds. Then she said to herself, "And Pettigrew wanted to know all those details about eighteen year old girls. I think he's looking for the girl you were swapped with. And if the woman had a black cloak... Dumbledore needs to be told about this."

Mia listened in silence, rather confused. What her dreams were about seemed to interest a stranger as well as herself. It was peculiar that Marisa believed so implicitly in them. Maybe all these magical people had funny dreams. A sudden doubt entered Mia's head. Should she believe Marisa? Should she herself really be taking her dreams seriously? Everyone had strange dreams occasionally, but that didn't mean they were true. It was scientifically proven that this happened. Mia like things that were scientifically proven. Abstraction, theories, ideas she couldn't understand. She liked facts and figures and concrete rules. She was very down to earth and did not have much imagination.

"Prove to me that magic exists," said Mia suddenly as Marisa was vainly trying to open a plastic saché of tartar sauce.

Marisa looked quickly up, "You don't believe me?" Mia shook her head.

"Well, I can show you, but we mustn't let anyone see." They looked surreptitiously around and Marisa pulled out her wooden stick. "This is my wand. I will now open this packet of tartar sauce by magic." Almost hiding her wand in her coat, she pointed it at the packet and muttered so only Mia could hear, "Aprite packet!" The packet opened as if cut by an invisible pair of scissors. Mia stared and Marisa smiled.

"Will you open mine as well?" Mia asked. Marisa did so and then put her wand back in her pocket. "Do you believe me now?"

"Yes, I think I do. It's all so strange, though!"

"I imagine it must be. Now would you like to hear all about us?"

"Please."

Marisa laughed and started talking while they finished their meal. She talked about Hogwarts, the four founders, platform 9¾, the Ministry of Magic, Diagon Alley, Dumbledore and Grindelwald, Voldemort, Harry Potter, quidditch and much more. When she had concluded, Mia having finished her fish and chips, a bowl of ice-cream, coffee and biscuits, felt like one of the most knowledgeable people in the world.

"So what am I?" she asked as they walked out of the café, "I'm not a witch because I can't see the platform, but I don't think I'm totally normal. Otherwise we would all know about magic, and we don't."

"Good point, Mia You're not a muggle strictly speaking. I think you're a psychic."

"A what?"

"A psychic. You're not actually magical yourself, but you can sense the magical world. You have the type of dreams only a wizard would normally have, and you can see us get onto platform 9¾."

"But...but can't anyone see you disappear?"

"Oh no. They see us pass through the barrier, but then they just forget all about it. You remembered it."

Mia digested this information in silence.

"Now," said Marisa, "What are you going to do tonight?"

"Well, I suppose I should return to Blackhill," Mia said doubtfully.

"No. I don't think you should. I'll take you to Diagon Alley and you can stay the night in the Leaky Cauldron."

"Why can't I return to Blackhill?"

"Two reasons," replied Marisa. "One, I don't think there are any more trains going; and two, I can get hold of you more easily if you're in the magical world."

"Why would you need to get hold of me?" asked Mia

"Well, tomorrow, I shall go to Hogwarts to present the exam results and certificates to the fifth and seventh years. It's a tradition, you see, for the Minister to present the certificates. It adds a kind of real ceremony to it all. Anyway, while I'm at Hogwarts I shall talk to Professor Dumbledore. He always knows what to do. Then we'll find out who your parents are and hopefully you can meet them. However, it will be considerably easier to arrange all that if you are in Diagon Alley. We must go there now, find an owl and send news to your orphanage. They must be worried sick about you."

"Oh yes!" Mia nodded, relieved.

"We'll find you a chaperone for the next few days. I think Linda Newman's back from Bordeaux... She might do it if she hasn't broken anything else."

"Broken?"

"She's dreadfully accident prone, is Linda. If she hasn't broken this; she's sprained that, if she hasn't sprained that; she's dislocated this. Anyway...shall we go?"

Mia nodded and they got up and left the station.

Harry fell out of the fireplace into Dumbledore's office and looked up at the startled faces of Sirius and Arabella. "What happened? Are you all safe? Was it Voldemort? Ron and Hermione? What's happened?" they cried.

Sirius pulled Harry's trunk out of the way and Arabella picked up his glasses. Just as he had scrambled up, Ron and his trunk appeared in the fire place. Sirius grabbed Ron and his trunk and pulled them out of the way as Hermione and Crookshanks appeared. Hermione got up by herself and Crookshanks crawled hastily under a table. Soon they were all in the office.

Sirius and Arabella stared at Irene in astonishment. "Who's she?" Arabella asked Dumbledore.

"All in good time. Why don't you sit down?"

They sat. Dumbledore turned to Harry, Ron, Hermione and Irene. "Much has happened since we last met."

Ron was heard to mutter, "Talk about understatements..."

"If everyone is agreeable I suggest we have sandwiches up here, as dinner is over. While we eat I suggest one of you tells us exactly what happened. At present I am quite at sea."

"Don't you think that they should get some sleep first?" suggested Arabella with hesitation. Hermione nodded vigorously.

Dumbledore stared at them hard out of his piercing blue eyes. Harry could guess what he was going to say. He was right. Dumbledore said, "You're right, Arabella. However, I think Harry would agree that it is better to get explanations over as soon as possible. Of course all the young people are exhausted."

Harry then voiced the question that had been occupying all their minds, "What will happen to Irene?"

They all looked at her. She was sitting very still and calmly. As usual her face was perfectly expressionless except for her eyes which darted all around the room, taking as much as possible.

"I think we should ask Miss Malfoy that herself," Dumbledore replied gravely, giving Irene the same piercing stare.

"I would like to, if it is all right, to er, not return to my parents," Irene responded, not looking at anyone.

"I see," Dumbledore thought for a minute then said, "Would you like to remain here at Hogwarts?" Irene's face seemed to brighten for a minute, then it clouded over again, "But I can't. I'm a squib and squibs are outcasts of society." She said it in a monotonous tone, as if she had been made to learn and recite it.

"Nonsense!" said Dumbledore sharply. "Being a squib has nothing to do with your position in society. You are just as clever as you would be could you use a wand. You can still brew most potions, ride a broomstick, take part in Care of Magical Creatures, Herbology, Arithmancy, Astronomy, History of Magic, Ancient Runes and Muggle Studies lessons. With the help of a Kwikspell course you may be able to perform a few simple charms as well. In fact, the only lessons you wouldn't be able to take part in are Defence against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration and Charms. In these lessons you could have your Kwikspell course. Professor Sinistra, our Astronomy teacher has done much work with that course and will, I am sure, be happy to teach you. I see no reason why you shouldn't attend Hogwarts in a normal way. You would be in the fifth year, I believe."

"But...but squibs have never been to Hogwarts before!" said Hermione.

"True," replied Dumbledore, "but I am hoping to change that. Miss Perks of Ravenclaw is an excellent astronomist and I hope she could replace my colleague Rosa if she took on the job of instructing the Kwikspell course full time. The Minister of Magic should arrive tomorrow, and I shall discuss the point with her then."

"The Minister of Magic is arriving tomorrow?" asked Sirius.

"Yes. She's coming to present the exam results next week at the Laurels' Ceremony."

The Laurels' Ceremony was when the NEWTs certificates and a silver wreath were presented to each pupil. It was called the Laurels' Ceremony because it harked back to the laurel wreaths which were placed on the heads of ancient Olympic winners. If you had done particularly well then you would wear a golden wreath. Harry was pretty sure Hermione would have a golden wreath. There was a ball at the end of term called the Laurels' Ball. It was a tradition for the boys to dance with every girl in the year.

"Will I be sorted?" asked Irene.

"Certainly. We will sort you now, if you like. Arabella, if you would kindly pass the Sorting Hat..."

Arabella picked up the hat from where it lay on the shelf with Godric Gryffindors' ruby encrusted sword.

"May I be sorted in private?" Irene asked.

Dumbledore looked at her for a moment, "Irene, the Sorting Hat has never made a mistake yet."

"Yes, but-"

"Very well. I think I shall leave you in the charge of Professor-" Dumbledore stopped for someone was pounding on the door.

"Oh, that's McGonagall," explained Sirius. "She's been in about every five minutes trying to find you, something about Snape."

"Come in."

The door swung open and Professor McGonagall rushed in. She caught sight of the assembled group and clutched the corner of the desk, "Goodness, well...never in my life...Professor...what's going on?"

"What's going on, Minerva, is that these students have just rid the world for always of Lord Voldemort."

"My goodness..." She suddenly noticed Harry for the first time, "Potter! The hospital wing immediately!"

"But Professor, I'm fine. We really are..." He glanced over at Hermione, whose head had fallen on her breast, WAKE UP! he yelled through his mind. Hermione's head jerked up, "What? That was a really good dream I was having..."

"We really don't need to go to the hospital wing, honestly." Harry looked at Dumbledore for confirmation. "I don't believe they are in anyway need of medical attention, Minerva, however I shall send them to the hospital wing when we have finished with explanations. What I want you to do is to supervise Miss Malfoy's sorting and listen to anything she would want to tell you. You will then give her some supper and put her to bed in the hospital wing for tonight. Then you and Severus should return here. I take it the dark mark has disappeared like last time?"

"Severus... dark mark... he's not a death eater, is he?"

Professor Dumbledore stood up and said firmly, "We shall be in-"

"My office," interposed Arabella.

Harry, Ron and Hermione (yawning heavily and carrying Crookshanks) followed Sirius, Arabella and Dumbledore out of his office, down the moving staircase, through the deserted corridors and into Arabella's office.

Harry had been in four of the Defence against the Dark Arts professors' rooms before. Professor Quirrell, Professor Lockhart, Professor Lupin and the fake Professor Moody's. The year after Barty Crouch had left, the real Moody taught them, but he had to leave at the end of the year because he was needed by the Ministry. In their sixth year they had been taught by a young Australian wizard who had fallen in love with a barmaid in Hogsmeade and had carried her off to Australia to marry her at the end of the year.

Arabella's room was by far the most comfortable of the rooms he had been in. A roaring fire was in the grate and photos in frames stood on the mantlepiece. An old upright piano with music scattered all over it stood in the corner, Persian rugs were on the floor and there were two armchairs by the fire.

Harry zoned in on the photos, "Here, there's one of old Mrs. Figg in Privet Drive."

Arabella looked at him, amused, "My mother, Harry. She is a muggle, by the way."

He picked up another one. It showed a large pink stall with the words, 'GUARANTEED TO GET YOU TOGETHER!' sketched across the top. Underneath was a picture of a fruit bowl and next to it, 'FRUITFUL HEAVENS- THE HOGWARTS DATING AGENCY!'

Harry looked at the two girls sitting in the booth. One was clearly Arabella- she hadn't changed a bit; wide apart blue eyes, blond bob and earrings. The other was- "She's not my mum, is she?"

"Which one are you looking at? Oh! Yes, that's Lily all right."

"But...I thought my mum had red hair! In this picture, she's got fair."

"Red hair? She dyed it after she left school, but her natural colour was fair."

"Oh." There was nothing else to say.

"Do you think we could defer this interesting discussion on the success of the Hogwarts Dating Agency until a better time?" asked Dumbledore.

They all turned to face him. Dumbledore continued, "There are things about this business that I think I already know about. However I will not confuse you by adding these. So now, could you tell us exactly how it is that yet another time Harry Potter has fought the Dark Lord, and has once again come out on the top."

"Where shall I start?" asked Harry.

"I think the beginning would be preferable."

The beginning? Harry's mind went blank.

"Wait a minute." Dumbledore immediately conjured a plate of sandwiches which the group fell on. Harry thought of where to begin. "In the summer I kept having some dreams. They were about a girl who was going round palaces and museums looking for something. I could never see the girl's face but in the last dream, as she was being chased by guards, I gave her my invisibility cloak so she could escape. When I woke up I looked for my cloak, but it had gone."

"Yes, I know about that dream, Harry," said Dumbledore.

"How come?"

"As I think I have said before, you are not Sirius' only correspondent. Please continue."

"On the train I found out that I'd actually passed the cloak to Hermione. She gave it back to me then."

The focus shifted to Hermione. Sirius asked, "So were you looking for something in palaces and museums, Hermione, or was that just a dream?"

Hermione yawned, "I suppose you want to know what I was doing breaking into private houses in Greece?"

"Well, if it's not too much trouble, then yes," replied Ron. Hermione glared at him. "Harry didn't start at the beginning," she continued. "The beginning was in the Easter holidays last year when my parents wrote and told me that we were going to Greece in the summer. The ancient Greeks, you know, were not only philosophers, mathematicians and play writes. They were also magicians. Many of the curses and spells we know today come the Romans, but most of them originated even earlier in Greece. For example, Avada Kedavra comes from the Greek curse, Thanos- a derivative from the Greek for death, thanatos."

"Spare us the lecture, Hermione," sighed Ron.

"Shut up, Ron! As I was saying, in Greek magical philosophy, for every curse there was a counter curse. It was the balance of good and evil. This meant that there must have been a counter curse for Thanos."

Everyone was listening attentively now.

"How did you find all this out, Hermione?" inquired Dumbledore.

"Oh, I was doing a bit of research in the summer term, so I would understand the visit more. My social life wasn't very lively then." She shot Ron a quailing look, "I didn't actually find out that there was a counter curse to Thanos. I just thought there must be. I also taught myself the Greek alphabet and a bit of the language to help me when I was there. I decided to call it Epithanos because epi means against, and the curse is against death.

"My mother sent me some guidebooks to help me with my research. In one of them was printed a fragment of a letter as an example of something found on a site. You can imagine my surprise when I recognised the word Epithanos on it. I even got the name right! I translated the fragment. It basically said, '...and how are you getting on with Epithanos? Can you hurry up because Thalia wants to know the protection; she's convinced someone's following her. All nonsense if you ask me, but anyway...'

"I wrote to the author of the guide book and asked for a copy of the complete letter, which they sent me. I was convinced, you see, that the person who was being written to, a little known philosopher caller Keidon, was researching the counter curse to Thanos. And because Avada Kedavra is almost exactly the same as Thanos then this counter spell might work for Avada Kedavra as well."

She drew breath and continued, "I knew the letter had been sent to Keidon. When I was in Greece I hoped to find a book of his writings. I researched the date of when the letter was written and I discovered he was staying at Corinth when he was doing the spell. I went to the museum there and looked for anything that could be appropriate. I asked the manager if there had ever been such a piece of paryrus or book containing the word, Epithanos and by the minor Greek philosopher, Keidon. There had been, but it had been bought by the American millionaire, Winston Jefferson. Apparently it was extremely well preserved for its period.

"I found out that this millionaire had a house in Greece where he kept a collection of antiques. However he seldom lives there now. I went there. It was at that house, by the way that I met the guards and received Harry's cloak. I found it."

"Found what?" asked Arabella.

"The counter curse to Thanos. It was written on a piece of parchment, as I had expected."

There was a silence, then Dumbledore said, "What did you do then?"

"I copied it into my notebook and got out of his house as fast as I could. I fell ill when we returned to England, but as soon as I could, I translated the curse. It turned out it wasn't exactly a counter-curse, but a spell of protection from Thanos. It lasted two hours, I think."

"Hermione," interrupted Dumbledore, "why didn't you tell me or the Ministry? There would have been no need to break in, then. We could have done it legitimately."

"Exactly. The minute the Ministry is involved is when the press comes in. Voldemort sees what we're after, and as soon as you are out of the country, he kills Harry before you can get hold of the curse. The whole element was surprise."

"Yes, I see that. What did you do when you returned to Hogwarts?"

"Well, I thought that my ability to communicate with Harry was something to do with telepathy. I looked it up in the school library. I eventually found something that fitted. Harry and I have the Unbreakable Link." She looked anxiously at Dumbledore. He didn't look surprised, "I see. Is everyone familiar with that term?"

Sirius and Ron nodded. Arabella said, "So that's how come you knew about the Unbreakable Link in that Defence against the Dark Arts lesson, Hermione."

"That's right. I knew then that I had to fight Voldemort. I knew the curse to protect Harry and together we could defeat him through the Link." Hermione paused and Harry helped her out, "Then I remembered the other dream I had had, about Voldemort and Estella having a daughter and the prophecy made about me and her."

"What is this prophecy?" asked Arabella.

"That the son of light and the daughter of dark will together defeat either the dark or the light."

Ron's eyes nearly popped out of his head. He seemed to have just realised something, "Oh! You don't mean...that Hermione..."

"-is Voldemort's daughter?" nodded Dumbledore.

"Yes," she replied, shrugging lightly and meeting no one's eyes.

Ron fell back in his armchair and shook his head, "I need to think about this."

"Hermione's not done anything wrong," said Harry hotly, "She just killed Voldemort for heaven's sake!"

"Yeah, yeah! I'll think about it later. Carry on!"

"Did you know I was Voldemort's daughter?" Hermione asked Dumbledore.

"I thought you best fitted the description," he replied with a small smile.

Hermione looked nervously about, "Will I be expelled? I doubt you like me very much just now."

Dumbledore shook his head, "Not all Slytherins are bad, Hermione. You are living proof of that. I have absolutely no intention of expelling the best head girl Hogwarts has seen for many a day!"

Hermione positively wilted with relief. "I was so afraid... Shall I continue?"

"If you're up to it."

"Well, there's nothing really more to say. We went to Castle Squear, which was really Voldemort's-"

Dumbledore interrupted, "I must apologise for putting you once more in Voldemort's power. My skills are diminishing, I'm afraid."

"Oh, no! Not at all! You couldn't have known. Anyway, we met Estella Green."

"I imagine that must have been interesting."

"It was," said Harry. "She seemed, I dunno, good but evil at the same."

Seeing that Dumbledore didn't look as if he understood, Harry elaborated further, "She looked just like the typical death eater, but she seemed on our side, as it were. I trusted her, you know. Didn't you feel it, Hermione?"

"Oh, ye-es, yes I did," replied Hermione. "She's my mother!" Harry did not really know where to look.

"Anyway, we fought Voldemort and then you came and that's about it," finished Harry. "The most bizarre thing is that I didn't die when he said 'Avada Kedavra'!"

"What happened exactly?" asked Sirius.

"I did the Epithanos spell substituting Thanos with Avada Kedavra on Harry and myself," answered Hermione, "and when Voldemort tried to kill Harry, the green light shot out of his wand, you know. However, instead of hitting him in the chest, it covered him in it. It was very bright. Then after a few seconds it disappeared. The spell worked."

"You'll be quite famous, Hermione, for having discovered that. I imagine the Ministry will want to offer both you and Harry awards, actually,"said Dumbledore with a smile.

Harry and Hermione looked at each with surprise on their faces.

"The Department of Experimental Charms will have fun with the counter curse. I almost wish I was a member of that department and not an Auror," sighed Arabella.

"Did You-Know-Who really die?" asked Ron.

"He disappeared. But- oh, Professor, you'll want to know how he disappeared," said Harry.

Dumbledore smiled sadly, "I already know. I have seen the effects of killing someone with the Unbreakable Link many times. I did it myself."

"You!" said Sirius. No one seemed to believe it. Only Hermione didn't look surprised.

"I didn't know you had the Unbreakable Link. Who with? This is news! Why didn't you tell us?" cried Sirius.

"There's no use of it now. Aïda's dead. She died many years ago. It all happened before you were born. She died in... May '65."

"May 1965! What day?"

"Er...she was found on the 17th, but we think she was actually killed on the 16th."

Sirius and Arabella looked at each other.

"You what I'm thinking, Sirius?"

"That if she'd died a day earlier then her deathday would have been the same as Lily's birthday."

"My mum was born on the 15th May 1965?" asked Harry. How strange that he had never thought of finding out his mother's birthday, "She was just twenty-one when she had me then."

"Yes," replied Dumbledore gravely. "Your parents were very young."

"Professor," asked Harry suddenly, "why were my parents killed? You said you'd tell me when I was older. Am I old enough now? And I've heard that my mother did not need to die. Is that true? Please tell me now."