Without Wand or Wire

"Bella!" Voldemort snapped, still in lingering pain from Potter's attempt to assassinate him. He was less than careful about stepping over the unconscious Pansy Parkinson as he strode to Bella's side. "Who are you talking to?"

She repeated what Kreacher had said. "I believe, my lord, that this is the elf who aided us before, with the Ministry mission" she added, wary of reminding her lord and master of her failure. "Draco has ordered it not to leave its cupboard, so it's hoping I can countermand that order." She tensed as Voldemort's eyes, hidden at first by shadows, began to glow with an eager light.

"Yessss, I think you should do that, Bella … I believe I have a use for our dear little friend.…"

The real Harry awoke the moment Ginny was fully out of the glass and back in the real world. Uncertain as to whether Harry had meant what he'd said about loving her, she hung back while Hermione and Ron nearly crushed the recently-restored life from The Boy. And while it looked like the duo may have cracked a rib or two in their enthusiasm, Harry seemed entirely reluctant to let them go. McGonagall had Dumbledore's arm in a death-grip, her eyes leaking profusely while his twinkled with their usual knowing glint. Ginny suddenly wondered if the pair were more than just colleagues -- and quickly pushed the question from her mind, simply not wishing to ride any further on that train of thought. Pomfrey roused Petunia, who found her nephew smiling and laughing again, his eyes no longer empty, but full of warmth. She cried when he returned her embrace and then some. Fae was still grinning like a Cheshire cat -- and staring at Ginny while she did do. Ginny quickly looked away, not sure she wanted to know why she held her cousin's interest so. Her eyes alighted next on Snape, who seemed weak with relief, however much he tried to hide it with a sneer of revulsion.

Draco looked like he wished he were anywhere but where he actually was, eyes roaming over the armor. She saw him look into the Mirror of Raef, and when he cried out, she was the first to see what had made him do so.

Well, she and the wireless, that is, as the latter began to play a now-familiar tune.

And the cat came back
the very next day
The cat came back
They thought it was a goner!
But the cat came back
It just wouldn't stay away …

"Make it stop!" Draco cried, covering his ears and screwing his eyes shut.

Snape turned to see what was bothering his godson; he felt his stomach lurch as he found smirking visage of Lucius Malfoy staring back at them all from within Raef's frame.

"It's just the Mirror, right?" Ron asked Hermione. "I mean, we saw Malfoy's Patronus rip his dad's ghost up! This is just Draco's fear, isn't it?"

Draco's head snapped up in indignation. "Shut it, W--"

"What do you mean, Draco's Patronus 'ripped Lucius' ghost up'?" the new DADA professor interrupted, addressing Ron with only a little of his usual hostility. Snape hadn't been there to hear the teens relate the story to Dumbledore or the other adults that had still been at Grimmauld Place; he'd been with Fae, off looking for Pansy. As insane as the day had been, no one had thought to tell him about it later. For her part, Fae looked on with keen interest.

"Er ... well," Ron looked to Hermione, not exactly certain what had happened himself, and feeling she had done a better job of explaining it before.

She bit her lip, considering. She had no real idea what had happened either, but when she had told Harry a short while ago that she believed he wasn't supposed to face Voldemort alone, a notion had planted itself in her brain. She was leery of sharing that notion in front of Snape, seeing as he'd given her no end of grief in the past for being a "know-it-all", but the man had rather asked for it this time, hadn't he? Besides, just let Snape try to belittle me with Dumbledore standing right there!... So after repeating the story they'd told Dumbledore, she cleared her throat and presented her theory. " I've been thinking a lot about how the first time Harry and Voldemort had met, Voldemort's body was killed, but his spirit lived on and found a way to come back to life. And what if that happened again, you know? Everything we do could be for nothing -- unless we find a way to bind his spirit, right?" She looked to Dumbledore, and he nodded encouragingly. "Only now we know a ghost can be destroyed..." She glanced pointedly at Draco.

Draco stared at her like she was a basilisk. "Oooh no. You want my Patronus to do it? Why not his?" he asked, pointing at Ron, whose face paled enough that his freckles now looked like some sort of measles. "O-or his?" He pointed at Harry. "Or, hell, yours even?" he asked, scowling at her now. It was her bloody idea, after all.

"Mine's an otter."

Draco blinked. The Great Hermione Granger's Patronus was a likkle otter? It was so absurd he couldn’t help but bark a laugh. The look she gave him quickly cured him of his mirth, though. "Ehem. Sorry," he told her, and she wasn't sure if it was because he'd laughed, or if he meant it more along the lines of Sorry you have such a silly, useless little Patronus. He wasn't sure himself, but figured it was best not to let her wonder. "Still, why mine?" he asked.

"Because we found your wand in here," Harry answered, surprising Hermione, who, for once, looked lost. She had only been about to say that Draco's was the only Patronus that had been tested in that regard; this was an interesting bit of information....

Snape scowled. "What has that to do with anything?" he asked, clearly not liking the idea of his godson being pushed into such a potentially-dangerous task. He wasn't going to let that happen without a damn good reason!

"We asked the Room to give us everything we would need in order to defeat Voldemort," Draco answered weakly.

Damn, that was a good reason.

Snape closed his eyes, knowing as well as his godson that there was little likelihood of getting around it: if the Room of Requirement deemed his wand was necessary, then that was that. He prayed it didn’t mean that Draco would be asked to do as much as forfeit his life for the "greater good", though.

"I still don’t understand how his Patronus could do something like that," McGonagall remarked.

"Nor do I," Dumbledore conceded. "Most curious.... Draco, what can you tell us about how you cast it?"

Draco gave the old man a shrewd look. "If I tell you, can we have Potter's Patronus do the job instead?"

Dumbledore's eyes narrowed; Draco shrank back, swallowing nervously. "There is no room for errors in this task, Draco," the old man chided him. "How would we test Harry's Patronus to make sure his could do the job? We're not in the habit of testing magical theory on the beings of Hogwarts, living or otherwise!"

"Huh. Some teachers seemed to have missed the memo," Ron muttered, glaring at Snape, recalling the times the man had forced students to test their potions on themselves or each other, often with disastrous results. The words were out of Ron's mouth before he even knew it; he clasped a hand, too late, over his mouth when he realised he'd said his thoughts aloud.

McGonagall and Pomfrey each gave Ron a scandalized, "Mister Weasley!"

Snape gave him a smile that promised pain later. Ron began to balk at first, but Hermione grabbed his hand, and a surge of bravado straightened his spine. For the first time, both men realised that he was now taller than the usually-daunting professor. Snape wasn't cowed, nonetheless, but surprised even himself as he gave the Weasley boy a begrudging smile and a slightly respectful nod of acknowledgment.

Albus smiled wryly. "I stand corrected, Ron. We do not perform potentially lethal tests upon anyone." Dumbledore gave Snape a warning glance that said he suspected the former Potions Master hadn’t exactly been adhering to that rule either.

"What about on Peeves?" Draco asked. The poltergeist had never actually been alive, and Draco doubted anyone would miss him; truth be told, most of the school would probably see his "demise" as a favor!

McGonagall seemed to seriously consider the idea, but Dumbledore gave a firm no. Even Snape seemed a bit disappointed.

With a heavy sigh, Draco finally answered the Headmaster's question. "It's not like I did much; I mean, I was already so upset, I didn’t need to work myself up or anything, I just pointed the wand and said the words. And it wasn't even my wand, it was Ginny Weasley's!" he pointed out.

Snape granted his godson a pitying glance, while the rest of the group, Dumbledore included, looked terribly confused.

"The wand wouldn’t have mattered much," Dumbledore ruminated. "The reason the Room took your wand was to show us that it's you we need, I think, not so much your wand -- though I dare say you might get even better results with your own. But tell me if I'm understanding you correctly Draco: are you saying you did not think of a happy thought when you cast your Patronus?"

Draco clearly thought the man was daft. "Why would I have done that? I was trying to cast a Patronus, not fly like Peter Pan!"

Everyone was startled by that; how on earth would Draco, having come from a Muggle-hating family, know about that Muggle-written story?

Snape was the first to put his focus back on the real question. "He asks because what your father taught you was not a Light Patronus, Draco, but a Dark one, something no one here is likely to have ever even heard of."

"There are different kinds of Patroni?" Draco, Harry, and Dumbledore all asked at the same time. Harry wasn't sure if he should be comforted or worried by the fact that Dumbledore was as clueless as he was for once.

"But his Patronus was all silver and sparkly, it wasn't shadowy and dark!" Ron protested.

Snape nodded. "Light and Dark refers not to the look of the Patronus, but to the way it's conjured. The Light Patronus is the better known by far -- indeed, it's often the only version one ever learns unless one is versed..." he hesitated slightly, but decided, as his former affiliation was no secret, it was foolish to pretend otherwise now, " ...well, in the Dark Arts."

"Which is why Lupin taught me that the only way to conjure a Patronus is with a happy memory," Harry offered.

Snape snorted. "The werewolf's not so very versant in the Dark Arts after all, then," he remarked snidely.

"Or maybe he was afraid that if he taught Harry to harness his anger, Harry might fall down a dark path," Albus suggested, his voice gentle rather than chastising.

Snape nodded, looking curiously contrite despite his mentor's friendly tones. "I guess the best way to understand the difference is to compare them to a shield and a sword: a Light Patronus is meant to protect the caster from malevolent energies, while a Dark Patronus is meant to annihilate the threat."

Draco looked less than pleased. "So basically what you're saying is it's my lot in life to be a Dark Wizard. That you want me to do the dirty work so that Potter here isn’t sullied."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Oh, yeah, because letting a Patronus destroy an evil spirit is so much worse than killing a living man by your own hand!"

"Harry!" Hermione admonished. "Really, I can see Draco's point!"

Draco looked equal parts embarrassed and grateful -- he'd been so awful to Hermione in the past, it was still strange to think of them being friendly to each other (or at least no longer enemies).

"A Patronus is an extension of the self," Hermione continued, "far more so than a real sword, and ending the existence of a spirit could be considered akin to murder, one far more final than just killing the flesh!" She turned to Draco "Although in this case it, wouldn't be a murder so much as an act of war, in defense of the greater good -- just as Harry's killing Voldemort's body will be! Please, Draco, we only want you to do this because, having done it already, you're the most likely to be successful at it! And if it helps, I'll send my little otter Patronus at him too--" Ron started to protest at this; Fae stayed him with a hand "--but we'll still need you there, I just know it! Besides, magic is magic, really, no matter what labels we stick on it -- what matters is your intent! None of us think you’re going to go around murdering people -- or ghosts -- after this; we want you to help us destroy a Dark wizard, not become one! None of us will even have a future if Voldemort can just keep coming back and murdering people! We'll do what we can to fight him -- I-I'd even do a-a Dark Arts spell if I have to, even an Unforgivable, if it means saving the people I love -- but I don’t think we can this it without you any more than we can do it without Harry, or he can do it without the rest of us!"

Draco would say yes if Snape asked him to, Severus knew this. But he wouldn't -- couldn't -- ask that of the boy. He knew exactly what Draco felt, that somehow he was "impure" and therefore the "good guys" felt it was better to leave the dirty work to men such as himself. But Snape had carried out the tasks Dumbledore had given him anyway because he agreed that he had committed even greater sins than those the light were asking he commit, sins that needed to be atoned for. Draco might have been a prat at times, but hadn’t done the things Severus had done, didn’t need to risk his life to cleanse his soul. But Snape wouldn’t tell Draco not to do it ether, because the deed still needed doing by someone, and he felt his godson had the right to choose his lot for himself, without being pressured either way by those he looked to.

Dumbledore seemed to feel the same, as he quietly awaited Draco's response.

Draco was silent for a long moment, biting his lip. He thought of Pansy, and how rescuing her would mean little if Voldemort came back another fifteen years down the road and murdered them all. He bowed his head. "All right," he answered quietly.

Ron reached out hesitantly, and clamped a hand on Draco's shoulder. "I'll use my Patronus too," he offered. He just hoped he would be able to conjure it in the right way -- offensively instead of defensively -- especially if someone's life were on the line. Like Hermione's ...

Draco's return smile was wan but heartfelt.

"Look, I'm sorry Draco," Harry told him. "You’re right, none of us has an easy task ahead of us." He held his hand out.

Draco took it and shook it firmly. "You were right, too -- I already said I'd help, and yet here I was shirking what has to be done! It's a little ridiculous for me to expect you to do all the work -- especially if it means Gryffindor gets all the glory!" he added with a wink.

Ron snorted. "Yeah, how many house points does each task earn?

The others laughed, and if there seemed an edge of hysteria to it somewhere, nobody said anything about it.

Then Ron's stomach growled. Quite loudly.

Harry barked a genuine laugh, forgetting their troubles for a few seconds. "We just ate! You’ve got a bottomless pit in there, haven't you?"

"Hah, I’d like to see him go up against Cra--" Draco stopped, stricken. For a moment, he'd forgotten -- and of those in the room, only Dumbledore and Snape knew what had befallen the young man's friend.

"Draco? What's the matter?" Harry asked, glancing at his age-mates, thinking, as they'd spent more time with Draco than he had, that they might know something he didn't. They seemed just as baffled, though.

Draco closed his eyes for a moment, fighting for composure. He didn't like feeling sad -- particularly since he'd been taught his whole life that grief was a weakness. Eyes pressed closed, head bowed, he let out a shaky breath and told them, "Crabbe's dead." He was surprised it hurt so much, especially since it had been over three weeks ... why did it hurt more now than when he'd first heard the news?

Harry and his friend wondered what to say -- since they'd never gotten along with Crabbe, anything they might say would just sound patronising and insincere. For once, Hermione was thankful when the wireless started up.

Draco didn't even seem to notice that the wireless was playing as he sang, tears in his eyes,

"Tell me where
did I go wrong?
Everyone I loved,
they're all gone
I'd do everything so differently
But I can't turn back the time
There's no shelter
from the storm inside of me!

"There's no way out
of this dark place!
No hope, no future!
I know I can't be free,
but I can't see another way
I can't face another day..."

He fell to his knees. No one really noticed that the music had changed again. Snape started to kneel beside the boy, when another familiar voice -- a more welcome one -- began to sing. He quickly stood again, staring at the mirror of Erised, as did Draco from his place on the floor.

Narcissa's lovely face stared back at them, all traces of her normal haughtiness gone as she sang,

"From where I stand,
you are home free
The planets align, so rare
There's promise in the air,
and I'm guiding you...

"Through every turn,
I'll be near you
I’ll come any time you call ..."

Draco scrambled to his feet, but her image and words faded just as he reached the glass, which was maddeningly solid this time. "Damn you, Mother! You just said you'd come when I call -- I'm calling you now! Where the hell are you?"

Sobbing, he raised his fist to strike the glass, but Ron grabbed it just in time. Draco swung around, trying to lash out at his captor with his other hand, but Ron grabbed that fist too. "Let me go!" Draco protested.

"What, so you can break the glass and rip your hand up at the same time?" Ron asked. "Sorry, mate, I've had quite enough of people hurtin' themselves today."

Draco relaxed his arms, nodding, eyes downcast; Ron released him.

Harry gave Ron a sheepish glance as he came up beside them, then lay a hand on Draco's shoulder. "Besides, Draco, that's Erised, remember? It wasn't really her...."

Snape wasn't so sure of that, after his dream of James, but being the ever-practical man that he was, he didn't want to get his godson's hopes up. Besides, he was more than a little intrigued by the new state of affairs between Draco and the Gryffindors, and wanted to see how things would play out.

Draco looked wistfully at the glass. "I miss her."

Harry nodded, still marveling a little at the sensation of feeling pity for Malfoy, of all people (or feeling any sensation at all, really). Then something occurred to him. "Why can’t you see her now, though? I usually see my family when I look into Erised...." He stepped up to the mirror. This time he saw himself older, and standing with Ginny. Beside them were Ron and Hermione to one side, and ... Draco and Pansy, to the other? Behind them were the rest of the Weasleys, and many other friends, all happy and healthy. And before them? There stood a gaggle of children, a number of them doubtlessly members of the Weasley, Potter, Granger, Malfoy, or Parkinson bloodlines, some Gryffindor and some Slytherin, all standing hand-in-hand. Harry smiled. When he turned, his companions were smiling back at him -- with the Eternity gate still aligned, they could still see whatever the "questioner" did. If there had been any doubt in their minds that Harry was well again, there was none now!

"You hope we'll find her too?" Draco said, touched by Harry's inclusion of himself and Pansy in the lad's "hopes and dreams".

Harry nodded, a little surprised himself, but also pleased.

The music changed again, and this time it was the Mirrors that sang,

"You have to believe -- we are magic!
Nothin' can stand in your way
You have to believe -- we are magic!
Don't let your aim ever stray!
And if all your hearts survive,
your destinies will arrive
We'll bring all your dreams to life
for you …"

The music faded, and the Mirrors reflected nothing more -- or less -- than what was already in the room.

"Please tell me that's the end of it?" Hermione said hopefully. "No more music?"

"Let's get out of here before we have a chance to find out," Draco suggested, stepping out of the two Mirrors' lines of sight, none too eager for an encore.

"Tcha, was it so terrible?" Fae asked as she walked over to the wireless, picking it up and holding it tenderly, like a pet.

"I have to admit I never cared much for your choice in music, my dear," came a smooth, sneering voice from Raef.

Fae almost dropped the wireless when she saw Lucius looking back at her.

"Just ignore it, Draco," Snape told his godson, laying a hand on the boy's back and directing him towards the door.

Fae moved to join them.

"Not so fast, my dear," Lucius purred. "Can't you spare a moment to chat with your beloved cousin?"

Draco and Snape both turned back at that, Snape in alarm, and Draco with curiosity despite himself. For his part, Harry had a flashback of Sirius, talking about the Black family tree, saying how all the older wizarding families were related one way or another, adding that besides being related to Narcissa, he was also related to Arthur Weasley via marriage. It didn’t seem so odd to learn now that Fae had blood ties to both Molly's family, the Prewetts, and to the Malfoys.

"I know you," Draco said, taking a step closer to Fae and squinting.

"You wouldn't!" she protested. "You were hardly a year old when--" and she brought her fingers to her lips, realising what she was about to say. She looked at Severus, denial in her eyes. "Severus, I swear I didn't -- I-I wasn't--"

"Wasn't what, Faelyn?" Lucius asked. "Do you even know who you are anymore?"

His image faded, replaced by her reflection -- only it wasn't her, not exactly. The Fae in the mirror was thinner, bonier, her hair lanker and not the slightest bit lustrous, her nose longer, her eyes simply hazel rather than a striking mix of green and gold. Her chin jutted out a little too far, her lips were thinner and chapped, and her skin was unremarkable (unless you counted a few blemishes as something unique). The strongest similarity between Fae and her reflection was how tightly each gripped their wireless, as if it would protect them.

"Do you remember the long hours Morgain spent showing you how to mask your homely appearance, Faelyn? I ... showed you. Do you remember why?" Though he was still speaking to Fae, he smiled at Snape with that last.

Fae trembled but otherwise did not move, much like a deer caught in headlamps. Her eyes flickered between the mirror and her companions, and Harry couldn't decide if she were silently pleading for help or afraid that they might actually attack her. Ginny stared in disbelief, clearly feeling betrayed . Ron looked thoroughly confused, his mind completely unwilling to contemplate the idea of his cousin, his flesh and blood, sharing the other half of her blood with the likes of Lucius Malfoy. Hermione split her attentions between watching the tale being told in Raef and worriedly watching Ron. Dumbledore looked sympathetic but resigned (to what, Harry wasn't certain, but he assumed it was to having events unfold as they would, whatever it meant for Fae), while Snape strongly resembled the Weasleys (at least in regards to facial expression). Pomfrey, McGonagall, and Petunia all seemed a bit at a loss; Harry decided they best reflected how he was feeling himself.

"Do you know where your loyalties lie, Faelyn? Better yet, do they?"

"Shut it!" Fae cried, throwing the wireless at the glass, shattering it; the wireless itself broke as it hit the floor. Fae ran from the room, keening a single note; a burst of wind knocking everyone in her way to the floor, including Severus.

Snape hurriedly picked himself up and heaved himself at the now-open door. Only one thing in the world could have stopped him going after her, and it did: the sound of Dumbledore telling him to wait.

"You need to calm yourself, at least until you can follow her with a level head," Dumbledore told him. "You would do well to remember three things, my boy. The first? That, as things are not always as they appear on the surface, acting on said appearances, without full knowledge of the circumstances behind them, can be dangerous. The second thing to remember? That many would doubt your own loyalties if not for the faith I placed in you; it would only be fair that you place the same faith in me -- and my judgment."

Snape's brow creased in confusion. "Did you know that she--"

"I know a great deal, Severus," Albus answered drolly. "But at the moment, what I've got locked away in this dusty corners," he tapped his temple with a long finger, "is neither here nor there, for the things I know in that particular regard are not mine to tell. The third thing to remember: where did this information you think you just learned actually come from? The horse's mouth, or that of an ass?"

Ron laughed at that, a high-pitched, nervous sort of laugh. Hermione caught herself from reprimanding the headmaster for his language just in time, redirecting her urge to chastise towards Ron, elbowing him though she knew he didn’t really deserve it. She'd have to remember to apologise later.

Snape, meanwhile, looked thoughtfully at the Mirror of Raef. Raef alone could not tell truth any more than Erised could -- a coin needed two sides, and so did a truth. And he knew better than to ever trust anything out of the mouth of Lucius Malfoy, real or not!

Dumbledore watched Snape's face carefully as the man deliberated. "I think you're ready now," the headmaster finally announced with a bemused smile, aiming his wand at the floor just outside the door. "Prosequer Corvus!"

The steps Fae had taken glowed on the ground in tarnished gold, reminding Harry somewhat of the Marauder's Map. Snape didn’t hesitate a moment, but bolted out the door. Draco hurried after, both worried for his mentor and eager to learn more about this woman he apparently knew. After a nod from Dumbledore, Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione followed as well (with Hermione wishing she could ask Dumbledore why he used that particular wording for the Tracking Spell he'd cast).

Petunia moved to follow as well, but Dumbledore stayed her. "They'll be alright," he told her. "Come now, let us get some cake and spread the good news to our friends downstairs!"

Taking one last weary look about the room, McGonagall accompanied Dumbledore and the Muggle woman, while Pomfrey headed back to her too-long-neglected hospital wing.

Twenty minutes after Madam Pomfrey had first gotten the summons to help Harry, Viktor Krum had sat up and blearily rubbed his eyes. Although he'd swallowed a draught of Dreamless Sleep potion at Pomfrey's insistence, he hadn't actually taken nearly as much as she'd wanted. He'd hoped she might abandon her charges (what few there were left, anyway), because he was really quite sick of being bedridden; happily, it seemed she had.

The Muggle girl with the purple hair, the imposing black man, and the man with the scars on his face still sat vigil beside their friend, another victim of Pomfrey's medicine cabinet. Since they couldn’t speak for fear of waking anyone, they quietly played some sort of game on the bed next to their sleeping companion.

Sarah noticed Krum stirring. "You wanna play?" she called in hushed tones, gesturing to the board.

Lupin almost protested when the young man stumbled slightly on his way over to them, but held his tongue. Likely Krum was only stumbling because of the Sleeping Draught, and not because he was actually still injured. Pomfrey tended to err quite far on the side of caution. Besides, Krum was a grown man; it wasn't like they had any place telling him what to do. But if he did play the game with them, that would keep him from stumbling about the halls of Hogwarts -- and therefore keep the rest of them from getting an earful from the nurse later.

Then again, she would probably chew them out for even letting him out of bed.

For Viktor's part, he figured he might as well play with them for a little bit, to give himself a chance to wake up a bit before setting out in search of Hermy-own. Maybe they might even know where to find her....

They were playing Chinese Checkers. In their effort to reset the board for a new player, the sound of rolling marbles woke Tonks, who apparently hadn’t taken much more of the Sleeping Draught than Krum had. Lupin asked her if she wanted to play; she took one look at the game board and laughed.

"There's a party downstairs, and Pomfrey isn't here to play watchdog!" she reminded them.

Shacklebolt gave her a bemused smile. "That's probably because Pomfrey's down at the party."

Tonks looked crestfallen, but Sarah protested, "Are you sure? I couldn’t really hear what was being said, 'cause they were across the room, but the nurse looked rather upset when she left, and so did the man with the long beard and the lady in the tartan...."

Lupin and Kingsley blinked in surprise.

"I didn’t actually see them leave," Lupin confessed. "I left the room for a moment, and when I came back they were gone. I just assumed they went to the Great Hall..."

Kingsley sighed. "So did I -- I was talking with Moody on the Glass, and when I looked up, they'd vanished. Some Auror I am!"

Sarah opened her eyes wide in alarm. "I'm so sorry! I guess I should have mentioned it sooner!"

"Eh, don’t worry about it," Shacklebolt told her, as he finished setting up his pieces. "I'm sure someone would have alerted us if something was really wrong."

Tonks threw the covers off and leapt out of her bed. "Still, it wouldn’t hurt to look for them. Maybe they could still use a hand!"

Lupin glanced at Shacklebolt and knew the same thoughts were going through the Auror's head as his own, namely that there was a chance that something so terrible had happened that Pomfrey, Dumbledore, and McGonagall had, for whatever reason, been unable to call the rest of the Order to assist them. Of course the chances were far greater that she would harangue them mercilessly for allowing Tonks -- and Krum, whom they assumed would accompany them -- to walk about the castle while they were still, to her mind, recovering, but they decided they couldn't take even the slightest risk that something was seriously wrong.

So that's how two search parties ended up wandering the halls of Hogwarts -- and how, and hour after her departure, Madame Pomfrey inadvertently woke the handful of remaining patients in the hospital wing with a growl of aggravation....

Dumbledore's Tracking Spell proved quite handy. Either because she was upset or because she didn’t remember the halls of Hogwarts so well after over ten years of absence, Fae had apparently wandered into one dead end after another -- and the magic tracks showed that she came out again, so Snape and his young tag-alongs didn't need to waste any time going down those halls. (The first time this happened, Harry worried that Fae would know they were trailing her, and find some way to throw them off, but Hermione explained that, with a Tracking Spell, the person you were following couldn’t see their footsteps themselves.) All of this meant (Snape hoped) that they were gaining on her. But where was she going? If she wanted out, she should be heading down, but she seemed to be heading up -- and nowhere near the direction of her own room....

"So Fae's your cousin too?" Ron asked Draco as they followed Snape, sounding like he was hoping he'd heard wrong.

"Yeah, I guess so," Draco responded, proud of himself for staying civil. "I don’t really remember much of when she lived with us, though; I mostly recognise her from a painting in the manor."

Ginny and Ron stopped at the exact same moment. "Lived with you?" they echoed.

Snape stopped dead in his tracks then too, causing his godson to smack his nose into his back before he whirled on the boy. Of course! If Lucius had dealings with Fae, Draco might know something of it!

Draco scowled, rubbing his nose. "Ow. Yeah, for a bit, I guess, back when Granddame Morgain lived with us. Like Faelyn said, I was only about a year old, so of course I don’t really remember it too well. But I do remember this one time, when I was ... about eight, I think, when Mother was showing me the portraits and telling me a bit about the people in them. We got to the one of Faelyn, and Mother said something about her having lived with us for a bit when I was little, so that Granddame could teach her some stuff before they sent her off to Hogwarts. Mother didn’t seem to want to talk about her, come to think of it...." The memories were slowly coming back to him.

Ron was perplexed. "But Fae's way older than us -- she should have graduated Hogwarts right around when we were born!"

Draco nodded, and started to speak, but Ron went on, pacing as he mused aloud, "So if your grandma was teaching Fae before she went to Hogwarts, and Fae lived with you for a bit when you were just a year old, she'd only be..." his head bobbed while he did the figures in his head, his eyes looking skyward as he calculated. "She'd only be twenty-five now, twenty-six tops! And I happen to know for a fact that she's thirty-two!"

Ginny nodded, looking relieved. "Thirty-three in October, even!" she added. Maybe they could prove it wasn't even their cousin Fae that they were talking about, but some other Faelyn. Although that wouldn’t explain why Lucius had appeared in the Mirror....

Ron noticed Hermione looking impressed out of the corner of his eye, and felt a rush of pride. And just as quickly, he felt a little indignant: really, after all their years of solving mysteries, it only made sense that he'd learned at least a little something about deductive reasoning, didn’t it?

Draco sighed, slightly irritated, and not so impressed with Ron's cognitive abilities. "I didn’t say Faelyn had started school as a first-year. Hell, what vague images I recall of her back then, she sure seemed almost a grown-up...."

"But can someone even do that? Start at Hogwarts so late in life?" Ginny almost pleaded, looking to Hermione for help. "If Fae's thirty-two now, then she would have had to have been--"

"--a seventh year," Snape finished for him with a bit of a growl, his black robes swirling around him as he stalked off after Fae again.

"And you're sure she'd never been to Hogwarts before that year?" Hermione asked Draco as they started to follow.

"Well, no, I wouldn’t bet the Manor on it, but the way my mother talked, it sounded like it. Something about Faelyn having traveled with her family rather than going to school, but then her folks died. Granddame decided Fae should finally go to Hogwarts and get her N.E.W.T.S. so she could get a 'real job'."

Ron scowled. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well don’t look at me, that's just what Mother said! And I'm guessing, with Granddame having been on the Board of Governors at the time, she probably was the one who got Fae in."

They walked in silence for a bit.

"So is Fae is your cousin through your mum?" Ron finally asked, with a hopeful air. Sirius and Tonks were both related to Draco through Narcissa, after all, so he supposed that wouldn’t be so bad.

"No, though my ... my father." Draco clearly didn’t like where this conversation was going, but he also figured there might be some important clue in it all. "Granddame Morgain was my father's maternal grandmother, so Fae's not a Malfoy, if that makes you feel better," he offered. "Faelyn's mother was my father's mother's sister's daughter, which would make Faelyn herself my ... third-cousin. I think."

Ron nodded, a little disappointed; he'd hoped he was at least a bit closer kin to her than Draco. But then he remembered that Fae seemed to have been in cahoots with Lucius about something, and he wondered if he really ought to even want to be related to her -- at all! Well maybe the fact that she's related to Lucius is all she was embarrassed about, and that's why she ran off. Merlin knows I'd want to keep it quite, if I were in her shoes! A glance at Ginny told him she was hoping the same.

Hermione stopped suddenly, her eyes wide. The others walked on a few steps more before they stopped, staring back at her in puzzlement.

"What?" Harry asked her, not liking the look in her eyes. He liked it even less when it became apologetic towards Ron and Ginny.

Snape realised the kids had stopped again, and stalked back to them. "Out with it, Granger."

"Fae didn't attend Hogwarts until the term you started teaching and Harry's parents..." She bit her lips and looked at Harry.

"It's okay, Hermione, you can say that they died, I--" and then he realised the true reason why she'd paused. "Oh...." And now he was offering up an apologetic expression to Ron and Ginny, even to Draco and Snape.

Ron stared back at his best friends, plagued by a sinking feeling. He wouldn’t let his mind contemplate just what it was that had them looking so morose -- though he was sure they'd tell him soon enough.

But it was Draco who spelled it out. "So my father sent her to Hogwarts to spy on Uncle for the Dark Lord?" He looked to Hermione for confirmation.

"It ... it seems so," she admitted reluctantly.

"I'd already thought as much, back in the Room of Requirement," Snape admitted. "It makes perfect sense: Morgain taught her the art of Glamourie, and then Lucius ordered her to get close to me. I'd thought I’d convinced the Dark Lo--er--Voldemort," he screwed his eyes shut as he said it, "that I was working at Hogwarts to spy on Dumbledore, but I rather expected he would check up on me. I didn't know that Fae was related to Lucius until now, so I never suspected her."

"But you heard Dumbledore!" Ron protested. "There's got to be something else to the situation than what seems most obvious! Maybe it's just a coincidence that she started at Hogwarts that year, and she really was just after her N.E.W.T.s!"

"Then why did she run just now?" Hermione asked. She wanted to believe Ron was right, but in light of the evidence....

Ron glared at her. "All right, fine, so let's say she was a Death Eater. So was he--" he gestured towards Snape with his head, "--and you seem pretty forgiving of him!"

Snape flinched, but didn’t protest.

Harry was almost surprised to see Hermione keep her cool rather than yell back, as she normally did when dealing with Ron. "Look, I'm not saying she didn’t do the same as Snape, and change sides," she said, "nor am I saying that I'm angry at her, or that I think we can’t trust her now. I'm just saying that it looks like she might have been a Death Eater at one point."

"And maybe--" Ron began.

Harry cut him off. "Look, is this really even worth discussing right now?" he asked them all. "Ron is right about at least one thing: we should listen to Dumbledore, and he told us to get the story from Fae. There's no point in standing about and speculating, when it just gives her a chance to get further away from us!" He pointed to the floor for emphasis.

Without another word, Snape set off again, with the others close behind. Harry flashed Ginny a smile and grabbed a hold of her hand as they practically ran down the hall. Ginny felt her anxiety ease at his touch; whatever the truth was, Harry would be there to help her through it.

About the same time Harry and the others had initially left the Room of Requirement on their search, down in the Great Hall Lee Jordan and the Weasley twins had decided that they were tired of playing at being DJs. Leaving the music rotation to their own enchanted CD-changer, they piled some plates high with cake and other sugar-heavy substances and settled themselves at a table with their girlfriends and their friend Oliver Wood.

"George, Fred!" The twins moaned as if in pain upon hearing their mother's voice. "You're not just having that for dinner!" Molly scolded her sons as she sat beside them, laying down a very modest bowl of pudding.

"Come now, Molly, I think we can leave off the lecturing for one day," Arthur chided her in turn as he sat beside her, his own plate loaded with a less-than-healthy amount of sweets.

"Yeah, Mum, lighten up!" Charlie insisted, sitting next to his father with a plate as full as those of both twins combined.

Percy gave Charlie's plate a look of disgust as he pulled a chair out for Penelope.

Charlie glanced at Penny's plate, which held a bit of shortcake, heavy on the strawberries and light on the cream. "Hey, now, sis-to-be, you're supposed to be eating for two now!" He scooped some of the ice cream off his plate and moved to dump it onto hers.

"Don't. Even. Try it!" Percy growled, stabbing at his own bit of cake with a fork. "I'm not having a child with sugar-water for blood!"

"Feh, better that than ice-water, like its Da," George muttered, causing Lee to choke a bit on his chocolate mousse.

"What was that?" Percy asked, glaring.

George wisely had chosen that moment to stuff his face with cake.

"He said 'Last we checked, it was Penny what was havin' the baby,'" Fred told Percy innocently.

Percy opened his mouth in indignation -- and after a moment, shook his head with a smile and actually laughed.

The twins exchanged a wary look. This was definitely a weird day.

"Got room for two more?" asked a chipper voice from behind them.

Everyone scooted over, making room for Bill and Fleur between Charlie and Penelope.

"So d'ya do it yet?" Charlie asked Bill in hushed tones.

Bill made sure his lady-love was deep in conversation with Penny before answering, "No. Still waiting for the kids to get back."

Arthur heard the last bit of his reply. "Yes, where are the rest of our children, Molly?" It went without saying that he also meant Harry and Hermione, not just Ginny and Ron.

"They're taking care of something for me," said Dumbledore, as he, Petunia, and McGonagall came up to the table. "Severus is with them, and Fae should join up with them momentarily."

Is that supposed to make us feel better? George groused mentally to his twin, so Molly wouldn't smack him.

Charlie scrambled to his feet, offering it to Mrs. Dursley, hoping her haggard appearance didn’t mean the kids were in trouble; Dumbledore could be maddeningly blase about such things. It took a kick at George's leg from Molly to instigate it, but the twins vacated their seats as well, joining Charlie at the wall and allowing McGonagall and Dumbledore to sit. The professors sank gratefully into the chairs; Charlie wondered if they had shown their age so much that afternoon and he just hadn't noticed, or if this was just more call for concern.

"Your children have been through quite an ordeal tonight, Molly," Albus told her, patting her hand. "Oh don’t worry, they were fine when we left them, and I'm sure they're still well. But I must admit, it was rather touch and go for a while there for Harry -- you should be very proud of Ginny, she saved his life! And the others too, to be certain, be she was more directly responsible. And Poppy," he added as an afterthought.

As he spoke, his tablemates, one by one, dropped their forks or spoons onto their plates and turned their attention towards him. Noticing the sudden ring of silence in the room, others nearby turned in their chairs or stepped closer. It wasn't long before those on the dance floor began wandering over (though admittedly that might have been because Fred waved his wand and silenced the music). Dumbledore smiled broadly as he watched them gather, encouraging them to move in by waving his hands. When he felt he had a large enough audience (and had decided that those absent simply weren't going to come -- which was fine, he'd happily repeat it all to them later), he launched into the tale. People gasped, cried, and cheered in all the right places, much to his delight.

For the benefit of those who weren't privy to the Battle of Roberts Grove or the role Malfoy and Parkinson had played, he started his story there, being sure to mention that Draco had been forced to kill his father and that Pansy had been abducted. He told about the encounter with Buckbeak, and, subsequently, Lucius' ghost; about the loss of The Burrow; about Arthur's conversation with Draco, with Arthur confirming the details he had learned about the lad's brutal childhood; and how Draco had ended up joining in on the Quidditch match. Albus told all this as quickly as he could, since half his audience knew at least parts of the story already, but he felt it was important to establish that Draco was indeed on their side, and perhaps even build some empathy for the lad, before going into the details of what happened after the game: how Draco had gone with Harry and Ron to the kitchens; how they had come up with the idea of using the Room of Requirement to find a way to defeat Voldemort (Albus particularly liked the crowd's reaction to that): how they'd accidentally created an Eternity Gate; how they'd seen first Pansy, then Voldemort, in the Mirror; and how Harry had reasoned out that his own death might spell out Voldemort's.

Every male in the Weasley clan -- save Arthur, but including uncles and cousins -- expressed outrage at Ron's having left a mortally-wounded Harry with a Malfoy, of all people. Even playing on the same Quidditch team with him that afternoon hadn’t earned Draco too much in the way of leeway from Bill or Charlie, though they were the least hostile out of the bunch. So much for establishing Draco as a human being. And never mind the fact that Harry likely would have died if Ron had been unwilling to leave him with Draco! Albus rolled his eyes, making his irritation quite known; the action seemed to quiet the outbursts at least. He dearly hoped that latter parts of the tale would exonerate Ron -- or at least make everyone forget their current outrage -- lest the poor boy face the wrath of the entire Weasley fraternity.

Albus also half-expected Molly to stab him with a butter knife when he got to that part of the story (doubtless she believed Harry wouldn’t have tried something so foolishly brave as stabbing himself if they had intervened with his tendency for self-harm sooner), but thankfully the subsequent mention of Ginny's healing power seemed to squash any homicidal tendencies the matron might have been feeling towards him. In fact, Molly seemed almost giddy by the time Albus got to the part about Ron's use of the guitar!

"And when did he learn to do that?" Bill wanted to know. "I sure as hell didn’t teach him spellwork when I taught him to play!"

"Oh don’t worry dear," Molly told him, "I'm sure you have some natural talent in that regard as well; you just haven't had a reason to really show it yet. Runs in the family, you know; it's half of why Fae was brought to Hogwarts!"

Bill was thunderstruck. "You mean ... Ron's ... Ron's a Bard?"

"Yes, just like you, dear," Molly replied, slightly dismissive as she turned her attention back to Dumbledore.

Bill continued to sit with his mouth gaping like a fish, as the headmaster continued the tale.

Albus wished he could tell them more about the kids' journey through the world of the Mirrors, but he could only tell what he'd been able to actually see, as he hadn’t gotten a chance to ask about the journeys they'd had between. The rest was a tale he much looked forward to hearing himself! And he consoled himself over the missing bits with the reactions he got to Ginny's transformation into the phoenix seraphim.

"A phoenix what?" Fred, George, and Lee asked simultaneously, while Molly exclaimed, "Oh, isn't it wonderful, Arthur! And here we were afraid it would never work out for her!..." Her husband patted her hand, beaming.

"A seraphim is a just a fancy word for a sort of halfway-point for a bird Animagus, where they have wings and some feathers but are still sort-of human," Arthur explained to his sons. "They look a bit like the Muggle concept of angels."

"Here now, are you saying you knew Ginny was a-a phoenix Animagus?" Charlie asked his parents.

"Runs in the family as well, does it?" George added, with a bit of sarcasm.

"On my side, yes," Arthur answered, giving George a warning look. "When there's a seventh child of a seventh child -- but only when the child is born under a fire sign, and even then, only with... special assistance."

"And you've what, been training her covertly?" Fred asked, ignoring his father's warning to his twin. "I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn’t it takes years of study to become an Animagus?"

Molly boxed his ear.

"Ow! Mu-uum!"

"Weren't you paying attention when Albus mentioned that pendant and ring Harry gave our Ginny?" she asked. "Both of them shaped like a phoenix?"

"That sort of artifact is rather hard to come by, and terribly expensive to have made, if you can find someone who knows how to do it," Arthur explained. "But you can't become a phoenix Animagus without the help of some sort of two-part intermediary device made of certain materials -- one piece to contain the magic and protect the user, like the pendant, and one to direct the magic, like the ring. Humans just simply weren't built for that kind of power otherwise! Plus needing two pieces to complete the transformation acts as a sort of fail-safe, lessening the possibility of accidents -- or of that kind of power falling into the wrong hands. And even with those items, a phoenix Animagus isn’t as powerful as a real phoenix. Anyway, the last such set our family had was pawned off decades ago by someone who apparently didn’t believe in the legend -- probably because there hasn't been a seventh child of a seventh child born in a fire-month in the bloodline in almost three-hundred years! I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical of the whole legend myself when your grandmother told me the story in the first place, on the day Ginny was born."

Fred exchanged a look with his brother. "So what do we have?"

"Smart mouths," Molly told him, glowering.

"What, being twins isn’t special enough for you?" Percy asked wryly, arms crossed. "Can't you two hear each other's thoughts or something? Leastwise it always seemed you could -- I imagine being in each other's heads is very helpful when you're planning pranks...."

"Just so long as we don’t have to spend any time in yours...." George returned.

Percy stuck his tongue out at them.

Fred gasped; George spun his head towards his twin, a surprised smile lighting up his face, which Fred quickly matched.

"Wha-at?" Percy asked, thinking they were surprised by his maneuver. "I can't have a sense of humour?" He even smiled.

And if it were any other day, the twins might actually have been surprised by this, but at the moment, they had something else on their minds, and hadn’t even really noticed. Fred dug a hand into his pocket and pulled a shiny, crinkled rectangle out of his pocket. It was the aluminium he'd gotten from the blotto the day prior.

Dumbledore, having been somewhat annoyed at the interruption of his story, quickly forgot his irritation. He practically leapt out of his seat, snatching the silvery item out of Fred's grasp. "Brilliant!" he crowed. "I guess you're good for something 'ey?" he added with a wink.

"So it's true then?" George asked.

"This stuff protects the mind somehow from invasion?" Fred clarified.

The headmaster nodded, beaming. "Wherever did you find it?"

The twins exchanged glances. "It's fairly common," George began, and Fred finished with, "in Muggle homes."

Dumbledore looked amazed. "Is it really? Gracious! Nicolas and I ran across some once, a few decades back, in the woods; we didn't know what it was, so we ran experiments on it, and discovered that it did indeed block the mind, and body, from magical invasion. But it's pretty frail stuff -- the small bit we had eventually become too mangled to work with. Eventually I guess it got tucked away in a corner while we worked on other things...." His voice trailed off, and those watching would swear later that they could see the gears turning in his head.

"Minerva, I'll need your help," he said as he hurried off. Blinking, it took a moment for her body to catch up to his request, but soon she was scrambling out the door to the Great hall with him.

Molly huffed. "Well how do you like that? He didn’t even finish telling us what's happened to the kids! What's that errand he sent them on, anyway?

Petunia cleared her throat politely. "I can’t pretend to have understood everything I saw, but I can try to describe what happened after...." And that's how poor Petunia found herself under the scrutiny of countless wizardly and witchly gazes -- and how Albus found himself cheated of telling the rest of his story.

Harry and his companions finally caught up with Fae, literally at the last possible moment. When they discovered that her trail led up the steps of the Astronomy Tower, Snape put on a new burst of speed, his youthful companions barely able to keep up. When they reached the top and found Fae standing in a crenel, inches from empty air, Ron feared that his rapid heartbeat, sped by their frantic ascent, wasn't likely to slow anytime soon.

Thankfully, Fae seemed willing to wait for them to speak their peace, rather than leaping outright.

Ron found his voice first. "Fae ... it's not true, right? Tell them that this is all a-a misunderstanding!"

"Tell them that what's a misunderstanding, Ron? Do you really think I'm not capable of doing something bad, just because I'm your kin? Why do you put me on a pedestal?" she asked, singing the last words, and Ron coud feel the tingle of magic in her voice. "I'm so up high that I can't see the ground below..." She gave a small laugh as she looked past the crenel for emphasis.

Ginny tensed, wondering if they could catch Fae or cast a spell fast enough to keep her from hitting the ground if she fell. For a moment, Ginny remembered the feel of the weight of the wings on her back, and wished they could have come with her, outside the Mirrors....

"Yeah, well, at the moment we don’t want you on a pedestal either, Fae!" Ron told her. "I'd like very much for you to come down from there -- in this direction!" he added, gesturing towards himself.

Snape, meanwhile, was torn between anger at Fae and fear for her. He tried to talk, but something strange happened to his throat, and the words came out in a way he certainly hadn’t intended,

"Let's talk this over
it's not like we're dead
Was it something you did?
Was it something I said?
Don’t leave me hanging..."

He winced at the double-meaning; death was the last thing he wanted to think about, under the circumstances!

Hermione, meanwhile, twirled about, scowling. "I don’t believe this -- the wireless's spell can reach us even here?"

"Fer all yer love o' books, yeh haven’t read much about Bardic magic, have yeh, lass?" Fae asked with a lopsided grin. "Granted, there's not much written on the subject -- the lore's generally passed from master to apprentice, and even then we tend to keep it in the family," she added, glancing at Ron.

"You cast the spell on the wireless?!" Hermione asked.

"Oh, aye, and then some! But yeh can’t blame me entirely for that; Dumbledore asked me to do it."

"But why? What purpose could enchanting it possibly serve?" Hermione asked.

Fae shook her head at the girl and sat on a crenellation, one knee up and an arm thrown over it. "Yeh can ask me that now, after the evening we've had? Yeh saw the effect it had, firsthand -- Harry's back with us now because of that wireless! Hell, even Muggles know that there's magic in music, that it can help a soul to face the darkness, and heal. The spell Dumbledore asked me to cast was meant to force Harry to face the truth of his condition, mostly, but there were other truths that needed outing, I guess...." She shrugged.

"Like yours?" Snape asked, his eyes hard.

Her own eyes grew sad. "Aye. I know what you must all think of me, and I don’t blame you! I ..." she shrugged. "I don’t have an excuse...

"I never said I wouldn't make mistakes
Sure, I'm not just human
and that's my saving grace,
but still I fall, hard as I try...

Snape flinched; he really wished she would't say things like that while still in the crenel.

"But I'm not a Death Eater -- I never was!" she insisted, misinterpreting his reaction. "I just made a bad choice in trusting Lucius and obeying Morgain! So don't be blinded, see me as I really am!"

She waved her hand over her face as she sang, and the Glamour faded. Oddly, though, the image beneath, while it was different, did not match the image they'd seen in Raef.

Oblivious to their confusion, she went on, "I have flaws, and sometimes I even sin!" She looked at Snape. "I should have been straight with you from the beginning. shouldn't have worn the Glamour, I know. Thanks to my lies,

"I wore a halo
I wore a halo when you looked at me
But standing from here
I wouldn’t say so
You wouldn't say so if you were me!
But I
just wanted to love you..."

She looked to the sky and closed her eyes, tears falling now. "Oh, yes, I ... I just wanna love you...."

"Do you?" Severus asked, his voice dripping with skepticism. "Did you ever? Or did you only pretend to love me so you could learn my secrets and report back to the Dark Lord?" he spat.

She flinched and paled, her skin nearly as white as her former Glamour would have had them believe. "I said I was never a Death Eater, Sevy! Lucius said he suspected that you were, but had me believing he was not! I didn’t know that he wanted me to find out where your loyalties were so that he could tell Voldemort -- I thought he was trying to arrest you! And I--"

"Either way, you were still his spy," Severus pointed out with a sneer. "You didn't love me!"

She sprang to her feet, but stayed in the crenel. "I did, dammit, that's what I'm tryin' t' tell yeh! I wanted to prove to Lucius that he was wrong about you! You were all the things I thought I knew, and I thought we could be!"

"LIAR!" he screamed, even as every cell in his body wanted to believe her.

"You were everything,
everything that I wanted,"

"We were meant to be,
supposed to be,
but we lost it!"

The set of Snape's jaw and shoulders told her he didn’t believe a word, that whatever might have been between them was gone. Her own shoulders sagged, and she closed her eyes.

"I hope all the memories
you have of me
just fade away..."

He shook his head at her. "All this time you were pretending--"

"--So much for my happy endin'!"

And she threw herself from the crenellation.