The Veil of Memories

Chapter 8

The Point of No Return

"Well, I - I - " Ron spluttered. "The map must be faulty or - or something."

"The map doesn't lie, Ron," said Ginny. "You told me that yourself - or don't you remember?"

"Of course, I remember!" Ron retorted, regaining some of his conviction. "Well, I mean, well it has now, hasn't it? I mean - " he pointed up at Janus who was talking to Dumbledore and hadn't seemed to notice them, "he's sitting right there! I can see him and you can see him, can't you?"

Ginny nodded. "Yes, I can see him, Ron, but that doesn't mean he's really there."

Ron's mouth opened slightly and he shook his head back and forth with incredulity. It was a few more moments before he managed to say:

"Well, I don't know about you but I'd rather believe what I can see with my own eyes that what's on a map. Go on, you explain it, then."

Ginny shrugged. "I'm not sure that I can, Ron. I'm just saying that there's something very wrong with this - this whatever he is."

"He can't be a ghost."

Both Ron and Ginny looked over at Harry, seeming surprised to remember he was still sitting there with them.

"Nearly Headless Nick shows up on the map and so does Peeves," Harry continued. "I've seen them on it dozens of times."

"Peeves and Nick really exist," said Ginny thoughtfully, "albeit in a different way than we do. But suppose even though we can see Janus, there's nothing or no one really there, just like the map says. If Hermione were here now, she would remind you that no one can Apparate inside and outside of Hogwarts. Yet each of us saw Janus just appear on the first day of class. What if he wasn't really Apparating at all? What if he - or someone or something - made us all think that he was there, just like they're making us think he's there now?"

"He seems a bit lively for someone who's just a figment of our imaginations," remarked Ron.

"Well," said Harry, still looking thoughtful. "What if he's a sort of spell or - or a memory, like Tom Riddle was?"

Ginny paused for a moment.

"I suppose it's possible. Would Riddle have shown up on the map?"

"As the diary?" said Harry. "I don't suppose so. Fred and George would have noticed, wouldn't they? But later on, when he came out of the diary - I don't know, I suppose."

"Well, before you two manage to convince yourselves that there's no need completing assignments for a teacher who isn't real," said Ron, "I've got a slightly more down to earth explanation."

"Let's hear it then," said Ginny, with only a hint of sarcasm.

"Look, he's a powerful wizard, right?" said Ron. "He trained you in things ordinary wizards and witches can't do, right, Harry?"

"Well, yeah," said Harry, "although he claimed he couldn't do them himself."

Ginny gave the very slightest of snorts which Harry took as meaning that she didn't find Janus' modesty very convincing.

"He can do things other wizards aren't supposed to, like Apparating inside a classroom, or whatever it was he did, right?" Ron went on.

"Yes," conceded Ginny.

"So then what makes you think he doesn't have the magical abilities to make himself not appear on the Marauder's Map, a sort of invisibility from detection?"

"But why?" asked Ginny, "why would he care about whether he appeared on our map?"

"Do you think that no other wizards could make a map like that?" asked Ron. "There could be lots of reasons. Think of it: why is it no one remembers him from the First War? Perhaps he was an undercover agent for the Order. Perhaps he didn't feel it was safe to come out of hiding again until Voldemort was well and truly gone. Someone in his position would need to come up with all sorts of jinxes and charms to make sure that no one could find him."

Harry thought that Ron's argument sounded reasonable. He was a little surprised when Ginny sighed and looked across at her brother sadly.

"I knew you would say something like this," she said.

"Like what?" demanded Ron.

"I knew you wouldn't believe me, no matter what I said, or what I showed you. Don't worry, I'm not taking it personally," Ginny went on as Ron looked about to protest. "I did at first but then I got to thinking, and now I understand. It's not me you won't believe in; it's yourself."

Ron looked completely baffled. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You won't accept any explanation that admits that I've been right about the Muggle-borns," Ginny replied, still quietly, but with more emotion, "because you can't bring yourself to believe there's anyone in the world who loves you as much as Hermione."

Even Harry thought that Ginny had made a rather wild intuitive leap and he was about to say so, but Ron got in first.

"I don't believe there's any such person as Hermione because there isn't!" he insisted. "She's the one who's imaginary, not Janus! And if I did have a girlfriend who loved me as much as you say she does, not that I would, but if - "

"There you go again!" cried Ginny, unable to keep her voice down this time. "You just can't get your stubborn head around it, can you? I don't know what it is with you, Ron. Maybe you let the twins' teasing get to you too much when we were younger. You always were a bit of an easy target for them."

"I wasn't - "

"Or maybe it was Mum and Dad, maybe they put too much pressure on you, I don't know but - "

Ron got up from his seat.

"Look, I've given you a perfectly reasonable explanation why Janus isn't on that map. If you don't want to believe it, that's fine! But I don't feel in the mood to sit here and listen to your attempts at amateur psychology, Ginny, so if you two don't mind, as Harry knows, I have a Charms test tomorrow."

But Harry did not seem impressed with Ron's excuse.

"Ron, please stay," he said. "We've got to talk this through. About the map if nothing else. Ginny's worked hard on this and she could be on to something."

But Ron shook his head.

"I'm sorry, Harry," he said. He turned around and walked out of the Hall.

***

30 November 1996

I had a funny dream last night. I dreamt I was sitting in a classroom, but not one of the classrooms here. It was a classroom at a school for magic. Instead of trying to stop us from practicing magic, the teachers were actually trying to teach it to us. I was sitting next to this boy with red hair. There was a funny little teacher, like a little elf, who was telling us how to lift a feather with our wands. I kept telling the red-headed boy how to do it but he wasn't listening. Finally, I tried myself and it went sailing through the air.

Then I woke up and felt much less pleased with myself.

It's been two days since my parents left. I thought that at least by now, the worst would be over: the anticipation would be gone and whatever it was they were going to do to me would have been done.

But it hasn't.

I don't know what Snape told my parents in the end. I haven't seen or heard from them since. I expect he's keeping it from me. He and that nun.

She's still here. I can't think why except because of me. I'm still not clear who she is or who sent her. I'm surprised they consider me that important.

I finally got her surname out of her. I've no intention of calling her Dolores. She might pretend to be my friend but I'm not going to pretend to be hers. Her name is Umbridge - Sister Umbridge, and I can think of no better name for her. She's completely twisted and evil. I can tell it just from talking to her. She tried to talk me into telling her the names of all the students doing magic (and that was a bit of a funny thing, actually, she didn't say students "in the group" like Snape had done). First, she told me that she was trying to lift me out of Satan's grip but that I had to meet her halfway. When I wouldn't answer her then, she came out with all manner of threats: she told me that she had much more authority than Snape did. I could go to hell, of course; she could put me in a prison, she said (and then went on in lurid detail about how I would be roughed up on a daily basis by my fellow inmates just for being intolerably clever); I could be re-tried and spend the rest of youth locked away. The worst thing didn't seem so much what she was saying, though; it was that even when she was describing the worst kind of things, she still kept talking in that horrible sugary-sweet voice. I think I would have been happier if she'd gotten really angry with me instead. It was as if she would have been disappointed if I had agreed with her and was looking forward to inflicting some cruel and awful punishment now that I wasn't.

But she didn't. In the end, she just told me to go back to my room and study for my lessons. But the horrible smile she had on her face as she said it, I just know she has something awful planned for me and two days on, I still don't know what it is. Of course, that's exactly what she wants me to feel. She wants me to back groveling to her, giving her those other names, brought down just by the horrible not knowing. I won't, of course, but it doesn't make me feel any less anxious.

***

Harry didn't see Ron for most of the rest of the evening. He wasn't in the common room when they returned. Harry didn't have much doubt about where he was, though. He stayed with Ginny until she left with Amanda at nine o'clock for an Astronomy lesson. As soon as the portrait hole had swung shut behind them, Harry closed his Charms book and marched up the stairs to the dormitory. He knew that Ron would be the only one in the room as Seamus and Neville were both still studying their Charms downstairs.

Ron didn't look up as Harry entered. Only when Harry sat down silently on his own bed and stared up at his best friend did Ron slowly close his book and meet Harry's gaze. There was a tight, angry, hurt look in both of their eyes and not just a faint hint of a challenge.

"We need to talk," said Harry bluntly, his expression unchanging.

"Agreed."

Ron's quick acquiescence surprised Harry and forced him to pause. He also realized that he had so many things to say he hardly knew where to begin. But he did not expect that Ron would be the first to speak and found himself surprised again when he did:

"You don't think I'm being fair to Ginny, do you? You think I'm being stubborn, narrow-minded, and inconsiderate. You think I'm hurting her and abandoning you. And that makes you angry. How am I doing so far?"

"Well, yeah, I - "

"Listen to me carefully, Harry," said Ron, leaning forward, eyes first. "You're not the only person in this world who cares about Ginny."

"I didn't say I was!"

"But you're acting like it. I know you, Harry. To you, Ginny is the poor little girl who no one believes. But you want to believe her; you want to rescue her. I've watched you all term, Harry. You've grasped at the flimsiest of straws just to find any way that you could manage to believe that what she is saying is true. But there's one person you've done a very poor job protecting her from - herself."

"If there's anyone who sees her as a poor little girl, Ron, it's you! You don't take anything she says seriously. Even when Dumbledore - "

"Harry, do you know how hard it's been for me the last few months? I knew from the first bloody day she walked down into breakfast and started talking about her imaginary friends that she had been put under a very nasty hex. Fine, I thought, what we have to do is go to Madam Pomfrey and get the counter curse. Then, when that didn't work, I wanted to take her to St. Mungo's or at least owl Mum and Dad. But Dumbledore wouldn't let me. Think about it, Harry. Think about it very carefully. He wouldn't even let me tell our own parents that their daughter was in serious trouble. But what did you do, Harry, you trusted him. You trusted him even after all the times he's manipulated us and nearly got us killed. But do you know what the stupidest thing is of all? I've trusted him, too. I still haven't owled Mum and Dad even though it's been months since Dumbledore sent us those letters and nothing's changed. And now I don't know what to do. Do you know why I'm avoiding my own sister, Harry? Because it kills me to see her hurting like this every single day."

Harry stared back at his best friend, feeling all the color drain from his cheeks and all the anger flee his heart. He wasn't at all sure what to say.

At Harry's silence, Ron lowered his head, a pained frown crossing his freckled features.

"Look, Harry, I don't want to get in another fight with you about Ginny. We crossed that bridge before and I don't want to ever go there again. I know that you love her and I couldn't be more happy, really. You want me to consider that she might be right? It may surprise you to know this, Harry, but I have. But I want you to consider something also. I want you to consider that she might be wrong. Because if there's any chance she is wrong, then neither of us is doing her a favor right now."

Ron looked back up again expecting an answer. Harry tried once again to think of something more to say. But in the end, he found that all he could do was nod.

***

Draco Malfoy entered the Room of Requirement silently, shrugging off the uneasy feeling that he had been followed. There was no one who could even remember that the room existed, save for Ginny - and Janus - but they had been given no good reason to look there. No, there was no one who would find him there. All the same....

"You have news, Wormtail?" he said.

A rat that had been scurrying along the far wall transfigured into Wormtail's human form, crouched and groveling. He let out a small whimper.

"You needn't be frightened of me, Wormtail," said Malfoy, with just a slight edge of impatience to his voice. "Your recent news has been of great use. It has complicated matters to be sure, but it would have been far worse if we had not found out. You have done well. But I will grow impatient if you do not quickly explain why you have called me here. If it is bad news you have for me, it is best you get it over with now."

Wormtail whimpered again but managed to follow with an explanation.

"I cannot say for sure whether or not the news is bad, my Lord. The exchange mirror has just appeared in the corner of the room."

Wormtail walked over to a corner and produced a large cracked mirror set in a tarnished silver frame. Wheezing with effort, he managed to carry it over to a large table at the room's center.

"Levitate the mirror to where I can see it, Wormtail, or have you lost the use of your magical abilities?"

Wormtail charmed the mirror to hover just above the desk at the height of Malfoy's head. Malfoy took out his own wand and aimed it at the mirror's center.

"Communicatas. Speak to me quickly. Both of us have more important matters to attend to. I know it is you."

The mirror glowed briefly green and the head of Dolores Umbridge appeared at its center. She was surrounded by a black background not unlike the dark room in which Malfoy now stood, as though Malfoy had looked in the mirror and found a different reflection staring back at him. Malfoy noted, without any special concern, that Umbridge looked unusually drawn and haggard. Her face seemed infused with a mixture of fatigue and fear. Her mousey-brown hair was pressed down on her head, the result of the disguise she had been forced to wear. But her eyes were as large as ever.

"We have a problem."

"I would hope so," said Malfoy, taking a patronizing tone. "I would be very angry if you had called me now for a less urgent reason."

"Perhaps it would do you well to appreciate my help," replied Umbridge in her most simpering voice. "I have risked a great deal to cross the gateway again and give you this message."

"You have risked nothing, Dolores. The part of the gateway from which you have crossed has long been made stable, as you are well aware. The way you talk, one would think you had crossed from beyond the veil itself. In any case, Lord Voldemort does not appreciate. He only commands. You would do well to remember that. Or perhaps you would like to return to being a worthless disgrace, betrayed by the Ministry you served so nobly for so many years?"

A flash of color smeared itself across Umbridge's cheeks, causing her complexion to appear even more blotchy than normal. She swallowed and the color faded a bit.

"There has been a problem at the school," she reported. "The Granger girl has done some magic. Worse, she has led a group of the other mudbloods to practice with her."

"And what actions have you taken?"

"The girls' parents were called. She has been threatened with expulsion."

"And?"

Umbridge hesitated.

"There is a further complication."

Malfoy sighed. "Tell me."

"We have been hampered by the inferiority of the Muggle eckel-tronic pseudo-magic. We do not know exactly who is in her group and she will not tell us. What is more, I fear that the memory charm has worked even less successfully at St. Brutus's than it has at Hogwarts. The unstable environment has no doubt hampered it. Many of the mudbloods' memories still exist in their latent thoughts. We even recorded the Thomas boy casting a spell."

"What about Snape?"

"He still knows nothing. I destroyed all of the tapes that showed the mudbloods actually doing magic."

"Are you sure about that?"

Umbridge leaned her face in closer to the mirror. "Quite sure."

Malfoy paused for a moment. "What do you propose to do about this then? When I agreed to give you the honor to serve me, I was under the impression that you had something of a mind to use. I could have put any fool under the Imperius or had his memory erased."

Umbridge flushed angrily again for a moment but then quickly continued.

"The Granger girl won't come round. She's as stubborn as ever, I can see that. We have to use another memory charm. End this charade right now. Perhaps if we keep doing it, we'll eventually get it right. Then they won't think to do magic in the first place."

"The memory charm has its risks. Wormtail has nearly ruined everything here with two of his blunders." Malfoy carried on, ignoring a plaintive moan from the corner of the room. "And I cannot afford to spare him for you this time. If any such clues are left at St. Brutus's, Snape will be sure to find them and he can do much more damage than Granger."

"Then allow me to put the girl under the Imperius."

"Even riskier. Potter has resisted it; he might have taught her in the past. When pressed, part of her still might remember. And then she will know you are a witch. No," Malfoy finished, with a cruel smile that would have belonged equally well on his mouth or Voldemort's. "You do not know Hermione Granger as I do. She is not a coward but she can be broken. Her weakness is in her loyalty to her friends."

"And how do you wish me to take advantage of this weakness?"

Malfoy smiled again. "I will leave that up to your imagination."

"Very well," said Umbridge, studying Malfoy closely, "but if this does not work, we will have no choice to apply the memory charm once more."

Malfoy's lips tightened. "I will thank you to leave the choices to me, Dolores. Once I served you as a child but I am not that child anymore. I have the mind of the most powerful and brilliant wizard in the history of our kind inside my head."

"Your mind is not in question, Mr. Malfoy, but whether or not you are still a child very much remains to be seen."

Umbridge's face disappeared from the mirror and with it all light from the room. The only sound was a protracted whine from the mouth of Wormtail.

But Malfoy was not in any mood to deal with Wormtail, one way or the other. There were far more urgent matters at hand. Clenching and unclenching his fists, he quickly strode out of the room.

***

The weather was slightly warmer than normal as the first day of December fell on the Hogwarts grounds. But far from making things pleasant, it only meant that instead of the usual snow, a hard, cold driving rain was falling. The Gryffindor Quidditch team had managed to hold practice during a break in the showers. Ginny and Harry had stayed behind later, however, on the pretext of helping Ginny practice her passes but, in reality, to talk about Janus and the Marauder's Map. They had been walking back to the castle, still deep in conversation, when they were caught in a sudden downpour and forced to find shelter under the beech tree at the edge of the lake. They sat together on the ground underneath the large protective branches, waiting for the rain to stop.

Ginny had leaned back comfortably into Harry's arms. She continued to talk incessantly about Janus. Harry, however, found himself only half-listening, just as his mind had only been half-focused during the team practice. He was much more worried about Ginny than Janus, worries that Ron had rekindled the previous night. He knew that he should be discussing those worries openly with his girlfriend. He also knew that sitting together like this alone in the rain, he had the perfect opportunity to do so, but knowing that and doing it were two different things.

"Still, this was good," Ginny was saying. "We still don't know exactly what's going on but we're getting a little nearer."

"Yeah," said Harry vacantly.

"If only we could persuade Ron to understand. It's doubly hard trying to solve this mystery and fight him as well. I - "

Ginny stopped herself and looked up quizzically at Harry.

"Have you talked to Ron, by the way, I mean, apart from at practice?"

"Yes, Ginny, actually, I have and - "

Harry found himself at a sudden loss for words. He lowered his head slightly, not meeting Ginny's eyes. She wound herself out of his grasp and studied him closely.

"Harry?" she said questioningly. "There's something wrong, isn't there?"

Harry managed only a non-committal grunt but it seemed to speak worlds to Ginny.

"Y - you have talked to Ron," she said, looking down herself to catch his eyes, as if in doing so she could read his mind. "And you're starting to have doubts about me - about whether what I'm saying is true," she said slowly. "You're not - you're not sure you believe me anymore."

Harry looked up suddenly.

"I didn't say that," he said.

"But is that what you were thinking?" Ginny asked, running her thumb gently down the side of his cheek.

There was a damning pause.

"Don't lie to me, Harry," said Ginny, feeling creeping into her voice. "I feel like so many things in my life are lies right now. I need you to be true. I don't mind if you don't believe me. If I were you, I wouldn't believe it either. In fact, I'd be just the same as Ron. But don't lie to me."

Harry stared at her for a moment and saw the candor in her eyes. He ran his fingers through the soft, silky strands of her hair.

"I believe you, Ginny," he said.

And he found it was the truth but that still did not quell the anxiousness in Harry's heart.

"But I'm still worried about you. Ron is, too. He just doesn't want to see you hurt."

"I know." Ginny sighed. "I wasn't fair to him last night. I was angry and frustrated. I still think I was right about Hermione but maybe he was more right than any of us about Janus. I think he did put a spell on that map so it couldn't show him. But I think it also helped that he isn't really human, well, not a normal human anyway. A - actually, I think - I think I know who Janus is, Harry. I've suspected for a while now, but I didn't want to say because, well...."

"Go on."

"Well, it's a bit fantastic."

"More fantastic than forgetting half the school?"

"I suppose not but, well, I wanted very badly for you to believe me, Harry, and Ron, too, and I feared that this would make you doubt me even more."

"But you just said - "

Ginny nodded. "I know. I want you to be truthful to me more but I still want you to believe me." She smiled. "Girls are funny sometimes, Harry."

Harry smiled, too, and playfully rubbed the top of Ginny's nose. "I can take you being funny. Now, let's hear the idea."

"OK." Ginny licked her lips. "Do you remember Hagrid telling us about that old Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, the one when he was a student? The one who put the memory charm on the school, the one who was close to Tom, to Voldemort?"

"Yeah?"

"I think Janus is him."

"What?"

"I warned you it was fantastic."

"B - but, Ginny, Janus can't be any older than thirty. If that Defense teacher was still alive now, he would be, well, at least eighty."

"When Riddle left school, he did all sorts of dark magic to make himself more powerful and try to gain immortality. What's to say Janus couldn't have done that, too? What's to say they weren't together? The Death Eaters now might not know, certainly not Malfoy. Besides, I don't think it's his real face. Have you ever looked at it closely?"

"Well, I suppose not."

"It's too, well, perfect, I suppose. The chin is at a perfectly straight angle; his beard is perfectly cropped. He has no scars or pimples on his face at all."

"I didn't know you noticed," said Harry, looking slightly put out.

"Oh, Harry, I'm not attracted to perfect." Ginny ran her hand through Harry's untidy hair to make her point. "I mean it's not a natural face. And I'll bet nothing about him is natural. He's used magic to change himself so that he's not really human at all. But he's not a ghost either. He's something else, something that's become so twisted, it can't even be a thing that will show up on that map."

Harry nodded for a moment but then frowned.

"There's only one problem with that idea, Ginny. The teacher Hagrid described was obviously evil."

"And?"

"I don't think Janus is evil at all. I think he's here to help us."

Ginny caught her breath. "But, Harry, how can you think that? He's been hiding the truth all term!"

"Perhaps he doesn't have a choice," said Harry thoughtfully.

"And what he said to Malfoy?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't know. I can't explain it. I just have a feeling. Maybe I'm wrong."

Ginny looked thoughtful herself for a moment and then reached her hand out in front of her.

"It's stopped raining," she said. "Do you want to go in? We can keep talking at supper if we get a seat near the end again."

Ginny moved to get up but Harry grabbed onto her waist and pulled her back.

"Hey!" cried Ginny, giggling in surprise.

Harry pulled Ginny close to his ear and whispered into it:

"Let's take a break from Professor Janus, shall we?"

"Oh, but, Harry, I'm cold and - "

Ginny stopped talking as Harry cast a warming charm over the inside of his cloak and moved her inside of it.

"You were saying?" he said softly.

"A - and I'm hungry and we'll miss supper."

Harry didn't respond. Instead, he held out his wand again at a patch on the ground just in front of them. He seemed to be concentrating hard and Ginny remained quiet.

"Albreus."

Ginny gasped in surprise as a picnic of warm loaves of bread, plates, knives, and forks, and a mouth-watering bowl of steak and kidney pie appeared in front of them.

"Harry!" Ginny exclaimed in surprise.

"It's the first time I've made it work actually," said Harry apologetically, "and it's not very much; you can only get about one spell like that out - "

But Ginny did not seem to be listening.

"Where did you learn to conjure this? Is that what Professor Janus has been teaching you in your lessons? Defeat Death Eaters by bribing them with a delicious dinner? No wonder you think he's on our side."

"No," said Harry, smiling. "N.E.W.T. Charms. You'll learn it."

"A good thing Flitwick hasn't disappeared."

Harry leaned closer to Ginny again. "Any more excuses?"

Ginny didn't answer. She turned herself around to face Harry and drew the front side of his cloak around her back. She felt her breath quicken as her cold cheek touched Harry's warm one. She leaned in closer to his face and softly kissed him. They held the kiss and each other's arms for a long time, losing all sense of who and when they were. When they finally released, neither spoke, their hearts still pounding hard even as they began to dish out the food and start to eat.

"I hope not talking about Janus hasn't robbed us of all dinner conversation," said Harry finally, feeding a spoonful of pie to Ginny.

"I'm still thinking about our kiss," said Ginny very quietly.

Harry and Ginny shared puppy dog smiles. Neither spoke again for a few more moments. Then Ginny said:

"What would you like to talk about then?"

"Let's talk about you," said Harry softly.

"What's there to talk about? I told you all my secrets last summer."

"Perhaps I've lost my memory of them," said Harry deviously.

Ginny chuckled in kind.

The conversation began slowly but once it had started, it seemed that Ginny had a great many memories that she had not yet shared with Harry. Soon both were laughing about Ginny's - and Ron's - childhood exploits. The supper was finished, night descended in earnest, and the rain began to fall again, eventually turning to snow. Harry cast several more warming charms to keep his cloak heated, however, and neither noticed the time or the cold until Ginny let out a tremendous yawn and then another.

"Sleepy?"

"I - I suppose I haven't really slept well in ages," said Ginny, her eyes watering with fatigue. "I just keep worrying that if I fall asleep, I'll wake up and someone else will disappear."

"You can sleep now," Harry whispered into her ear.

"Oh, no, Harry!" Ginny said aloud. "I - I haven't looked at any spell books for any of tomorrow's lessons yet."

But Harry drew her closer still.

"You don't need to look at any spell books and no one is going to disappear," he said, almost hypnotically. "You're safe here with me."

Ginny did not protest again. She allowed Harry to gently run his fingers through her hair and settled her head on his chest. Within seconds, she had fallen asleep.

Harry exhaled a breath he had not known that he had been holding. He watched Ginny's chest slowly rise and fall in time with her breath. The lines of worry on her face slowly began to disappear. Harry wished he could make them go away so easily for her when she was awake. He remembered how she had lain sleeping against him the same way that summer and told him she could never have nightmares while she was in his arms. He hoped to all the gods in the wizarding pantheon that Ginny's words would prove true once more.

But this time, he would not get his wish.

Some minutes went past before Ginny's mouth twitched slightly and her forehead creased in a frown. At first, he gently adjusted the position of her head on his chest, hoping that it would ease her discomfort. But Ginny's facial expression remained unchanged.

Harry continued to run her hands through Ginny's hair, hoping it would soothe her, but from the look on her face, she was obviously in another world. Finally, the corner of her mouth opened and she started to make a soft, incoherent murmur.

"Ginny?" said Harry, leaning his head closer to hers.

Ginny murmured again. Harry shifted her head up toward him and, on the third try, he managed to hear what she was saying.

"Leave me alone."

Harry's heart froze in his chest.

"Ginny," he said, loudly and more urgently. "Ginny, wake up. You're having a nightmare."

"Leave me alone!" said Ginny more loudly, but still in sleep. She pushed ineffectually against Harry's chest. "Don't touch me!"

"Ginny!" Harry shouted, grabbing her shoulders now and shaking her. "Ginny, wake up! Please wake up!"

"No!" Ginny protested, her voice now loud but eyes still closed. "Leave me alone, don't touch me, stay away - "

Ginny's eyes snapped suddenly open.

"Ginny!" said Harry, taking hold of her shoulders again and looking into her eyes.

"I SAID 'STAY AWAY!'"

Ginny pushed Harry roughly to the ground and leapt back onto the newly fallen snow.

A deadening silence fell. Harry looked down at his hands as if he had been stung. Ginny continued to stare at him, panting hard, but then recognition passed over her wide-open eyes.

"Harry?" she said.

"Ginny?"

"Oh, Harry!"

Ginny burst into tears and moved back toward Harry's arms, but Harry, his eyes full of surprise and hurt, moved backward until his back hit the trunk of the beech tree.

"No, Harry!" cried Ginny. "Please don't - please don't run away from me! I need you!"

Harry's expression softened quickly and he reached forward to embrace Ginny.

"Ginny, you were having a nightmare."

"I - I - k-know, H-H-Harry," she sobbed into his shoulder. "I-I-I -- th-thank you for w-w-waking me up."

"Ginny, tell me what happened," asked Harry, heavy concern in his voice.

"No, Harry! Please n-n-no! Please don't make me say. Please!"

"All right, Ginny, all right. It's all right." He held onto her very tightly as she continued to cry. "You're all right, now. You're with me. It was just a dream."

But in his heart, Harry was not at all sure that it was all right. Suddenly, there was a voice in his head, a voice much louder than even the loudest of Ginny's wails.

Do you know why I'm avoiding my own sister, Harry? Because it kills me to see her hurting like this every single day!

Harry understood, perhaps for the first time, that Ron had been right. Not, perhaps, about whether their memories of Muggle-borns at Hogwarts had truly been erased but when he had reminded him how much Ginny was hurting. Harry could now see that even after he had taken her side, promised to help her solve this mystery, and given her all the emotional support he could, she was still hurting. And Harry realized, as he now knew he should have long before, that there was only one way that Ginny's suffering could end.

And he no longer cared at what price it came.

Harry waited until Ginny's cries had slowed into sobs before leaning his mouth close to her ear once more.

"Come on," he said. "We're going to see Dumbledore - now."

***

For the third time since Hermione had walked out onto the playground, she looked behind her shoulder only to find nothing and no one untoward behind her. She then dug her nails into her palms so fiercely it hurt, but she had to remind herself that if she saw shadows everywhere she walked then she was behaving exactly as Dolores Umbridge hoped she would. Hermione was determined not to be afraid or, at the very least, to master her fear. If she could do that, then Dolores Umbridge had no means to harm her.

Hermione continued to walk up to the netball court where several of the girls her age were playing. Maybe she would join in today. Yes, she decided, forcing her confidence forward, she would. Why not?

"Hermione."

Hermione gasped and jumped as she heard her name called.

"Dean!" she said, swinging around. "Y - you - "

" - startled you," finished Dean, a little more calmly, sitting on the bench beside the court. "I'm sorry, Hermione, but you looked far away."

"I was - I was - " She looked down at Dean properly. "Go away, Dean!" she said. "I can't be seen here talking to you. I'm in terrible trouble. But you won't be if you just get away from me!"

"That's what I needed to talk to you about, Hermione. You haven't said anything to us since your parents visited and no one in the school has come to see us. This concerns everyone who was in the - "

"Keep your voice down!" hissed Hermione, even though Dean had been speaking in a low murmur next to a noisy netball court.

"This concerns everyone who was in the group," said Dean again, in an even lower whisper. "We need to know what's going on and no one is telling us."

"Then you should count yourself lucky!" Hermione whispered back. "I might be expelled but at least you won't be hurt. They're only interested in the ringleader, I think. But if we keep talking - "

"We don't care about that," said a louder, female voice. "If anything happens to you, it should happen to us as well! We were all in this together."

Hermione swung around, half in surprise, half in dismay, to find that Lavender had walked up and sat down next to Dean.

"Lavender, get out of here!" whispered Hermione. "They didn't see you! They didn't catch you on the cameras!"

"There are cameras?" asked Lavender, in a normal tone of voice.

"Yes, and you weren't on them. But if they see us talking like this - "

"You and I are roommates. Can't we talk?"

"Dean is not our roommate. They're watching me very closely." Hermione leaned forward and spoke very slowly as if addressing an idiot. "They - will - suspect - everyone - I - talk - to, especially out here."

"Why didn't I show up on their cameras?" asked Lavender suspiciously.

"Because your head is so full of air, it makes you transparent! Now get out of - "

Hermione stopped talking as Dean took hold of her arm. His eyes widened and he pointed her in the direction of the school. Her face filling with a bloodrush of fear, Hermione looked behind to see that Sister Umbridge and Headmaster Snape had left the school and were walking slowly across the playground. As they approached, students looked up from their games. Even though they had presumably never met Umbridge before, and even though she greeted them with her most endearing smile, they picked up their balls and bats and moved quickly away from her. It was as though they could sense they were in the presence of something thoroughly wicked and evil.

But neither Umbridge nor Snape paid them much attention. They continued to walk slowly but inexorably in Hermione's direction.

***

Harry led Ginny by the arm through the corridors of the school to Dumbledore's office. He had not bothered to stop and check the time but it was still early enough that students were up and around in the corridors, mostly heading in between the library and their common rooms. Ginny had charmed her face so that it did not seem she had been crying. She continued to lean on Harry, however, and while she seemed to be regaining her strength, she still looked very pale. Harry and Ginny were fortunate not to run into anyone they knew very well, however, and acquaintances were content only to say hello. It would have been obvious to anyone who knew Ginny that something was wrong and neither she nor Harry wanted to face any questions right now.

The corridors thinned as they approached Dumbledore's office. Harry sensed his pulse quicken as they approached the stone gargoyle. He felt Ginny tug anxiously on his arm.

"Harry, we shouldn't do this! Dumbledore said we could all be in danger."

"You are in danger already, Ginny," Harry said firmly. "I'm not going to let this go on."

"Harry! At least wait until morning, I - "

But Harry led her by the elbow up to the gargoyle guarding the entrance to the office.

"I'm sure he's not just going to - "

Ginny was silenced as the gargoyle suddenly and explicably moved aside, revealing the winding staircase upward.

Harry and Ginny exchanged surprised glances.

"I've never seen it do that before," remarked Harry. "Usually someone has to give the password."

Ginny frowned for a moment, remembering how Dumbledore had told her that his office was the only place where he was fairly sure he wasn't being overheard.

"Come on," she said, now tugging Harry forward herself. "I think this means we had better go up quickly."

There was a strange, almost eerie silence as Harry and Ginny ascended the staircase. Harry wasn't sure what sound he had expected to hear but the absence of noise seemed somehow palpable. When the staircase reached the top, the two Gryffindors discovered that Dumbledore's door was slightly ajar. Harry knocked but there was no answer. Then, encouraged by Ginny, they walked in together, still arm in arm.

The office appeared at first glance to be empty. The usual portraits lined the walls, some of their occupants asleep but more than half missing from their posts. To Ginny, there were still a significant number of gaps on the wall from portraits that had disappeared altogether, although this was lost on Harry. He had not walked far into the office, however, when something very curious caught his attention.

Fawkes sat perched on top of his cage, his long red plumage in full brilliance. To his left, on a kind of visitor's perch, Harry decided, was his own Hedwig. On seeing Harry, she immediately flew over and perched on his forearm, nipping his hand affectionately.

"Hello," said Harry. "What are you doing here, then?"

"Harry, look!" said Ginny.

Harry followed her gaze to a corner of the office and found that Hedwig was not the only thing that didn't belong there. Standing on two claw feet and surrounded by a gold frame and a very familiar set of inscriptions was a very large mirror, a mirror that Harry had seen many years before and well remembered. The mirror was as high as a classroom ceiling and the corner of the office had been magically enlarged to gigantic proportions to accommodate it.

"Is that - " Ginny began.

"The Mirror of Erised." Harry frowned. "But what's it doing here?"

Ginny walked closer to the mirror, her eyes very wide.

"Harry," she said. "I can - I can see them standing here together with us. I can see Hermione, and Dean, and - and - "

Ginny swung around but saw only Harry standing behind her. Concerned, he reached over and took hold of her arm again.

"Don't look too long at it, Ginny. It can be - absorbing."

But Ginny found her attention returning to the mirror. She pulled Harry nearer.

"Can't you see them?" she asked him.

"I'm sorry, Ginny, but I only see you and I, except - " Harry frowned. "There's something different. I can't - " Comprehension slowly dawned on his features. "My scar - it's not there. I can see us - just us, you and I, just as we are - except I haven't got my scar."

"But I can still see it," said Ginny.

Both Harry and Ginny continued to look into the mirror. Hedwig, who was still perched on Harry's arm, began to fly around and squawk loudly.

"What is it?" Harry asked her, tearing his eyes away from the mirror.

Hedwig flew over to the door and began moving up and down in circles around it.

Still frowning, Harry walked over and pushed the door shut.

"Thank you, Harry," said a voice. "And Harry's right, Ginny. You should move away from the mirror. It can be habit-forming."

Harry and Ginny both looked up to see Dumbledore walking down toward them from the small tower which formed an upper level to his office.

"It's a dangerous thing to be sure," Dumbledore added. "But one which can have its uses. And at times like this, one can take all the help one can get." He reached over, touched the side of the mirror, and then swiveled his head to peer into it as one might look around a corner. Harry found himself very curious indeed as to what Dumbledore himself saw in the mirror.

"Yes," he said nodding, apparently to himself. "I thought so."

Whatever it was that Dumbledore thought, neither Ginny nor Harry discovered. He quickly turned away from the mirror and motioned them to follow him to his desk. He stood facing them for a silent moment, then gestured his arms widely, smiled a slightly sad and tired smile, and said:

"Now, what can I do for you, my friends?"

Ginny and Harry exchanged a quick but worried glance. The headmaster's demeanor seemed to show little of the paranoid fear Ginny had witnessed at their last meeting but both his expression and choice of words suggested he was still far from his usual self.

Harry cleared his throat.

"Professor Dumbledore," he said. "I know you are trying to protect us but Ginny is hurting. I need to ask that you tell us exactly what is going on."

Dumbledore looked back at Harry and, for a brief moment, the twinkle that had been absent from his eyes since the last time the three of them had sat together in his office returned. Then the headmaster sat down at his desk and motioned Harry and Ginny to do the same. He sighed again and suddenly looked very weary indeed.

"I must beg your forgiveness," he said. "Both of you. The last time you came to my office together, I can truthfully say that I was as ignorant as a child of the danger facing all of us. I am not proud to have been so unprepared but that cannot change the facts. Once I realized what was happening, I tried to put as much distance between us as possible. I knew that we could be heard and although I am fairly sure that this office remains free of surveillance, it would have seemed very damning indeed if you were observed walking in here and talking to me."

Dumbledore paused and looked down at his desk, then up and Harry and Ginny again, his eyes regaining some of their fear.

"But I'm afraid it's too late for that now. He has found out what I know. And I am afraid that very shortly I will disappear, too, and no one will remember me except you, Ginny. And even knowing that, I'm afraid I kept putting off the moment when I would have to tell you, whether for noble or selfish reasons I can no longer say for sure. I fear that had I not seen the two of you walking here on my friend glass, I would not have taken the initiative to call you. But in my heart of hearts I know that my only chance - the only chance for any of us - is for me to tell you everything I know. It will endanger you both, I've no doubt, but this has become something much bigger than any one of us."

There was a very pregnant pause in the conversation. Harry suddenly found it difficult to catch his own breath. He looked across to Ginny and couldn't help thinking that while he had come into this office to relieve her of a burden, she would leave it bearing a far greater albatross. Yet at the same time, Harry found he could not bear not knowing any longer and he could see from the look on Ginny's face that she felt the same.

"We don't know who or what Professor Janus is, sir," Ginny said, "but we know that he's threatening you. If you can tell us exactly what's happened, then we have the best possible chance of stopping him."

Dumbledore smiled again and looked back and forth between Ginny and Harry, his eyes full of pride, but his mouth slightly askance in an ironic smile.

"You have both done remarkably well, as always, in addressing this mystery. For it is a mystery, albeit one of the most terrifying kind. But I'm afraid I must correct you on one point: Professor Janus is not our enemy."

Harry watched as Ginny's jaw dropped and he expected his face wore a similar expression of surprise. At the same time, however, he felt something release in his heart. For reasons he could not be sure of, Harry had not wanted Janus to be their enemy and he was very glad to hear that he was not.

"B - but," Ginny protested, "surely all this started when he arrived?"

"Not quite, Ginny. As you yourself will recall, the Muggle-borns disappeared just before Professor Janus took up his post."

"But he knows they're gone! He all but admitted it to Harry!"

"Yes, he does know," agreed Dumbledore. "And a very good thing, too. Without his counsel, I would have understood very little for as I told you before, I remember nothing of the Muggle-borns myself."

But Ginny seemed no closer to being persuaded.

"But how? A - and, well, he's not - he's not normal, is he? He can Apparate into classrooms, the ghosts are terrified of him, and he doesn't even show up on the Marauder's Map! And that day when I heard him talking to Malfoy - "

Dumbledore continued to nod.

"Right on all counts, Ginny," he said. "As I said before, your investigation has been very clever. Professor Janus is, indeed, not a normal wizard. As for his conversation with Mr. Malfoy, that was perhaps something of a ruse, though, at the same time, I fear he might have made good on his ill-considered offer if Draco had truly left the Death Eaters. And as for my working for him, I'm afraid that might as well be true, too. It is certainly not the other way round. He has always been a bit headstrong."

Ginny looked over at Harry in disbelief. Dumbledore made Janus sound a cantankerous but lovable pet, rather than a fearsome enemy. But she was still not convinced.

"But that day in the corridor!" she went on. "Forgive me, sir, but you seemed absolutely terrified as soon as I mentioned him!"

Dumbledore raised his index finger.

"I do not deny it," he said. "Professor Janus very much terrifies me, as nothing has terrified me for as long as I can remember. But what terrifies me is not who Professor Janus is, it is what Professor Janus is. For you see, Professor Janus is not a thing that should be - not here, at least. And his being here tells me that things are very wrong indeed, more so than even you have imagined, Ginny."

Ginny finally seemed at a loss for words and so Harry spoke up.

"But then who is it that has taken away everyone's memories and made the Muggle-borns and the others disappear?"

Dumbledore turned to Harry and smiled mirthlessly.

"Voldemort," he said simply.

"Then he's back?" said Ginny, trying unsuccessfully to conceal the fear in her voice.

"Oh, yes." Dumbledore nodded gravely. "He's back."

Ginny and Harry looked at each other for a third time. Each of them seemed to realize that there was one great question left unanswered, the answer of which still seemed to hold the key to the entire mystery. It was Harry again who asked it:

"Sir, then, who and what is Professor Janus?"

Dumbledore fixed Harry squarely in the eye. He paused for a moment, then said:

"I want very much to tell you, Harry, but the answer is not mine to give. In spite of everything that has happened, I must still, in all fairness, leave that task to Professor Janus himself.

"I would like you to go to his office now, Harry," Dumbledore added, as Harry seemed on the point of protesting. "Even at this hour, I am confident that you will still find him there. I would like you to deliver a message to him from me and it is important that you give it to him very precisely: you must tell him that if he is anything of the man he once was, he will tell you exactly who he is - tonight. Is that understood?"

Harry nodded. Without another word, both he and Ginny got to their feet, but Dumbledore shook his head.

"I must ask you to go alone, I'm afraid, Harry," he said. "You will see why later."

Harry took hold of Ginny's hand.

"I'm not leaving her," he declared.

"Ginny will be very safe here, Harry, you have my word. As I told you, this office is the one place that Voldemort's agents have not yet penetrated. You need only be gone a short while. Once Professor Janus has answered your question, I would like you to return, with him, here. I will open the entrance when I see you coming. In the meantime, I will contact Professor Lupin and we will see about explaining everything to both of you. Is that reasonable?"

Harry didn't answer but looked across at Ginny. She squeezed his hand firmly but nodded.

"I'll be all right, Harry," she said. "Go on."

Harry turned back to Dumbledore and nodded. Then he turned around and left the office. He could not help thinking that by the time he returned, he would see nothing the same way again.

***

"Lavender, get out of here!" hissed Hermione again.

"No!" Lavender folded her arms across her chest, still smarting from Hermione's earlier insult. "I'm staying here with you - and Dean!" she added meaningfully.

Hermione was exasperated. Of all the times Lavender could choose to develop some spine, it would have to be this one.

"Maybe if you would not only think of yourself!"

"Think of my - "

"Yes! It's not just you they don't know about! The more people they know are in the group, the more likely they are to find the oth - "

"Hem, hem."

Hermione stopped talking and turned around very slowly to find herself directly underneath the protruding eyes of Dolores Umbridge.

"Do go on, Hermione, dear," she cooed. "I find what you have to say very interesting, indeed. And who do we have here?"

Hermione felt her lunch descend awkwardly into her stomach as Umbridge looked at Dean and Lavender.

"Mr. Thomas, isn't it?" she said. "And even Miss Brown! How very interesting. What do you make of this, Headmaster Snape?"

Snape seemed to be hovering a few steps behind Umbridge, as if he, too, were a little uncomfortable in her presence. Hermione found herself thinking almost kindly on him compared with the evil hag of a nun standing in front of her. But his answer offered her little in the way of comfort.

"Clearly it would seem that our three friends have a great number of things in common," he said malevolently.

Umbridge returned her gaze to the three students. "I think you might be right, headmaster," she said, her eyes full of mock realization.

"Is there something you want with me?" asked Hermione, steeling herself to show courage to this woman.

"Oh, no, dear, not at all. Why ever should you think that? As a matter of fact, the headmaster and I have come to take a few moments of Mr. Thomas's time."

Hermione heard Lavender gasp and felt her blood run cold but she forced herself to stand up and face Umbridge who, even wearing her habit, was several centimeters shorter than Hermione.

"Excuse me," she said, "but I organized this group. If you have a problem, it isn't with them. It's with me."

"It is not for you to decide how the administration of this school conducts its affairs with its own detainees, Miss Granger," Snape remarked coolly.

"Quite so, headmaster," said Umbridge sweetly, her eyes not leaving Hermione's. "But don't worry, Hermione, we will only keep Mr. Thomas a short while, though perhaps it will be long enough for you to reconsider the consequences of your actions - and inactions. Come along, then, Dean."

***

The walk between Dumbledore's office and the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom had never seemed so long to Harry as it did now. It was as though someone had magically enlarged the distance. His mind was still reeling from what he had been told in Dumbledore's office. His resolve to protect Ginny notwithstanding, he had never suspected that Dumbledore would tell them the truth so easily. He also found himself, not for the first time, very much envying Ron. Things would seem so much easier if something was wrong with Ginny. It seemed almost impossible to help her now that it seemed almost certain that something was wrong with everything else. Still, whatever it was, at least it seemed they would find it out that night. Harry tried not to think whether that made him feel better or not.

Finally, Harry found himself at the door to Janus' classroom. He half-expected to find it locked but it was open. The classroom was empty and dark but the light from a flickering lantern shone out from the half-open door to Professor Janus' office. The professor was in, it seemed, just as Dumbledore had said that he would be.

Harry walked the length of the classroom briskly, not with the heavy, impatient footsteps of Draco Malfoy but with no less purposeful strides. He got to the office door and was about to knock when Janus called him in by name.

"Come in and sit down, Harry," he said jovially, adjusting the front of a long royal blue hat crowned with a peacock feather.

Harry walked in and did as he was told, then shut the door firmly behind him.

"Shouldn't you be back in Gryffindor Tower by now?" Janus asked. "It must be nearly ten o'clock. I - "

"Professor Dumbledore sent me, sir."

Janus stopped talking and his smile vanished abruptly. There was a long moment of silence during which Harry studied his face, trying to find whether it held the mysteries to his identity as Ginny had seemed to think. There was something a little too perfect about it, Harry thought, now that he stopped to look. He supposed that if he was not indeed a normal wizard, then it was reasonable that he would not have a real face. But then what did he truly look like?

As Harry was studying Janus, it was obvious that Janus was studying him, not his face for the presence or absence of flaws, but his eyes for the hidden intentions beneath them. It was the first time that Harry could ever remember Janus looking afraid.

"And what did Professor Dumbledore send you to say, Harry?" he finally asked.

"Well, he - " Harry looked down, feeling slightly embarrassed. "It sounds a bit awkward, sir, but he said it was important that I told you exactly what he said."

"I'm sure it is, Harry." Janus forced a smile. "Please do so."

Harry forced himself to look back up at Janus. "He said - Professor Dumbledore said, sir, that it was time for you to tell me the truth about who you are. He said that if you were anything of the man you once were, you would tell me straight away. I - I don't know what it means, sir, but - "

"Not to worry, Harry," said Janus, his face now firmly set in a serious frown. "I know exactly what Professor Dumbledore is talking about."

There was another moment of silence. Then Janus leaned back in his chair and let out a deep sigh. He took off his feathered hat and placed it on his desk revealing an uncharacteristically untidy mop of bright blond hair.

"I hope you can forgive me, Harry," he said quietly. "You understand I was protecting you in a way, too, just like Dumbledore was. Still, I - I wonder sometimes whether I would have told you in any case. I'm not sure you would have believed me. I suppose I'm still not sure. A - and I just didn't know what to say. I feel like I abandoned you, Harry."

Janus ignored the bewildered expression on Harry's face and looked down at his hat ruefully.

"I've been a bit of an idiot, I know that," he said. "Dressing up in costumes, playing with swords. But, I - I - I don't know whether you can understand, Harry," he looked back up at Harry again, a pleading look in his eyes. "I - I just - I just wanted to feel alive again."

Harry shook his head.

"I - I'm very sorry, sir," he said, "but I don't think I know what you're talking about."

"No, of course you don't, Harry. But you will. I will show you."

Janus reached into his pocket and took out his wand. Harry tensed, wondering whether Janus was planning to use it on him. But then he remembered when Janus had taught him to fly. He had left himself defenseless then without really knowing the reason. He had trusted Janus and because of that trust, he had discovered an ability he had never known he had. Now, Harry decided, he would trust Janus one more time.

Janus held the wand in front of his body for a moment, then placed it toward his face. He muttered some kind of charm but Harry either did not hear the words or paid no attention to them. Instead, he continued to study Janus' face which began to change before his eyes. Lines of fatigue and age formed themselves on his skin, his blond hair turned dark, and his perfectly cropped beard grew long and mangy. But it was his eyes that struck Harry the most. They were not the inscrutable eyes of Professor Janus. They seemed wider, deeper, and full of feeling. And they still had the haunted look that Harry always remembered in his dreams.

"Dumbledore was right, Harry," said Sirius. "It's time for us to talk."