The Veil of Memories

Chapter 9

The Price of Truth

Harry's training did not leave him any room for an emotional response. Before he had realized what he was doing, he had stood up, kicked his chair violently to the corner of the office out of the way, and had his wand out and aimed at Janus.

The fabricated eyes of Sirius Black seemed to swirl with clashing eddies of contradictory emotions but the voice that emerged was calm.

"Harry," said Janus, holding his hands out in a gesture of surrender. "I know this is difficult for you to take in, but - "

"No!" bellowed Harry. "Not difficult! Impossible! You're dead! I know, I saw you die!"

"Yes, Harry," said Janus. "I don't deny it. I am dead. Only death is not what you think it is."

But Harry continued to shake his head vigorously.

"I saw you fall through that veil and you didn't come out!"

"No, I didn't, Harry. I couldn't. And believe me - "

Janus paused and swallowed but his eyes still filled with tears.

"Believe me, Harry," he went on in a voice that appeared choked with emotion. "Believe me, if there was any way I could have, I would. I - I knew you would survive, go on, I knew you had it in you but I didn't know - "

"I'M NOT LISTENING TO ANY MORE OF YOUR LIES! I'M COUNTING TO THREE AND IF YOU HAVEN'T CHANGED BACK INTO WHO YOU REALLY ARE, IN THE NAME OF THE GODDESS, I'M GOING TO HEX YOU, DUMBLEDORE BE DAMNED!"

Tears had already started to roll down Janus' cheeks but his mouth curled in an ironic smile that fit far too well for Harry's liking on the face he now wore. He held out his open palms as if showing he had nothing to hide.

"Hex me, then, Harry."

"I said I'm warning you!"

"I said hex me." The smile grew wider. "You aren't afraid, are you?"

"Immobulus!"

Before Harry could summon any regrets, the light from his wand struck Janus on the chest. The Defense Against the Dark Arts Master did not flinch, however, but the light seemed to amplify and resonate over his body like whiskey igniting and burning away from a large Christmas pudding. When the light had gone out, Janus continued to stand in place, still with a half-smile on Sirius' face, but apparently unscathed.

"So what!" barked Harry. "I know you're not normal! I just want to know who you really are. Dumbledore wants me to believe you're a friend. But I don't see how a friend - "

"Harry, listen to me, please!" said Janus, raising his voice only slightly. "I'm sure if I were you, I'd feel exactly as you do, but I have to find some way to make you understand because this is about much more than just you and me. How do you think I've come back?"

"That's what proves you're a stinking liar!" snapped Harry, still clutching his wand even though he now realized that any hex he threw at Janus would probably be useless. "Sirius can't come back! I've accepted that now; it took me a very long time, but I've accepted that. Sirius never would have left me if he'd had any choice. He wouldn't have done that to me!"

"I didn't have any choice, Harry," said Janus imploringly, emotion starting to stir in his eyes again. "I didn't then but I do now, but only because things have gone very wrong."

"Things were pretty wrong after Sirius died!"

"Listen to me, Harry. Listen to me, please, because we may not have much more time. Voldemort has been playing with forces he doesn't understand. He's manipulated the veil and unleashed a horrible imbalance between our two worlds. I crossed over to help correct that imbalance."

"If crossing over was that easy, then why didn't you do it before?"

Janus frowned. "It's not easy to explain, Harry, if you'll just - "

"THE HELL IT ISN'T! That does it, I'm not standing here listening to any more of these lies! I'm going back to tell my girlfriend that she was right about you: that you're a cheap fake of a fake who can never be trusted, that I was a rotten idiot for ever believing in you! That I should have listened to her when she told me we would have to figure you out by ourselves, because we're certainly not getting any straight answers from anyone else!"

Harry did not want to wait to hear Janus' latest excuse. He tore his head away from the scepter of his late godfather and headed toward the door. He found his path blocked, however, as Janus "re-appeared" in front of the doorway.

Harry aimed his wand back at Janus, forcing down his fear. He knew he was powerless in front of whatever kind of strange dark magic the Defense teacher was using. But he was determined not to budge.

"I didn't say I thought you couldn't do magic tricks!" he cried, his voice now hoarse from all of the shouting. "Get out of my way! Or are you afraid that everyone in this school will know what a lying cheat you are?"

Janus did not respond. He only held out his hand, an oddly solemn, almost pious expression, crossing his face.

"What in Merlin's name is that supposed to mean?" Harry demanded. "Are you challenging me to a duel? I think you might have left your sword with the other pirates!"

"Take my hand, Harry," was the calm response.

"I - "

A witticism formed in Harry's mind but then died on his throat. He looked down at Janus' hand, remembering how once he had used it to pull Harry up from the floor. But this was not the hand of Professor Janus. It was the ghostly white, wiry yet strong hand of his godfather.

"Take my hand, Harry," said Janus again. "If you want to know the truth, take my hand. I can't promise you it will be pleasant but then you will know, then you will begin to see a shadow of the thing that I have become. And I know you're not afraid of the truth."

And there again was that half-ironic, half-shrewd knowing smile that fit so chillingly well on the mask of a face that belonged to Sirius.

"Afraid of yourself, perhaps," Janus finished, "but not afraid of the truth."

Harry wanted to lash out again, to resist Janus' charade before he could believe it long enough to betray himself. But yet again he found his will sinking into a dangerous trust. A trust propelled by a naturally powerful curiosity, to be sure, but also a greater, deeper need, a need that rose from the part of himself that he had managed to suppress even in the company of his closest friends, even when he was alone with Ginny, the part of himself of which Harry was most afraid.

Harry looked one last time into the limpid depths of his godfather's eyes and then grasped hold of his outstretched hand.

And fell.

First, he was falling through blackness. Then strange forms and colors started to coalesce around him but none of them took any shape. It seemed that the more Harry tried to grasp some recognizable detail, the more opaque it became. Finally, a round white blur at the edge of his vision swam quickly into focus and Harry found himself looking down on a small sunken chamber.

There seemed to be some sort of battle taking place. It seemed for a moment that Harry was rushing headfirst into its center but then he stopped just a few feet above the fray. It was a bit like falling into a pensieve, only Harry wasn't among the combatants, he still seemed to be floating above them. Whatever the case, it was clear the combatants did not see him.

Harry had barely begun to find his orientation when he realized with a horrible jolt to his heart exactly at what he was looking: he was back at the Department of Mysteries the night that Sirius had died. He could see himself, grabbing hold of Neville's arm and desperately trying to hoist him out of the chamber as the Death Eaters and the Order did furious battle.

Still further on, Sirius - the real Sirius - was deep in a pitched battle with his cousin, a battle he seemed to be losing. Harry tried to cry out to him but his voice had no sound. He then tried to move toward him, though how Harry moved he was still not sure. It seemed like he was flying, a little like he had flown with Professor Janus but still different. Harry could feel nothing as he swooped forward and he found he thought nothing of conquering gravity. It was as though he was trapped in an involuntary daydream in which he mastered the skill which he had so labored to acquaint himself with in real life.

Harry moved closer to Sirius and found himself at the ground level of the combatants. Instinctively ducking from the wand fire that raged all around him, he moved quickly to Sirius' side, determined to stand with him, hoping that he might have been given a second chance to avoid the tragedy unfolding once more in front of his eyes. He was vaguely aware that, somewhere nearby, the prophecy had shattered and an ethereal voice was now divulging its contents, unheard above the din. Once level with his godfather, Harry turned around and reached for his wand but he did not seem able to grasp anything. Fear overtook him as he looked across at the masked Death Eater sparring with him, a Death Eater whose wild feral eyes made her appear like a caged animal behind darkened bars. Bellatrix Lestrange - Sirius' assassin.

Abandoning his search for a wand that no longer seemed to have any feeling, Harry tried again to cry out to Sirius but his godfather, whose face was now inches away from Harry's own, still did not seem to hear him. Both he and Lestrange carried on with the fight as though they could not see Harry at all. From out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw that his other self had moved with Neville further toward the exit. Dumbledore had now entered and had begun to round up the Death Eaters, but the battle between Sirius and Lestrange went ignored - just as Harry remembered it had.

Harry winced as a hex flew past - or was it through? - where he was now standing. A horrible premonition suddenly seized him and he looked back to where his other self was standing only to find himself staring over in his direction. They seemed to lock eyes but Harry found he knew almost right away that his younger self was looking not at him but at his godfather behind him. Harry had merely begun to turn around when he heard the ringing of Sirius' voice in his ear, a sound that gave him comfort even as the content of its words inspired terror.

"Come on," Sirius said tauntingly, "you can do better than that!"

Harry did not bother to scream this time. He lunged forward toward his godfather hoping to protect him from the lethal curse that was to follow, prepared even to take it for himself if need be. But instead of colliding with the flesh and bone of Sirius' thin but muscular body, Harry felt an oddly cold sensation, as though he had been plunged headfirst into a tank of cold water. He felt disoriented for a moment and the room seemed to swim in front of his eyes. When he finally refocused, he found he was looking straight across at Lestrange, a wand raised in her steely arms. He looked frantically around for Sirius but could see him nowhere. He was still looking when a sharp pain struck him in the chest like a moving object.

He looked around in surprise and focused for a moment once again on Lestrange, her wand now falling to her side and her eyes gleaming from a smile of immense satisfaction that was evidently written on her mouth. Then she began to blur as did the chamber around him. The pain in Harry's chest turned quickly into a numbing sensation that spread throughout his body, a body of which Harry suddenly found himself very much aware. A primal scream went up from another corner of the room and Harry saw his younger self trying to rush forward, restrained in the arms of Professor Lupin, whose own face was round in shock. He tried to move forward toward himself but a force - the force of the shot - kept sending him back. Finally, Harry felt himself reach out a hand but it was not his own arm he saw in front of his face but the wiry, bony hand of his godfather.

And then Harry felt himself falling again. A cool silky fabric caressed his body. He tried to fight it off but once again in vain. He felt himself falling into a great, black sea. The underside of a tattered veil hung on a dais above him. Harry could still see the chamber dimly through its translucent surface before both it and the veil itself disappeared completely.

Harry felt himself suffocating. Cold black water closed in around him. He tried to swim upwards but couldn't. A horrible aching pain grew out of his lungs like the weaving of a spider's web, then flew with piercing clarity to his head. Harry flung his arms and legs back and forth in a panic. He was certain he could not survive for one more moment, and then...

He was falling again. This time through air. Harry took large, grateful gulps of oxygen which cooled the fires of his burning lungs. His vision began to clear and he found himself passing through a film of clouds. When the clouds moved away, the sight he saw captured the air from his lungs once again.

An enormous, stark rocky brown valley stretched out before him, carved out on each side by enormous heather-strewn peaks rising higher into the skies than the loftiest mountains known to humankind - Muggle or wizard. The valley ahead curled forward and impossibly up into the azure sky ahead, its size and breath beyond anything that humans could conceive in all but the strange lucid depths of a morning dream.

Harry flew very fast, faster than he could have ever traveled on a broomstick but with the strange feeling that he wasn't moving at all, rather that the ground itself was rushing in a stream below him. The endless brown valley ended suddenly in pastures of a dazzling green. The mountains grew so tall that Harry's head spun, their glacial peaks blending seamlessly with the white puffy clouds overhead. A waterfall sprang out of the mountain shooting outward like a leaky tap, its spray falling slowly to the earth while its mist coalesced before Harry's eyes into the clouds above. The water flowed from somewhere underneath the mountain into a silvery line that stretched through the grass at Harry's feet. A strange bright purple beast, like a rhinoceros that had wandered too near a paint can, lapped at the stream's water. Then other strange beasts came out from the valley around him, covered with colors and spots Harry hadn't known existed. The beasts grew larger and more plentiful as Harry flew further over the meadow.

And then Harry saw them: people, many people, dressed in robes of brilliant colors just like the animals around them, rushing toward him waving their hands. At first, he thought he would pass over them but then his movement seemed to suddenly slow and he began to move downwards. As he approached the verdant meadow on which the people and animals were standing, he could see the faces of the people more clearly. He wasn't sure why but he felt certain they were wizards and witches like himself. Now that he was nearer them, he could see that most wore stars and crescent moons along the sides of their brilliant robes, not unlike the patterns that Dumbledore frequently wore on his. As Harry began to descend, one man, with a grey, balding head and an ugly but happy-looking face ran toward him. There was something familiar about him although Harry was sure they hadn't met before. Harry felt the cool grass between his toes just as the man touched his hands to his.

"Is it you?" he exclaimed hoarsely. "B - but so young and...." The man's voice trailed off as he frowned, "...hurt. You have suffered among the mundanes, haven't you?"

"The..." Harry began. "I'm sorry, I don't know wh - what you mean - I - I - where am I? What is this place?"

A sad look came into the man's eyes. "Don't you know?" he asked. "You're home now, again, with us, here, beyond the gateway?"

"The gateway? I - I - "

"It is Sirius, isn't it?"

Harry's next confused reply died on his lips. He felt as though a light had suddenly shone through the fog in his head. The journey through the veil had not been his. He was seeing through the eyes of Sirius. He looked again at the old man and realized where he had seen him before: his portrait hung at number twelve, Grimmauld Place. He was one of Sirius' relatives, but what was he doing here? And where were they?

No sooner had Harry opened his mouth in reply, however, when he heard another voice say:

"He won't remember; none of us did, did we? Least of all those of us who were ripped too soon from the pain and pleasures of the flesh."

The old man said something back to the newcomer, an acknowledgement of understanding, perhaps, but Harry did not catch it clearly. He was much too absorbed by the newcomer's lanky frame, untidy black hair, and round glasses not unlike his own. He might have been looking into a mirror - or staring at a ghost.

"Dad?" he croaked.

But before James Potter could answer, a loud thunderclap, louder than the most frightening of English thunderstorms exploded above Harry's head. He looked up to see a billowing stream of grey clouds moving over the mountains toward them at an incredible pace. Suddenly, the people began to cry out and the animals bleated and roared in alarm. He turned back around only to see their colors begin to bleed impossibly together. Finally, Harry stood alone as a cloud of color began to rise from the ground where the people and animals had stood just a moment before. The last thing he saw was his father bleeding away within them. Before he could cry out himself, the earth shook beneath him and Harry fell awkwardly to the ground. When he sat up and looked ahead again, the scene had changed.

The people were back now but fewer. The colors of their clothes were dimmer, less brilliant, only as bright as the hues of our waking world. Lines of worry criss-crossed their faces. His father was there again bent over a strange looking machine, like a large boulder that had sprouted wires. A small cloud rose from the machine within which hung a labyrinth of small colored lights like a giant city of fireflies.

James was not alone this time. A woman stood next to him and she looked worried, too, although the lines of concern seemed out of place on her soft, young face. Long red hair fell thickly down her shoulders. Harry was about to call out Ginny's name when the woman's eyes looked up briefly from the machine and he saw that they were not brown, like Ginny's, but green.

Like his.

"Mum!" Harry called, walking forward anxiously. "Dad!"

But Lily and James did not seem to hear Harry or notice him there.

"Can you see him?" asked Lily to James.

"See who?" cried Harry. "I'm right here!"

James shook his head. "He's just a light among them now. I can no more see him than any of the other mundanes."

"But what is he doing?" cried Lily, exasperated. "Does he know how close we are? The storms grow worse by the day!"

"He must be doing all he can," said James. "We just have to - " His face creased. "There's something coming through again. It's - "

James froze and so did Harry. A beam of milky grey light had spun out from the cloud like a thin column of smoke. Before Harry could move, it had wound its way toward him and struck his chest. Something like the stabbing pain he had felt when Lestrange's curse had hit him seized hold of Harry. The grey light spread from his chest and began to cover his entire body, firing prickles of pain wherever it touched. At first, it felt like lying down naked on a bed of stinging nettles but in the next moment, it seemed like the surface of Harry's skin was being slowly burned off.

"Mum! Dad!" he cried again. "Help me! I'm - I'm on fire!"

James peered at the endpoint of the grey smoke far too slowly for Harry's liking. He squinted for a moment and then gasped.

"Lily, it's not - is it - "

Harry's mother let out an enormous gasp and grabbed hold of his father's arm.

"James, it's Harry! It must be - it - it - James, it's really him, it's Harry! It's our baby Harry!"

Harry felt his chest constrict. He tried to call out but the searing pain that had now spread all throughout his body began to intensify. He felt as though he was being slowly fried from inside an oven.

"He shouldn't be here!" cried James frantically, his hands flying over invisible buttons on the strange device. "What is he doing here?"

Lily ignored him.

"Harry!" she called out in the general direction of the light as if knowing her son was there but not quite able to see him. "Harry, can you hear me?"

Harry tried to cry out again but the pain prevented him from forming any words. A primal yell escaped from his chest.

"James, he's in trouble!"

But James was still looking down at the controls, his face red and fuming and his fingers moving back and forth with incredible speed.

"What the devil is Sirius doing? We've got to get him back there!"

James and Lily kept crying out. Soon they were joined by a cacophony of voices from the wizards and witches behind them. But Harry could no longer hear them. His body was blocking everything out but the fire that was raging inside it. The images around him blurred and went black. Finally, when Harry was sure that his body could take no more, when he had even begun to wish for the bliss of nothingness he was certain would follow at the end of his pain, a single authoritative male voice rang out hoarsely in his head:

"Harry! Harry! HARRY!"

With an uncomfortable ripping sensation, Harry opened his eyes, only to find that the pain that had seemed to scorch his whole body had vanished as quickly as the fantastic surroundings in which he had found himself.

He was on the floor of the Defense Against the Dark Arts office, his back against Janus' desk. Janus, now returned to his original form (or disguise?), still had hold of his hand. After another moment, Harry became aware of an acute yet more localized pain. There was a funny taste in his mouth. He reached his hand inside and saw blood come away on his fingers.

"I think you bit down on your tongue when you fell backwards against the desk," said Janus, his eyes full of concern. "Here."

He took out his wand and cast a localized healing charm on Harry's tongue. The pain in the back of Harry's head also cleared.

"I should probably take you to see Madam Pomfrey," Janus added anxiously, "but under the circumstances we probably don't have enough time. It was foolish for me to transform in here but under the circumstances...." Janus broke off and sighed, then held out his hand. "Come on. We've got to go and see Dumbledore right away."

But Harry did not take Janus' hand. He found himself completely shattered, as though he had just fought an exhausting battle and lost.

"Wh - what - what happened?" he asked.

"I'll explain, Harry," said Janus patiently, "but not here. Now, please, come along. You still don't trust me?"

Harry took a deep breath. He wasn't sure it could be called trust but he felt too dumbfounded to question anything Janus was saying to him now. He took hold of Janus' hand and allowed himself to be pulled up. Ignoring a pinching pain in his lower back and a smoldering curiosity as to how he had landed on the floor to feel pain in the first place, he stumbled to his feet and dusted his robes off automatically. Janus, for his part, did not stop to wait but led the way quickly out of the office. After only the shortest of pauses, Harry followed.

***

Harry wanted to think about so many things as Janus led him away from the classroom and down the corridors to Dumbledore's office but could concentrate on none of them. The corridors of the school Harry had walked across for the last six years seemed suddenly unfamiliar, dull and opaque next to the clear brilliance of the exotic dimension within which his mind had just journeyed. He found himself certain that if Janus was not leading the way, he would have been far too absent-minded to navigate the return journey himself. He wondered whether this difficulty was a metaphor for the struggle he would have in returning to his normal life after what he had just seen. A flood of errant emotions ran through Harry as stark yet jumbled as the images he had seen from another place: he was, at once, awed, hopeful, angry - and afraid.

Janus said nothing as they walked. Harry did not doubt that he knew more or less what Harry had seen in his vision and how difficult it had been for him to comprehend. Finally, however, they approached the stone gargoyle which quickly opened once again of its own accord. Janus stepped first onto the winding staircase. The gargoyle closed quickly behind them. As soon as it had done so, Janus took out his wand, muttered his charm, and transformed once again into Sirius Black. Harry caught his breath as a thick, icy sensation descended into his chest. The ghost that was not a ghost turned slowly around to look at him and said only:

"It will be all right, Harry. We're going to explain everything now - together."

Harry tried to respond but his mouth had gone rigid. Seeming to understand, Sirius reached out his hand and pushed open the door which was still unlocked and slightly ajar.

The first thing Harry noticed was Dumbledore sitting stoically behind his desk. Professor Lupin stood next to him, his hair now greyer than brown and several new vicious-looking self-inflicted scars on his cheek. It was obvious from their expressions that this was not the first time either of them had seen Sirius in this form. The silent scene was broken by Ginny, who still sat in the same chair facing Dumbledore's desk. The moment they entered the room, she swiveled around to face the entrance. It was obvious to Harry from her expression that, in his absence, she had been prepared by Dumbledore for what was to come, but her jaw still dropped and her face went stony pale in what Harry could only assume was a mirror of his own.

"Merlin," she managed, her wide brown eyes staring up at Sirius.

"Hello, Ginny," said Sirius, his own intense eyes meeting hers. "I'm sorry I deceived you. I knew your real name that first day of class because, of course, I already knew you before. You are indeed a very bright witch, however, no less than your very good friend, Hermione."

Ginny did not manage to reply again this time and continued to stare after Sirius as he turned and stood next to Lupin. The once and present Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers exchanged a glance that was brief but saturated with a hundred different meanings.

Harry fell into the chair next to Ginny. Their hands quickly found each other and then their wondering eyes.

"Is it really..." said Ginny, taking in a breath.

Harry instinctively looked back up to Sirius and caught a fleeting but pleading look in his eyes.

"Yes," he said slowly, his eyes not leaving his godfather, but his mind still fixed in the world he had just seen. "Yes, I think he must be. But I - I - don't know how - how it's possible." He looked searchingly around at the other occupants of the office.

Sirius seemed to let out a breath if in fact he was breathing at all.

"Perhaps I should be the one to begin explaining," he said gently. "After all, I've become used to it now."

There was little response from the others. Harry sensed that everyone was waiting for him to acknowledge his godfather's request. He looked at Sirius and slowly nodded.

Sirius looked at his godson for another moment and then began.

"When I showed you my true form earlier, Harry, you told me I couldn't be here because I was dead. In every sense that you think of the word, I am. But death is not what I thought of it when I lived in this world, and it's not what any of you think of it now. In ancient times, wizards and witches had an inkling of what death might be. They tried to study it; they even tried to master it, but with horrible consequences. Dark magic as we now know it began in this way. When they saw where the results of their manipulations might lead, most of our kind sought to put a stop to this experimentation and, over time, they succeeded. So much so that any decent wizard and witch, even those most powerful among us," Sirius nodded at Dumbledore, "knows little of its mysteries. The only thing that remains of this experimentation is the gateway that we once used, ruthlessly and ignorantly, to penetrate into the world of the dead. And though our ancient forbearers tried to destroy all knowledge of what we had learned, they did not destroy the gateway, but kept it instead in what they believed was the safest of places - at the heart of the wizard government itself, what we now know as the Ministry of Magic. There they believed it might be safely studied by a future generation of more enlightened leaders and scientists."

Sirius finished with an ironic smile that left little doubt that he believed that present-day wizard-kind was hardly more enlightened than its ancestors.

Harry frowned.

"The gateway?" he said. "You - you mean the veil, don't you? That veiled archway? In the Department of Mysteries?"

It was Lupin who answered.

"That's right, Harry," he said stoically. "It was the most brilliant, yet most monstrous thing that we have ever created and it should have been destroyed long ago."

"But it was not," said Dumbledore wearily.

"But what is it doing there?" asked Ginny. "And in that room? It looked as if it was on a kind of stage or something for people to watch. Is that where the wizard scientists did their experiments?"

Sirius turned to Ginny and smiled, a smile that was sad, kind, yet somehow very dark all at once. She felt an involuntary shiver run up her spine.

"I can't tell you how pleased I am to see you together with Harry, Ginny. And even if he has never told you himself, which I sincerely hope he has, I know it would have been far harder for him to have lived through these last two years if it hadn't been for you. Friendship is something but love and friendship together is something much more. You are a good person, Ginny, and light will always follow you wherever you go. But I also know that you were touched by darkness once just as I was. Your heart is not black but you can see the blackness in the hearts of others. Don't be afraid of this, Ginny; it is your strength. Evil does not go away when we pretend it doesn't exist. Can you not think of the use that room was originally put to?"

Ginny watched as Sirius' eyes - eyes from somewhere far beyond the final ignorance of all humankind - stared into hers and she wondered how much of her past Sirius could see. Then swallowing the dryness that had suddenly condensed in her throat, she said:

"It was an execution chamber, wasn't it?"

"Yes, Ginny," said Sirius, his eyes not leaving hers. "I'm afraid that it was."

"We tried to understand the world beyond it at first," added Lupin. "When we found out the price we would pay for doing so, the veil was put to much more - convenient uses."

"In slight defense of our forbearers," added Sirius, "it was a somewhat painless way to go. Or so I suspected at the time. My family knew some of its secrets, you see; these things were passed down among the darkest of families. I knew I had not survived my cousin's curse and I hardly wanted to give her the satisfaction of seeing me suffer, nor you the pain, Harry. And so I mustered what strength I had left and fell backwards through the veil." He looked back searchingly at his godson. "And had I thought there was any way I could have survived, no matter what the turmoil, I wouldn't have fallen. I wouldn't have left you, I promise."

Harry felt a hard lump develop in his throat. The emotions he had been fighting ever since he had first confronted Janus in his office threatened to finally spring forth. He felt Ginny's hand tightly squeeze his but it did not stop a tear from falling down his cheek.

"I know," he sobbed. "I believe you."

There was a much longer break this time. Dumbledore conjured a handkerchief and handed it to Harry with the gentleness of a grandfather. Harry blew his nose and dried his eyes and Ginny ran her fingers through his hair. But his eyes never left his godfather's as if he was never sure he would see them again. Finally, he swallowed several times and then nodded.

"Please go on," he said. "I - I want to hear more."

"I could have been a ghost, I suppose," said Sirius, managing another small smile, "but after all I'd experienced, death seemed like the only adventure left. The ghosts are the ones I pity the most now. The world beyond the gateway is more brilliant than anything we can imagine as mundanes."

Harry's tears quickly dried and a look of astonishment passed over him.

"When - when you touched me," he said, "that was the world I saw - b - but how? I'm still alive, aren't I?"

Lupin rounded on Sirius.

"You did what?" he demanded.

Sirius flashed Lupin a truculent smile.

"I had to help him see. As you know full well, there isn't time."

But Lupin was not impressed. "That was extremely dangerous! If Harry had stayed there too long, he wouldn't have been able to come back!"

Sirius' smile did not leave his face. "Credit me with some sense, Remus. I have gained a great deal of experience in these matters. And besides, Harry isn't afraid of a little danger, are you?"

Harry shook his head vigorously.

Lupin looked back and forth between Sirius and Harry disapprovingly, but voiced no further rebuke.

"Yes, it was, Harry," replied Sirius, after a pause. "Or as much of an imitation of it as your mind could understand."

"What do you mean - mundanes?" asked Ginny.

"Mundanes are the name that we give to people in your world, Ginny," said Sirius, "or, more correctly, in your phase of existence. We all came from beyond the gateway and one day we will all return there. We all chose to come to this world to live the adventures of flesh, bones, and sense that we cannot experience there. We also agreed to help those who are trapped in this world forever. We were given tools - our magical abilities - but when we are caught inside a single body, we lose the memories of our souls dancing together. It is not until after we have returned home that we slowly begin to remember ourselves as we once were. Certain things can help us remember, though - like love." He looked meaningfully at Harry and Ginny.

"To help others?" repeated Harry, spellbound at his godfather's words. "You mean - you mean the Muggles, don't you?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes, Harry," replied Sirius. "The Muggles came from beyond the gateway as well but their memories of magic became so forgotten that they could not return once they had died. Instead, they were simply reborn again into other bodies. Those of us who volunteered to travel back and become mundanes ourselves pledged to help them realize their true nature so that they could return once again into the world which they came from long ago."

Harry looked confused. "But you just said they couldn't go back? How could we help them then?"

"By understanding something of their true natures, Muggles could be reborn in their next lifetimes as wizards or witches and then, following that, if they cultivated their abilities, they could finally return to our world beyond the gateway after their deaths."

"Have we been reborn then?" asked Ginny, equally rapt to attention.

"No," replied Sirius. "This is the first time for both of you. As it is for Professor Dumbledore. That is why your magic is especially strong. Since you have honed your abilities, there is little doubt you will be able to return after this lifetime. Have you not ever wondered why you can do magic - what it is?"

"Well, of course," said Harry. "Lots of times."

Ginny nodded, too, although Harry sensed that coming from all-wizarding family, this was a question she had asked far less often than himself.

"Magic is the ability to bring something from beyond the gateway into your own world. Light magic, which is always full of love, keeps this connection especially close. Dark magic, on the other hand, is destructive. It takes the power from our world only at the expense of breeding ignorance of its true nature. If it is powerful enough, it has the power to hurt our world as well as yours, as it has now."

"B - but if we can just come back, why couldn't you come back?" Harry demanded to Sirius, a very slight edge to his voice. "Why can't my Mum and Dad come back?"

Sirius held his hands out in a gesture of surrender, just as his Janus persona had when Harry had confronted him in his office.

"I don't know why, Harry," he said, "but whether we stay for many lifetimes, or as your case, just one, the trip can only be taken once. Once we have found our way back beyond the gateway, we can never return to become mundanes again. And believe me, that is not an easy thing to live with. Our world is beautiful but there is something about the sensations of the flesh that can never really quite be replaced."

"But you have come back!" said Harry.

"Yes," said Sirius, looking grave again. "And that wasn't supposed to have happened. It has only happened because destructive forces have been unleashed on our world by this one, the same sort of forces that the ignorant scientists who created the gateway tried to use, but this time much, much worse. The boundary between our two worlds - between life and death itself - has become so unstable that it is now possible for us to cross back, not only as newborn souls, but, in effect, as we are. In fact, we had no other choice. A great amount of the essence of your world has been forced into ours; we had to respond in kind in order to stabilize the rift. But the repair is only temporary: if the damage continues and our worlds are touched together in full, then existence itself will cease. The worlds are opposites. They will, in effect, cancel each other out."

Harry's forehead creased as he tried to absorb the full impact of what his godfather was telling them.

"The storm," he said finally.

All eyes turned to him. Only Sirius' showed a glimmer of understanding.

"The storm," Harry repeated, "in the vision I saw. The people were terrified of it; they tried to run away."

Sirius nodded but said nothing further.

"But aren't you touching this world now? I mean, you're here among us, as you are as you said."

Ginny frowned at the tongue-twister her still confused mind had produced.

"Not quite, Ginny," said Sirius. "I am here in stasis - in a sort of bubble, if you like - just like the parts of your own world are in ours. The bubble puts stress on your reality but only in equal measure to the stress you have put on ours."

"That's how you can Apparate!" said Ginny, her eyes suddenly full of understanding. "And that's why you don't show up on the Marauder's Map!"

Sirius smiled again. "Yes, Ginny, as usual, you seem to have found the truth. I have never Apparated. One cannot, in fact, Apparate in or outside of Hogwarts as Hermione was so often fond of telling you. What you saw me doing was disappearing into my own world and then re-appearing again in another part of your own. I had a body, Professor Janus, that I conjured both as a disguise and, as Harry has discovered, so that anyone who touched me did not suddenly find themselves pulled out of their own reality. But it wasn't a real body like yours. And that was why I did not appear on your map."

"But who would want to destroy the world?" asked Ginny.

It was Harry who answered.

"Voldemort. It's Voldemort, isn't it?"

Dumbledore slowly nodded.

"But why?" demanded Ginny. "I know he's evil but surely even he doesn't want to destroy the whole world? For one thing, he would destroy himself as well! Doesn't he understand what he is doing?"

"No, Ginny, he does not," said the Headmaster gravely. "As I'm sure you have realized by now, Voldemort knows nothing of love. How could he understand anything of the world beyond the gateway?"

But Ginny was not completely satisfied.

"But if he's manipulating the gateway as you say, then he must know something about it!"

But Dumbledore shook his head again.

"Lord Voldemort has a great deal of knowledge, perhaps indeed more than any wizard who has ever lived, but he has no wisdom, and that is perhaps the most dangerous ignorance of all. Voldemort is motivated by one thing, Ginny, and one thing only: fear. That is why he uses it so often as a weapon. It is he who understands how deeply fear stings. Do you know what the word 'Voldemort' means, Ginny?"

Ginny shook her head. She had spent most of her life in fear of even hearing or speaking the Dark Lord's name. She had not spent much time thinking about what it might mean. She looked across at Harry but he only shrugged.

"It means 'flight from death,'" replied Dumbledore. "Voldemort and his 'Death Eaters' are afraid to die, as all of us are, because they know nothing of what lies beyond death. Even if Voldemort were to stand here with us in this very room and supposing he believed that we desired to tell him the truth, he would still insist it was we who were misguided and deceived, not him. I believe that Voldemort knows, as I did, something of the principles of the gateway and that it is a world beyond death. It is not enough to understand the world but it is enough to manipulate it and by manipulating it, he hopes, in some way, to cheat death for himself."

Then Dumbledore paused and sighed heavily.

"And there's another reason: even if Voldemort knew and believed everything Sirius has told you tonight, he would also realize that he can never return to the world beyond the gateway. His soul is condemned to perish forever when his current body expires. I saw to that."

"You, sir?" asked Ginny incredulously. "But how? When?"

But Harry looked steadily across at Dumbledore, realization in his eyes.

"The curse you cast on Voldemort in the original room last spring," he said.

Dumbledore nodded slowly.

Ginny swung her head around to look at Harry. "What curse?" she asked.

"Spiritus Volare Mortalis," replied Harry. "It means that the next time Voldemort returned he would be mortal and that his next body would be his last...." His voice trailed off. "But I didn't know at the time - I didn't realize - "

Lupin nodded slowly. "The irony is that Voldemort had the immortality he sought all along, but his own fear and evil have finally caused him to lose it."

But Dumbledore did not seem as pleased with his own handiwork.

"I made him desperate," he said gravely. "A plan of the scale he has unleashed now could not have been something he thought of or planned overnight. He must have been waiting for a long time. Perhaps he was waiting until he had found the support he wanted. Perhaps he wanted to kill you first, Harry, to make sure you did not interfere with his plans. But after I cursed him that afternoon, everything changed. He realized that he could be killed easily and all would be lost. He now has no choice but to try to use the power and knowledge at his disposal to eliminate death itself as he understands it - as quickly as possible. He has nothing to lose and that is the most dangerous thing of all. And he has caught us all at our most unprepared hour."

The headmaster seemed to collapse back into his chair. It was no wonder to Harry now why he had seemed so desperate to Ginny that morning they had met in the corridor. All of Dumbledore's plans to make Voldemort easier for Harry to kill when he returned had now backfired on a massive scale. Dumbledore had underestimated Voldemort after spending half a lifetime trying to do anything but.

"But I still don't understand," Harry heard Ginny saying. "Voldemort's come back then? How? Where? Surely he can't be that difficult to stop if he's mortal now? We can't just sit here and let him get away with this!"

Dumbledore and Sirius turned to Lupin and Harry and Ginny sensed it was now his turn to explain what had happened.

"We don't intend to let him get away with anything," he replied, with as much conviction as it seemed he could muster at the moment, "but as Professor Dumbledore says, he has caught us unawares with some very powerful dark magic we did not know he possessed. I'm afraid that, at the moment, he enjoys the upper hand."

Lupin waited for a moment for his words to sink in and then continued.

"Last summer, there was a break-in at the Department of Mysteries and the gateway was removed from its place."

"The six missing Ministry wizards!" exclaimed Ginny, remembering the article Hermione had read to them from The Daily Prophet on the Hogwarts Express the first day of the term.

"That's right, Ginny," said Lupin. "The Ministry, which has already suffered a large number of scandals, not least of which consistently denying and then downplaying Voldemort's return, tried to cover up what they saw as a serious embarrassment. It was only after Sirius returned that we began to suspect the truth. Using our Order contacts, I was able to discover what had happened. Once again, with help from Sirius, who was able to perceive energies of the Gateway that none of us can understand, we have been able to pinpoint its approximate location."

Lupin took out his wand and drew an arc in the air. One wall of Dumbledore's office was suddenly transformed into a large evergreen forest, sloping over gentle hills. In the middle of the forest, hanging like a turquoise jewel, was a small lake. Several portraits on the wall grumbled half-sleepy protests but Lupin ignored them.

"We believe it is somewhere in the Lake District of northern England," said Lupin, "in an area home mostly to myocorps and goblins, but far from any centers of human population, either Muggle or wizard. From what the Order has been able to determine, there have been significant movements of Death Eaters around the lake over the last several months. We believe that the veil may be actually stored underneath the lake itself."

"But what are they doing with it there?" asked Harry.

"Making all hell break loose, Harry," said Sirius darkly. "They think they can experiment with it, manipulate it, that they can finally use it to cheat death."

"Even the Ministry would not fail to notice if they tried to tinker with it under their very noses," said Dumbledore, "so their first step was to move it to somewhere else."

"How do we know it's Voldemort who did this?" asked Ginny, sounding doubtful about her own question. "I mean, couldn't it just be the remaining Death Eaters themselves? One last attempt, that sort of thing?"

But Dumbledore shook his head somberly. "Only a wizard with Voldemort's power could have moved the gateway itself. Besides, Sirius has helped us there again."

"Beyond the gateway we have a sort of, well, a sort of machine, I suppose, though it isn't a machine in any way you would think of it," Sirius explained. "I suppose you might call it a soul glass. The soul glass enables us to see every soul alive, and whether they are mundane, that is, locked inside a body, or not and whether they are wizard - that is, possessing magic - or Muggle."

"So you can see Voldemort?" asked Harry.

"Not quite," replied Sirius. "The soul glass cannot tell us the identity of the souls, not in any case as you think of them, but it is possible to determine their nature. Occasionally, more than one soul attaches to a single body."

"Even we are aware of this," added Lupin. "Many cultures speak of soul possession or spirit possession: the Chinese call it a futi, the Etoro of New Guinea refer to it as an ausulubo, the early Christians called them demons, the - "

Sirius briefly flashed Lupin a slightly pained look and their former teacher cleared his throat and stopped.

"In this case," Sirius went on. "We have been able to see a double-souled body which has, on occasion, appeared near the entrance to the Gateway. Moreover, unlike most double-souled bodies in which one soul is eventually expelled by the other to inhabit a normally vacant new body, this soul is slowly eating the other. In time, it will consume it completely. There is only one mundane who possesses those sorts of abilities as well as the cruelty to use them."

"Where is the double-souled body now, then?" asked Harry as Ginny grimaced. "Can you track it?"

Sirius shook his head again. "We cannot perceive space in the way that mundanes do. We can only distinguish the double-souled body when it nears the Gateway. Of course, I can see the mundane world as you do while I am here, just as you briefly saw into our world, Harry, albeit through my own essence. But I can no more tell if I have encountered Voldemort's new body than you could."

"So it could be anyone?" said Ginny.

"Not just anyone," said Dumbledore. "Voldemort could have only merged with the other soul with its owner's consent."

"Like Professor Quirrell!" said Harry.

"In some ways, yes, and in other ways, no, Harry," replied Dumbledore enigmatically. "In either case, there aren't many who would consent to house Voldemort's soul. It is most likely a Death Eater, and more than likely, whoever it is has little appreciation of the consequences of his or her actions."

"Who else is near the veil?" asked Ginny. "Can you see other Death Eaters? You said that you had to come to our world because something of our world had come into yours," she said to Sirius.

In response, Sirius nodded quickly to Lupin who flicked his wand again. The image of the forest and the lake disappeared, replaced by a strange-looking diagram of circles and lines. A small round circle stood in the middle that contained a diagram of the veil and its archway - the Gateway. The Gateway sat at the zenith of an arc. The area above the arc was colored in black and labeled "THE WORLD BEYOND" and the area below it, shaded in yellow was labeled "OUR WORLD." The area within our world was dotted with small black circles. Ginny realized without asking that the circles were part of the world beyond in ours; Sirius was one of them and there must be others like him here also. The world beyond was pure black save for a small yellow amoeba-like blotch that emanated from somewhere along the arc between the two worlds just to the left of the Gateway.

"Is that what's causing the imbalance?" asked Harry, pointing to the cloud.

"Yes, very good, Harry," replied Lupin. "This is what Voldemort and the Death Eaters have managed to create. For what purpose, we cannot be sure, but it is the source of the instability and imbalance. It is a kind of bubble-world, a part of our own universe, with the same laws and principles, that has encroached into theirs."

"And it isn't empty," added Sirius. "There are people in it: Muggles and wizards."

"The Muggle-borns!" cried Ginny, rising to her feet.

"We cannot be sure, Ginny," said Lupin calmly, "but it does seem a likely hypothesis, yes."

"But what are they doing there?" asked Ginny.

"We do not know that either," said Dumbledore. "But they are in even greater danger than the rest of us. Their world is the most unstable and unnatural element in this whole very volatile interface."

"But we've got to get them out of there!" Ginny cried.

Sirius smiled again ironically.

"Believe me, Ginny, we're trying."

"We have sent members of the Order to try and penetrate the lake," explained Lupin, "but we have had no better success in finding the Gateway than the Death Eaters had in discovering number twelve, Grimmauld Place."

"Is that why we can't remember them?" said Harry as Ginny wrung her hands in exasperation.

"No," replied Dumbledore, looking very tired indeed. "We do not remember them because we have been subjected to an extremely powerful series of Memory Charms placed, we believe, by various Death Eaters in different parts of the wizarding world. One at Hogwarts, one at the Ministry, one at the Prophet, and several in major centers of wizard populations. As I said, this was an extremely elaborate plan, one which must have been conceived a long time ago. I should have figured this out as well when you first came to see me, Ginny. I'd like to think that if Sirius hadn't appeared in timely fashion, I might have done. I was a teacher here when Professor Darden first demonstrated the technology of mass memory alteration almost sixty years ago. I knew it was very powerful dark magic and I was one of those who argued for his dismissal. I also knew that he and Tom Riddle were very close. Yet I fear my over-confidence that all was right in the wizarding world after Voldemort's apparent demise proved more powerful than any Memory Charm in allowing me to selectively forget these things."

"That's how Grawp and Fump disappeared with everyone still remembering them," explained Lupin, seemingly just as much to draw attention away from the devastated expression on Dumbledore's face as to impart new information. "Since Hagrid always kept them a secret, Malfoy and Wormtail would not have known about them. They expelled a certain class of creatures, perhaps, but then could only remove our memories of specific individuals."

"The Memory Charms have been updated every time Voldemort wanted to make another group disappear," Sirius added. "It was just as you tried to tell us all along, Ginny."

Ginny felt her cheeks burn brightly. After spending three months convincing herself and others that she was not completely mad, she had finally been vindicated. But Ginny also found herself unsure, as Harry had been, whether she didn't prefer the lie she had been struggling against than the horrible truth that had just been laid out before her.

Harry's mind reeled. He had spent three months trying to find a way to believe Ginny but even as he heard Dumbledore confirm that she had been right, it still seemed almost impossible to believe.

"B - but I remember everything that happened to me," he suddenly blurted out. "Everything since the very first day I came to Hogwarts. Ron and I met on the train. We found the Philosopher's Stone; we defeated the basilisk and saved Ginny! Those things weren't made up!"

"A lie is always most effective when shrouded in the truth," said Lupin softly. "Many of your memories are real, Harry. The only ones that are missing are those that concerned your Muggle-born friends and the others who have disappeared. As happens when we lose part of our memories, our minds move in to fill the gaps."

"But they all remembered the same thing!" said Ginny. "It was like a conspiracy."

"It is a conspiracy," said Sirius meaningfully.

"Voldemort uses the spell to link your minds each time he uses the Memory Charm," explained Lupin softly. "That way we all remember the same thing even though our memories are lies."

"But - but I still can't - " Harry frowned. "It just seems impossible!"

"Harry," said Sirius gently. "Tell me: do you remember the night you rescued me from the prison at the top of the tower, just when Fudge was about to send the dementors to have me kissed?"

"Of course I do!" said Harry, his eyes burning brightly.

"Were you alone?" asked Sirius, his tone still soft.

"Well, yes," Harry frowned. "I - I mean no. Ron was with me."

"Wasn't Ron injured?"

Harry frowned again for a moment.

"Yeah," he said as if suddenly remembering. "It was a bit crazy, really."

"How did you get to the tower?" asked Sirius.

"Well, I - " Harry paused. "Professor Dumbledore let us out," he replied.

"Weren't you afraid you would be seen?"

"I - I - well, yes, I - "

Harry frowned again.

"How did you get to the tower, Harry? The passageway was locked and guarded."

"I - I - I - " Harry looked up to Dumbledore for support but the headmaster looked almost as bewildered as he did. "I - I don't remember," he finally said. "But it's silly, I - but I - I'm sure I knew before - I'm sure - I didn't have - I know what I know!"

Ginny put a gentle arm on Harry's shoulder.

"You have begun to doubt," said Sirius. "And your doubts are making the false memories unravel. But you still won't be able to remember your friends and you won't unless we find the vessel containing the stolen memories."

Ginny gasped. "The box! The box that Professor Darden used! Hagrid told us about it. Once the box was opened - "

"The memories returned," finished Sirius.

"It doesn't need to be a box," said Lupin. "It could be anything."

"Well, we've got to find it!" protested Ginny. Her face fell as she regarded the patronizing smiles on the faces of Lupin and Sirius. "You've tried already, I suppose. And I suppose it could be anywhere."

"Not quite anywhere," said Lupin. "It would have to be somewhere nearby, probably somewhere on the Hogwarts grounds. But our search is complicated by the fact that there are not only people we have forgotten, but entire sections of the school. The vessel is likely hidden in one of those sections."

"But couldn't you find it?" Harry asked Sirius.

"I do know about the hidden portions of the castle, yes," replied Sirius, "as perhaps Ginny does, too. But they continue to change with each memory shift. For you the map of the castle in your memories seems the same but, actually, memories of certain parts of it return while memories of other parts change. Never the main parts of the school, of course, so I doubt whether the contradictions were as noticeable to you, Ginny, as much as when actual people went missing. Have you heard, for instance, of the Room of Requirement?"

"Of course," replied Ginny. "That's where the D.A. used to meet!"

But looking over at Harry, she saw a very blank expression on his face.

"Sorry," he said, "but we used to meet in the kitchens - in the pantry. The house elves guarded the door in case anyone else came in. Umbridge found us, of course, eventually."

Ginny did not even bother to try and contradict Harry this time, but she turned imploringly to Dumbledore.

"You're the one who told Harry about the room, sir!" she said.

But Dumbledore shook his head again.

"Forgive me, Ginny, but it seems I do not remember that, either."

"We believe that the vessel is being moved around as those hidden areas are shifted," said Lupin. "The area where the vessel is being stored is always hidden from most of our memories and it is shifted so that if Sirius went looking for it, he would also have difficulty pinpointing its location."

"They know about you, also, then?" Harry asked Sirius.

"Oh, yes, they know about me. Malfoy found out the very first day. The Death Eaters told him or showed him enough that he knew what he was seeing when I 'appeared' in the room like that. Of course," he added, with a very satisfied smile, "they haven't been able to get rid of me yet. Their banishment hex won't work on me."

"Malfoy!" said Ginny. "He still remembers everything!"

"It appears Mr. Malfoy is one of the Death Eater's main operatives at Hogwarts," said Dumbledore grimly.

"We've got to get rid of him then!" cried Harry. "Expel him finally, once and for all! We know he's in league with them this time!"

"Doing that would reveal how much we know, Harry," said Lupin, his tone of voice as calm and measured as Harry's was agitated. "All the Death Eaters would have to do would be to plant another Memory Charm which would make us forget we had ever expelled him in the first place, and allow him to return."

"And Malfoy's not the only Death Eater here," added Sirius, "I found Wormtail prowling around the corridors the third week after I arrived. I'd have suffocated him in my fist if I'd had the chance," he said, with a sudden savage tone that made Ginny shudder, "but even with the ability to appear and re-appear, he still managed to slip away. They're using the Room of Requirement as their base. That's the only place in the school I can't enter."

"Why?" asked Harry.

"You forget, Harry," said Sirius wryly, "The Room of Requirement provides the user with whatever he needs. Even charms to keep out wizards from other dimensions."

"We believe it is Wormtail who is casting the Memory Charms," said Lupin, "and passing instructions along to Malfoy. Wormtail can slip virtually undetected throughout the corridors of the school, making use of passages we don't remember exist. He is also been privy to a great many conversations."

"That's why you couldn't talk to me that day!" said Ginny to Dumbledore.

Dumbledore nodded somberly. "We can never be sure where he is or whether he is listening. We also don't know what other surveillance charms Malfoy and Wormtail have been using. The only thing we can be sure of is that this office is the only safe place we can talk. The wards guarding this room are made of a stronger and older magic than the rest of the castle as Dolores Umbridge discovered when she tried to take over here two years ago. There are no spaces for rats or intrusive charms."

"Couldn't you use the Marauder's Map to find out where he is?" asked Ginny.

"We tried that," said Lupin, "manufactured another one, in fact. But the map only shows the parts of the school that we still remember and Wormtail rarely remains for long within those. You see, the Memory Charms not only wipe out the memories of people and places but anything that concerns them or remains in their possession. The map cannot lie but I'm afraid it can tell half-truths."

"Then why didn't it remove the wizard rings that Ron was going to give to Hermione?" asked Ginny.

For the first time, it seemed that she knew something that Lupin, Sirius, and Dumbledore didn't. An amused smile twitched over Dumbledore's mouth and a swashbuckling grin made its way onto the face of Sirius. Lupin, however, looked slightly sad.

"You said he was going to give them to her?" asked Dumbledore.

Ginny nodded.

"Then you have your answer," finished Lupin. "And you have hit upon the flaw in Voldemort's plan. Until Ron gave Hermione the rings, they were still in his possession. They were not yet hers and so, unlike her bed, her clothes, or her books, they did not disappear when she did. The spell does not read intention."

"So they stayed in the same place where he hid them," realized Ginny, "but he didn't know they were there."

Harry, whose face had been creased in confusion ever since Sirius had first started talking about Wormtail, broke into the conversation again.

"But didn't Wormtail and Malfoy already know that you had been telling everything to Professor Dumbledore anyway?" he asked Sirius.

"They do now," said Sirius gruffly. "But they didn't at first." And then, he smiled again. "I managed to keep a good ruse up for a while."

Ginny's eyes widened. "That day, I overheard you bribe Malfoy with the gold! You tried to make him think you were working against Dumbledore but it was just an attempt to try and deceive him and the other Death Eaters and buy yourselves more time!"

"Quite right, Ginny," replied Sirius, with a twinkle in his eye. "You see, Malfoy knows where I come from but he doesn't know who I am, otherwise I'm sure he never would have believed me. A bit risky of you to hide behind the door like that, mind you. Fortunately, Malfoy didn't question me when I asked him to leave it open. Still, it's what any good Gryffindor would have done. For what it's worth, I still would have given him the gold if he'd agreed to work against the Death Eaters. Even Gringotts' vaults aren't immune to inter-dimensional travel."

"And bankrupted the wizarding world?" asked Lupin wryly.

"If necessary, yes," said Sirius, his jaw hardening. "Bankruptcy seems a small price to pay when the alternative is total extinction."

"You said they know now, though?" said Harry.

"Yes," replied Sirius. "Malfoy was careless. I heard them talking outside the door to the original room yesterday. They didn't say much but it was enough to find out what they know. They're also planning to expel Professor Dumbledore and Remus if they can. We don't know when but I'm afraid it's just a matter of time now."

"I expect they overheard me talking to Sirius once too often outside this office." Dumbledore seemed to avoid looking directly at Ginny. "I expect it won't be very long before I become the next resident of the very unstable spider's web that Voldemort has created." He pointed a bony finger to the map of the bubble world which still hovered next to the far wall of his office.

"But there must be some way to stop them!" Ginny protested, as if the whole thing was Dumbledore's fault. "There must be some way to stop everyone going in there and get them all back out!"

"There is a way out," said Lupin, trying to sound hopeful, "only we're not quite sure how to get to it."

"Just earlier today, a wizard or witch moved out of the bubble world and then back in again," explained Sirius. "Last week, two Muggles moved in and then out."

Ginny gasped. "B - but who were these people? And where are they now?"

"I'm afraid we don't know," said Lupin sighing.

"B - but surely Muggles would remember - "

It was Harry who answered.

"They'd have put Memory Charms on them, wouldn't they?"

Dumbledore nodded. "It would be very easy, yes. And it is likely that the wizards and witches inside the bubble universe have been subjected to similar Memory Charms that we have. It is doubtful that they know where or who they really are."

There was a long pause.

"So," said Ginny finally, a despondent note in her voice, "you've brought us here to tell us that there's nothing we can do?"

Dumbledore's eyes glowed bright once again.

"Oh, no, Ginny," he said, "I would have never endangered your lives to tell you that. I have brought you here to do what you have been doing all along, to remember."

"When we've left," added Lupin, "you may be the only one who knows what we have told you here tonight, besides Sirius, that is."

"But why?" asked Ginny. "Why is it that I remember?"

But she was only met with silence.

"I'm afraid that's another thing that we simply don't know, Ginny," said Lupin.

"Isn't because of her link with Voldemort?" asked Harry.

"No," said Dumbledore. "That link was severed the night that I expelled Voldemort's soul in the original room."

"In any case," said Lupin, ignoring the very surprised look on Ginny's face. "Whatever the reason you have this gift, it's something we have to try to use to our advantage."

There was a very long pause. Harry tried to think whether he had asked Dumbledore, Sirius, and Lupin every question he could think of. He could also see that Ginny was doing the same. In the end, Dumbledore cleared his throat and said gently:

"I fear it is now very late. If you are absent from your dormitories too long, it is very likely that Mr. Malfoy and Wormtail will suspect what you know."

"What about you?" asked Ginny.

"We will stay here with Professor Dumbledore as long as necessary," said Lupin, "in the hopes that we can find some way to stop the banishment hex before it makes us disappear."

"We want to stay with you, too!" cried Harry, getting to his feet. "I don't care if Malfoy and Wormtail do know!"

"Then we would be faced with the burden of making three people not disappear instead of two," replied Lupin calmly.

"Stay with Ginny, Harry," said Sirius meaningfully. "Protect her. From now on, you're both in more danger, but Ginny's may be even greater than yours. Since the Death Eaters can't seem to make her memories go away, they might resort to much cruder means to silence her."

Harry looked about to protest for a moment but then he slowly nodded. Ginny got to her feet as well without protest. The two younger Gryffindors stared at their three elders for a moment, both allowing their gaze to linger the longest on Sirius.

"Will I see you again?" asked Harry, unable to keep the sound of a soft croak from coming out of his mouth.

"Of course, Harry," replied Sirius with a toothy smile. "And we'll continue our lessons, I promise."

Harry stared for a little longer at Sirius as though unsure he believed him. It seemed as though he was memorizing the contours of his godfather's face in case he would never see them again. Finally, he turned around to leave but Ginny turned back and went up to Dumbledore's desk. The headmaster's sad but kind eyes looked back up at her.

"Yes, Ginny?" he said engagingly.

"I have one last question, sir," Ginny replied. "You said that the link between myself and Voldemort was now severed."

"That's right."

"So if I were to ever face him again," Ginny said, seeming to choose her words carefully, "I couldn't rely on that - defense and, of course, neither could he. A hex cast against one would no longer rebound on the other."

Dumbledore looked searchingly at Ginny's unblushing face and then slowly nodded.

"Thank you, sir," she said and then turned around to take Harry's hand. As they walked out of the office and down the spiral staircase, she felt her heart beat a little more rapidly as she prepared herself for the question she was sure Harry would ask. But it never came. It seemed he was too preoccupied with the impossibilities he had seen and heard that night. She gave his hand a supportive squeeze which he reciprocated but they walked onto Gryffindor Tower in silence and Ginny returned in her mind to the question she had just asked Dumbledore.

She had not been thinking about defense, of course, and she didn't care about any prophecies. She was only sure of one thing: if she ever met Voldemort again, she was going to kill him. She was going to end this once and for all.

***

In the otherwise dark Room of Requirement, a hazy blue light shone in twin beams from Wormtail's eyes and projected onto the wall, a process which, if the steady moans emanating from Wormtail's mouth were any indication, was somewhat painful. Malfoy stared at the image on the wall with close attention, ignoring Wormtail. The image clearly showed Harry entering the Defense Against the Dark Arts office and sitting down at the desk of Professor Janus. After a few moments of inaudible talking, Janus placed his wand to his temple. Malfoy watched as his face melted away to reveal the image of Sirius. The conversation continued on the screen but Malfoy lost interest. He angrily paced away from the wall and returned to the center of the room. Wormtail emitted a slightly louder protest and Malfoy absently waved his hand. The image disappeared and light from an unknown source lit up the whole room at once. Wormtail gave a short, sharp howl of pain and rubbed his hands over his eyes.

"I would have thought you'd be used to the process by now, Wormtail," snapped Malfoy. "I told you it will do you no permanent damage. I depend on your eyes too much to want anything to go wrong with them."

"My Lord is too generous," whimpered Wormtail, continuing to moan.

A glass snake materialized on the table, not unlike the model Malfoy had smashed earlier in the term just before he had banished Snape to the bubble world. A small expression of pleasure creased his face before he took hold of the snake and angrily smashed it to the ground causing Wormtail to yelp in fear. A second snake appeared in his place and Malfoy smashed that one also.

"He will pay," he declared fervently. "I may not be able to banish him but he will pay for his deceit!"

Another snake appeared and Malfoy dutifully smashed it to the ground with the others. He watched the table carefully, prepared to take out his frustrations on a fourth, but nothing appeared. He felt a brief surge of anger but then, as if checking his own emotions, smiled and turned back to Wormtail.

"You have done well, Wormtail," he said. "An excellent and most fortunate discovery. Your patience and cleverness have given us valuable information."

"My Lord is - " began Wormtail again but Malfoy cut him off.

"We must act quickly," he said, beginning to pace around the room again. "I will communicate with Umbridge and explain that we need her here at once. And she will get her way after all; we will have to prepare another Memory Charm for the mudbloods. We will banish Dumbledore and the werewolf tonight and - " he broke off, staring into space, an almost sad look in his eyes, "- and Potter. We've waited long enough. She will understand," he said, an oddly faraway look in his eyes. "She will understand when she knows the truth."

"And the other half-bloods, my Lord?" said Wormtail.

"No, only Potter," said Malfoy disconcertedly.

"But, my Lord," replied Wormtail, his hands finally leaving his eyes and twitching nervously through the air in front of him. "As you know, using the spell on a single person is much more complicated. Perhaps if you were to - "

"DO YOU UNDERSTAND NOTHING, WORMTAIL?" Malfoy boomed suddenly. "I said 'only Potter.'"

Wormtail cowered in the corner and began moaning pitifully again, his brief attempt at assertiveness now altogether vanished. Malfoy, as usual, said nothing in response. He did not need to tell Wormtail again what would happen if he failed him this time. The door opened though neither was near it. Wormtail sank into the form of a nervously twitching rat and disappeared into the darkness outside.

***

A small group of fifth years assiduously studying for a Potions exam were the only occupants of the Gryffindor common room when Harry and Ginny re-entered. Brief acknowledgments were exchanged before the fifth years returned to their work. Although Harry had a passing acquaintance with all of them, they seemed to him now very much part of the surreal, illusory background of the school in which he and Ginny now walked around in, but from which they were otherwise completely cut off.

Without hesitation, both he and Ginny reached a mutual decision to sit down together on the nearest sofa. They continued to hold hands and, after a time, Harry snaked his arm around Ginny's shoulders and she fell back against his chest, yet neither said anything. Finally, the fifth years finished their studies and one by one returned to their respective dormitories but still Harry and Ginny said nothing to each other nor did either make any move to leave. A full moon was already starting its slow but inexorable journey down toward the horizon and morning when Ginny finally said:

"What did you see, Harry? What did Sirius show you?"

Ginny had to tilt her head upwards to see Harry shaking his head.

"I - I couldn't begin to say," he replied, finding it a little bit odd to hear his own voice again. "It's almost impossible to describe. With every minute it seems to get further and further away, like a dream. And the more I try to remember it, the further it gets. There was a sort - a sort of valley with people in it. They were beckoning to me - but not to me, I suppose. It was like I was Sirius. It's - it's all very strange."

"Do you think it was a real place?"

"Yes, I do. I think maybe it was realer than anything I've ever known."

Ginny said nothing in response, but she leaned further into Harry. He ran his fingers through her hair but his eyes seemed far away.

"I remember one thing, though," he finally said after a long pause.

"Go on."

"My Mum and Dad were there."

Ginny took in a sharp breath. "Oh, Harry," she said, "b - but how? I mean - did you talk to them?"

"I couldn't," said Harry. "I - I - I tried but it couldn't make any sound come out of my mouth. I was in pain at the time. It just - I couldn't - it was like a dream. But they could see me." He felt his face curl into a smile as he recalled the memory of his mother's face, so much like Ginny's but also so different. "My mum called out to me."

And then very suddenly, Harry's smile faded and silent tears welled up in his eyes and started to fall down his face.

"I know it was her. It was really her this time. It was really both of them," he sobbed.

Ginny ran three gentle fingers over Harry's cheeks, taking the moisture of his tears in her hand.

"Oh, Harry," she said again. "I don't know what to say."

Harry shook his head and drew her closer still.

"I want to thank you, Ginny," he said. "Without you, I would never have known about any of this. I would never have seen them."

"You should thank yourself, Harry. You would never have seen them if you hadn't had faith in me."

Another very long silence fell. Harry watched the moon fall further still until its light pierced directly through the curtainless windows of the common room with surprising brightness. In its light, he watched as Ginny's eyes closed several times only to open again as she jerked herself awake.

"Hey," he said.

Ginny looked up at him and smiled.

"Just rest," he said. "Everything will be O.K."

Ginny looked up at Harry for a moment, remembering how she had rested like this in his arms under the beech tree what had seemed like months ago but had really been earlier that very long night.

"I promise I won't let you dream any more nightmares this time," Harry added.

"I know, Harry," said Ginny, who realized from experience that her nightmares never came to her when she was thinking of them. "But I - I'm just afraid that if I fall asleep, nothing will be the same again when I wake."

"It's not you that's changing, Ginny, remember? It's us. And we'll change whether you sleep or not."

"Maybe when you wake, you won't remember anything that happened tonight."

"Maybe not, but like you said, I'll always have faith in you."

Ginny let Harry's words hang in her mind for a moment. Then she rested her head on his chest, gave out one long, tired yawn, and allowed herself to drift into sleep. The last thing she remembered before unconsciousness overtook her was that they had never asked Dumbledore what he was doing with the Mirror of Erised.

Her mind already in sleep, Ginny shifted comfortably against the warmth of Harry's body. But when she would wake, she would find nothing under her head but the sofa itself. For sixteen years, the Boy Who Lived had been a living symbol of everything the wizarding world had hoped and feared about itself, but by the time the moon had finished its journey that night, all of those dreams and fears would vanish from the mundane world along with Harry himself. The only thing left would be his memory in Ginny's mind.