Harry Potter and the Silent Siege

Chapter 21

Dumbledore Explains

When Harry awoke, it seemed to be from such a long sleep that it took him more than a moment to realize he was once again conscious. What conscious reality meant he was equally unsure as if grasping the phenomenon of existence for the very first time.

It was while Harry was still wrestling with this idea in his mind that he became aware that a pair of very large round eyes and a long protruding green nose were hovering inches away from his face. In the moment shortly after Harry had managed to grasp a vague sense of who he was, he considered the possibility that his entire sixth year had been a dream and that Buckbeak the Hippogriff was once again staring over him in the clearing next to the Forbidden Forest where he had hidden with Sirius. He was on the point of wondering whether to feel relieved or disappointed when a voice Harry recognized but could not for the moment place said:

"She's doing it again, Albus."

"Winky," said a voice that sounded very much like Dumbledore's.

"Winky!" said a voice that was unmistakably Dobby's. "Winky must get back to bed!"

"But Winky must tell Dobby - " whined a pitifully weak voice.

"Winky is ill!" came the rejoinder. "Winky is very weak!"

And then in a softer voice:

"Winky saved Harry Potter's life."

"But Winky must tell Dobby," cracked the weathered voice, somewhat more emboldened this time.

"Winky must rest! Winky is not to be getting out of bed again!"

"But Harry Potter - "

"Winky cannot help Harry Potter now."

"But Winky must tell Dobby: Harry Potter is awake."

There was a sudden silence.

And then everything came back to Harry in a rush of memories like the sudden flow of blood from a deep wound. Something fell and crashed to the floor in pieces as Harry flailed blindly about for his glasses. He felt a very firm hand take hold of his and push a pair of glasses into it. Harry fought so hard to open them that he nearly snapped the ends off in his hand. When he finally put them on his head, he found himself looking into the face of his godfather, his head wrapped in a swathe of bandages but his eyes as alive and fierce as ever.

"Sirius!" Harry cried as he felt Sirius scoop him into a bone-crushing hug. "Sirius, my God! You're really alive."

"You sound as if you don't quite believe it," muttered Sirius' voice in his ear.

"I - " Harry started and then felt a lump form in his throat.

"It will take much more than a nasty Dark Lord to get rid of me, Harry."

Harry held onto his godfather even more tightly, fighting back the painful lump as he did so. Once he felt Sirius start to pull out of the embrace, but Harry continued to hold on, not willing to let the outside world back in until his lump had subsided.

Harry swallowed hard as Sirius finally drew away from him. Sirius had no sooner done this, however, when another memory rushed back into Harry's head like a fire.

"Ron!" he cried. "Hermione!"

There was no response.

"Where are they?" Harry demanded, as if their disappearance was the collective fault of the still undefined occupants of the room in which he had found himself. "They're not - they can't be. Please don't tell me - "

"Harry."

"Ron!" Harry cried out again, his voice verging on hysteria. "Hermione! Can you - "

"HARRY!"

Harry suddenly stopped talking and noticed, for the first time since waking, the familiar feathery-white beard of Professor Albus Dumbledore standing just behind Sirius, an expression on his reddened face no less severe than that which he had worn when dueling Voldemort.

"You have not given up faith in your friends to this point," said Dumbledore, slightly more softly but no less stern. "See that you don't begin now."

Harry forced himself to remain silent even as he felt his heart thundering in his chest. Surely Dumbledore wouldn't have said anything like that unless -

Dumbledore cleared his throat lightly as if he knew he was breaking into Harry's thoughts.

"Hermione and Ron have suffered very serious injuries," he said. "They are presently being treated at St. Mungo's by the best care available to wizard kind. They have not yet regained consciousness but I have been assured by healers whose candor I fully trust that they will and that, in the course of time, they will both make a full recovery."

Dumbledore did not wait for Harry to release the breath he had been holding before carrying on.

"Molly and Arthur here have been taking turns sitting at their bedside and yours. When they heard that their daughter had regained consciousness, they both returned here."

At these words, Harry sat bolt upright and gasped.

"Ginny!" he cried. "Gods, Ginny! Where's Ginny? Where is - "

Harry swung his head back and forth as if gripped by another loose spirit. He stopped only when he felt himself grabbed firmly by something impossibly soft and warm. His heart began to calm at once as he held on tightly in return. The glorious scent of lavender once again filled his senses and turned all of the phantoms that seemed to have been strangling him a moment before into paper tigers. Though he could see nothing but a red blur from the silky strands of hair that now cascaded down his forehead and delightfully tickled his nose, he did not need to ask who it was that was holding him now.

And then he found he could care less how many people were watching him and what it was they thought.

"I love you, Ginny!" he cried, wailing openly onto her shoulder. "I love you so much! I'm so sorry I didn't tell you. I - "

"It's OK, Harry," said a very gentle voice in his ear. "I know. I knew already. Don't think about what he said. Don't give in and let yourself be hurt by him. He's gone now, Harry. It's over."

But Harry wasn't finished.

"I was so afraid he would hurt you, that he would kill you!" Harry sobbed. "And that we'd never get a chance together after I'd been such a coward for so long. I wanted to stop him but I couldn't. I wasn't strong enough."

"You were strong, Harry," said Ginny, her voice like the sound of a pleasant breeze. "You knew when to save me but you weren't afraid to let me save you. And because of that you and I are still alive now."

Harry kissed Ginny tenderly on the cheek before slowly drawing back from their embrace. Ginny took his glasses away from his face and dried them on his bed sheets. When she put them back on his face, letting her fingers caress the top of his earlobes as she did so, he could see that tears ran down her freckled cheeks as well. As he softly rubbed the tears away with his fingers, he imagined that for one brief moment he was looking back again at the ten-year-old girl who had watched him from behind her large brown eyes on Platform nine-and-three-quarters at King's Cross Station, the little girl who had never met a monster called Voldemort.

Harry had no sooner let go of Ginny when he felt someone else with red curly hair and a very familiar embrace put her arms around him. When the second mass of red hair let go, he looked back into the face of Mrs. Weasley who was drying her own eyes.

"Oh, Harry, dear," she said. "It's been awful. You went through so much. Both of you did," she added, putting her arm around her daughter's shoulder.

"Mrs. Weasley," said Harry weakly. "I'm sorry about Ron. If it wasn't for me - "

But Mrs. Weasley shook her head, fresh tears still misting her eyes.

"Say no more, Harry. As Ginny said, it's over now. Everything's going to be all right."

Harry nodded and looked back at Dumbledore, blowing his nose on a pink-spotted handkerchief Mrs. Weasley had just conjured.

"But, sir, I saw those stones falling on Ron and Hermione. They were enormous. There's no way anyone could have survived that."

Dumbledore nodded.

"It would have seemed so, Harry, and since neither of them has regained consciousness, we cannot be completely sure what happened. But when the other aurors and I awoke, we used magic to shift the boulders that had covered them and we discovered that your faith in Hermione seemed well placed. We found her holding her wand as if she had just cast a spell; it seemed to us that she had summoned a number of the large rocks that had fallen down around them to form an enclosure over herself and Ron. Of course, it was not foolproof and some of the rocks broke through. Then, of course, there was the lack of air. As I said, their injuries are serious. I doubt a Muggle could have survived but fortunately a very capable witch and wizard were lying underneath those boulders."

Harry swallowed and shook as head as he tried to imagine the scene. Ron had not been standing next to Hermione. Perhaps she had summoned him as well.

After completing this thought, Harry took in his surroundings fully for the first time. He was lying on a bed in the hospital wing. Nearly every space around him had been taken up with visitors. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley stood to his left. Next to them stood Bill Weasley, Ginny's oldest brother. Next to him stood Professor McGonagall, then Professor Dumbledore, and finally Sirius, himself like Harry and Ginny, still clad in a hospital robe.

The scene before Harry's eyes was completed when a familiar tutting and fussing figure pushed into the room, unceremoniously shoved Dumbledore and McGonagall aside, and fixed the room's occupants with a severe expression.

"What in Merlin's name is all this noise?" demanded Madam Pomfrey. "Mr. Potter, Miss Weasley," she said officiously. "You're awake. Good. For heaven's sake, drink that ever-boiling hot chocolate I've put next to you. You've both suffered a nasty attack of dark magic. Mr. Potter, I see you've managed to knock yours over. No matter."

Madam Pomfrey flicked her wand in the direction of the floor and the pieces of Harry's broken mug re-assembled themselves and landed back on top of the table.

"I'll go to fetch some more hot chocolate," she went on. "In the meantime, Miss Weasley, you could drink yours more easily if you were in your own bed and not on Mr. Potter's."

Ginny blushed in spite of herself and reluctantly retreated back to the bed adjacent to Harry's.

Madam Pomfrey's eyes darted around the room for her next victim.

"Mr. Black, you should be resting, too. That - "

"I am perfectly well, thank you," retorted Sirius, equal to the challenge. "I've been through much worse than this. Now that I'm up on my own two feet I'm going to stand here next to Harry until he has fully recovered."

Madam Pomfrey exchanged a stern look with Sirius but after a moment's standoff she seemed to decide that she'd met her match.

"Very well, be it on your own head," she retorted, apparently oblivious to the pun. She darted back around the room again.

"There's an awful racket outside, too. Would somebody please - "

"Oh, Bill, please go and sort it out, dear," said Mrs. Weasley. "Tell them Ginny and Harry are awake but they're a bit worn out and won't be taking visitors for the time being."

Bill nodded and left the room but not before taking a quick glance over to his sister's bed as if to make sure she was still there and in one piece.

Madam Pomfrey watched him leave, looking satisfied that at least one person was listening to her instructions. She quickly snapped her attention back to her other patients.

"By the time I return with Mr. Potter's ever-boiling hot chocolate, I expect to see everyone quiet and all of my patients back in bed resting, otherwise - "

Madam Pomfrey stopped abruptly as Dumbledore flicked his wand in the direction of Harry's empty mug and a fresh supply of ever-boiling hot chocolate appeared inside. She looked back and forth between the mug and Dumbledore, looking uncertain as to whether to look pleased or indignant.

Dumbledore took advantage of her confusion to make his own remark.

"Poppy, I'm afraid Harry and Ginny deserve an explanation of what has been going on around them for the past several months. After I have said my piece, I promise to make sure they have drunk their chocolate and are resting."

Madam Pomfrey looked about to object but on looking properly at the determined expression on the headmaster's face, she seemed to decide against it and was content to simply walk away muttering resignedly to herself.

Dumbledore smiled in response and turned his head back slowly to the others.

Harry was looking between Sirius and a retreating Madam Pomfrey, however, his eyebrows knitted in perplexion.

"B - but you shouldn't be in here now," he said. "Someone might see you - the Ministry - "

Sirius raised his hand.

"It's all right, Harry," he said and then smiled, looking for the first time exactly like the picture of the man he had seen at his father's wedding. "You've been unconscious for four days. During that time, quite a lot has happened. Thanks to you, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione, the Ministry has arrested and interrogated a great many of Voldemort's supporters. With their testimony and Professor Dumbledore's help, I have been granted a temporary reprieve. It's not official yet. I still have to face an inquiry but they seem to be content to leave me alone for now."

Harry wasn't sure what to say. Still looking at Sirius with disbelieving eyes, he asked his godfather the question of his dreams.

"So I can come and stay with you this summer, then?"

"Not exactly," said Sirius, but his smile still did not vanish. "I think the Ministry still wants to keep an eye on me for the time being. But they've agreed to let me stay under the watchful eye of a very respectable wizarding family. And since there's no need for you to be out of the way of Voldemort anymore I think there's no reason you won't be able to stay there as well."

"But will they mind?" asked Harry.

The question had barely died on his lips when he looked around the room and noticed that everyone had a twinkle in their eyes. Harry felt Ginny's hand take hold of his across the bed and looked over to see her smiling, suddenly very shy again.

It was hard for Harry to believe that just a few days before he had been wondering how he could stand to remain in the castle the whole summer by himself, unable to go anywhere else in the wizarding world for fear that Voldemort and his Death Eaters would track him down and kill him. Now he was going to spend the whole summer at the Burrow, together with Sirius and hopefully Ron.

And Ginny.

Harry and Ginny smiled at each other again for a long moment and he could see that she was thinking exactly the same thing. Their shared delight and relief was interrupted only by the sound of a throat being cleared.

They both looked up.

"I don't wish to interrupt," said Mr. Weasley, looking at Dumbledore who seemed to have been watching Harry and Ginny with an expression of greatest contentment. "But I think you did promise you would give us an explanation of all that has happened, Albus, when Harry and Ginny woke up and, well," he smiled apologetically. "We have been waiting a very long time."

"Some of us longer than others," added McGonagall, shooting an angry look at Dumbledore which Harry noticed he tried to avoid.

"Very well," said Dumbledore. "But no one has given me chance to begin."

"Wait," said Harry suddenly, earning an even more dangerous glare from McGonagall. "If you were really Snape all the time - "

"Professor Snape, Harry," said Dumbledore gently.

"Right, if you were really him - but that can't be right. Y - you murdered Professor Dibble. I was there! I saw it happen!"

He looked over at Ginny and saw that she was nodding, too, and also looking to Dumbledore for answers.

"I must admit it is a bit confusing," said Mrs. Weasley politely.

"Too bloody right," muttered Sirius.

"If you'll all allow me to explain," said Dumbledore, sighing slightly.

The room fell quiet.

"There is no Professor Dibble, Harry," said Dumbledore. "Or to be more precise, Professor Dibble as you call her is an old friend of mine. Her name is Althea Wainwright and she lives at Number 3 Squirrel Rise, Marlow Bottom, Buckinghamshire where she tries to keep mostly out of the way of her Muggle neighbors. She kindly allowed me to take one or two bits of her hair to use in our Polyjuice Potion in exchange for one of Severus' excellent anti-aging potions. In fact, she herself has not visited Hogwarts in some while."

"Then who - who's been teaching our Potions lessons this year?" wondered Harry.

"I have."

Harry looked around the room to see who it was that had spoken. McGonagall and Dumbledore parted slightly to reveal the pale waxy face of Snape standing behind them, his arms folded, looking very much as though he would rather be anywhere else in the world at the moment.

"You!" cried Harry incredulously.

Dumbledore coughed lightly.

"Sir," added Harry reluctantly.

Harry looked across at Ginny again and saw an expression of bewilderment that mirrored his own. Dibble could not have been more unlike Snape, in appearance most obviously, but also in manner and personality. He found it nearly impossible to believe that Snape had been able to feign such a friendly disposition to so many students he apparently loathed, not to mention manage the destruction of much of his own Potions laboratory.

"Believe me, Potter," said Snape as if reading Harry's thoughts. "I would never have done so unless it was absolutely necessary."

Harry suddenly found it very difficult to keep from smiling but Ginny seemed less amused.

"What about our O.W.Ls?" she demanded.

"Following the Dark Lord's demise and the end of our little charade, the examiners were apprised of the situation," replied Snape. "The exams will be marked very leniently, which in your case, Miss Weasley, will be particularly fortunate."

Snape's eyes shifted back and forth throughout the room taking in the frosty stares he was receiving from everyone except Dumbledore who continued to smile benignly at no one in particular.

"But down in the cellar, in that room, you shot Professor Dibble, sir, or Professor Snape or whoever it was. You fired an Avada Kedavra. I saw it."

"Indeed, Harry," said Dumbledore, continuing to smile.

He reached into the pocket of his robes and produced a wand.

"Weasley's Wizard Wands," he announced. "Quite a bargain at three sickles. Fortunately I was able to obtain a prototype free of charge in exchange for allowing the owners into the school to attend the Guy Fawkes ball. It even lights up at the end."

He touched the end of the wand which illuminated.

"You may rest assured, Ginny," Dumbledore went on, ignoring Harry's dropped jaw, "that your skills at casting disarming spells are not so poor after all. I'm sure that had you been holding a real wand against me, I would have been relatively defenseless."

"So," said Harry, still struggling to understand. "Snape - Professor Snape was Professor Dibble and you, sir," he looked at Dumbledore, "were Professor Snape all the time, I mean, since the beginning of the year? But I saw you, that day, in the corridor."

"Ah," said Dumbledore, obviously pleased that Harry had asked the question. "Thereby hangs a tale. But perhaps I should begin at the beginning."

Dumbledore swallowed and took a brief sip of Harry's ever-boiling chocolate, apparently steeling himself for a long explanation.

"Ever since Voldemort's first return, I have been considering a number of plans to trap him. I knew that the Ministry, slow as they were to accept even the fact of his return, was still ill-prepared to confront him. I also knew that he was after you, Harry, and that he would stop at nothing until he had broken the charms I had set up to protect you. I tried to wait as long as I dared. For one thing, I knew you were not yet ready to face him. So I put the plans in order, enlisting the help of a few loyal aurors such as Professor Nevins and, of course, with the aid of Professor Snape and Sirius."

"There were more than a few others ready to help as well!" retorted McGonagall, half her face now scarlet.

Dumbledore turned to face her for the first time.

"Minerva, your help was indispensable. The acting headmaster's job should have been yours, of course. But you trusted me even though your trust was blind. It was vital that we tell as few people as possible. The Death Eaters had many means at their disposal for extracting information and as we have become all too well aware these past few days, even Hogwarts was not safe from their grasp."

McGonagall looked back at Dumbledore for a moment. She said nothing in response but Harry sensed she was somewhat mollified.

Dumbledore continued.

"When I learned that Voldemort had broken the charms that protected Privet Drive, I knew I could not wait any longer to put our plans in motion. Of course, when you returned to the school and told us what had happened, Harry, it became very urgent that I go out at once to rescue Sirius. Once I had made sure he was safe, I returned to Hogwarts to coordinate with Professor Snape about our plans for the remainder of the year. I fell into the role of headmaster once more, this time in the guise of Professor Snape. I had studied up on the latest developments in Polyjuice Potions that summer, Harry, as I told you when we were in my office at the beginning of the year (though I did not at the time explain why). Professor Snape himself went to Voldemort and explained that he wanted to enter more actively into his service, that I had left Hogwarts, and that I had foolishly appointed him headmaster. Of course, we knew that Voldemort had already been planning to strike Hogwarts, but we didn't know how he had been able to attack Privet Drive or why it was he felt so confident in his plans to attack the school.

"After he returned to Voldemort, Snape discovered that he had come into possession of a Monocellate crystal. He had used it to apparate his Death Eaters over the boundary into Privet Drive and was planning to use it again, along with an elaborate potion he had managed to assemble, to apparate into Hogwarts. Of course, Severus also learned that Voldemort had made contact with Ginny through means of the diary and that he planned to use the crystal as a conduit to break into her thoughts while she was still in the castle. He knew that Harry would be protected even after he attacked the castle and he imagined that Ginny could lead him to his exact location.

"But still Voldemort was hungry for greater insurance and he was unable to resist the notion that the acting headmaster of Hogwarts would be in his employ. He was also still missing one or two key ingredients for his potion and he knew that none of his Death Eaters possessed Severus' skills in potion making. And so he trusted Snape, as much as he may have ever trusted anyone. Of course, when he learned that I had apparently left Hogwarts, he became even more convinced that it was the right time to strike."

"And so you put Ginny and Harry in much greater danger much sooner!" snapped Mrs. Weasley, her arms folded and her face flushed in anger. "All so that you could entrap Voldemort!"

"Molly," said Dumbledore firmly, not backing away from her admonishing glare. "If I thought I could keep Harry and Ginny safe their whole lives I would risk my own to do it. But Voldemort had already forced my hand. Sooner or later, he would have found out how to get into Hogwarts by himself to kill Harry and no doubt Ginny as well. This was the only way we could keep things on our terms and not his."

Mrs. Weasley did not reply but still did not look particularly pleased. Harry looked over at Sirius and saw a similar expression of contradiction on his face.

"Once Severus had obtained the information he needed," continued Dumbledore, "he returned to Hogwarts again and assumed the role of Professor Dibble. During these periods, I would become him again. But from time to time we would also be ourselves. For one thing, I needed to get out of the castle to coordinate with Sirius and send him off on the difficult mission of obtaining the ingredients necessary for our counter-potion. It was also important that Severus appear as himself to Voldemort most of the time. They had," Dumbledore paused a little awkwardly, "experienced much together before and if I took his place for too long, Voldemort would have obviously seen through my disguise. And in general, keeping our appearances changing helped to satisfy the suspicions of anyone who may have been watching us or our behavior too closely. In fact, I only appeared in Voldemort's presence twice: once to present him with the new wand he was anxious to receive since discovering that his previous one was of a pair with yours, Harry, and then, of course, most recently when I apparated into the school along with him and the other Death Eaters. I also appeared to him once through the floo network to update him on the reaction to his second attempt to enter into Ginny's dreams.

"Even then I think Voldemort may have suspected something was amiss. I was extremely eager that our plans be successful when I gave him his new wand and I'm afraid that eagerness may have shown too clearly on my face. It was perhaps quite fortunate that we were wearing masks during the final apparation into Hogwarts for I'm sure that otherwise I would have given myself away."

Harry thought back to Snape's strange behavior as he would pass him in the corridors, one day almost seeming to smile his acknowledgement to Harry and the next shooting him a loathsome stare. At the time, he had assumed Snape to be in two minds about him. He now realized that on the days when he had passed the smiling Snape, he had in fact been exchanging greetings with Dumbledore.

"Professor Snape was quite flawless in his role as Professor Dibble," Dumbledore went on, "I myself stumbled quite a few times as Professor Snape, however, and not only before Voldemort. I appeared to you in the corridor that day, Harry, because I was afraid your suspicions might have been aroused as to Professor Snape's true identity and, knowing your proclivity for mystery solving, I was afraid you and your friends Ron and Hermione might have blown our plans prematurely.

"You see," said Dumbledore. "When I returned at the beginning of the year after seeing to Sirius and incidentally, passing on Sirius' gift of the broomstick to you, Harry, I happened to pass in the direction of the Quidditch pitch, in Severus' form, where I noticed that Mr. Malfoy was amusing himself by making sport of you on his broomstick. Naturally, I was furious. I took away his prefect badge and deducted a large number of points from his house."

Dumbledore avoided looking at Snape quite studiously as he continued.

"When I spoke to Severus later that evening, I discovered that this behavior may have perhaps have been slightly, shall we say, out of character. I tried to redress things by scheduling an appointment with you the following morning, Harry, to put things to you as I hoped Severus might have himself but I sensed you did not find this particularly convincing, either, and to make matters worse you arrived a few minutes early and witnessed me just finishing a dose of Polyjuice Potion. I conjured a pot of tea as you were knocking on the door but I was still afraid you might have noticed something was amiss."

Harry thought back to what now seemed ages ago when Snape (but now apparently Dumbledore) had asked him to visit his office and made the uncharacteristically polite offer of tea which he himself had appeared to be drinking.

"So in order to put things right," Dumbledore continued, "I appeared to you in my own form later that afternoon. Fortunately the Apprecium Restorem charm enabled me to change back very quickly. It appears I was fortunate enough to have escaped with the mistake. Fortunately, I also improved in my acting skills as the year went on."

Harry looked over at Ginny again. He knew as she did that by the time they had reached the alcove outside the original room Dumbledore's performance as Snape had been chillingly convincing.

"But why?" asked Mr. Weasley. "Surely Severus could have remained on as Potions master and he and you could have apparated out through Hogsmeade on your various jaunts and still been back in a jiffy when needed?"

Dumbledore did not respond right away.

Snape cleared his throat and said:

"Modesty prevents the headmaster from saying so but while my skills at occlumency allowed me to remain a spy before the Dark Lord and his servants for long periods of time, they are greatly inferior to those of Professor Dumbledore. The Dark Lord may have noticed a strange look in the headmaster's eyes but in his heightened state of caution when receiving the wand he would no doubt have been able to see far enough into my own thoughts to expose my betrayal of him. Moreover, it had to be Professor Dumbledore who apparated with the Death Eaters into the school at the end. I would not have survived long in a duel with the Dark Lord."

Harry wondered whether Dumbledore trusted Snape enough to kill Voldemort if he'd had the chance but he kept these thoughts to himself.

"Those weren't the only reasons," added Dumbledore. "We also knew that besides Severus, Voldemort had another contact at Hogwarts. For one thing, someone had told him where Harry and Sirius had been hidden near the forest and we did not know who that someone was. After a short time, we discovered that he was receiving information through Lucius from Draco. But we still did not know from whom Draco was getting his own information and who might be watching us. Severus tried to get Draco to tell him who the contact was, but it soon became clear that he and Lucius were keeping this information to themselves for as long as possible as their own insurance against Voldemort. It was not in fact until Dobby and Winky returned with us to the hospital wing that we found out his contact had been Winky. It was vital that Severus and I coordinate on a regular basis but frequent meetings between us in our true forms would have aroused suspicion of Severus' true loyalties. Meetings between Professor Dibble and Professor Snape, however, appeared unremarkable, especially as Severus had convinced everyone that Professor Dibble needed a considerable helping hand in teaching Potions."

"Malfoy will be expelled now, won't he?" said Harry, trying unsuccessfully to disguise the eagerness in his voice.

Dumbledore turned to look at him, pausing for a moment.

"No, Harry," he said quietly.

"What?" retorted Harry, dropping all pretense of deference. "He nearly got us all killed! He's a Death Eater!"

"He's Lucius Malfoy's son!" added Mrs. Weasley in equal defiance. "You can't just allow him to remain in the school!"

Dumbledore paused for a moment longer, his eyes wandering back and forth between Harry and Mrs. Weasley, not to mention Ginny who, though she had remained silent, had fixed Dumbledore with one of her now predictably difficult stares.

"Molly, Harry, as difficult as this may seem to understand, Mr. Malfoy is still a child. He could not have reasonably been expected to betray his father and join our side whatever Severus' best efforts over the years. He deserves the chance to make his own choices."

"He's made his choice already!" retorted Harry angrily. "You can't tell me he didn't enjoy being a Death Eater! You don't know him like I do!"

"Perhaps not, Harry," Dumbledore replied quite calmly. "But I venture to suggest that you do not know him as well as you think. What would you have me do? Voldemort is not the only dark wizard to have plagued our kind and I doubt he will be the last. If we continue to stand divided, insisting on perpetuating old rivalries and prejudices and punishing those unfortunate enough to have been caught on the losing side of the battlefield, we stand little hope of persevering against future terrors. If I expel Draco now and leave him on the outside, he will have no choice but to continue to work against us, which may prove very costly in the future. If we embrace him into our circle now, however, and give him the skills and credentials to succeed in our world, we will have given him an incentive to change his ways."

With the exception of Snape who continued to stare ahead stoically, no one in the room appeared very convinced by this explanation. Still, it was clear that Dumbledore had made his decision and that as far as he was concerned, the matter was closed. No one objected when he decided to continue with his account.

"Voldemort decided to give his potion various tests. He first wanted to see whether he could succeed in breaking through into Ginny's dreams. He enlisted Severus' help in preparing the potion and we also prepared ours following Severus' instructions. Voldemort concocted a similar potion to the one he had developed to enchant the diary in the first place. Through it, he managed to link to the crystal which Lucius Malfoy had smuggled into the original room, using the occasion of the Guy Fawkes ball when he knew few would be wandering the corridors. The crystal can channel thought and Voldemort used it as a kind of receiver to connect himself and the diary to Ginny's mind. Severus doctored both of the potions, however, in such a way as to make Voldemort himself believe that he could gain access to the castle whenever he desired by preparing the potion when in fact only his potion combined with our own facilitated a temporary link. Of course, we knew that the Death Eaters were bound to discover that we were brewing a potion so close to Voldemort's so Severus informed Voldemort that we had received intelligence that he was trying to enter the school by means of a potion and that we were trying to brew a counter-potion to stop him, but that Severus had sabotaged ours. When Voldemort succeeded in breaking into Ginny's thoughts, he did not doubt that what Severus had told him was true."

"Wouldn't it have been easier to just brew the one potion and have Professor Snape supervise it?" asked Ginny.

"We needed to make sure that Voldemort did not try to enter again into your thoughts without us knowing, Ginny. As I said before, it was important to make sure that he advanced his plans to invade Hogwarts on our terms and not his. And it was fortunate that we did so because later on, Voldemort attempted to gain access without informing Severus. Since his link depended on our potion, however, he was not able to do so the second time. Fortunately for us, Voldemort attributed this to a failing on the part of one of his Death Eaters rather than a flaw in the recipe for the potion itself. Posing as Severus on this occasion, I persuaded Voldemort to try the potion again with my help. Voldemort made use of the Easter holidays to use Lucius to replace the crystal once more and planned his attack for the week following, during the first set of O.W.Ls. Severus, Sirius, and I were able to prepare our helping potion once again."

Harry exchanged a very brief furtive glance with Sirius which was enough to tell him that Dumbledore still did not know that he had sent Harry a note warning him in advance of Voldemort's plan to enter Ginny's thoughts once more that evening.

"The first time we assembled the potion, Sirius and I stirred it while Severus returned to teach class as Professor Dibble that afternoon. On this occasion, however, Severus normally would have taught Potions to the fifth years but that class was cancelled because of the O.W.L. schedule. We decided that he would retreat to the forest to stir the potion with Sirius while I remained in the castle as the acting headmaster. Earlier in the week, however, Voldemort's plans suffered a setback when Ginny and her friends decided to retreat to the kitchens for a late night snack."

Mr. Weasley looked at his daughter with an appreciative interest while Mrs. Weasley glared. Ginny chose to avoid both of them and continued to listen to Dumbledore.

"The Weasley curiosity being what it is," said Dumbledore, clearly amused with himself, "Ginny happened upon the original room and found the crystal. But then Winky told Draco Malfoy who told his father and the crystal and all evidence of Death Eater activity in the room was quickly removed. Lucius later put a sealing charm on the door and then went back in to replace the items to ensure there were no further delays to Voldemort's arrangements. Voldemort wanted to send Snape to supervise the arrangements but as he was busy in the forest stirring the potion with Sirius, I went in his guise instead. Once again, I fear I was less than convincing in my role for both Draco and Lucius who, after all, had worked closely with Severus for many years, seemed to suspect I was not quite myself. Fortunately, they both lacked the imagination to ferret out the whole truth. I returned to the forest with some herbs from Professor Sprout's greenhouse that we needed to complete the potion and then, after conferring with Severus and Sirius, returned to the school to wait for events to unfold in Severus' office.

"I waited all night to see whether our plan was successful. I finally learned that it was when Minerva informed me that Harry and Ginny had been to see her. Believing me to be Severus, she impressed upon me the importance of informing myself."

Dumbledore seemed to be repressing a smirk with some difficulty. McGonagall, to her credit, had resisted attacking him, but her complexion remained somewhat blotchy and she began to tap the heel of her boot rhythmically on the floor.

"The only person I told was Voldemort himself by use of floo powder. Naturally, I did not reveal Minerva's involvement. I told him that Ginny and Harry and been to see me themselves and that I had told them not to pass the information on to anyone."

Dumbledore paused and sighed softly.

"Up until this point in our plans, our mistakes had been fairly minor. When Voldemort sought to obtain the ingredients necessary to project not only his thoughts but also himself and his other Death Eaters into the school, we knew we had to find them first. We were able to do so in part because Severus managed to provide us with a complete list of the ingredients before he gave one to Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Once in possession of the ingredients, Voldemort planned his attack for the date of the final Hogsmeade weekend when he knew that the castle, once again, would be mostly empty of both students and teachers. He asked Severus to use his powers as acting headmaster to make sure that Harry remained in the castle.

"I knew that our final plan was dangerous yet I was confident in its success: we intended to send Sirius into the original room first. There, he would have had time to create a series of spaces throughout the room, both physical and magical, where the aurors would hide. He would then open the door from the inside and let them in. When Voldemort and his Death Eaters arrived, they would be ambushed. Myself apparating inside the room with them as Snape was an added security. There was no need to involve Harry and Ginny any further.

"However, when we attempted to send Sirius into the room, there was an accident and he was transported to another location. We did not know where he was and we also knew that he would have no means of apparating back without knowing his exact whereabouts himself. To make matters worse, the potion and the ingredients we had spent two months collecting had now been wasted. Voldemort had all of his ingredients and enough knowledge of the potion's properties to apparate into the castle with or without the help of Severus. Time was very urgent and we had to proceed quickly with an alternate plan, a plan that involved much more risk to Harry and Ginny but which in the end was our only remaining choice."

"You might have told me about your alternate plan," said Sirius angrily.

Dumbledore turned around slowly to look at Sirius.

"We could not have done so, Sirius, for at the time when the plan was formed, you were away gathering the ingredients and any communication by owl might have been discovered. When we met again for what proved the final time, our concentration was, by necessity, absorbed in the mixing of the potion."

"I wonder why you thought it necessary to form an alternate plan," said Sirius, looking dangerously at Snape. "Might it have been because Severus here wasn't quite so confident about his potion-making?"

"I wasn't going to bring this up, headmaster," said Snape, a cruel smile forming on his lips, "but I had occasion to examine the fused potion more carefully after you left to join the Dark Lord. It seems Black here neglected to stew the mandrake roots before chopping them up and adding them to the mixture, a mistake a second-year student might have made, but then again I suppose my memory has grown short. If I had thought back to Black's days at school, I might not have expected anything better."

Sirius' hand made to reach for his wand.

Dumbledore raised both of his hands as if to push Sirius and Snape aside.

"Gentlemen, please," he said. "I hope it is not necessary to remind you both that you are no longer children at school. If I might be allowed to continue?"

Sirius and Snape continued to stare vehemently at one another but both allowed Dumbledore to go on.

"I prepared to accompany Voldemort into the castle as originally planned. After sending the note to Harry and making sure that he remained in the school, Severus returned in the form of Professor Dibble and remained during the Hogsmeade outing while most of the other teachers and students left. Before the moment of apparation, however, I managed to cast an additional spell on the potion which created a safe zone around the Astronomy Tower where the castle's natural defenses would still be held in place. There, under the direction of Professor Nevins, we were able to conceal the younger students when it was time for the Death Eaters to attack along with aurors we had assembled for the final battle. The only difficulty was that the tower was quite a distance away from the original room. To have brought the safe zone any closer would have aroused Voldemort's suspicion. Conversely, we couldn't have hidden the aurors anywhere outside the safe zone because Voldemort would have sensed them as soon as he arrived. We decided that our only chance of success was to wait until Voldemort had let down his guard and allowed his attention to be fully absorbed by what was going on in the original room. And we knew that that would only occur when he already had Harry in his possession.

"Voldemort apparated into the castle along with myself and the Death Eaters as planned. Now that he was much closer to Ginny and the crystal, he could detect her waking thoughts without her realizing it. This in itself was a risk but I was confident that Ginny was strong enough to resist Voldemort possessing her entirely. Severus waited near the front entrance to the school for my signal. This turned out to be some time in coming when Voldemort's plans were put into disarray upon Harry's decision to leave the school and travel to Hogsmeade and Ginny and Harry's subsequent separation. I was considering how to adjust my plans to capture Voldemort even with Harry's absence when Harry reunited with Ginny and returned to her conscious thoughts, and Voldemort was able to learn his exact whereabouts in the castle.

"Voldemort sent myself, Lucius Malfoy, Flint, and Macnair to apprehend Harry and Ginny. I took advantage of Severus' position in the Death Eater hierarchy to put myself in charge. I ordered Malfoy, Flint, and Macnair to remain in waiting while I went to the front of the school and made contact quickly with Severus to tell him that Harry, Ginny, Hermione, and Ron were presently in the first-floor girls' bathroom. He then prepared to intercept them as they followed the light to the main entranceway."

"They were where?" asked Mrs. Weasley.

"Never mind, Mum," said Ginny.

"After I had done this, I went to the main entrance of the school."

Dumbledore suddenly paused. A horrible suspicion began to dawn on Harry. He suddenly found it difficult to look Dumbledore in the eye.

"And then." Dumbledore swallowed. "On Voldemort's instructions, I took out my wand, and in a single curse, blew out the front entrance to the school and cast the Dark Mark in the sky."

There was a long uncomfortable silence.

"You needn't look at me like that, Molly," said Dumbledore.

Mrs. Weasley quickly tore her head away from Dumbledore's eyes.

"You see," said Dumbledore, as if trying to convince himself as much as everyone else. "By casting that Dark Mark, I was able to persuade Voldemort once and for all of Severus' loyalties and provide him and his Death Eaters with a very false sense of security. Symbols are always what we make of them. The Dark Mark came to mean death and despair, yes, but perhaps now it will come to mean something quite different."

Dumbledore paused once more before continuing again.

"Once I had cast the Dark Mark, I apparated back into the darkened corridor where I knew that Severus would lead the students. I took them down the staircase to the alcove outside the entrance to the original room. It was there that Malfoy, Flint, and Macnair were waiting as instructed. Severus and I had planned that he would try to escape and then I would shoot him with Fred and George's wand, apparently killing him in the attempt."

"And what if one of the other Death Eaters had fired the curse?" asked Mr. Weasley.

"I think you will find I have a quicker shot," replied Dumbledore without blinking.

"But, sir, couldn't you have apparated to the tower yourself?" asked Ginny. "That would have been faster and much less dangerous."

Dumbledore shook his head.

"Do not underestimate Voldemort's skills at legilimency, Ginny. One does not need to be standing right in front of him before he can sense thoughts and energies. There's no way my apparation would have escaped Voldemort's attention even if he had been preoccupied with Harry. Don't forget how he was able to find each of his scattered Death Eaters with each disapparation from the room and bring them back with him to fight. Only Severus' singular non-magical journey to the tower stood a chance of remaining unnoticed."

"Why did you have to make sure Ginny stayed with us?" asked Harry, a little suspiciously. "Surely it would have been best if she'd escaped?"

"With Voldemort following her every thought, Harry, she wouldn't have stood much chance. And as by now you know, once Voldemort believed you were in my hands, Ginny was no longer an asset to him but only a threat. He could have sent any one of his available Death Eaters to track her down and kill her. Of course, he would have ordered any of his Death Eaters to kill her had I allowed them to take her into the original room. The only way I could make sure Ginny would be safe was to keep her with me.

"Curiously, what I told Lucius Malfoy was the truth: Voldemort ordered me to kill Ginny once the other Death Eaters had taken Harry, Ron, and Hermione into the original room and they would no longer be able to resist. But with his decision to defy me, bound up very much in his jealousy for the privileged position among the Death Eaters he believed that Severus had taken from him, it became much less risky for me to feign killing Severus. I held the only source of light in the room, of course, and I took great care to keep it trained away from Severus. I continued to keep the light pointed to me after the Death Eaters had left and Ginny and I remained alone in the room. Unseen by Ginny in the darkness, Severus quietly got to his feet and made his way up to the Astronomy Tower to alert the Aurors that Harry, Ron, and Hermione had been taken into the original room and the time had come for them to strike.

"And then came the most dangerous stage of our plan. I needed to give Severus enough time to mount the stairs to alert the aurors and for them to return down to the original room. Voldemort had already told me that he planned to start with Harry's psychological torture first. He would tell Harry that how he had trapped him and his friends by using Ginny to track him and how he planned to torture Ron and Hermione and have Ginny killed. I counted on using that time to allow Severus some margin of error to reach the Astronomy Tower, realizing also that he might run into some interference on the way. I did not know what you were doing or saying in the room, but like Lord Voldemort, I am sufficiently able to sense the emotions of those nearby so that I could tell when he had moved beyond purely psychological torture. At that point, I intended to apparate into the room and hoped to hold him and the Death Eaters at bay until Severus was able to alert the aurors."

Sirius looked fit to burst.

"Were you planning to take them on all by yourself or did you expect a group of students to help you hold off an army of fully-trained Death Eaters?"

Sirius already knew before Dumbledore slowly turned to address him that it would be with a manner of infuriating calm but when the Headmaster's slow placid voice began to speak, Sirius found it goaded him no less.

"I did not say it was the best plan, Sirius. Severus here will tell you that I was never very keen on the idea when it was first presented to me. In the end, however, it was the only plan left."

Snape fixed Sirius with an expression that made him fully aware that he blamed him for having to pursue their most desperate strategy in the first place. Sirius kept his left hand firmly grasped over his right behind his back for fear he would not be able to resist the temptation to make use of Thomas Barnaby's wand once more to plant two nasty hexes. He was still concentrating on self-restraint when Dumbledore started to speak again.

"Of course, I did not count on Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny mounting their own resistance. In hindsight, I should have done. Before I knew what was happening, the sounds of wand fire were coming from the original room much earlier than I had expected. And then in the respectable tradition of bravery that has characterized all the many members of the Weasley family at one time or another, Ginny delivered a rather well-placed hit with her knee."

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley frowned in confusion. Ginny pulled the bed sheets up over her head. No one seemed to notice Sirius grin.

"And then," said Dumbledore, now smiling. "Ron and Hermione followed things up with a spectacular hex that struck just above my head, sending a large number of stones to my feet and head. When I regained consciousness, Ginny had things well under control and I was only left with a bit of tidying up to do."

Harry wondered whether Ginny had told her parents exactly what Dumbledore's tidying up had involved before he had woken. Strangely, Harry found himself deciding that he wasn't going to be the one to pass along any of the feats he had seen Dumbledore perform. For one thing, he was not sure how he could begin to describe them.

Ginny cautiously pulled the bed sheets back away from her head, a quizzical look on her face.

"Yes, Ginny?" asked Dumbledore, still smiling.

"Why couldn't you have told me you were really you?" she asked. "After the others had gone into the original room, surely you could have let me in on your secret? And then I wouldn't have tried to escape."

Dumbledore shook his head.

"For all I knew, that could have finished everything for all of us. As I told you, I didn't know exactly what was going on in that room. I did not know whether or not Voldemort had dropped his link with you. If I had told you who I really was and he was still monitoring your thoughts, he would have realized that I had betrayed him and killed Harry and his friends without waiting. I had to make you think that I was Professor Snape and that he was on Voldemort's side until the last second."

"There's another thing I don't understand," said Harry. "When you fought with Voldemort, why didn't your two wands join if they were of a pair?"

Dumbledore smiled.

"There's actually quite a simple answer to that, Harry," he said. "When I came into the room I brought three wands with me. One was Fred and George's wand, the other was the wand I had purchased with Voldemort's, and the third was my own. I had first planned to duel Voldemort with the wand that belonged to him. I felt confident than I could use one wand to forge a link with him which he did not expect and then the other to finish him off. While I regained consciousness after falling to the ground, however, I discovered that the linked wand was missing. As always with these things, it was lying nearby in the debris. Unfortunately, when Voldemort levitated the stones that had entrapped me, I knew I had to react instantly to avoid Harry's hex, so I pulled out my own wand. Once my battle with Voldemort began, of course, there was no way that I could return to look for the other wand. Only when Voldemort had transformed me into a cat did I scour the debris and retrieve the wand. Since I could not apparate back into my human form, I had little choice but to place the retrieved wand in front of Harry. I was confident that he would know what to do with it. My own wand was destroyed when Voldemort completed his transfiguration hex, but I was able to use Ginny's."

There was a moment of silence as Dumbledore finished talking. No one in the room looked particularly pleased with the headmaster, save for Snape, whose expression continued to be unreadable, yet there seemed little more anyone could say for the time being.

"If you don't mind, headmaster," said Snape, breaking the silence. "I'm rather anxious to return to see how the repairs to my room are coming along. I'm sure my space in the room can be better occupied by a member of Potter and Weasley's growing fan club. Before I go, however."

Before anyone had realized what was happening, Snape had swiftly crossed the space between himself and Harry and was standing at his bedside in an instant.

Sirius started.

"You needn't be concerned, Black, I am not going to hex him."

Harry looked up into the greasy hair and pale face of his once and future Potions master with a mixture of surprise and disgust.

"I'd like to get one thing clear, Potter," drawled Snape in a shifty voice only Harry could hear. "Owing the unusual circumstances of our little deception this year, things were allowed to become extremely lenient, especially during my Potions lessons. Lest you labor under the misapprehension that some things have changed for good, I would like to assure you that I will be back next year in my customary form and that if you wish to have any chance of completing your N.E.W.T. in Potions, I suggest you be very careful needed."

Harry pursed his lips in defiance.

Snape drew himself up, shot an expression of distaste at the three Weasleys which was returned in kind, exchanged a look of deep hatred with Sirius, and then nodded to Dumbledore. He pulled his cloak around his shoulders, turned, and swiftly left the room.

Dumbledore smiled brightly at Harry and Ginny.

"Well, if there are no further questions, I'm afraid I did promise Madam Pomfrey that the pair of you would drink up your chocolate and get some rest."

Harry did not need to be told twice. He reached to the side for his ever-boiling chocolate, his head still spinning like a top trying to make sense of the elaborate schemes Dumbledore had spun. He was still very anxious about Hermione and Ron, but all things told he felt much better. But when he moved to the bedside table on his right, what he saw out of the corner of his eye made him nearly drop his mug for a second time.

There on a small cot beside him, her golf ball-sized eyes still staring up at him vacantly, lay Winky. Apart from the long green nose that had stared at him when he'd first awoken, Winky was covered from head to toe in white bandages. A long white cast straddled her back like a turtle's shell. Once in bed, her two legs seemed to have been charmed to hover up in the air as though in slings. Dobby sat at the edge of the bed beside her, looking back between her and Harry as if to make sure they were both still safe.

"Winky!" said Harry in alarm. "I - I'm sorry - I - "

Harry shot a brief glance back at Dumbledore and found that he was watching the exchange thoughtfully. He had the sudden impression Dumbledore had not alerted his attention to Winky because he had thought that Harry should recognize her first.

"Are - are you okay?" asked Harry, feeling like an idiot as soon as he had finished the question. "I - I mean - goddess - I - I didn't."

"Harry Potter should not worry about Winky," Winky croaked feebly, continuing to stare at him very closely as Dobby put up a hand to stop her from straining herself. "Winky only hopes Harry Potter is safe now and won't be in any more trouble because of her."

"Trouble?" echoed Harry, a little dumbly. "Winky, you saved my life! If it hadn't been for you, Voldemort would have killed me for sure!"

Winky nodded with some effort.

"It is true, sir, yes. Winky hid on the ceiling and Winky was very lucky her part did not collapse, sir. No one noticed Winky. Winky was too frightened to help Harry Potter until the very end, sir, when Winky could see there was no other way. But Harry Potter must not be too grateful to Winky. Winky has not forgotten how she tried to kill Harry Potter."

"No, Winky! You were tricked and used. And, besides," Harry decided, shooting a sudden glance back to Dumbledore again. "The important thing wasn't what Malfoy made you do. It was how you reacted when you knew the truth, when you had the chance to right what you'd done. You had the courage to confess and then you risked your life to save mine. No one could ask for more of you than that."

Winky looked at Harry for a moment then, in an even more pitiful voice, said:

"Winky is most moved by Harry Potter's kindness. Harry Potter said the same thing to Winky as Professor Dumbledore. Professor Dumbledore even thinks Winky should take pay now."

Harry imagined what Hermione would say were she there now. He just tried to nod encouragingly.

"Winky will... consider it, sir," said Winky, looking up almost fearfully at Dumbledore.

Harry's head snapped back to look at the headmaster.

"Will she - " he started to ask, his eyes filled with uncertainty once more.

Dumbledore paused for an agonizing moment.

"Winky was very close to death when the healers found her. It is a shameful truth that although we put house elves to work for us every day we know very little about their physiology. Fortunately, Hermione had succeeded in forming an exchange with an elfin village as part of her work for S.P.E.W. and Mr. Creevey and Miss Wycliffe were able to put me in contact with a number of elfin healers. They nursed her back to consciousness and left Madam Pomfrey with instructions on how to heal her remaining injuries."

"Harry Potter should not worry about Winky," Winky added again. "Winky will be healed and go back to work soon. Winky is drinking a whole bottle of Skele-Gro, sir, and one bottle is a lot for a house-elf."

"But Winky must still rest," chided Dumbledore.

"Professor Dumbledore should not worry, sir. Winky is promised him she will take three days away from her work."

"Three days!" spluttered Harry.

Winky's eyes widened.

"Winky will try to take two, sir?" she suggested.

But Dobby had already read Harry's thoughts.

"Harry Potter is brave and good. He is concerned for Winky. He wants Winky to rest for a longer time."

Winky looked a little anxious at this as Dobby turned his attention back to Harry.

"Harry Potter, do not worry," he said reassuringly. "Dobby is making sure Winky is fully recovered before she returns to any work."

Harry breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thanks, Dobby."

He started to reach for his ever-boiling chocolate and had taken a large sip when Dobby added:

"Winky will even rest for four days, if Harry Potter wishes it."

***

Two days later, with Madam Pomfrey's characteristic reluctance, Harry and Ginny were finally released from the hospital wing. In between long rests and healthy doses of ever-boiling chocolate, Harry and Ginny had spent most of the remainder of their time in the infirmary trying to persuade Winky to rest a little longer, which she had finally agreed to do. Dobby himself had to leave her side, however, as the house elves became more and more absorbed in the repairs to the school following the siege. Filch, as always, seemed to be supervising more than helping himself, which as Hermione no doubt would have pointed out, was because he was much less capable than they were of doing magic. Hagrid was a much more active helper, however, and on his own frequent visits to the hospital wing to check on Harry and Ginny could often be seen hiding his umbrella behind his back suspiciously.

On the day after Ginny and Harry had first woken up, the news came that first Ron and then Hermione had regained consciousness. Ginny's parents were now spending nearly all of their time at St. Mungo's and could report that their health was steadily improving but there was still no news on when either of them would be released. Both Ginny and Harry had agreed that they would not leave Hogwarts until Ron and Hermione were able to return safely to collect their own belongings and go with them together, no matter how long that might take.

Many of Harry and Ginny's well wishers had come to visit them over the past few days, most of whom wanted the real story about what had happened down in the depths of the castle between Harry, Ginny, Dumbledore, and Voldemort. From what little Ginny had been able to ascertain from her father's occasional visits and the snippets of news they had received from The Daily Prophet, the Ministry was largely in disarray over the whole affair, having been taken clearly by surprise. It seemed certain that heads would roll but exactly whose and why, it was still not clear. The Daily Prophet itself seemed equally unclear about the details of the attack and the only pictures that had been printed in the paper were those of Death Eaters being led into confinement while awaiting trial (all of whom had charmed their faces to appear as indistinct blurs in the pictures); a very fuzzy picture of what seemed to have been the Dark Mark hanging over Hogwarts taken through a pair of Omnioculars from a great distance away; and an also quite unclear picture of a Death Eater who kept apparating and disapparating out of a picture taken out of the Astronomy Tower window by the camera of Colin Creevey. Taking full advantage of Hermione's incapacitation, Rita Skeeter had tried various means to enter the hospital wing and had finally been banished from the school by Dumbledore when Harry had picked off a beetle wearing glasses from Ginny's hair.

Sirius had been as true to his word as he could that he would stay to watch over Harry until he had fully recovered. He had only left on two occasions when Ministry officials had entered the school to ask him further questions, always accompanied by Dumbledore, to whom they seem to be showing a healthy amount of deference. At the time they were discharged, Sirius had been away on another of his question sessions but had returned to help them pack their necessities to take back to Gryffindor Tower where they would await Ron and Hermione's return.

Ginny had noticed as soon as Sirius had re-entered that he had been even more on edge than usual. As soon as they had finished packing, he told Harry that they needed to talk. He did not say that their discussion should take place in private but Ginny sensed he preferred it that way. And so, over Harry's objections, she had volunteered to take both of their trunks back to the tower and wait there for him.

As Ginny walked down the long corridor back to the tower by herself, however, she couldn't help but be struck by how eerily quiet the castle was. It was now a full week after the Hogwarts Express had left back for London and the school seemed mostly deserted. As Ginny absent-mindedly levitated the two trunks up and down like two sides of a weighing scale, she realized that she and Harry had not been apart for longer than she had been held captive by Snape (now Dumbledore) since the moment they had first kissed. If anything, their time together as a couple had made Ginny's love for Harry grow stronger and she had no sooner walked very far from the hospital wing when she longed to be back in his company again.

As Ginny continued her walk to Gryffindor Tower, she tried not to think of these things, however. She and Harry were safe and together and that was what mattered. It wasn't long ago that she would have been spending all of her precious time alone wallowing in her own fantasies about walking in love with Harry together but the time for those daydreams had passed and Ginny also hoped that her nightmares would vanish just as easily.

Not for the first time, Ginny reached the familiar portrait that guarded the entrance to Gryffindor Tower without realizing she had done so. She had just realized that she had no idea what the password was now when the Fat Lady smiled engagingly, held her hand out and said:

"For you, my dear, this door will always be open."

Ginny smiled and went inside. She had fully expected the common room to be empty like the hallway outside. However, it was not and by the time Ginny had taken two steps inside what she saw made the two trunks she had been levitating fall to the floor with a very loud crash.

***

Harry felt his cheeks flush as he strode across the stone corridors and took the steps to the next floor two at a time. He knew he should really go back and check on Ginny first but he also realized that if he did not take care of things right this instant, he wouldn't be able to think of anything else. He had to know. He had to hear it from him. And he had to find out why.

He reached the stone gargoyle.

"Fizzing Whizzbees," he called out.

The wall parted and Harry wound his way up the spiral staircase to Dumbledore's office.

***

Amanda pulled away from what seemed to have been a very long passionate kiss with Colin Creevey at the sound of Ginny and Harry's trunks crashing to the floor.

"Ginny?"

"Ginny!"

"Er, hi, I - I thought - what are you two doing - doing still here, I mean? I thought you would have left by now."

"Er, well, we wanted to make sure you were O.K. and out of the hospital wing before we left," said Amanda unconvincingly.

"It's great to see you up and about, Ginny," said Colin sounding as if he had swallowed too much of a throat soothing charm. "I - I - I think I have to go upstairs and develop some film. Th - they want some of my pictures for the Prophet, you know."

Ginny found it difficult to suppress a giggle as Colin turned heel and ran up the steps to the boys' dormitories.

She looked back at Amanda whose own face was deeply red, a wordless question on her face.

"Well," Amanda said finally. "I can't explain it either. I still think he's a prat."

Ginny smiled.

The door to the portrait hole opened again. Ginny did not turn around right away, fully expecting it to be Harry but when she heard Amanda gasp and saw the surprised look in her eyes, she looked back around and stifled her own exclamation.

It was Ron.

"Hi," he said, his face smiling but his eyes full of questions.

Ginny stood shocked still for a moment.

"Hermione's downstairs," said Ron, a little quickly. "She has our things. And Mum and Dad are here, too. I went up first to look for you in the infirmary but - "

Ron's explanation was cut off when Ginny ran up and put her arms around him, tears streaming down her face.

"I thought you were dead, you git," she exclaimed.

Ron let his own arms fall gingerly around his sister's back.

"Yeah, well, I thought I was, too, until I woke up. Bloody nasty headache, I can tell you."

Ginny let go of her brother and studied him carefully.

"Th - they didn't even give you a levitation stick or a cast," she said incredulously.

"Yeah, well, they said I didn't need any as long as I took it easy for a few weeks. I can tell you I still ache all over though. It was enough to walk up those steps. And I still can't get this horrible taste out of my mouth from when they made me take the Skele-Gro. Awful, awful stuff. I don't know how Harry - "

"Your face doesn't hurt, does it?" asked Ginny gently, smoothing Ron's collar bone with her hand.

Ron looked at his sister strangely.

"N - no," he said tentatively. "That's about the only part of me that doesn't. W- why do you ask?"

"Because I don't want to hurt you."

Ginny slapped Ron across his left cheek.

***
There was a soft flutter of wings as a baby Fawkes perched his small claws on Harry's outstretched index finger.

"Hello, Fawkes," said Harry, suddenly feeling all of the tension rush away from his body. "I haven't forgotten how you saved me - again."

Fawkes purred softly and nuzzled his beak over the top of Harry's fingernail.

"Harry?" said a voice.

Harry looked up to see Dumbledore at his desk.

Fawkes flew back to his cage as if on cue.

And then suddenly all of Harry's tension seemed to return.

"This is an unexpected surprise," said Dumbledore, gesturing for Harry to take the chair in front of his desk.

But there was something in Dumbledore's eyes that told Harry his visit wasn't a surprise at all. had the sudden feeling that Dumbledore had been dreading this moment for a very long time but still possessed the courage not to try and do anything to avoid it.

But Harry did not allow this sudden strange feeling to change his mind about what he had to say to the headmaster. He did not take Dumbledore's offer of a seat. Instead, he looked directly into his eyes and said:

"I've just been talking to Sirius. You didn't kill him, did you?"